יום שלישי, 4 באוקטובר 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Exclusive: EoZ interview with Alan Dershowitz

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:48 PM PDT

Tonight in Manhattan, Professor Alan Dershowitz gave a talk to nearly a thousand people at the Park Avenue Synagogue to help kick off a new initiative called Step Up for Israel.

The official video of his talk should be up in a couple of days.

But meanwhile, I was hoping to score an interview with him for the blog. The only problem was that he was surrounded by fans the entire time, and then he went to a private reception. I crashed the reception - hey, I had a camera - but he disappeared on me.

Dejected, I started to go home....and there he was waiting for his ride outside.

So here is a four-minute interview I managed to get, asking him questions about issues where we seem to disagree.

Donate to EoZ! Open thread

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:07 PM PDT

Autumn has arrived, and that means it is time for me to ask you for money.

If you believe that this blog is valuable - and I hope you do - please consider a donation or a subscription to help out. Nowhere else can you find such a comprehensive combination of news scoops, original analysis, links to important articles, unique videos, posters and even the occasional cartoon.

At this time, I am ranked #5 of all world politics blogs by Technorati, the only blog in the top five run by one person. I am also ranked #39 among all politics blogs altogether.

In the past quarter I passed the 12,000 post mark. In the last twelve months I have had over 1.5 million page loads and over a million unique visitors. A lot of people are reading this blog and relying on it to get information that is not available anywhere else.

So please consider clicking on the Donate button and paying to help compensate me for the thousands of hours I spend blogging. (It's not exactly like I have NGOs to fund me the way some anti-Israel sites do!)

Also, try to get in the habit of looking at and clicking on any ads in the sidebars that interest you. Some of these ads pay as much as a dollar per click, and it definitely adds up! So every time you read a post that has educated or amused you, please click on an ad or two.

As always, thanks for your support! I am continuously surprised that EoZ is as popular as it is, and it is all thanks to you.

UPDATE: Some people do not like using PayPal, so if you prefer, you can send me an Amazon gift card via email. It is much appreciated!

Idealistic Libyan Jew meets the reality of the "Arab Spring"

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 11:54 AM PDT

From Reuters on Sunday:
In the walled old city of Tripoli, Libya's independence flag pokes through crumbling buildings and a gang of children wielding toy pistols tear through dusty alleyways.

In these run-down streets stands the empty, faded peach-colored Dar Bishi synagogue.

The interior can only be seen by climbing up the rubble of a collapsed house and the ark, which would normally shelter the Torah scroll, is instead stuffed with a mattress.

The Hebrew inscription above it "Hear, O Israel" is barely perceptible from wear, and empty paint cans are strewn across the floor. The site of the mikve baths, used once for ritual cleansing, is now a trash dump where stray cats scour for food next to a discarded washing machine as veiled women look on.

Libyan Jewish exile David Gerbi said he has dreamed of restoring this synagogue for 10 years, when smoke from New York's burning Twin Towers evoked one of the most powerful memories of his Libyan childhood.

Gerbi says he is the first Jew to return to Libya since the revolt that ousted Gadhafi in August.

Now that Gadhafi is gone, Gerbi wants to help interim Libyan leaders rebuild the lost Libya of his childhood and foster the type of religious tolerance between Jews and Muslims that exists in other parts of the Maghreb such as Morocco.

And he wants the Dar Bishi synagogue to be the symbol of reconciliation between Jewish and Muslim Libyans.

Talking over the Muslim call to prayer one evening last week, he told Reuters: "Some tell me I need to accept it's over. I say no, it's our shop, it's our synagogue and it's not over."
At first it looked like things were going well. From WSJ early today:
Wearing prayer tassels, a yarmulke and Star of David pendant, the man who says he is the first Libyan Jew to return to the country since Moammar Gadhafi's ouster on Sunday reopened the city's lone synagogue for the first time in 44 years.

Reopening the Dar Bishi Synagogue stands as a bold challenge to the country's new leaders to prove their commitment to the pluralistic democratic values they espouse, said David Gerbi, who fled to Rome in 1967 at the age of 12.

In Libya, as in much of the Arab world, animosity toward Israel has often translated into vehement anti-Semitism. One of the more common swipes at Col. Gadhafi in recent months by Libyans was the widely believed allegation that he had Jewish grandparents.

