Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 27, 2012

"Jerusalem" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair

The Jerusalem exhibit was one of the [1904] St. Louis Fair’s most expensive and ambitious undertakings. “Gigantic in its conception” and “gigantic in its execution,” as its planners described, it was an enormous replica of the Old City of Jerusalem on a 1:1 scale. The largest model of Jerusalem ever built, it stretched over more than 10 acres and consisted of around three hundred structures (including astonishingly realistic copies of the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Tower of David). The structures were interconnected by twenty-two winding streets and alleys, and were girded by a faithful reproduction of the walls of Jerusalem. Once inside the model, the fair’s visitors could take part in dozens of activities. They could take a tour of the holy sites with a turbaned guide, follow “in the footsteps of Jesus” along the Via Dolorosa, and view a diorama of the scene of the Crucifixion. They could take a bumpy camel or donkey ride and shop for Holy Land souvenirs in an oriental bazaar. They could also mingle with the hundreds of Jerusalem natives—Moslems, Christians, and Jews— who were imported to St. Louis for the duration of the fair, and who could be seen walking around in oriental garb conducting religious ceremonies or working in their artisan workshops and booths.

Here are some photos:

At one point, part of the exhibit caught fire:

Believe it or not, this is not my first post about the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

How Muslims misrepresent Western science as supporting the Koran

I have been receiving thousands of hits, many from Muslim countries, trying to research the recent Arabic newspaper articles about supposed scientists who converted to Islam after realizing the "truth" of the Koran through their studies.

In 2002, the Wall Street Journal wrote about this phenomenon, and that article explains much of what we are seeing today. One of their schemes was to invite scientists, along with honorariums and other perks, to answer questions about their fields and try to manipulate them into saying that the Koran's descriptions match what they say.

Oh, and one of the founders of this initiative happened to be good friends with Osama bin Laden.

Joe Leigh Simpson, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, is a church-going Presbyterian.

But thanks to a few conferences he attended back in the 1980s, he is known in parts of the Muslim world as a champion of the doctrine that the Quran, Islam's holy book, is historically and scientifically correct in every detail. Dr. Simpson now says he made some comments that sound "silly and embarrassing" taken out of context, but no matter: Mideast television shows, Muslim books and Web sites still quote him as saying the Quran must have been "derived from God," because it foresaw modern discoveries in embryology and genetics.

Dr. Simpson is just one of several non-Muslim scientists who have found themselves caught up in the publicity machine of a fast-growing branch of Islamic fundamentalism.

Dubbed "Bucailleism," after the French surgeon Maurice Bucaille, who articulated it in an influential 1976 book, the doctrine is in some ways the Muslim counterpart to Christian creationism. But while creationism rejects much of modern science, Bucailleism embraces it. It holds that the Quran prophesied the Big Bang theory, space travel and other contemporary scientific breakthroughs. By the same token, it argues, the Bible makes lots of scientific errors, and so is less reliable as the word of God. Muslims believe the Quran to be God's revelations to the prophet Muhammad, as told to him by an angel.

Before the planets and stars, modern science has largely concluded, the universe was probably a cloud of dust and gas. The Quran presaged that conclusion in the seventh century, Bucailleists argue, in a text saying Allah "comprehended in his design the sky, and it had been as smoke." The discovery of black holes in space? Foreseen in the passage, "Heaven is opened and becomes as gates."

While disdained by most mainstream scholars, Bucailleism has had an important role in attracting converts to Islam and in keeping young, Western-leaning adherents faithful. Widely taught in Islamic secondary schools, the doctrine fosters pride in Muslim heritage, and reconciles conflicts that students may feel between their religious beliefs and secular careers in engineering or computers.

Says Zaghloul El-Naggar, an Egyptian geologist who touts the doctrine on a popular weekly television program shown in the Arab world: "One of the main convincing evidences to people to accept Islam is the large number of scientific facts in the Quran."

Bucailleism has been propelled by a well-funded campaign led by Prof. El-Naggar's onetime protege, Sheikh Abdul Majeed Zindani, a charismatic Yemeni academic and politician. Founder and former secretary-general of the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah, based in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Zindani organized conferences where Dr. Simpson and other scientists appeared and were videotaped.

Mr. Zindani also is a friend and mentor to another Bucailleism devotee of Yemeni descent: Osama bin Laden. The world's most wanted man has regularly sought Mr. Zindani's guidance on whether planned terrorist actions are in accord with Islam, says Yossef Bodansky, biographer of Mr. bin Laden and staff director of a U.S. congressional task force on terrorism. "Zindani is one of the people closest to bin Laden," says Mr. Bodansky, who attributes the book's findings to interviews with various intelligence agencies, current and former terrorists and others.

Bucailleism began gaining momentum around 1980, when Mr. Zindani became director of a team at King Abdulaziz University that sought out Western scientists visiting Saudi Arabia. His breakthrough came when one of his assistants, Mustafa Abdul Basit Ahmed, presented a leech to Keith Moore, a University of Toronto professor and author of a widely used embryology textbook.

Mr. Ahmed wanted to show that a verse from the Quran, which states that God made man as a leech, was an apt simile to describe early human gestation as seen under a microscope. Mr. Ahmed says Prof. Moore was bowled over by the resemblance between the leech and the early embryo. Since the Quran predated microscopes, Prof. Moore, son of a Protestant clergyman, concluded that God had revealed the Quran to Muhammad. Prof. Moore has disseminated this view not only on Mr. Zindani's videos but in many lectures, panel discussions and articles.

Prof. Moore sanctioned a special 1983 edition of his textbook, "The Developing Human," for the Islamic world, that was co-written by Mr. Zindani. It alternates chapters of standard science with Mr. Zindani's "Islamic additions" on the Quran. In its acknowledgments, among "distinguished scholars" who gave "full support in their personal and official capacities," Mr. Zindani lists Sheikh Osama bin Laden, alongside Dr. Simpson and other Western scientists. Prof. El-Naggar, the Egyptian geology professor who taught Mr. Zindani, says Mr. bin Laden became intrigued by Bucailleism in his college days after hearing Mr. Zindani lecture, and helped pay for the book's publication.

Now a professor emeritus, Prof. Moore declined to be interviewed. Reached in Toronto, he said he was busy revising his textbook and that "it's been 10 or 11 years since I was involved in the Quran."

In 1984, after being denied a permanent position at King Abdulaziz, Mr. Zindani turned to the Muslim World League, a nonprofit organization primarily funded by the Saudi government. The World League provided financial support to establish the Commission on Scientific Signs. Mr. Ahmed, who moved to Chicago in 1983, was put on its payroll at $3,000 a month, and traveled from coast to coast cultivating U.S. and Canadian scientists.

The commission drew the scientists to its conferences with first-class plane tickets for them and their wives, rooms at the best hotels, $1,000 honoraria, and banquets with Muslim leaders -- such as a palace dinner in Islamabad with Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq shortly before he was killed in a plane crash. Mr. Ahmed also gave at least one scientist a crystal clock.

