Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, October 29, 2012

Monday links/Sandy administrivia

I continue to await the full force of Hurricane Sandy, headed pretty much directly at stately Elder Manor, and things will start to get really interesting this afternoon. I'm going on the assumption that my power will go out at one point between now and tomorrow morning.

So I'm queuing up as many posts as I can for tomorrow as the winds increase.

Oddly, my Google Nexus Galaxy phone has a built-in barometer. I don't understand why that would be considered a feature for a phone, even a smartphone, but I have been watching the numbers go down...and down....and down since yesterday. It was around 1000 mBar last night, but at 10:30 AM it was at 985, at 2:00 PM it is down to 972, at 3:45 it fell below 967. (I'm not adjusting for height above sea level.) (963 at 4:45.)

There is a neat map of US barometric pressure here.

Meanwhile, here are some links from Ian:

Peace Calling No Answer (video)

Concerned that U.S. policies toward Israel and Palestinians are hampering, not helping the peace process, an organization of Rabbis and peace advocates turn to Hollywood for a new script...a trilogy of satirical videos of which this is the third. Real Peace Middle East

via Daphne Anson

Douglas Murray: Palestinian Terrorists on the Payroll

British taxpayers are helping to pay the salaries of jailed bomb makers.
"Many British taxpayers, struggling to pay their family's way through a recession, might rightly wonder why their money is going to pay as much as £2,000 a month to people serving the longest sentences—those who have targeted Israeli buses and other civilian targets with suicide bombers, for instance. That is higher than the average wage in nearly all of Britain. You might be forgiven for wondering, if you were a struggling teaching assistant in the North of England, why failing to tick "suicide bomber" on your careers form should have left you so much worse off than a terrorist in the Middle East."

The Region: A friend who acts like an enemy is an enemy By Barry Rubin

"Here’s the issue: A number of supposed allies of the United States don’t act as friends. In fact, they are major headaches, often subverting US goals and interests. But to avoid conflict and, for Obama, to look successful to the domestic audience, Washington pretends that everything is fine."

From under the bus: A response to Efraim Halevy

"Halevy’s airbrushed “history” leaves out Republican then-president Nixon’s extraordinary backing of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and Ronald Reagan’s formalization of strategic cooperation with Israel, which created the web of ties between the Pentagon and IDF and the progressive strengthening of Israel’s military capability still in effect today. He omits Republican presidents who fought bitterly against the United Nations’ “Zionism is Racism” resolution — and finally got that resolution repealed — and ignores then-president George W. Bush’s diplomatic cover for the Second Lebanon War."

Palestinian Elections: Which Fatah Won? by Khaled Abu Toameh

"Abbas's term in office expired in January 2009, but this has not stopped him from continuing to cling to power. In wake of the results of the local elections, it has become obvious that Abbas does not have a mandate -- even from his Fatah faction -- to embark on any significant political move, such as signing a peace treaty with Israel or applying for membership for a Palestinian state in the UN.
Instead of going to New York next month to ask for Palestinian membership, Abbas should stay in Ramallah and work toward reuniting and reforming Fatah before his political rivals drive him and his veteran loyalists out of office."

Egyptian authorities reportedly seize 1.7 million documents proving Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo

"Elaph, a Saudi-owned news site, reported that Egyptian police received notice that the packages were being held at a shipping company in the Nasser City district of Cairo. Upon arriving at the scene, police found over 1.7 million documents dating back to the 19th century, dealing with Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo. The documents, according to the security source speaking to the Saudi site, weighed over two tons."

Covered on EoZ over a week ago: Egyptian police: Attempt to smuggle Jewish property papers out of Egypt

The Strike on Sudan: A Lesson for Iran?

"A weekend paper showed two maps - a map marking the distance from Israel to Khartoum, and a map showing the distance from Israel to Iran. Significantly, the distance to Khartoum is quite a bit further and so, in this airstrike, Israel is sending another message to Iran."

Iran, Argentina set to meet in Geneva over 1994 Jewish center bombing
Buenos Aires demands the extradition of 8 terror suspects, including Iranian defense minister and former president

Historian slams Germany for ignoring anti-semitism
German-Jew Dr. Julius H. Schoeps accuses the Bundestag of shelving report documenting Jew-hatred in the country.

