Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Islamists attack "kissing protest" in Turkey

Islamists attacked a group of kissing couples who locked lips in a Turkish metro station to protest a morality campaign by the authorities in Ankara, the local press reported on Sunday.

One person was stabbed when about 20 Islamists chanting “Allah Akhbar” (God is Greatest) and some carrying knives attacked the demonstrators on Saturday, the Milliyet and Hurriyet newspapers reported.

About 200 people staged the kissing protest after officials in the Ankara municipality, which is run by Turkey’s ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), admonished a young couple for kissing in the street.

Turkey is predominantly Muslim but staunchly secular, although the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has introduced several measures opponents see as a sign of the creeping Islamization of the country, including restrictions on alcohol.

On Saturday, dozens of couples have locked lips at a subway stop in Ankara, to protest subway authorities' admonishment of a couple that kissed in public.
Turkish media say that, earlier in the week, Ankara subway officials made an announcement asking passengers "to act in accordance with moral rules" after security cameras spotted the couple kissing.

Sunday Links

From Ian:

PA officials: Abbas keeping us in the dark By Khaled Abu Toameh

The sources said that Abbas failed to brief the four officials on the outcome of his closed meeting with Kerry.
“Even chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat does not know the details of the discussions between Abbas and Kerry,” the sources said. “Abbas has decided to keep everyone in the dark.”
The sources said that Abbas had also failed to brief Palestinian officials on the results of his meeting with Kerry in Ankara several weeks ago.

Honest Reporting: How to Lie about Israel -- and Get Away With It!

‘Peres, When Are You Going to Wake Up?’

“And in general, when are you going to wake up from your dream of a New Middle East to the reality of the Islamic Winter that we are living in?” Fuchs asked.
He concluded, “You are the president of the country, but this is not a Presidential regime. There is a government in Jerusalem. Respect it, and it will respect you in your representative role as the state president.”

Israel preps for nationwide chemical warfare drill

Israel geared up for a massive military drill Monday to focus on coping with chemical weapons attacks. The nationwide exercise was to drill the civilian population as well as military and emergency services.

Woolwich attackers' university hosted 'extremist' preachers

It was reported today that the university of the attackers that killed Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich this week played host to a number of extremist speakers on campus over the past decade.
Greenwich University, which both Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale attended, recently hosted the likes of Dr. Khalid Fikry, Zahir Mahmoud and Abu Usamah.

This week's utterly disturbing Leftists

There is a sickness in the hard Left. Their unerring, almost sociopathic desire to direct the blame for terrible events onto our own country, our own ideology, our own people, is beneath contempt. Sometimes it is enough to just say “this was awful, this was evil, we will not waver”.
By attacking our own, the Left is doing exactly what the terrorists wanted all along. As a result, they have become the useless idiots who encourage the status quo.

French soldier stabbed in throat outside Paris

According to French newspaper Le Parisien, police described the attacker as a North African man aged approximately 30-years-old with a beard, a black jacket and a light colored djellaba cloak.

Alleged member of Hezbollah arrested here

The FBI has arrested a San Antonio man on charges he lied to get into the United States and tried to get a sensitive Defense Department position.
Wissam Allouche, 44, appeared for an initial hearing Friday afternoon, and shook his head when U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad read the charges leveled in a federal indictment. The judge ordered him held pending a bail hearing and his arraignment Tuesday.

In Depth: How Iranian weapons reach Hezbollah

For 20 years, Israeli intelligence has been playing a game of cat and mouse against the weapons smuggling axis of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in a battle in which "every imaginable method is employed."

Syrian Cyber-Attack on Haifa Water System

A Syrian organization launched a cyber-attack on Haifa's water system two weeks ago, a high ranking Israeli official revealed Saturday.
Speaking at a public panel in Be'er Sheva, Prof. Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, Chairman of the National Council for Research and Development in the Ministry of Science, said the attack was carried out by the “Syrian Electronic Army.”

Russia-Syria S-300 sale still on, senior Israeli official says

Reports of this cancellation have “no basis in reality,” the official said. “It’s a fairy tale. There was no agreement between Putin and Netanyahu.”
Still, the official assessed, “It’s likely that the Russians will try to stall for time and use this as a bargaining chip without following through on the deal [with Syria].”

