Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Tennessee textbooks downplay terrorism, classify Hamas et. al. as "political parties"

Several Tennessee parents are outraged over a textbook distributed in their children’s high school “human geography” class that suggest Hamas, Hezbollah and the PLO are political parties.

One statement from the 10th edition of “The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography” textbook was most alarming to one of the parents, Hugh Nemets, who is Jewish.

“If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?” the book asks.

Nemets said, “It smells of anti-Semitism to me. It opened the door to legitimizing terror,” Mr. Nemets told Nashville’s News 2.

He is one of 10 Williamson County parents who voiced their concerns at a board meeting earlier last week.

A Williamson County school district spokesperson told the station that the book was selected from a list given to them by the State Department of Education.

Parents concerned about the textbooks can submit a formal written complaint. The school district told Nashville’s News 2 it has not yet received any such complaint.

WKRN, Nashville News, Nashville Weather and Sports

Glancing at an online version of sections from the book, I see other issues. It has a ton of information about Islam but very little about Judaism.

It includes a few problematic questions:

The Western Wall in Jerusalem remains an effective boundary between:

	Jews and Muslims
	Armenians and Jews
	Christians and Jews
	Muslims and Christians

Two problems: it doesn't describe the Kotel at all as to its importance, and it implies that Jews have no business on their holiest site.

Another:

Using this diffusion map of religion, the hearths of the three religions illustrated in this map are

	Palestine, Syria, and Japan.
	Palestine, Mecca, and China.
	Mecca, Palestine, and India.
	none of the above.

"Palestine"? Is that where Judaism and Christianity came from? Funny, I don't think Jesus ever used that term.

I wish that full textbooks were online - I'm sure that there is a ton of bias that is evident, but it takes a lot of effort to find it.

(h/t Einfal)

Sudanese cleric blames Jews for Boston bombing, Texas explosion, Iran earthquake

And 9/11. And the tsunami.

I can't wait for the next hurricane season.

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Sheik Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri, which aired on April 19, 2013:

Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri: The most important political events of the week were the Boston earthquake and the Texas earthquake, which joined it yesterday… Or rather, the bombings in Boston and in Texas, as well as the Iran earthquake. In short, the peculiar thing is that no one knows who is behind these events. Even President Obama said: "We do not know who did this or why." Iran, too, does not know who caused the earthquake.

[…]
People know who is responsible for earthquakes. It is God. But now there are allegations that this earthquake was artificial. The so-called "earthquake-war" has begun. The industrialized countries have the capacity to make bombs that impact the Earth’s crust and core, causing earthquakes. It is even said that the tsunami that raised the waves, causing thousands of deaths, was, in fact, an experiment in that weapon.

[…]

This earthquake had two goals: first, to [prevent] the Russians from officially handing over the Bushehr nuclear plant to Iran within a month’s time. The West does not want this to happen.

[…]
They wanted to destroy the new gas pipeline [from Iran to Pakistan], along with the [Bushehr] nuclear plant. There is also the issue of promoting the sale of gas masks. These expired gas masks, meant to protect people from nuclear gases, have recently been sold in the Gulf. The fourth goal is to sow fear in the Gulf region, where the earthquakes were heard. They want to make these people scared of the Iranian nuclear plant, and to ignite a regional Sunni-Shiite war, a war between Iran and its neighbors.

[…]

To this we should add the bombings in America. Now they are saying that the bombs were placed in "primitive" pots. Why would anyone in the U.S. need to resort to nails and pressure cookers to make a bomb? You can find any type of weapon there and simply buy it. Why did they say "primitive"? I don’t have time to read you the quotation. They said that the bomb was "primitive," in order to direct the blame at one of us in the Third World.

[…]

When North Korea stopped manufacturing buses, it started making nuclear warheads. Today, North Korea poses a threat to America. America might be drawn into an historic war, a war between Communism and capitalism. This is precisely what Israel does not want. Israel wants the war to be between America and the "primitive" Arabs, and that is why the bombs were "primitive."

I have said that the [9/11] Manhattan bombings were meant to transform America from a country to an empire, and that it is, indeed, what happened. Now, they do not want this empire to expand, and to revive the Cold War – this time with North Korea and the Asian countries. No, they want America to continue to defend Israel.

