| Palestinian Arabs - for Syria Posted: 20 Nov 2011 11:00 PM PST While SANA, Syria's news agency, is pretty much nothing but propaganda, this story seems to be true although heavily spun: Palestinian figures and a crowd of the people of the occupied Syrian Golan on Saturday held a meeting of solidarity with Syria at the People's House in Bqa'ata village in the occupied Golan. The meeting was titled 'No to Arab League Decisions, Yes to the Resistant Syria'.
Archbishop Atallah Hanna of the Sebaste Roman Orthodox Church regretted it has started to become clear that there are Arab sides involved in conspiring against Syria, noting these countries are working at the behest of the U.S.A to implement colonialist projects not in the interest of the Arab nation and peoples.
Sheikh Naser Darawsheh, Imam of al-Abiyad Mosque in al-Nasserieh city in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1948, said that Syria will not be harmed by the conspiracies hatched against it, stressing that the Palestinian people wholeheartedly stand by Syria.
Saeed Naffa', head of the Arab Communication Committee, criticized the Arab League's decision on suspending Syria's membership, affirming that Syria will overcome the crisis it is going through.
In the occupied Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinians staged a sit-in in front of the U.S. Consulate to express condemnation of the U.S. hostile policy towards Syria and rejection of the Arab League decisions against it. The socialist Palestinian Arab parties like the PFLP seem to be supporting Syria quite heavily. Hamas and Fatah have been much more careful, worried that they might (as in so many times in the past) back the wrong horse. 
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| Iranian conservatives shutter newspaper Posted: 20 Nov 2011 07:13 PM PST From Al Arabiya: Iranian authorities shut down a reformist newspaper on Sunday after it published a scathing attack by an aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the president's rival conservatives, the latest sign of a split in the highest echelons of the Islamic Republic.
Tehran's prosecutor's office ordered the daily Etemad to close for two months for "disseminating lies and insults to officials in the establishment," according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
One of the main reasons for the ban was an interview with Ahmadinejad's media adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Fars quoted Etemad manager Elias Hazrati as saying.
In the interview Javanfekr hit back at critics who accuse Ahmadinejad of being in the thrall of a "deviant" circle seeking to undermine the Islamic clergy, saying they had "poisoned" politics and implying many were corrupt.
"What have we 'deviated' from? Yes, we have deviated from those friends, from their beliefs, behavior and interpretations," Javanfekr told Saturday's Etemad. "If they meant the deviant current is a deviation from their beliefs, we confirm it."
The counter-attack, published verbatim over three pages in Etemad, signaled the determination of Ahmadinejad's camp to fight back as Iran gears up for parliamentary elections in March.
With the opposition "Green" movement crushed after protesting Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election, the battle for power in Iran is now between rival conservatives ̶ the traditional religious hardliners and the more populist Ahmadinejad camp. In the crazy world of Iranian politics, Ahmadinejad is regarded as a populist reformist! 
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| Egyptian feminism, Salafi-style Posted: 20 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST Translating Jihad brings us an article from Donia Al Watan: Female Salafi Candidate for Egyptian Parliament: "Women Are Deficient in Intelligence and Religion, and It Is Not Permissible for Them to Be in Authority"
A female salafi candidate for Egyptian Parliament, Muna Salah, said to al-Sharq al-Awsat that women are deficient in intelligence and religion, and it is not permissible for them to be in authority or to occupy the office of the presidency. She defended her candidacy for the People's Council, saying that acting as a representative in the Council only partial authority and not complete authority, such as the presidency of the republic. She added that she seeks to apply the Islamic shari'a, including cutting off the hands of thieves, preventing the mingling of men and women, and specifying black clothes for women and white clothes for men.