Mr. Ahmed, who left the commission in 1996 and now operates an Islamic elementary school in Pennsylvania, says he reassured the scientists that the commission was "completely neutral" and welcomed information contradicting the Quran. The scientists soon learned differently. Each one was given a verse from the Quran to examine in light of his expertise. Then Mr. Zindani would interview him on videotape, pushing him to concede divine inspiration.

Marine scientist William Hay, then at the University of Colorado, was assigned a passage likening the minds of unbelievers to "the darkness in a deep sea ... covered by waves, above which are waves." As the videotape rolled, Mr. Zindani pressed Prof. Hay to admit that Muhammad couldn't have known about internal waves caused by varying densities in ocean depths. When Prof. Hay suggested Muhammad could have learned about the phenomenon from sailors, Mr. Zindani insisted that the prophet never visited a seaport.

Prof. Hay, a Methodist, says he then raised other hypotheses that Mr. Zindani also dismissed. Finally, Prof. Hay conceded that the inspiration for the reference to internal waves "must be the divine being," a statement now trumpeted on Islamic Web sites.

"I fell into that trap and then warned other people to watch out for it," says Prof. Hay, now at a German marine institute.

Similar prodding failed to sway geologist Allison "Pete" Palmer, who was working for the Geological Society of America. He stuck to his position that Muhammad could have gleaned his science from Middle Eastern oral history, not revelation. On one video, Mr. Zindani acknowledges that Mr. Palmer still needs "someone to point the truth out to him," but contends that the geologist was "astonished" by the accuracy of the Quran. Mr. Palmer says that's an overstatement. Still, he has fond memories of Mr. Zindani, whom he calls "just a lovely guy." He and the other American scientists say they had no idea of Mr. Zindani's ties to Mr. bin Laden. And in any case the U.S. didn't regard Mr. bin Laden as an outlaw at that time.

...University of Pennsylvania historian S. Nomanul Haq, a leading critic of Bucailleism, says the notion of inheriting traits from ancestors was commonplace in Muhammad's time. He attributes the rise of Bucailleism to a "deep, deep inferiority complex" among Muslims humiliated by colonialism and bidding to recapture faded glories of Islamic science.

According to its current secretary general, Hassan A.A. Bahafzallah, ...the commission raises about $250,000 a year from individuals and businesses, besides its subsidy from the Muslim World League. It has operated five conferences since 1986, most recently in Beirut in 2000, each costing about $100,000.

The legacy of those conferences lives on. Among other products, the commission distributes a videotape, "This is the Truth," which intersperses Mr. Zindani's interviews with non-Muslim scientists and his commentary -- including the prophecy that unbelievers "will be exposed to a fire in which every time their skin is burnt, we will replace them with new skins."

At the risk of making this post way too long, it is worthwhile to read this critique of the aforementioned Keith Moore's use of the Koran by PZ Myers:

I’ve run into this particular phenomenon many times: the True Believer in some musty ancient mythology tells me that his superstition is true, because it accurately described some relatively modern discovery in science long before secular scientists worked it out. It’s always some appallingly stupid interpretation of a vaguely useless piece of text that wouldn’t have made any sense until it was retrofitted to modern science. My particular field of developmental biology has been particularly afflicted with this nonsense, thanks to one man, Dr. Keith L. Moore, of the University of Toronto. He’s the author or co-author on several widely used textbooks in anatomy and embryology — and they are good and useful books! — but he’s also an idiot. He has published ridiculous claims that the Qur’an contains inexplicably detailed descriptions of the stages of human development, implying some sort of divine source of information.

I’ve mentioned this before. For instance, the old book claims that at one point the embryo looks like a piece of chewed gum, or mudghah, and Moore announces, “by golly, it does, sorta”, throwing away all the knowledge we have about the structure and appearance of the actual embryo, which is not a chewed lump. I’ve actually seen these kooks show pictures of a piece of gum and an embryo and declare that they are similar. It’s insane. It’s pareidolia run amuck and swamping out actual scientific information for the sake of propping up useless superstitions.

You may not have heard of him before, but I regularly get email from Muslims telling me that as a developmental biologist, I ought to follow Islam because of its insights into embryology, which don’t exist. Thanks, Dr Moore, you dumbass.

Well, now the Muslim cranks have another coup, having persuaded some other dumbasses to publish an appallingly bad paper in the International Journal of Cardiology, a credible peer-reviewed journal. Or, at least, formerly credible.

The paper is disgracefully bad. It’s basically a compendium of an assortment of references to anatomy and health from the Qur’an, endorsing them as accurate sources of information. For instance, the Qur’an prescribes three techniques for healing, “honey, cupping, and cauterization,” and gosh, we now know that “Honey contains the therapeutic contents sugars, vitamins, anti-microbials, among other things”!

Are you impressed yet?

Since this is a cardiology journal, the article also finds it necessary to waste the readers’ time with blather about blood and arteries. Here’s an example of the Prophet’s profound knowledge of the circulatory system.

Another great vessel mentioned in the Qur’an is the Al-Aatín or aorta “We would certainly have seized his right hand and cut off his Al-Watín,” [20]. Al-Watín has been translated into different, yet similar words, including “aorta”, “life-artery”, and simply “artery”. This verse is taken to mean that if the Prophet Mohammed was lying about the teachings of God, then God would have grabbed the Prophet Mohammad’s arm and cut a vital artery, certainly killing Mohammad. This verse confirms that 1. Blood was indeed viewed as a vehicle for life and 2. The artery directly leading from the heart is vital to survival. By analyzing the different translations and exegesis of Al-Watín, it can be safely assumed that it is the aorta that the author of the Qur’an is referring to in this verse.

Hmmm. So a warlike society that had many soldiers running about chopping into people with swords was aware that cutting major arteries would lead to rapid blood loss and death. I have no idea how they could have figured that out without an omniscient god whispering the explanation into the ears of priests.

The holy book also talks about heart disease, something else a readership of cardiologists would find interesting. Does this sound like well-informed medicine to you?

The Qur’an shares with the Hadeeth a metaphorical description of the heart as a possessor of emotional faculties, thus giving the heart many characteristics that modern science attributes to the brain. As is popularly stated in Islamic culture, every action is dependent upon intentions, and “…what counts is [to God] the intention of your hearts…”. These actions, whether “good” or “bad” determine the health of the heart, namely if it is a sound or diseased heart. A diseased heart is one filled with qualities such as doubt, hypocrisy, and ignorance among many others. Possessors of such qualities have a “hardened,” diseased heart. Other malaise qualities contributing to a diseased heart includes blasphemy, rejection of truth, deviation, sin, corruption, aggressiveness, negligence, fear, anger, and jealousy, among others.

The authors of the Qur’an and of this paper seem to have confused poetic metaphor with science.

Finally, read this compendium of scientific responses to the article in the cardiology journal.

Monday links

From Ian:

Why Sunni Islamism is the world’s greatest threat

To understand al-Qaida, which of course goes under many names and regional local groups, is simple. It has one strategy: kill!
“One step forward, one step back; tell the Western reporters and politicians what they want to hear. Pretend to be moderate in English while screaming death curses in Arabic.
These are the people who are coming to power. They hate their Shia counterparts generally and will kill them, too, at times. They will drag down their countries’ economies.
Ironically, they will succeed in making Israel relatively stronger as they beat and burn and tear down, as they set back their countries’ economic advancement, as they kick half the population (the female half) down the stairs.”