Tehran deploys ‘massive’ number of missile launchers

Iran has fielded a “massive” number of new long-range missile launchers, state TV reported Sunday.
The new weapon components delivered to Iranian military units would allow them to “crush the enemy” with the mass simultaneous fire of long-range surface-to-surface missiles, Defence Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying.

Anti-Israel protesters crash Champions League dinner

The official Champions League final dinner was disrupted Friday night by three people infiltrating a London venue to protest to UEFA President Michel Platini about the under-21 European Championship being hosted by Israel next month.

Hungarian lawmaker doubts Auschwitz museum’s historicity

A lawmaker for the ultra-nationalist Jobbik party in Hungary said the Auschwitz death camp museum “may not reflect real facts.”
Tamas Gaudi-Nagy made the statement Thursday during a discussion in parliament on a proposal to facilitate visits by teenagers and young adults to the former Nazi camp in Poland.

Dead Sea Scroll fragments to hit the auction block

Nearly 70 years after the discovery of the world’s oldest biblical manuscripts, the Palestinian family who originally sold them to scholars and institutions is now quietly marketing the leftovers — fragments the family says it has kept in a Swiss safe deposit box all these years.

India activist seeks Israeli ‘volunteer technology’

Israel has a great deal of high-tech, agricultural technology, and environmental innovations it can help India with. But according to Joshua Victor, a social worker and activist, it has something else that can be just as important to the world’s second most populous country: A network of volunteer organizations and programs that is a model for the rest of the world.

Libyan anti-Israel postage stamps

This is the third in a series.

As far as I can tell, no one has ever compiled an illustrated list of anti-Israel postage stamps since the 1970s.

Libya's first stamps on the topic, as far as I can tell, was this 1971 series promoting Fatah terrorism:

There was a 1977 series called "Palestinian Fighters and their Families" but I do not have any images.

In 1979 and 1982 they had some pro-Palestinian Arab stamps that were not explicitly anti-Israel, such as Palestinian Children's Day.

Their stamps promoting "International Day of Cooperation with Palestinian People" would typically draw maps that erased Israel from 1983, 1984 and 1985:

In 1978 the stamps explicitly called for the destruction of Israel by war:

These stamps were to commemorate the "Anti-Israel Summit Conference" in Bahdad in December, 1978.

1986 continued the theme of violent pan-Arab war to destroy Israel:

The first intifada provided more stamps romanticizing violence, a theme that continued even during the Oslo process. This 1988 stamps shows rocks and Molotov cocktails - the "non-violent" resistance we hear so much about:

1992

1989

1994

1995

1996 - rock throwing

Hezbollah lashing out in Syria but feeling squeezed at home and in Europe

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech on Saturday where he, for the first time, admitted that Hezbollah is all-in to keep Bashar assad in power:

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday vowed "victory" in Syria, where militants of his powerful Lebanese Shiite movement are fighting alongside regular troops against rebels trying to topple the regime.

"I say to all the honorable people, to the mujahedin, to the heroes: I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one" in Syria, he said at a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from Lebanon.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would always stand by its allies in the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad, stressing that its own interests were at stake.

"We will continue along the road... bear the responsibilities and the sacrifices," he said in a video-link of a speech delivered live on a huge screen.

"This battle is ours... and I promise you victory," he said.

"Syria is the rear guard of the resistance (Hezbollah's fight with Israel), its backbone, and the resistance cannot stay with its arms folded when its rear guard is exposed.

"We are idiots if we do not act," said Nasrallah who avoids appearing in public for security reasons.

He is bizarrely trying to justify this by playing the Israel card, one that the Arab public is increasingly sick of:

In a televised speech marking the 13th anniversary of the Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon, Nasrallah also said that "if Syria falls, so will Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. We will enter a very dark phase."

He also spoke about Israeli preparations for a possible conflict with Hezbollah and said that Israel formed a new government portfolio dedicated to protecting the home front. "In Israel everything is geared up for a conflict year round and all year they hold maneuvers. Israel fears rockets, because we have no air force. The Israelis built towns along its borders. They are bringing in Jews from Ethiopia, Romania, and Argentina, and placing them by our borders and providing them with money and arms. On our side of the border, our towns are nearly empty."

