Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 26, 2011

Israeli ambassador to US holds Ramadan Iftar meal

From CNN:

The Israeli ambassador to the United States is hosting a dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Thursday, marking the first time an ambassador from the Jewish state has hosted such a dinner in the United States, the embassy said.

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren is hosting the dinner at his residence, with about 60 guests expected, including imams, rabbis and officials from the White House, Congress and the State Department, according to Israeli Embassy spokesman Lior Weintraub.

Oren told CNN that the unusual dinner is fitting at a time when the future of the Middle East is uncertain, as the Arab Spring has unseated regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and as Libya appears poised on the brink of a revolution.

“We’re in the middle of a huge transition in the Middle East and we see risks, but we also see opportunities there,” he said. “We want to be able to tell people in the Middle East what those opportunities are.”

“There’s a lot of misinformation about Israel and we want to show we’re open to dialogue and reconciliation,” he said. “We can begin to build bridges on an interpersonal level.”

Thursday’s Ramadan dinner, called an Iftar, will feature a call to prayer, during which the dining room at the ambassador’s residence will be turned into a Muslim prayer space, the embassy said.

All food served at the meal will be halal, meaning it has been prepared according to certain Muslim customs. The meal was prepared under the direction of a Muslim chef, the embassy said.

Oren said he hopes the meal at the Israeli ambassador’s residence becomes an annual tradition.

“Israel has a very large and vibrant Muslim population, with Muslim members of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and in science and academics and I’m their ambassador as well,” Oren said. “This is very much a state function for us, not just about reaching out.”

This is a great idea, and it should have happened long ago.

(I hope that the food is kosher as well!)

More from HuffPo:

The evening's 65 guests include prominent Muslims and Jews, such as Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at American University; Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the founding rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., and the New York Synagogue in Manhattan; and Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim chaplain at Duke University. A representative from the ambassador's office said it would release a full list of attendees after the dinner.

"My job is to reach out to different communities, including communities that have been connected with Israel and those who have not," Oren said in an interview Thursday. "Israel is a country with a large and respected Muslim minority. I just got back from Jerusalem two days ago and it's all decorated for Ramadan. They're an important part of our society."

The ambassdor, who has a Ph.D. in near eastern studies from Princeton University, also said he has a "personal interest" in Islam and the religion's traditions.

"I have a large background in Islamic philosophy and theology. I spent an entire year reading the Quran in Arabic," he said, adding that there is "a lot of disinformation" about the religion in the United States and Europe today, such as "when people talk about Shariah," or Islamic law, or about women who wear veils.

"Israel doesn't have mineret bans, doesn't have veil bans, doesn't have burka bans. We have Muslim members of the Knesset. They are an integral part of our society," Oren said.

Egyptian media: Israel ambassador fled home in fear of riots

Egypt's El Fagr newspaper reports that Israel's ambassador to Egypt, Yitzchak Levanon, has gone into hiding in fear of tomorrows demonstrations that might have been planned outside his home.

What the paper didn't mention was that there was a fatwa issued to kill every Israeli in Egypt, which might contribute to his fear if this is true.

Within the past week there has been a violent demonstration outside the Israel embassy, and the Muslim Brotherhood has demanded that Ambassador Levanon be expelled from Egypt.

Blogoversary open thread

I completely missed my seventh blogoversary on August 15th.

Some stats:

1.4 million page loads in the past year (1.1 million in 2011 already)
1 million unique visits in the past year
Nearly 3000 posts in the past year (!); approaching 12,000 total posts
Alexa rank at about 125,000 - about 50,000 higher than last year
Technorati ranking #7 in World Politics, #56 in Politics for all blogs worldwide

Most popular post: EoZ Posters for Apartheid Week, 17,000 hits

I have never been good at marketing myself, so the following numbers are all pretty much from word of mouth:

1866 RSS subscribers
478 e-mail subscribers
9721 Tweets
1445 Twitter followers
95th percentile in Twitter influence

In the past year I started putting in ads. Every time you see a post you like, consider clicking on the any ads you are interested in! It's like micropayments where you don't have to pay, and some ad clicks are worth up to a dollar.

So here's an open blogoversary thread!

Pure terrorism

Sometimes, one will see reports in the Israeli and Western media that large numbers of Palestinian Arabs are suffering from psychological issues due to Israeli actions. The point of these articles is to gain sympathy for innocents caught up in a war situation.

But when similar articles are published in the Arabic media, the intent is quite different.

Saraya.ps, the website of Islamic Jihad, has an article today quoting a magazine saying that hundreds of "Zionists" within rocket range are seeking psychological help due to the Grads and Qassams, including many parents seeking to help their children. The tone of the article is anything but concerned - it is celebratory.