BBC spends a third of £1 million concealing Middle East 'Balen Report'

A Freedom of Information request released by The Commentator shows how desperate the BBC is to hide the Balen Report

Violence in a Christian residential complex in Jerusalem

This occurred on Monday, August 20, from 8:00 p.m. to midnight when a group of fifty boys attacked the residential complex for 79 families which is part of a project of the Franciscans of the Holy Land. Following a brawl between young people of the Christian area and some neighbors, friends were called and they all attacked the complex, yelling, throwing stones, smashing cars and windows of houses.
A number of residents were injured and one had to be hospitalized for treatment. ”They do so because they know that we will not respond with violence!” protested David Josef, a father of five children, as he emphasized: “This is the third time this happened to us in two years …”

MEMRI:
Syrian-French Writer Adnan Azzam Links Syria Conflict to Zionism and Napoleon

When the new Germany lost its innocence

In almost every East German town you will see people wearing neo-Nazi emblems or slogans on their clothes or on their cars. Even more important is the grass-roots work of that party and similar organizations. They organize community festivals, sport events, concerts and youth centers. Thereby, they establish structures independent of the state and succeed in presenting themselves as the real alternative to the traditional political parties in Germany.

IAEA Evidence Shows Israel, Not Obama, Talking Sense About Iran

"Time is running out not only on the countdown to the day when Iran will be able to quickly assemble a bomb but until the point where it will no longer be possible to use force to prevent them from doing so. Four years of Obama policies toward Iran have shown the administration to be willing to do nothing but talk about the need to avert this danger. The latest information from the IAEA is more proof that despite the media campaign orchestrated from the White House intended to undermine Israel’s appeals, it is Jerusalem, and not Washington, that is talking sense about Iran."

'Isolated' Iran boasts kings, PMs at NAM summit

Tehran opens conference with diatribe against Israel, exhibits cars of nuclear scientists "killed by Zionist regime elements."

Bulgaria hosts ceremonies for Burgas terror attack victims

The three-day visit to include a meeting with the Bulgarian president, prime minister and minister of tourism, as well as Israeli Ambassador to Bulgaria Shaul Kamisa One family not able attend due to inability to pay the $700 ticket to Bulgaria.

Palestinian Attorney General Resigns, Known for Suppressing Opposition

Egypt: 76 convicted for attack on Israeli Embassy

Seventy-five of the defendants received suspended one-year sentences Sunday, while one defendant tried in absentia was given a five-year prison term.

Galliano stripped of Legion of Honor

At the Tower of David, a glimpse into a citadel touched by everyone but the legendary king

Likely built by Maccabees about a millennium after King David’s death, the site contains traces of everyone from Herod to the Jordanians

Arab-Israeli solar company wins EUREKA grant

Yafa Energy could be a bridge over which Arab-Israeli technology finds its way to industries in the Arab world seeking renewable energy solutions.
“Eureka! Yafa Energy has become the first Arab-Israeli company to win a prestigious European Union EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) grant. Awarded through Israel’s Prime Minister’s office, Yafa was named as the best technological initiative from an Israeli minority community.”

Also:
Iraqi Political Analyst Haidar Said: We Iraqis Do Not Possess the Courage to Criticize Our Violent Past (MEMRI)

HuffPo Hearts Hamas

Signs Suggest Iran Is Speeding Up Work on Nuclear Program (NYT)

Scandinavia - The Liberal Anti-semitic sanctuary

(h/t O)

"By next year, Allah willing, Israel will be annihilated."

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Professor Gamal Zahran, head of the political science department at Port Said University, which aired on Al-Alam TV on August 17, 2012.

Gamal Zahran: Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian cause, and the Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and Muslims. Therefore, the elimination of the Zionist entity is beyond debate, and the only question has to do with the circumstances.

I believe that the Arab revolutions, which broke out in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen – as well as in Bahrain and elsewhere – generate the peoples' hope that one day, Jerusalem and Palestine will return to them.

Interviewer: Why keep it only as a hope? Why not act on it?

[...]

Gamal Zahran: The reason is that so far, the revolutions have not reached the throne of power. It is difficult to transform this hope into reality until these revolutions come to the forefront.

[...]

We are constantly keeping the memory alive among the younger generations, so that they will realize that the Palestinian cause is an essential one. The hope and the memory will later turn into action. By next year, Allah willing, Israel will be annihilated.

[...]

The cynicism of the highlighted text is well known to readers of this blog, but it is rarely expressed so explicitly.

If the "Palestinian cause" is so essential, it wouldn't need constant indoctrination. If it was so essential, then Egypt and Jordan would have encouraged an independent Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967. If it was so essential, then Egypt would give citizenship to any Palestinian Arabs who seek it.

All that is really "essential" to the Arab world is Israel's annihilation, not the "Palestinian cause." They would prefer that the entire area of British Mandate Palestine be turned into an uninhabitable radioactive wasteland than have even a tiny Jewish state existing anywhere in the area.

Also, a bonus MEMRI clip showing some mainstream Muslim antisemitism (no transcript available as of this writing):

Jordanian farmers upset over West Bank egg imports

Ma'an reports:

A truckload of eggs produced in the West Bank was exported to Jordan via King Hussein Bridge on Sunday, turning a new page in commercial relations between Jordan and Palestine.

The eggs were collected from farmers in Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank, who welcomed the step as a vital alternative to the Israeli market.

“This is a remarkable Palestinian accomplishment which enables Palestinian farmers to sell their products to our Jordanian brothers,” said Adnan Zaid, a farmer from Qalqiliya.

Who could be against Palestinian Arabs exporting their eggs to Jordan?

Apparently, Jordanian farmers.

A story in Ad-Dustour says that a shipment of "Israeli" eggs were shipped to Jordan - also on Sunday, also over the Sheikh Hussein Bridge.

The article quotes the head of a Jordanian farmers union complaining about these eggs supposedly imported from Israel, saying that their prices undercut those of Jordanian egg farmers. Not only that, but he alleges that Israeli chickens have diseases that Jordanian chickens do not, and their eggs can make consumers sick. Moreover, Jordanian egg farmers produce enough eggs to satisfy the entire country.

It seems likely that the union leader is lying, and is really referring to these eggs from Palestinian Arab farmers that could lower prices for Jordanians. So he uses the oldest trick in the Arab book - calling his enemy "Zionist" and pretending that the PalArab eggs are really Israeli.

Which must be eggsapserating for the Palestinian Arabs who want to expand their market. (Sorry.)

Palestine Times reports that the Hamas minister for prisoner affairs, Dr. Attallah AbuSebah, has called for Palestinian Arab suicide attacks inside Israel in order to pressure Israel to release more Arab terrorists from prison.

He made this call during a Hamas-organized rally in Gaza City.

Abu Selah also called for kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

The speakers at the rally said that Israeli policies of solitary confinement are a violation of international law, although I am unclear as to exactly which law that might be.

What can be better than a demonstration that simultaneously cites international law while calling to blow up women and children?

Why, the venue of this protest - in front of the Red Cross headquarters!