In Saudi Arabia, there have been moves in the Shura Council to change the current weekend, Thursday and Friday, to Friday and Saturday in order to better sync with world economies.

This has been creating a backlash among clerics, who say that giving Saturdays or Sundays as days off would be forbidden.

Sheikh Saleh Fawzan, a senior cleric in Saudi Arabia, said that such a move would "invoke Allah's wrath" because this is a custom of Jews and Christians, the Jews taking off on Saturdays and the Christians on Sundays.

In his written fatwa, he said that Islam must be practiced uniquely, and that while it is forbidden for Muslims to imitate non-Muslims in general, it is especially bad to imitate Christians and Jews. Giving people vacations on Saturdays and Sundays is one of the forbidden imitations.

It is difficult to read this without recalling the saying that has reportedly been seen in graffiti and heard in the Muslim world - "first the Saturday people, then the Sunday people," as targets within Muslim-dominated countries.

Al Aqsa University bans offensive words - like "women" and "Jews"

From Al Monitor:

“I was completely bereft when he pulled me by my hand and embraced me. … I felt warmth emanating from his chest.” This sentence in a short story titled “Love in War” was enough for Gaza's Al-Aqsa University to launch an investigation into faculty member Dr. Khoder Mahjez. Mahjez teaches a course titled “Literature and Modern Criticism” at the Faculty of Arts in Al-Aqsa University. The investigations began following a complaint filed by a female student, who claimed that the professor used obscene words during the lecture.

In an interview over the phone with Al-Monitor, Mahjez said that the obscene words — which he was accused of using by the investigation commission during the interrogation attended by the dean of the Faculty of Arts and a legal advisor — were present in a story he had used as an example in his book, which carries the same name as the course. He added that there had been objections to the use of certain words — such as "women," "sons of a bitch" and "Jews" — as opposed to using terms with ideological connotations that are preferable to the university, such as sons of "monkeys" and "pigs."

"They hate poetry, literature and all that has to do with creativity and life," he said.

Mahjez added that although he retired last year, it is customary for retired teachers to continue to be allocated a few hours of teaching. Yet he was blackmailed, he said, by the University Board of Directors, who threatened to publish a statement that would tarnish his reputation if he did not leave the university. Thus, he resigned.

He explained that his story spread when a journalist friend published it in the local newspaper. This started a war not only with the university administration, but also with the Hamas movement that has been managing the university for years.

Later in the article we learn that "nightgown" is also an obscene word in Hamastan.

An interesting historical note at the end of the article:

However, it appears that monitoring academic freedoms at Palestinian universities has existed ever since their inception in the 1980s. According to a study by Asta, in one of the West Bank Universities the father of a female student filed a complaint against an Arabic literature teacher for discussing the famous novel "Season of Migration to the North" by Sudanese author Tayeb Salih, which contains sexual expressions. Moreover, academic Ghazi Fallah has resigned from his post due to pressure at the same university for describing the West Bank as "Judea and Samaria."

This sounds startlingly like Orwell's "1984" - in "Palestine," if you do not use the modern equivalent of "newspeak," you are charged with a "thoughtcrime." And this applies both under Hamas and Fatah rule, although at the moment Hamas is clearly the innovators in quashing any original thinking in Gaza.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

Is EoZ one of the "top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life"?

From The Algemeiner:

In honor of our forthcoming 40th Anniversary Gala, The Algemeiner set out to establish an annual list ... entitled the JEWISH 100, of the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life.

Throughout millennia of tumultuous Jewish history, our people have been inspired and led by a select few. Icons revered by the Jewish community have included powerful military leaders, prophets, visionaries, scholars, innovators, pioneers, kings, saints, politicians and righteous gentiles. What they all share in common, is their appreciation of the unique contributions of the Jewish people in serving as a voice of moral conscience for mankind and their willingness to make sacrifices for its continuity.

Our list aims to capture a glimpse of the top 100 people alive today that embody this spirit. For some it may come through their role in a position of influence or power. For others, it is through serving as a role model embodying Jewish values or qualities. Others will be listed for serving as a source of Jewish pride, or for bringing new and innovative ideas to Jewish expression; others yet may have stuck out their necks to advocate for Jews and Israel at great personal sacrifice. Some who will be listed, though rarely heard from in public, nonetheless have a significant influence on the important Jewish or Israel related events of our time.

