יום חמישי, 3 בנובמבר 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Video of Hamas celebration of terrorists - on horses

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 10:50 PM PDT

Last week I mentioned that Hamas planned a parade on Friday as another celebration honoring the released terrorists, and that it would include a "majestic procession" including forty horses.

The video of the event is online, complete with Hamas' martial music. It turns out that the terrorists themselves rode the horses - each holding a rifle.

Here's the video:



I think that this is another example of Palestinian Arab culture that UNESCO is so interested in.

Great new kosher Wall Street restaurant might close because of OWS

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 06:02 PM PDT

From The Gothamist:

The owner of the Milk Street Cafe, a big upscale food court that opened in June on Wall Street, has laid off a quarter of his staff, and he predicts he'll go out of business soon. Though he was doing well and on track to break even on his investment next month, the NYPD's barricades on Wall Street— put in place to keep out Occupy Wall Street protesters—have been killing him. Owner Marc Epstein tells us he's had to lay off over 20 employees, and his business is off 30% because Wall Street is a dead zone. Reached by phone today, Epstein says:

I have no opinion about the protesters' point of view. These barriers are killing my business, and everyone—the police, the protesters, the Mayor—has to understand the ramifications. The police decided the way to solve this was to put up these barricades, and I've approached every white shirt police officer here and said, "You are killing my business!" They say they're just following orders.

These barricades have created a siege down here on Wall Street that makes people not come here. I opened in June and hired 100 people and thought that was something good. I borrowed money, and the Trump organization took a risk with a little guy from Boston and signed the lease with me, and the bank loaned me money, and now I feel like a fool. I took such a risk here, and I'm collateral damage. My staff is collateral damage for other people's battles.
I've been to the Milk Street Cafe at Wall Street (in Boston as well) and it is an awesome place to eat. It is the largest kosher restaurant I've ever seen, and its food court layout allows it to serve both dairy foods (in the front) and meat (in the back), with separate kitchens that are not obvious. The selection of food is dizzying and I was looking forward to visiting it again.

But indeed, the last time I was there the barricades were up and walking up and down Wall Street was a frustrating experience. Barely two columns of people, going opposite directions, could squeeze past each other while the major part of the street is empty most of the time.

So a new small business owner is threatened by the idealists at OWS. Nice going, guys.

(h/t D)

ISM: New tiny flotilla underway from Turkey

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 01:45 PM PDT

From ISM:
On Wednesday, November 2, two international ships left the Turkish harbor to carry humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The event, called 'Freedom Waves for Gaza', unites 27 activists from 9 countries, including America, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Australia, alongside a Palestinian Haifa, in a broad-based international movement to break Israel's illegal and immoral suffocation of the 1.6 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The Irish yacht Saoirse (Freedom), which carries 15 activists, and the Canadian boat Tahrir (Liberation), which holds 12, will attempt to carry $30,000 in medical supplies beyond the Israeli blockade later this week. 'Freedom Waves for Gaza' is the 11th attempt by international activists to deliver humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza since 2008.

As the boats navigate international waters, Palestinian youth activists will parade a large wooden effigy of the aid boats through the streets of Ramallah, while distributing white armbands and ribbons emblazoned 'Freedom Waves for Gaza'. In addition, they will hold a demonstration outside of the UN office in Ramallah on Thursday, demanding that the UN end its compliance with the Israeli blockade and protect the humanitarian mission.
AFP adds:
An Israeli armed forces spokeswoman said the navy "is prepared to prevent their ability to reach the Gaza Strip," without specifying how.

"We understand that this is once again another provocation in a long line of provocations against the State of Israel," Avital Leibovitch told the media.

She recalled that the UN-appointed Palmer committee, which investigated the deaths aboard the Mavi Marmara, had ruled that the maritime blockade of Gaza was legal.

Leibovitch said that Israel transferred to Gaza 300 trucks a day of supplies.

"I fail to understand how two yachts can carry on board any supplies that would compete with the amount of supplies that are entering every day into Gaza," she said.
Yes, the entire Palestinian Arab strategy for statehood seems to be to encourage stunts.