This is not the first time that Arabic media publishes such information. The terrorists and their supporters crave the idea that their actions cause fear. They love to publish pictures of Israeli funerals, damage to Israeli vehicles and buildings, and Israelis running to rocket shelters.

The terrorists and their supporters are interested in terrorizing Israelis - the purest form of terror. Killing civilians something to be celebrated as well, of course, but what makes them feel powerful and relevant is that they have the ability to cause fear in hundreds of thousands of people.

That is the definition of terrorism.

Finally, a course to teach how to fight black magic!

From Minivan News (Maldives):

The Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) has said that it will commence a certificate level course on incantations, teaching the participants “spiritual healing” and how to cure diseases using “incantation”.

“Incantations consist of words said or written in the form of dud or Dhikr for the purpose of protection or cure. It is sometimes accompanied by other actions, such as blowing or wiping over the thing to which it is applied,’’ the Foundation explained on its website.

President of the Islamic Foundation, Ibrahim Fauzee, told Minivan News that the main reason why the organisation had decided to conduct courses on spiritual healing was that many people in the islands had become victims of black magic performed by their enemies.

“Sometimes people have lost their lives [to black magic], and sometimes people perform the black arts to ruin the life or family of others. Many do not know how to cure this,’’ Fauzee said.

“Many people have requested that we teach them this, so we decided to open a course for the public and we are receiving huge support for it.’’

The one month course, beginning September 15, costs Rf 350 (US$23). Fauzee said seats for the class had been limited to 30 students, and it had already sold out.

During the course, students will learn incantations, ayahs, “extracted from the Quran which were taught by the Prophet (PBUH) during the old days, which people have always delivered to the next generation.”

Practitioners of black arts, he explained, spoke with djinns and used them to harm others.

“The Prophet’s (PBUH) Sunnah as well as the Quran reveals many things about the existence of djinns,” Fauzee said.

“Djinns often cause trouble and disturbances to humans, so we know that they are there. The Quran and the Prophet (PBUH) has taught us ways to cure [these disturbances],’’ he said.

Fauzee said the course would teach participants basic cures, and would involve both theoretical and practical work.

The Islamic Foundation explained that the practical component would involve the students accompanying tutors to treat people victimised by djinns, during which they would be taught how to use incantations.

This shows how more enlightened the Maldives is compared to Saudi Arabia. In the Kingdom, only professionals from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice can counter the wizards, witches and warlocks. Those skills need to be democratized!

Full destruction of Israel is "the only red line"

A cartoon in the official PA daily newspaper Al Hayat al Jadida:

As PMW writes:

The Palestinian Authority is telling its people that peace with Israel is not a goal. Instead, the PA says that all of Israel is "Palestine," and that no compromise is acceptable because this principle is "the only red line." This message was expressed by the regular cartoonist, Muhammad Sabaaneh, in the official PA daily.

Nothing gets printed in Al Hayat al Jadida if it is not approved by the PLO and its subsidiary the Palestinian Authority. And the PLO logo has a very similar map:

Which gives an indication of what they mean when they say they want "peace."

Iran again calls to destroy Israel

And the world yawns:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was determined to eradicate Israel, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.

'Iran believes that whoever is for humanity should also be for eradicating the Zionist regime [Israel] as symbol of suppression and discrimination,' Ahmadinejad said in an interview with a Lebanese television network, carried by ISNA.

'Iran follows this issue [the eradication of Israel] with determination and decisiveness and will never ever withdraw from this standpoint and policy,' the Iranian president added in the interview with the Al-Manar network.

The remarks by Ahmadinejad came one day before the annual anti-Israeli rallies named Qods (Jerusalem) Day, which are held nationwide in Iran on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Ahmadinejad on Monday said that Iranians and Muslim nations worldwide should hold Qods rallies and show their willingness to dispose of this 'infectious tumour and this regime full of rascality.'

Along similar lines:

The Commander of the Iranian "Basij" Resistance Force Mohammad Reza Naghdi expressed hope that the Olympic Games 2020 will take place in liberated Palestine, İRNA state news agency reports.

"We hope that the celebration of the liberation of Palestine will coincide with a grand event such as the Olympic Games in this country," said Naghdi.

Also, the foreign ministry said that the US is the biggest sponsor of terror in the world.

More purposeful dishonesty from the anti-Zionist Left

Twitter can be a waste of time, but it can also expose the incredible dishonesty of the anti-Israel Left as they are not as careful with their tweets as they might be with their written and edited pieces.

