יום חמישי, 18 באוגוסט 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Hamas caught between rock and a hard place on Syria

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 06:31 PM PDT

Palestine Press Agency has published an analysis saying that Hamas has been cornered by the Syrian uprising.

On the one hand, Hamas has had a patron in Damascus, having moved its headquarters there from Jordan in 1999.  It has tried to be low-key about the uprising, sitting on the fence and not saying much.

However, Hamas cannot publicly support a nation that is killing Palestinian Arabs.

Fatah has seized on the Latakia attacks, publicly calling it a "crime against humanity." Hamas, however, remained silent.

In fact, as I mentioned earlier, a rally in Gaza against the Syrian regime resulted in a number of arrests by Hamas plainclothes policemen - and they arrested a journalist covering the rally as well.

There have been rumors that Hamas is looking to relocate its headquarters again, to Qatar or Turkey.

The New York Times briefly mentioned this conundrum today:
Syria has long given residence to Palestinian factions opposed to Mr. Abbas, including Hamas and some splinter Palestinian groups, and many Palestinians recall Syria's decision to intervene decisively against them in 1976 during the Lebanese civil war. So far, Hamas has sought to avoid alienating the government in Damascus while stopping short of statements of support, like those from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement and, even more pronounced, the allied Amal movement in Lebanon. In a pro-Hamas newspaper in Gaza, a columnist criticized the ferocity of the Syrian crackdown.

Now that Palestinian Arabs have become victims of Syria's assault, Hamas' fence-sitting position is looking less tenable. Palestinian Arabs are very upset over Syria and Hamas cannot remain supportive of the regime - no matter how lukewarm that support is.

(h/t David G, CHA)

Syria's embassy personnel intimidating protesters

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 12:53 PM PDT

Last month I quoted a chilling Al Arabiya article about how the Syrian embassy in the US was threatening Syrian  anti-regime protesters by photographing and identifying them and then threatening their families back home.

The Wall Street Journal (via Fox News) reports on this as well:
Syria is taking its war against President Bashar al-Assad's political opponents global, using diplomats in Washington, London and elsewhere to track and intimidate expatriates who speak out against the Damascus regime, according to Syrian dissidents and U.S. officials.

Syrian embassy staffers are tracking and photographing antiregime protesters and sending reports back home, Syrian activists and U.S. officials say. Syrian diplomats, including the ambassador to the U.S., have fanned out to Arab diaspora communities to brand dissidents "traitors" and warn them against conspiring with "Zionists."

A half-dozen Syrian-Americans interviewed by The Wall Street Journal in recent weeks say that as a result of their activities in the U.S., family members have been interrogated, threatened or arrested in Syria. The Obama administration says it has "credible" evidence that the Assad regime is targeting relatives of Syrian-Americans who have participated in peaceful U.S. protests.

In an interview Tuesday, Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador, dismissed the allegations by Syrian dissidents and U.S. officials as "slander and sheer lies."

One Syrian-American scientist in Philadelphia, Hazem Hallak, said his physician brother, Sakher, was tortured and killed in May by Syria's intelligence agencies, the mukhabarat, after he returned from a medical conference in the U.S. Syrian agents in Aleppo were obsessed with obtaining a list of Syrian activists and U.S. officials the brother had allegedly met during his stay, Hazem Hallak said.

"They want to intimidate us wherever we are," said Mr. Hallak, who said he believes Syrian agents or regime sympathizers tracked his brother inside the U.S. Mr. Hallak said his brother wasn't involved in anti-Assad activities.

The State Department recently publicly rebuked the Syrian ambassador, Mr. Moustapha, for allegedly intimidating activists and confined him to a 25-mile radius around Washington.
"We received reports that Syrian mission personnel under Ambassador Moustapha's authority have been conducting video and photographic surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States," the State Department said. "The United States Government takes very seriously reports of any foreign government actions attempting to intimidate individuals in the United States who are exercising their lawful right to freedom of speech as protected by the U.S. Constitution."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, meanwhile, is investigating allegations that Mr. Moustapha and his staff have threatened or harmed Syrian-Americans, according to three individuals interviewed by the FBI in recent weeks. An FBI spokesman said the bureau won't comment on any possible investigation into the Syrian embassy's activities.
Jennifer Rubin discusses this in more detail.

Meanwhile, Tunisia has recalled its ambassador to Syria.

Syrian troops are breaking into private homes in Latakia.

Some UN employees fled the country.

The next clampdown may be the Yarmouk PalArab camp in Damascus where electricity has been cut off. Another Arab leader is turning against his Palestinian "guests.

UNESCO tersely admits calling Maimonides a Muslim

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 11:47 AM PDT

I reported last month that a UNESCO document has put Maimonides in a recent list of Muslim scholars published in December 2010.

The Algemeiner contacted UNESCO about this:

When contacted directly by the Algemeiner for comment a UNESCO spokesperson replied, "UNESCO acknowledges that there was indeed an important and regrettable error in the chapter devoted to Arab States in the UNESCO Science Report published in 2006, which refers to Maimonides as a Muslim scholar," they said. "Despite the vigile [sic] of our editors, errors unfortunately do occasionally occur."

