Archaeology news 1: Indirect proof of Esther?

From JPost, an interesting article that might be indirect proof for the story of the Book of Esther:

Just a hundred years ago, they were searching for it desperately. German, French and Italian archaeological expeditions were mounted to comb the lower stretches of Elephantine Island in the Nile River, in southern Egypt, but without success. They had been activated by the publication in 1911, two years earlier, of papyrus documents from the area that contained personal stories of members of a Jewish military colony in the area from the 5th century BCE. According to the document, there had been a temple in their midst of the colony. But where, exactly? Was it real or a myth ? Where was the colony, exactly, and why was it there at all? With the advent of World War I in 1914, the search was called off. It resumed after 1918, but again without success.

The papyrus scrolls were specific. The Jewish colonists lived in peace with their Egyptian neighbors, and they kept the Jewish laws. In fact, the Persian Emperor Darius II had commanded them to keep the Passover feast of unleavened bread in 418 BCE and not to drink beer for seven days after Nissan 14, according to one of the papyri. The area at the time was under Persian control; it had been captured by Cambyses in 525 BCE, and the Jewish colony was under Persian jurisdiction.

They occupied a whole row of mud-brick houses, some of them married Egyptian wives, some did not, and altogether they lived their lives in peace and quiet. Why were they there? They were a military unit serving there to guard Egypt’s southern border. They were on Elephantine Island, opposite Aswan on the mainland, and it was here, at the first cataract of the Nile, that Egypt had always had to defend itself against infiltrators from the south, where the poorer nations were desperate to enter and enjoy the riches of their wealthy neighbors.

Why would Darius II, a Persian king, instruct Jews to keep Passover?

Maybe because many scholars identify Darius II was the son of Queen Esther!

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7/04 Links Part 1: A ‘P’alestinian Inconvenient Truth, Egypt Roundup and Assad's Hypocrisy

From Ian:

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A ‘P’alestinian Inconvenient Truth

In the ongoing “battle of the narratives” between Israel and the Palestinians, one minor, but telling, detail rarely gets mentioned: the Arabic alphabet, the abjad, lacks the letter “P.” Until the “P”alestinians, no people in history had ever adopted a name for themselves, or for their country, that cannot be written in their own language. By itself, this detail establishes that the “P”alestinian national narrative is a wholly modern invention.
In Arabic, the “P”alestinians call their country “Filastin” and themselves “Filastiniyun,” but this doesn’t validate their narrative; in fact, it underscores the simple truth about “P”alestine that the world ignores.

PM: Palestinian leaders think its possible to destroy Israel

Speaking at a memorial session marking the 73rd anniversary of Jabotinsky’s death, Netanyahu said the Irgun and Betar founder’s realism should be kept in mind today.
“The obstacle to peace between us and the Palestinians is not just fundamentalist terrorist organizations, but the belief that it is possible to destroy the State of Israel,” the prime minister explained.
“These organizations, states and leaders plant hopes in their nations that we can be beaten by sword, gun and bomb. We cannot be defeated by any those means or any others.”

Analysis: Hamas grows stronger in Gaza, again

Eight months after the IDF’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, events in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon have turned the Strip into an arena of secondary importance for many observers.
Despite the relative quiet in the Gazan arena, much is taking place there. Hamas is entrenching itself further as the sovereign, and rearming itself with rockets. It once again has thousands of short-range rockets – around 5,000 of them – and possesses medium-range rockets which can strike greater Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Hamas’s rocket arsenal places 70 percent of Israelis within range.

UN calls for end to Israeli restrictions on Gaza

Israel’s Foreign Ministry brushed aside the criticism and laid the blame at the doorstep of the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip.
“As soon as Hamas reaches out to Israel and asks to sit with us to coordinate lifting the restrictions, we will be able to say what is possible and what is not,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Times of Israel. “As long as Hamas continues to speak about Israel only as the target of rockets, speaking of lifting restrictions sounds particularly hollow.”

Israelly Cool: Hamas Would Rather Their People Suffer Than Benefit From Israeli-Produced Goods

Hamas has closed a gas canister factory in Gaza.
The crime? Selling canisters of the same color as Israeli-produced canisters.

4 Hamas operatives arrested in Cairo

Four Hamas operatives were arrested at their home in a Cairo suburb on suspicion of planning a terror attack, Egypt’s Al-Ahram reported early Wednesday.
Security forces found explosives in the apartment, as well as military and police uniforms.

