Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 14, 2012

Purpose of J-Street is not to reflect US Jewish opinion, but to change it (updated)

I received this video from ProIsrael Media showing Carinne Luck, Vice President of Field and Campaigns for J-Street, speaking at what appears to be an internal meeting.

In it, she seems to admit that most of J-Street's support comes from outside the Jewish community. Moreover, she contradicts J-Street's claims to represent the majority opinion of American Jews; and she states that J-Street's goal, following the demands of left-leaning politicians and the Obama administration, is to "move" the American Jewish community towards the left, so this is "primarily" what the organization does.

I do not have access to the entire video so I cannot verify 100% that these quotes are in context, but if accurate it looks pretty damning for the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" J-Street.

UPDATE: The video was taken down by YouTube but I got the entire video, without edits. Here it is - you can make up your own minds as to whether the statements were in context of not.

Here's a partial transcript:

Man: We have some support and interest in the Jewish community. We get much more support outside the traditional Jewish community. We know that for political reasons we have to be sensitive to the composition of the leadership. Can you address this very uncomfortable question?
Luck: Is this Jewish/non-Jewish? Is that the question you were going to ask?
Man: Yes.
Luck: Our theory of change and the one we've been told as what people on the Hill and in the administration, what they are looking to from us. It is very specific. And we are a primarily Jewish but not exclusively Jewish organization and they want us to see us primarily moving Jews. American Jews. And so that is where the bulk of our resources go...
I think for us building power is "how do we build power in our own community?"...Even in our small Jewish community they are still looking to us to give them cover....
But that is why for our leadership, you know we want our leadership to be comfortable going in and meeting with someone saying "as an American Jew I do this" and if that's inauthentic, you know, I mean look I would never tell someone to lie. If they choose to that's their business....
And I do know there is this feeling like "but there's all these people that are supportive". Certainly there is nothing wrong with getting them to be part of our numbers. Like we do not say we are an exclusively Jewish organization and if they want to sign up to our list, that's great.

(h/t Daled Amos)

Reminder: Panel discussion in NYC next week

Just a reminder that I will be part of a panel discussion next week in New York.

You ought to show up.

Not only because it is a rare opportunity to meet me (or someone who does a convincing impression of me.)

Not only because you can meet some serious heavyweights of the pro-Israel media.

You ought to come because, seriously, where in Manhattan can you get a kosher dinner for only $18?

You can RSVP here.

Leading Egyptian candidate: Israel "racist", OBL killing "state terrorism"

From Naharnet:

A leading Islamist candidate in Egypt's presidential election has branded Israel a "racist state" and said a shared 1979 peace treaty was "a national security threat" that should be revised.

Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh also denounced al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden's assassination by U.S. special forces as an act of "state terrorism," in a late Saturday Egyptian television interview.

Abul Fotouh, a front runner in the May 23-24 election according to polls, had earlier described Israel as an "enemy" in a televised debate with his main contender, former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

In Saturday's interview with the private Egyptian CBC satellite station, he said he had opposed the treaty since its implementation. "I still view the peace treaty as a national security threat to Egypt, and it must be revised."

"It is a treaty that forbids Egypt from exercising full sovereignty in the Sinai and allows Israelis to enter Sinai without visas, while they need visas for Cairo," he said.

The treaty, in which Israel withdrew from the Sinai after capturing it in a 1967 war, does not allow Egypt a military presence in parts of the peninsula.

Abul Fotouh said Israel was "a racist state with 200 nuclear warheads" that continued to pose a threat to Egypt.

A moderate Islamist with support from both hardline fundamentalists and liberals, Abul Fotouh refused to describe Bin Laden as a terrorist, saying the term was used by the United States to "hit Muslim interests."

But he said the killing of the Saudi militant was an "act of state terrorism," and Bin Laden had deserved a fair trial, although he disagreed with Bin Laden's use of violence.

Fotouh has gotten endorsements from both the Salafi al-Nour party and from Wael Ghonim, the Google employee who was one of the early leaders of the revolution. In a recent poll he was slightly in the lead.

The thing is, compared to other candidates, Fotouh probably is moderate. You just have to move the goalposts a bit when talking about Arabs being "moderate" because it means something much different when applied to Arabs than to Westerners.

Gazans threaten Red Cross and UN. World yawns.

From WAFA:

A number of Palestinian activists Sunday demonstrated in front of a number of international organizations’ offices in Gaza to protest their silence regarding the striking Palestinian prisoners.

The activists demonstrated in front of offices of the Red Cross office and United Nations and blocked staff from entering for several hours, as well as lifted banners calling to end the prisoners’ sufferings and denouncing the international silence.

The activists issued a statement in which they threatened to escalate measures against these organizations if they do not take immediate action to support the prisoners.

Ma'an adds:

"Since international organizations remain silent towards Israeli procedures against Palestinian prisoners, they are responsible for their lives, just as the occupying state," youth activist Hani Abu Mustafa said at a press conference near the ICRC offices.

If any of the 2,000 Palestinians on hunger-strike dies, Abu Mustafa warned "the consequences will be disastrous for both the occupying state and the international organizations operating in Gaza Strip."

Here we have a direct threat against not only the UN but also the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Did the ICRC condemn the forced closing of their offices and the threat to their employees' lives? Not quite:

In return, the ICRC said that it understands and supports the demands of the prisoners. "We check the prisoners regularly and ask the Israeli authorities to take all the needed procedures to protect them and improve the circumstances of their detention," said Ayman Shahabi, spokesman for the ICRC.

To Abbas, NGOs aren't for human rights - they're for bashing Israel

In the latest Crisis Group Middle East Report N°122, 7 May 2012, "The Emperor Has No Clothes: Palestinians and the End of the Peace Process," there is a most interesting footnote number 169:

A U.S. official commented that Abbas had inquired into the activities of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, two organisations Egypt’s military authorities accused of seeking to interfere in domestic politics. According to him, “Abbas asked, ‘What are these NGOs doing here? Are they trying to overthrow me?’” Crisis Group interview, Washington DC, March 2012. A presidential adviser expressed similar concern: “My worry is that NGOs can be easily used against the PA, rather than against Israel. They talk a lot about human rights in the PA, less about occupation”. Crisis Group interview, Ramallah, April 2012.