Nasrallah did not present the fighting as a conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but rather as one waged between heathens serving a Western Zionist agenda and the Syrian resistance that refuses to accept the dictates of the West.
Nasrallah unequivocally stressed that the fall of the Syrian regime would be a blow to the "resistance." "Syria is the backbone of the 'resistance,' that cannot sit still and wait while its backbone is being broken," he said. "If Syria falls in the hands of the Americans and the Israelis and the American representatives in the region, the 'resistance' will be isolated and Israel will enter Lebanon and force its laws upon it. Lebanon will return to the Israeli era."

In his speech, Nasrallah tied the U.S. and Israel to Jihadist organizations working under the aegis of al-Qaida in Syria: "These combatants coming from many countries received many allowances to leave their countries and arrive at Syria, this is the American method of destabilizing Syria from the inside, using these organizations that brand everyone is heathens, those organizations that had killed more Sunni Muslims than anyone else. An example of this is what is happening in Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia. We think that the armed forces taking over Syria are a great danger to Lebanon and all the Lebanese, not only Hezbollah or the Lebanese Shiites."

Lebanon's majority non-Shi'ite population is not happy at being dragged into a war they have nothing to do with:

Al-Mustaqbal Party leader Saad Hariri stated on Saturday that Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is demanding the recognition of the “State of Hizbullah," considering that the resistance has announced its “suicide" in the Syrian border town of al-Qusayr.

“You have announced yourself the end of the resistance on Liberation's Day,” Hariri addressed Nasrallah in a released statement in which he responded to Hizbullah leader's speech in the commemoration of the liberation of the South earlier on Saturday.

“You have announced the resistance's political and military suicide in al-Qusayr.”

Hariri accused Nasrallah of releasing a Fatwa that calls on the Lebanese to get involved in a war on Syrian territories.

“Your speech has no value to us, to most Lebanese and definitely to the Syrian people in all political, national, ethical, legal, religious and human measures.”

The opposition to Hezbollah's Syrian adventure was apparent this morning, as a group fired rockets at Hezbollah positions in Lebanon itself:

Rockets slammed into a Hezbollah stronghold outside Beirut, injuring at least four people, hours after the Lebanese militant group’s leader declared he could mobilize thousands of fighters to help Syria’s rulers beat an insurgency.

As many as three rockets hit a southern suburb of Beirut this morning, damaging homes, Al Jazeera satellite TV said, showing shrapnel-damaged walls and cars. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called the spillover from Syria’s civil war an act of “terrorist saboteurs” who do not want peace and stability for Lebanon, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's willingness to bet Lebanon on Assad has pushed some European states to declare it a terror group:
At the beginning of this week, the United Kingdom submitted an official request to the European Union to list Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist organization. The move was shortly followed by supportive statements from both France and Germany.

"Given the decisions that Hezbollah has taken and the fact that it has fought extremely hard against the Syrian population, I confirm that France will propose to place Hezbollah's military wing on the list of terrorist organizations," French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday after the Friends of Syria meeting in Amman.

The move from the EU Troika also comes almost a year after a suicide attack attributed to Hezbollah left 6 dead in the Bulgarian sea side resort town of Burgas in July 2012. At the same time that the Bulgarian investigation into the Burgas attack was underway, Cyprus was dealing with the case of Taleb Hussam Yacoub, a Swedish-Lebanese national who admitted in court that he had been recruited by Hezbollah. The young man described his role as a courier in several European capitals, as well as his surveillance missions on Israeli tourists in Cyprus and Turkey. However, it was Hezbollah's involvement in Syria and its increasing evidence of support to Bashar al-Assad's regime that made France and Germany abandon their hesitation, analysts say.

Now Lebanon has a scorecard of Hezbollah's diminishing clout as a legitimate player in Europe:

Video of Palestinian Arabs attacking IDF - from behind journalists

This exposes both the depravity of using journalists as human shields, and of journalists allowing themselves to be used in such a way.

From The Commentator:

Dr. Abdulrahman Al Barr, a cleric for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, says that a Jewish fortune-teller/rabbi during the Nasser regime predicted that a man named Mohammed, the third Mohammed to lead Egypt, would liberate Jerusalem and destroy Israel.

Al Barr says that Egyptian President Morsi is that man. Sadat was the first "Mohammed" and Mubarak the second.

He made these statements at a conference Friday night in Beni Suef that was sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the dominant political party in Egypt.

There appears to be video of the statements.

