Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 28, 2013

EoZNews Video: A hareidi response to the Israeli draft

This week I was given the opportunity to be given a personal tour of the headquarters of the Belzer Hasidic movement in Jerusalem.

The building complex is very impressive and I plan to post a video of the tour of the huge synagogue itself soon.

While being showed around, I spoke to the Belzer representative, Yechezkal Friedman, about the major issues being discussed today concerning the hareidi community in Israel today, specifically the idea of being drafted for army or national service, the perception that the hareidim are freeloaders off of Israeli society and the hareidi economic model.

Whether you agree with the haredi movement or not, it is worthwhile hearing their point of view, which is a little more nuanced than how it is reported in most Israeli and world media. (One point that Friedman made that I didn't follow up on was that the Belzer opposition to national service was specifically for those who are young, 18 or so; he said that he did not know whether the Belzer Rebbe opposed older members - say, 27 year olds - doing some sort of service. This might point the way towards an agreement of sorts.)

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Oxford students overwhelmingly vote down Israel boycott
Jewish groups hail 69-10 tally, but motion will still likely appear on agenda at national student union confab next month

Aslan-Levy, who was also present at the vote Wednesday night, said he hoped that other British universities would follow Oxford in voting down BDS measures.
“Tonight Oxford students showed that their commitment to intellectual freedom is unshakeable. In rejecting calls for a boycott against Israel by a seven-to-one margin, we demonstrated resoundingly that we want Oxford to continue to cooperate with Israeli academics, trade with Israeli businesses and — yes — debate with Israeli debating societies,” he said.
He told The Times of Israel that students had been puzzled about why they were being asked to support a motion promoting an academic boycott.
“Students don’t think the role of a student union is to be making foreign policy,” he said. “They were confused why they were asked to embrace a boycott of Israeli universities – they were confused about the point. There was a strong belief that such motions are divisive.”

Video: Zionist Student Protest Counters Pro-Arab Demonstration

Arabs and leftists held a protest outside the Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, in support of the terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails.
The protesters called out racist remarks against Jews.
They were countered by Jewish students and activists of the Im Tirtzu movement, who held a counter-demonstration at the same time in support of the activities of the IDF and the Israeli security forces.
The counter-protesters made it clear that supporting terrorists is a moral deformity, as they put it, and that anyone who supports terrorists being held in prisons “supports terrorism in general and those who act to harm innocent civilians.”

CiF Watch complaint to PCC prompts Guardian to begrudgingly revise Rachel Corrie op-ed

After many months, and a series of correspondences between Sela, the PCC and Guardian editors stubbornly resistant to admitting error, the Guardian begrudgingly agreed to amend their editorial to acknowledge that the Israeli court ruling contradicted claims that Corrie was preventing a home demolition on that day.

MEMRI: Lebanese Lecturer Hassan Jouni: Rich Jews Sent Poor Jews to the "So-Called Holocaust"

Saudi Cleric Saleh Al-Maghamsi: In His Death, Bin Laden More Honorable Than Any Infidel VIDEO

Syrian tank shell lands in Israeli Golan Heights town
Amid reports that Assad’s forces have left the Syrian side of the Golan, errant fire is first spillover incident since mortars fell over the border in November

A tank shell fired from Syria landed in the Golan community of Alonei Habashan late Wednesday morning, the first such incident since several mortars landed in the Golan in November.
No damage was reported. The shell, believed to be an errant shot from a battle between Syrian government forces and rebels, landed in an open area and did not explode. Sappers later disarmed it.

Report: Nasrallah's Hizbullah Deputy Injured or Killed in Syria

The second-in-command to Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been injured -- and may have been killed -- in an attack on a convoy by Syrian opposition forces.
Naim Qassem, deputy to Nasrallah, was wounded Tuesday in the blast along with several high-ranking Syrian officers, according to the Lebanon-based al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

Iranian Officials: The Jews Are Responsible For The Massacre Of Muslims In Myanmar

As part of the demonizing of Jews and Judaism in Iran, officials and mainstream media have accused the Jews of playing a considerable role in the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar in the summer of 2012. This report will review some of these statements, as well as Iranian cartoons conveying the same message.