Barry Rubin: Obama Administration Middle East Policy: See What I've Been Trying to Tell You?

A self-interview
First, I want to apologize that I have often used intemperate language to describe U.S. policy and the people making it in the last 4.5 years. Perhaps I have put off some of you who would otherwise have been persuaded that something is very wrong. Therefore, I have tried to do another version of this approach. Remember, I'm not responsible for the way the questions are phrased here.

A victory for young revolutionaries, but not for democracy

But for Hamas, the news out of Cairo Wednesday night was especially grim. The Palestinian organization is losing its most substantial ally, one that gave it vital political support. The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s parent organization and in many ways its “Godfather,” lost its power to a military establishment that is hostile to the Palestinian group’s goals.
Hamas, which has clashed with Syria and Iran over the course of the last year, now finds itself nearly isolated in the Arab sphere. Perhaps the new reality in which it finds itself will lead the weakened Hamas to conclude its reunification with Fatah.

Morsi’s fall is a blow to Mideast Islamists

Egypt was the centerpiece of the Islamist movement’s vault to power in the Arab world’s sweeping wave of uprisings. Winning election after election here, the Islamists vowed to prove they could govern effectively and implement their vision of political Islam, all while embracing the rules of democracy.

Police raid Brotherhood as new leader calls for inclusion of Islamists

Adly Mansour sworn in as president; Police seeking Muslim Brotherhood head, have already arrested Morsi and 300 other senior party members; ElBaradei heads list to lead interim government

Morsi role at Syria rally seen as tipping point for Egypt army

Mr Morsi himself called for foreign intervention in Syria against Mr Assad, leading to a veiled rebuke from the army, which issued an apparently bland but sharp-edged statement the next day stressing that its only role was guarding Egypt’s borders.

At Pro-Morsi Rally, Supporters Chant Anti-Jewish Slogans Threatening Massacres

Pro-Morsi protesters at Cairo University – which was the scene of bloody clashes overnight – were heard chanting an anti-Semitic slogan threatening massacres against Jews:

“Pro-Morsy protesters at Cairo University chant the anti-Jewish slogan: "Khaybar, Khayber, O Jews, the army of Mohamed will return."

The chant is a reference to the 7th century events around the oasis of Khaybar in modern-day Saudi Arabia, in which Muslims massacred and expelled the town’s Jewish population.

Revenge: Coptic Church Set Aflame for Morsi

True to their vows, pro-Morsi Muslims are attacking Egypt’s Christians for participating in the anti-Morsi protests. The St. George Coptic Christian Church in a village in al-Minya, Egypt, has just been set on fire by “pro-Morsi” forces. Copts are reported to be in a state of “fear and panic.”
Days earlier, a letter was circulated in al-Minya, which has a very large Coptic population, calling on Copts not to join the protests, otherwise their “businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches” might “catch fire.”

American Islamists Rally Behind MB Amid Egypt Protests

Millions of Egyptians are in the streets demanding the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt for their totalitarian theocratic policies. But many of America's leading Islamists are sticking by Morsi and condemning the protesters on social media.

Syria's Assad says political Islam being defeated in Egypt

Relishing the possible downfall of one of Assad's most vocal critics, Syrian television carried live coverage of the huge street demonstrations in Egypt demanding the departure of President Mohamed Mursi.

Turkey’s Ruling Party, Opposition Unite to Condemn Egypt Coup

In a rare show of unity, both Turkey’s ruling AK Party and its opposition Republican People's Party have condemned Wednesday's overthrow of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi following protests by millions that led to a military coup d'etat.
AKP spokesperson Huseyin Celik told reporters that the coup was a sign of "backwardness," and accused some Western nations of having supported the overthrow.

Saudi Arabia Congratulates New Egyptian Ruler, West ‘Concerned’

Saudi Arabia’s king has already congratulated Egypt’s new transitional head of state, while Western leaders express concern and call for “dialogue.”
Saudi King Abdullah sent a message of congratulations to Supreme Constitutional Court chief justice Adly el-Mansour on Wednesday immediately following his appointment as the new head of Egypt’s transitional government by Egyptian Army Commander General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the hours after the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohamed Morsi.