If that isn't over the top enough, here is their video describing the Jewish 100:

Notice the photo used when they say the word "scholars."

Does this mean that I am one of the honorees?

Well, it is possible they are referring to Rashi, not me.

Maybe. Or maybe not.

Because at the very moment this is being posted, I am attending the Jewish 100 Gala dinner - incognito - to be there when Elder of Ziyon is announced as one of the "Jewish 100" for the year.

No joke! I received this in the mail last week:

This may be one of the few times that an anonymous person has received such an honor.

To put it mildly, I was blown away when I found out I was an awardee. I mean, they have a real red carpet for the awardees to walk on (an honor which I am skipping, thank you.)

And I thought being ranked #1 in Technorati was a big deal.

This is an amazing honor, and since I can't do it at the dinner, I'd like to thank the Algemeiner Journal for giving it to me.

A report on the gala will be forthcoming!

Jordanian MP visits Israel - gets expelled from his party

From Ammon News (Jordan):

The Islamist Centrist Party (ICP) decided on Monday to expel Member of Parliament Mohammad Asha Al-Dawaymeh from both the political party and its parliamentary bloc following a probe into his reported recent visit to Israel.

An ICP source told Ammon News that the deputy was subjected to questioning by the party regarding his recent visit to Israel, and attending a reception held by Israeli President Shimon Peres celebrating Israel's so-called "Independence Day," marking 65 years of the founding of Israel, considered the Palestinian Nakba of 1948.
...
Al-Dawaymeh told Ammon News earlier this week that...the purpose of his visit was to defend the cause of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque.

ICP issued a statement on Monday stating that the party's parliamentary bloc met with ICP's political committee and decided unanimously to expel Al-Dawaymeh, citing his visit to the "Zionist entity" and his attendance of a reception and shaking hands with the "criminal" Peres, according to the statement.

"The Bloc and Political Committee voted unanimously to expel him considering that such acts violate the party's principles and foundations that reject all forms of normalization with the Zionist entity," the statement added.

Last I checked, Jordan still had a peace treaty with Israel.

This is the best kind of "peace" Israel could ever realistically hope to see with its Arab neighbors.

Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: American Jewish leaders: Stop the rot now

Many consider it a wake-up call and believe that alarm bells should be ringing at major Jewish organizations.
Visiting New York this week, I sought to assess the broader implications of the recent “International Peace Award” bestowed on former president Jimmy Carter by Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School. This unsavory display of groveling by a major Jewish institution to a committed foe of the Jewish people is not merely a stain on the entire Jewish community but highlights a dramatic erosion of Jewish values and Jewish dignity.

Nazi hunter chides Israel over anti-Semitism confab invites

A leading Israeli Nazi hunter scolded the Foreign Ministry this week for extending invitations for an anti-Semitism conference to representatives of four European countries, which, he says, “are part of the problem and not part of the solution” when it comes to anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli bigotry.
Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, said senior government officials from Lithuania, Greece, Hungary and Ireland should not be allowed to attend — and speak at — the Foreign Ministry’s 4th International Conference of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, which is scheduled to take place later this month in Jerusalem.

Israelly Cool: Roger Waters Backtracks On His Backtrack

Last week I posted an interview with BDShole Roger Waters, in which he seemed to state he was considering his position regarding boycotting Israel.
Now Waters is claiming he was misinterpreted.

After effects: BBC accuracy failure used to promote hate

Is the BBC responsible for the fact that the picture of a father carrying his son who was killed as a result of a terrorist missile can be misrepresented as an image depicting Israeli “murder”? Yes.
Because if BBC journalists in the Gaza Strip at the time had adhered to their own editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality, that story would not have been promoted as part of a preconceived narrative depicting Israelis as ‘baby killers’ and that image would not have become entrenched in the minds of the general public as a depiction of Israeli wrong-doing.

CAMERA: Ha'aretz Lost in Translation: A Shocking Holocaust Comparison

Once again, Ha'aretz translators are again engaging in creative, even shocking, translations, inserting text into the English edition which is diametrically opposed to the Hebrew original. In an article today regarding a judicial proceeding against Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi, who is refusing food, the English edition reports online

Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found On Boston-Area Church

Police in the Boston suburb of Sharon are investigating swastika graffiti that was found on the Victory Assembly of God church last week.
The graffiti may be related to a Jerusalem Day celebration at the church next month. Banners and posters advertising the event, which celebrates Israeli soldiers reuniting Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War, was vandalized as well.