Expert: Stuxnet part of long-term effort to stop Iran nukes
New evidence shows that the virus has been active in Iran’s Natanz facility almost since the day it opened in 2007

Researchers at antivirus company Symantec said they had gathered evidence that earlier versions of the code, which they called Stuxnet 0.5, was already seen “in the wild” as early as 2005, although it wasn’t yet operational as a virus. Stuxnet, said Symantec Tuesday, was the first virus known to attack national infrastructure projects, and according to the company, the groups behind Stuxnet were already seeking to compromise Iran’s nuclear program in 2007 — the year Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, where much of the country’s uranium enrichment is taking place, went online,

Gaza’s massive haul of devil rays sparks big fish story
Palestinian fishermen catch hundreds of the endangered species and lay them out on beach, prompting absurd online feeding frenzy

The Giant Devil Ray, indigenous to the Mediterranean Sea, is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The reason Gaza fishermen said that the fish had not been seen in these numbers in several years may have been a result of overfishing in the Mediterranean and a subsequent ban on fishing that would further endanger the species.
The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean — to which Israel is a party, but the Palestinian Authority is not — issued a ban on trawling below 1,000 meters and driftnet fishing, likely significantly reducing bycatch fishing of devil rays.

Ethiopian woman chosen as "Miss Israel"

From JTA:

Yityish Aynaw, a former Israeli army officer, became the first Ethiopian-Israeli to win the Miss Israel pageant.

A panel of judges awarded the title to Aynaw, a 21-year-old model who came to Israel about a decade ago, at the International Convention Center Haifa on Wednesday.

"It's important that a member of the Ethiopian community wins the competition for the first time," she was quoted by Israeli media as telling the judges in response to a question. "There are many different communities of many different colors in Israel, and it's important to show that to the world."

In the interest of fully informing my readers of all relevant background information, without the slightest hint that I have any gratuitous motives, here is Aynaw together with her competition:

Praising Palestinian Arabs for not lynching an Israeli doctor

The bigotry of soft expectations:

An expert anesthesiologist from Israel secretly visited a Palestinian hospital in the occupied West Bank to treat a man injured by Jewish settlers, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

Micha Shamir, of Hadassah Resuscitation School and Service, and an Israeli nurse went to Nablus on Sunday to move a 27-year-old Palestinian who was seriously injured by settlers in Qusra, the Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported.

"Going to Nablus was dangerous and I had several moments of fear," Shamir told Maariv.

The patient was being treated in a local hospital but his life was in danger and the hospital sought medical help from Israel. Officials contacted Shamir to ask if he would go to Nablus without a military escort.

"I did not think twice before I agreed," the anesthesiologist said.

A Palestinian vehicle waited at the entrance to Nablus, and the driver sped past Palestinian protesters who were clashing with Israeli troops near a military checkpoint.

Shamir spent over an hour examining the patient before they could move him, Maariv said.

The injured man was then evacuated by ambulance to a nearby Israeli military base where a helicopter was waiting to take him to hospital in Israel, according to the report.

As they left the Nablus hospital, the Israeli medics saw dozens of Palestinians gathering near the hospital.

"The way we were escorted was praiseworthy. The Palestinian security used an ambulance and some security patrols for camouflage to secure our mission."

It goes without saying that an Israeli doctor publicly going to Nablus to save an Arab life would be in danger of being lynched by the people he is trying to help. Otherwise, this wouldn't be a news story.

But lets give kudos to the PA for not allowing Shamir to be brutally murdered. Yay!

The double standard isn't only that Israel is expected to act in ways that no other Western country is; it is also that the Arabs aren't expected to even act like responsible adults. As I said in my talk last week, until the world starts expecting Arabs to act more maturely than toddlers with guns, they won't.

Erdogan calls Zionism a "crime against humanity"

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Islamophobia must be recognized as a crime against humanity in the same fashion that Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism should be, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday.

