Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Egyptians freak out when they find out lecturer was a rabbi

Good old fashioned Jew-hatred is alive and well in Egypt:

A seminar organised by Ain Shams University's Centre for the Study of Contemporary Civilisations (CSCC) ended in uproar when several participating Egyptian professors discovered that Robin Firestone, the American professor delivering a paper on the "Problematic of the Chosen in Monotheistic Religions", was a rabbi....

Mohamed El-Hawwari, head of the CSCC, defended the choice of Firestone as a lecturer. Interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly El-Hawwari stressed that Firestone, while entitled to call himself a "rabbi", does not work in the religious field. "He is an American academic professor and it was in this capacity that he was invited to deliver his lecture."

In a statement issued once the row had become public, El-Hawwari described Firestone as a professor of Jewish history at Hebro Union College, California, and the author of many books on both Jewish and Islamic history.

"I have known the guy for more than 20 years. He has never attacked Islam, which he respects and appreciates," said El-Hawwari. "His lecture was based on texts derived from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Talmud.

"When I invited Firestone to offer his lecture I did not expect him to utter the two testimonies of Islam and announce that he had become a Muslim. It's natural for him to adopt religious concepts different from our own," said El-Hawwari, commenting on Firestone's reference to Isaac [as the son almost sacrificed by Abraham - EoZ].

"Our main problem is that we still cannot accept the other. Whoever differs with us becomes our enemy," El-Hawwari continued. Yet the aim of holding such lecture series is to help in understanding the views of the other "in the hope this will facilitate a rapprochement between cultures and civilisations".

El-Hawwari dismissed allegations that the lecture's real aim was to provide propaganda for normalising relations with Israel as nonsense, and an insult to the integrity of Egyptian academics.

The furore has caused ripples beyond academia, with 20 parliamentary members quick to jump on the bandwagon and demand that the speaker of the People's Assembly summon members of the parliament's Educational Committee for an urgent meeting to determine who is responsible for the convening of such seminars.

They have also demanded that Hani Helal, the minister of higher education, be sacked.

"We are not going to allow Jews to desecrate our universities, spread their Zionist views and brainwash our students," railed independent MP Gamal Zahran.

A video tape and Arabic translation of the lecture are currently being studied by a committee formed by the university to investigate whether there is any substance to claims that the lecture was offensive to Islam.

Following the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979, Egyptian educational institutions have refused to deal with their Israeli counterparts and have steadfastly refused cultural normalisation.

Notice that even the academic that invited Firestone bristles at the very idea that he wanted to have Israeli thoughts presented at an Egyptian university.

In other words, this article from an Egyptian English newspaper proves that academic freedom at Egyptian universities is non-existent and that free inquiry is not only discouraged - it is threatened when it accidentally appears.

Not to mention that Egyptian Parliament officials can spout anti-semitism without the slightest fear of being criticized.

I wonder if any European country will call to boycott Egyptian universities?

PalArab Academia: Bir Zeit University

This week, there were violent fights between Hamas and Fatah students at Bir Zeit University, injuring 20 students, and culminating with Fatah security forces arresting the Student Council head who is a member of Hamas.

Bir Zeit, for its part, put out a statement where it claimed that these were very unusual events, that it was a tolerant and liberal university, and that the media shouldn't make such a big deal about the fights.

How tolerant and liberal is Bir Zeit?

Here's a picture of a photo exhibition that was shown at Bir Zeit a couple of years ago:

Portraits of Palestinian suicide bombers on a wall above pictures of Israeli victims and destroyed Israeli buses at an exhibit at the Birzeit University on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Ramallah. Some Palestinian children collect photos of the bombers. ©AP Images/Muhammed Muheisen

In 2003, during student elections, Hamas candidates blew up models of Israeli buses, and during a debate with Fatah candidates they boasted "Hamas activists in this University killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?"

Yehiya Ayyash, a bomb maker also known as the Engineer, was killed by the IDF for his direct involvement in building bombs and explosives. He was a chemistry student at Bir Zeit.

In April 2001, Diya Tawil, a student of Engineering at Bir Zeit University, blew himself up at a bus stop in a Jewish settlement just outside Jerusalem, killing only himself but injuring more than 30.

Izzedine Al-Masri was a journalism student, and she was the planner and driver for the suicide bomber at the Sbarro pizzeria. She is now in an Israeli jail.