How an Israeli start-up beats flash’s ‘dirty little secret’

SSDs, the new standard in hard drives, have some serious disadvantages. Israel’s Reduxio has a way to turn the tables

Israel’s top 12 video surveillance advances

Last week’s Boston terror attack highlighted the critical role of video surveillance analytics in tracing criminals and terrorists. It’s a field in which Israeli companies excel.
In light of the pivotal role these new technologies are now playing in solving terror and crime, ISRAEL21c offers an updated list of 12 of the biggest Israeli video synopsis and analysis firms now operating around the world.

Sol Chip wins Energy Harvesting Award at IDTechEx

Sol Chip, the Israeli company behind the development of an innovative solar operated battery, recently took the Technical Development Award Winner in the 2013 IDTechEx Energy Harvesting & Storage and Wireless Sensor Networks exhibition in Berlin, Germany.

Israel Daily Picture: More Treasures from the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Part 2

We continue to scan and research the treasure trove of photographs donated to Israel Daily Picture, pictures taken by the donor's father in the Land of Israel in the first decades of the 20th century.

Lingerie model now covers up as a reporter/propagandist on Iran's PressTV

A hilarious story from VexNews:

PressTV, the official news outlet of the theocratic government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has employed an Australian correspondent, Edwina Storie, who is a former “adult entertainment” model and big-boozing party girl.

Her behaviour, all perfectly lawful here in Australia, would be sufficient for her to be stoned to death in the theocratic and tyrannical regime that pays her to propagandise on their behalf.

Storie, a trained journalist and glamour model, has recently started reporting for the Iranian news outlet, with stories including one broadcast this weekend cheering on the efforts of local ultra-left and Greensparty militants to institute a “boycott” against the Jewish state of Israel of the kind once pushed in Nazi Germany. Respecting customs in Iran, Edwina Storie partly covered her hair and dressed modestly during the broadcast.

The VEXNEWS Investigations Unit can exclusively reveal the religiously fanatical Iranian regime’s reporter has had an extensive history of glamour modelling and behaviour inconsistent with the regime’s strict requirements.

Her social media accounts have quite recent declarations of enthusiastic consumption of alcohol, complete with photographs of her clutching the grog. One tweet made in December 2011 exclaimed “I wish I had blamed more on being young and dumb when I had the chance!” Indeed.

Modelling sites, and her own social media accounts, accessed by VEXNEWS investigators, and saved for the purposes of news reporting, highlight the hypocrisy of the regime and its propaganda agents, and clearly demonstrate Edwina Storie’s double life she probably didn’t mention during her job interview. Her ground-breaking work on sex with robots probably didn’t feature prominently either as the regime mulled over her appointment.

One modelling site has dozens of racy images of Ms Storie with “tags” describing her work that would have any Mullah reaching for his stones. The descriptions include “porn movie,” “sex video,” “call girl,” “girl kneeling,” “erotic,” “sensual,” “mistress,” “affair,” “laying back,” “legs in air,” “seductress,” “sucking on finger,” “married man,” “office affair,” “secret rendezvous,” “cleavage,” “buttocks in air,” “arched back,” “body in air,” “busty,” “boobs,” “heels on bed,” “afternoon delight,” and “afterwork surprise.” Certainly it would be something of a surprise for Ms Storie’s work colleagues at PressTV.

(h/t Ian)

18 more dead Hezbollah fighters in Syria as pressure mounts in Lebanon

Hezbollah might be good at shooting rockets while hiding underground, but they seem to be not nearly as good at fighting against a ragtag rebel force:

The Free Syrian Army has reportedly killed 18 Hezbollah fighters in the Western city of Qusayr, activists at the Syrian Revolution General Commission reported on Tuesday.

The fighters were allegedly killed in a battle between the Syrian rebels and the Hezbollah fighters.

Elite fighters from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, are leading the fight against rebels in the region of Qusayr in the central province of Homs, a watchdog said on Monday.

“It’s Hezbollah that is leading the battle in Qusayr, with its elite forces,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

On Sunday, the main opposition National Coalition urged Hezbollah to “immediately withdraw its forces from Syrian territory”, adding its involvement in Syria’s conflict “could drag Lebanon and the region into an open-ended conflict with disastrous consequences.”