According to these two quotes, Abbas sees NGOs as having only a single purpose - to demonize Israel. They have nothing to do with human rights or improving people's lives - they are simply political tools to be used as he wishes.

And for the vast majority of them, he gets his wishes. They spend much more time on Israel than on his own corrupt dictatorship.

So when a couple of NGOs break the formula, Abbas is incensed at how they could dare to actually do anything against his interests!

Another part of the same footnote is also notable, and shows that Abbas is more on the side of the Arab dictators than the protesters of the Arab Spring:

A senior PLO official said that Abbas “believes that the Arab Spring is bad for Palestine and for the region”. Crisis Group interview, Ramallah, November 2011.

Despite how the West pretends to love him, Abbas' words and actions show that he is much more like Mubarak and Assad than those who are fighting against the Arab despots.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv - Israel Research Fellow at NGO Monitor)

Israel Inside: How a Small Nation Makes a Big Difference (video)

From Jerusalem Online U:

You have to type in your email to see this. But you can then be entered into a raffle for a free trip to Israel.

It was screened on some PBS stations last year.

Moroccan Islamists disapproved of her short dress, so they beat and stripped her

From Bikya Masr:

Women’s rights in Morocco have come under the spotlight recently after a young woman was assaulted in a Rabat market by people she called “Salafists,” or ultra-conservative Islamists. She said she was accosted by the men because of the short dress she was wearing.

Other witnesses were reported by the Magharebia news portal as saying the girl was attacked with stones and beaten after the assailants said the dress was “too revealing.”

Human rights and women’s organizations issued statements denouncing the assault on the Moroccan girl, during which she was stripped of her clothes entirely, reports indicated.

Young Moroccan men and women turned to Facebook and online groups to call for protection of individual freedoms in Morocco, including the group “Débardeur and I am fine.”

“Though this incident appeared in the media and gained wider attention, that does not mean it is not repeated on an almost regular or semi-daily basis in all the alleys and streets of our cities. It may not end in stripping the girl of her clothing, but the verbal and physical harassment that women may experience is sometimes more heinous and horrible,” said Nora Al-Fuari, an activist journalist at the Al-Sabah daily and a member of the Facebook group.

I don't quite get how stripping a girl is more modest than her wearing a dress, nor how beating a girl is less offensive than her wearing a skirt that reveals her shins.

Nasrallah, obeying his Iranian masters, threatens Israel

From Reuters:

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said his group was capable of striking any target in Israel, saying "the days when we fled and they did not are over."

"Today we are not only able to hit Tel Aviv as a city but, God willing, we are able to hit specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address.

"For every building destroyed in Dahiya, a building will be destroyed in Tel Aviv," he said, referring to Hezbollah's stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut.

"The days when we were afraid and they were not are over," he said. "And we say to them: The time has come when we will remain and you will be the ones who disappear."

As usual, the fearless Nasrallah made this speech via video from an undisclosed underground location.

Why aren't hunger strikers demanding an end to torture in Israeli prisons?

Given that the list of demands of the hunger strikers covers everything from increased canteen use to restoration of education in Israeli universities, isn't it strange that they aren't mentioning torture at all?

They are demanding things like more fruits and vegetables and access to more cable channels. But not a word about supposed Israeli torture.

The reason is obvious - there isn't any torture in Israeli prisons, despite the bleatings of the anti-Zionist crowd.

(h/t Margie)

CAIR lawyer: Bugs Bunny part of US-funded anti-Islamic plot

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an April 25, 2012 interview with Palestinian-American lawyer Lamis Deek, which aired on Egyptian ON TV, a station launched in 2009 by Coptic communications tycoon Naguib Sawiris. In the interview, Deek, who according to her website is a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claimed that the world media and press, and even cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, were perpetuating racist anti-Islamic notions. She also accused the U.S. Department of Defense of financing anti-Islamic propaganda films.

Lamis Deek: "People interested in attacking the Arab and Muslim communities, and the people who sympathize with the Arabs... I am not talking only about the U.S., but elsewhere as well. They got an opportunity for coordination. I'm talking about the corporations involved in national security and wars, along with Zionist and Israeli institutions, and people who generally believe... I'm talking about Zionist Christians, who believe in the annihilation and demonization of the Muslims. I also mean the racists in general, who are still afraid of what happened in 9/11.

"So all these things - the industry, along with the Zionists and your run-of-the-mill racists who don't know any better, and who get their information only from the media and the press... I'm not talking only about the news, but also about the cartoons on which we were raised, even before 9/11.

"In Bugs Bunny, which we used to watch, they would sometimes bring a character pretending to be an Arab Muslim Sultan. He has a potbelly, and he spends most of his time sitting around and eating, indulging in women day and night, and killing people.

"This is the general notion, but the use they make of it has become more targeted. The film we just watched... The Department of Defense finances such films in order to increase suspicion towards our community in America and abroad."

Interviewer: "The Department of Defense?!"

Lamis Deek: "Yes, it has happened. The DoD has financed films, showing soldiers in Afghanistan killing some Muslims, and the spectators give them a standing ovation. This happens all the time. This is the goal of the film..."

Here's a classic Bugs Bunny film that has Arab characters.

Israel creating butterfly-sized UAV

From Israel HaYom:

At first, it seems like something “Q" developed for British superspy James Bond. The artificial butterfly is handheld and is capable of a vertical takeoff, just like a helicopter. Returning to the Bond movie, we will replace the two main characters: "Q" now becomes the IAI and "007" now becomes a Golani Brigade officer. True, the movie may not be a blockbuster, but no one will want to be the target of this metallic bug.