Catholic priest NOT among three beheaded on video by Syrian rebels, says head friar

A Catholic priest was not among three men graphically filmed being beheaded in Syria last week a friar overseeing the Franciscans in the Middle East has told CNN.
Father Francois Mourad, a Syrian originally named as victim of a merciless mob, was instead shot eight times on June 23 when a group of rebels stormed his monastery, said Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa, head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. He was buried that same day.

Hanging Out With Hezbollah

The intervention—Hezbollah’s first full-scale battle to reinforce Assad in Syria—suggests a new direction in the war and has seemingly prompted the U.S. to rush supplies to the rebels. It has also fanned fears that Hezbollah’s involvement will drag Lebanon deeper into the Syrian quagmire and possibly ignite a sectarian civil war between Sunnis and Shiites within Lebanon itself.
But the idea that this may be treacherous territory isn’t foremost in the mind of the Hezbollah commander. To him this is opportune training ground. “What we are doing in Syria in some ways is a dress rehearsal for Israel,” he says.

Gulf States Slam Hezbollah for Syria Fighting Conducted “Under The Banner” of Iran

Gulf states are again slamming Hezbollah over the Iran-backed terror group’s role in bolstering the regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad:

Chechen terror leader calls for attacks on Winter Olympics

A Chechen Islamist leader, described in Russia's media as the country's most wanted man, has issued a dramatic video broadcast threatening "maximum force" to disrupt the Winter Olympic games next year in the Russian resort town of Sochi.
Doku Umarov, leader of the so-called Caucasus Emirate group which has killed dozens in high profile bomb attacks at airports and metro stations, sought to rally his supporters and allies, saying:

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Writer of "Khaybar" says the series reveals Jews' evil throughout the ages

Note the photo behind him

On Al Jazeera, the screenwriter of the "Khaybar" miniseries that will be aired this month in many Arab countries described its antisemitic motifs in detail.

Yusri al-Jindi tells the network that "Khaybar" raises two issues.

The first is that the Mohammed set up a state with equality between citizens, including Jews.  The Islamic state is the finest with respect to equal rights and, what he would say, is "democracy," in ways that modern man can learn lessons from.

The second issue is that despite these civil rights, the Jews didn't respond with equal goodwill. Instead, the Jews greeted the benign Muslim rule with with treachery and intrigue, and outright treason.

Al-Jindi notes that the series emphasizes that Jews are Jews, still practicing their treasonous nature throughout the centuries, and they have wrought havoc in every society they have lived. They were the first to fight against this "civil Islamic state", and stand now against the restoration of the Umma for its civilization and glory.

The Jews have been consistent with this opposition to their hosts, such as in Babylon, with the Romans in the Levant, in Tsarist Russia, in Arab states and in Hitler's Germany.

The current crisis experienced by the Arab world is, he says, the best witness to this fact, and here the series takes its modern meaning.

Once again, it is clear that "Khaybar" is meant to incite Arabs against Jews today.

Please "like" our "Condemn Khaybar" Facebook page and sign the petition urging Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to condemn this series before it goes on the air.

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Hamas columnist blames Egyptian coup on..The Jews!

You knew this had to happen.

In Hamas' newspaper Felesteen, Dr. Fayez Abu Shamala (they are always "doctors" for some reason) spins a worldwide conspiracy theory to take down Egypt's democratically elected government, and - as usual - the Jews are central to the plot.

Shamala states that the coup was not done by the Egyptian people who are united and hate division, but rather "what is happening on the land of Egypt is a purely Zionist initiative with a Jewish seal and laminated by America," where they managed to find some Egyptian puppets to help Israeli sabotage against Egypt's energy industry (I guess to create long lines for fuel.)

This is especially funny since Egyptians damaged the gas pipeline to Israel many times!

The writer goes on:

What is happening on the land of Egypt is an intercontinental conspiracy, and the results go beyond the borders of Egypt, to affect the Arab Middle East as a whole, this is not only an Egyptian affair but Arabic and Islamic, which has an effect on each region. Israeli Knesset member Ben-Eliezer when he spoke to Israel Radio, said: "Egyptian society was a secular society with songs, movies and tourism, and suddenly someone comes along trying to turn the clock back by 400 years."