Bir Zeit's web page claims that "Birzeit University is the first institution of higher education to be established in Palestine." Notably, it acquired university status while under Israeli rule. Equally notably, Technion was established in Palestine in 1924, and Hebrew University in 1925. But why should we expect the truth to come out of Bir Zeit?

Today's hypocritical "human rights" group: Physicians for Human Rights (Israel)

According to their website:

Physicians For Human Rights-Israel was founded in 1988 with the goal of struggling for human rights, in particular the right to health, in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Human dignity, wellness of mind and body and the right to health are at the core of the world view of the organization and direct and instruct our activities and efforts on both the individual and general level. Our activities integrate advocacy and action toward changing harmful policies and direct action providing healthcare.

Wonderful words! However, when looking at the press releases of this "human rights" organization, one notices a bit of a one-sidedness as far as what these proud humanitarians condemn.

Some statements have to do with healthcare: they condemn Israel for not allowing Gazans who need medical attention to go into Israel proper to get it. Many of their statements have nothing to do with healthcare - for example, they condemn Israel's "occupation" on the grounds that it prevents Palestinian Arab academic freedom.

None of their statements have any bad words to say about Palestinian Arabs who attack, injure and kill Israelis, such as Sderot rocket attacks. More to the point, I couldn't find a condemnation of Wafa al-Biss, who planned on blowing up an Israeli hospital in 2005.

One would think that these misguided physicians are perhaps only sensitive to Palestinian Arab lives, not Jewish ones. But does that explain their silence when Gaza terrorists murdered patients in their beds in a hospital just last month as they used hospitals for gunbattles? And then did it again?

No, the pattern isn't that these physicians care about Palestinian Arabs more than Jews. The pattern is that they exclusively condemn Israel, period, despite their stated goals. Their silence about Arab on Arab fighting, killing hundreds of Palestinian Arabs this year alone, shows that they don't really care about PalArabs at all.

They're just another bunch of hypocrites hiding behind their status as doctors, and in effect their goals are no different than the doctors recently arrested in the UK. Their interest in human rights is nil.

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I never wanted to put ads on my site, but I stumbled on a nice and unobtrusive way to make a few cents a month: a customized toolbar.

I only played with this a little, and it has a number of features that I haven't configured, but if you are interested in an Elder of Ziyon toolbar to help with your searches as well as pre-configured links to some nice sources, click here.

Right now it links to a few Israeli radio stations, the charities on my sidebar, and some news sources. You can also add gadgets like weather reports or a calculator. If people like it I can maintain it, add things like chat, messages, other radio stations and other RSS feeds.

It works with both IE and Mozilla.

If you hate it and delete the thing, I promise I won't be insulted :)

UNIFIL getting chummy with Hezbollah again

From Time:

After the war in south Lebanon last summer, the small United Nations peacekeeping mission here was bolstered by the arrival of thousands of crack European troops determined to keep Hizballah fighters away from the border with Israel. A year on, however, and some of those same European contingents are now seeking the cooperation of the Iran-backed Hizballah to help protect them from Al-Qaeda-inspired militants....
Sources tell TIME that, since the [June 24th bombing] attack, there have been discreet contacts between some UNIFIL contingents and Hizballah representatives. UNIFIL is supposed to confine liaison to the Lebanese army, and Graziano said that direct contacts between UNIFIL troops and Hizballah, or any other Lebanese political party, was "highly forbidden". But keeping some type of contact may be critical to UNIFIL's mission. The goal of the informal communications is partly to harness Hizballah's local intelligence gathering abilities, but also to ensure that the powerful Shi'ite group remains supportive of UNIFIL. The unspoken fear among some peacekeepers is that although Hizballah strongly denounced the bombing, it may have known of the attack beforehand or may even have been involved, which, if true, would have dire repercussions on UNIFIL's future. "I cannot dismiss that at a national level there is a diplomatic relation [between troop contributing states and Hizballah] but that has nothing to do with the United Nations," Graziano said. "If somebody [in UNIFIL] does have a relation [with Hizballah] it's against my will."

Nonetheless, a Hizballah official in south Lebanon confirmed to TIME that there was at least one meeting between Spanish UNIFIL officers and Hizballah representatives after the bomb attack. Furthermore, Hizballah officials have met with Spanish diplomats in Beirut and the Madrid government is believed to have held talks with Iran, Hizballah's patron, on the safety of its peacekeepers. At least one other European contingent enjoys regular direct contact with Hizballah, finessing Graziano's order by using a civilian advisor who was hired outside the UNIFIL framework.

