Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 04, 2012

The PLO's "acceptance" of two states, 1977

From JTA, February 28, 1977:

In London, Said Hammami, the PLO's representative there, said in an interview today in the Observer that the Palestine National Council when it meets in Cairo March 12 cannot amend the charter because it represents ideology rather than a practical program.

However, he said the PLO is ready to accept two states in Palestine "because since 1948 there has been a new factor, the Israeli people, not the Jewish people." But he said that Israel cannot survive in the long run as a Jewish State but will eventually become a Hebrew-speaking corner of the Arab world.

Hammami listed three points that comprise the PLO policy: a demand for complete withdrawal of Israel from occupied territory; that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip be handed over to the Palestinians to form an independent state under the PLO with the option later of deciding whether it wanted to join with Jordan and/or Syria; and the recognition of the right of all Palestinians to return to their homes, although this right might not be exercised "for a number of years."

Over the past 35 years Israel has changed its position drastically towards concessions to the PLO - and the PLO has not changed its position one iota towards peace with Israel.

It still considers Israel a temporary anomaly; it still rejects the idea of a Jewish state or of "two states for two peoples;" it still insists on the "right" to have millions of Arabs immigrate to Israel to destroy it demographically.

The only difference is that 35 years ago they were explicit about their ultimate goal of using the territories as a stage in the ultimate destruction of Israel, and after Oslo they pretend that they really want peace. Yet in Arabic they are still quite clear, and their people know it.

And in the 35 years of Israel giving up land, making unilateral concessions and accepting the concept of two states, it has not moderated the Arabs one tiny bit from their hard-line position of 1977 - which is in fact identical to the infamous 1974 Phased Plan for the destruction of Israel, piece by piece.

Saudi women's only village bans "indecently dressed" and "tomboys"

From Al Arabiya:

An all-female village in Saudi banned women who are not dressed conservatively or dressed like men from entering the village grounds in an attempt to combat “alien” phenomena that violate social traditions and spread negative practices.

The Women’s Village in Sakakah, the capital city of al-Jawf Province in northwestern Saudi Arabia, issued a statement banning the entry of women who are deemed to be “dressed indecently” as well as those who look or behave like men, the Saudi newspaper al-Sharq reported.

The statement, which was sent by the village administration via mobile text messages, was issued after a large number of girls engaging in behavior that contradicts the conservative character of the Saudi society started frequenting the village and taking part in many of its activities.

In several women-only parties, the statement explained, teenage girls dressed in revealing clothes or maintained a manly appearance and some of them performed what was seen as “provocative” dances, considered not in line with social norms of the place.

“Those phenomena are alien to our society and do not reflect its conservative character. That is why they need to combated and have their causes uprooted,” said the statement.

The clampdown on “indecent” behavior is not the first in Sakakah. The village administration had issued an earlier statement banning visitors from entering with mobile phones with cameras and prohibiting events that involve noisy music and dancing.

The implementation of such resolutions is overseen by a team of Saudi security women who are in charge of maintaining law and order in the village and detecting violations committed by visitors throughout the year.

The decision of the Sakakah administration is also not the first to target tomboyish girls as they are also banned from entering public schools and universities together with men who maintain an “effeminate” or “punk” appearance.

So if you are a woman in Saudi Arabia, you cannot even dance in front of other women!

Other articles make it appear that makeup is also prohibited.

I cannot find out much about this women's village; it certainly does not take up the entire town. And since cameras seem to be forbidden, there are no photos except for the outside gate.

I wonder if they built roads for cars in this "women's village"?

Latest Latma

Very "inside" this week.

Death penalty for those who mock God, Koran, prophets in Kuwait

From Al Arabiya:

Kuwait’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill stipulating the death penalty for Muslims who curse or mock God, the Muslim holy book, all prophets and the wives of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

The same punishment is applied to those who “describe themselves as new prophets or messengers from God,” the Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reported.

“But if the accused is a non-Muslim, the punishment would be lowered to jail for no more than 10 years,” the report added, according to the bill.

Forty MPs, including cabinet ministers, voted for the bill in the second and final round of voting, against six opponents who included all five Shi’ite MPs present and liberal MP Mohammad al-Sager.

The bill introduces two new articles to the Gulf state’s penal code specifically to stiffen penalties for such offences.

