יום חמישי, 14 באפריל 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

A 250 year old Haggadah's wine stain

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 01:51 PM PDT

I just found this 1765 Haggadah on Google Books.

Note that the person using it in some long-ago seder put his cup of red wine on the bottom of this page, where it left a stain that remains there forever::

Iranian MPs want to ban dogs for being "unclean"

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 12:06 PM PDT

From Al Arabiya:
Dogs are "unclean" and should be banned from society. That is what 39 Iranian legislators have proposed to the country's 290-member parliament, known as the Majlis.

Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that the parliamentarians suggesting the ban on dogs and other pets deemed as "unclean" want the proposed statute to be part the country's general Islamic law.

If the law passes, dog owners will be banned from taking their pets out into public spaces and into vehicles. First-time offenders will be fined five million riyals (approximately $4800); they will be given 10 days to get rid of the dog. If they fail to do so, health authorities will be called in to take the dog away from its owner. It is unclear what would be done to the dog.

The health ministry has been asked to enforce the rules, as have city councils around the Islamic republic as well as the parliament's culture committee, according to IRNA.

The 39 MPs say that other than canines being "unclean," keeping dogs as pets goes against Iranian values. The practice, they said indicated the influence of Western culture.

Which of these creatures looks cleaner?


UPDATE: Challah Hu Akbar points us to this relevant photo:

"Palestine": The pyramid-scheme state

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:42 AM PDT

The recent report from the World Bank on how the PA is supposedly ready to become a state is an object lesson in wishful thinking replacing sober analysis. In fact, from all the data I can find, all of the wonderful economic indicators that are being tossed around are simply paper gains.

The PA has very little underlying economy outside of the money that is coming in by the billions from donors.

The World Bank report says this explicitly:
The economic growth observed in WB&G is arguably donor-driven, and sustainable growth remains hampered by Israeli restrictions on access to land, water, a range of raw materials, and export markets, to name a few. WB&G has experienced growth for the third year in a row, including a recent reduction in unemployment. It must be kept in mind, however, that the economy is rebounding from a low base, particularly in Gaza. In addition, the growth is mostly confined to the non-tradable sector and reflects the importance of donor aid in driving the Palestinian economy – though recent easing of restrictions by the Government of Israel has probably had a positive impact as well. Sustainable growth will require the unleashing of the private sector's potential, including its ability to trade. And while unemployment has declined recently, it remains very high, especially for the youth – a fact inexorably tied with the stifled private sector.

The Palestinian Arabs aren't actually producing anything. And what little they produce is mostly going to Israel.

Thus, growth is mostly confined to the non-tradable sector and probably reflects the importance of donor aid in driving the Palestinian economy. Israel remains WB&G's largest trading partner, yet in the first three quarters of 2010, exports of goods and services to Israel were only about US$480 million in nominal terms. This is only 6 percent higher than in the same period in 2009 and nearly 22 percent lower than in 2008. Since Gaza has been closed since mid-2007, these figures are not affected by the situation there. Consequently, the fact that growth has taken place recently despite the slowdown in exports to Israel probably reflects the importance of aid in driving growth.

The budget deficit is over a billion dollars a year, which has been made up by - donors.

More:

Because of the need to fund development projects for which designated aid was not received, the PA was forced to increase bank borrowing and accumulate arrears at an unsustainable rate. Net domestic bank financing increased by about US$84 million, with gross borrowing of US$200 million, so that at the end of 2010, total domestic debt stood at about US$840 million, which may be close to the PA's borrowing limits. In 2010, the PA paid close to US$23 million in arrears in net lending, but it accumulated another US$144 million in new arrears. While most of this was to the pension system, about US$50 million was in non-wage and development spending. This suggests that some private providers of goods and services to the PA may be facing delayed payments.
The only good news has been an increase in tax revenues - not because there is a particularly larger tax base, but because the PA is now doing a better job at collecting taxes.

In the end, all of the promising indicators - the decrease in unemployment, decrease in poverty and similar - are directly because of donor aid, and to a smaller extent to Israeli policies.

But what about the future? What sort of a private-sector economy will the nascent state of "Palestine" have?

As a small open economy, the future Palestinian state will depend upon increasing trade, especially the export of high value added goods and services that exploit its comparative advantage arising from a relatively low wage but well educated workforce. Increasing trade and integration into the international markets will provide consumers access to a wider range of products at lower prices, while producers will benefit from higher prices found on the world market. The Palestinian market's small size means that, without access to the world market, Palestinian producers will not be able to achieve minimum efficient scale. In addition, becoming competitive on the export market will force Palestinian producers to improve their productivity, thereby increasing employment, raising wages, and lowering poverty. Since 1967, trade in WB&G has been overwhelmingly oriented towards Israel. As of 2008, Israel accounted for nearly 89 percent of WB&G's exports and 81 percent of imports. The majority of exports were for low value added goods that required a minimal level of processing. In order to achieve sustainable growth, the WB&G economy must increase overall trade, expand trade beyond the Israeli market, and increase the value added in exports. To do this, an appropriate trade policy regime must be in place, including the necessary institutional, regulatory, and physical infrastructure that will facilitate trade.
In other words, the Palestinian Arab economy has not adapted to survival in the real world. The World Bank says what must happen - but shows no indication that any of this is even on the drawing board.