The Jews have lost this bet, and the Zionists lost the battle in Egypt, because the Egyptian society is a Muslim society that lives on dignity and chivalry and has high motivations, a community that clings to Arab morals, and is proud of its place of leadership in Islamic history, and is pouring all his energies to the next stage. Egypt will triumph, and will emerge from the crisis, and move beyond the trap installed by Jews towards Arabs and Muslims on the land of Egypt. ..Egypt will not retreat backwards again, and will not put Zionist restrictions on its wrist again.

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Palestinian jihadist group takes "credit" for deadly Arizona fires

From The Long War Journal:

A Palestinian jihadist group, Masada al Mujahideen, recently claimed credit for ongoing wildfires in Arizona in a statement posted to jihadist forums today. The statement, titled "Masada al-Mujahideen Fulfilled its Promise and Attacked America Again After the Expiration of the Period with Fires that Achieved Historic Results," was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"We had previously announced an unconventional war against the occupation state of Israel, and then we escalated this war to reach its main supporter, America, so that it receives a major share of it, which will destroy their flora and fauna, with permission from Allah and then with our hands," the group said.

The statement further said that the group targeted the United States "in order to make it clear and to make it know we can reach it when we warn it, and to make it certain that our hands don't just reach it but also strike it."

The group warned that the attacks "will not be the last...if America does not respond to our demands." The statement boasted that 19 firefighters had been killed in the fires.

Contrary to the claims of Masada al Mujahideen, authorities have said that they believe the fires were started as a result of lighting.

Today's statement was not the first highly dubious claim by the jihadist group related to fires in the US. In January 2012, the group claimed credit for wildfires in Nevada.

According to SITE, in addition to claiming responsibility for fires in the US, the jihadist group has claimed credit for more than a dozen fires in Israel since 2010.

The Masada al Mujahadeen statement also, unsurprisingly, has a lot about Jews.

They described the Arizona fires as a "holy conquest," saying "we will demolish, God willing, the edifices of obnoxious Jewish occupation to send the Jews back where they came from," adding that these "attacks" will continue "until America responds to our demands," and that the fires represent a "repudiation of the Jewish occupation of large parts of the land of Palestine."

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Egyptian army shuts down pro-Morsi TV channels

I'm no fan of the Muslim Brotherhood, but isn't it strange that the world is celebrating a military dictatorship replacing a democratically elected government - and then doing exactly what critics accused that government of doing?

From Times of India:

Egypt's military-led authorities shut down three Islamist-run TV stations on Wednesday including one operated by the Muslim Brotherhood after President Mohamed Morsi was toppled by the army, drawing a statement of concern from a press freedom watchdog.

The security forces also raided the offices of Al Jazeera's Egyptian news channel and detained at least five of its staff, said Karim El-Assiuti, one of its journalists. Four of them were later released, the channel said.

The channel, Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, was prevented from broadcasting from a pro-Morsi rally in northern Cairo and its crew there was also detained.

The Brotherhood's Egypt25 channel was forced off air and its managers arrested shortly after General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, head of Egypt's armed forces, announced a plan for a new political transition, the state news agency MENA reported.

The authorities also shut down two other Islamist-run stations, Al-Hafiz and Al-Nas, security sources said. Both are affiliated to the strict Salafi Islamist movement.

"We are concerned by reports that authorities are shutting down television coverage based on political perspective," said Sherif Mansour of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "We urge the military not to deprive Egyptians of information sources at this important juncture."

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Muslim site explains why hating Jews is important

This site seems to be newly indexed by Google News, although it appears to be more a Muslim Sunni religious site than a news site. I'm not even sure what country it comes from.

Anyway, a new article on the site explains why Jews must be hated.

The Muslim Ummah these days suffers from difficult conditions and painful events, and the largest is what Jews in the land of Palestine do to the Muslims; they kill their men and their children, and terrorize their wives and their children, and burn their mosques and demolish their homes...

The Muslim must start his vision and judgment on the events of the Quran and Sunnah, and to us with these events remind us and of our way and how to prepare for our enemy.

Why do we hate the Jews?!

We hate Jews for the Lord, and Nbgdahm in God because they insulted God and killed prophets....

[This is followed by many Koranic and other quotes, including the claim that Jews say that Ezra was the son of God, that God is irritable and lies, that Jews consider themselves above angels, and that they consider rabbis to be as exalted as God.]

..A non-Jewish woman is [considered] a beast [in Judaism.]

- Jews have the right to rape non-Jewish women.