Defendants who repent in court will be spared capital punishment but will get a jail sentence for five years and a fine of $36,000 or one of them, while repentance by those who repeat the crime is not acceptable, the bill says.

“We do not want to execute people with opinions or thought because Islam respects these people... But we need this legislation because incidents of cursing God have increased. We need to deter them,” opposition MP Ali al-Deqbasi said during the debate.

Nothing says "respect" like threatening to kill someone.

Oh, and the reason that the Shi'ite MPs opposed the law?

Shiite MPs also demanded that the bill impose the death penalty on anyone who curses their sect’s 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni-dominated parliament rejected their request.

But once their amendment was defeated, then they became advocates of freedom of expression:

Shiite MP Abdulhameed Dashti said the bill breaches the Kuwaiti constitution and the principles of Islam.

“Why are we trying to show Islam as a religion of death and blood when it is actually the opposite of that,” Dashti said.

Hamas cynically celebrates World Press Freedom Day

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh held a ceremony yesterday to celebrate World Press Freedom Day.

Hamas routinely attacks Gaza journalists and who disagree with its policies. Right now, there is no freedom of the press in Gaza and reporters self-censor out of fear for their lives. They have beaten journalists who try to cover anti-Hamas demonstrations, they have banned Fatah newspapers from Gaza, and they have even attacked documentary filmmakers.

Haniyeh cynically praised the journalists who follow Hamas' propaganda goals, saying that Palestinian Arab journalists are "in the trenches" in the battle with Israel.

Journalists who spoke at the event were naturally careful to blame all their problems on the "occupation."

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, activists protested against the US Consulate holding an event in Ramallah to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. Palestinian Arab journalist unions demanded their members boycott the event. Because, after all, that's what press freedom is all about in the territories. (PalPress claims that the entire event was foiled because of the protests; however Ma'an quotes the Consul General as speaking at the event to at least some journalists.)

(h/t CHA)

Biotechnology milestone as Israeli drug gains FDA approval

From Bloomberg:

Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. (PLX) soared in Tel Aviv trading after the biopharmaceutical company’s first product won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Protalix surged 14 percent to 29.14 shekels at the 4:30 p.m. close in Tel Aviv. The stock gained 13 percent in New York trading, the biggest single-day advance in more than six months. The company developed the drug, Elelyso, with Pfizer Inc. (PFE) to treat the most common form of Gaucher disease, a rare genetic disorder.

The approval may help Protalix cement agreements with drugmakers for its medicines in development, Chief Executive Officer David Aviezer said.

“This is a validation of our technology,” Aviezer said in an interview in Tel Aviv. “The approval could be a harbinger for additional agreements with other companies for some of our other drugs in the near future.”

Elelyso is based on breakthrough research by Dr. Yoseph Shaaltiel, the company's chief scientist. He generated medicinal proteins from genetically modified carrot cells, rather than the more expensive and bacterial-infection prone mammalian cells generally used for biotech drugs.

Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, paid Protalix $60 million for an exclusive agreement to sell the drug globally except for in Israel, according to the company’s annual report. Pfizer also agreed to pay Protalix $55 million for meeting certain regulatory requirements. The U.S. company will get 60 percent of Elelyso sales while Protalix will keep 40 percent.

Gaucher disease can cause fat to build up in the liver, spleen, bone marrow and nervous system. About 1 in 14 individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry carries the mutated gene that can cause the illness, and as many as 1 in 500 present a form of the disorder.

This time those Zionists are selfish. Gaucher disease mostly affects Jews.

CIA report predicting that Israel won't survive, 1947

Israel Matzav found a neat CIA document that discusses what they think would happen if the UN votes to allow partition of Palestine in 1947. It was written on the eve of the UN vote.

The experts get a lot wrong; for example the report says that it is unlikely that Arab nations would attack the Jewish state directly in opposition to the UN. Yeah.

Here are its conclusions, which were not rosy for the future of Israel.

CONCLUSIONS.
If the UNGA accepts partition as the best solution of the Palestine problem, it is almost certain that armed hostilities will result in Palestine; that the social, economic, and political stability of the Arab world will be seriously disturbed; and that US commercial and strategic interests in the Near East will be dangerously jeopardized. Although the UNGA Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine is now considering establishing a Commission responsible to the Security Council to oversee the implementation of partition, it is unlikely that any sizable international police force will initially be available to the Commission. It is highly probable, therefore, that Jewish and Arab forces will clash over the attempt of the Jews to establish a Jewish state.