The representative declined to comment further.
That's not quite an apology.

While the acknowledgement is welcome, in the context of UNESCO declaring Rachel's Tomb to be a "historic mosque" - a provable lie - and other anti-Israel biased statements it has made recently, one wonders if a mistake like this is more than just a mistake.

UNESCO must have known how offensive this Maimonides gaffe was, so to shrug it off as "just one of those things" hardly seems an adequate response.

Hamas prevents scholarship students from traveling to the US

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 10:40 AM PDT

Hamas holds the keys to the Gaza prison:
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) denounces the decision taken by the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Gaza to prevent 8 students who have been granted scholarships to study in the United States of America via AMIDEAST, from travelling for "social and cultural reasons."

Eight students from secondary schools in Gaza won scholarships from the YES program run by the AMIDEAST. They were selected for the scholarship based on academic criteria and the selection process took a full year. ...

On 25 July, the parents of the successful students submitted a request to Dr. Usama al-Muzeini, Minister of Education and Higher Education in Gaza, to approve granting facilitations necessary for their children's travel via Erez crossing on 17 August 2011. However, the Minister rejected the request on 31 July 2011 for "social and cultural reasons." It should be noted that in their requests, the parents explained that they are know the details of the scholarship and about measures necessary for the protection of their children.
The parents intended to send the kids to the US via Israel - but Israel didn't reject them. Their own "leaders" did.

Work accident?

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 09:50 AM PDT

A Hamas terrorist member of the Al Qassam Martyrs' Brigades has succumbed to wounds he received several days ago in an "accident." Not a car accident; just an "accident."

Mohammed Jaber Al-Safadi was 26 years old commander for the Brigades. The Qassam website hailed him as a martyr, saying "He was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice" and that he fell in the "playground of death."

From other similar incidents it seems that either he did kill himself while playing with explosives in his playground of death, or that he was killed in an intra-Hamas feud, which get hushed up by Hamas.

Either way, it's time to distribute the candies!

Iran blames Somali humanitarian crisis on...well, you can guess

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 09:05 AM PDT

From Iran's FARS comedy channel "news agency:"

Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) forces Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi expressed concern about the conditions of the Somali people who are hit by severe famine and drought, and took the US and the Zionist regime responsible for growing catastrophe in the African country.

"The present poverty, hunger and insecurity in Somalia are the result of the numerous plots of the US and the Zionist regime," Naqdi said here in Tehran on Wednesday.

He reiterated that Somalia is experiencing aggravating humanitarian crisis because the US and the Zionist regime prevented establishment of a stable and efficient government in Somalia by provoking insecurity and unrests in the North African country.
A list of everything that the Muslim and Arab world has blamed on Jews and Zionists would tax the largest databases.

Hamas arrests Gazans protesting Syrian regime

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 08:30 AM PDT

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas broke up a demonstration in Gaza supporting the Syrian people and Palestinian Arabs in Latakia who have been attacked by the murderous regime.

Hamas security forces arrested ten demonstrators, who were reportedly beaten.

PA TV: Western Wall Plaza will become an Arab neighborhood

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 07:35 AM PDT

From PMW:

PA TV doc: Arab homes will be built at Western Wall, Jews' praying there is "sin and filth""They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth (Jews' praying at Western Wall) in an area that used to have [Arab] people and homes. We are drawing our new maps. When they [Israelis] disappear from the picture, like a forgotten chapter in the pages of our city's history, we will build it anew (residential area). The Mughrabi Quarter will be built here (on the Western Wall Plaza)."

Keep in mind that the same people who will censor comedy TV shows for offending the sensitive feelings of their politicians are quite happy with direct insults at Jews and Jewish history on their TV station.

Abbas again tells Lebanese Palestinians to go to hell

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 06:30 AM PDT

Palestine Press Agency reports that Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Lebanon, reiterated that he insists Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon should remain stateless forever, or at least until Israel is destroyed:

The presence of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is temporary and subject to Lebanese law, and access to civil rights to live with dignity in Lebanon does not at all mean resettlement. We categorically reject the principle of resettlement.

Here, Abbas is repeating what he said in 2008:
We would not accept any settlements that would lead to a demographic change in Lebanon. This is totally unacceptable ... We won't accept a settlement that obliges Lebanon to naturalize even one Palestinian.

And again:
We assure our Lebanese brothers that the resettlement of refugees in their country is rejected. We will not accept it.
In 2009, he vehemently came out against the idea of Lebanon issuing passports to their Palestinian Arab "guests."

In 2005, however, Abbas had no problem with offering citizenship for Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon - and he was castigated for that by the self-appointed terrorist leaders in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Palestinians have consistently chosen to become citizens when they had a chance.

As I have previously written on this topic:

Generations have grown up in Lebanon, raised families, and died, but their supposed "leader" is more interested in them keeping their stateless status rather than giving them the simple choice of allowing them to be more integrated into the land of their birth.