While just one of thousands of candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Muna Salah--president of the Manabir al-Noor Charity Association in Egypt--continues to provoke controversy. She is one of two veiled candidates in the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in two weeks. There's other stuff in the article. For example, even though Muna sent her daughter to a mixed non-religious school, she would want to introduce legislation to keep all schools separated between boys and girls. But you've got to admit, she looks really hot for a 53 year old. (h/t jzaik) 
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| First Gaza smuggling tunnel was dug 10 years before "blockade" Posted: 20 Nov 2011 12:30 PM PST Palestine Press Agency has a long article about the tunnel trade between Gaza and Egypt based on an Egyptian report. Some parts of interest: Relieving the siege of Gaza is not the reason for creating the idea of tunnels "but profit only and nothing else" says Abumahmod, owner of a tunnel that collapsed for no apparent reason. He said that the proof is that drilling of the first tunnel was in in 1994 by one of the most famous families in Rafah, a Palestinian family, "in order to smuggle goods across the border as it happens on the borders between many countries in the world."
Abusaúb says sources of goods that enter Palestine are between three countries, namely China, South Korea and Turkey, as well as Egyptian goods. Palestinian merchants travel to those countries, and transfer the goods to Egypt to then be transferred into Gaza through tunnels...
[Another] revealed that the tunnels are used to transport all goods, regular and non regular, including forbidden items such as drugs and weapons, and noted that some tunnel owners recently had started transporting Israeli goods to be sold in Egypt through the tunnels, "as some Egyptians prefer." Many of the Gazans who sell them boast about Israeli products in their shops. 
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| Sweden funds anti-Israel brochure Posted: 20 Nov 2011 10:45 AM PST From YNet: Sweden has funded the publication of an anti-Israel booklet titled "Colonialism and Apartheid – the Israeli occupation in Palestine," Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.
According to the report, the Swedish government transferred NIS 390,000 (roughly $104,600), under the guise of humanitarian aid, to a Swedish-Palestinian solidarity group for the creation of the ornate 40-page booklet.
 The brochure's authors accuse Israel of racist legislation, ethnic cleansing, racial segregation, establishing an Apartheid regime in the territories, and bombing Palestinian civilian homes. Furthermore, the brochure calls for a boycott of the Jewish state. The PDF of the brochure (Swedish) can be seen here. (It is 32 pages long, not 40.) Anyone want to offer me $100,000 to write a 32 page booklet with lots of photos? I could deliver it in a month. If I make twelve of them a year I'd clear over a million dollars. And it could be a tax write-off! And they say the pro-Israel side has money... By the way, the same anti-Israel organization offers lots of anti-Israel materials for Swedish schools, and sends material to every secondary school in Sweden to use. (h/t Tundra Tabloids) Also, see NGO Monitor for more details. 
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| Ancient church in Turkey converted to mosque Posted: 20 Nov 2011 09:15 AM PST From AsiaNews.it: The specter of Aghia Sophia continues to plague the Islamic world of Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey. Not the most famous symbol of the church of Constantinople, but another church, Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (now Izmit), which predates the Constantinople church, having been built in the fourth century. It passed into history in 787 AD, when it was the last church to host a united Christendom drawn to discuss the iconoclastic question, in a truly ecumenical synod, before the fatal schism of 1024.
This Christian church, the Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit), was transformed into a mosque in 1331 by Orhan Gazi who led the Ottomans and which was later made a museum in 1920, has returned once again to being a mosque.
All that was needed was a directive from the Directorate General for Religious Affairs led by Mehmet Gormez, appointed by Erdogan instead of Ali Bardakoglu, the man behind the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, since retired. The move has elicited several considerations in Turkey and abroad in a period in which much importance and emphasis is placed on religious freedom. According to this article, fFrescoes of the Virgin Mary and the Apostles are still preserved on Church's walls. How long will that last? Here is video from Hurriyet showing Muslim worshipers in the ancient shrine. (h/t Dan) 
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| "Israelis turn Holy Land into economic miracle" Posted: 20 Nov 2011 07:45 AM PST Here's a great article from the Times (South Africa) a week ago that slipped under the radar: JUST 20% of Israel is arable. Yet, since its independence in May 1948, the country's agricultural output has increased 16-fold, many times the rate of population growth. This is down to a lot of perspiration and, more importantly, a large dollop of innovation and cooperation.
