Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

"Obama changed his tune due to Zionist pressure"

Iran's Press TV is just so much fun to read:

A senior advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says US President Barack Obama's recent remarks about Iran's election show that he is under pressure from the Zionists.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Tuesday night, Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi said that Obama originally took a soft stance on the results of Iran's presidential election but then was forced by the Zionists and the US neoconservatives to make tough comments about Iran.

And next we are going to force him to support building new Jewish towns in the West Bank!

Ramadan in Israel, 1949

I just came across this from the Palestine Post of June 30, 1949, describing how hard the new state of Israel tried to accommodate its Muslim citizens - and even its Muslim enemy POWs.

In 1949's Ramadan, Israel went out of its way to give extra rations to Muslims for their break-fast meals, mosques were repaired, special Muslim programs were broadcast on Kol Yisrael, and Muslim POWs were given access to extra food and religious articles.

Notice also that one of the reasons that there was a shortage of sheikhs and imams - because they fled their communities during the war, leaving their followers behind. The story of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who voluntarily fled in 1948 has still not been adequately written, and this would be an interesting chapter of that book.

Rabbi Boteach trying to turn Michael Jackson's kids Jewish?

Apparently, if you believe Al Arabiya in Arabic.

Al-Arabiya seems to have taken some relatively obscure news stories: one about Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's friendship with Michael Jackson, and one about MJ's ex-wife Debbie Rowe considering herself Jewish and seeking custody of her two kids.

Putting the two together, and you get Arab journalism at its finest.

Al-Arabiya is saying that Debbie Rowe seeking custody to raise the kids Jewish at Rabbi Boteach's urging. It also says that Botech hired lawyer Gloria Allred, who filed a complaint against Jackson in 2003 after he dangled his baby from a hotel window, to help Rowe gain custody.

They have a video that supposedly shows this, but it is only a video of Rabbi Boteach being interviewed on Fox News about Jackson the day after his death.

Usually, mainstream Arabic news tries to be somewhat accurate if slanted. Apparently as soon as the word "Jew" shows up, their few journalistic standards go out the window.

Of course, neither this story nor yesterday's story about how Arabs shouldn't sell Jewish souvenirs in Jerusalem were never translated into their English language site.

UPDATE: Boteach seems quite happy leaving MJ's kids with their grandmother.

Another Free Gaza lie

The Free Gaza publicity boat that was intercepted by Israeli authorities on the way to Gaza had declared upon its leaving Cyprus that the intended destination was - Egypt:

The Cypriot Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement following the incident, saying "The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Israel would like to inform that the "Spirit of Humanity" boat, sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement, that attempted in the early hours today to reach Gaza was given permission by the competent Authorities of the Republic of Cyprus to sail off the port of Larnaca in Cyprus on the basis of its declaration that its intended destination was the port of Port Said in Egypt."

So while they are whining that they are doing nothing wrong, they are in fact deceiving their Cyprus hosts and gained permission to leave Cyprus by doing what they do best - by lying.

"Free Gaza" deja vu

Once again, the "Free Gaza" movement is claiming that Israeli naval vessels are threatening their lives, and once again they are lying.

It will be recalled that last December a Free Gaza boat tried to get to Gaza. The Israeli Navy intercepted them and stopped them. They claimed that they were fired upon, that they were surrounded by six boats, that they were rammed by the Israeli boats and lots of other things. Yet the journalists on board and all the terror supporters with cameras and video could never show any video that corroborated any of their outlandish claims.

Today's edition follows the same script. From the Free Gaza mailing list:

We just spoke to the passengers. Everyone is OK, but the situation is still very tense. They continue to be surrounded by Israeli warships which are threatening to open fire. The Israeli Navy is actively jamming all navigation systems in violation of international maritime law, endangering the people on board.

Huwaida Arraf, one of the delegation leaders, was on the phone with the Israeli gunboats, and we could hear her saying, "You Cannot Open Fire on Unarmed Civilians" several times.

Of course they are now choosing claims that could never be disproven - and of course we will never hear any recording of the radio or loudspeakers threatening to open fire on them.

From Reuters:

Overnight, the activists -- in a small ferry boat sailing from Cyprus to Gaza -- said they had received threats they would be fired upon unless they turned back.

Yigal Palmor, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters no such threats had been made. He said the boat's declared destination was Port Said in Egypt and that the boat appeared to be heading in that direction.

"If it changes course and tries to go to Gaza or declares that it intends to do so, the navy can take action, although they would definitely not fire at the boat," Palmor said.

The activists from U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement have publicly said their destination was Gaza, which is under an Israeli blockade, and activists on board the boat earlier told Reuters an Israeli patrol boat had approached them.

"We were told that if we did not turn back they would open fire," said Derek Graham, an Irish activist.

"We are continuing our course to Gaza," he said.