Speaking at the “Fifth Alliance of Civilizations Forum” in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, the prime minister underlined the rising trend of fascism across the Europe. “We are facing a world in which racist attacks have gained momentum, terrorism has claimed more lives, and religions and sects treat each other with less understanding,” Erdoğan said.

“Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it becomes unavoidable that Islamophobia must be regarded as a crime against humanity,” Erdoğan said.

UN Watch slammed the comparison at the UN-sponsored conference, and notes the irony that Erdogan's statement itself is anti-semitic:

"We remind secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi Annan recognized that the UN’s 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal." [UN Watch said.]

UN Watch urged all members of the Alliance’s High Level Group, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “to denounce remarks that fundamentally contradict the very purpose of a forum supposedly dedicated to mutual tolerance.”

“Erdogan’s misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his resort to Ahmandinejad-style pronouncements appealing to the lowest common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel.”

Erdogan is saying that Jewish national self-determination is a "crime against humanity," which is by any yardstick an anti-semitic statement.

Will NATO or the UN condemn this vile expression of hate given at a UN-sponsored conference?

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

Muslim Brotherhood member appointed to lead an Egyptian state TV channel

From Egypt Independent:

Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud, a known Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, has appointed a Brotherhood member to take over as chief of state-owned Nile News Channel, according to anonymous sources Wednesday.

The sources from State Television said Yasser Al-Dakany has taken the top job at Nile News and will be in control of its programming and news bulletins.

Dakany is the head of the Brotherhood's satellite channel Egypt 25. If confirmed, Dakany will replace Ahmad Sharaf, who accuses the minister of turning the channel into a Brotherhood mouthpiece.

On Wednesday, Sharaf told Al-Masry Al-Youm “Everyone knows that the minister fears my tendencies, whether professional or political, especially because I am against the brotherhoodization of the media owned by the state, while he wants to control the news sector,” Sahraf added.

Another wonderful Spring feeling.

Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Talk of dual-citizen disloyalty in Zygier affair simply irresponsible by Gerard Henderson

If the likes of Saul or Walker had specifically referred to the (alleged) dual loyalty, or divided loyalties, of any other group or nationality they almost certainly would have been publicly rebuked. But it seems a different standard applies when accusations are made against Jewish Australians and Australian/Israeli dual nationals.
The Jewish community in Australia spends considerable funds guarding its synagogues and schools from attack. Some costs are also borne by state and federal police. In such an environment, it is irresponsible in the extreme for prominent Australians to imply some of their fellow citizens are disloyal.

Barry Rubin: Who Will the Muslim Brotherhood Heed: Allah or Tom Friedman (and such people)? No Contest

Sigh. Forgive me. I really don't want to write this article but it is too good a case study of the contemporary Western foreign policy reporting, debate, and elite attitudes toward international affairs. And doing a better job is vital because this task involves the fate of millions of people; matters of war and peace; the most basic interests of the United States; and the decency of intellectual discourse.
I refer of course to: Thomas L. Friedman's latest effort, "The Belly Dancing Barometer." Hey, tens of millions of lives are at stake so that's worth a flippant title and a goofy concept, right?

Hamas warns Obama against Temple Mount visit
Trip to Jerusalem’s holiest site would be ‘a diplomatic catastrophe,’ Islamists declare; mufti sets three conditions for presidential tour

Responding to unconfirmed rumors that US President Barack Obama intends to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during his trip to Israel next month, the Hamas terror group warned the American leader against the idea on Tuesday, calling it “a diplomatic catastrophe,” and local Muslim leaders set stiff conditions for a presidential tour there.
A statement issued by Hamas called Obama’s potential visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located at the southern perimeter of the Mount, “an imminent danger which the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem have never faced.”

Palestinians: Boycott Jerusalem marathon
PLO says route through eastern part of city is an attempt to assert Israeli sovereignty; municipality calls it a ‘symbol of co-existence’

‘Spontaneous’ Arab Riots a Message from PA to Obama
Former IDF general says ‘spontaneous rage’ riots are a message to Obama and Netanyahu, aiming at restarting Israel-PA talks.