- Adultery with non-Jews is not punished because they [the non-Jews are considered] descendants of animals.

...They wrapped a pig's head in the pages of the Koran and wrote on it "Mohammed" and threw it into the Al-Aqsa Mosque to tease Muslims...

[A litany of other absurd "crimes" like shooting bullets at the heads of 100 Muslims, culminating in:]

And they put chemicals in the drinking water of the reservoirs in Palestine to sterilize Muslim women...

But the article ends off on a high note, since Allah doesn't do things that are totally bad, there are some "positive phenomena" in Palestine. For example:

...
- There is now a great conviction among the Muslim masses that the only way to defeat the Jews is Jihad for the sake of God and the establishment of this duty is the pinnacle of Islam.

 - All the ideologiesand revolutionary nationalism and democracy are all roads of ignorance, there is no god but Allah to help Muslims.

- This brought about the rise of Islam, as the only ideology capable of fighting the Jews. This is manifest in the Islamic battle cry "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return", which is painful for the Jews to hear.

-Uniting the Umma.

- Normalization of relations with Israel has stopped or at least slowed down, since those Muslims/Arabs who called for peace have finally seen that the Jews break all the peace accords, as it is written in the Koran.

...Finally, we ask Allah to save the vulnerable from the faithful, and to humiliate the Jews and the idolaters, and expel the Jews from the Holy House, and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Hamas is the big loser in the Egyptian coup

Al Monitor reports:

Hamas stands to be the major loser in the latest popular revolt in Egypt, which pits millions of Egyptians against now deposed President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

When opponents of the Morsi regime announced mass protests demanding Morsi’s resignation, anti-Hamas sentiment escalated with rumors that Hamas militants would be infiltrating from Gaza to help keep Morsi in power. The rumors caused the Egyptian government to ratchet-up its efforts to close the Rafah tunnels between Gaza and Egypt to control the movement of people and to put the rumors to rest.

Despite these efforts, the rumors implicating Hamas in propping up the Morsi regime continued to circulate, prompting additional Egyptian attempts to close the tunnels and restrict movement, a process that is causing severe shortages in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Whatever the truth regarding Hamas’ involvement or lack thereof, perceptions in the streets and squares of Egypt put the Hamas movement in the same corner with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Because of this, now that Morsi has fallen, one of the first groups to pay the price will be Hamas.

This comes at the worse possible time for the Islamist movement, which recently lost its base in Syria and financial support from Iran as a result of its decision to oppose former ally and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and join the rebels in trying to bring him down.

Even friendly Qatar might discontinue its political and financial support of Hamas. The change in leadership in Doha, with the transfer of power to Prince Tamim, is said to be the result of a yet undeclared policy to moderate Qatar’s foreign policy. When the pro-Qatari Islamist ideologue Yusuf al-Qaradawi traveled to Egyp t this week, he went out of his way to point out that he had not been deported from Qatar.

Typical of the antipathy that Egyptians have for Hamas could be seen in this Asharq Alawsat article from a couple of days ago talking about how the Muslim Brotherhood was giving millions to Hamas while Egypt suffered.

Hamas slammed a Fatah official who called for an Egyptian-style uprising against Hamas in Gaza.

But Hamas is not taking any chances. Reports say that Hamas has increased the number of military parades in Gaza as a show of force - and intimidation - against any citizens who might plan to protest the regime. A Hamas prosecutor also recently said that there will be more executions in Gaza, and the media might be invited - another way to dissuade any dissent.

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7/03 Links Part 2: Entebbe 37 Years On, Buycott Week and an Indian Kibbutz

From Ian:

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There is no place the IDF can’t reach, says Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday reminded the world of the IDF’s capabilities, speaking during a Knesset ceremony marking the 37-year anniversary of Operation Yonatan, the raid on Uganda’s Entebbe airport to free over 100 passengers held hostage after a terrorist hijacking.
“The threats upon us for the past 37 years continue,” said Netanyahu. “But the example of Entebbe shows we can overcome them, and today, too, I say that there is no place that the IDF’s long arm will not reach in order to defend the state of Israel.”

