Don't read it because it is a comprehensive takedown of HRW's dishonesty and paranoia. Don't read it because it is a classic example of Omri's incomparable snarkiness.
Read it because it mentions me, and I am an egomaniac that way.
If the 18th-century rabbinic authority the Vilna Gaon was right, on March 16, 2010, construction will begin on the third Temple. His projection states that the auspicious day will coincide with the third completion of the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter.This story has been making the rounds ever since Ha'aretz published it, and now the Palestinian Arabs are, predictably, saying that Israel plans to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque in March.
The great day is at hand: On March 15, the reconstructed Hurva Synagogue, considered the most important house of prayer in Jerusalem will be rededicated. It was last destroyed in the War of Independence.
The Hurva, whose name means "ruin," was initially built by disciples of Rabbi Judah Hahasid in the early 18th century. It was destroyed shortly thereafter by Muslims demanding the return of loans given to build the synagogue. After it was rebuilt in the mid-19th century, it became the most important synagogue in the country, but it was blown up in 1948 by the Jordan Legion a few days before the fall of the Jewish Quarter in the War of Independence.
In 2001, after years of debate, the government decided to restore the building.
The historic building, whose famous dome one more dominates the skyline of the Jewish Quarter, has now been meticulously recreated, including furnishings and wall frescoes.
The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday it seized dozens of high-security locks in Ramallah as a part of a crackdown on products manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements. The Department of Consumer Protection of the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy said it confiscated 70 “Mul-T-Lock” products, which are produced in a factory in the settlement of Barqan, near the Palestinian town of Salfit. Abdul Hamid Mizher, the director of the consumer protection department appealed in a statement to all Palestinian merchants to abide by the ministry’s instructions to boycott settlement products.Mul-T-Lock is one of many companies that reside in the Barkan Industrial Zone. About 40% of the 6000 workers in that zone are Palestinian Arabs. When the PA tries to boycott these products, they are hurting their own economy. Israeli anti-settler group Gush Shalom says "We hope for the complete collapse of the Barkan Industrial Zone, which is an economic mainstay of the settlement project." The Israeli Supreme Court recently ruled that workers' rights in the territories must be to the same standard as within Israel. Barkan Industrial Zone apparently fell short in many areas compared to the working conditions in Israel. This is being used by "pro-Palestinian" activists as a reason to close the industrial zone altogether - when, if they really cared about Palestinian Arab workers, they should be lobbying to improve conditions and oversight at Barkan, not shut it down and add to the West Bank's already high unemployment rate. Which makes this a good test case to find out how many people who claim they care about Palestinian Arabs really think: Should it be shut down and add to PalArab unemployment, or should it be improved and brought up to salary and working standards that will help ordinary West Bank Arabs? Should it become a test case for Arab-Jewish cooperation or should it be scrapped? The answers to those questions can tell a lot about how "pro-Palestinian" many of these activists are.
Jordanian sources claim that the export of some 500 tons of cucumbers to Israel in November has resulted in a spike in local cucumber prices.So local Jordanian farmers found a customer for their products that are willing to pay a premium for them. In any other context, this would be considered a good thing, and a boon to the local economy. Yet since the customer happens to be Israel, their resultant greed is not blamed on the farmers themselves but on Israel for being willing to pay more for Jordanian goods!
The As-Sabeel weekly quoted Jordanian sources as saying that local merchants and middlemen purchased the produce at local vegetable markets in order to sell it to Israel at relatively steep prices.
Jordanian farmers say that during the transition period between autumn and winter, when cucumber harvests are unstable, Israeli merchants are willing to pay more (3.5-4 dinars, or $5-6.50) for every five-kilogram (10 pound) box of cucumbers.
Meanwhile, say the sources, the export of cucumbers to Israel has spurred an increase in local cucumber prices to a level of 0.7-0.9 dinars, or $1-1.30 per kilo.
Jordanian farmers told As-Sabeel that they had decided to export cucumbers to Israel despite protests from organizations opposed to the normalization of ties with the Jewish state because they could not sell them to other markets in Syria and the Gulf states.
A TINY girl aged barely two sucks her fingers in childish innocence - while grasping an AK-47 assault rifle almost as big as her.
The tot, in full Muslim dress, was made to pose with the weapon dubbed the "Widowmaker" as part of a sickening propaganda stunt staged by extremists of the Islamic Jihad Union, linked to al-Qaeda.
The group - who target British and US troops from lairs on the Afghan border with Pakistan - also pictured the girl and five other toddlers with heavy weapons in front of a black Islamic flag.
Stories appearing on several Ukrainian Web sites claim Israel has brought around some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the country over the past two years in order to harvest their organs.
The claim, which was made by a Ukrainian philosophy professor and author at a pseudo-academic conference in Kiev five days ago, is the latest expression of a wave of anti-Semitism in the country.
Jews, Israel and anti-Semitism have become a major motif of the presidential election campaign in Ukraine, with some figures making anti-Semitic statements and others condemning them. Some candidates, including a Jew and someone whose rivals claim is Jewish, blame a third rival - Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - for bringing anti-Semitism into the race.
"Ukraine's political system is a parody of democracy," Russia's Chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar, said.
Vyacheslav Gudin told the estimated 300 attendees of the Kiev conference a detailed story about a Ukrainian man's fruitless search for 15 children who had been adopted in Israel. The children, Gudin said, had clearly been taken by Israeli medical centers, where they were used for "spare parts." Gudin said it was essential that all Ukrainians be made aware of the genocide Israel was perpetrating.
The conference, some of whose participants belong to a Slavic-rights movement, also featured two professors who presented a book blaming "the Zionists" for the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s as well as the country's current condition.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!