Two Arrested For Suspected Links to Toulouse Gunman
French police arrested two men in city of Toulouse in connection with Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah's March killing spree.

The pair, aged 23 and 20, were being held in detention and questioned over their links to the self-proclaimed, Al-Qaeda inspired shooter who killed a rabbi, three Jewish children and three French paratroopers in and around Toulouse.
They are suspected of providing "logistical help" to Merah, who was shot dead during a police siege.

German soccer squad battles neo-Nazi violence
Extreme right-wing fans increasingly use Borussia Dortmund games to attack enemies and spread messages of hate

Dealing with a surge of right-wing extremism among its fans, Borussia Dortmund has long used social workers at games to defuse tense situations and help promote tolerance.
This month, however, the social workers themselves ended up being attacked by a group of neo-Nazi fans, with one of them beaten badly in a stadium bathroom.
It was one of many recent incidents that highlight how Germany — and Dortmund in particular — is still dealing with grim reminders of its dark days of racism, intolerance and violence.

Dutch TV program prompts call for anti-Semitism probe
Interviews with immigrant students showed admiration for Hitler and hatred of Jews

“The interviewees appear to be partly aware of the Holocaust, but approve of the mass murder of Jews,” the Hague-based CIDI wrote.
One of the interviewees said on camera: “I am more than pleased with what Hitler did to the Jews.” Another said: “I hate Jews, period. Nothing you do will make me change my mind.”

New implant is alternative to spinal fusion

The Israeli company Premia Spine is offering a unique and – it believes – better option. Its trademarked TOPS (Total Posterior Solution) System aims to revolutionize the spinal implant market in the same way that total hip and total knee replacement systems made hip and knee fusions a thing of the past.

Waze named world’s best mobile app
Israeli navigation app steered itself to the industry’s top honors at the Mobile World Congress.

Mobile navigation and traffic community app, Waze, is definitely headed in the right direction. The Israeli startup has been named Best Mobile App for 2013.
The world’s fastest-growing community-based traffic and navigation app triumphed over the likes of Flipboard, Square and Dropbox to take the “Judges Choice – Best Overall Mobile App” prize at the 18th Annual Global Mobile awards.

Wow - a PalArab video that demands the end to Arab discrimination against them

I have noted throughout the years the official Arab discrimination practices against Palestinian Arabs.

An apparently Palestinian Arab YouTube channel called "Palestinian Refugees" made a professional video about this problem, and demands full citizenship rights for Palestinians in Arab countries.

As the channel description says:

Since the Naqba, Palestinian Refugees mainly settled in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Over the decades we have been denied citizenship of our host countries, we have been denied the ability to own property and work in numerous professions. This channel is dedicated to our silent human rights crisis - perpetrated by our own brothers.

This type of criticism of Arab states for their systematic discrimination against their Palestinian Arab brethren is practically unheard of as Arab and PalArab leaders use these people as pawns against Israel and ignore their own human rights.

Unfortunately - probably out of fear - the person or people behind this initiative are anonymous, although apparently Jordanian.

I can only recall one Arab researcher who has ever looked at this problem as honestly as this film does.

Wednesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

In the Apartheid Oscars, Arab states win hands down

Those who berate the West for its orientalism towards the Third World, quoting the late Edward Said‘s eponymous book, ignore the fact that much of society under Muslim domination was built on the exploitation of women, Jews (and Christians) and blacks. Not only are all Arab countries strong contenders in the Apartheid Oscars, but Saudi Arabia would win hands down. At the bottom of its obscene pecking order are women, non-Muslims and slaves.