Other reports have the Syrian army making gains in the Qusayr area, however.

Also:

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri described Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria as a crime against Lebanon Tuesday while rejecting recent calls for Jihad by Salafi sheikhs against the resistance group.

"Hezbollah’s involvement in the fight in Syria is an involvement in defense of the Syrian regime, regardless of the sectarian or factional excuses that the party is putting forth to justify this crime. [This will] drag Lebanon into a fire that Bashar Assad has warned of,” Hariri said in a statement.

Both Hezbollah and its Lebanese opponents seem to be inexorably widening the conflict to Lebanon:

"What Hezbollah is doing with regard to this issue is a national and moral duty in the defense of the Lebanese in border villages," Lebanon's official news agency quoted senior Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nabil Qaouq as saying on Monday.

"To those who ask us to allow our brothers in these border villages to be victims of murders, kidnaps, massacres and expulsions, I respond to you: 'Can we leave these Lebanese hostage to this situation?" he added.

"Hezbollah's martyrs are the martyrs of the entire nation because they are defending their Lebanese compatriots," he said at a ceremony marking a week since the death of a Hezbollah fighter killed in Syria.

Meanwhile, Sunni Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir late Monday urged Muslims and the Lebanese people to fight alongside the rebels in Syria and announced the formation of the “Free Resistance Brigades.”

“Jihad in Syria is a must – especially in Al-Qusayr – for all those Lebanese who can,” Assir said during a press conference on Monday.

He also called for the creation of “secret armed groups for self-defense in case [Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan] Nasrallah decides to start killing in Lebanon as he is doing in Syria.”

Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Charles Krauthammer: The language of terror

The Boston Marathon attack, the first successful terror bombing in the US since 9/11, was designed for maximum effect.
Terrorism is speech – speech that gathers its audience by killing innocents as theatrically as possible. The 19th-century anarchist Paul Brousse called it “propaganda by deed.” Accordingly, the Boston Marathon attack, the first successful terror bombing in the US since 9/11, was designed for maximum effect. At the finish line there would be not only news cameras but also hundreds of personal videos to amplify the message.

CIF Watch: Glenn Greenwald condemns the word ‘terrorism’ as racially-loaded

According to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, over the past several years the overwhelming majority of terrorist-related fatalities world-wide were the result of attacks by Islamist (Sunni) extremists.

Friends wonder if Boston suspect was linked to 2011 murders

At least two of the murdered men — Raphael Teken and Erik Weissman — were Jewish. (Friends of both Teken, 37, and Weissman, 31, maintain Facebook memorial pages in their honor.) The third victim in the September 2011 triple-homicide, Brendan Mess, was said by Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s acquaintances to have been his closest American friend.

Daniel Pipes: Boston Bombing Lesson: Ban Niqabs and Burqas

The Tsarnaev brothers pulled off their terrorist attack with great skill but made a fatal mistake in letting their faces and bodies be seen at a heavily photographed international sporting event. This meant that multiple images of them were available for a massive law enforcement squad to comb over and, after three days, identify them by name and appearance.

Spain arrests 2 men suspected of al Qaeda group links

The statement said the two suspects have a "profile" that is similar to the two suspects in the Boston Marathon attacks.

UN Watch: UN Official Justifies Boston Bombings as ‘Retribution’, Blames America & ‘Tel Aviv’

Richard Falk warns of "worse blowbacks," says “Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return”

Does the United Nations treat all refugees equally?

There are multiple UN agencies safeguarding the rights of refugees the world over - but the funding and staffing of one agency perhaps tells us about the institutional UN bias towards one people... doesn't it?

Fatah continues to praise suicide bombers on Facebook
Murderers of 7 are Martyrs and heroes

On the anniversary of their terror attacks, Fatah honored suicide bombers Andalib Takatka and Fadi Al-Amoudi as Martyrs and heroes.
Andalib Takatka killed 6 and wounded more than 80 when she blew herself up at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem in 2002.
Fadi Al-Amoudi killed 1 and wounded 3 when he detonated a bomb he was carrying at the Erez crossing at the Israeli-Egyptian border in 2004.

