יום שבת, 25 ביוני 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Weekend link grab bag

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:44 PM PDT

As always, Now Lebanon has tons of new news from Syria. Many, many major protests today, and reports of 14 killed. Hundreds of people fleeing to Turkey and Lebanon

Hundreds protesting in Jordan for reforms.

Caliphate conference coming to the UK!

Oldie but goodie BBC/Gaza spoof

Logical, but wrong

Was there a Fatah/Hamas reconciliation agreement?

Haaretz: "A leading Israeli official has praised Pope Pius XII for saving Jews during the Nazi occupation of Rome, a surprise twist in a long-standing controversy over the pontiff's wartime role."

Michael Totten on Syria/Turkey

National anthem not played for graduating law students in Haifa - because of Arab students?

A female president of an Orthodox shul in Australia. Oh, she's also an aborigine.

Israeli company cyber-spies terrorists

People are liking this video of Rep. Michele Bachmann on Israel.

Hey Jews!:




(h/t Israel Muse, Joel, YM, Yerushalimey, MM, Ian, Silke, Mitchell)

25-30% of Saudi men can't get it up

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 10:38 AM PDT

Al Quds al Arabi has two interesting stories.

One quotes a Saudi doctor and surgeon as saying that between 25% and 30% of all Saudi men suffer from erectile dysfunction. He also goes into detail about other problems Saudi men are having in the bedroom. He also noted that the percentage of Saudi men with ED have been steadily increasing over the past decade.

The other story is from Egypt. One of the new Islamist political parties that was illegal under Mubarak has a problem: their religious leaders ruled that they cannot appear on news programs where there are unveiled women, especially interviewers. This limits their ability to use the mass media to get support.

I wonder if the stories are related.

Berkeley and CAIR team up on "Islamophobia"

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 09:35 AM PDT

The University of California-Berkeley has a Center for Race and Gender, and withinthat center they have recently started an "Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project." CAIR is a major sponsor of this initiative, and CAIR co-sponsored a conference in April on the topic.

Yesterday, they announced the First Annual Islamophobia Report.

It takes only a few seconds of reading it to see that there is nothing academic about this report. It is little more than an excuse to push a myth of Muslim victimhood in America.

One proof of this is a section of the report called "The Worst":
Some individuals, institutions and groups were at the center of pushing Islamophobia in America during the period covered by this report. This list is neither comprehensive nor offered in any specific order. However, those listed below do deserve particular note for their intentional efforts to spread fear and prejudice.
Everyone that they hate, from Pamela Geller to Robert Spencer to Steven Emerson and Newt Gingrich.

I was particularly interested in their section on how "Islamophobic" Daniel Pipes is. I once had a lengthy message board exchange with a (very nice) Muslim woman who claimed that Pipes hates Muslims and Islam, and she gave me a bunch of quotes proving it from CAIR (or maybe from WRMEA.). Luckily, Pipes keeps every one of his writings available on his website, easily searchable, and I spent the time to track down the context of each quote.

Every single quote was taken out of context, deliberately, to make Pipes appear to be a hater.

Here is part of what this report, under the aegis of UCB, says about Pipes:

The grandfather of Islamophobia in America. Pipes' eminence is fading but his contributions to anti-Muslim intolerance in America cannot be overlooked.

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum, a right-wing think tank.

In 1990, he said:

"Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene...All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."

"This religion would seem to have nothing functional to offer," Pipes said of Islam in 1996.
And so forth.

Pipes, however, has already responded to most of these CAIR lies here. He shows how the quotes are either mis-attributed or way out of context. And anyone can search his site and figure out that he is entirely right.

Which means that a publication with a university imprimatur is pushing what are, quite literally, lies written by CAIR. It doesn't even pretend to fact-check the lies.

This may be the worst example of pseudo-scholarship in the US today. The University of California-Berkeley is no longer even engaging in the pretense of scholarship - it is now a fully activist organization masquerading as a university.