One example comes from +972 writer (and United Arab Emirates National newspaper contributor) Joseph Dana, who tweeted about a new Wikileaks memo:

SUBJECT: RIGHT-WING LIEBERMAN UNABASHEDLY ADVOCATES TRANSFER OF ISRAELI ARABS

The 2006 memo he links to says this:

Right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman told the Ambassador January 31 that separation of Israeli Jews from Israeli Arabs is necessary in order to promote Israeli security and maintain Israel's Jewish identity. To accomplish this, Lieberman proposes that Israel redraw its border with the West Bank through negotiations to place some Israeli-Arab population centers that are close to the Green Line within Palestinian territory, and to include some Israeli settlement blocs within Israel.

...In response to the Ambassador's query, Lieberman said that the actual border would be the result of negotiations with Egypt, Jordan, and the PA. He said that the plan would also require the endorsement of the U.S. and at least one other member of the Quartet. His proposal would "not be a unilateral move," but one negotiated with "several partners." He added that Egypt should also be a part of the solution by providing some of its territory to Gaza, which Lieberman described as too densely populated.

The word "transfer" evokes a unilateral uprooting of Arabs from their homes and expelling them to another country. Lieberman was saying to negotiate with the PA and others to draw the borders between Israel and a Palestinian Arab state so that some of the Arabs who already identify as "Palestinian" can become citizens. That is quite different, and Dana knows it.

In fact, The Guardian made the same accusation about Tzipi Livni by purposefully misreading The Palestine Papers earlier this year, when she floated the idea of taking towns now divided by the Line and choosing to put them entirely in one state or the other.

The dishonesty was pointed out to Dana and, rather than correcting himself, he ignored it. Which is par for the course as well. (He later tweeted that he was quoting the State Department title for the report.)

A similar case comes from The Electronic Intifada's founder Ali Abuminah, a well respected figure among the Israeli far left, who wrote that Israel killed a 13-year old boy in Gaza. The link he used was to a PCHR report. Yet if one reads that report, there is no mention of any 13-year old boy. And no wonder - he was killed by a Grad rocket. This is a pure lie, and Abuminah is secure in the knowledge that his fans will not bother to read the report he links to which exposes him as a liar. (The same report shows that the other two civilians he mentions were being used as human shields.)

This was pointed out to him, and he also ignored the correction and refused to edit the piece.

Dana and Abuminah style themselves as journalists, but they show no desire to adhere to even the most basic journalistic standards. To them, the overriding imperative of demonizing Israel is much more important than mere formalities like telling the truth.

An incident in Silwan (Kfar HaShiloach)

Firas Press reports that the Israeli police came to the Arab part of Silwan and arrested a young man. As they tried to arrest him, the residents rioted and threw firebombs.

They give no reason why the man would have been arrested.

Maybe it has something to do with what happened the day before in that neighborhood. An Israeli couple, Gedi and Sarah Haimov, with their young daughter accidentally found themselves in Silwan as they were on their way to pray at the Kotel. The Arab youths there noticed the Jews and started throwing firecrackers at their car, almost hitting the child. Gedi stopped the car to yell at them, and they pushed him to the ground, kicking him.

Sarah, not able to see her husband anymore and afraid he was kidnapped, jumped into the drivers' seat and tried to speed away to save her child. She estimated that there were some 70 rioters at that point.

Gedi, meanwhile, tried to reach his gun but it fell to the ground in the fight. While he was being pummeled he managed to find the gun under the car. He grabbed it and waved it, and his attackers fled.

Miraculously, he was not badly injured even though he was beaten throughout his body.

That miracle is the reason why this story was not translated into English. Arabs attacking Jews - even in Jerusalem - is not news, unless they successfully kill them.

Because people don't know about how Silwan youths tried to lynch a Jewish family, the Arabic media can imply that Israeli forces are capriciously arresting Arab youths in Silwan.

(h/t Kramerica)

Muslims attempting to create "Islamic emirates" in European cities

From Hudson-NY:

Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of "no-go" areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.

Many of the "no-go" zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.

The "no-go" areas are the by-product of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged Muslim immigrants to create parallel societies and remain segregated rather than become integrated into their European host nations.

In Britain, for example, a Muslim group called Muslims Against the Crusades has launched a campaign to turn twelve British cities – including what it calls "Londonistan" – into independent Islamic states. The so-called Islamic Emirates would function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Islamic Sharia law and operate entirely outside British jurisprudence.

The Islamic Emirates Project names the British cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London as territories to be targeted for blanket Sharia rule.

In the Tower Hamlets area of East London (also known as the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets), for example, extremist Muslim preachers, called the Tower Hamlets Taliban, regularly issue death threats to women who refuse to wear Islamic veils. Neighborhood streets have been plastered with posters declaring "You are entering a Sharia controlled zone: Islamic rules enforced." And street advertising deemed offensive to Muslims is regularly vandalized or blacked out with spray paint.