Iranian on fake Israeli passport held in Nepal for possible terror plot

An Iranian national carrying a forged Israeli passport was arrested by Israeli Embassy personnel in Kathmandu on April 13, amid fears that he was part of a plan to carry out a series of attacks against Israeli institutions and tourists in Nepal.

Ex-MI Head: Iran has Passed Red Line

Yadlin, who is the Head of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said that in the summer, Iran will reach a distance of one or two months between a decision and a bomb." That is, it will be able to build a nuclear bomb within a month or two of deciding to do so.

Assad attacked rebels with nerve gas, top IDF analyst says

Itai Brun: Based on photo evidence, regime deployed sarin on March 19; over 1,000 tons of chemical weapons in Syria

Afghan girls' school feared hit by poison gas

As many as 74 schoolgirls in Afghanistan's far north fell sick after smelling gas and were being examined for possible poisoning, local officials said on Sunday.

Hungary OKs limit to Nazi, communist symbols

Hungary’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a modified plan to restrict the display of Nazi and communist symbols such as the swastika and red star.

Also:

Daniel Pipes is speaking in Ottawa on May 13, on "Islam vs. Islamism: Is the problem religion or ideology?"

Qaradawi: "I will not share the stage with Jews"

Today is the start of the tenth annual Doha Conference for Interfaith Dialogue:

At the 10th Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue, we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of

establishing the annual conference on interfaith dialogue in Qatar by presenting to the world the work of interfaith at its best. Therefore, we are inviting organizations, institutions, universities and NGOs working in the field of interfaith dialogue to present their successful projects in this domain, and to display their best achievements during the event. The Doha International Award on Interfaith dialogue will be granted for the first time to a person or institution which will present the best practice in the field of interfaith dialogue.

We have seen before that these conferences are usually not at all about dialogue and everything about preaching Islam. Muslims and liberal non-Muslims happily play along to make Islam look more tolerant.

But this time, popular Islamic terror supporter, preacher and TV personality Sheikh Yusef Qaradawi couldn't even go along with the charade that he can stand talking to Jews as equals.

Qaradawi rejected participating in the conference when he found out that Jews would be there as well.

Qatar media quoted Sheikh Qaradawi as saying that "after the announcement of the expansion of the conference to be a dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews, I decided not to participate in it so as not to sit with Jews on a single platform, as long as the Jews are usurping Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque and destroying homes of God, and as long as the question of Palestine hung not been resolved."

He didn't say "Zionists." I don't know what rabbis actually participate in these things but it is a safe bet that they are not from Israel. Qaradawi is simply proving that he hates Jews.

So far, I have not seen any criticism of Qaradawi for his public display of antisemitism.

Look who is building illegal settlements in Jerusalem

From Ma'an:

The head of a monastery in East Jerusalem on Monday accused residents of al-Eizariyya of building illegally on church land.

Al-Eizariyya residents are constructing buildings on the private lands of the Holy

Monastery of Martha and Maria, "brushing aside all religious, social and national values," said Sister Efpraxia.

"This is a dangerous violation in broad daylight, and construction is ongoing despite our frequent appeals and calls. Such provocative acts are not acceptable by any rational human," the abbess added.

The nun appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah, custodian of holy sites in East Jerusalem, "to relieve the feeble people as soon as possible bringing these overt violations against the monastery's property."

One of the commenters assumed that the people building were Jews - but of course they aren't. The Christian land is being stolen by Muslims, as it has been throughout the West Bank for years.

Not to mention that Arabs routinely illegally build all over the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem without regard to zoning laws or safety.

Will the international community rise up against these "settlements" being built illegally in "east Jerusalem"? Do you have to ask?

Note however that the monastery isn't asking Israel to intervene. Even if you consider Israel the "occupying power" of that area, Israel is still responsible to ensure the laws are enforced - that is basic occupation law.

But the idea of asking the Israelis to help is apparently more distasteful than the theft of land itself.

Latest "human shield" lie debunked (update)

Al Ahram (Egypt) reports:

Israeli forces used a 17-year-old Palestinian as a human shield while trying to disperse a protest in Abu Dis in the West Bank this Friday, the Electronic Intifada website reported.

Independent journalist Huthifa Jamous took pictures of the incident and shared a video shot by another observer, Kate A, a journalist, on his Facebook page.

The boy, called Muhammad R. by Electronic Intifada, is marched out of an armoured vehicle by Israeli forces. With his hands tied with a single plastic cord and raised above his head, and his shirt pulled up, he is led out to face out-of-frame protestors.