Latest horrible Israeli crimes

Aya, a six-year old Gaza girl with suffering from advanced leukemia, only wanted to visit the beach.

From Israel's Channel 2, subtitled by Sass Video:

Activist blames Jordan, not Israel, for stopping bus at Allenby

From AFP:

Jordan on Sunday barred pro-Palestinian US and European activists from trying to cross into the West Bank to deliver school supplies to students.

"Two buses carrying 100 activists were not allowed to leave the Jordanian side" of Allenby Bridge Crossing, also known as King Hussein Bridge between the West Bank and Jordan, Walid Atallah, a spokesman for the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign in Jordan, told AFP.

"The Jordanian authorities stamped their passports and charged them fees and everything was okay. When the buses left, the last checkpoint on the Jordanian side was closed. No reason was given."

Atallah said the "activists left the buses and started to demonstrate near the checkpoint. One of them fainted and was taken to hospital."

"This was deliberate. Jordan did not want Israel to be held responsible for denying the activists entry," he added.

This directly contradicts what they said yesterday:

Dozens of foreign peace activists were denied entry into the West Bank by Israeli authorities at the Allenby Bridge crossing on Sunday evening, organizers of the third 'Welcome to Palestine' initiative said.

"The Welcome to Palestine Campaign decries the Israeli denial of entry via the Allenby Bridge to over 100 internationals who wanted to visit us in the occupied Palestinian Territories," organizers said in a statement.

AP says that Israel admits stopping them, though:

French organizer Olivia Zemor of the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign said Israeli authorities asked no questions and stamped "entry denied" into the passports without an explanation.

Israel's Defense Ministry denounced the protesters as "provocateurs and known troublemakers."

Earlier, Zemor told reporters in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that the group aimed to deliver one ton of school supplies to Palestinian children in refugee camps in Bethlehem.

In a statement late Sunday, the Israeli Defense Ministry called the effort a "failed publicity stunt." It said Israel exercised its right to deny them entry.

"There are no restrictions whatsoever on bringing in school supplies," the statement said. "If these activists sincerely wanted to bring in school supplies, they had countless options to do so. There are no shortages of school supplies in the West Bank."

The EuroPalestine site says that both events happened. The first bus was stopped by Israel, and the second by Jordan, according to the site.

Of course, the WtP spokesperson says both were stopped by Jordan. But the official statement said that both buses were stopped by Israel ("Israeli denial ... to over 100 internationals.")

Whatever happened, we see that these "activists" cannot be trusted to even keep their own stories straight, and any media that relies on them for information is acting irresponsibly.

Disappearing (Photo art from Yemen)

This stunning piece of photo-art was created by a female photographer from Yemen, Boushra al-Moutawakel, specifically to comment on the changes in how Yemeni women have been covering themselves in recent years.

I saw it at this Spanish site.

1940 Britain claimed "German agents" among illegal Jewish refugees to Palestine

The British White Paper of 1939, passed on the eve of the destruction of European Jewry, was a death sentence for tens of thousands of Jews who wanted to escape the Holocaust.

Illegal ships of Jews continued to attempt to infiltrate Palestine, and most were turned away - often to tragic consequence. Even as the situation grew more and more dire, British officials remained adamant in severely limiting the number of Jews who could enter Palestine.

On February 7, 1940, Vernon Bartlett asked that the ban on immigration be lifted. The answer, by Malcolm MacDonald, alleged that there was a danger associated with illegal immigration:

Mr. Bartlett asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that the tragic plight of some 2,000 Jewish refugees now marooned in small barges on the Danube is due mainly to the fact that shipowners are threatened with confiscation of their ships and imprisonment of their crews if captured near the Palestine shore; and will he consider raising the ban on further immigrants to Palestine to cover these victims of Nazi racial doctrines?

Mr. M. MacDonald I understand that reports have reached the Foreign Office that a number of Jews who were on their way to embark at a Rumanian port on a ship chartered for the purpose of carrying illegal immigrants to Palestine were recently stranded on the Danube. It is well known that masters and crews of ships engaged in this illegal traffic are liable to imprisonment and the ships to confiscation.

...The normal objections to illegal immigration are increased in time of war owing to the danger of enemy agents travelling to Palestine by this means. In the circumstances I cannot adopt the hon. Member's suggestion.

This supposed fear of enemy agents became an actual allegation in a debate on March 20, even though no proof was offered:

Mr. Stokes asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that amongst the Jewish illegal immigrants into Palestine there are German citizens, many of whom are German spies; and what steps he proposes to take to stop this illegal traffic on that account?

Mr. M. MacDonald: Yes, Sir. Though local inquiries have not yet produced conclusive proof, the High Commissioner has strong reasons for suspecting that the passengers of two ships which about a month ago landed illegal immigrants in Palestine included German agents. These persons, together with other illegal immigrants, are held in detention camps. As regards the second part of the Question, His Majesty's Government and the Palestine Government are taking various measures to suppress the traffic in illegal immigrants.

§Mr. T. Williams Will the right hon. Gentleman state exactly what he implies when he states that many of these illegal immigrants may or may not be German spies?

Mr. MacDonald I cannot add to the answer which I have given, which was that the High Commissioner has strong reasons to suppose, from information at his disposal, that some of these people are German agents.

§Mr. Shinwell Can the Minister say how many have been detained?

Mr. MacDonald Some hundreds.

§Mr. Lipson Has my right hon. Friend any reason to believe that these German agents are Jews?

Mr. MacDonald As I say, we have not any conclusive proof, but from the information we have received we understand that there are strong possibilities that some of the Jewish members of these parties are German agents.

§Mr. Leach Would they not be in serious danger of their lives in such company in such a ship?

No answer is recorded.

This allegation was followed up on April 3:

Mr. T. Williams asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how many of the several hundred illegal immigrants into Palestine, who were detained as suspected German agents, have been charged with this offence; and with what result?

§The Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. Malcolm MacDonald) As I made clear in my reply to the hon. Member for Ipswich (Mr. Stokes) on 20th March, only a portion of the illegal immigrants recently landed in Palestine who are held in detention camps are suspected of being German agents. While the High Commissioner has strong reasons for his suspicions, inquiries have not yet produced conclusive proof.

§Mr. Williams Can the right hon. Gentleman say when the High Commissioner is likely to obtain sufficient evidence?

§Mr. MacDonald I could not say.

§Mr. Williams Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that this suspicion casts grave reflection upon large numbers of people; and does he not think it is incumbent on the High Commissioner at the earliest possible moment to clear those who are not in any way identified in spying on behalf of Germany or anybody else?

§Mr. MacDonald I am sure that the High Commissioner will share that wish, but in present circumstances it may not be possible to get conclusive proof, and we must give the benefit of the doubt to the State in those circumstances.

§Mr. Mander Is it not the case that certain Jewish organisations have offered to do everything in their power to prevent these German agents getting in, and that their offer of assistance has not been taken up by the Colonial Office?

§Mr. MacDonald I am not aware of that, and I am certain that if offers of help have been made they have been accepted.

Macdonals insists that evidence exists that German agents are among the detained Jews, but even weeks after their detention he cannot reveal any details, nor can he even say that any evidence is conclusive.