What countries will buy the mythical Palestinian Arab goods? The obvious candidates would be the rest of the Arab world - but their own unskilled labor is cheaper than that of the PA. So what would the PA export to Europe or the Americas? What value added will the "well educated workforce" give to goods and services needed worldwide? Is there a serious initiative to build software companies, or R&D facilities? Because if the PA economy is dependent on selling tomatoes and olive oil, it will never be viable.

The World Bank glosses over these problems, instead insisting that a transparent monetary policy and an improving judicial system are somehow the only pre-requisites for a functioning state.

PA prime minister Salam Fayyad, who last year said that the PA could be financially independent by the end of 2013, just asked for another $5 billion over the next three years "to launch a Palestinian state."

The entire PA economy is a shell game, where donor money pays for basic needs but nothing is being done to actually build a functioning, independent state. It is wonderful that all the government is apparently not as corrupt as it was a few years ago, but that doesn't mean that the donor money is doing anything forward-looking. Fayyad's latest demand makes the PA economy a pyramid scheme as well, as the money coming tomorrow will keep propping up the untenable situation today. Meanwhile, there is no real economy, where people are actually building and growing and discovering and creating products that the world needs.

And these are just the economic problems with "Palestine." This doesn't even touch the much worse problems that it has.

UNRWA workers in Gaza on strike

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 09:05 AM PDT

UNRWA workers belonging to the "Union of Arab Employees" in Gaza re now on strike.

Schools, clinics and medical facilities are shut down.

Ma'an reports:
An estimated 11,500 employees of UNRWA's Gaza Strip sub-offices went on strike Wednesday morning, protesting the dismissal of a group of workers, and demanding permanent contracts for staff.

Certain employees of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, currently renew a one-year contract annually, and when a group of workers lost their jobs at the end of their contract, union officials threatened to strike.

The union called the strike for Wednesday, pulling teachers, doctors, maintenance staff, and security personnel from their posts, and keeping an estimated 220,000 students out of class.

Firas Press adds that the issues also include lack of respect for the "Palestinian judiciary" (this must mean Hamas courts, as the strike is in Gaza) and - if I am reading it right - workers being upset over the possibility of teaching about the Holocaust in UNRWA schools.


Another dopey Jewish college student opines on Israel

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:14 AM PDT

I wonder if you would look back at college newspaper articles written by today's political leaders, were they just as stupid as this sophomore named Jonathan Rich at the University of Georgia?

Zionist actions only spread anti-Semitism
In 1948, the state of Israel was declared in the land of Palestine.
Unfortunately, the indigenous population living in Palestine presented a problem for the Zionist desire for Jewish separatism.

As a result, 725,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed from their homes and sent into exile, according to Israeli historian Ilan Pappé.

Isn't it ironic that Jews, who were exiled from Egypt in ancient times, were the ones doing the ethnic cleansing?
How dare those Egyptians exile their Jewish slaves! To the desert, no less!

I also love the imagery of Jewish soldiers dragging 725,000 people out of their homes. Amazing they found the time to defeat five Arab armies at the same time. But, hey, it is sourced by a "historian" who admits that he doesn't care about the truth, so it must be true!

Our esteemed editorialist, who says he is Jewish to buttress his credentials, goes on to flaunt his keen understanding of the subject:
If Israel accepted Palestinian refugees as equal citizens, it would force Jews to live and interact with gentiles. And Zionists will not allow that.
Yep, Israel has no gentiles. Certainly no Arabs, no Muslims, no Christians, no Baha'i, no Druze. it is an ethnically pure state, because Zionists will not allow any non-Jews to live there. Of course, they don't want to interact with those filthy goyim who happen to walk the same streets, shop the same stores, and act in the same TV shows.

After all, a Jew who doesn't even know the basic story of Passover says so!

You would think that a college student would be slightly embarrassed to display such sheer ignorance in public.

Well, looking at him...maybe not.

"Train Station" banners in German, Spanish, French

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:40 AM PDT

Thanks to Silke, Suso and Jean, here are the "train station" posters translated into German and Spanish. Click to enlarge.












After I did these, I saw that DO commented that he has translated these and a number of ElderToons into German himself.

Amnesty official threatens Zionist at anti-Israel event in London

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 06:27 AM PDT

You have to read this post on Richard Millett's blog. Excerpts:

Last night I went to Amnesty International for an event called Deliberate Discrimination Deliberate Deprivation: The Denial of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories chaired by Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty's Campaign Manager.

There were five speakers who each gave a ten minute cameo talk on how Israel had stolen Palestinian land, had destroyed and stolen Palestinian water resources, had destroyed Palestinian health care, had destroyed the Palestinian education system and had destroyed Palestinian cultural and political life.