To sum it up: Hezbollah was always dead-set against UNIFIL's expanded presence under UN Resolution 1701. UNIFIL is forbidden to have contacts with Hezbollah.

And the goal of the forbidden talks is to keep Hezbollah "supportive" of UNIFIL while at the same time it is admitted that Hezbollah may have had a hand in the fatal bombing of UN workers.

The long friendship of UNIFIL and Hezbollah continues....

"Arafat died of AIDS"

From MEMRI:

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Ahmad Jibril, Secretary-General of the PFLP General Command, which aired on Al-Manar TV on July 5, 2007:

Ahmad Jibril: When Abu Mazen came to Damascus with his team, I asked them: "What happened to the investigation into the death of Abu Ammar [Arafat]? The Israelis killed him. He was my colleague ever since 1965 and used to sleep at my home. He and I followed the same path." Is it conceivable that when Rafiq Al-Hariri was killed, all hell broke loose, even though he was just a merchant in Saudi Arabia, who later entered politics, whereas the death of Yasser Arafat, who for 40 years had been carrying his gun from one place to another, is not investigate[d]? Is this conceivable? They were silent, and then one of them said to me: "To be honest, the French gave us the medical report, that stated that the cause of Abu Ammar's death was AIDS." I am not saying this, they did.

So did I, before he even died....

From Arutz-7:

The Islamic Wakf is digging large ditches on the Temple Mount without archaeological supervision to protect antiquities at Judaism’s holiest site.

Photos of the construction were publicized earlier this week. Investigation revealed that the dig had been approved by the police, though not coordinated with any archeological authorities. The ditch is being dug in the direction of the Dome of the Rock, the site of the Holy Temple, according to most opinions.

Police approval of the project, which involves heavy machinery, as well as a JCB tractor, was apparantly approved by the head of Israel’s Antiquity Authority. "The trench depth varies from 50 – 100 cm deep!" reports Zachi Zweig, an archaeologist that has been involved in exposing the Islamic Wakf's campaign of destroying Jewish artifacts on the mount. "Grey earth was removed from the dig, which indicates that it is archaeologically significant. In addition, signs of ancient architecture was exposed beneath the current platform slabs. It should be mentioned that the bedrock level at this location is very close to the current platform."

Zweig, who started the Temple Mound Debris-Sifting Project following his publicizing the dumbing of artifacts by the Wakf in the Kidron Valley, says the Antiquities Authority shares responsibility for the destruction. "It is an atrocity for which Antiquities Authority Director Shuka Dorfman, who authorized the dig, is responsible," Zweig said. "Ancient architectural remains were exposed during this dig in the northern section of the trench. No reasonable archaeologist would justify conducting a mechanical dig in such a sensitive location. The core problem here is that the IAA director is not an archaeologist - but rather a politician."

Past excavations carried out by the Wakf resulted in tons of priceless archaeological artifacts being mixed with garbage and dumped in the Kidron Valley. Some of that dumped earth was transported to the Tzurim Valley, below Hebrew University, where Zweig organized a group of archaeological students and volunteers who are still sifting through it after finding antiquities from the First and Second Temple periods.

Two archaeology students were detained by police Tuesday after asking workers questions about the dig. “The workers ignored us and called a Wakf official over. He complained to the police and upon our exiting the mount we were detained,” one of the students told Arutz-7.

Another group of archaeologists, the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities, has protested the latest unsupervised construction by the Wakf, demanding that archaeologists be brought in to conduct the digging in a professional and documented manner.

Deadly riots by bloodthirsty extremist Jews should start any minute now. After all, all religious fanatics are the same.

Freedom of the press, PalArab style (III)

Another story showing how progressive Hamastan is:

The Hamas-affiliated Executive Force on Wednesday stormed the media tower in Tal Al-Hawa, in the south of Gaza City, and stole the car and mobile telephone of Palestine TV satellite channel manager, Muhammad Dawoudi.

Media sources told Ma'an that the Executive Force entered Dawoudi's home in the residential part of the tower and attempted to arrest him, yet dozens of journalists intervened and prevented the arrest.

The Union of Palestinian Journalists has condemned the repeated assaults against journalists, in general, and this attack against Dawoudi in particular.

In a statement to Ma'an, the union declared "such conduct represent a violation of the freedom of opinion", describing the attacks as "ideological terrorism" against journalists.

This of course begs the question of how so many liberals (like Jimmy Carter) can support a movement that goes against everything that is supposed to be important to liberals - like, you know, freedom.