This butterfly does more than just fly around in the air. Just like any self-respecting UAV, it can also take color images and relay them back to ground control in real time. If you ever imagined what it would be like to be a fly on the wall at a critical moment, this butterfly can fulfill your dream. To explain how it works, Dubi Binyamini, head of IAI's mini-robotics department, takes out a helmet with a visor that looks like something from a science fiction movie and says, "When you put this on you are actually inside the butterfly's cockpit. You see what the butterfly sees. You can fly at any altitude and distance and see everything in real time."

"The butterfly's advantage is its ability to fly in an enclosed environment. There is no other aerial vehicle that can do that today," Binaymini said. "The enclosed structure may be an airport terminal or an indoor train station. You can follow a suspect around without them aware of the fact that you are observing everything they do."

Binyamini mentions airport terminals, but in fact his butterfly can function just as well in forests and jungles. This is important because in locations like southern Lebanon, there are quite a few forests with which Israeli soldiers have unfortunately had to become familiar over the years. Aerial vehicles in use today can fly over the forests, but they don't have the ability to observe the goings-on within them. Hezbollah ambush forces can elude UAVs easily, because UAV cameras cannot "see" past the tops of the trees. If the butterfly meets its planned specifications, it will be able to fly among the trees and plants of a forest.

They are even talking about weaponizing it.

(h/t Elder of Lobby)

UNRWA changes its statement on hunger strikers

UNRWA posted the following on Thursday, according to Electronic Intifada which has screenshots:

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, expressed his grave concern about the current medical and health conditions of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

The Commissioner-General appealed to the Israeli government to find an acceptable solution, noting that the hunger strikers’ demands are generally related to the basic rights of prisoners, as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions.

Filippo Grandi reiterated the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or be set free, noting that two of the administrative detainees are in serious condition after more than 74 days, and are in imminent danger of death.

Then the statement was taken down, and this replaced it:

The statement on prisoners on hunger strike has been removed because it contained some inaccuracies, which are being checked.

Now it reads:

The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, is following with increasing concern the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, in particular, those held as administrative detainees. He echoes the calls of the Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, and Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, to reach a solution without delay.

The major difference, besides a softening of the rhetoric ("thousands of Palestinian political prisoners" changed to "Palestinian prisoners," "grave concern" into "increasing concern") is that UNRWA's original statement implies - incorrectly - that Israel's treatment of the prisoners does not adhere to the Geneva Conventions, and the updated statement no longer mentions Geneva. It also took out the part demanding that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or freed. (Of course, Western countries like the US and UK also use administrative detention.)

It is interesting that UNRWA corrected its mistake/slander for once.

(h/t MostlyKosher)

Friday Links (Ian, plus)

Amnesty International and Muslim Discrimination in Europe

Amnesty International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks. Nowhere does it call on Muslims to accept responsibility – not only for problems brought about by the refusal of many of them to accept the values of the majority, but also for their efforts to displace these values with their own.

A BCF Update on the Canadian Mosque that teaches hate

The real Palestinian refugee problem - Clifford D. May

Al-Qaeda Ladies' Choir Struts Its Stuff in Rebel Syria

Syrian protesters: "Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin"

Jihad comes to Egypt – Raymond Ibrahim.

Also, see Challah Hu Akbar on reports that Hamas has a force to stop rocket fire, and Hamas' denial.

Palestinian Arabs are buying mobile homes and setting them up as illegal outposts in Judea and Samaria in Area C, banking on Israel not doing anything about it.

Toameh goes into detail on the hypocrisy of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate outlawinmembers who talk to Israeli journalists.

The Nation has an absurd article implying that Israel targets Palestinian Arab soccer players, teams and stadiums. I don't have time to properly fisk it all, but one of the "soccer players" that the author says Israel targeted was this guy, a member of the Al Qassam Brigades. But he might have also played, so that makes him a soccer martyr. (h/t @YehudaSchlussel)

Latest Latma

I like this one.

Junk science claims birth defects in Gaza from white phosphorus

There is a new study out that claims a high correlation between birth defects in Gaza and exposure to white phosphorus:

According to a new scientific study there is "a strong correlation of birth defects newborns and parent's exposure to attacks with white phosphorus": at the registation at birth 27% of parents with birth defect children declared exposure to white phosphorus while only 1.7% of parents with normal children made the same declaration.

The report entitled "Birth Defects in Gaza: Prevalence, Types, Familiarity and Correlation with Environmental Factors", published today by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, was carried out by a team of Palestinian and Italian researchers at the Al Shifa hospital, where 28% of total births in Gaza Strip occur.

And if you read the study itself, it is filled with all kinds of statistics and verbiage that makes it sounds really, really scientific.

But there is a huge flaw in the methodology that invalidates the entire study: it relies almost completely on a survey of the parents to determine whether they were exposed, or think they were exposed, to WP.

Since the parents were surely aware if their kids were born with defects, they naturally would want to blame external factors for their situation.

While the authors - most of whom are Palestinian Arab - said that they verified exposure to WP by using UN maps of the area, they only verified it for the parents who reported exposure, not for all the parents. And nowhere do they describe their methodology of determining how "close" the parents were to the alleged WP locations - within ten meters or within the same square kilometer? It is basic science that if you don't determine these parameters before you do the research, then you are painting the bulls-eye after shooting the arrow. In other words, it is possible that they fudged the statistics (consciously or not) to make it appear that the parents of BD children had more exposure to WP sites than parents of healthy babies.

Which was, coincidentally, the exact finding they were looking for when they embarked on this entire project.

There are also some likely statistical issues. Out of a study of 2,933 total births, 44 were found to have birth defects; out of those, only 12 were reported to have been exposed to WP. The entire study is based on these 12. Combined with the bias in the questionnaire, this makes the study pretty meaningless.

(While the authors admit that 40% of the parents who had children with BD were first cousins, they said that this was the rate among all parents in Gaza.)

Also, the births in the study were for children conceived over a year after the Gaza war, not for patients who were pregnant during the war. So not only are they trying to say that WP causes birth defects, but that it continues to do so after weeks or months of exposure of the sites to the weather.

According to Medline, white phosphorus is not known to cause birth defects - and evidence that it causes birth defects over a year after parents' exposure is even more suspect.