...[They displayed a photo that] was taken in 2003 and shows a Palestinian boy with a Magen David cut into his forearm. The caption reads:

"The soldier, checking student's ability to bear pain, took a piece of glass and broke it and taking Qasem's arm, cut into it a Star of David (April 30th 2003)"

After the event I wanted to discuss the provenance of this photo with Ala Abu Dheer. He shook my hand and invited me to visit Palestinian towns with him to show me how the Palestinians were living and promised to email me details of the case of the Palestinian boy.

He asked me what I would do about it and I told him I would try to get Israel to investigate. However, I said that if an Israeli had done this surely we would have seen the photo by now. I asked him what he would do about Hamas' crimes.

Then events took a surreal turn. An Amnesty official went to get Kristyan Benedict who proceeded to tell Mr Abu Dheer that there was no point in talking to me as I was a war crimes denier. On the way out Kristyan proceeded to tell me, inter alia, that he would "smack me in my little bald head". As you can hear he also suggested that I put it on my blog, so here it is:

And you can hear the audio of an Amnesty official threatening violence against someone whose views he disagrees with.

Will Amnesty apologize? Will Benedict be reprimanded or fired?

Or is the crime of being a supporter of Israel so heinous that peaceful proponents of human rights just can't help themselves?

So how many civilians were killed recently in Gaza?

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 05:36 AM PDT

Some great research by Lenny Ben-David at I-Consult:

There in the middle of a silly article about Justin Bieber's visit to Israel, The New York Times' Isabel Kershner goldstones Israel.  
"Last Thursday, a 16-year-old Israeli boy was critically wounded by an antitank missile fired by Hamas militants at a school bus in [SIC] Gaza. That triggered days of intense exchanges of fire, during which 18 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, were killed."
So how much is "about half" of 18?  How many dead civilians? Eight? Nine? Ten?

Actually, the real number of civilians killed is five.  It's relatively easy to find out just by looking at Arab sources in English.  And according to Arab sources, four were in close proximity to terrorists firing missiles at Israel. 


A list of the 18 dead can be found below and on the site of Muslim News. Next to the names, I identified them as "fighters" or "civilians."  That determination is based on linked articles in the Muslim News, the Palestinian Maan News Agency or Human Rights Watch. 

1. Mahmoud Al Manasra, 50, Al Shijaeyya. Civilian
2. Mohammad Al Mahmoum, 25, Rafah.  Fighter
3. Mosab Al Sufi, 18, Rafah.  Fighter
4. Saleh Al Tarabeen, 38, Rafah.  Fighter
5. Khaled Ad-Dabary, 23, Rafah.  Fighter
6. Mo'taz Abu Jame', Khan Younis.  Fighter
7. Abdullah Al Qarra, Khan Younis.  Fighter
8. Nidal Qdeih, 21, Khan Younis.  Civilian
9. Najah Qdeih, 48, Khan Younis.  Civilian
10. Talal Abu Taha, 55, Khan Younis.  Civilian
11. Raed Shihada, 27, northern Gaza.  Fighter
12. Bilal Al 'Ar'ir, 23, Al Shijaeyya.  Fighter
13. Mahmoud Al Jaro, 10, Al Shijaeyya.  Civilian
14. Ahmad Ghorab, northern Gaza.  Fighter
15. Mohammad Awaja, Rafah.  Fighter
16. Taiseer Abu Sneima, Rafah.  Fighter
17. Ahmad Al Zeitouniyya, northern Gaza.  Fighter
18. Zuheir Al Bir, Al Zeitoun neighborhood – Gaza.  Fighter

Isabel Kershner promises to research it further, but I can tell you where she got her information from: PCHR.

The same PCHR that determined that so many known militants were "civilians" in Cast Lead seems to be doing the same for those killed now.

PCHR writes:

A number of the artillery shells landed near three Palestinian civilians who were sitting near the Airport. Two of them were killed immediately and the third civilian died of his wounds on the evening of the same day. The dead are:

1. Mohammed Eyada Eid al-Mahmoum, 25;
2. Khaled Ismail Hamdan al-Dabari; 17;
3. Saleh Jarmi Ateya al-Tarabin, 38, who died of his wounds in Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis city.
We see immediately that all three were fighters according to Ma'an, and I quickly found and linked to the Hamas Al Qassam obituary page for one of them, al-Tarabin. (So far I found 7 obituaries from those two days, but Hamas does not always post them all immediately; some obituaries are posted years after they are killed.)

PCHR is again trying to inflate the number of "civilians" killed.

Posters for European train stations

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 03:29 AM PDT

From YNet:

A Swiss court has ordered the state's national train service, the SBB, to allow a pro-Palestinian group to hang anti-Israeli posters in Zurich's central train station, the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger reported on Tuesday.

The posters appeared to argue against Israel's right to exist. "Sixty-one years of Israel, 61 years of injustice," the sign read.

"A country without a people did not exist in the Middle East for the people without a country," it claimed. "Israel was established with violence on Palestinian land. The injustice demands resistance!"
From what I can tell, these aren't even paid ads - just banners that Israel haters put up.

Here it is (h/t Dicker):


So why can't the Zionists in Switzerland - and elsewhere in Europe - put up some banners that tell the truth? (I'll be happy to translate them to other languages if someone gives me the text.)
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