Keep in mind that Free Gaza is not interested in humanitarian aid - they are only interested in publicity. They want confrontation. They define themselves as a "resistance group," not an aid group. They support and encourage Palestinian Arab violence. They came out publicly against any humanitarian aid to Gaza going through Israel. They've shown reckless disregard for Gazan lives (if you believe their statements.)

Oh, and all that cement that they tell journalists they are bringing to Gaza? From their Twitter account:

We left this morning, one boat, 21 passengers, 20 olive trees, one symbolic bag of cement.

Sounds like last time, when they claimed to be bringing "60 tons" of aid - and it was all a lie.

Like everything else they say.

Today's PalArab news roundup 6-30-09

A 'breakthrough" was announced in the Hamas/Fatah negotiations.

But even as that was happening, Hamas arrested some 150 Fatah members in Gaza. And the PA arrested seven more Hamas members in the West Bank.

Even more bizarrely, the PA announced that they foiled a Hamas plot to assassinate senior PA officials, apparently to torpedo these very Fatah/Hamas negotiations. It is possible that Hamas has some infighting going on, of that the Damascus leadership is trying to stop the Gaza leadership from compromising with Fatah.

Eight other Palestinian Arab factions including the PFLP and DFLP announced that they would not be bound by any Hamas/Fatah agreement. They are particularly upset over the reported provision that any new elections would not count votes for parties that receive less than 5.1% of the vote.

Meanwhile, Hamas arrested and allegedly tortured members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist group in Gaza.

Morocco hosts a beauty contest - for "most beautiful ass"

Remember Saudi Arabia's beauty contest for camels?

Well, Morocco has one...for donkeys.

Al Arabiya (Arabic only, alas) has details on the competition. It describes a number of competitions - most beautiful ass, fastest ass, and slimmest ass. (Hey, I'm not making this up.)

Part of the reason is to promote the donkey as a beautiful animal, and not as a butt of jokes.

The festival also includes some talks on donkey topics, such as "The donkey in human thought and creativity," and "The donkey in rural society and its roles", in addition to participation of a representative of the U.S. Democratic Party on the reasons for their choice of a donkey logo.

And the story really is illustrated with the photo and caption shown above.

Arabs upset at selling Jewish souvenirs in souk

Al Arabiya (Arabic) just discovered the shocking truth that every visitor to Israel knew already: Arab shopkeepers sell items to tourists that include things that tourists might want to buy, including Jewish-themed jewelry!

The newspaper is upset:

At a time when the Palestinians are struggling to preserve the identity of the city of Jerusalem and the stabilization of the right to be the capital of the State of Palestine, some of the Palestinians are promoting Jewish religious symbols within the walls of the Old City in East Jerusalem.

In the old city of Jerusalem, which contains Islamic and Christian significance, one can find the Star of David flag of Israel and the menorah (which is the logo of the Jewish State) and other Jewish symbols, taking considerable space in stores of some Palestinian merchants in Jerusalem.

These are the symbols to denote the "holy land" and the Zionist concept of the "Promised Land", with this inscription on some gifts and souvenirs, which means that the Palestinians are promoting goods that serve the idea of a Jewish Jerusalem.

Khalid Salfiti, a storeowner, justified that traders sold some of the symbols of Israelis. "These are tourists we are dealing with. Unaware of the political consequences, there are tourists from foreign countries and Jews wandering in the market and looking for some of these symbols and, therefore, it must be made available to them in our stores. "

For his part, Abu Muhammad, who declined to disclose the full name, said this work is forbidden, and therefore "we must refuse to deal with it because it was contrary to religion and conflict with the rights of the Palestinian people."

Clerics urged Muslims and Christians not the promote these goods.

Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, mufti of Jerusalem, told Al Arabiya, "that we may promote the symbols which are not recognized by the Islamic faith. We consider the symbols of the Islamic faith as true...What is happening in the markets of Jerusalem is forbidden to the traders, the same way we would outlaw the sale of alcohol, pork and Satanic symbols and other taboos."

The article, in the mainstream London-based Arab newspaper, makes it clear that Muslims cannot even countenance the idea that Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - have any historic or religious ties to Jerusalem.

They have no problem promoting Christian symbols, only Jewish ones, so it is not a pro-Islamic position - it is pure Jew-hatred, to the point of falsifying history to exclude Jews from Israel.

It also makes clear that the Arab goal is to make Jerusalem Judenrein again, the way it was when it was under Jordanian rule.

Who says Abbas cannot compromise?

Mahmoud Abbas again today totally rejected everything in Binyomin Netanyahu's peace plan:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Monday his rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s stipulations for a two-state solution.

But no one will call him a "hardliner" or a "rejectionist" or a "hawk" or any of the other pejorative terms that the media loves to give Likud leaders.

Perhaps it is because Abbas is very willing to compromise...with some people:

In a different regard, Abbas addressed the issue of the new round of Fatah-Hamas talks in Cairo. “We gave emphatic directives to our delegation to Cairo because we don’t want this dialogue to last forever, and we want this round to make success at any rate,” Abbas asserted.