It seems clear that this study was created and performed to come to a pre-determined conclusion. It is not science; it is anti-Israel advocacy pretending to be science.

For other anti-Israel junk science stories see here, here, here, and here.

2012 terror attacks you never heard about

From the IDF Blog:

Very little of what actually goes on in Israel is reported by mainstream media. A lot of incidents are never published–though they’re very significant. Here’s a brief recap of the incidents which were just short of the next big terror attack, but which you probably never heard of:

January 2: IDF force captured 2 Palestinian men carrying illegal guns. The two were taken in for investigation near Nablus while the M-16 rifle, an Uzi, and matching ammunition they carried were confiscated by security forces.

January 15: IDF force uncovered a hunting rifle and a shotgun in a Palestinian’s house in the village of Dahariya, near Hebron. The man was known to the police on previous charges of criminal violence.

February 21: A powerful explosive device was uncovered along the Israel-Egypt border. Israeli forces saw a man hurling a suspicious bag and immediately fleeing the scene. The explosive was detonated in a controlled manner. No one was hurt.

April 11: IDF forces stopped a would-be bomber over Passover at a checkpoint east of Nablus, northern Samaria. The terrorist was carrying improvised explosive devices, three knives and 50 bullets.

April 21: 2 Palestinian teens carrying bombs and guns were nabbed by Israeli forces. They were apprehended near Tapuach junction with 5 pipe bombs, a gun, and ammo.

April 24: IDF forces uncovered 4 improvised bombs on two Palestinians at a crossing north of Jericho. The bombs were found in the men’s bags and detonated safely.

April 28: IDF forces nabbed 2 terrorists with 4 pipe bombs as they were trying to smuggle explosives through a checkpoint in northern Samaria.

May 7: Israeli forces arrested 17-year-old Palestinian for carrying 3 pipe bombs. The teen was detained near Tapuach junction, a known hotspot for terror attacks.

May 10: Israeli forces arrested 2 Palestinians carrying 2 explosive devices and 3 prepped firebombs near Tapuach Junction, again.

I would add that there are countless incidents of Molotov cocktails and large rocks being hurled at cars and buses, which could have fatal results. Those are barely reported by even the right-wing Israeli press because there are so many of them. (Here's a firebomb attack from just today.)

(h/t Mike)

Palestinian Arabs prefer to buy Blue and White!

Al Watan Voice reports (excerpted and slightly paraphrased):

Imad is a manufacturer of soap and detergents in Bethlehem. His products used to be labeled in Hebrew but in a fit of patriotism he replaced all the labels with Arabic-only labels.

And his sales plummeted.

Imad says: "I get frustrated when a customer comes to me, asking: 'Where's the Israeli soap?' All this time they are thinking the producers and manufacturers of these products they consume in their homes are Israelil this is really frustrating."

Imad says his products are much less expensive than their Israeli counterparts.

"I am surprised of the Palestinian consumer, who deals with the products only by their source, and is ready to buy expensive Israeli products but does not even consider our own national product that is sold at reasonable prices."

Some Palestinians prefer Israeli products, thinking they are the best. People say there are clear distinctions between the Israeli and Palestinian products in terms of quality. Many say that they buy Israeli because Israeli factories are subject to strict quality control by the government, so they trust them more than the Palestinian products.

Economic analyst Khalil Assali says that despite the growing awareness among the Palestinian public of the importance of relying on domestic products during the past few years, some prefer Israeli products mostly because consumers have gotten used to the idea that the Palestinian goods are not as high quality. They also are skeptical of the lower-priced Arab goods, thinking they must be inferior.

The economic ministry has over the past years launched several campaigns to boycott Israeli products and to choose local goods instead.

The estimated proportion of Israeli goods in the Palestinian market, according to the latest survey of the Ministry of the Economy, is about eighty per cent compared to eight to ten percent for local products in Palestinian markets.

Once again we see the huge disconnect between how the Israel-haters claim that Palestinian Arabs support boycotting Israeli goods - and how actual, real Palestinian Arabs act in the exact opposite way.

And it is not because they are forced to, as some anti-Zionist idiots like to pretend. They want to buy Israeli, and it is the BDSers and their Israel-hating supporters who are acting against their wishes - and interests.

Hamas breaks up a literature festival

From PCHR:

[A]t approximately 17:00 on Wednesday, 09 May 2012, the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature was initiated in the ancient al-Bashal Castle in the east of Gaza City, with a number of Arab poets and writers in attendance. The colloquium was opened with a speech by ‘Amru ‘Izzat, an Egyptian blogger, who talked about liberty. Following the opening of the colloquium, a security officer wearing civilian clothes arrived at the place and introduced himself as a member of the Palestinian police investigation department. He cut off the electricity and requested the attendees to leave the place. Shortly after this occurred, a number of security officers were deployed to the place when attendees refused to leave. They confiscated cameras that had filmed the colloquium, chaos spread and the colloquium was broken up.

Ma'an adds:

Security forces cut off electricity and forbade the audience from taking photos on their mobiles [the PJS] said. They also "attacked" Hazem Shahin, a member of an Egyptian band, the syndicate said.

It was not immediately possible to contact visiting members of the festival because they were afraid to discuss the incident until their departure. The event will conclude in Cairo.

The Hamas chief of police apologized saying it was an "individual error." But the fear that even the foreign participants have to speak about what happened says volumes about how the Gaza leadership is pretty much the same as any other Arab dictatorship.

In related news, Hamas also forcibly stopped an Al Quds TV crew from filming a story a couple of days ago.

Freedom of expression, Palestinan Journalists Syndicate-style

A couple of days ago the New York Times has an adoring article about how Palestinian Arab journalists are paying a price for their desire to express themselves freely:

Yousef Shayeb, 37, a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah, published an article in a Jordanian newspaper this year charging officials at the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Paris with corruption and espionage. In an interview here last week, he said that he had imagined people might thank him for his exposé. Instead, he spent eight days in a Palestinian Authority jail.

Jamal Abu Raihan, a Palestinian blogger, has been in prison for three weeks, after he posted a satirical column lampooning the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as a donkey on a Facebook page he ran titled, “The people want an end to corruption.”