And he never did return to the topic. As far as I can tell, not one Jewish immigrant was charged with spying for Germany.

But there was one postscript. On April 3, as seen above, MacDonald claimed that any offers of help by Jewish organizations to help vet the immigrants for German ties would be welcomed. He was lying.

From the April 17 debates:

Mr. Mander asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what reply was sent to the New Zionist organisation which, on 14th February, offered to assist him in weeding out German agents from among illegal immigrants into Palestine?

Mr. M. MacDonald His Majesty's Government naturally felt unable to entertain this offer from a body which is known to be engaged in promoting this illegal traffic.

§Mr. Mander Did not the right hon. Gentleman say the other day that he had received no offer of assistance and that if he did, he would be prepared to accept it?

Mr. MacDonald It depends entirely on the value of the offer. We regard this particular offer as valueless.

From all evidence, the British authorities in Palestine made up the charge that there were Jewish German spies, and they used this bogus charge to punish all Jews attempting to flee the Holocaust in 1940.

UPDATE: Yisrael Medad adds:

a) this was highlighted previously, most notably in Bernard Wasserstein's book, Great Britain and the Jews of Europe, http://www.amazon.com/Britain-Europe-1939-1945-Bernard-Wasserstein/dp/0718501829, where you can read the internal FO telegrams and missives which stopped even children & youth from exiting Europe due to that espionage charge.
But worse was the Jewish establishment attitude. In Zaar's book, (http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=5701150&matches=6&cm_sp=works*listing*title) you can read in the Appendix, pgs. 280-285, how Henry Montor, Exec. Vice-Chair of the UJA, argued against Revisionist illegal immigration because criminals and prostitutes were among those fleeing. And that those organizing the escape via the boats, were in it for ... profit. He wrote also (the letter was to a rabbi in Maryland) stating that "Palestine cannot be flooded with … old people or with undesirables." The letter is dated February 1, 1940.

Oh, by the way, more rockets today

From Times of Israel:

Two rockets fired from Gaza hit factories in an industrial area near Sderot Sunday morning, injuring two people and causing damage to buildings.

One man was reported lightly injured and another suffered from shock from one of the rockets that hit around 9 a.m. A second rocket hit a factory, and caused no injuries.

A third Kassam rocket landed in the same area near Sderot about an hour later. No damage was caused.

And at least one more in the afternoon.

Sunday links

From Ian:

Liberman steps up offensive against Abbas, calls for ultimatum on PA chief

Foreign minister says that if Palestinian president does not abandon bid for UN and return to negotiations, he should no longer be seen as a partner for peace

PMW: Terrorist murderer glorified twice in one month on PA TV

Ramadan: Islam’s ‘Holy Month’ of Christian Oppression

Thirty years later, Australian police reopen hunt for Israeli Consulate bombers

Following talk with Jordanian-born terrorists jailed in US, authorities take new look at 1982 attack

Fact or Fiction?: 1001 Muslim Inventions Comes to Washington D.C.

"History is often determined in great battles. But ongoing battles about history can redefine it. The 1001 Inventions exhibit is diminished with a more understandable me-too-ism, a desperate search for cultural pride despite the technological dominance of the West after the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. But as Orwell noted, language and word choice are powerful weapons in battles about history. National Geographic has an obligation to clarify whether the words and claims in 1001 Inventions is history, legend, or a mix of both, before another half-million Americans march through their doors."

A New Slur Calling people "Holocaust-obsessed" is the new holocaust denial.

"I admit I was stunned in exploring this question to find no less than 272,000 Google hits for "obsessed with the Holocaust." And it's not just racist sites (including David Duke's) or anti-Zionist sites like Mondoweiss."

In firing Trevino, Guardian’s hypocrisy laid bare

"The supreme hypocrisy of the Guardian has been laid bare, as it demonstrates that it is morally unburdened by hideously anti-Semitic, pro-terror commentators and journalists but will cravenly give in to arguments by extremists suggesting that those on the mainstream American right — commentators who take the threat to Western values posed by Islamist terrorism seriously — are beyond the pale."

Libya Sufi shrines attacked 'by Islamist hardliners'

A shrine in the Libyan capital Tripoli venerating a Sufi Muslim saint has been partly destroyed - the latest in a series of attacks blamed on ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists.

Merah case: the minute of silence earned him a reprimand (French)

"Five and a half months after the fact, the high school English teacher Flaubert in Rouen who called his students to observe a minute of silence in memory of Mohamed Merah killer Toulouse, will make his return to the students. Another institution of the academy."

Pinkwashing! Activists protest inclusion of Israeli-backed films in Queer Film Festival

"The documentary, Invisible Men, by gay Israeli director, Yariv Mozer, follows in part the journey of Louie, a gay Palestinian who seeks refuge in Israel after receiving death threats from his own family, only to face harassment and deportation, before eventually fleeing to Europe."

A Letter to Aly Raisman From an IDF Soldier

"...a letter to olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, the American and Jewish gymnast who performed to the tune of Hava Nagila in London, from an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. The letter was posted by the author on Aly’s Facebook page."

A smarter inhaler for asthmatic kids

This Israeli invention delivers the medication better, gives the patient real-time feedback and provides hard data for the physician.

British Mandate's 1938 Annual Report Details the Arab Revolt
The Library of Congress Archives Provide the Full Picture

Also, from Al Arabiya:

More than 300 bodies found in Syrian town of Darya

Fighters bulldoze Sufi mosque in central Tripoli (Libya)

Tunisia TV executive goes to jail for satire broadcast

YNet: Germany cooperated with Black September after Munich Massacre

German newspaper Der Spiegel revealed Sunday that German authorities cooperated with Black September, a Palestinian terror group, after it had carried out an attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

Germany, it was reported, did so for fear of additional attacks on its soil.

According to the report, the German government held secret contacts with the planners of the Munich Massacre. Several months after the attack, Germany's then foreign minister, Walter Scheel, met secretly with several Black September members to "rebuild trust."

Jonathan Schanzer: Hamas' corruption

SA newspaper chooses anti-semitic illustration for story

SABC is a South African broadcast network whose stated mission is "Restoration of human dignity and Building a common future."

They have an article today about Israeli moves to stop illegal immigration:

Just a few months ago, Israel was in the midst of a nationwide uproar over the tens of thousands of African migrants who have poured into the Jewish state. Today, that influx has slowed dramatically, following a series of measures meant to halt the new arrivals.

The quick results are testament to a get-tough approach that has included the rapid construction of a soon-to-be-completed fence along the border with Egypt's Sinai peninsula, and a new policy of detaining Africans upon arrival.

But the strategy has come with a price: Advocacy groups accuse Israel of violating international refugee law by cooperating with Egyptian security personnel to round up migrants on the border. They also say more than a thousand Africans are now languishing in mass detention centers set up to hold them.

Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said she had no immediate information on whether Israeli and Egyptian forces were cooperating in rounding up migrants. Government spokesman Mark Regev had no comment when asked if Israel was carrying out this practice.

This slanted coverage - taking charges of anti-Israel "advocacy groups" as gospel - is par for the course and would barely be worth mentioning.

But how did SABC choose to illustrate an article about Israeli moves to protect her borders?