This is nothing new. Close to the Desert Plant Research Station in Be'er Sheva is a farm cultivated by the Nabateans, the earliest desert farmers. Using sophisticated terracing, every drop of runoff water was collected and diverted to the fields and orchards.
Fast-forward 2000 years, and today Israel produces over two-thirds of its food requirements. Agriculture exports are worth more than $2-billion, more than half of which is fresh produce.
No one needs reminding that Israel's external image is dominated by pictures of conflict and perceptions of injustice. Lost in this portrayal is how smart Israel has been in developing its economy.
In agriculture, for example, it has used technology to reduce water usage and increase output, and higher-yield crops to increase both volumes and financial sales values. Drip and direct-feed computerised irrigation systems are the norm.
It's a far cry from 1948, when no one gave the newly independent Jewish state much of a chance.
Despite rapid population growth (now over 7.5 million), Israelis enjoy a per-capita income today of $29600, putting them in the top 30 world-wide, between Spain and Italy.
Although it depends on imports for nearly all of its raw materials, from oil to diamonds, Israel has become a global industrial hub. It is a world leader in diamond polishing and cutting, processed foods, electronic and medical equipment, and, more recently, software, semi-conductors and telecommunications. After the US, it has more companies listed on the Nasdaq than any other country.
There is no single explanation for Israel's success, although high on the list is surely its commitment to research and development. Its detractors, however, routinely cite US assistance as the main reason for its success. Much of the $3-billion it receives annually from Washington is spent on military kit, rather than development.
That said, there can be no doubt that the military dimension has proved vital in Israel's overall development picture, especially in so far as the mindset it engendered of robust accountability across society, long-term thinking and a problem-solving ethos.
To translate ideas into business ventures, Israel has fostered a system that encourages and caters for entrepreneurship. It has established a "cluster" of universities in close proximity to large and small companies, creating a virtuous space for suppliers, talent and capital. The government provides $450-million in annual grants to 1200 worthy projects from 2000 applications.
Like everything else in the Holy Land, assessing why Israel has done so well in economic terms - and certainly by comparison to its neighbours - is shaped by one's view of the region's politics, ancient and contemporary.
Many have incentives to play down Israel's achievements and use it as both a scapegoat and a whipping boy for the failings of others. And with nearly half the West Bank's and 80% of Gaza's population under the poverty line, the conditions don't only exist for deprivation, unemployment and radicalisation, but grist for Israel's opponents.
Israel still faces serious economic challenges, not least the over-concentration of wealth in the hands of a few "tycoons", the 15 or so families that control conglomerates dominating the economy.
Nevertheless, Israel's example of "performance through adversity" contains numerous lessons for developing countries that shouldn't be ignored. Contrary to the highly politicised caricatures of Israel as a US protectorate milking the Holocaust for all it is worth, nearly all its achievements stem from the firm conviction that their fate is not someone else's responsibility.