And in recent months, on the orders of the attorney general, the authorities have tried to block Palestinians’ access to a number of Web sites that officials said were supportive of Muhammad Dahlan, a onetime Gaza security chief and now a rival of Mr. Abbas.

As Palestinian journalists and activists, imbued with the spirit of the Arab Spring, become more daring and enamored with the possibilities of new media and social networking sites, the primary instinct of some in the Palestinian Authority has been to crack down.

But if you read past the initial paragraphs, you see something a little jarring:

Now Palestinian officials, journalists and bloggers are struggling to define the principles of freedom of expression and its boundaries, and to distinguish between legitimate criticism and defamation.

“We understand that we have a constructive power,” said Nabhan Khraishi, the communications officer for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, “and on the other hand we have a destructive power that can be a catastrophe.”

Isn't it a little unusual for a journalists' syndicate to talk about how their own people might be crossing the line into "defamation"? Usually they will argue for absolute (or nearly absolute) freedom of expression and let others advocate for limits on such freedoms.

Well, it turns out that the PJS is against freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. From JPost:

Any Palestinian journalists who meet with Israeli colleagues will be expelled from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in the West Bank, the group warned on Thursday.

The warning followed a meeting that took place last week between Israeli and Palestinian journalists on the occasion of World Free Press Day.

“We are opposed to such meetings because they are designed to achieve normalization with Israel,” said a senior member of the journalists syndicate in Ramallah. “Any member who meets with Israeli journalists will be fired.”

So in the end the leaders of the journalists themselves are the ones who are the most against freedom of expression! In fact, they are acting in ways that are indistinguishable from how the Arab dictators and despots they pretend to despise act.

Egyptian presidential race wide open

From Egypt Independent:

A poll on the popularity of presidential candidates conducted by the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), a think-tank associated with the Egyptian Cabinet, showed that Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh led the presidential field, although nearly 40 percent said they were undecided.

According to the poll, Abouel Fotouh’s 9 percent support was followed by Ahmed Shafiq who garnered 8 percent. Shafiq rose one rank as compared to a poll conducted by the IDSC in April.

The results of the poll, which was published Thursday said that Amr Moussa stood at 7 percent support, falling into third place. The Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsy came fourth with 4 percent, while Hamdeen Sabbahi was fifth with 2 percent.

The poll said that the 39 percent are yet to decide on a candidate, down from 42 percent in April. Eight percent of people, meanwhile, said they would not participate in the election and 6 percent refused to name their candidate.

Fotouh is a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and who has garnered support from both secularists and from Salafists.

Shafiq was the last prime minister under Mubarak, making his second place showing a bit surprising in a country trying to remove the "remnants" of the Mubarak regime.

Amr Moussa is the former secretary general of the Arab League and had been considered the front-runner.

With such a small percentage of people supporting even the leading candidates, and so many undecided, this election can go to anyone.

Some Hungarian anti-semitism (updated)

I received two items today about Hungary.

The first incident:

Actor József Székhelyi had been invited to perform as part of a cultural event in Eger, but the city council decided (after the posters and programmes had been printed) to un-invite him because, as one councilwoman put it, he is a "Liberal, stinking Jew".

In reaction:

Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor cancelled a planned visit to Eger to protest allegedly anti-Semitic remarks made against actor József Székhelyi by a Fidesz local councillor. Mor assured Székhelyi of his solidarity.

Mazsihisz and the Budapest Jewish Religious Community BZSH will hold an event to show solidarity with Székhelyi at Goldmark Hall near the Dohány utca synagogue in Budapest on Sunday evening.

And the second was this photo of a poster, supposedly widely visible throughput Hungary, showing an Aryan-like Hungarian shaking the money out of an evil Jew's pockets:

(h/t O. and JH as well as jzaik)

UPDATE: Commenter Ukridge, who is in Budapest, confirms the first story but says the second one is not true at all.

UPDATE 2: Simply Jews traces the poster story back to a Hungarian blogger who assures us that it is very real, and identifies where this poster was photographed.

Former Jerusalem mufti says "don't visit Jerusalem"

A wonderful example of the rigorous logic of Israel haters:

Former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Ekrima Sabri criticized a controversial visit by Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa to al-Aqsa Mosque, saying it was wrong both religiously and politically.

“On the religious level, one should not deal with, support, or recognize the enemy,” Sheikh Sabri said in an interview with Al Arabiya’s “Noqtat Nezam” (Point of Order), scheduled to be aired on Friday.

Defenders of Gomaa’s visit to Jerusalem have cited the Prophet Mohammed’s visit to Mecca while the city was under control of the tribe of Quraish , his enemy at the time.

But Sheikh Sabri rejected this comparison saying: “When Prophet Mohammed went to Mecca, it was not under occupation while Jerusalem is.”

Say what? The two sound pretty analogous to me - Muslim holy cities under control of their enemies.

But it gets better:

Sheikh Sabri said from a political perspective Gomaa’s visit implied the recognition of Israeli’s occupation.

“Recognition is a form of normalization because no one can enter Jerusalem without an Israeli visa or without proper coordination with the Israeli security forces.”

But if Muslim citizens of Europe or America visit Israel, their visit would not be considered as an act of “recognizing the occupation,” Sabri said.

“If German or French Muslims visit Jerusalem, this is not normalization since their countries already recognize Israel.

“Some Arab governments might not boycott Israel, but their people do and they reject normalization.”

So when Germany or France recognizes Israel, that means that German or French Muslims can visit Israel. But when Egypt and Jordan recognize Israel, it means that Egyptian or Jordanians cannot visit Israel, because somehow it is the people who decide that they do not want to recognize Israel.

Yet if people want to visit Jerusalem, they shouldn't be allowed to because, um, the other people don't want them to!

All of this is pretty much a very poor attempt to put a fig leaf of poor logic on top of what is, in effect, just plain hatred.

Jerusalem Grand Muftis come and they go, but they all seem to have that good old fashioned hatred in common.