With Eye on Iran, U.S. to Provide Israel with Special Forces-Friendly Tiltrotor Airplanes

The Osprey “is the ideal platform for sending Israeli special forces into Iran,” says Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst now at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. The aircraft could help solve Israel’s inability to breach Iran’s uranium enrichment facility buried under a granite mountain at Fordow. It might be impregnable to even the heaviest conventional bunker-busting munitions in the U.S. arsenal, Pollack said. Israeli military planners have been brainstorming how to conduct an effective operation, Pollack said, citing conversations with senior Israeli military officers.

Shoppers told to buy Israeli goods in new campaign

British shoppers will be encouraged to buy Israeli products next week as part of an initiative to counter boycott campaigns.
Dates, fruit, olives and wines are expected to be among the items that Israel supporters add to their shopping trolleys and baskets.
It is hoped that Buy Israeli Goods Week, starting on Monday, will nullify the efforts of anti-Israel activists who are expected to lobby Sainsbury’s next month in an attempt to see Israeli products removed from the chain’s stores.
The pro-Israel scheme — dubbed a “buycott” — has been co-ordinated by Stand With Us, the Zionist Federation, the Board of Deputies and the Fair Play Campaign Group.

Most Israelis, Palestinians support 2 states

The majority of Israelis and Palestinians support a two-state solution, a new survey released by the Hebrew University’s Truman Institute and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research has found. On both sides, however, respondents are pessimistic over the prospects of “an independent Palestine” being formed in the next five years.
Nearly two-thirds of Israelis — 62 percent — support a diplomatic solution based on two states, while only 33% oppose it, the survey said. In contrast, 46% of the Palestinians said they were against the idea, as opposed to 53% who replied that they were in favor of it.

New Data Shows 99% Drop in Illegal Entry

Multiple developments have been credited for the dramatic change. One is the new security fence which covers the 230 kilometers (144 miles) of border between Israel and Egypt.
Another is a law which went into effect in June 2012 under which illegal entrants to Israel who do not have refugee status are arrested.
The IDF has also bolstered its presence on the southern border in response to political instability in Egypt and increasing terror in the Sinai Peninsula, providing another obstacle to would-be illegal entrants.

Is Greece’s New Democracy party whitewashing neo-Nazis?

A longtime member of New Democracy, Greece’s ruling party, called for collaboration with neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn at a July 1 conference, sparking a debate whether his party has become, as critics suggest, a laundering facility for neo-Nazi politicians.
According to Athens-based daily Greek newspaper Kathimerini, former minister and parliamentary speaker Vyron Polydoras proposed new cooperation measures between New Democracy and Golden Dawn, “as part of a ‘broader consensus’ to defend the nation.”
The report continues with a response from the New Democracy spokesperson saying Polydoras’s suggestion was “strange.”

German daily slammed for depicting Israel as Moloch

The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced a German newspaper on Tuesday for running a cartoon depicting Israel as a hungry monster lying in bed, fork and knife in hand, being waited on by a woman.
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” Germany’s largest broadsheet daily, published the visual with the caption, “Germany is serving. For decades now, Israel has been given weapons, in parts for free. Israel’s enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch. Peter Beinart deplores this situation.”
Peter Beinart is a liberal American Jewish journalist who has become a vocal critic of Israel’s policies after writing favorably about the Jewish state for years.

U.S. Student Says He was Refused Entry Into U.K. Over Israeli Passport Stamps

A Kansas City student who was denied entry into the United Kingdom late last month and was detained for more than nine hours by U.K. customs officials, before being put on a plane back to the U.S., believes he was targeted because he is Jewish and had traveled to Israel.
Louis Cantor, 23, arrived in the U.K. and waited in line to go through customs. He was detained after a customs agent saw two pages in his passport with Israeli stamps. Cantor says he was never told why he was being denied entry. He was told his photo and fingerprints have now been placed in a database that will make it difficult for him to obtain entry into the U.K. or any other European Union country.

Italy Looks to Israel to Build ‘Start-Up Nation’

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, making his first trip outside Europe since taking office in April, expressed admiration for Israel’s culture of innovation by saying Monday in Jerusalem that he wanted to learn “how to build a start-up nation” from Israel.
It was a “very important signal” that Letta’s first trip as prime minister outside Europe was to Israel, he said, Israel Hayom reported.

