יום שישי, 3 ביוני 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

The best one-state solution (Andrew Klavan)

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 02:59 PM PDT

Give the entire Middle East to Israel!

Funny - and yet true:



If this goes viral, Arabs will believe that this is a real plan. Should be fun.

(h/t guy)

Links

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 01:46 PM PDT

Slate: The Persistence of Hate

Video: The rabbi and the paratroopers (taking care of soldiers during the Lebanon war)

Lots of blogs have been following the ban on Israeli books in the Scottish town of West Dunbartonshire. Israellycool has had a bunch of posts, The Muqata is organizing a counter-boycott of Scotch whiskey, and the idiotic comments of one of the council members made it into YNet.

Spengler on the upcoming Arab economic meltdown.

A long and depressing article in Commentary by Daniel Gordis on how young rabbis are being "even-handed." When the supposed leaders of a people cannot see the difference between their own people and the enemy, we are in serious trouble.

Hamas' leader again makes some comments that are hardly peaceful. But, then again, Fatah isn't much different.

The IDF holds races. The real, running kind.

After lots of criticism, an LGBT center in New York decides not to host any groups who deal with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

(h/t Cheryl and lots of people whose names I didn't save, sorry)

"Peace" protesters proud to call themselves "warriors"

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 12:29 PM PDT

The month-long saga of the Malaysian "aid" ship to Gaza is finally winding down...but not without one more illuminating fact.
Although the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) Malaysia failed in its mission to send humanitarian aid right to the people of Gaza, it is proud of having broken Israel's illegal seige of Gazan waters.

PGPF chairman Tan Sri Norian Mai said this success was meaningful for PGPF, apart from the spirit and courage of those onboard the cargo ship MV Finch carrying the humanitarian aid, regarding them as warriors.

"Although this mission cannot be said to be 100 per cent successful, it managed to break Israel's illegal seige as the ship managed to enter the Gazan waters before being stopped by the Israeli navy," he told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, here, Wednesday.

Dr Siti Hasmah said her husband, former premier and PGPF president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was proud of all the mission volunteers and thanked them for their sacrifice.

"Dr Mahathir is unable to be present here to welcome home the heroes today, but he wishes to congratulate and thank them for their sacrifice....he's very proud of these warriors.
"Peace" activists proudly calling themselves "warriors"?

It's also funny how no matter what happens, these anti-Israel agitators will pretend to have won. If Israel had stopped the ship further out to sea, they would claim "piracy." When done closer in, they claim "victory."

(h/t Mike)

Egyptian town wants to stop Jewish pilgrimage to rabbi's grave

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 11:16 AM PDT

From The Egyptian Gazette:

Residents of el-Behira Governorate in the Nile Delta vowed Thursday to prevent thousands of Jews, who arrive en masse at the tiny village of Demito near Damanhour City, 50 km southeast of Alexandria, every year during the last week of each December to attend the birthday celebrations of Abu Hasira, a Moroccan Jewish holy man, who was buried there some 150 years ago.

"After the January 25 revolution, which toppled over the Hosni Mubarak regime, the Jews will not be allowed to enter Demito any more and endanger the public morals and hurt the feelings of its 5,000 residents," Moustafa Rasslan, a lawyer, said.

He called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has been ruling the country since February 11, to enforce a 2001 court ruling that compelled the Culture Ministry, responsible for the site where the annual gathering takes place in late December and early January, to cancel the Abu Hasira celebrations all together.

"If the SCAF does not enforce the ruling, Damito residents will not allow the Jews come to their village to attend the week-long Abu Hasira Mulid (festival), where they used to behave in a way that contradicts Islamic traditions and public morals under the very nose of security officials of the ousted regime," he said.

Although Damityoo residents insist that they have nothing against Jews , they insist that the Jews and Israelis should feel ashamed of themselves to visit their village while they are oppressing the Palestinians.

A female residents said that the Jews drink alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam, to be blessed as part of their veneration of the rabbi.