With this:

The poster has nothing at all to do with the story. It was taken during an anti-Israel demonstration in Malaysia in 2010. And if you look a little closer, you can see that this sign - which was carried by hundreds - has a caricature of a religious Jew transformed into a monkey:

Now, why should a picture of a sign showing a stereotypical Jew with black hat and peyos transformed into a monkey, saying that Israel is a terrorist state, be used to illustrate a story about Israel trying to stop people from illegally entering the country?

Is this an example of the "human dignity" that SABC espouses?

Coincidentally, as I was writing this, JudgeDan tweeted me with this illustration from an Islamic Malaysian newspaper article (about Israeli plans to have an arts festival in Beersheva on the lawn of a museum next to a no-longer used mosque):

This, of course, is meant to echo the Islamic claim that Jews are descended from monkeys and pigs.

Well, at least we see that racism is still alive and well - and wholly acceptable in some media, at least when the targets are Jews.

(h/t Meryl Yourish)

Iran literally covering up Parchin nuclear test site

ISIS has been doing a stellar job in documenting, using satellite imagery, that Iran has been hiding suspected nuclear testing activity at Parchin. For example, here are images showing Iran's destruction of some buildings in the complex last May:

And then evidence that Iran was hiding the traces of those buildings:

But the large building on the site remains - the building suspected of housing a high-explosive testing chamber.

Apparently that building is too important to demolish right now, but also too much activity is taking place there that Iran doesn't want prying eyes to see.

So they are literally covering the building area with lots of pink tarp:

In an August 1, 2012 report, ISIS assessed that apparent cleanup activities at the Parchin site in Iran were complete because imagery showed what appeared to be the final result of considerable sanitization and earth displacement activity. A new GeoEye image dated August 15, 2012 shows that additional suspicious activity may be occurring at the building suspected of housing high explosive experiments related to the development of nuclear weapons and at an adjacent, northern building that may have also hosted suspect activities (figure 1). The new image shows what appears to be pink tent-like material over the two buildings. A Reuters article concurrently reported that “diplomatic sources said the building believed to be housing an explosives chamber - if it is still there - had been ‘wrapped’ with scaffolding and tarpaulin, hiding any sanitization or other activity there from satellite cameras.”

The latest satellite imagery clearly shows the suspected high explosive test building covered in a pink-colored material. A comparison with previous satellite images of the building shows that the size of the now covered building has visibly increased, especially in its height. In consultation with experts ISIS believes that the covering tarp is supported underneath by scaffolding which would account for the increase in size as well as for the horizontal lines appearing under the tarp (figure 1).

Similar activities appear to be taking place at the northernmost building at the site. Currently only part of the roof appears covered by the pink-colored tarp; however, similarly colored material is visible on the ground next to the building suggesting that it may soon be covered.

Nothing to hide?

(h/t Israel HaYom)

Egypt refuses to inspect Iranian weapons ship at Suez

From Ha'aretz:

Egypt has recently turned down a U.S. request to stop an Iranian ship carrying weapons to Syria, according to a report in Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper.

According to the report, quoted in Israel Radio on Sunday, Lieutenant General Mohab Mamish, Suez Canal Authority chairman, said Egypt's navy refused to stop the ship and inspect its cargo as it was passing through the canal.

Egypt Independent adds:

The former SCAF member said that he is primarily responsible for the management of the Suez Canal. All the decisions concerning the canal, he said, whether political or technical, are up to him.

He assured that it is impossible for any state to engage in military operations in the Suez Canal because it is a very narrow waterway. He said the Egyptian Navy secures the waterway with great efficiency.

Mamish was appointed Suez Canal Authority chairman by President Mohamed Morsy, in a surprise reshuffling of military leadership

.
As Egypt's president Mohamed Morsy visits Iran and signals a closer relationship with that regime, his new appointee refuses to listen to a request from the US. Apparently, giving arms to Syria that could be used to kill many more civilians is not a problem for Egypt's new government.

Possibly related:

A convoy of US navy warships have passed through the Suez Canal in Egypt on their way to the Mediterranean Sea.

The convoy, which included the destroyer the USS James Williams and the attack submarine the USS Toledo, will bolster forces in the Mediterranean.

It is not clear whether the vessels were bound for the coast of Syria, but both Russia and the US have periodically increased their military footprint in the region as the bloody civil war in Syria continues.

Anti-Israel activists discover apartheid against Palestinians - in Jordan

There is another little-noticed "flytilla" this weekend.

In this case, some anti-Israel activists flew to Amman, Jordan, and they plan to cross into the West Bank today from there. Whether they are allowed to cross the Allenby Bridge or not, they will continue their anti-Israel agenda, as they try to divert public attention from the upheavals in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere.

One of the groups making up this protest, EuroPalestine, reports that the activists visited the Jerash "refugee" camp on Saturday. And they noticed that Jordan is not such a wonderful place to be for some Palestinian Arabs. In fact, you might even call how Jordan treats the residents of Jerash as - apartheid.

A hundred men, women and children, from the mission WELCOME TO PALESTINE went Saturday to the Palestinian refugee camp of JERASH, Jordan, near Amman.

They were warmly welcomed by officials and residents of this camp which includes more than 35,000 Palestinians from all of the Gaza Strip.

These people have a special place in the tragedy of the Palestinian people and in fact arrived in Jordan after the 1967 war, not during the Nakba of 1948, and have a status of "displaced" and not "refugees".

Grouped in an area of 75 hectares, the 3000 Jerash families have no nationality and no longer receive any benefits since 2010 from UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees.

Indeed. In 1967 there was no threat to the residents of Gaza from Israel, but tens of thousands of them streamed out of Gaza towards Jordan anyway (through Israel!) because they simply did not want to live under Jewish rule. There were no expulsions, no massacres, no threats from Israel. This was a completely voluntary flight, as the Gazans assumed that they would be able to become citizens of Jordan just like the Palestinian Arabs who fled there in 1948 and that life there would be better than under Israeli or Egyptian rule.

But they were wrong.

Jordan never gave citizenship to Gazans. And the Gazans remain, stateless and discriminated against, in Jordan.

How much discrimination do they suffer? EuroPalestine goes on:

The only camp school is obliged to accommodate 6400 pupils, part-time only, in overcrowded classrooms as we imagine. The camp has indeed no right to construct new buildings and expand on the land leased by UNRWA for a period of 99 years.

Even after graduation, students who have received scholarships to go to the Dalhousie University in Jordan can not engage in employment in the public and remain stateless for life.

Yes, an Arab from Yemen or Egypt can become a citizen of Jordan, but one from Gaza cannot. Sounds like apartheid to me.

But for some strangre reason, the "Welcome to Palestine" people cannot quite use that word even when they report on the explicit discrimination against many Palestinian Arabs in Jordan.

Oh, one other thing: Israel cannot stop Jerash residents from moving back to Gaza if they want to. They can easily travel to Egypt and then enter Gaza via Rafah. No, the only people who prevent that from happening are the Jordanians, the Egyptians and the current leaders of Gaza!

See also JSSNews, which discovered this article.