Anything to avoid actually making any real decisions.

(h/t Faith)

Unhinged anti-Israel nutcases at "keffiyeh day" on OWS

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 12:30 PM PDT

I am not jumping on the bandwagon saying that Occupy Wall Street is anti-semitic. - OWS messages are so diffuse and varied that you could find any opinion there outside of being pro-business. I am not thrilled with those who take the videos of the anti-semites who attend and package them as if the entire amorphously nutty movement is anti-semitic.

However, there is real anti-semtism and rabid anti-Zionism out there, and OWS gives them an opportunity to go public with their hate. It needs to be put into context but it most definitely must not be ignored.

Here is some from last Friday's "keffiyeh day" in New York:

French humor magazine satirizing firebombed as it names "Mohammed" editor

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 10:35 AM PDT

From the BBC yesterday:
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has named the Prophet Muhammad as "editor-in-chief" for its next issue to mark the electoral victory of Islamist party Ennahda in Tunisia.

It will be renamed Sharia Hebdo, the weekly said in a statement on Monday.

The publication's editor-in-chief and cartoonist Charb said they were not trying to be especially provocative.

Ennahda won the most seats in Tunisia's October elections and is now trying to form a coalition caretaker government.

"To fittingly celebrate the victory of the Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia... Charlie Hebdo has asked Muhammad to be the special editor-in-chief of its next issue", the magazine said in a statement.

"The prophet of Islam didn't have to be asked twice and we thank him for it," the statement said.

The cover of the next issue, which comes out on Wednesday, shows Muhammad saying "100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter".

It will also include an editorial piece by the Prophet entitled Halal Aperitif and a women's supplement called Madam Sharia.

Charb told the AFP news agency: "We don't feel like causing further provocation. We simply feel like doing our job as usual. The only difference this week is that Muhammad is on the cover and it's pretty rare to put him on the cover."
Here's the cover picture:

But by what must be considered a sheer coincidence, the magazine was firebombed this morning, hours before the issue was to go on sale:
The offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have been burned out in a petrol-bomb attack after a special Arab spring edition entitled "Sharia Hebdo" featured a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad on the cover as "guest editor".

At around 1am the offices were gutted after a petrol bomb was thrown into a window and set light to the computer system, blowing out windows and burning most of the office contents.
(h/t Silke, Tundra Tabloids)

Condi Rice says Obama hurt the peace process, confirms Abbas rejectionism

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 08:33 AM PDT

This is obvious to anyone who can think objectively about the so-called peace process, but it is worthwhile to read:
Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace are far worse today than when she left office, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday, and she partly blames the Obama administration's tough line against Israeli settlement-building for spoiling chances for new talks.

"When you look at where we are now, we're a long, long way back from where we were," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Rice said she had hoped that the Obama administration could revive stalled peace talks quickly when it took office in 2009, but she said she was disappointed by the new administration's handling of the delicate issue of new Israeli housing construction in the West Bank.

"I do think focusing on settlements in that particular way was a mistake," Rice said. "The parties then were able to have a reason not to sit down."

The gulf has only widened, Rice said, "and they're running out of time." She did not sound optimistic for a settlement soon, or even for new talks.

"When they're not talking, they're sliding backward," Rice said.

A detailed account of negotiations she helped broker in 2008 is a highlight of Rice's new memoir of her time in Washington. Published Tuesday, "No Higher Honor" concedes some missteps by the Bush administration on several fronts but strongly defends former President George W. Bush's efforts toward Mideast peace, and Rice's own.

"It's one of the best deals I think you're going to see," Rice said of the deal on the table during the waning months of the Bush administration. The deal died when the Palestinians rejected it weeks before Bush left office, she wrote, but she suggested her successors might have been able to use the momentum from those negotiations to keep talks alive.

Rice said she left a record of the intensive negotiations she led in 2008 for the new Obama administration in hopes that a new team of negotiators could pick up where the Israelis and Palestinians had left off.