In the Bury Park area of Luton, Muslims have been accused of "ethnic cleansing" by harassing non-Muslims to the point that many of them move out of Muslim neighborhoods. In the West Midlands, two Christian preachers have been accused of "hate crimes" for handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham. In Leytonstone in east London, the Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen heckled the former Home Secretary John Reid by saying: "How dare you come to a Muslim area."

In France, large swaths of Muslim neighborhoods are now considered "no-go" zones by French police. At last count, there are 751 Sensitive Urban Zones (Zones Urbaines Sensibles, ZUS), as they are euphemistically called. A complete list of the ZUS can be found on a French government website, complete with satellite maps and precise street demarcations. An estimated 5 million Muslims live in the ZUS, parts of France over which the French state has lost control.

Muslim immigrants are taking control of other parts of France too. In Paris and other French cities with high Muslim populations, such as Lyons, Marseilles and Toulouse, thousands of Muslims are closing off streets and sidewalks (and by extension, are closing down local businesses and trapping non-Muslim residents in their homes and offices) to accommodate overflowing crowds for Friday prayers. Some mosques have also begun broadcasting sermons and chants of "Allahu Akbar" via loudspeakers into the streets.

The weekly spectacles, which have been documented by dozens of videos posted on Youtube.com (here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here and here), and which have been denounced as an "occupation without tanks or soldiers," have provoked anger and disbelief. But despite many public complaints, local authorities have declined to intervene because they are afraid of sparking riots.

It gets worse. Read the whole thing.

But, hey, it's multiculturalism! Some British seem to have no problem with increasing Islam in daily life. Here's what The Guardian publishes every day during Ramadan, provided by The Muslim Council of Britain:

Do you think they publish Friday night Jewish candle-lighting times as well?

(h/t jzaik)

Israeli leftist says killing Israeli Jews is a "right"

The Left has come to this: justifying terrorism against Israelis in the name of human rights.

From the Jerusalem Post columnist Larry Derfner, in a blog called Israel Reconsidered:

I think a lot of people who realize that the occupation is wrong also realize that the Palestinians have the right to resist it – to use violence against Israelis, even to kill Israelis, especially when Israel is showing zero willingness to end the occupation, which has been the case since the Netanyahu government took over (among other times in the past).

But people don’t want to say this, especially right after a terror attack like this last one that killed eight Israelis near Eilat. And there are lots of good reasons for this reticence, such as: You don’t want to further upset your own countrymen when they are grieving, you don’t want to say or write anything that could be picked up by Israel’s enemies and used as justification for killing more of us. (These are good reasons; fear of being called a traitor, for instance, is a bad reason.)

But I think it’s time to overcome this reticence, even at the cost of enflaming the already enflamed sensitivities of the Israeli public, because this unwillingness to say outright that Palestinians have the right to fight the occupation, especially now, inadvertently helps keep the occupation going.

... Whoever the Palestinians were who killed the eight Israelis near Eilat last week, however vile their ideology was, they were justified to attack. They had the same right to fight for their freedom as any other unfree nation in history ever had. And just like every harsh, unjust government in history bears the blame for the deaths of its own people at the hands of rebels, so Israel, which rules the Palestinians harshly and unjustly, is to blame for those eight Israeli deaths – as well as for every other Israeli death that occurred when this country was offering the Palestinians no other way to freedom.

Writing this is not treason. It is an attempt at patriotism.

Derfner, who no doubt would describe himself as liberal, cannot find a single ethical problem with Palestinian Arab terror. Like Mahmoud Abbas and every other Palestinian Arab leader, he merely says:

I also think Palestinian terrorism backfires, it turns people away from them and generates sympathy for Israel and the occupation, so I’m against terrorism on a practical level, too, but that’s besides the point.

As to his "logic" - this is it:

If those who oppose the occupation acknowledged publicly that it justifies Palestinian terrorism, then those who support the occupation would have to explain why it doesn’t. And that’s not easy for a nation that sanctifies the right to self-defense; a nation that elected Irgun leader Menachem Begin and Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir as prime minister.

It isn't easy to distinguish between targeting civilians for death and regretting when civilians die while trying to defend your people? It isn't easy to find that all deliberate killing of peaceful civilians is morally bankrupt - including those done by The Stern Gang in the 1940s?

Moreover - does Derfner, in his wildest dreams, believe that attacking two couples on vacation in Eilat can be construed as self-defense?

This is a breathtakingly sick article, one that is incitement to terrorism. It shows that it is now fashionable among some leftists to twist the language of "rights" into justifying horrors.

And you can be sure that the more "mainstream" Leftists, those who claim to be against all attacks on civilians, will not unequivocally condemn this example of how the murder of Israeli Jews is now considered necessary and just among some of their own.

(h/t Jameel)