IDF video on blockade

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:38 AM PDT

From the IDF website:
In order to protect Israeli civilians from attacks by the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF lawfully enforces a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. Given previous attempts by the terrorist organization Hamas in smuggling weapons via land and sea and the inherent difficulties in conducting inspections at sea, it is critical that Israeli forces inspect all goods and material marked for Gaza prior to their transfer into Gaza. Thus, the Israel Navy will be forced to intercept the Gaza flotilla if it attempts to break the legally enforced naval blockade.

This week, the Israel Navy conducted an integrated exercise simulating all possible scenarios in the event that the Gaza flotilla attempts to breach the legally enforced naval blockade on Gaza.

Will Hezbollah attack Israel to loosen pressure on Syria?

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:36 AM PDT

From Reuters:
Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group is preparing for a possible war with Israel to relieve perceived Western pressure to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its guardian ally, sources close to the movement say.

The radical Shi'ite group, which has a powerful militia armed by Damascus and Iran, is watching the unrest in neighboring Syria with alarm and is determined to prevent the West from exploiting popular protests to bring down Assad.

Hezbollah supported pro-democracy movements that toppled Western-backed leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, but officials say it will not stand idly by as international pressure mounts on Assad to yield to protesters.

It is committed to do whatever it takes politically to help deflect what it sees as a foreign campaign against Damascus, but it is also readying for a possible war with Israel if Assad is weakened.

"Hezbollah will never intervene in Syria. This is an internal issue for President Bashar to tackle. But when it sees the West gearing up to bring him down, it will not just watch," a Lebanese official close to the group's thinking told Reuters.

"This is a battle for existence for the group and it is time to return the favor (of Syria's support). It will do that by fending off some of the international pressure," he added.

...While Hezbollah's fate is not linked exclusively to Assad's future, his departure would make life more difficult for the group, which depends on Syria's borders for arms supply.

"Syria is like the lung for Hezbollah...it is its backup front where it gets its weapon and other stuff," said another Lebanese official who declined to be named.
This is certainly something to be concerned about.

Then again, some of the analysts interviewed in the longish article are idiots:
While he dismissed the possibility of a regional war, Augustus Richard Norton, author of a book on Hezbollah, said an Israeli Lebanese war may be possible, adding he believed Israel was likely to strike first.

"It is not too challenging to imagine a scenario for a Israel-Lebanon war to erupt, especially given the Obama administration's diffident and permissive approach to Israel.

"...It is far more likely that Israel will pursue a war with the goal of crippling Hezbollah and punishing Lebanon than that a war will be intentionally provoked by Hezbollah," he said.
Norton is a Hezbollah apologist.

Latest Latma (6/24/2011) - Tom Friedman's love song

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:27 AM PDT

Great Tom Friedman skit.

There WAS an injury in last week's Qassam attack

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 05:31 AM PDT

Last week a rocket was shot from Gaza to Israel, ending a lull of no rockets landing in Israel since April. That rocket cause no damage when it landed in the Eshkol Regional Council.

What was not reported was that there were at least two rockets shot last Thursday - and one of them did cause extensive damage and significant injuries.

In Gaza.

From PCHR:
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 22:30 on Thursday, 16 June 2011, a home-made rocket hit the first floor of a 3-storey house belonging to Suleiman 'Ayash Abu 'Owaida in al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. As a result, Samia 'Ayash Abu 'Owaida, 18, was injured by shrapnel throughout his body, and the house and neighboring house belonging to Sameer Sa'id Abu Jayab was damaged.
I wonder if the upcoming flotilla will protest against these continued examples of Gaza terror groups injuring their own people with rockets.

Or will these purported "peace activists" call for better quality control to ensure that 100% of the rockets land on Israeli civilians?

Gazans attack Red Cross office for supporting Shalit (updated x2)

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 04:16 AM PDT

From Ma'an:
Palestinians threw eggs at the international Red Cross office in Gaza on Thursday to protest against a call for Hamas to show signs a captured Israeli soldier was still alive.

Dozens of angry protesters also chanted slogans against the International Committee of the Red Cross and ripped down and destroyed the Red Cross sign over the office.

They were protesting over a call earlier on Thursday by the ICRC, demanding that Gaza rulers show proof that Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured five years ago, is still alive.
How dare the Red Cross ask Hamas to do anything?

Meanwhile:
Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups issued a joint statement on Friday demanding that Gaza militants end "inhumane" treatment of an Israeli soldier they hold captive.