He also said that the road to Jerusalem goes through Cairo and Damascus, and that Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, as he complained about Egyptians who were suspicious of Hamas.

No word on who this alleged fortune-teller/rabbi was. Then again, his audience isn't exactly the type to demand corroboration for bizarre statements.

Moreover, Al Barr stated that Israel will inevitably be destroyed because it is a foreign body that has no historic or geographical reason for existing.

There was a brief kerfuffle after he made his "Jewish fortune-teller" statement, as a Salafi leader criticized him for believing the words of an magician who makes predictions outside of Islamic belief. The mufti responded that of course he does not believe the statements of the rabbi and was surprised people would think so, apparently he just was mentioning it in the context of calling for Egyptians to rise up against Israel, but not referring to it as a prophecy.

Conference speakers also called for marches against Israel on June 7, the anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem.

The conference meanwhile saw participants chanting "Khybar Khybar, O Jews, the army of Mohammed is here," referring to the massacre of Jews by Muslims in the 7th century CE that is the subject of an upcoming antisemitic TV series.

This is how a nation with a peace treaty with Israel acts.

I hope Kerry checked his shawarma before he ate it

Last week:

In a rare gesture for a U.S. secretary of state - but a staple of U.S. political campaigns - Kerry dropped by the Samer Restaurant in the Palestinian city of Ramallah to enjoy typical Middle Eastern fare.

"Man that is good," Kerry said after biting into his shawarma, a sandwich filled with slivers of meat roasted on a rotating spit, typically wrapped in pita bread and garnished with tomatoes, tahini sauce, hummus and pickled turnips.

Saturday:

The head of the village council of Husan, Hasan Hamamrah, said 20 people, including children, were taken to a hospital in Beit Jala as a result of food poisoning after eating shawarma in a restaurant in the village.

An ordinary day in Israel (HuffPo)

This must be diversity-washing.

By Diana Bletter:

My friend Nasra Hussein just came back from a scientific conference in Austria where she met other scientists, from places like Saudi Arabia and South Africa, who were shocked to discover that she, a Muslim Arab, was living and working with Jews in Israel. Nasra, who just received her Ph.D. under the supervision of a Jewish advisor, explained that she works at Nahariya hospital (bombed by Hezbollah during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War). The hospital staff that consists of Ethiopian Jews, Druze, Muslims, Christians and Jews.

After my conversation with Nasra, a thought came to me. I've lived in New York City, London and Paris. In every city, there are different ethnic neighborhoods. Paris has its African neighborhoods; New York City has its Spanish and Asian neighborhoods; London has its Arab neighborhoods. On an average day in your town or city, how many people of other religions and races do you meet?

I live in Western Galilee, Israel, home to about 1 million people, split almost 50-50 among Arabs and Jews.

The other day -- an ordinary day -- I got up and brought my car over to the auto repair shop in our village, owned and operated by a Muslim man, Nasser. Nasser employs about 15 people in his shop, including my friend, Jasmine (more on her in a minute), several mechanics (Muslims and Jews) and a Rumanian Christian woman who, after meeting a Muslim man studying medicine in Bucharest, married him and moved to Israel.

From there, I went to Akko -- home to about 50,000 people, of whom 30 percent are Arab -- to visit my friend, Janan. She was the first Druze woman in Israel (if not in the entire Middle East) to receive her Ph.D. Janan is founder of Akko Vision, a dialogue group consisting of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze women. (I'm a member of the group.) There is also a Baha'i woman. (Unlike in Iran, where the Baha'i are persecuted.) The group's lasts initiative was a visit of women from Bethlehem.

After meeting with Janan, I went to the market in the Old City of Akko where I walked through winding, ancient alleyways, Arabic music playing, incense burning, guys smoking water pipes, the smell of coriander and fresh pita bread. I stopped to buy blue ceramic dishes made by Armenian craftsmen from a Christian couple who own one of the largest tourist shops in the Old City. I learned that there's only one country in the Middle East with an increasing Christian population and that's Israel. (In Iraq, Lebanon and Libya, Christians have become victims of religious persecution. There has been a spike of attacks against Christians since the Muslim Brotherhood gained power in Egypt. In Gaza, Christians face attacks daily.)

Then I called Jasmine, Nasser's sister, who manages the auto repair shop and just found out she's pregnant. She will get full pre-natal care -- everything -- via Israel's National Insurance Program. If she'd been unable to get pregnant, she would have been able to receive treatments through government-sponsored facilities that serve all religious sectors in the country.