In Arabic, the translation is somewhat stronger:

"We want this dialogue to succeed at any cost. I do not want to continue to dialogue forever. We do not want to continue to talk forever. We do not want there to be division among our people forever. These are the instructions that went out to our delegation to Cairo."

See? Abbas can be flexible, and he's willing to do everything possible for peace - with Hamas terrorists.

PA destroys "expired" water bottles

From Ma'an:

The health department in Bethlehem destroyed three tons of water bottles and expired food not suitable for human use on Monday.

Dr Muhammad Issa Rizek, the head of the health department, added that the quantities were seized at one of the stores in Bethlehem.

The PA has had problems with Palestinian Arabs selling food past its expiration date, and those stories pop up regularly in the PalArab press.

But destroying water bottles?

The best article I could find on whether bottled water ever goes bad is here:

Like all packaged food and drink, bottled water is regulated by the FDA, whose position is that there’s no limit on its shelf life (provided it was bottled and stored properly).
So why does bottled water have an expiration date? Blame New Jersey. A 1987 law in that state required all foods (legally, water is a food) sold in New Jersey to display an expiration date of two years or less from their date of manufacture. Because it would be inefficient to make separately labeled batches of product just for New Jersey, most bottled water producers began stamping their products with a two-year expiration date, says Stephen Kay, vice president of communications for the International Bottled Water Association. A bill repealing the requirement was signed into law in early 2006, but many large retailers like Wal-Mart now insist on expiration dates.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the bottles you’ve been storing in your basement for the Apocalypse will taste the same as those you bought last week. The plastic (high-density polyethylene, or HDPE) that makes up most bottles is slightly porous, which means the water inside can pick up smells and tastes from its environment. “The bottles are … not hermetically sealed,” Kay says. A few months or years in a musty basement will result in musty-tasting, but not unsafe, water. “I’m not aware of any issue that would make them nonconsumable,” says Dr. Sam Beattie, a food safety extension specialist at Iowa State University. But just to be cautious, you probably shouldn’t store your bottled water (or, for that matter, anything you intend to consume) near gasoline, paint, or other noxious chemicals.

As your bottles sit, there may be some migration of chemicals from the plastic into the water, but FDA spokesman Mike Herndon says the levels are “well within the margin of safety.” You may have heard about health problems caused by plastic leaching into water from bottles. However, that applies to containers that have a high percentage of polycarbonate (like many of the hard bottles people buy at camping stores to use over and over), not HDPE or PET (polyethylene terephthalate, another popular water bottle plastic).

Let's say that somehow the water bottles had gained a bad smell from where they were stored. In a region where water is at such a premium, does it make sense to destroy the water rather than use it for some other purpose?

In the magic kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one can never be too careful in avoiding sin. Even acts that might look like they are laudatory may in fact just be fronts for perverted actions, and it is better to stay on the safe side rather than risk doing something awful...like Khilwa.

Khilwa, of course, is the illegal seclusion of a man and a woman, and something that our heroes, the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, is highly attuned to. Even the faintest odor of khilwa can cause the religious police to swoop down and take charge - in the name of protecting the innocent girl, of course.

From the Saudi Gazette:

The former neighbor of two homeless girls and their brother who he took into his home while attempting to find them suitable care through official channels has described his dismay at facing a month in prison after the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) charged him with khilwa, or illegal seclusion with non-related members of the opposite sex.

“It is ironic that I now face a month in prison after the Hai’a arrested me for being in illicit seclusion with the girls,” said the former neighbor of the 13 and 14-year-old girls and their nine-year-old brother. “The case is still being looked into by a court in Makkah.”

The children had been living on the street after being abandoned by the uncle in whose custody they had been placed following their father’s imprisonment and their mother’s remarriage, until their former neighbor saw their plight and took them into his home with his own family while the Ministry of Social Affairs resolved the issue.

He has now spent nearly a year trying to resolve the situation through the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Committee for the Care of Prisoners, and Makkah’s Social Protection Home.

An official from Makkah Social Affairs, which has taken up the case, said the children had been subjected to violence by their uncle, and that an application for urgent shelter had been submitted to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Indeed, from the Commission's perspective, it is far safer for two teenage girls to live on the street than to be taken into the house of a caring neighbor. Because that neighbor could be a pervert.

You might ask, who has such a twisted mind as to even consider that the girls could be molested by their neighbor? The answer, again, lies with our heroes, who only have the best interests of the girls at heart. If they can imagine it with their clean Koranic minds, it must be true.

Obama increases aid to Jordan by 41%

From the Jordan Times:

US President Barack Obama has signed a supplemental appropriations bill, which includes $150 million in additional economic assistance to Jordan for the 2009 fiscal year, a senior official said on Sunday.
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair Al-Ali said the supplemental assistance is in addition to the $363 million in regular US economic assistance to Jordan for 2009, bringing the total to $513 million.
The US assistance programme to Jordan is among the largest in the world, the US embassy in Amman previously said in a statement.

I cannot find this story in any Western media source, although YNet noticed it.