Developing countries would do well to emulate, rather than bash, Israel. The full paper is here (h/t Brad) 
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| Full text: Kissinger called American Jews "self-serving...bastards" (UPDATED) Posted: 20 Nov 2011 06:15 AM PST AP has picked up on YNet's story late last week about newly-released State Department historical documents where Henry Kissinger complained about the Jewish community who were trying to help get Soviet Jews released. Here is the entire section of the released document that deals with this. Besides Kissinger's remarks, it is interesting to anyone who wants to know more about the history of American involvement in the Soviet Jewry issue.  On August 30, 1972, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Haig wrote Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Kissinger: "Earlier yesterday, I had talked to Len Garment, Special Consultant to the President on Minorities and the Arts, about the problem of Soviet Jewry which is apparently growing and which McGovern hopes to exploit. This was complicated yesterday by a letter sent out of the Soviet Union by a group of Soviet Jewish leaders, a copy of which was furnished to McGovern." Referring to Senator George McGovern, the Democratic candidate for President, Haig wrote that he understood that "McGovern will try to exploit the letter." Haig had asked Garment to contact Senator Jacob Javits (R–NY) to discuss the matter. Haig informed Kissinger: "I insisted to Garment yesterday and again late last night to tell Javits to reaffirm strongly his conviction that the President and the White House are very concerned about the plight of the Soviet Jews, to reassure him that this matter was discussed during the summit and on his own to urge the Jewish leaders to understand that quiet diplomacy has accomplished far more than an extensive trumpeting so far. Javits, of course, can go much farther on this issue that can any White House official and especially the President." (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 995, Alexander M. Haig Chronological Files)
On August 31, Haig forwarded Kissinger the text of a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, received that day, in which she asked President Nixon to send "a direct confidential message to the people in the Kremlin expressing your reaction to the outrage" of the Soviet exit fees for emigrants. Haig wrote Kissinger in a covering memorandum: "Now that the Prime Minister has formally raised this issue in a direct communication with the President, we will have to consider very carefully the best means by which to proceed. Sometimes our Jewish friends know just what not to do at the right moment." (Ibid.)
On September 6, Garment phoned Kissinger regarding the Soviet exit fee issue. He told Kissinger that "the Russian issue is flooding my desk and phone at this point and I need some guidance." The relevant portion of the transcript of their telephone conversation continues as follows:
"K[issinger]: Is there a more self-serving group of people than the Jewish community?
"G[arment]: None in the world.
"K: I have not seen it. What the hell do they think they are accomplishing?
"G: Well, I don't know.
"K: You can't even tell the bastards anything in confidence because they'll leak it to all their
"G: Right. Very briefly, what seems to be coming through just dozens of conversations is basically this, and there are political as well as some other dangers involved—that the intellectuals and Jewish community in the Soviet Union are just saying that in a sense they will have their position compromised by the Soviets through a trick of timing and that the Russians feel secure until November in going ahead with the attacks because of the concern on our part of . . .
"K: They're dead wrong. After November they're even safer.
"G: That may well be. I think then in any event . . .
"K: You can say—well, what we are doing, we've talked in a low key way to Dobrynin. Next week, we'll call him into the State Department. If the Jewish community doesn't mind, after I've been in the Soviet Union and have done some national business, so we'll do it on Wednesday [September 13] or Thursday [September 14] next week. Don't tell them that.
"G: No, I won't tell them anything.
"K: But next Thursday, we'll call them in.
"G: And defer any meetings between any of our people and the Jewish groups until after Wednesday.
"K: That's right. After Wednesday you'll be able to say that the issue has been raised both with Dobrynin and with the Minister.
"G: I think between now and November a certain amount of theater is needed to keep the lid on. That's basically what seems to come through to me. After that I just don't know; there are various people that are talking about forming committees to raise the money and doing a variety of things.
"K: They ought to remember what this Administration has done . . .
"G: Yes, all of that can be pointed out, but nevertheless, here they are subject to presses [pressures?] of this sort and I'm simply asking.
"K: No, no, you've been great on it.
"G: Well, I'm doing a job and all I want to know is how to handle it.
"K: Our game plan is that we cannot possibly make a formal protest while I'm on the way to Russia.
"G: Right. I understand that." (Ibid., Kissinger Telephone Conversations (Telcons), Box 14, Chronological File)
Secretary of Commerce Peterson also raised the issue of Jewish emigration with Kissinger during a telephone conversation on September 7. He told Kissinger that he had heard "from three different sources that there's a strong movement on the Hill to tie the Soviet Jewry issue with anything that has anything to do with the Soviet Union." The relevant portion of the transcript of their telephone conversation continues as follows:
"K[issinger]: But that won't be effective until after the election.
"P[eterson]: Well there's strong pressure in this one group that I met with that's been confirmed since then to submit MFN legislation, but to tie the issue to that and then to use the submission of the bill to get extremely vocal about it. Javits and a number of others are very active on it.