Pink Anti-Semitism Is No Different from Brown Anti-Semitism by Alan Dershowitz

Now this pinkwashing campaign is coming to the City University of New York. A pinkwashing conference is being sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Studies Center at The Graduate Center on April 10-11, 2013. It will be yet another hate fest against Israel, but this time it will cross the line into classic anti-Semitic tropes. Don’t be fooled by its benign pink hue, or its academic pretext. At its core, the newly-fashioned charge of pinkwashing is little different from the old-fashioned charges leveled by brown-shirted anti-Semites—namely, that neither the Jews nor the Jewish state ever does good things without bad motives. And this time, the hate conference is being cosponsored by the Philosophy and Psychology Departments and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York—as well as by the Center for The Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University.
Shame on anyone who exploits his or her sexual orientation to promote anti-Semitic bigotry. And shame on anyone who sponsors those who practice pink anti-Semitism.

Palestinians Exporting Terrorists to Syria Where Next? by Khaled Abu Toameh

In contrast to claims by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaderships to the effect that the Palestinians are not taking sides in the conflict, Palestinians are involved in the fighting in Syria.
The Palestinians who are heading to Syria have been told their ultimate mission is to liberate Palestine "from the river to the sea."Once they get rid of Assad, they are told, they will move to their next station -- Jordan. From there, their jihad will take them to Israel, where they and their friends in Jabhat al-Nusra [The Support Front] hope to create a pan-Islamic state ruled by Sharia laws.

Elaborate surveillance operation raises concerns about broader Hezbollah attacks

While most of the attacks were thwarted or failed, the accumulated intelligence shows that Hezbollah is learning from its mistakes, employing the tactics of professional intelligence operatives to cover its tracks and expanding its threat, according to current and former U.S. officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing nature of the inquiries.
“In the beginning, they clearly emphasized speed over tradecraft,” said Matthew Levitt, a former counterterrorism official with the FBI and Treasury Department and author of the forthcoming book “Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God.” An analysis of the more recent plots shows a shift in tactics, said Levitt, who said the Cyprus case in particular “underscores a very patient, careful and calculated tradecraft.”

PMW: Norwegian TV reports on PMW documentation of PA hate incitement

An extremist named Sharmine Narwani finds a home at ‘Comment is Free’

It isn't an easy title to win, but Sharmine "Dignity Rockets" Narwani is probably the most loathsome of all the Huffington Post bloggers, past or present. We've documented in the past her hatred for America, Israel (of course), and Huffington Post bloggers who dare to say stuff that she doesn't like. She's a liar, an anti-Semite, and a propagandist, not to mention a proud terrorism supporter. If all that doesn't convince you, check out this page of quotes here.

Egyptian court orders Gaza tunnels destroyed
Porous border a threat to Egypt’s security and destabilizes the Sinai Peninsula, security official says

Hamas Calls to Kidnap IDF Soldiers
Hamas, taking advantage of the rioting in Judea and Samaria, calls on terrorists to kidnap IDF soldiers.

Gaza rocket hits Israel. Obviously Israel's fault.
BBC reporting on the Middle East is no longer even biased, it's just a joke...

Facade of Neutrality Masks UN Bias
UN condemned the firing of a rocket from Gaza into Israel, while blaming spur of violence on Jewish state.

‘Iranians in Gaza, guiding rocket development’
Revolutionary Guard officials are helping Hamas and Islamic Jihad extend their range, report says

For third time in 2 years, ‘Iran fails to launch satellite’
Report of latest setback comes a day after Israel successfully tests Arrow 3 missile interceptor

Syria Trumpets UN Election to Senior Post
Ban Ki-moon was silent at meeting that named Assad Rapporteur of Decolonization Committee

Syria claims Turkey enabling al-Qaida
Damascus complains to UN that Ankara enables terrorist organizations "to receive funding and arms, enter Syrian territory.”

Senior Turkish politician chooses Israel for stem cell treatment
Former Finance Minister hopes groundbreaking therapies will cure renal failure.

Morocco film searches out Jews who left for Israel
Once home to some 300,000 Jews — the largest community in the Arab world — Morocco is taking a fresh look at its long history with Judaism

Hundreds of members of Islamist and left wing political groups demonstrated outside the Tangiers Film Festival earlier this month against a documentary about Moroccan Jews living in Israel. They claimed that director Kamal Hachkar was promoting “normalization” with the Jewish state.