Three soldiers then raise their weapons, and shoot twice in the direction of the protesters. The youth is then forced back to the vehicle. One of the soldiers then flashes the V-for-victory sign.

According to the Jerusalem Media Center and Ma'an news agency, the incident occurred when at least 500 Palestinians in Abu Dis held a protest expressing solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. Israeli forces fired teargas and rubber bullets at them. The protestors responded by hurling stones and empty bottles.

They show this video as proof:

We have seen many times that an event might be photographed accurately, but the caption lies. This is the video equivalent.

Here is a classic case of an ambiguous event occurring where the framework is given by an anti-Israel source - and gullible journalists believe that the video supports the report, when in fact it is the opposite.

Think for a second. How effective is a "human shield" if it is used for only a couple of seconds and then put back in the police van?

Just a quick unbiased view of the video indicates that the soldiers are showing the rioter to his comrades. Before I researched this my guess was that the rioters started a rumor that the teenager (assuming he is a teen) had died and the soldiers were proving that he was not injured.

Which was what indeed happened, as the Jerusalem Post reported after the incident:

Border Police spokesman Idan Iluz said Saturday that the officers were not using the teen as a human shield, and instead had pulled him out of the jeep in order to show the protesters that the boy had not been harmed.

Iluz said that a rumor had made its way among the demonstrators that the boy had been injured, and as a result they began to react violently, throwing rocks at officers.

He said that not long after the boy was taken out of the car and shown to the protesters, the situation calmed down considerably.

A look at the fuller version of the video shows also that the "Jerusalem Media Center" - which is QudsMedia.com, a site that lies continuously, often about "Jews storming the Temple Mount" - is lying here as well as to the order of events. It is clear that the stone-throwing and rioting came first, and the tear gas later.

You can see that the IDF even temporarily withdrew from the dangerous stone rioting, as the rioters yelled "Allah Akbar". This supports the idea that the IDF only returned to show that the youth had been unharmed.

This incident also illustrates how Al Ahram believes the lies of Israel haters without the slightest critical thinking, or even a five second search through the Internet to see the Israeli statement about the incident, even though it published this two days later. Which means that this respected Egyptian paper acts exactly like Hamas in its reporting.

(h/t Israel Muse)

UPDATE: Now Electronic Intifada is walking back the "human shield" claim (even though they keep it in the headline) and restating the "crime" by saying that the IDF exposed the youth to danger by bringing him to a dangerous place. Which is funny, because I thought rock throwing was "non-violent resistance."

They also say, implausibly, that the beginning of the video happened after the part where the teen is shown. Sure, everyone edits things backwards.

I cannot answer why the IDF shot a couple of rounds in the latter part of the video, but clearly this is not a "human shield" situation and the initial lies by EI were picked up by media worldwide. Which is, of course, what they intended, truth be damned.

Gazans getting sick of Hamas

From Now Lebanon, which is becoming a better news source every day:

Ayman as-Sayyed is a 19 year-old Palestinian who lives in Gaza. He was arrested last week by the Hamas police who picked him up on the streets because they were bothered by his long hair. So they decided to cut it for him.
...
Such practices are the result of a mentality based on monopolizing power, which leads to confiscating other people’s freedoms and imposing certain values and modes of behavior on them, according to Palestinian writer Majed Kayyali, who writes “This is how totalitarian systems – especially ideological ones – work, using means of direct and symbolic violence to impose their authority.”

These renewed violations have been occurring sporadically in the Gaza Strip since 2007, the year Hamas took over the Gaza Strip as a result of internal Palestinian divisions. Palestinian writer and activist Mustapha Ibrahim says “When Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections, many Hamas officials promptly reassured people that they would not harm public and private freedoms and would commit to implementing the law. However, things were different on the field.”
...

Zeinab al-Ghoneimi, a women’s rights activist and director of the Council for Women’s Legal Research and Counseling in Gaza, comments: “Hamas wants to Islamize society, which is already Islamic and conservative in Gaza. In reality, male and female students are already separated as of Grade 3 in most schools, except for two or three of them. The prevailing culture here is for women to cover their hair. So what do these decisions mean?”