In the afternoon, I went to work at the Easy English Academy, where I teach English to Arab and Jewish students. One of my students is Nasra, working to polish her English. She is now furthering her research with another nurse from Ramallah, across the border in Palestine.

Finally, after dinner, I spoke to my unofficially adopted Ethiopian daughter, who has lived in Israel for about 20 years. She came to Israel with her family to avoid further religious persecution by the Ethiopian government. In Ethiopia, she knew it was time to go to school when the sun made a certain shadow off a tree and now works in an Israeli bank in computer security. She married a man whose parents are from Afghanistan and Rumania; their wedding was a wild celebration of distinct and vibrant cultures.

Diversity makes life rich. How many different people have you spoken to today?

Saturday Links

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Column One: Thank you, Hafez Assad
In the face of American rank incompetence, Assad has already broken all the red lines he and his father followed for more than 40 years.

During the 1990s, the Israeli Left and the Clinton administration managed to convince the Rabin, Netanyahu and Barak governments to offer to surrender the Golan Heights to Syria.
The only reason that the initiative failed was because Assad Sr. rejected Israel’s repeated offers to surrender the strategic plateau in exchange for a piece of paper with a smiley face on it.

Barry Rubin: Obama's Head-in-the-Sand Speech About Terrorism

Of course, the United States is not at war with Muslims but not only al-Qaida but Hamas, Hizballah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, the Taliban and dozens of other groups, ideologues, and militants know that America is their enemy. No matter what Obama does he will not persuade them and their millions of supporters that the United States is their ally. Even though Obama has often actually made America their ally.

London Police Source Cites Tactic ‘Employed by Palestinians in Israel’ in Explaining Woolich Killing Response

Commanders at Britain’s Scotland Yard defended their slow response time to the terror attack in Woolwich, England earlier this week as a preventative measure to save police lives, citing tactics used by Palestinians against Israel.
“Questions were immediately asked about why you would commit such an offense and wait for police. These are the kind of tactics seen employed by Palestinians in Israel.

Honorary Degree for ‘Pro-Terror’ Judith Butler Creates Controversy at Montreal University

In a letter to McGill Chancellor Arnold Steinberg, Hillel McGill and McGill Students for Israel (MSI)- which have encouraged students on campus to support their position with letters to Steinberg or principal Heather Munroe -Blum — said Butler’s “pro-terror, anti-Israel position” makes her a terrible role model for graduates.
“We consider the honour McGill is about to bestow on Professor Butler astounding and deeply offensive,” reads the letter. “We urge you to rethink this decision.”

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald inadvertently argues that every Muslim in the west should be interred or deported

Greenwald's position only makes sense if one takes the position that the west is in a war against all Muslims and more to the point, that the reverse is also true.
And if that's the case, if Glenn Greenwald is correct, then every single Muslim in the west is an enemy soldier walking among us, which gives western countries the right to deport or inter them in prison camps until the war is over.

A lonely battle for the truth

The first to try to stem the flow of lies and ensuing bloodshed -- much like the Dutch boy who put his finger in the dike to stop the trickle that threatened to become a flood -- was physicist Nahum Shahaf of Ramat Gan. Almost everything Shahaf said at the time, when Yom-Tov Samia, then the head of the IDF Southern Command, appointed him as head of the IDF committee to investigate the incident, ultimately received the government's approval after a 13-year delay.(h/t EOL)

Richard Landes: Lethal Journalists React to the Al Durah Report: Insights Into the NGO-Journo Matrix

I have, in the past speculated on a kind of cowardly narcissism, in which they can’t admit to their readers that they’re intimidated because they’d lose their credibility, and they can’t admit to themselves that they’re doing that because they admire themselves too much, so they become advocates for the “weak,” they adhere to Underdogma.

Kerry: Israeli ‘prosperity’ prevents sense of urgency about peace

Israelis’ “sense of security” prevents them from feeling sufficient urgency to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Jerusalem Thursday, warning of fast-approaching “challenges” that required a change of approach for the Jewish State.
“I think there is an opportunity [for peace], but for many reasons it’s not on the tips of everyone’s tongue,” Kerry told reporters before entering a meeting with President Shimon Peres. “People in Israel aren’t waking up every day and wondering if tomorrow there will be peace because there is a sense of security and a sense of accomplishment and of prosperity.” (h/t Zvi)

Kerry goes for ‘inauthentic’ turkey

The Twitterverse was shocked Thursday by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s decision to snack while on a visit to Ramallah, not on the traditional chicken or lamb shwarma, but on turkey, a type of shwarma one Twitter user said was “probably an illusion, like the peace process.”