Into this struggle between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine, the people of the Arab states will inevitably be drawn. Although most of the Arab governments will be reluctant to act in opposition to a UNGA decision and against the wishes of the major powers, nationalist, religious, and tribal pressures will compel them to support unofficially the Palestine Arabs. Inevitably the extremists, the chauvinists, will increase their inﬂuence at the expense of those statesmen in the Arab world who believe that the development of their countries depends on the maintenance of close ties with the US and the UK. While irresponsible tribesmen and fanatic Moslems are haphazardly blowing up parts of the pipelines and attacking occasional Americans, it is possible that the responsible governments will refuse to sign pipeline conventions, oil concessions, civil air agreements, and trade pacts The various projects which are necessary to raise the standard of living cannot be carried through without US assistance and guidance. With the US committed to partition, such developments will be shelved indefinitely. The poverty, unrest, and hopelessness upon which Communist propaganda thrives will increase throughout the Arab world, and Soviet agents (already being smuggled into Palestine as Jewish DP’s) will scatter into the other Arab states and there attempt to organize so-called “democratic movements” such as the one existing today in Greece.

In the meantime, the war in Palestine, barring international armed intervention, will increase in intensity. The Jewish forces will initially have the advantage. However, as the Arabs gradually coordinate their war effort, the Jews will be forced to withdraw from isolated positions, and having been drawn into a war of attrition, will gradually be defeated. Unless they are able to obtain signiﬁcant outside aid in terms of manpower and material, the Jews will be able to hold out no longer than two years.

The UN, having recommended partition, would have to consider the serious threat to the peace resulting from the recommendation. It would, in effect, be compelled to take steps to enforce partition, with the major powers acting as the instruments of enforcement. The dangerous potentialities of such a development to US-Arab and US-USSR relations need no emphasis.

They weren't the last to predict Israel's destruction. Somehow, Israel survived despite all the expert opinions.

Here is the entire report.
CIA Report on Partition of Palestine

(h/t Norman)

Afternoon open thread Zowie!

Gotta keep things exciting!

Pilgrimage to Djerba starts despite warning

From Magharebia:

Thousands of Jews from around the world will soon make their first pilgrimage to Tunisia's Ghriba synagogue since the country's Arab Spring revolution.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been invited to the May 9th event as a guest of honour.

"Tunisia, a country of tolerance and openness, welcomes the visit of Jewish pilgrims to the Ghriba site in Djerba, as they were accustomed to for decades," Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said at an April 16th World Tourism Organisation conference.

Last year, for the first time in two decades, the annual pilgrimage to Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island was cancelled over security concerns. The synagogue, the oldest in Africa, was also the site of a 2002 al-Qaeda terrorist attack that left 21 people dead.

Organisers of the Djerba pilgrimage decided to resume the event after the Tunisian government pledged to provide security for the visitors.

"The government will ensure through its democratic security apparatus to limit some phenomena and curtail some behaviours so as to provide favourable conditions for tourists to visit Tunisia," Jebali added.

But Israel warned against visiting there:

The Prime Minister’s Office issued a travel warning Thursday advising Israelis to avoid Tunisia.

The warning, released the PMO’s Counter Terrorism Bureau, followed an updated situation evaluation and stressed credible threats of terror attacks against Jews and Israelis.

The bureau emphasized threats to people congregating in the city of Djerba on and around the upcoming Lag B’omer holiday on Thursday and Friday next week.

Djerba, noted for it’s 2.500 year-old Jewish community, was the site of a synagogue bombing in April 2002 that killed 21 and wounded 30 more.

The advisory was given a threat assessment level of three out of four, with a “specific-high” rating.

The advisory seems well-advised. Islamists in Tunisia are warning against the "Judaization" of the island. Some are claiming that Jews buying land on the island with the intent of purchasing the entire island, something denied by the government; others called for a demonstration against the pilgrims in front of the historic synagogue. While the government is admirably saying it will provide security, there seem to be a whole lot of people who are against a Jewish pilgrimage to Djerba.