Honest Reporting: TV Host Refuses to Back Down After Calling Israel a “Cancer”
On Tuesday 23 October, Irish broadcaster Vincent Browne referred to Israel as a “cancer” during his live show on TV3 channel’s Tonight With Vincent Brown.

Argentine National Library cancels anti-Israel event
The Argentine National Library has canceled its program “The Ethical Trial of the Israeli Occupation and Colonization of Palestine,” The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

New Warsaw museum preserves 1,000 years of Jewish life
Museum of the History of Polish Jews aims to join the ranks of Yad Vashem and the US Holocaust museum, but does not focus only on tragedy

Remaining Jews in Gondar to be brought to Israel
By next September, all remaining eligible Ethiopian Jews in the Jewish Agency camp in Gondar, Ethiopia, will be brought to Israel and the camp will be closed • The Jewish Agency is preparing them for life in Israel.

BrightSource gets $80 million more for California solar plant
The Ivanpah solar power plant, being built using technology developed in Israel, will be the largest in the world

Palestinian Arab mother proudly places suicide belt on her son

From Palestinian Media Watch:

The Facebook page for Fatah in Lebanon has posted this picture of a mother dressing her young son with a suicide belt. This picture was posted on the Fatah site together with an imaginary conversation between the son who is being sent to his death and the mother encouraging it.

"My mother dressed me in a strange belt (i.e., a suicide belt).
I asked her: 'What is this, mother?'
She said: 'I will put it on you and you will go to your death!'
I said to her: 'Mother, what have I done that you want me to die?'
She shed a tear that hurt my heart and said: 'The homeland needs you, son. Go and blow up the sons of Zion.'
I said to her: 'Why me and not you?'
She said: 'I will stay in order to give birth to more children for the sake of Palestine.'
I kissed her hand and said to her: 'Keep it up, mother, for you and for Palestine I will kill the impure and the damned.'"

[Fatah-Lebanon's Facebook page,

posted Sept. 3, 2012, accessed Oct. 28, 2012]

That photo has been going around the Internet for a couple of years; not sure where it originally came from.

PMW gives lots of other examples of encouraging children to kill themselves for the cause.

Egyptian Shiites upset over belly dancing to religious song

From Al Arabiya:

A belly dancer stirred a wave of anger among Shiites in Egypt as she appeared in an Egyptian movie raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Imam Ali, highly venerated in Shiite Islam, who called for banning the movie to screen in theaters.

Baha Anwar Mohammed, spokesman of Egyptian Shiites, has condemned belly dancer Dina for her performance in the film “Abdo Mouta” to be offensive and highly disrespectful to the People of the House (Ahl al-Bayt), the family of Prophet Muhammad, particularly important to Shia Muslims.

Baha was quoted by Egypt’s al-Sabah newspaper as saying that the country’s Shiites will file a complaint to the general prosecutor against the film demanding to ban it from screening as it insults prominent Islamic figures.

Shiites believe Imam Ali and the rest of Ahl al-Bayt as prophet’s successors. Baha called on Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic School and its Grand Mufti to condemn “such abuse” to the prophet’s family.

Dina, the belly dancer, denied her performance in the movie was meant to offend Islamic prominent figures.

She responded, "I am a Muslim and no one can say that I abused the people of the Prophet, God forbid. It's just a song, and the dance was not tacky at all"

Although the song “Virtuous Mother of Hasan and Husain” praises Fatima, the fact that a belly dancer dances to it was seen as highly inappropriate.

Here is Dina performing. May be NSFW.

Egyptian child preacher robotically chants for destruction of Israel

From MEMRI:

Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims...martyrdom on the path of Allah is a religious duty incumbent upon you, oh believers. It is your path for salvation in the eyes of the Lord. Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims. (repeated twice)

Pray: "Oh Allah, destroy Israel" (Amen) Oh Allah, destroy Israel. [inaudible] the accursed Sharon, Bush and Obama.

The kid looks, literally, brainwashed. He shows no comprehension of his words, and he appears more like a distracted singer who knows the lyrics by heart than someone who understands the hate he is mindlessly chanting.

Ironically, this brainwashed kid is being used in turn to brainwash thousands more watching him on TV.