Hezbollah: EU terror label would be a ‘big mistake’

Deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem says threats ‘do not worry’ Shiite group in the slightest

'Assad has enough sarin to wipe out Damascus'

Exiled Syrian chemical arms scientist discusses Assad's arsenal, says he has used small quantities of sarin to stop rebel advances.

Turkey builds wall at Syria border crossing

Following death of 65 people in border town bombings, Ankara constructs 2.5km long twins walls, beefs up border security.

Barry Rubin: Egypt and Other Islamist Systems: Will Despair Bring Moderation?

Thus, while anger and despair are going to rise in Egypt these factors are not in themselves enough to bring down a regime. Unless the army is convinced that the country is going to fall apart--and perhaps not even then--the Brotherhood is going to be in power for a long time. And that also applies to everywhere else Islamists are ruling--in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey, and perhaps soon Syria.

Egypt 3 women killed in suspected honor killing

Police believe the 10 men stormed the house of the women, strangling them and beating them with sharp tools, the official said, based on the alleged confession of one of the suspects. The men wrapped the women’s bodies in blankets, weighted them with stones and throw them in the river Nile, the official added.

New wave of cyber attacks on US ‘traced to Iran’

A new wave of cyber attacks on US companies have been traced to Iran, American officials told The New York Times.
Security experts said Friday they believed the main goal of the digital weapons, which targeted oil, gas and electricity companies, was sabotage, not espionage.

Congressman condemns Farrakhan anti-Semitic diatribe

“Last Friday, I attended a speech by Minister Louis Farrakhan at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit, Michigan,” Conyers, the longest-serving African American serving in Congress, said in his statement released Thursday. “During this speech, Minister Farrakhan made unacceptable racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic statements, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms.”

The fate of a Vilna Jewish cemetery

Respect for gravestones implies a measure of respect for the deceased persons they commemorate and, more generally, their people. In the case of Jewish lettering here in Eastern Europe, in view of the near complete “success” of the Holocaust, the converse is also particularly striking: to desecrate this one last authentic local relic of the annihilated people is to make a statement that they were rubbish or, perhaps even worse ― recyclable building material.

Israel Daily Picture: A Tailor Shop for Yemenite Jewish Embroidery

The picture above of the Yemenite embroidery and tailor shop from Otti Seidon's Cigarbox Collection was taken well before the large airlift of Yemenite Jews. These are the children of the olim. Note the men, including the hookah smoker, working on the embroidery which is not unlike the silver and gold filigree Yemenite Jewish jewelers were famous for.

A side of the IDF you won't see in the news

The original song is from the 1930s, but the cup version is a few years old. It was popularized in the film Pitch Perfect and subsequently (I think) made into this nice music video, which I am posting because I am a sucker for long tracking shots:

Friday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Latma: Muhammad aDura lives and other PR victories

Israel’s report on the Al Durrah affair

Secondly, in places where Western film crews have to make use of local "fixers", they are vulnerable to the possibility that the fixer will find them situations and incidents that support his agenda, or that of his political chiefs. Sadly, journalists sometimes play along; they risk not being able to work at all if they don't. Add to this locally-appointed photographers, reporters, and editors working for international media agencies and you have a recipe for the potential twisting of news items to suit the agenda of terrorist organisations or anti-West regimes.

Arrest the Reporters Behind the al-Dura Hoax

This week we continued our demand that those at France 2 responsible for what has now been officially deemed a dangerous hoax, be placed under arrest and charged with all of the murders and damages this fabricated incitement has rendered. France 2 and Enderlin must have their press accreditation revoked and be thrown out of Israel.
Issuing the report is a major step forward in the battle for the truth but justice requires that those responsible for this massive blood libel must finally pay.