Israeli Terror Survivor Competes in European Wheelchair Basketball

“I waited a long time for this moment,” said Shabo in an exclusive interview with Tazpit News Agency. “It’s been a long emotional, physical, and mental journey for me to get to this point.”
When Shabo was nine-years-old, a Palestinian terrorist broke into his family’s home in the Itamar community and murdered his mother and three brothers in a brutal gun attack on June 20, 2002. Asael, who was watching TV together with his five-year-old brother, Avishai, was badly injured while his younger brother was killed in the attack. A sister, Aviya, was also injured.

IMI unveils new long-range guided rocket

Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) has completed development of its MARS long-range precision air-launched guided rocket. The multipurpose rocket weighs half a ton. IMI says that it has successfully undergone a series of tests at training grounds, with good hits on the targets predefined in the mission planning stage.
IMI's Rocket Systems Division has been developing the MARS system for several years. It is based on analysis of future battlefield needs, and will soon be offered to the IDF and other armies, subject to obtaining export permits from the Ministry of Defense.

Indian student to build innovative orphanage using Israeli permaculture techniques

For 33-year-old Joshua Godfrey, studying the farming models of Israel’s kibbutzim firsthand has provided the framework he needs to open a permaculture orphanage back home – on the outskirts of Chennai, southeastern India.
“I am developing a project where I could demonstrate that permanent agriculture could support orphan female children and elderly women,” Godfrey told The Jerusalem Post during a recent interview in Tel Aviv. “The concept is to bring the two communities together to tailor them as a single-parent family.”
Godfrey decided to focus on girls, rather than on boys or both genders, because girls still tend to face many more social problems in rural India compared to their male counterparts, he explained.

Israel Daily Picture: Celebrating July 4th in the Holy Land 100 Years Ago.

The founders of the American Colony in Jerusalem in 1881 were proud of their American roots. The group of utopian, millennialist Christians were later joined by Swedish-American and Swedish believers.
The American Colony set up clinics, orphanages, cottage industries and soup kitchens for the poor of Jerusalem, earning favor with the Turkish rulers of Palestine. Their concern for all citizens of Jerusalem was evident in the shelter and assistance they provided to destitute Yemenite Jews who arrived in Jerusalem in 1882.

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The Jewish-Thai conspiracy to stop Turkey's - space program?

Hurriyet's Burak Bekdil is withering in his attack on Turkey's leaders:

Egypt’s deeply troubled president, Mohamed Morsi, proved to be too uncreative compared to his Turkish brothers in arms when he blamed the mass protests against his Muslim Brotherhood regime on foreign countries only. He could have been better inspired by his Turkish comrades. Even Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay was able to add some (well, the usual) sauce on his "evil foreign powers recipe": The Turkish unrest had been sparked by the Jewish diaspora.

So, where, President Morsi, in your assessment of "Tahrir Square – Revisited," are the Jewish conspirators, Western capitals, financial lobbyists, global capitalists, BBC, CNN International, the Economist, Kemalists, Syrian Baathists, Iranian intelligence, the intergalactic forces, and Michael Rubin?

Yes, Mr. Rubin. The zealously, passionately government-friendly press in Turkey discovered weeks ago that the anti-government protests in nearly 80 Turkish cities were the result of a plot hatched at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and the plotters are, of course, Jews, including the intergalactic chieftain Mr. Rubin who, in a posting he called “A little bit of crazy from Turkey,” confessed to the global cabal:

“Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan can’t even get Jewish conspiracies right: Doesn’t he know that on Sundays, we control the banks. On Mondays, we control the newspapers. On Tuesdays, we think about how we can stage terrorist attacks and blame al-Qaeda. On Wednesdays, we attend meetings with George Soros to discuss interest rates. On Thursdays, we plan atrocities and then order the international media to broadcast cooking shows so no one need see the violence. On Fridays, we hunt Christian children so we can use their blood to make matzoh. On Saturdays, exhausted, we rest.”

But the plot that pushed tens of millions of Turks and Egyptians out to the streets to protest the Turkish and Egyptian Muslim brothers is not confined merely to Mr. Rubin and the AEI (secretly known as “Abraham’s Evil Israel”). I have found on-the-record evidence of Thai collaboration in the big game. Yes, Thai. But no, not avatars disguised as tuk-tuk drivers. Juthaporn Remgronasa, a senior official from the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said that the former Siam country saw potential opportunities in penetrating German and other European markets to draw more tourists to Thailand, and openly confessed to the plot: “Turkey’s political problems will benefit Thailand.”