The country's new leadership has tread carefully around the issue. NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil met with Mr. Gerbi in Benghazi late last month. Libya's Berber minority have emerged as vocal advocates of Libyan Jews, with some prominent Berber leaders backing Mr. Gerbi's bid to secure a seat on the country's governing council.

Still, Mr. Gerbi said his request for formal permission to reopen the synagogue was totally ignored. NTC officials responded coolly to the news of the synagogue's reopening, calling it premature to tackle such a sensitive issue. It was unclear whether they would allow Mr. Gerbi to go forward with his plans to renovate and restore the synagogue or would move to stop it.
Today, however, Gerbi  received the answer as he experienced a dose of "Arab Spring" reality. From AFP:
A Libyan Jew who returned from exile as Moamer Kadhafi's regime fell said on Monday he is facing death threats over his attempts to restore Tripoli's abandoned and crumbling main synagogue.

David Gerbi, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst who fled with his family to Italy at the age of 12, said he was facing discrimination and being ignored by Libya's new authorities in his efforts to reopen the Dar Bishi synagogue and gain recognition for Jews who fled Libya during Kadhafi's rule.

"This already happened 44 years ago and now it's happening again," Gerbi, wearing a yarmulke on his head and Star of David pendant, said.

"They think they can make threats, that they are going to kill me, but I'm not going to give up. Like they did not give up to Kadhafi, I'm not going to give up to them."

Gerbi said he was told on Monday when he showed up to work at the synagogue that he would have to leave for his own safety.

A man claiming to represent the authorities told him his efforts were provoking anger in the country and that death threats had been made.

"He said 'there are many coming now, they are coming with guns, if they come you will be killed'," Gerbi said, adding that he had been told that a major demonstration against his efforts was being organised in Tripoli for Friday.

He left after four men armed with assault rifles showed up at the synagogue and its door was locked.
A Libyan Jew who is not an Israeli citizen is being threatened and forcibly barred from re-opening a synagogue in the new, free Libya.

Now, what would you call that?

Hamas brags about eleven years of terrorism

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 10:44 AM PDT

The Palestine Times website published an article today listing Hamas' terrorist accomplishments since the beginning of the terror war that began in September 2000.

They brag about three specific acts of terror:

  • The massacre at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva killing 8 students 
  • The attack by a laser-guided anti-tank missile against a schoolbus, killing a child (that they claim was a "soldier") 
  • The Park Hotel Passover massacre killing 30, mostly elderly, Jews. (Hamas inflates the number of victims to 36.)


The article says that in the past eleven years Hamas has committed:

  • 4303 terror attacks
  • 61 suicide attacks
  • 24 attempts to capture Israelis
  • 423 bombings
  • 90 sniper attacks
  • 146 ambushes

In addition, they claim 8085 projectiles fired from Gaza, of which 2627 were Qassam rockets and 303 were Grad rockets.

They claim to have killed 910 "Zionists" in that time period, while losing 1697 of their members. Not civilians - 1697 dead Hamas terrorists. This doesn't include members of other terror groups like Fatah and Islamic Jihad.

It is clear from the article that Hamas considers the second intifada to still be going on.

The BDS theme song video!

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:35 AM PDT

This is very unintentionally hilarious:


It is hard to say what my favorite part is.

Is it where they thank the Marrickville Council  within the song for voting to boycott Israel?

Is it the part where one of them wants to emphasize that she is not against Israel's right to exist right after she sang that "Palestine" runs from the "desert to the sea?"

Is it where they decide that the best illustration of the Jewish claim to the area is a photo of a synagogue that is less than 40 years old?

Or is it their classic use of the Map that Lies?

Perhaps their line "As the world watches silently, my people become refugees"?

Each of this BDS trio has their own charms. The violin player who doesn't know where to look; the earnest guitarist whose voice would cause small animals to cry out in pain, or the center ringleader whose keffiyeh pretty much excludes two of those three great religions that they mention in the song.

(h/t Tim Blair via Ian)

Unclear on the concept, Erekat accuses US of "blackmail"

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:30 AM PDT

From Ma'an:

Senior PLO official Saeb Erekat said on Sunday that US threats to withdraw aid to Palestinians over the bid for UN membership were "unacceptable".

...Erekat told reporters in Cairo "we appreciate US aid, but to be blackmailed and bargained with over our right to self-determination, on Jerusalem, and on our Arab and Islamic identity is unacceptable."
Blackmail?