The U.S. long has opposed new settlements but largely looked the other way at some homebuilding, such as expansion of selected neighborhoods. Rice herself had called settlement building unhelpful and was infuriated when Israel appeared to undercut her by announcing new building licenses hard on the heels of some of her diplomatic visits.

But new Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, took a much harder line in the spring of 2009, demanding a full freeze on any building.

Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements," including the expansion of existing developments, Clinton said in May of that year.

With Israelis suspicious of Obama even before he assumed office, the settlement position further unnerved them. The Palestinians, initially encouraged, became disillusioned when the U.S. was unable to persuade Israel to freeze settlement construction.

Rice's account confirms then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's claim that he had laid out a comprehensive proposal for peace during secret meetings with Rice and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Rice said Abbas ultimately rejected the proposal, for which she said she does not blame him. The Palestinians deny that Abbas did so.
Why doesn't she blame Abbas? Because she knows he would have been assassinated had he accepted anything less than 100%?

(h/t jzaik)

Why peace is impossible, reason #7934

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 07:02 AM PDT

From a new Palestine Center of Public Opinion poll  via IMRA (not yet on their website):
In regard to the question: "Do you think that Palestinians – in exchange for having their own independent state and concluding a peace deal with Israel – should give up their insistence about the Right of Return, which Israel will never accept, or not ?", the striking majority of (89.8%) answered:"No, they shouldn't do that even if no peace deal would be concluded", whilst only (6.8%) said "Yes, Palestinians should do that", and (3.4%) said " I don't know".

And responding to the question: "In case the Palestinian leadership would waive the Right of Return and accept in exchange for that the monetary compensation, would you accept that too, or refuse it ?", (89.5%) said "I would refuse that", whilst only (7.3%) said "I would accept that" and (3.2%) said "I don't know".
There you have it. Even if Israel would give up every square centimeter gained in 1967, the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs - brainwashed by years of propaganda that told them that they, uniquely in history, have the "right" to "return" to land that their ancestors fled - would not accept peace.

So no matter what Israel does, it will never be enough. Never.

Canada stops new funding for UNESCO

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 05:30 AM PDT

From the Montreal Gazette:
In the wake of a vote by UNESCO to allow Palestinians a seat at the table, Canada's federal government said it will not be giving any additional money to the UN body.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told reporters Tuesday the government would not be offering further "voluntary" payments to the United Nations' cultural arm.

Baird said Canada would continue its funding at current levels, but will not add new payments.

Canada provides almost $12 million annually to UNESCO.

"Under no circumstances will Canada cover the budgeting shortfall as a result of this decision and Canada has decided to freeze all further voluntary contributions to UNESCO," Baird said.

The shortfall Baird referred to is in reference to U.S. law that immediately cuts off funding to any UN body that accepts Palestinians as full members. U.S. money makes up about 22 per cent of UNESCO's annual budget.

The minister said the government needed to send a message to UNESCO that it was not happy with the body's decision to include the Palestinians.

"The bottom line is there's going to be a large hole in UNESCO's budget because of the American law which withdraws funding and people at UNESCO should not look to Canada to fill that budget hole," he said. "They'll have to go to the countries who supported this resolution, that caused this budget loophole."
It is sort of a symbolic move but, hey, so is the entire idea that of the PLO being a member of UNESCO to begin with.

By the way, here is a list of the 14 countries that voted "no" for "Palestine" to be a member of UNESCO:

Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, US, Vanuatu.

Some links

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 02:30 AM PDT

...that have been rattling around my inbox:

CAMERA on Ha'aretz going back in time

Philosemitism on how Muslims in Europe are using a yellow star to pretend they are being as persecuted as Jews were in the Holocaust

GIYUS on how the Arab spring is pushing Iran to develop nukes

Some 1947 history by Efraim Karsh and David Barnett

"The Goldstone Report Reconsidered" book is out.

Europe's largest ever pro-Israel event.

UK "philosopher" makes a pseudo-scholarly argument for Palestinian Arab terrorism at CiFWatch

FP on whether there is a place for Christians in the new Middle East

(h/t hakunamatata, Ian, Yoel, probably others)
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