Earlier, a Turkish Cabinet minister unveiled the big game. Economy Minister Zafer Cağlayan said (financial) speculators, lobbyists and bankers were united in a coalition against Turkey. Without these lobbies, he said, Turkey would now have built and launched its own spaceship.

The situation is very serious: All the dark forces of the intergalactic lobbyists, Abraham’s Evil Israel, Mr. Rubin and Thailand’s Union of Tuk-Tuk Drivers have joined their forces to stop the supreme Turkish engineering from building a spaceship which, who knows, could one day save the world from an alien attack. Of course, a more plausible interpretation could be that the dark forces are trying to stop the Turkish spaceship to prevent possible casualties in case the Sultan I crashed into the kitchen of a Bolivian farmer. And I feel guilty because I was the first journalist to reveal Turkey’s plans to build a spaceship (“We’ll make fighter jets! And spaceships too...” this column, Dec. 16, 2010).

In the meantime, it might be a better idea if Mssrs. Erdoğan and Cağlayan devoted less time and efforts to spaceships and intergalactic conspiracy theories and more to making Turkey a better place to live in. Turkey has just ranked last among 34 nations according to the OECD’s Better Living Index (based on 11 selected criteria including health, education, environment, personal security and income). Unless of course Abraham’s Evil Israel, Mr. Rubin, the tuk-tuk lobby and Turk-hating avatars have already taken control of the OECD.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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Iranian news reports Kate Middleton is Jewish!

I know that there is big news in Egypt and Syria and Turkey, but - hold the presses - the future British monarch will be Jewish!

From Iran's Mehr "News" Agency:

It still remains a question for many people in the UK as how a “flight attendant” could marry Queen’s grandson; a fact that although hushed and ignored by British mainstream media, did not manage to skip some media’s attention.

The truth is that the Royal Family’s new bride is a Jew. Although in the wedding ceremony it was pretended that Kate Middleton is Christian but this lady’s family roots show that she is considered a Sephardic Jew from her mother’s side. Moreover the timing of the wedding and the way it was held which was based on Jewish culture verify the evidences.

Kate’s mother was surnamed Goldsmith before marrying Kate’s father. According to Jewish laws if a mother is a Jew, her children will be Jews, too. Therefore Kate Middleton is a Sephardic Jew and her children will be Jews based on the Jewish law.

We are then told that Princess Diana was Jewish as well, so William's and Kate's kid will be full blooded Jews!

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Well, if you are an antisemitic Iranian, maybe there is.

A lot of this seems to be based on this HuffPo piece in 2011, which found the claims to be highly implausible.

(h/ t EBoZ)

UPDATE: More here.

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Military coup reported in Egypt

WaPo:

As huge crowds of pro- and anti-government protesters massed in the streets of Cairo Wednesday afternoon and the army deployed armored vehicles, a top adviser to embattled Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi declared that a military coup was underway and warned that “considerable bloodshed” could ensue.

Dozens of armored vehicles were deployed at eastern Cairo’s Rabaa Adawiya Mosque and outside Cairo University, where hundreds of thousands of Morsi supporters gathered. The president’s supporters and opponents were waiting to see whether Egypt’s powerful army would take action, as promised, once its deadline for Morsi and his opponents to forge a political agreement had expired.

There were unconfirmed reports, meanwhile, that Morsi and the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that constitutes the president’s main base of support, were being banned from travel.

Two top Brotherhood officials reached by phone on Wednesday dismissed rumors that Morsi and his aides had been put under house arrest or barred from leaving the country. “This is not true. This is all empty talk,” said Abdullah Shehata, a prominent Brotherhood member. “Everything is fine.”

Al Ahram English has nothing on this so far.

Al Jazeera adds:

Egypt's embattled President Mohamed Morsi has proposed a consensus government as a way out of the country's crisis, as an army deadline urging him to meet the protesters' demands expired.

"The presidency envisions the formation of a consensus coalition government to oversee the next parliamentary election," his office said on Wednesday in a statement on Facebook.

The statement reiterated that Morsi held opposition parties responsible for obstructing a political initiative that would also set up a panel to prepare amendments to the constitution passed into law last December.

Egypt is bracing for a showdown between the military and Morsi, who has rejected the army ultimatum to end a political crisis with his opponents, who have called for his resignation.

Things are still very fuzzy. Chances are I won't be able to live blog this, but just a heads-up.

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