Don't worry, though - he might have no idea what he is saying now, but in a few years he might turn into this teenage preacher.

Joke: Ha'aretz issues a correction for "apartheid" libel (UPDATE)

From CAMERA:

Five days after the publication of a distorted headline which was picked up by numerous international media outlets, Ha'aretz today published a clarification. In the last several days, numerous critics, including CAMERA, have weighed in about Ha'aretz's coverage of the Dialog poll, including the false headlines. The English online version was "Survey: Most Israeli Jews support apartheid regime in Israel," and the print edition was likewise wrong and damaging: "Survey: Most Israeli Jews advocate discrimination against Arab citizens."

Today, this clarification appears in the Hebrew print edition:

It states (CAMERA's translation):

The wording of the front-page headline, "The majority of Israelis support apartheid in Israel" (Ha'aretz, Oct. 23), did not accurately reflect the findings of the Dialog poll. The question to which most respondents answered in the negative did not relate to the current situation, but to a hypothetical situation in the future: "If Israel annexes territories in Judea and Samaria, in your opinion, should 2.5 million Palestinians be given the right to vote for the Knesset?"

...A small correction buried on page five about a highly visible front-page headline does not do justice to the problem. Levy's articles about the poll continue to inflict damage on Israel's international image. The clarification, though important, does not begin to put out the fire. It's reasonable to assume that most of those who celebrated the initial erroneous reports have no clue that a clarification was printed.

Read the whole thing, including how this is a pattern at Ha'aretz.

I can say with certainty that the original "apartheid" article was instantly reproduced throughout the Arab media, and is still being reported as fact today.

This was the second false "apartheid" headline in less than two weeks; the first one was also clarified after the fact. And that false story - that the Israeli government officially admits that Jews are a minority ruling a majority hostile Arab population - was also instantly flashed across the world in Arabic, as well as in the West.

The amount of damage that Ha'aretz is knowingly causing the State of Israel is immense. They are so eager to paint their country as a horrid, racist entity that their vitriol often exceeds that of Arab publications themselves. The joke that Ha'aretz is Israel's Hebrew-language Arab newspaper is not far off from the truth.

Journalists must be cognizant of the impact of their words. In the cases of many Ha'aretz writers, like Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar and Amira Hass, it appears that they are in fact quite aware of that impact - and that is exactly why they lie. Imagine the boost to their egos, knowing that the most absurd charges against Israel get immediately picked up as fact by newspapers worldwide!

As CAMERA notes, Ha'aretz' editors need to be held accountable for this sickening habit of twisting facts to fit a pre-existing agenda hostile to the state and people of Israel. Israelis know this - that is why Ha'aretz' circulation is a fraction of those of the top three Israeli papers, and its website is ranked a dismal 7th among Israeli news sites.

However, news media worldwide that rely on Ha'aretz as a reliable news source must be made aware of what Israelis know - that Ha'aretz is acting more like a propaganda rag than a respectable newspaper.

UPDATE: A longer correction, written by Levy, ridiculously claims that the lies "were not made intentionally, but as a result of neglect due to time pressure." He then goes on to defend his bias and his conclusions.

Keep in mind that the poll was done over five weeks before the story was published.

Arabic media is reporting that the IDF has been dropping leaflets onto southern Gaza Monday morning warning residents to stay safe.

The flyers, spread from Rafah to Deir al Balah, tell Gazans to stay at least 300 meters away from the border with Israel. It also urges them to stay away from rocket launchers and terrorists. The leaflets say that the terror groups pose a threat to people's lives, their families, their children and their property. The papers further said that that terrorists are firing rockets from populated areas into Israel, saying it will pursue the launchers.

Pro-terror media outlets warned other Arab newspapers in the area - and even in Egypt - not to publish the text or images of the flyers, so as not to play into the hands of the IDF and to avoid having Gazans read the "lies" of the enemy.

Similarly, Hamas has been gathering up the warnings and burning them as fast as they can, ostensibly to reduce "confusion."

And, incidentally, the entire concept of human shields doesn't work as well when the shields refuse to play along.

Leaked videotape shows Tunisia's "moderate" president re-assuring Salafists

From allAfrica, in a story that got picked up by Die Welt today:

Some Tunisians are accusing Ennahda's leader of pursuing a hidden agenda with salafists.