Mahmoud Abbas, that supposedly moderate leader of the PA, the PLO and Fatah, who claims to represent millions of people of Palestinian Arab descent, has once again told his people to go screw themselves rather than give them the option of happiness as full citizens of other Arab lands. He arrogantly claims to know what is best for his people, and is dead-set against giving them the option of making their own decisions.

Because he knows that the majority them would not choose to put their families through the hell that they have gone through thanks to the decisions of Arab leaders over the past six decades.

Palestinian Arabs who choose to become citizens of Arab countries will, by and large, never choose to move to an eventual "Palestine." They will identify only peripherally as "Palestinian." They will lose their value as pawns to corrupt, arrogant "leaders" who pretend to know what is best for them, and whose power derives from their very misery.

Moreover, if Arab countries would give PalArabs full citizenship, a significant number of Palestinian Arabs in the territories - hundreds of thousands, if not over a million - would happily move to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or Dubai. (Ironically, they would also have a positive influence on most of their host Arab countries, as they tend to be better educated and harder working, and Gulf countries import many workers from Indonesia and Africa, causing many problems that could be avoided if Palestinian Arab workers replaced them.)

The operative word here is "choice." Palestinian Arabs are not given the power to choose where to live, and Arab nations specifically deny them the ability to become citizens that they give all other Arabs.

Yet there are no "pro-Palestinian" organizations tha lobby on behalf of real Palestinian Arabs. They all repeat the lie that they can best help them by fighting Israel, militarily or politically. It is a myth, and one that is easily disproven - it has not helped them one bit in 63 years. "Human rights" organizations may mention some of these problems in isolation but they do not push for the simplest, fairest and cheapest solution to the problem of millions of stateless people.

Abbas, the one person who pretends to represent his people the best, tells his suffering would-be constituents that their six-decade old problem is "temporary."

This is a travesty of human rights.

The way to tell if someone is truly pro-Palestinian Arab or is simply using the Palestinian Arabs as pawns to help destroy Israel is to ask him one simple question:

Do you support giving all Palestinian Arabs the choice to become full citizens of any Arab country that they desire, according to the existing naturalization rules that they have for other Arabs?

This is the question that needs to be asked of every Arab leader, every Palestinian Arab leader, every NGO, every human rights organization. It should be hammered in during every interview. They must be forced to answer the question clearly and forcefully.

Unless they can answer that question in the affirmative, the inescapable conclusion is that most people who pretend to be "pro-Palestinian" are nothing more than liars and hypocrites who support discrimination against the very people they claim they want to help.


Egyptians charge man with selling Zionist Infertility Shampoo

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:33 AM PDT

Al Ahram reports that Egyptian security has arrested a Jordanian who was allegedly spying for the Mossad.

His specific crime?

Bashar Abu Zeid was the sole importer of an Israeli hair product that contained "creatine." This product, according to the charge, causes infertility in both women and men, for the purpose of eliminating all childbirth in Egypt permanently.He worked with an additional alleged Mossad spy, Ofir Harrari.

Don't the Egyptians realize that this is the antidote to the infamous Zionist Sex Gum?

Leave it to the Mossad to take a potentially multi-billion dollar product and use it only to cause Egyptian infertility! Even the money grubbing Jews prefer to sabotage Egyptian birthrates rather than market a simple and painless birth control method.

Needless to say, this story is rocketing around Arabic media.

Oh, and here's how Al Ahram illustrated this amazing scoop:

Freedom of Speech, PA-style: Satire sketch TV show yanked

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:37 AM PDT

From Ma'an:
A Ramadan TV series that became notorious for its criticism of Palestinian Authority officials has been discontinued on the PA-run Palestine TV, Attorney General Ahmad Al-Mughni said Tuesday evening.

Al-Mughni told Ma'an they decided to stop broadcasts of Watan Ala Watar [Country on a String] after Tuesday's episode because "it is full of mistakes, is meaningless and is a waste of time for people to watch."

The serial, broadcast during the holy month of Ramadan when broadcasters compete for captive audiences with soap operas and special series, was an emblem of PA's ability to tolerate self-criticism.

Al-Mughni said Tuesday that the series is "harmful to Palestinian society."

"It mocks leaders terribly, and has a poor scenario," he said, adding that episodes had crossed "red lines."

"There are people and personalities that can't be imitated in any way," the Attorney General said.

The series had targeted the beleaguered Palestinian Authority health ministry, public sector workers union head Bassam Zakarneh and teachers union in recent weeks, and officials are reported to have complained to the Attorney General about the send-up.

Palestine TV is operated by the Palestine Broadcast Cooperation, and supervised by the Ramallah-based Ministry of Information.

Watan Ala Watar gained a huge following for its uncompromising look at themes of politics, corruption, nepotism, religion and morality.
Notice that even though PA TV is effectively run by the Ministry of Information, it was yanked by the Attorney General.

JPost reported about subjects of the comedy threatening to sue a week ago.

Al Jazeera reported on the show in 2009:
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