Shareholders sue Egypt over canceled gas deal with Israel

From Egypt Independent:

International shareholders in East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), the company that oversaw the now defunct Egyptian-Israeli natural gas deal, said on Thursday they were suing the government of Egypt for violating three bilateral investment treaties.

The decision to take legal action against the Egyptian government under treaties with the United States, Poland and Germany is the strongest move so far by the group, ensuring the dispute is handled diplomatically and not just commercially.

Egyptian state-owned oil and gas companies announced on 22 April the termination of gas sales to Israel, which were part of a 20-year deal, following a year of sabotage and pipeline attacks that had already disrupted supplies.

Thursday's announcement came after months of unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue through negotiation, one of the shareholders, Ampal-American Israel Corp, said.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.

The investors, who include Thai energy giant PTT, US businessman Sam Zell and Israel's Merhav, are also suing the Egyptian oil and gas companies. Together they are seeking up to US$8 billion in damages.

"The investors' disputes with Egypt arise out of a series of acts and failures by the government of Egypt that have seriously undermined the value of the investors' investments in EMG," Ampal said in a statement.

The underwater pipeline, which EMG spent about $500 million on building, had been targeted by militants in Egypt's unruly Sinai peninsula numerous times, halting the flow of gas for most of the past year.

In 2010, prior to the attacks, EMG provided 2.5 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas to Israeli customers. But that number was expected to more than double throughout the 20-year deal.

This should be interesting.

The 140 character pitch for Judaism and the Jewish state

In last night's much heralded debate between Daniel Gordis and Peter Beinart, there was an intriguing question asked at 56:36.

The question was that both of them had written about the tragedy of young American Jews who do not identify with Judaism or with the Jewish state. If they had two minutes to make a pitch for one of them to re-engage with Judaism and Zionism, stuck in the proverbial elevator, what would they say?

Gordis, who is a Conservative rabbi, answered that he wouldn't engage in the conversation at all. Bringing up the famous story of the person who demanded that rabbis Shammai and Hillel teach him the entire Torah while he stands on one foot, Gordis said that he would side with Shammai and refuse to answer - it is a dismissive, loaded question, and one cannot teach the big questions of life in two minutes.

Gordis railed against today's culture where people think that big ideas can be adequately expressed in a text message. He said that if one is serious to know the answer, he'll be happy to spend the months and years necessary to answer the question.

Unfortunately, this is the wrong answer. We do live in a time where people are thinking in soundbites and text messages and tweets, and we have to adapt to it. Arguments for Judaism and Jewish nationalism must work on all levels.

And I felt it was an intriguing question, as there was nothing in the question that presupposed that the young Jew in the elevator was hostile, but rather that he or she was clueless, as most - unfortunately - are.

I feel that Hillel's answer was good as well - because he ended it off with "go and learn." The response, both then and now, should not be a real answer - but it must be a hook to get people to want to find out the real answers for themselves

So I took it upon myself to respond to that question. But since I like a challenge, I didn't want to use a rather expansive two minutes, but I wanted to craft a response limited to the 140 character limit on Twitter.

Here it is:

Learning about other peoples and cultures is wonderful, but learning and internalizing about your own people and history is a prerequisite.

Tunisian TV executive fined over showing "blasphemous" film

Last year I reported about how a Tunisian TV director was stand trial for screening an "offensive" cartoon, called Persepolis, which shows how an Iranian girl conceives of God. Days of violent riots followed, including the firebombing of the director's house.

The director has been fined:

A Tunisian court on Thursday imposed a 2,400-dinar ($1,550) fine on a television boss over blasphemy charges after a trial that deepened the division between Islamists and secularists.

The director of Nessma television is accused of insulting sacred values by screening the film “Persepolis,” which showed depictions of God.

Nabil Karoui was charged over the decision by his Nessma television station to broadcast the award-winning animated film that includes a scene depicting Allah, which is forbidden in Islam.

“Persepolis” is a cartoon film directed by comic book writer Marjane Satrapi that tells the story of the Iranian revolution and the Islamic regime of Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeiny through the eyes of a precocious young girl.

Nessma’s head, Nabil Karoui had earlier said in January at the opening of his hearing: “I am sorry to be here today, this is a political trial.

It’s the trial of 10 million Tunisians who dreamed of having a democratic country.”

While he could have been jailed, the penalty is still a serious setback for human rights in post-revolution Tunisia.