A leaked video featuring Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi strategising with young salafist leaders is causing controversy in Tunisia.

In the video, which was first broadcast last April and re-broadcast October 9th, Ghannouchi said, "The secularists are still controlling the media, economy and administration. Therefore, controlling them would require more time." He added that "the police and army's support for Islamists is not guaranteed, and controlling them would also require more time."

"I tell our young salafists to be patient... Why hurry? Take your time to consolidate what you have gained," Ghannouchi said before advising them to "create television channels, radio stations, schools and universities" to push their agenda.

The Ennahda leader said, "We've met with Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the salafists, including Sheikh Abou Iyadh and Sheikh al-Idrissi."

Abou Iyadh, also known as Seif Allah Ben Hassine, is currently wanted by Tunisian police in connection with the September 14th attack on the US embassy.

In the video, Ghannouchi said he was "not afraid" to include an article in the new constitution on Sharia law. He went on to mock secularists who accept Islam and fear Sharia. "They are like those who accepted content but rejected the name itself," he said.

He also told the salafists about achievements that were made for them after Ennahda came to office. "The government is now at the hands of Islamists, the mosques are ours now, and we've become the most important entity in the country," he said.

"The Islamists must fill the country with associations, establish Qur'anic schools everywhere, and invite religious preachers because people are still ignorant of Islam," Ghannouchi continued.

In his first reaction to the leaking of video, Ghannouchi said that his words were "taken out of context", adding that the secularism he denounced was "the radical and extreme secularism".

King of Bahrain reportedly coming to Gaza - is UNRWA legitimizing Hamas rule?

This story comes from Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today, which is generally a pretty good news source considering it is run by terrorists and their supporters.

Informed sources in the northern Sinai said that notice has been given to plan for Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, to visit the Gaza Strip, this coming week.

The sources confirmed the King will fly from Bahrain in Arish Airport International, and then transfer via helicopter to the city of Rafah, 40 kilometers from the airport, and then will cross into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing amid heavy Egyptian and Bahraini security forces.

The sources pointed out that it is expected that the king of Bahrain to provide some financial aid and grants to the Gaza Strip, during his visit.

The visit was arranged by UNRWA and Khalifa is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.

If UNRWA is facilitating a visit between a head of state and the head of Hamas, that means that the UN is officially recognizing Hamas - a terror group that just today asserted that there is no room for Israel in the Middle East - as the official political leadership of Gaza, and it would be a slap in the face of the PA.

An Egyptian paper verifies that the king is arriving, but doesn't mention UNRWA.

We'll find out this week if the UNRWA story is true.

Sunday links

From Ian:

The European Left and Its Trouble With Jews

"Today, a sizable section of the European left has been reluctant to take a clear stand when anti-Zionism spills over into anti-Semitism. Beginning in the 1990s, many on the European left began to view the growing Muslim minorities in their countries as a new proletariat and the Palestinian cause as a recruiting mechanism. The issue of Palestine was particularly seductive for the children of immigrants, marooned between identities."

Malice, media bias, and the Cape Times

One of the strange paradoxes of our age is the unholy alliance between many self-designated Western social progressives and assorted tyrants, homophobes, xenophobes and anti-Semites in the Middle East.
"Three atrocities were examined: the Bulgarian bomb attack, the Toulouse shootings and the Fogel family murders (which took place in 2011). In brief, only the Bulgarian bomb attack was actually reported by the Cape Times while the other two were essentially ignored. Nevertheless, the paper did find space to present other either irrelevant or anti-Israel articles at the time these atrocities took place."

‘Whining’ About ‘Pathetic’ Rockets

“For instance, between 2006 and 2011, 44 Israelis were killed and 1,687 injured by Gaza rockets. These figures include many children, as terrorists often fire rockets when Israeli children are walking to school. More than one million Israelis live in range of rocket attack from Gaza.
What do Israel’s critics have to say about this?
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow describes the rockets thusly: “pretty pathetic things – nobody gets injured”. The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah complained only yesterday about Israelis “whining about rockets”. Other opponents of Israel have dismissed the rockets as mere “fireworks”, and sneered that their only effect is to unsettle the pets of a handful of Israeli families.”