UK’s Islamist problem

It should come as no surprise that random terrorist attacks have been, and will remain for the foreseeable future, MI5’s greatest security threat.
“Londonistan” apparently originated as an appellation used in the 1990s by French security officials frustrated at British leaders’ failure to confront in their capital the dangers of radical Islam, which, the officials feared, would spill over into France. Steven Simon, a former White House counterterrorism official, referred to London as “the Star Wars bar scene,” that caters to all kinds of Islamist recruiters and fund-raisers for, and practitioners of, holy war.

Melanie Phillips: Denial is still a river in Londonistan

On one thing the British liberal class is certain – the hacking to death of a soldier in a Woolwich street yesterday had absolutely nothing to do with religion. The murderers screamed ‘Allahu akhbar’ as they tried to decapitate the soldier (a barbaric hallmark of Islamic terror), announced proudly that ‘We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you’ and quoted the Koran as religious justification.

Hand puppet’s Holocaust joke on TV riles Chilean Jews

A Holocaust joke made on national television by comedian Elias Escobedo while voicing a hand puppet has the Jewish community of Chile considering a lawsuit.
Jewish leaders on Wednesday said they were considering the action against Escobedo for saying that “Jews burned better than wood” through the voice of his puppet, Murdock the Lizard. The leaders are expected to take part in a parliamentary meeting on the slur.

World Vision: Shurat HaDin responds

World Vision’s latest attempts to whitewash its continued taxpayer funded support of a Gaza based organisation (the UAWC) with very close links to an illegal terrorist organisation (the PFLP) are episodes straight out of the TV series “Yes Minister”.
They are characterised by a failure to confront the evidence, misrepresentation of the independence and expertise of “experts”, use of straw horse arguments, reliance on hearsay from anonymous and unverifiable sources and attempts to confuse the issue.

PMW reports prompt question in Danish parliament about its funding of the PA VIDEO

Merkel Honored by EU Rabbis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was honored on Wednesday by the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) for her support to the German Jewish community and her outspoken denunciation of anti-Semitism throughout Europe, the European Jewish Press (EJP) reported.

Kosovo unveiling Holocaust memorial

“This is the place where the last Synagogue of Kosovo stood until 1963,” the plaque reads in Albanian, Hebrew, English and Serbian. “This plaque is raised in memory of Kosovo Jews that perished in Nazi camps during Holocaust. People of Kosovo will never forget them.”

Muslim clerics visit Nazi death camp

Imams from the US and several Muslim countries are touring Poland this week to learn more about European Jewry.
Thirteen imams from Indonesia, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bosnia and other Muslim lands, along with five American imams, visited the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw on Monday.

Google mulls buying Waze presaging bidding war

Google Inc., maker of the Android operating system, is considering buying Israeli map-software provider Waze Inc., setting up a possible bidding war with Facebook Inc., people familiar with the matter said.
Waze is fielding expressions of interest from multiple parties and is seeking more than $1 billion, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The Palo Alto, California-based startup might also remain independent, instead seeking to raise a round of venture capital financing, the people said.

Technion Scientists Develop an Advanced Biological Computer

Technion scientists developed and constructed a molecular transducer, which is an advanced computing machine. This molecular computer was built entirely of biomolecules, such as DNA and enzymes that can manipulate genetic codes.
This unprecedented device can compute iteratively, namely, it uses the output as a new input for subsequent computations. Furthermore, it produces outputs in the form of biologically meaningful phenomena, such as resistance of bacteria to various antibiotics.

Did ancient beams discarded in Old City come from first and second temples?

The beams offer a fascinating historical record of Jerusalem, including Byzantine cathedrals, early Muslim houses of prayer and, not inconceivably, the ancient temple complex itself. But though there are signs of renewed interest in them — including an article this month in Biblical Archaeology Review, a US publication — the several hundred existing beams have never been subjected to a comprehensive academic study, and many are in danger of decay and disintegration.

Saudi Arabia's al-Yaum newspaper has a brief article about the Jewish quarter of Cairo, as a model of diversity and tolerance. The author marvels at the juxtaposition of synagogues and mosques there.

Well, the paper does admit:

While the Jewish Quarter is empty of its indigenous population, but you can still find the Star of David on the doors of houses there, in addition to some Jewish inscriptions that indicate the homeowners and date of construction... About 20,000 Jews lived in this famous neighborhood, until the revolution of July 1952...

it seems the Arab definition of "diversity" can include ethnic cleansing - as long as you leave up some architectural features from the people you forced out.