Fatah member insults Hamas; says it supports Israel

Whenever Hamas and Fatah insult each other, it is to prove that the other side is more conciliatory and peaceful towards Israel (and, in contrast, how their side is adamantly against Israel and its policies.)

Which tells you all you need to know about how much they desire peace.

The latest comes from Fatah Revolutionary Council member Jamal Nazzal, who says that Hamas' positions are so close to Israel's that Hamas could become a member of Israel's unity government!

Excerpts:

What are the manifestations of the 'dispute' between Hamas and Israel? There are none. What are the axes of the field of conflict between Hamas and Israel? No axes of conflict. ... How many rockets are fired by Hamas to the occupation every day? Zero. How many Hamas leaders in the field are targeted by the occupation per month? Zero. What are the means Hamas uses to pressure Israel to halt settlements? None. What are the means Hamas uses to achieve the demands a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem? None. What is Hamas' program for the return of refugees? A dreamy call of Palestine from the river to the sea. What is the nature of Hamas programs for relief and care of refugees? None at all!

Hamas did not interfere in the recent war between Israel and Islamic Jihad. Therefore we can not say that there is a state of war taking place between Israel and Hamas, any more than we can talk about a state of war between Syria and Israel. Israel ended the field of engagement with Hamas for a truce in exchange for Israeli silence on the authority of Hamas in Gaza. This is the image: a truce for Hamas' authority. Hamas's commitment to the protection of borders and addressing the factions is a part of this agreement. Calm. Peace. These are the fundamental concepts of the relationship of Israel by Hamas.

...The real conflict is not between Hamas and its ally, the Israeli right. Both benefit from the current situation remaining unchanged, they hope for a thousand years.

The Fatah movement calls makes demands rejected by the Israeli right. Hamas refuses to reject the Israeli right!!

Fatah calls for an independent Palestinian state with its capital Jerusalem. Israel rejects this.

Fatah calls for the return of refugees and the removal of settlements Israeli. rejects this.

Hamas and the Israeli right reject the UN resolutions of international legitimacy and the Palestinian state and the idea of a negotiated solution! And they accept a temporary Palestinian state as a reality under the rule of Hamas to secure the occupation in Gaza now....

D. Jamal Nazzal
Member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah

In Arabic, you will not hear Fatah saying that Hamas rejects peace while Fatah strives for it - you will hear the opposite! Fatah tries to position itself as being more intransigent and less flexible in relation to Israel. They almost taunt Hamas to increase their militancy.

But to the idiots in the media, Fatah is still the "moderate" movement.

Iran freaks out over Google Maps

From Al Arabiya:

Google has -perhaps unknowingly- launched a new war in Gulf. The internet giant sparked a conflict with the Iranians last week when it dropped the name “Persian Gulf” from the body of water that separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula.

The waterway also touches Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain – the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that call it the “Arabian Gulf.”

Google also declined to call it “Arabian Gulf,” or even “the Gulf,” saying it would hurt their credibility and creditability.

The company instead decided, perhaps as the biggest landmark on its maps, to leave the 250,000 square kilometers (97, 000 square miles) body of water nameless .

Iran, previously known as Persia, did not approve of Google‘s decision and didn’t hesitate in launching a verbal attack.

In an interview the Islamic Republic’s official news agency Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Bahman Dorri said “Google fabricating lies... will not have any outcome but for its users to lose trust in the data the company provides.”

“The enemies cannot hide facts and evidence about the Persian Gulf,” Dorri said. “Documents in the U.N. and the UNESCO show the name of this body of water has always been ‘Persian Gulf’ since a long time ago.”

“The efforts of the (global) arrogance and its Arab allies to remove the name of the Persian Gulf will result in its name becoming more durable,” he added in a reference to the United States.

The controversy over the name of the Gulf goes back to the 1960s and has entangled everyone from the Asian Games to the Unites States Navy to National Geographic Magazine.

Today, the United Nations refers to it as the “Persian Gulf”, as does the UK and the U.S., although the U.S. Navy, which has extensive dealings with Arab Gulf states, mostly uses ‘Arabian Gulf.’

In 2004, National Geographic published a world atlas that, while acknowledging the waterway’s primary name as the “Persian Gulf” added “Arabian Gulf” in brackets. Tehran responded by banning the American-owned magazine and its reporters from Iran.

When a country is so emotionally invested in how people name an adjacent body of water to the point of creating an international incident every time someone uses a different name, it is not exactly an indication of a mature and reliable member of the family of nations.

Here's the funny part: If you do a search of "Persian Gulf" in Google Maps, you do end up inside the Gulf. If you type in "Arabian Gulf" you will not, and Google would guess that you are referring to various Arab companies with that name.

Stumbling onto an Elder (open thread)

This week I took a scenic boat ride along part of the Intercoastal Waterway and saw many very expensive houses and mansions.

(Part of) one of them looked like this:

Besides the prominent Israeli flag, the boat moored at the house is named "Mitz-Sea-Ah," in Chinese-style lettering.

Even with this person's unseemly love of bad puns, it is clear that the owner of this house is an Elder in good standing.

Don't forget that you have a chance to stumble onto not just any Elder on May 21st in New York City.

Biased Reuters article on UNRWA filled with lies

Decades of Palestinian Arab lies are all taken as fact in this incredibly biased article by Noah Browning of Reuters.

For example:

Three generations of Palestinians displaced by the founding of Israel in 1948 know only life in UN refugee camps, going to schools beneath the blue-and-white UN flag and drawing their food stocks from UN warehouses.

The exodus of Arabs pre-dates the founding of Israel by six months, and certainly the first couple of hundred thousand left on their own, as they were mostly the richer ones who left the same way they left during the 1936-9 Arab riots. In other words, they wanted to avoid a conflict started by their fellow Arabs to kill Jews.

For these Palestinians whose long-cherished goal is the right of return to the lands they lost 64 years ago, the camps must be seen as temporary no matter how permanent they might seem to others.

This article seems to be only about those in camps in Palestinian Arab territory - which are, of course, in Palestine.