"The Jewish visitors usually get drunk and engage in obscene dancing during the celebrations," the woman, who asked not to be identified, said, demanding that the Abu Hasira festival should be cancelled after the revolution and the deposing of Mubarak, whom she dismissed as Israel's friend.

Damito dwellers, led by lawyer Rasslan, have officially requested the SCAF to stop the festival because of their discontent about the Jews' misconduct.

They have also demanded that the Essam Sharf Government to move Abu Hasira's remains to Israel and change the name of their village from Damito to Mohamed el-Dura, the Palestinian young boy whom Israeli forces shot to death in cold blood during the second Intifada eleven years ago.
It's not like they don't like Jews, Allah forbid. They just to ban them from their town. You can't call that anti-semitism!

Here's a video of the "drunken" revelry and "obscene dancing" that they are complaining about, that was embedded on Arab sites last January:


And then, as an afterthought, the article says:
Recently, there has been an unconfirmed report that the secret Egyptian security agents have foiled a bid by some anti-Israel activists from vandalizing the Abu Hasira Shrine.

No security official was immediately available to confirm or deny this report.
In fact, Shorouk News reported two weeks ago:
Hundreds of students from the University of Damanhur and a coalition of youth on Saturday held a peaceful march to the tomb of Abu Hatezira to denounce the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and to show solidarity with the third Palestinian Intifada, and the rejection of the establishment of the alleged birth of Abuhetzeira in Damanhour.

The march began in front of the college at the University of Damanhur and then walked around the streets, and stopped at the bridge leading to the Abu Rish Dmitoh village is located the tomb of Abu Hatzeira, and afterwards security forces prevented them from entering the village.

The students burned the Israeli flag, and carried a sign saying "The Zionists will not enter," in reference to repeated visits by Israeli tourists each year to the shrine of Abuhatzeira. The students chanted slogans condemning the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and calls for halt attacks on the Gaza Strip, and unify the Arab countries to restore the occupied Arab territories, and stop the various forms of normalization with Israel including natural gas, and the expulsion of its ambassador from Egypt.
So Egyptians decide to protestagainst Israel's existence at a shrine that has nothing to do with Israel and only has religious significance. A shrine that they want to remove from their midst.

But don't say they hate Jews!

(h/t Vicious Babushka)

Watch out for those "artificial quakes"!

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 10:10 AM PDT

From Iran's FARS "news" agency:
A prominent Palestinian activist cautioned on Wednesday that the Zionist regime of Israel is likely to attempt to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque through an artificial earthquake, and urged all Islamic countries to show an immediate and strong reaction to the Israeli plans against the first Muslim Keble.

"The Zionist regime authorities may find control over the Al Aqsa Mosque or issue the order for its destruction through an artificial quake which now seems to be the case, given the Zionists' continued diggings and excavation operations under the Al Aqsa Mosque," Khater noted.
You would think that they could come up with something more original. Aftrall, the "artificial quake" threat has been around for years.

In 2009, an "expert on Israeli affairs" said that Israel was going to create an earthquake in the Negev or the Red Sea in order to destroy Al Aqsa.

And a Hamas MP made the same accusation in 2007.

Come on, Arabs, come up with something more imaginative!

Maybe the Egyptian sharks can grow legs from Israeli genetic engineering and strap on bomb belts when they come to visit the mosque disguised as tourists? Or Israel might release Zionist gophers to eat away at the foundations of the mosque. Maybe some super-secret Joo-Rays are being shot, right now, at the Dome of the Rock with the intent to burn a six-pointed star into the dome which will turn it into a synagogue!

Recycling the old 'artificial earthquake" story? I'm deeply disappointed.

A thorough explanation of UCU's latest attempt to legitimize Israel bashing

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 09:15 AM PDT

The British University and College Union (UCU) last week voted to reject the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia definition of anti-semitism.

The EUMC working definition includes specific ways that criticism of Israel is in fact anti-semitic.

Working definition: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

In addition, such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity....

Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:
  • Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
  • Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
  • Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
  • Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
  • Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
The virulently anti-Zionist UCU rejects this definition:

Congress notes with concern that the so-called 'EUMC working definition of antisemitism', while not adopted by the EU or the UK government and having no official status, is being used by bodies such as the NUS and local student unions in relation to activities on campus.

Congress believes that the EUMC definition confuses criticism of Israeli government policy and actions with genuine antisemitism, and is being used to silence debate about Israel and Palestine on campus.

Congress resolves:
  • that UCU will make no use of the EUMC definition (e.g. in educating members or dealing with internal complaints)
  • that UCU will dissociate itself from the EUMC definition in any public discussion on the matter in which UCU is involved
  • that UCU will campaign for open debate on campus concerning Israel's past history and current policy, while continuing to combat all forms of racial or religious discrimination.
Even though the EUCM was careful to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-semitic criticism of Israel, the UCU rejects that distinction - it claims that all criticism of Israel is in fact legitimate, no matter the context.

Ben Gidley at Dissent Magazine goes into great depth on why unions needs to define concepts like racism and anti-semitism - and why the UCU is completely wrong (and disingenuous) in its attempt to pretend that it is  impossible for criticism of Israel to be anti-semitic.

The entire article is worth reading. Its conclusion:
For the union to disassociate itself from the working definition in any public discussion of anti-Semitism is beyond ridiculous. It means insisting that all of the organizations that do take the working definition seriously—the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom; the NUS; the Union of Jewish Students; the Fundamental Rights Agency; the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe—are dismissed in advance. It undermines their work on anti-Semitism, and it undermines their vital work on anti-Roma racism, Islamophobia, and other racisms.

In the workplace, as the CST's director writes, this "will serve to (even) further alienate Jews from the union; and it will make it (even) harder for anti-Semitism to be raised there as a matter of concern....[I]t carries the implication that people who complain about anti-Semitism in any Israel-related context are likely to be a bunch of liars, dancing to a pre-ordained tune."

As an academic who studies racism, I find it bizarre that my union cannot accept that there is even the faintest possibility that institutional racism might exist in our own ranks, even after a series of clearly documented incidents and a shocking number of resignations by Jewish members who perceive it as such. This motion, if passed, [it was passed - EoZ] will in fact legitimate racism in the union and stop any allegation of anti-Semitism—in debates or in the workplace—from being taken seriously. That the motion will be tabled in a session entitled "Campaigning for equality" is ironic, but the irony tastes bitter indeed.
(h/t Adam and Zach N. via Facebook)

A great loss for the JBlogosphere

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 08:35 AM PDT

Yaacov Lozowick is retiring from blogging, as he is about to start a new job as Israel's State Archivist.

Yaacov is a brilliant blogger - insightful, thought-provoking, original - and an excellent writer as well.

At least he will continue to put up some notes for all of us to see at a new site.

I wish him good luck in his new - and very impressive! - position, but the Zionist blogosphere will be much poorer without him.

"Naksa Day" - Will the Lebanese army stop the protests?

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 07:32 AM PDT

From Ya Libnan:

Fatah leader in Lebanon Munir Maqdah said on Wednesday that all Palestinians including Fatah and Hamas groups will take part in the Naksa Day rally scheduled for June 5.

"All Palestinian factions will participate in the event, including institutions from Lebanon's civil society," he told the Central News Agency.

"The May 15 clashes are a ball of fire that will keep on growing until it burns the occupier until the Palestinians are granted their right to return to their homeland," he added.

Palestinian sources told the news agency that the demonstrators are planning on marching to the Lebanese-Israeli border on June 5, where they will set up tents at Maroun al-Ras and at the Khiyam prison.

They added that preparations and contacts are underway with Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah, and other parties in order to stage Sunday's rally.

Security sources told Kuwaiti newspaper al Anbaa that the Lebanese army won't allow a repeat of the al Nakba day protests that took place in Maroun al Rass. The sources stressed that the army will not allow Israel any more excuses for more killings

One source told the daily that the army recently succeeded in foiling an attempt to fire a rocket towards Israel … the person was detained just before firing the rocket.
For some reason, even though everyone knows that the Lebanese army fired at demonstrators on May 15, everyone says that all of the dead were killed by Israel.

Ethiopian Jew sings Arabic song on Israeli TV talent show

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:21 AM PDT

An amazing performance on Israel's "A Star is Born" talent show by Hagit Yasou, a 21-year old from Sderot. She is singing in Arabic.



Those racist Israelis!

(h/t SA)

Reports: Syrians kill 43, destroy mosques, dump bodies at sea (UPDATED)

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 05:20 AM PDT

From CNN:
Dozens of people have died in clashes with troops in western Syria, where government forces reportedly shelled homes in one town, protest organizers and a human rights official said Thursday.

At least 43 people have been killed since Sunday when government forces entered Homs province to end protests against government rule, said Rami Abdel Rahman, president of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A witness in Rastan, who identified himself as a protest organizer named Abu Abdullah, said there was heavy artillery fire and that shelling had destroyed about 20 homes and several mosques.
Abdullah said the fighting has been nonstop since troops cut off the town on Sunday.

Abdullah said he carried the body of a 16-year-old boy killed in the attack on the city.
"He was just walking in the street when he was shot," he said.
I bet that the mosques has quite a few Korans that were destroyed, too.

Meanwhile:
Belgian newspaper "Die Presse" has reportedly confirmed on its website that the Syrian intelligence services has resorted to a new and innovative way to get rid of the bodies of the protesters that were killed by packing them into well locked metal containers and dumping them into the sea making sure they don't float and expose the crime.

The decision of dumping into the sea was reportedly taken in the wake of the scandal over the mass graves that were discovered not long ago and embarrassed the regime.

The paper quoted unnamed observers as saying that the number of bodies that were dumped so far into the sea are at least two hundred and some of them were killed under torture.

UPDATE: There is a video that appears to show the dead bodies in a refrigerated truck. (h/t Joel)

UN resolution proves Gaza not occupied (JPost)

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:39 AM PDT

An op-ed in the Jerusalem Post shows that even the UN agrees that Gaza is not occupied by Israel! Well, it would if it applied a consistent standard to the definition of "occupation."

The argument for occupation has been that since Israel maintains "absolute authority over Gaza's airspace and territorial sea [it is] manifestly exercising governmental authority in these areas," in the words of Prof. Iain Scobbie. Others claim that border control amounts to "effective control" of the interior. But prior blockades, like that of Cuba by president John F. Kennedy, were never considered occupations. Moreover, border controls are typical along every international frontier, even among the friendliest of nations.

...The recent UN Security Council resolution authorizing force against Libya provides an excellent experiment in whether the legal arguments widely made about Israel are also applied in parallel cases. In March, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 in response to Col. Muammar Gaddafi's violent crackdown on anti-government rebels. The resolution authorized military action, delineated a no-fly zone across all of Libya, froze Libyan assets, and authorized the extensive use of force against Libyan troops.

Yet Resolution 1793 specifically rules out any "occupation" of Libyan territory. This was not stray language. The prohibition of occupation has helped secure the support of several skeptical nations.

At the Council meeting, Lebanon's delegate stressed that the resolution would not result in the occupation of "even an inch" of Libyan territory.

SO we now have confirmation from the Council that a broad embargo, no-fly zone and months of constant aerial bombardment do not constitute an "occupation." Certainly these activities have considerable effect on Libya, and "control" much of what happens there. Obviously Israel's much less comprehensive and invasive measures against Gaza do not constitute an occupation by this standard.

Of course, the Libya resolution proves nothing new; the arguments that Gaza remained occupied after 2005 were always quite surprising.

The obviousness of the above principles when applied anywhere but to Israel should give pause to those who think that even a full withdrawal to pre-1967 lines will lead to Israel's international legitimacy, or preclude the fabrication of new pretextual claims.
(h/t Greg, Menachem)
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