CIF Watch: Ben White dreams that, by the “bloodshed and sweat of martyrs”, Palestine will be free!

BBC Watch: The BBC, History and Politics

Another object which appears on the website is a Canaanite bottle from around 2,000 BCE. It is described as coming from “Jericho, Palestine”, but of course the term Palestine did not come into use for a further two millennia until it was introduced by Hadrian in 135 CE.

Hezbollah crosses Syrian border with bloody assault on Assad's enemies
Shia fighters coming to the regime's aid have tipped the balance of power. Loveday Morris meets beleaguered rebels taking sanctuary a few kilometres from the border

Syrian rebels find Iranian cash in the wallets of Assad’s militiamen

Saudi authorities disperse anti-Assad protest in Mecca

Iran cancels parliamentary visit over EU demands to meet Sakharov Prize recipients
Official in Tehran says his country does not accept any preconditions

Iran Installs 3,000 Centrifuges, Works to Trade Oil With Asia to Circumvent Sanctions

"International intelligence officials say that Iran has installed nearly 3,000 centrifuges at a nuclear site called Fordo, located under a mountain and inside a military base near the holy city of Qum, the Washington Post reported."

Lebanon arrests two Malaysian suspected suicide bombers

On Thursday, Lebanon's Al-Joumhouria newspaper, quoting security sources, said the Malaysians were detained by army intelligence on charges of being al-Qaeda members.
Investigations revealed they were recruited into al-Qaeda by another Malaysian before being taken to Yemen where they met other members of the organisation.
Al-Joumhouria said that about two months ago, the two Malaysians had tried to enter Syria via Turkey on a jihadist mission to carry out suicide attacks.

Indonesia Arrests 11 People Suspected of Planning Terror Attack Against U.S. Embassy

Saudi Textbooks Incite Hate, Say Leaders in American Publishing

"A ninth-grade textbook published by the Ministry of Education states, “The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims.” An eighth-grade textbook says, “The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians.” These are just two examples of a long list of hate-filled passages."

'Hate content against religious minorities rampant in school textbooks across Pakistan'
Textbooks used in Pakistan's schools include factual errors and hate content, which fuels the increasing levels of intolerance and extremism in the society, according to education experts.

Israeli 5-in-1 tool for rescuers creates design buzz
An industrial design student’s nifty invention for disaster scenes garnered lots of attention at Milan Design Week.

Israel Daily Picture: Jerusalem Commemorates the Visit of the German Emperor 114 Years Ago
The Kaiser Arrives, and the Rabbis Turn Out. How Jerusalem's Jews Greeted the German Emperor in 1898

The Allah Goat. Buy and slaughter it today!

From the Daily Mail:

A prized goat has been put up for sale in India with a whopping £128,000 price tag.

Islam Bhati, 37, from Rajasthan in India, is trying to sell his finest goat for 11 million rupees to a Muslim family celebrating the Eid al-Adha festival.

The two-year-old animal is organic and has the word 'Allah' in Arabic emblazoned on one side of his fur. He also has a crescent and star on the other side.

Mr Bhati said: ‘It’s a miracle animal and I feel blessed to own him. We have looked after this goat like our child and he’s the best goat around. We can easily charge 11 million for such a divine animal, it's pretty reasonable.’

Mr Bhati, who run's the family's marble business, bought the goat from a nearby farm two years' ago.

He said: ‘I noticed the inscriptions soon after I bought him. I knew it was sacred. Since we took him into our home we have cared for him and fed him pulses, fresh tree leaves and dry fruit. His meat will be very good.’

Mr Bhati has been offered huge sums for the goat since he posted an advert on the Internet last week. However, no one has stepped forward and paid the asking price yet.

You might think this is a unique, once in a lifetime occurrence. After all, how many goats have spots that can be interpreted by idiotic Muslims as Allah?

Well, the same thing happened in 2007, also in India:

And in 2008:

But this goat did them all one better, because it had both Allah and Mohammed on it!

Allah must really love goats to reveal himself in so many of them.

Then again, he also seems to like to show up in people's ears, on honeycombs, clouds and tsunamis.

Not to mention ice-cream logos and sneakers, but since those were Western creations, they were abominations and not miracles.