It is their leaders who "insist" on forcing the people into these "temporary," horrible camps, not the residents themselves. I don't see any residents who insisted to remain in tents in the 1950s when given the chance to move to concrete housing. The residents were - and are- used as pawns, but the lies are swallowed by Reuters.

Which explains why the latest program by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, to upgrade the camps' dilapidated facilities is such a delicate operation.

The article could have - and should have - focused on the hypocrisy of the "leaders" who insist on keeping these people in camps rather than allowing them to move on and become productive citizens of territories that they already claim as their own.

Some 700,000 people fled or were driven from their homes when Israel was created after the 1948 war, but now as many as five million refugees and their descendants live in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, many of them in squalid camps.

The vast majority were not "driven" from their homes and about half left before Israel was created, all of them before or during - not after - the war. The number who live in camps is actually about one third of those in the five countries UNRWA operates in.

Founded in 1949, UNRWA is almost as old as the UN itself. Given that prospects for a resolution to Israel's disputes in the Middle East continue to be dismal, it appears to have a long future ahead.

UNRWA's existence is not at all dependent on Israel or its "disputes." It should have disappeared in the 1950s and it almost lost its funding a few times in its first couple of decades. This article implicitly blames Israel for the existence of these so-called" refugees" and doesn't say a word about how most Arab countries refuse to give citizenship to Palestinian Arabs who desire to live in their host countries - even though Arab League countries allow naturalization of every other Arab.

The fate of refugees clinging to the right of return has been one of the toughest issues facing negotiators in two decades of on-off talks aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel says the demand for a right to return is a deal breaker in any peace accord, arguing that allowing the refugees into Israel would increase the proportion of Palestinians living within its borders and thus undermine its nature as a Jewish state.

It also disputes the legal basis of the right of return set out in a UN resolution of December 1948 and says the world has not taken into account the plight of Jews forced from their homes across the Arab world in the last 65 years.

The text here takes as a given that UNGA 194 gives the "right of return" when in fact the word "right" was deliberately and consciously taken out of the text of the resolution itself. In other words, this "right" is fictional. Reuters is saying that the "right" exists and only Israel's interpretation is wrong.

In fact, the UN itself wrote an exhaustive analysis on how to interpret UNGA 194 in 1950, proving that there is no such blanket "right to return."

"194, 242, 338," student Alaa al-Homuz rattles in staccato, naming UN Security Council resolutions dealing with Palestinian refugees which he is studying in a class on international law.

194 was not a Security Council resolution. UNSC 338 merely refers to 242, which vaguely requires a "just settlement to the refugee problem" without using the word "Palestinian;" in context it might be referring to those displaced as a result of the 1967 war.

There's lots more incredible bias and outright lies in this article, and the sad part is that the lies are so embedded in the narrative of lies pushed by the Arabs that most Westerners don't recognize the lies any more.

The Canadian madrassa that teaches hate of Jews

From The National Post:

Police are investigating a complaint about a Toronto Muslim school whose curriculum tells boys to exercise so they are “ready for jihad,” refers to “treacherous Jews” and contrasts Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”

“Yes, I can confirm for you that a complaint has been made and our Hate Crimes Unit is investigating,” Acting Sergeant Rebecca Boyd, a York Region Police spokeswoman, told the National Post on Monday.

“However, they are in the early stages of the investigation,” she added. The complaint was made by the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which found the material on the website of the East End Madrassah.

The Islamic school operates out of David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute, a public high school in Toronto. But the complaint was made to police in York because the Islamic school’s mailing address is in that region.

“We are looking into it,” said Masuma Jessa, principal of the East End Madrassah. She said the curriculum document in question had been removed from the school’s website. Later on Monday, the entire school website went offline.

...Ms. Jessa said the complaint about the material was made on Thursday. “We told them that we took the book off the website and yesterday [Sunday] we had a meeting and we looked at it and we are correcting it,” she said. “It was an error.”

Some error!

I found a copy of the same curriculum online at another Islamic site. One booklet is called "Prophet Muhammad [s] A Brief Biography." Here are some excerpts:

Scattered here and there across West Asia and North Africa were colonies of Jews, to whom several outstanding Messengers had been sent by the Almighty. But these divine favours had failed to reform the crime hardened Jews, whose very name had become synonymous for treachery. They had long deviated from the commandments of Allah, distorting the laws brought by Prophet Moses [a], tampering with divine scriptures, slaying prophets and in the end coining the chauvinist creed called Judaism. It was more a racial sedition rather than a set of beliefs and the Israelites' vehement opposition to the last great reformer, Prophet Jesus Christ [a], was still fresh in the minds of the people.

End of Jewish Plots and Treacheries

Ever since the Prophet's entry into Madina, the treacherous Jews had vehemently opposed him and his Islamic call, evoking memories of their hostility to the previous Prophet, Jesus Christ (a), half a millennium ago. The crafty Jews entered into an alliance with the polytheist Quraish in a bid to stamp out Islam. They conspired to kill Prophet Muhammad [s] despite the fact that he was lenient towards them and had treated them kindly, hoping to convince them of Islam's truth. But eventually as Jewish plots and aggressions increased, he had no choice other than to take up arms against them, in order to protect Islam and the Muslims. At the battle of Khaiber which is famous for Imam Ali's [a] heroic exploits, the Prophet defeated them ending Jewish intrigues and conspiracies in Arabia.

The Jews flaunting their sacred books used to mock the pagan Arabs, saying that soon a Prophet will emerge in Arabia and come to Yathrib and will put an end to their wicked ways.

But strangely enough when Prophet Muhammad [s] did finally proclaim his Prophethood and emigrate to Yathrib, it were the Arab tribes of Aws and Khazraj who renounced idolatry and accepted Islam, while the chauvinistic Jews, whose forefathers had come to Arabia, for this very occasion, rejected the Prophet. Their pretext was he was an Arab descended from Prophet Abraham's [a] elder son Ishmael [a], rather than Isaac [a] and therefore unacceptable to the racist Jews.