Overnight links

From Ian:

Lieberman was right: With Abbas in charge there will be no peace

"With either Fatah or Hamas at the helm of the Palestinian people there is absolutely no possibility for long term peace in the region
"Where Lieberman was wrong in his characterization of Abbas is when he stated: “In recent years, we have seen that Mr. Abbas speaks with a moderate and pleasant voice to the international community, but in fact, has been personally acting to undermine attempts to renew the peace process.”
He is wrong because Abbas and Fatah have not been trying to “undermine” the peace process "in recent years,” they have never actually engaged in a serious discussion about peace. Since Oslo, the Palestinian Authority has been offered and declined final status agreements no less than three times, each with a portion of Jerusalem as its capital.
Fatah and Abbas are not a “roadblock” to peace, because a roadblock implies something temporary. With either Fatah or Hamas at the helm of the Palestinian people there is absolutely no possibility for long term peace in the region."

Caroline Glick Israel faces the cynical world

The UN’s appeasement of Iran is a symbol of its decline and decay

"It is time for the United States to hold the UN to account by significantly reducing funding for the organisation, and increasing the level of Congressional oversight. American taxpayers deserve value for money from the UN, and an expectation that their contributions will be used to advance the cause of freedom rather than undermine it."

NYT: Signs Suggest Iran Is Speeding Up Work on Nuclear Program

"International nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and may also be speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats and experts briefed on the findings."

‘No circumstance whatsoever’ in which Israel can tolerate a nuclear Iran, says foreign minister

We should have attacked in 2001, says Avigdor Liberman, and all the talk and inaction today are weakening Israel’s deterrent capability

Obama’s Warning to Syria Comes Amid Iranian Directives to Transfer Chemical Weapons to Hezbollah

"Information gathered by U.S. intelligence officials that Iran’s leadership has pressed Bashar al-Assad in Syria to move stockpiles of his chemical weaponry to Hezbollah led to President Obama’s remarks earlier this week that any deployment of Syrian chemical weapons would be a “red line” for the U.S., according to the Maariv Newspaper in Israel."

Guardian caves in to bullying on Josh Trevino

"One doubts very much that the majority of the Guardian’s already drastically dwindling print readership will be content with the knowledge that freedom of speech in their newspaper of choice is dictated by a tiny cult of extremist cranks. Not only has Ali Abunimah succeeded in exposing the sad truth that comment is anything but free, he has in addition proved that facts are far from sacred.
He has also exposed himself and his fellow travellers for the crude bullies that they are. Had Josh Trevino tweeted anti-Semitic comparisons between Israel and the Nazi regime, support for a proscribed terror organisation or the annihilation of a certain sovereign state, he would have kept his job and inevitably become a darling of the anti-Israel crowd."

Member Of Leading Al-Qaeda-Affiliated Online Forum Posts Photo Of Navy SEAL

Who Participated In Bin Laden Raid And Calls For 'Allah To Kill' Him

Al-Quds Day Toronto 2012: Gay Israel Supporter Told "You Shall Be Stoned To Death"

Turkey: Minister halts military band to allow Islamic chant
We now have the chance to turn all schools into religious schools, says AKP deputy

Analysis: Brotherhood taking total control of Egypt

With rise of Morsy, a new dictatorship may be replacing the old while world persists in looking for signs of pragmatism.

Saved in Shanghai — a young girl’s story highlights a rare WWII place of refuge

20,000 Jews were protected from the Holocaust in the Japanese-occupied city. Nina Admoni, whose husband would later head the Mossad, was one of them

Israeli Women Ahead in Science Poised to Lead in Biotech

"Metallo-Therapy Ltd., which is developing a new method for cancer diagnosis by delivering nano-liposomes to tumor cells, recently received a $4 million investment from Moshe Arkin, former CEO of Agis Industries Ltd. and Perrigo Co. (PRGO)’s vice chairman. Amal Ayoub, Metallo-Therapy’s founder and CEO, says she thinks one reason is that she’s female -- and Arab.
‘‘Being an Arab woman was actually an advantage,” says Ayoub, who has a doctorate in biomedical engineering form Ben Gurion University. “It got Arkin’s attention.”

PLO accuses Iran of being Zionist. Too funny.

From Saudi Gazette:

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Saturday harshly criticized Iran for inviting Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran later this month. “Iran joined the Israeli choir which aims to undermine the Palestinian political system and its elected legitimacies,” the PLO Executive Committee said in a press statement, a copy of which was obtained by Saudi Gazette.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not go to the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran if his rival Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas also attends, a minister said Saturday.
“President Abbas will not take part in the Non-Aligned summit if Haniyeh is present, no matter what form his attendance takes,” Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

A Hamas spokesman earlier on Saturday said Haniyeh would attend the Aug. 30-31 conference in Tehran “in accordance with the invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

The PLO said it “will not allow any power or regime to bypass the Palestinian people’s institutions and its legitimate representatives.”

Ma'an alludes to a small fact that is simply never explained to Western audiences:

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday urged his counterpart in Gaza not to attend, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited Haniyeh to join the summit of 120 non-aligned nations.

The premier's position is that the Palestine Liberation Organization is legally the sole representative of the Palestinian people, and it has given the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority the task of governing Palestine.

Indeed, the PA does not report to the people - it reports to the PLO, which a decidedly non-democratic organization. The PLO is recognized by the UN as the "sole representative of the Palestinian people" and it derives its legitimacy from that, not from elections.

Which means that even if (and when) the people voted for Hamas, the PLO has effective veto power since the PA reports to the PLO.

And Hamas' rival Fatah, of course, dominates the PLO.

Fayyad himself was never elected prime minister - he was appointed to that position by Mahmoud Abbas. it is unclear if he was acting in his capacity as president of the PA or head of the PLO when he did that.

When Westerners think of the PA they think it is democratic because a couple of elections were held there. Nothing could be further from the truth. The PLO is the dominant organization and it is anything but democratic; it is dominated by a political party that also includes the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, a terror group.

"Gas heating - flexible, convenient, and efficient" is the caption

An Estonian natural gas company placed the above image and caption on its homepage, causing an uproar, according to Lenta.ru .

The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Nazism and Stalinism, celebrated in Estonia on 23 August, was marked by scandal. On the website of the local gas company GasTerm was a photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp, together with a description of the benefits of gas central heating. The photo was later removed (the site issued a brief comment with apologies)...

How long the scandalous picture was on the site is unknown.

The photo of the gate to Auschwitz with the inscription "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free") was on the home page of the site The caption reads (translated from Estonian): "Gas heating - versatile, comfortable and efficient."

After the story hit the media, the picture has been removed. It was replaced by a conventional gas burner picture. The site added a short comment: "If the photo is posted here previously caused anyone discomfort, we sincerely apologize."

The story, however, does not end there. Journalists contacted the executive director of GasTerm, Sven Linrosom. From his comments the absurd sense of what is happening only intensified.

Normally, a company would probably try something hush up the scandal. They would declare, for example, the appearance of a controversial photograph was a mistake by the site administrator.

However, the executive director of GasTerm's comments to journalists only added fuel to the fire. First, he admitted that the picture was taken in person when he visited Auschwitz. Also confirmed that the company deliberately placed the photograph on the site (i.e,, the appearance of a controversial photo was not random).