The declaration, signed by Israeli group B'Tselem, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and eight others, comes as Israel marks the fifth anniversary of the capture of Gilad Shalit by three groups, including the current ruling party in Gaza, Hamas.

"Those holding him have refused to allow him to communicate with his family, nor have they provided information on his well-being and the conditions in which he is being held," the statement said in English, Arabic and Hebrew. "This conduct is inhumane and a violation of international humanitarian law."
So far I have been unable to find this declaration.

The B'Tselem site has a separate article calling for Shalit's release.

The Amnesty site likewise has an article demanding his release, but it felt necessary to refer to Israeli "human rights violations carried out on a daily basis against Palestinian men, women and children."

HRW does not yet have any press release about Shalit, although they have issued them every year on the anniversary of his abduction. In last year's they also felt it necessary to refer to Israeli restrictions on family visits to prisoners.

PCHR has nothing on its website about calling for Shalit to be released. Since their participation in this joint declaration is what is making headlines, it will be interesting to see when or if PCHR actually calls for Shalit's release on its own site or if this is another case of Palestinian Arabs saying one thing for Western consumption and another internally.

UPDATE: The letter is here. The only PalArab organization on the letter is PCHR. PCHR still does not have it on their website. (Which makes the fact that the letter was also written in Arabic sort of moot.) (h/t T34)

UPDATE 2: Challah Hu Akbar points out that this letter does not call for Shalit's release, only for him to be treated "humanely." Which means that PCHR is probably the only listed "human rights" organization that supports his being kept captive.

Gap between Hamas and Fatah remains wide (Toameh)

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 02:54 AM PDT

From Khaled Abu Toameh in Hudson-NY:
The Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, which was announced last month in Cairo, appears to have ended before it started.

It now turns out that the gap between the two rival parties remains as wide as ever, in spite of the accord. Hamas and Fatah continue to disagree on almost everything.

They disagree on who would head a new Palestinian unity government, on members of the government, on the government's political platform, on the future of the peace process with Israel, on security coordination with Israel, on the Palestinian Authority's relationship with the United States and European Union and on the role of the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But there are other things where Fatah and Hamas do see eye to eye.

Both parties agree on the need to restrict freedom of speech and the media. The two Palestinian governments continue to display intolerance toward any form of criticism, regardless of its source.

Palestinian journalists and political activists who dare to criticize the governments in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip face arrest, harassment and intimidation. This explains why there is not a single Palestinian opposition newspaper in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and Fatah also agree on the need for each party to stay in power at all costs. That's why they don't want to hold new elections. In many ways, the status quo is not bad for the two parties.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority continues to receive millions of dollars in financial aid from the international community. The Palestinian Authority's leaders hold Israeli-issued VIP cards that allow them to travel freely, especially to fancy hotels and restaurants in Tel Aviv.

The VIP cards also allow the Palestinian leaders to pass through Israeli checkpoints without having to wait in line together with ordinary Palestinians.

The status quo is also good for the Palestinian Authority leadership because it is no longer being held responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip. For example, no one holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for the rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israel.

Hamas, on the other hand, has learned from the Palestinian Authority that, in order to stay in power, it must tighten its grip over the population in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and Fatah agree that democracy and transparency is something that they can live without. They share the perception that repressive police states are the only way to control their people.

Finally, Hamas and Fatah agree on the need to blame Israel all the time for the miseries of the Palestinians. Neither party is prepared to accept responsibility for any wrongdoing.

A new wrinkle in the unity sham has come up as well - that of Abbas trying to have it both ways.

He tells the Americans and EU that he remains the president, he appoints the prime minister and Hamas has nothing to do with the government.

But he tells his people and the Arab world that Hamas is a partner, that they are working together in forming the government, and that important progress is being made towards elections.

He needs to somehow tell both of these to the UN simultaneously, because declaring a state without Hamas proves that the state is a joke, and doing it with Hamas proves that the state supports terror. Either way, any Western country that recognizes "Palestine" under these circumstances is replacing reality with an extreme case of wishful thinking. (Any non-Western country that does it is engaging in modern anti-semitism.)
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