Another booklet that was on the site is

A Glance at the Life of the Holy Prophet of Islam, by Dar Rah Haqq's Board of Writers
Published by:
Mostazafan Foundation of New York
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
ISBN 0-922817-01-4

It says:

Before Islam emerged, the Jews had changed the religion of Moses into hidebound dogma and its principles into hollow, lifeless rules and precepts.

Unlike the beliefs of the ancient Romans, the Jews, and the Nazis, Islam is not restricted to a certain community or a certain race, but is for all human beings and aims at human prosperity and salvation.

The combatants of Islam do not intend to gain control of a land or overthrow an oppressive rule to replace it with a similar rule through jihad. Rather, jihad is a pure humanitarian struggle fulfilled in God's way and for human evolution and the rescue of the oppressed people. This struggle culminates in the elimination of all sedition and in the establishment of peace and prosperity.

There were probably other books from this site on the madrassa's page.

But the madrassa apologized, so everything must be just great again.

UNRWA closed by protesters in West Bank

Dozens of protesters closed off UNRWA headquarters in Ramallah because of the latest terrible thing UNRWA did.

Did it pay low salaries? Did it stop terrorists from joining? Did it say it was going to teach about the Holocaust?

No, this protest was different than previous ones.

This protest was because UNRWA did not voice public support for the terrorists and suspected terrorists who are participating in a hunger strike against Israel.

Yes, in a Palestinian Arab state, if you would not publicly support the current trends, you are considedred an enemy - and treated as such.

It is unclear what services were disrupted because of this protest, but no doubt it was well worth it.

Wednesday links (Ian)

Marx: Jews Were Majority In Jerusalem

[Jerusalem’s] sedentary population numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans [Muslims] and 8,000 Jews . . . the Mussulmans, forming about a quarter of the whole, consisting of Turks, Arabs, and Moors, are, of course, the masters in every respect

Honest Reporting - BBC Or Norman Finkelstein: Who is More Despicable?

Also, note the use of the term “Jewish lobby.” Not the “Israel lobby” as has been used, most notably by Walt and Mearsheimer in their discredited thesis. What does the BBC base its statement on? Such criticism of American presidents has come from a particular anti-Israel strain and is certainly not a universally accepted mantra.

Shatter accuses Palestine group of cyberbullying
Justice Minister hits out after 'avalanche of venom' forces band to cancel tour of Israel

Anyway J.Lo is much nicer to look at than scruffy Irishmen.
Jennifer Lopez schedules a Tel Aviv concert for late 2012!

Obama Accepts Big Money From Israel-Hater
Team Obama includes a self-identified “Muslim Palestinian-American” campaign fundraiser who has a history of blasting Israel in highly charged letters and newspaper articles about the Middle East conflict.

Hala Hijazi, a Jordanian native and current San Francisco city employee, has personally secured between $100,000 to $200,000 for Obama’s reelection effort, according to Federal Election Committee filings.

She also has gone on record accusing Israel of war crimes while castigating America for providing the Jewish state critical military aid—a long-term investment that has bolstered U.S. security interests.

The battle for America
Special: Israeli, Jewish students fighting back as hostility grows on leading campuses in America

'Lost Airmen of Buchenwald' - Honoring Pilots Who Survived Imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp

By the Numbers: Jodi Rudoren's Palestinian Prisoner Article

What the Guardian won’t report: Palestinians continue to laud Itamar Massacre terrorists

Hamas urges French President-elect Hollande to visit Gaza

Also:
With Help of a ‘Bionic’ Suit, Paralyzed Woman Finishes London Marathon
Israel's ReWalk technology, of course. (h/t Elias)

How the PA fooled the West on Jenin (Toameh)

From Khaled Abu Toameh at the Gatestone Institute:

The Palestinian Authority has been boasting over the past four years of its success in restoring law and order to the West Bank city of Jenin.

Journalists from all around the world were invited to Jenin, once notorious for dispatching suicide bombers to Israel, to report on the Palestinian government's successful efforts.

Palestinian leaders and government officials told the journalists how their security forces have managed to end the state of chaos and lawlessness that used to prevail in Jenin.

They talked about how Fatah gangsters and thugs who used to roam the streets, imposing an atmosphere of intimidation and terror on the population, have vanished.

Most of the gangsters, the Palestinian government officials noted, had been recruited to various branches of the Western-funded Palestinian security forces and were indirectly receiving salaries from American and European taxpayers' money.

But while the international, and Israeli, media were breaking the "good news" about Jenin, the journalists failed to understand what was really going on in Jenin and its surrounding villages. Some journalists, in fact, chose to turn a blind eye to the grim reality on the ground.

The murder of Israeli Arab actor and film producer Julian Mar-Khamis in Jenin last year should have sounded an alarm bell among the media representatives. His killers have never been caught, sparking a wave of unconfirmed reports about the involvement of influential Fatah gangsters and Palestinian security officers in the case.

A Western journalist who wanted to do an investigative report into the case was warned by senior Palestinian security officers that she would be putting her life at risk if she insisted on carrying out this mission.

Last week, the truth about the situation in Jenin finally exploded in the faces of everyone: the local governor died of a fatal heart attack following an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

For the Palestinian Authority leadership, the assassination attempt was what lifted the veil: Palestinian leaders in Ramallah realized that they could no longer continue to hide the truth about what was really happening in Jenin.

Palestinian security forces have since arrested dozens of Fatah "outlaws" and police officers for various crimes -- including murder, extortion, abductions, sexual harassment and armed robberies.

Radi Asideh, the security commander of the Jenin area, admitted that it was the Palestinian security establishment that was responsible for the anarchy and lawlessness. "There is a defect inside the security establishment and officers were responsible for this," he revealed.

[I]n most cases it is the Palestinian Authority's security forces that are responsible for the chaos and corruption.

If the Western journalists and donors continue to ignore the reality on the ground, the West Bank could soon fall into the hands of gangsters and armed clans, as has been the case in Jenin -- among the main reasons the Palestinian Authority collapsed in the Gaza Strip in 2007, speeding the rise of Hamas to power.

The PA security forces are corrupt? The ones trained by the US? Say it ain't so!