Jewish weather control stations had a minor glitch late last week, and as a result a small meteorological disturbance is headed directly towards La maison Elder which may entail some emergency measures at EoZ Central.

So today I need to make some preparations.

It is entirely possible that power will go out around here, probably sometime Monday, and that would make blogging a little bit more difficult.

So here's an open thread while I batten down the hatches.

And I try to get this stupid song out of my mind:

Not to mention this:

LA Times: More Jews praying on Temple Mount (updated)

Not a bad report - with the glaring exception of the media believing Muslim lies without checking:

A simple, ancient ritual is threatening the delicate security balance atop Jerusalem's most sacred plaza: Jews are praying.

On most days, dozens — sometimes hundreds — of Jewish worshipers ascend to the disputed 36-acre platform that Muslims venerate as Al Aqsa mosque and Jews revere as the Temple Mount with an Israeli police escort to protect them and a Muslim security guard to monitor their movements.

Then, they recite a quick prayer, sometimes quietly to themselves, other times out loud.

Jewish activists call the prayers harmless acts of faith. Police and Muslim officials see them as dangerous provocations, especially given the deep religious sensitivities of the site and its history of violence. Twelve years ago, the presence of Jews on the plaza was so controversial that a brief tour by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon helped trigger a Palestinian uprising that lasted more than four years. [Lie #1]

But today Jewish worshipers are commonplace, coming in greater numbers than at any time since Israel's founding and perhaps, some scholars say, as far back as half a millennium ago. Their goal? To challenge the Israeli government's tacit acceptance and enforcement of a ban on Jews praying there by the Islamic trust that has continued to administer the site even after Israel captured the Old City in 1967.

Jewish visits to the plaza are expected to surpass 12,000 this year, up 30% from 2011, according to estimates by Jewish worshiper groups.

"What is provocative about a person wanting to pray?" Rabbi Chaim Richman asked after defying mainstream rabbinical religious rulings and risking arrest by praying on a recent morning near the golden Dome of the Rock. The world's oldest surviving Islamic monument, it's built atop the site where Jews believe their first temple held the Ten Commandments.

"It's the most basic human right," said Richman, international director of the Temple Institute. "I'm not asking to build a temple. I'm just asking to move my lips."

His group and others that advocate the rebuilding of a Jewish temple have often been dismissed by other Israelis and the international community as extremists and zealots who seek to destroy the Dome and the nearby Al Aqsa mosque. Now they are betting this prayer campaign will give their cause more mainstream support, portraying it as a matter of religious equality and free speech.

How can it be, they ask, that in the state of Israel, Jews and Christians are banned from praying at Judaism's holiest site, while Muslims can worship freely? Even the U.S. State Department has cited Israel's ban on non-Muslim prayer on the plaza in its annual report on religious freedom, they note.

The groups want the Israeli government to implement a time-sharing plan that would set aside certain hours for Jewish worship, similar to one used to divide Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy site for Muslims and Jews.

Palestinians and Muslim leaders call the prayer campaign the latest ruse designed to instigate clashes so that Israel can justify putting the plaza under military control.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this month accused Israel of launching a "fierce assault" on the mosque after soldiers broke up a Muslim riot triggered by a group of Jewish worshipers. [Lie #2]

Jordan, which has maintained day-to-day supervision of the plaza through an Islamic trust called the Waqf, is asking the U.N.'s cultural body, UNESCO, to condemn Israel for permitting an increase in Jewish prayers.

"The Israeli strategy is to take it over," said Mahdi Abdul Hadi, chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, a Jerusalem think tank. "We don't want to share, not because we don't accept them, but because we don't trust them." He said the Hebron agreement was supposed to result in sharing, but it led to bloody clashes between Jews and Muslims, and finally a military takeover. [Lie #3]

Hadi also noted that temple-rebuilding extremists set fire to Al Aqsa mosque in 1969 and plotted to bomb the Dome of the Rock in the 1980s. [Lie #4]

Jewish prayer at the Jerusalem holy site is certainly not new, but it has been rarely seen during the last 2,000 years. After the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, a Jewish presence on the plaza was mostly banned or severely limited during Christian and Islamic rule.