Explaining the purpose for which it was made, Linros, reportedly referred to the fact that "the gas heating is often associated with the events of the Holocaust." "We often hear the joke about the fact that Hitler killed himself because he had received a bill for the gas," he added.

The Jewish communinty in Estonia condemned the company for its actions.

(h/t Vandoren)

Weekend links

From Ian:

Israel Welcomes Palestinians without Permits by Khaled Abu Toameh

"For years, the Palestinian Authority has been demanding that Israel lift travel restrictions imposed on West Bank Palestinians. But now that Israel has permitted tens of thousands of Muslims to visit its beaches and malls, Israel is being denounced for trying to damage the Palestinian economy.
What is clear is that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas wants to see Palestinians living a good life. Improving the living standards of Palestinians is something that these two parties are not interested in. They would rather see Palestinians direct all their anger and frustration only toward Israel.
Otherwise, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority fear, Palestinians may vent their anger against their own leaders."

Richard Millett Anti-Israel activist Antony Loewenstein: “Six Million Should Die.”

"But, during the Q&A Jonathan Hoffman asked Loewenstein how many people Loewenstein thinks should die for this one-state solution, that Loewenstein wants so much, to come into existence. The idea being that Israelis are not going to vote themselves out of existence, so presumably such a state could come about only by force involving more bloodshed.
As Loewenstein wasn’t quite answering the question he was pressed further by Hoffman as to how many people Loewenstein thinks should die. First, Frank Barat, the Chairman, answered “200,000″ (here is more on Barat). Then Loewenstein answered “Six million. That’s my answer. Write that down.“

Toulouse Killer Made Calls to Israel, May Not Have Acted Alone

"Using a cell phone registered to his mother, Merah contacted nearly 180 people in 20 different countries, including Israel, between September 2010 and February of 2011. The Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed in March that Merah had been questioned during a trip to Israel in 2010, while on his way to Afghanistan."

Kotel rabbi slams Abbas for comments on J'lem

"Rabinowitz, who is responsible for general oversight of the Western Wall plaza and complex, condemned “the words of the Palestinian leadership that denies reality and in so doing distances the chances for peace.”
“Those who wish to return Jerusalem to the cycle of denial and bloodshed, and to erase its Jewish past for the sake of a political struggle should be condemned,” the rabbi said.
“Jerusalem will no longer be built on hate,” he continued.
“The future of Jerusalem will not be written on the destruction of its past. Shame on any leaders who seek to erase the eternal story of Jerusalem.”

IDF Blog: Direct Missile Alarm — Straight to Your Phone

"Developed for the IDF’s Home Front Command by eVigilo and Ericsson, the alert system will deliver location-specific warnings based on the trajectory of a rocket or missile. The text messages are intended to supplement the air raid signals that have been in place across the country for decades and will operate in conjunction with the IDF’s Iron Dome defense system."

Barak and Egyptian counterpart reportedly come to terms over Sinai offensive

New Egyptian defense minister el-Sissi reassures Israeli counterpart over military buildup in peninsula

Groups to Obama: Denounce ‘radical’ rabbi support

Two conservatives groups call on US president to reject those "Rabbis for Obama" associated with Jewish Voice for Peace.

UN nuke agency forms special ‘action team’ to investigate Iran’s nuclear program

IAEA officials expected to press for access to Parchin site, where Iranians allegedly carries out nuclear weapons-linked experiments

Australian FM tells Tehran delegates to leave in event of anti-Semitic rhetoric

Country’s Jewish leadership remains unhappy that Australia sending representatives to Non-Aligned Movement conference

Egypt arrests man after nail bomb attack on German embassy

The man acted out of anger after reading an Egyptian newspaper report on Friday which described a protest by German right-wing activists who had paraded caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in front of a German mosque, they said.

French councillor beaten by Tunisian extremists over family's dress

Jamel Gharbi, a councillor in the north-western city of Le Mans, said that he and his family were strolling around the northern coastal Tunisian town of Bizerte August 16 when they came across a group of men with the long beards and tunics of ultra-conservative Salafi Muslims.

Sequoia raises $200m Israel VC fund

Sequoia Capital, is a veteran venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley currently celebrating its 40th anniversary. Over the years, it has backed some of the biggest names in the technology industry including Apple Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc., LinkedIn and Cisco Systems.
The new Israeli venture capital fund is one of three new funds being raised by Sequoia. The others will focus on the US and China and the total of the three funds will be $975 million.

Also:
Israeli driver vs. Arab carjacker via Sultan Knish (skip to about 0:50)

Sniffer mice!

(h/t YS, EuroGirl)

Another 120 killed in Syria - and Lebanon death toll up to 13

From Al Arabiya:

More than 100 people, including at least 20 children have been killed by Syrian regime forces on Friday in heavy shelling of opposition held areas in the Damascus suburbs several districts of Aleppo and Deir Ezzour, the activist Local Coordination Committees (LCC) reported.

The group reported that at least 40 were killed in what it said was a “massacre” in Deir Ezzour. The town’s local LCC branch said the massacre was cause army helicopter shelling.

Activists reported heavy shelling by Syrian forces on several districts of Aleppo, scene of the fiercest fighting since the conflict first entangled the commercial and manufacturing hub a month ago.

The spillover to Lebanon is continuing:

A young Sunni sheikh was killed on Friday in Syria-related clashes between two rival neighborhoods in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, denting a tenuous truce that was agreed earlier by local leaders.

The clashes breached a truce earlier agreed by local political leaders hours earlier in a bid to halt fighting fuelled by tensions in neighboring Syria.

The sectarian clashes began after gunmen in a nearby Sunni area shot dead an Alawite man. Nine others were wounded in the subsequent fighting.

At least 13 people have died and more than a hundred have been wounded in fighting this week between Lebanese Sunni Muslims and Alawites, reflecting the sectarian faultlines that have emerged in Syria's conflict.

Refugees from Syria are still pouring over the borders:

More than 200,000 Syrians have poured into neighboring countries during the conflict, surpassing the 185,000 the U.N. refugee agency had expected to flee by the end of the year.

The total reflects an increase of some 30,000 in the past week alone to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, but also takes into account a change in the way the agency counts those in Jordan, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

"There has been a dramatic increase in the number of (Syrian) refugees in the region during August, we're now at over 200,000 refugees in the region, that's over and above our planning figure for all 2012 of 185,000 refugees," spokesman Adrian Edwards told Reuters Television in Geneva on Friday.

More than 3,500 people fleeing violence in Syria have entered Turkey over the past 24 hours, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate said on Friday, one of the highest daily refugee flows since the start of the uprising last year.

"In Jordan, a record 2,200 people crossed the border overnight and were received at Za'atri camp in the north," Edwards told a news briefing.

Iraq is home to nearly 16,000 Syrian refugees, UNHCR said.

Anti-semitic cartoon in PA newspaper

From Palestinian Media Watch:

The official Palestinian Authority daily published a cartoon yesterday that depicts Israel as a demonized religious Jew holding a knife dripping with blood.

I found the original cartoon in the UAE paper that first published it and added English captions based on PMW's translation. You really need to see it in color to appreciate how disgusting it is: