יום שישי, 17 ביוני 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Arab Facebook group: kidnap Israeli girl "to marry Shalit"

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 06:04 PM PDT

From YNet:
For five years now, Hamas has been holding Gilad Shalit but failed to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the abducted IDF soldier. As it turns out, Gaza radicals are fed up with this failure, yet instead of making do with a more minor release of detainees they prefer to boost the "loot" in their possession.

Accordingly, a new Palestinian Facebook group has been launched in recent days titled "The people want a bride for Shalit."

The intention behind the slogan is clear: A call for the abduction of an Israeli female solider who will serve as yet another Hamas bargaining chip in a future prisoner swap with the Jewish state.

Yet beyond the disturbing message, group organizers resorted to particularly sickening "humor" to further their cause, posting a doctored photograph showing a chained Israeli soldier held by an armed Palestinian woman belonging to Hamas' military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
By the way, from reading terrorist websites, it is clear that Hamas is more proud of the Shalit kidnapping than anything else. They know that Cast Lead was not a victory, but they happily point out that Shalit has been held for five years without Israel figuring out where he is.

(h/t Folderol)

Gazans shoot rocket into Israel, ending lull

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 01:31 PM PDT

From YNet:
A Qassam rocket exploded Thursday evening in an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council.

No injuries or damage were reported in the strike, the first of its kind in southern Israel in recent weeks.

Shortly before 9:30 pm, the Color Red rocket alert system was activated in region. A few moments later, an explosion was heard in the area.

"From the eve of Passover until today we had a calm period that we are not familiar with by any standard," Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Yalin told Ynet. "We are not surprised that the lull ended, we're surprised by a month an a half of quiet. Qassam fire is not an unusual thing, because we know who's living on the other side,"
While it was an unprecedented period of calm, it is not true that no Palestinian Arabs fired rockets to Israel - just that they didn't succeed.

Between May 22 and June 4, one mortar and three rockets were fired. The mortar and one of the rockets fell short, and two other rockets were shot into the sea as experiments.

On May 19th, another rocket fell short.

Again, this is much better than in any previous "lull." Even during the supposed Hamas cease fire in the months before Cast Lead - the one that Israel bashers never fail to say that Israel broke in November 2008 - there were rockets every month.

"Birthright" criticized in The Nation

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 10:21 AM PDT

Kiera Feldman writes an article criticizing Birthright Israel in The Nation. Excerpts:
The seekers are young, just beginning to face the disappointments of adulthood. Their journey is often marked by tears. They may weep while praying at the Western Wall, their heads pressed against the weathered stone, or at the Holocaust Museum, as they pass the piles of shoes of the dead. Others tear up in Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery, while embracing a handsome IDF soldier in the late afternoon light. But at some point during their all-expenses-paid ten-day trip to a land where, as they are constantly reminded, every mountain and valley is inscribed with 5,000 years of their people's history, the moment almost always comes.

When Julie Feldman (no relation), then 26 and a Reform Jew from New York City, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in December 2008, she called herself "a blank slate." She returned as the attack on Gaza was under way, armed with a new "pro-Israel" outlook. "Israel really changed me," she said. "I truly felt when I came back that I was a different person."

It was mission accomplished for Birthright Israel, the American Zionist organization that has, since its founding in 1999, spent almost $600 million to send more than 260,000 young diaspora Jews on free vacations to the Holy Land.

Barry Chazan, a Hebrew University professor emeritus and the architect of Birthright's curriculum, explains in a celebratory 2008 book, Ten Days of Birthright Israel, that the trip is designed so travelers "are bombarded with information." The goal is to produce "an emotionally overwhelming experience" that "helps participants open themselves to learning." On my own Birthright trip last year, I experienced the Chazan Effect. Chronically underslept, hurled through a mind-numbing itinerary, I experienced, despite my best efforts to maintain a reportorial stance, a return to the intensity of feeling of childhood.

"This is not a vacation," a Birthright employee pronounced the first evening, before shooing us to the hotel bar. "You are embarking on a journey." Just four nights later, my steel trap of a heart was overcome by emotion upon seeing my new Birthright crush dancing with another girl. I fled to my room and cried.

To apply for a Birthright trip, participants need just one Jewish grandparent—and to pass a screening interview. (Practicing a religion other than Judaism is an automatic disqualifier.) After their ten days on Birthright, participants may postpone their return by up to three months to travel in the region, and it is not unheard of for progressives to "birth left" in the West Bank afterward (as I did)—though Birthright policy is that anyone discovered to have a "hidden agenda" of "exploiting" the free trip "to get access to the territories" to promote "non-Israeli" causes can lose her spot. Birthrighters planning anti-occupation activism with the International Solidarity Movement have been dismissed.

"Welcome home" is a predominant message, a reference to the promise of instant Israeli citizenship for diaspora Jews under the 1950 Law of Return. (About 17,000 Birthright alumni now live in Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.) It serves as a pointed riposte to the right of return claimed under international law by the 700,000 Palestinians expelled in 1948 upon the creation of the Jewish state, and their descendants.

Birthright's boosters seem strangely unaware of the tribe's more visible woes, the forty-four-year illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the racism and legal discrimination that underpins Israel's ethnocracy.

Birthright tour providers are allowed to take tourists anywhere between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. Mark, the CEO, explained that "as an apolitical organization," Birthright does not concern itself with the Green Line, the internationally recognized border separating Israel proper from the illegally occupied West Bank. "If security allows it, we allow for our participants to see the beginnings of where the nation started." Theoretically, a visit to a Palestinian town in the West Bank would be within the boundaries of acceptability—but Chazan said no trip provider has done it. Birthright funders and officials see Palestinians as best avoided, for "security" reasons. On my trip, we were given maps of Israel that referred to the West Bank as "Judea and Samaria"—biblical terminology typically favored by settlers and their sympathizers.

"I trust that they're doing the right thing," Jewish Federations president Jerry Silverman told me, when asked about Birthright's support of settlements. Such was the predominant sentiment of the funders on this matter, and on the overt racism expressed on some trips: Birthright, like Israel itself, can do no wrong.

It's pleasure as a medium for Jewish nationalism. In Birthright, dissent is for fun-suckers. "Just enjoy the experience," a tour mate told me when I denounced the remarks of one Birthright employee, Gia Arnstein, who had said, apropos Palestinian suicide bombers, "If I impose a holocaust on them, what can I do?" In American discourse, the logic of Jewish victimhood and Israeli militarism is rarely articulated so clearly.
This article goes to the very heart of the matter of hasbara - and anti-Israel propaganda.

Logic rarely makes people change their minds about something. It is emotions that win.

This has been a winning strategy for the anti-Israel crowd for decades. The fake "checkpoints' they set up on college campuses, "die-ins," BDS song and dance routines - they are not trying to give reasoned arguments, but to appeal to emotions.

I recently pointed out that there are thousands of people who visit Israel every year who are on tours specifically designed to push an anti-Israel narrative, where they sleep over at Palestinian Arab houses and stay away from all Zionists except for a token "settler" who gets an hour with them after they have already been force fed anti-Israel propaganda for a week.

Are there any exposes in The Nation about these trips? Is anyone infiltrating them to find out what lies are being said and what subconscious or conscious bigotry is propagated there? Are there any teary articles from participants who felt that they were being brainwashed?

Of course not! Emotions are OK when they are done for the right reasons, not when they are done for "Right" reasons. When Jews try to strengthen their connection to their homeland, it must be exposed and ridiculed. When Arabs and anti-Zionists try to create an impression of Arab attachment for Palestine, however, it is fine and dandy - they are just showing their love.

Now, if Birthright trips do push a bigoted or false narrative - it is hard to know how much of this piece to believe - then they should be fixed. There is no reason to lie when showing the Jewish connection to Israel, or even of the historic Arab apathy towards Palestine. But in the end, this is a battle of emotions, of getting to young people before they make up their minds, and the way to get to them is through the heart and then with the truth.

On that same theme, I recently made this poster for an organization that is doing Zionist education for teens:


Teaching Jewish kids Jewish history and Zionist songs should not be considered subversive: it should be normal.

The fact is that it is sad that Birthright is necessary to begin with. It proves  that the majority of today's Jewish kids are ignorant about Israel, don't understand the basic issues, and couldn't put together a cohesive pro-Israel argument if they tried. The week-long experience is meant to make up for the terrible ignorance about Israel that they suffered from for their first twenty years.  How much will they get out of three hours a week of Hebrew school oriented to teaching them to barely mumble blessings for their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs? How much do their parents know about Israel to begin with?

Birthright is a success because Jewish and Zionist education has been an abject failure. It shows that Jewish kids are hungering for meaning that they are not receiving from home or Hebrew school. It is a wonderful band-aid, but it is still only a band-aid that needs to be reinforced and strengthened (something that Birthright is doing, thankfully.)

Propaganda? Perhaps. But in a world where your television and web browser and mobile phone are filled with advertisements that are meant to change your mindset about various causes and products by playing on your emotions, why is it illegitimate for Zionists to use the same tools? As long as the facts can back it up, then emotions are a legitimate means to get people to the truth.

Guess the date this happened

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 09:03 AM PDT

When was this story published?

Sheikh Ibrahim al Dawi recently issued a fatwa in Baghdad declaring that it was a duty incumbent upon all Muslims to participate in or to support a jihad (holy war) in defence of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and other Muslim sacred places in Palestine alleged by him to be threatened by Jewish imperialism. 
Answer:.

It was published in the Times of London, September 6, 1938. (reproduced in the Palestine Post the day after, spelling changed to reflect current standards.)

Those Jews have had 73 years since then to destroy that mosque and still haven't done it!

Mufti "supports" Palestinian Arabs - because he despises them

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 08:20 AM PDT

From The Daily Star - Lebanon, June 4:

Lebanon's grand mufti said Friday that resistance was "the only means to liberate Palestine and guarantee the return of Palestinian refugees."

Ending this tyranny starts by standing by the side of our besieged people in Gaza and Palestine and supporting them through all possible means and not leaving them alone in confronting the enemy," Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said in a statement to commemorate the 44th anniversary of the Naksa, or the fall of East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria's Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai desert under Israel's control in the 1967 war, which is observed on June 5.

Qabbani said boosting Palestinian national unity, in line with the Palestinian reconciliation inked last month, would enhance the steadfastness of the Palestinians and help them restore their right to an independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital along with their right of return.
He sounds like a strong supporter of Palestinian Arabs, doesn't he?

Last Saturday, Qabbani spoke to a delegation of PLO representatives, and his words were a bit more interesting. From Al-Arab:

Palestinian sources reported that Lebanese Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani was visited by a Palestinian delegation that visited on Saturday to discuss a gathering of Palestinian refugees in Beirut. The delegation was surprised when the Mufti shouted in their faces and called them obscene and vulgar names. He told them, "You are spies and usurpers and we no longer want you guests." The Mufti also said: "You are garbage and will not win for your cause; I'm against you" and continued to repeat these words over the quarter of an hour.

It appears that some of the vaunted Arab "support" for the "Palestinian cause" is really because they want to get the Palestinian Arabs the hell out of their countries.


After I wrote this I see that Khaled Abu Toameh covered the incident in more detail in the JPost. (h/t DK)

A damning indictment of Obama's Syria policy

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 07:25 AM PDT

From Now Lebanon, by Tony Badran:

This past week, the Obama administration was once again questioned over the status of the US ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, as the reasoning behind keeping him there has become less tenable than ever. The Obama administration's ever-shifting rationale, dubious to begin with, is now all but indefensible. In fact, by refusing to recall the ambassador, President Obama only continues to bestow legitimacy on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
In late March, shortly after the uprising against Assad began, anonymous administration officials told the New York Times that Ford "has been quietly reaching out to Mr. Assad to urge him to stop firing on his people."Ford's task was not only an obvious failure, but even the description of it struck a dissonant note. The administration had been insisting that it needed an ambassador to send "tough messages" to Assad. "Quietly reaching out" in order to "urge" Assad gave the impression of feeble reticence rather than forceful outrage.That the message that Ford was delivering was hardly "tough" was evident in an interview he gave to Al-Arabiya in early May. Nothing in the substance of what Ford said could be characterized as "tough." In fact, it was the embassy's staff that was on the receiving end of the Syrian regime's brand of "tough messages." 
In late April, the Wall Street Journal reported that an "American diplomat based in Damascus" was "hooded by Syrian security agents and 'roughed up' before being released." The State Department reacted by "formally protesting" the incident to the Syrian ambassador to Washington.

But that aside, there are questions as to when was the last time that Ford actually met with high-ranking Syrian officials, let alone Assad (whom he reportedly only met once). In late April, Jacob Sullivan, head of Policy Planning at the State Department, told reporters that Ford had met with "senior Syrian officials" whose actual rank he could not specify, and it was unclear whether that was before one of the major assaults on the city of Daraa or afterward.  Since then, Ford's meetings seem to have been rather limited. The State Department's spokesman, Mark Toner, has repeatedly told the press that Ford's requests for meetings continue to be denied. In fact, a senior US official told the Washington correspondent for the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, Hisham Melhem, that the ambassador has not met with the Syrian Foreign Minister or his deputy "for some time," and whatever meetings he's had have been with "intermediaries." As such, it's difficult to make sense of Toner's claim on Tuesday that having Ford in Damascus "sends a clear message" that the US is "going to continue to press the Assad regime to end its human rights abuses."

That Ford hasn't even been allowed to meet with Syrian officials has not been the only problem. The State Department also concedes that the ambassador's movement is equally restricted, apparently confined to Damascus. This constraint calls into question the administration's alternate argument that Ford's continued presence is necessary in order to relay an accurate picture of what's going on in Syria, given that international media is barred from entering the country. In addition, Ford and other officials have expressed reservations about relying solely on the videos streaming out of Syria by activists and dissidents.

However, at the time the Syrians "roughed up" the embassy's diplomat, the State Department itself noted that such measures "have made it difficult for embassy personnel to adequately assess the current risks or the potential for continuing violence." With all these constraints, one has to wonder what picture, exactly, the ambassador is relaying back to Washington.

Leaving aside why such a task requires an ambassador to begin with, there are more troubling questions surrounding Ford's continued presence in Syria. Sources close to the Syrian opposition are claiming that the US ambassador has asked some dissidents (who, incidentally, are not even central players in the protest movement) what their conditions would be to lower the ceiling of demands to accept "reforms" rather than Assad's toppling.

The administration's argument for keeping an ambassador was always problematic, but if this story is true, then all of its claims about Ford's role are exposed as utterly hollow. This posture – the logical outcome of President Obama's call on Assad to "lead the transition" – only legitimates the murderous Assad regime at a time when the US should be publicly declaring it illegitimate. 

 President Obama already lent American prestige to Assad when he decided to recess appoint Ambassador Ford. Awarding normal diplomatic relations with a superpower to a rogue regime is a legitimating act on its own. If the Obama administration is serious about ratcheting up the pressure against Assad, it should first state publicly that it is done dealing with the Syrian dictator, then follow that with a declaration that it is withdrawing the US ambassador from Damascus.

Hamas member electrocutes himself

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 06:31 AM PDT

From Ma'an:
The militant wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement Thursday saying one of its fighters had died in hospital after sustaining a life-threatening electric shock two days earlier.

The group identified the man as Muhammad Al-Mahmoum, 20. He sustained an electric shock while he was working with the brigades in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

In a statement, the brigades said "Al-Mahmoum dedicated his life to jihad."

Tunnel workers often suffer electric shocks from faulty wiring in the underground passages leading between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
While it is likely that he was killed in a smuggling tunnel, the Qassam Brigades page says

The brigades confirmed that the Mujahed was died of an electric shock while performing a Jihad duty in the Rafah refugee camp, adding that he was martyred after a long bright path of Jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.
May all those who embark on the long bright path of Jihad have the opportunity to join al-Mahmoum in Paradise after being equally successful with their tasks.

Egypt in a frenzy over "spy"

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 05:34 AM PDT

Popular Egyptian newspaper Rose al-Youssef is claiming that alleged Israeli spy Ilan Grapel is a member of "Unit 101," an IDF special forces unit that was accused of massacres of Arabs, including at Qibya. The newspaper says that "Unit 101" is part of Israeli intelligence.

Unit 101 hasn't existed since 1954. (He actually was part of the IDF Paratroopers 101st Battalion.)

While many Egyptians are doubting the story, the news media is convinced that Grapel is a spy.

Egypt's al-Ahram weekly reported Thursday that that Cairo's prosecution is looking into ways to expedite the legal proceedings against Ilan Grapel, an Israeli detained there on alleged espionage charges.

Should such a move be successful, Grapel may face trial within a few weeks.

The newspaper continues to claim that Grapel is a Mossad agent, who was caught "trying to recruit locals and inflame the conflict between the Egyptian people and the armed forces."

The paper also alleged that Grapel's visa application – filed with the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv – stated that he was Muslim; adding that he was caught sending "several emails from Internet Cafés to the Mossad."

According to the report, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi refused to meet with the Israeli consul to Cairo on the matter.

Meanwhile, another Egyptian publication, "al-Masri al-Youm," reported that since Grapel's arrest, "dozens of young 'revolutionists' have come forward with information regarding the Israeli agent, reporting to the Attorney General."
Arabic media has even accused Grapel of planning to blow up the gas pipeline between Egypt and Israel in order to embarrass Egypt.

Commenter Mitchell writes:
Aside from being an acquaintance of Ilan Grapel, his being a spy (specifically for the Mossad) does NOT hold water because a) Grapel always used his real name b) whenever Israel wants to send someone to spy on an Arab country, they will send a NATIVE Arabic speaker, not someone with an American accent who sticks out like a sore tongue c) it takes 2.5 years of intensive training ONLY after finishing service in an IDF combat unit before the Mossad will even send you out on a mission; Grapel has been studying at Emory University (in Atlanta, Georgia) for the past two years and only got released from the IDF September, 2007, so do the math....

It is starting to look like the cirrent Egyptian regime does not want to look foolish so it is going to push the lie that Grapel is a spy and fabricate evidence.

There is even a Facebook group that seems to call for Grapel to be executed. And a demonstration is planned in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday to protest Israeli "spying" on Egypt.

The US needs to pressure Egypt to release Grapel (and American citizen) now, because time is not on his side.

Are these Israeli weapons? (updated)

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 03:12 AM PDT

Yesterday I mentioned that Egyptian authorities claimed to have busted a Palestinian Arab arms smuggling ring, and that they captured a quantity of Israeli and American weapons.

Here's a video of the event, from Al Masry al Youm, and the weapons can be found starting at 0:47. Could someone identify the types of weapons here?

               

UPDATE: The consensus is represented by this comment by Jonathan:

This *is* too funny. You couldn't identify most of these firearms as most of those were self-manufactured by the swell lads here, using parts from other firearms. For example, Uzi was never manufactured with front-mounted grip, yet you could see a [weird] one on the Uzi located at the far right on the table. The third from the left seems to be based on a shortened version of Beretta M12. The fact that the rear grip is made of wood and is clearly out of place there suggests that the M12 was shortened by the Palestinians themselves.
This is not a major weapons cache and Egypt is exaggerating the importance of this find. Hamas gets much better weapons than this, and in much higher quantity.
פורסם על ידי zoom ב- 0:06

אין תגובות:

הוסף רשומת תגובה

הירשם ל- תגובות לפרסום (Atom)