Under the Ottoman Empire, Jews were given access to the Western Wall — believed to be a remnant of the Second Temple compound — but banned from the plaza above, which was reserved for Muslims only, according to Israeli historian F.M. Loewenberg.

Even after Israel took control of East Jerusalem in 1967, most Jews stayed away because of rabbinical prohibitions that warned them against visiting the site lest they inadvertently step on hallowed ground.

In recent years, however, a small but growing number of rabbis have softened that position. At the same time, national religious groups have argued that Israel should exert greater control over what is considered Judaism's holiest site.

In 2000, Jewish visitors were allowed onto the plaza only in groups of two or three at a time and even moving lips in silent prayer might led to arrest, Jewish activists say. Today Jewish groups as large as 150 are allowed to roam the plaza, sometimes drawing nothing more than cold stares and quiet curses from Muslims.

But instead of furtive prayers when police aren't looking, more worshipers are sometimes singing and lying on the ground in keeping with Jewish traditions. Such overt prayer often sparks clashes with Muslims, as occurred this month during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot when a right-wing Israeli politician was arrested for praying.

Police officials say they oppose any attempt to allow non-Muslim prayer on the plaza.

"As soon as that takes place, it causes a response from Israeli Arabs, and the Israeli police have to respond and separate them," said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. "Our aim is to keep the status quo and make sure the different religions can use and respect the site."

Right-wing Israeli lawmaker Arieh Eldad, who recently drafted a bill to impose a time-sharing plan that would allow Jews to pray at specified times, accused Palestinians of using the threat of violence to keep the plaza to themselves.

"Muslims are blackmailing the West, saying they will burn, riot and murder if we practice our right of freedom of speech," he said.

Temple group activists say their strategy is to keep praying and getting arrested, hoping Israeli courts will force the government to drop the ban.

Israel's Supreme Court upheld the right of Jews to pray on the plaza, but gave police broad latitude to restrict access in the name of security. Muslim males younger than 45 are also sometimes banned from the holy site for security reasons.

"We're focusing on prayer for the next year," said Aviad Visuli, a Haifa attorney who represents Jewish activists. "It's something nobody can object to."

Waqf leaders in Jerusalem declined to speak publicly, citing the sensitivity of the issue. But one Waqf official warned that Palestinian and Arab Israeli worshipers are increasingly uneasy over the prospect of sharing the plaza.

"This is a Muslim site," the official said. "If the police don't stop this, the people will. For Muslims, this is a red line."

Arab lie #1:
At least the authors wrote Sharon's visit "helped trigger" instead of "triggered" the second intifada, but the fact is that the riots were planned for months before Sharon's visit. From a December 2000 speech to the UN by the Israeli ambassador:

It now seems as if the leading role that the Palestinian leadership has played in the current spate of violence is finally being admitted. The Palestinian semi-official daily Al Ayyam reported on 6 December that Palestinian Minister of Communications, Imad Al Falouji, confirmed that the Palestinian Authority had begun preparations for the outbreak of the current intifada from the moment the Camp David talks concluded, this in accordance with instructions given by Chairman Arafat himself. Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as the culminating stage of "Palestinian steadfastness" in the negotiations, and not merely as a protest of Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount (Al-Ayyam, 6 December 2000)

Arab lie #2:
From reading the Arab media, while they complain about "Talmudic rituals" on the Temple Mount, it is the mere presence of Jews there that cause them to protest - not the prayers. They will fill their newspapers with photos of "Jewish desecrators" who are merely walking around.

Arab lie #3:
The massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs [1994] preceded the Hebron agreement in the Wye River Accords [1996.] It wasn't that the agreement caused the massacre.

However, there were plenty of horrid terror attacks by Arabs against the Jews of Hebron after the Accords. For example, the 1998 murders of Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan (stabbed in his bedroom) and Danny Vargas, or the 2001 murder of 10-month old Shalhevet Pass.

The idea that Wye River was an Arab gesture of wanting to live peacefully with Jews is an outrageous lie.

Arab lie #4:
While there was a Jewish plot to bomb the Al Aqsa mosque in the 1980s, the 1969 attack was done by an unhinged Christian, not Jews, as implied here.

UPDATE: CAMERA found some other problems with the article, including - most egregiously - the headline.