What is being imposed here, she argues, is a “political rather than ‘religious’ version of Islam.” Hamas is seeking to forcefully consecrate its presence by relying on religion, and to portray itself as the warrantor of ethics and values. “On the one hand, they want to show that their decisions are being heeded; that they set moral criteria and spread virtue as though people were all devoid of any morals. On the other hand, they are issuing these laws to hamper the work of any new government seeking to initiate change in the future. Furthermore, these practices instill fear and allow them to demonstrate their strength to people and portray themselves as absolute rulers.”

When human rights organizations protest against such unconstitutional laws, Hamas recants its decisions, “but not before having caused a stir among the people and allowing the movement to interfere with the details pertaining to people’s lives,” according to Zeinab al-Ghoneimi. This is exactly the feeling young Ayman as-Sayyed sought to convey to AP when he said that he is scared of the future and does not feel safe, as he can be insulted and arrested at any time for no reason whatsoever.

Both Ibrahim and Ghoneimi asserted that even when these decisions are officially revoked by the cabinet, some still prevent female attorneys from entering courthouses or assault people on the streets. The Hamas cabinet declines any responsibility in these cases, claiming that these are individual transgressions with which it has nothing to do.

Hamas’ monopoly over power, its use of violence, its interference in the private lives of citizens and its exclusion of all organizations – even allied ones – from the Gaza Strip have led to an outcry against the movement, which is losing support among the youth, according to Majed Kayyali. “This was manifested in the festival celebrating the launch of the Fatah Movement in Gaza in January 2013, knowing that Fatah had been banned in the Gaza Strip for the past six years. [The festival drew] a massive crowd and this was surprising not only for Hamas, which controls the Strip, but also for Fatah, which is in a state of organizational disrepair and is riddled with domestic conflicts. In this sense, an approximately one million-strong crowd on the Gaza square and surrounding streets voiced the complaints of Gaza’s Palestinians against Hamas violations. [Their participation] had more to do with opposing Hamas [practices] than with supporting Fatah.”
...
Zeinab al-Ghoneimi describes the situation in Gaza as depressing. People are expecting “a national reconciliation to occur and end the current division between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, rather than to be oppressed, intimidated, and insulted. Many university graduates are unemployed. Unemployment, self-imposed isolation, and the inability to move [freely] lead to problematic social behavior, the price of which is paid primarily by women. Hamas is not seeking to adopt policies that alleviate this situation. On the contrary, with every security tension or Israeli threat, criminals are released from prison and political detainees remain behind bars.”

Some more stuff to read

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a great looking Hebrew article in Mida about how Ha'aretz has turned from an excellent paper into a terrible one. I hoped someone could translate it - and someone did. Read it all at TheTower.

UN Watch slams Richard Falk for again blaming America for "prompting" Islamic terror.

Ian noted this in his linkdump but it is an important story, from JPost:

Bulgarian police officers last summer arrested a Canadian citizen linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local Chabad center in the capital of Sofia, a well-placed and reliable local source told The Jerusalem Post last week, on condition of anonymity due to security reasons.

An Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s, holding a Canadian passport, traveled from Istanbul to Sofia several weeks after the bombing of the Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas in July 2012. She was arrested on her first day in Sofia after the Bulgarian police, on high alert, noticed she was monitoring the Chabad center.

But that wasn't the only terror plot around. Canada caught an Iranian-based Al Qaeda plot to derail a passenger train.

In a related note, Michael Totten thinks that this might be the beginning of the end for Hezbollah. (h/t WarpedMirrorPMB)

Barry Rubin shows his usual clear-headed thinking:

Now that the two (primary, at least) terrorists from the Boston Marathon attack have been killed or captured, we enter a new phase in which the dominant politically correct, factually incorrect forces try to explain away the attack.

Can this be done? Will they really try? Well, yes. True, as one of my correspondents remarked, it is much easier to obfuscate distant Benghazi than a total shutdown and horror in the middle of a major American city. Yet the spin-masters are already at work.

Finally, Five Minutes for Israel has a four part series destroying the BBC's official description of "Palestine":

Comes with the territory http://5mfi.com/comes-with-the-territory/ Overview

Facts with the territory http://5mfi.com/facts-with-the-territory/ Facts

The One-eyed is King http://5mfi.com/the-one-eyed-is-king/ Leaders

Massaging the media http://5mfi.com/massaging-the-media/ Media