Is Fatah al-Islam "Palestinian"?

Note this story from AP:

At least 150 Palestinians fled a northern refugee camp Wednesday in anticipation of an assault by the Lebanese army battling Islamic militants holed up inside.
Most of the refugees left with the help of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said Samar Kadi, an International Committee of the Red Cross communications officer.

Those fleeing arrived on foot at the southern entrance of the Nahr el-Bared camp. They were searched by soldiers at a Lebanese army checkpoint and then climbed into vehicles sent by the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Lebanese army held many of them for interrogation, Kadi said.
...
The mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement was reported to have called on its guerrillas inside the camp to leave as well.
...Fatah Islam group is believed to be made up of mostly foreign Sunni Muslim fighters, and Lebanon's Western-backed government has accused the group of trying, with Syria's backing, to launch a rebellion in the north of the country and destabilize Lebanon. Syria denies the allegations and has described Fatah Islam as a dangerous terrorist organization.

Notice how AP calls the people leaving the camp "Palestinian" but the terrorists inside the camp are only "Islamic." Are we to believe that a miserable "refugee" camp was infiltrated by non-Palestinian Arabs as a base to attack Lebanon?

It is hard to know for sure. Some people say that they are a Syrian organization, other say they are al-Qaeda.

We do know that the leader of Fatah al-Islam is a Palestinian Arab, Shaker Absi.
We do know that they managed to get into these camps whose security is run by Fatah without much difficulty.
We do know that many of the PalArabs fleeing are being held by Lebanon on suspicion of being involved with Fatah al Islam.

It strains credulity to think that a couple of hundred Syrians and Saudi Arabians went to Lebanese camp hell-holes just to have a base from which to attack the Lebanese. It seems more logical that radical Palestinian Arabs went into the camps in order to recruit more people for their cause, which would indicate a majority as being Palestinian themselves.

The AP, however, will not even entertain such a notion. To even imply that Fatah al-Islam is a Palestinian Islamic terror group would reflect badly on all those good Palestinian Arabs who are the real heroes according to the mainstream media. So don't expect this to be a topic that will be investigated too thoroughly - much easier to blame Syria or Al-Qaeda, the known bad guys.

M-16s found more effective than crib notes in passing tests

It seems that the Nablus "gunmen" who we mentioned were upset that they couldn't have their own secret matriculation exams somehow managed to force the testers to do what they wanted anyway:

Earlier this week, some 150 Fatah gunmen stormed a number of schools in Nablus and drove out hundreds of students who were taking high school matriculation exams.

The gunmen were protesting against Abbas's refusal to allocate secret halls for them so that they, too, could sit for the exams, without risking being arrested or killed by the IDF. The gunmen were later allowed to sit for the exams in special halls.

One of the teachers said most of the gunmen cheated.

"They opened books and copied the answers word by word," he said. "We were afraid to stop them because they were carrying M-16 rifles."

The peaceful PalArab territories also enjoyed some equally calm incidents:

Also on Tuesday, in the first protest of its kind since Hamas took control over the Gaza Strip, the families of dozens of Hamas supporters demonstrated in Nablus to demand the release of their sons from PA prisons.

Palestinian policemen fired into the air to prevent the demonstrators from approaching the city's central prison, witnesses said. No one was hurt.

Meanwhile, Fatah gunmen in Nablus kidnapped Shaher Saed, general-secretary of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions.

Sources in the city told The Jerusalem Post that Saed was abducted from his downtown office. They said he was released unharmed later in the day after being ordered by the gunmen to resign from his post.

Gaza is not being left out of the fun:

The Executive Force and members of Hamas' armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, stormed on Tuesday the house of the former director of general intelligence and member of Fatah's revolutionary council, Maj. Gen. Amin Al Hindi, in western Gaza City, Palestinian sources have reported.

Back in Fatahland:

Workers in a hospital run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the West Bank city of Qalqilya have launched a strike following threats by gunmen against one of their coworkers.

Looks like it may be time for more peace initiatives!

Arab journalism ethics

I just thought this was funny. An item in yesterday's Ma'an News was copied almost verbatim today in Arab News - with a byline by who seems to be the plagiarist.

I discussed the Ma'an article yesterday.

Releasing only 250 Fatah prisoners is a blow to national unity, Palestinian prisoners' families say

Date: 09 / 07 / 2007 Time: 13:49

Gaza - Ma'an - The families of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails have expressed their reservations about the Israeli prime minister's initiative to release 250 Fatah-affiliated prisoners. They said that accepting such an offer would only fracture the Palestinian national unity, and they called on President Abbas to make a deal that includes all Palestinian detainees without exceptions.