Egyptian cleric: Christianity started as worshiping Jesus' penis, and it gets better

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian cleric Abu Islam, which aired on Al-Omma TV (via the Internet) on Feburary 13, 2013.

Egyptian cleric Abu Islam: I swear to God the Almighty – and believe me, I am not lying – that the Church worship originated in the worship of the penis. I swear to God. This is documented in dozens of pictures.

Let me tell you something – it's indecent, but true. Take a look at a picture of Jesus, and you'll see a penis, right here. Or is it on this side? Oh, it's on the right side. A penis, right here. There are many pictures like this. They worship it.

[…]

[Christian women] raise cats and dogs as a substitute for husbands. They train their dogs to play the husband. I swear to God, I am not lying. They buy dogs for this purpose. They train dogs to play the husband on them. Christian women do that.

The face he makes when he conjures up a mental picture of Jesus' penis is nothing short of hilarious.

By the way, isn't there a law that Muslims like to demand that makes defamation of religions illegal? Anyone think Abu Islam has been arrested in the past two weeks?

Since I can't help myself, I looked up the actual image behind Abu Islam to see if I could discern a penis. I couldn't, but perhaps the more imaginative of my readers can find it (click to, um, enlarge.)

Evidence Iran is working on a plutonium bomb

From The Telegraph:

The Telegraph can disclose details of activity at a heavily-guarded Iranian facility from which international inspectors have been barred for 18 months.

The images, taken earlier this month, show that Iran has activated the Arak heavy-water production plant.

Heavy water is needed to operate a nuclear reactor that can produce plutonium, which could then be used to make a bomb.

The images show signs of activity at the Arak plant, including a cloud of steam that indicates heavy-water production.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been unable to visit the facility since August 2011 and Iran has refused repeated requests for information about the site, which is 150 miles south-west of the capital, Tehran.

Western governments and the IAEA have held information about activity at Arak for some time.

But today’s exclusive images are the first to put evidence of that activity into the public domain.

The striking image of steam over the Arak heavy-water complex is a vivid demonstration that the regime has more than one pathway to a potential nuclear weapon....[T]he new images of Arak highlight the progress Iran has made on facilities that could allow it to produce plutonium, potentially giving the country a second option in developing a nuclear weapon.

Other images of the area around Arak show that numerous anti-aircraft missile and artillery sites protect the plant, more than are deployed around any other known nuclear site in the country.

The missile defences are most heavily concentrated to the west of the plant, which would be the most direct line of approach for any aircraft delivering a long-range strike from Israel.

The Arak complex has two parts: the heavy-water plant and a nuclear reactor.

Unlike the heavy-water plant, the reactor has been opened to examination by inspectors from the IAEA.

The country still lacks the technology to reprocess plutonium and use it for a weapon.

But North Korea has successfully developed that technology, and some analysts speculate that Iran could do the same.

Wikipedia provides some background:

Because they do not require uranium enrichment, heavy water reactors are of concern in regards to nuclear proliferation. The breeding and extraction of plutonium can be a relatively rapid and cheap route to building a nuclear weapon, as chemical separation of plutonium from fuel is easier than isotopic separation of U-235 from natural uranium.

...Due to its potential for use in nuclear weapons programs, the possession or import/export of large industrial quantities of heavy water are subject to government control in several countries. Suppliers of heavy water and heavy water production technology typically apply IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) administered safeguards and material accounting to heavy water.

(h/t Yoel)

Egyptian documentary on Jews of Egypt might be pretty honest

Al Ahram has an exclusive preview of a new film, four years in the making, called "The Jews of Egypt" - and it describes how they were expelled.

While many Egyptians routinely deny that Jews were expelled from their country, the preview here seems to show pretty definitively that they were indeed methodically thrown out.

I expect that this film will stir up at least as much controversy as the film about Moroccan Jews has been receiving there.

The film will be released on March 6.