Erekat is telling the US that the hundreds of millions of dollars that are paid by US taxpayers to the PA every year are not negotiable - that the PA deserves it, period. The US, according to Erekat, has no right to put any conditions on the money it pays the PA whatsoever. And if, Allah forbid, the US tries to influence the PA in any way, it is guilty of "blackmail."

The definition of blackmail, of course, has nothing to do with this scenario in any universe outside Saeb Erekat's fevered imagination. The closest one can come to that term in the Middle East is how the Palestinian Arabs regularly threaten the US and the world with terrorism if they don't get their way - not blackmail, but a Mafia-type protection racket.

Notice also how Erekat, who regularly rails against the very idea of Israel being considered the Jewish state, has no compunction to say that the supposedly democratic Palestinian Arab state would have an "Arab and Islamic identity."

Erekat's hypocrisy shines through yet again.

Polish soccer fans wave massive "Jihad" banner at Israeli team

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 07:25 AM PDT

From Australia's news.com.au: 

ANTI-racism groups are outraged after Polish soccer fans waved a "Jihad" banner at an Israeli team.

Anti-racism groups have called on European football's governing body UEFA to punish Polish club Legia Warsaw after fans brandished a "Jihad" banner during a Europa League match against Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv.

"This is yet another case of anti-Semitic behaviour by extremist groups active in Polish football stadiums, and it could have been predicted," said Rafal Pankowski of the campaign group Never Again.

At the start of Thursday night's Group C home game in Warsaw - which Legia won 3-2 - a group of fans unfurled a huge banner stretching across three blocks of a stand.

Written in Arabic-style letters, it read "Jihad Legia". The banner was green, which is one of Legia's colours but also that of Islamist groups.

"Some Legia fans have been known for anti-Semitic and extreme-right behaviour for years and they had a chance to express their hatred of Jews again when Legia played an Israeli team, this time adopting a pseudo-Islamist guise," added Mr Pankowski, who runs the UEFA-backed Football Against Racism in Europe network.

Miroslaw Starczewski, deputy head of security at Poland's PZPN football association, said Legia could be hit hard by UEFA.

"Legia should pay the price for this," Mr Starczewski told the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

"A fine is the most likely penalty. And UEFA may even ban Legia fans from the second leg in Tel Aviv."

Legia's away game in the Israeli city is scheduled for December 15.

Under its disciplinary rules, UEFA could levy a fine of up to a million euros ($1.4 million).

Far-right and anti-Semitic banners and slogans are notably shocking given Poland's World War II history, when millions perished at the hands of occupying Nazi Germany, including the overwhelming majority of Europe's Jews.
Will we hear the "Jihad means inner struggle" defense?

(h/t Silke)

Reports that Ilan Grapel will be released this week

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:10 AM PDT

From Al Ahram:
Al-Hayat newspaper claimed on Sunday that Ilan Grapel, an Israeli-American citizen accused of spying for the Mossad, will depart Egypt with the US secretary of defence, Leon Panetta, on Tuesday.

The unnamed official source added that what Grapel did was not espionage and thus he can be released in return for economic benefits for Egypt.

US congressman Gary Ackerman, who is lobbying for the release of Grapel, offered an increase in economic support for Egypt.

The family of Grapel visited him in his jail with the presence of the American consul in Cairo last Thursday.
Palestine Today quotes Israel's Channel 10 as saying that Israel will release Egyptian prisoners in exchange for Grapel.

Grapel's incarceration, which started last June, was extended for yet another 45 days in mid-September.

PA to stop paying Gaza's electric bills

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 03:41 AM PDT

Get ready for more staged heartbreaking photos of Gazans with candles.
Remember this staged photo from Reuters?

Palestine Today reports that the Palestinian Authority has informed the Hamas-led Gaza government that it will phase out payments of Gaza's electric bill over the rest of the year.

Currently, the Ramallah government pays an Israeli electric company to provide electricity to Gaza.

In September, the PA paid 40 million shekels for Gaza's electricity, but it plans to reduce that amount by 10 million shekels a month down to zero by January 2012.

The PA told the Gazans that they will have to pay for their own electricity, as the financial crisis is forcing the PA to reduce services.

The PA pointed out that some 70-80% of Gaza's electric customers have not been paying their bills, and that the Gaza utility companies must do a better job collecting their bills.

As far as I can tell, despite this financial crisis, the PA continues to pay salaries to terrorists in Israeli prison and stipends to their families. Some things are just too important to consider cutting.

Especially since they know that any electricity shortage in Gaza will be blamed on Israel anyway.
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