Israeli Move to Free Fatah Prisoners Angers Palestinians
Mohammed Mar’i, Arab News

RAMALLAH, West Bank, 10 July 2007 — The families of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails have expressed their anger about Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s initiative to release 250 Fatah-affiliated prisoners.

They said that accepting such an offer would only fracture the Palestinian national unity, calling on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reach a deal that includes all Palestinian detainees without exceptions.

The prisoners' families depicted freeing any Palestinian detainee as an accomplishment; however, they expressed their fear that the 250 whom Israeli Prime Minister Olmert intends to free would include only prisoners who have almost completed their sentences, and who are scheduled for release shortly in any case.

(Paragraph 5 in Arab News version.)The families depicted freeing any Palestinian detainee as an accomplishment, however, they expressed their fear that the 250 whom Olmert intends to free would include only prisoners who have almost completed their sentences, and who are scheduled to be released shortly in any case.

Such conduct would help improve the Israeli image internationally, the families said, while failing to serve the Palestinian people, of whom almost 12, 000 are detained in Israeli jails in dire conditions. In addition, most of the detainees are denied visits by their families.

.

Such conduct would help improve the Israeli image internationally, the families said, while failing to serve the Palestinian people, of whom almost 11, 000 are detained in Israeli jails in dire conditions. In addition, most of the detainees are denied visits by their families.

The prisoners' families held their weekly sit-in outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday. They asserted that they would prefer a comprehensive prisoners' swap that includes all affiliations and is conducted under Palestinian conditions.

The prisoners’ families held their weekly sit-in-strike outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) yesterday. They asserted that they would prefer a comprehensive prisoners’ swap that includes all Palestinian political factions and is conducted under Palestinian conditions.

The Israeli cabinet approved the release of 250 Fatah prisoners during their meeting on Sunday, as a "goodwill gesture" toward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of 250 Fatah prisoners “without blood on their hands” during their meeting on Sunday, as a “goodwill gesture” toward Abbas.

According to Ynet, the Israeli justice ministry and the Israeli domestic intelligence service (the Shin Bet) will formulate a list of 250 prisoners "without blood on their hands," meaning prisoners who were not detained for involvement in operations that led to the death of Israelis

However, several Palestinian factions share the Palestinians families their fears and concerns.

The other Palestinian groups, which have thousands of prisoners in the Israeli jails, are already complaining that Abbas cares only about members of his faction.

Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad have expressed deep concern over the Israeli government’s decision to distinguish between the prisoners on the basis of their political affiliation.

“Israel is mistaken to think that the release of Fatah prisoners will strengthen Abbas,” said a senior representative of the PFLP in the West Bank.

“The families of the other prisoners will never forgive him for abandoning their sons. This move proves that he’s the president of only some of the Palestinians.”

Even Fatah leaders are unhappy with the decision to release only 250 prisoners. They say the number is too small and point out that most of the prisoners were scheduled to be released soon anyway, after completing their sentences.

Missing the point

Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades are reported to be run by Hezbollah.

Fatah accuses Hamas of working with Al Qaeda.

Fatah and Hamas each accuse the other of being behind the kidnapping of Alan Johnston by the Dagmoush family ("Army of Islam.")

The media tries vainly to keep score of these alliances, trying to figure out who the "good guys" are.

It is all utterly pointless.

The differences between Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the "Army of Islam" and the myriad other terror organizations may seem large to them, but ultimately they all share the same goals: a military and political takeover of the planet by Islam. Compared to their common enemy - namely, all of us - their differences are trivial. Shi'ites and Sunnis have cooperated in the past in their war against the "Zionist cross-worshippers." Sure they sometimes fight each other but that does not ever make them friends to us.

When will the free world wake up to the simple fact that the so-called "moderates" are just as bad, and possibly worse, than the "extremists"? The "moderates" have learned to lie and use Western liberal terms and ideas to guilt us into paying for our own destruction.

All these terror groups and the culture that allows them to thrive must be eradicated. There is no compromise possible, no accomodation, no "understanding." Militant, political Islam is the enemy of the free world for the foreseeable future and it cannot be bought off. There may be tactical advantages of knowing how they interact with each other but that must not be confused with who we should ally ourselves with. They know with utter clarity that we are their enemy; it is way past time for the West to understand the same with equal clarity.