"K: Yeah, but they'll subside after the election.
"P: Yeah, now I don't know how much it hurts you, however, to do it prior to the election because that's what they're going to do. Okay, I just wanted you to know about it.
"K: No, I didn't know about it; it will hurt me but . . . It will hurt, but what can we do? There's no sense; you can't make a deal with Javits on things like this. Don't you think?
"P: Well, you know him much better than I do. I don't know what he'd . . . he's got great respect for you. I don't know. I'll tell you what I can do if we can be helpful. I can find out who the Senators and Congressmen are beside him, and if in your absence, you want anybody to try to pacify them so they don't get out on the floor and create problems for you while you're over there, that might help. Or I can drop it, whatever you wish.
"K: No, if you could find out in a way that doesn't draw too much attention to it, that would be very helpful.
"P: All right, you'll get it in the morning." (Ibid.) It the Jewish community's noisiness about the Soviet Jews - mass rallies on the White House lawn, recruiting senators to the cause, and especially the Jackson-Vanik amendment - that pressured the Kremlin to allow millions of them to leave, not the "quiet diplomacy" that Kissinger advocated. UPDATE: Alex points me to an NYT article from last year on newly released Nixon tapes: An indication of Nixon's complex relationship with Jews came the afternoon Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister, came to visit on March 1, 1973. The tapes capture Meir offering warm and effusive thanks to Nixon for the way he had treated her and Israel.
But moments after she left, Nixon and Mr. Kissinger were brutally dismissive in response to requests that the United States press the Soviet Union to permit Jews to emigrate and escape persecution there.
"The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy," Mr. Kissinger said. "And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
"I know," Nixon responded. "We can't blow up the world because of it."
In his discussion with Ms. Woods, Nixon laid down clear rules about who would be permitted to attend the state dinner for Meir — he called it "the Jewish dinner" — after learning that the White House was being besieged with requests to attend.
"I don't want any Jew at that dinner who didn't support us in that campaign," he said. "Is that clear? No Jew who did not support us."
Nixon listed many of his top Jewish advisers — among them, Mr. Kissinger and William Safire, who went on to become a columnist at The New York Times — and argued that they shared a common trait, of needing to compensate for an inferiority complex.
"What it is, is it's the insecurity," he said. "It's the latent insecurity. Most Jewish people are insecure. And that's why they have to prove things."
Nixon also strongly hinted that his reluctance to even consider amnesty for young Americans who went to Canada to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War was because, he told Mr. Colson, so many of them were Jewish.
"I didn't notice many Jewish names coming back from Vietnam on any of those lists; I don't know how the hell they avoid it," he said, adding: "If you look at the Canadian-Swedish contingent, they were very disproportionately Jewish. The deserters." (h/t Alec) 
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| The Palestinian Arabs' reckless disregard for Jewish heritage Posted: 20 Nov 2011 04:10 AM PST In the light of UNESCO's acceptance of "Palestine" as a full member, David M. Weinberg in Israel HaYom documents how the Palestinian Arabs have not only been endangering any trace of Jewish history and culture in areas they control, but often actively destroy it: Jewish synagogues and holy sites in Jericho, Nablus and Gush Katif were torched to the ground while Palestinian police looked on.
In 1996, Palestinian mobs assaulted Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, and Palestinian policemen on the scene shot and wounded the Israeli soldiers guarding the tomb. Ever since, the site has been sheathed in high concrete barriers, turning it into a Fort Knox-like encampment. Then a Palestinian mob led by Palestinian policemen assaulted Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, torched the synagogue inside, and opened fire on Israeli troops at the site, killing six Israeli soldiers.
In 2000, Palestinian mobs once again attacked. They killed one Israeli soldier and destroyed the building. Palestinian forces again took part. The Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho with its unique Byzantine-era mosaic floor was also torched. Today, Israelis have only sporadic access to the site.
 | | Detail of mosaic at Gaza synagogue | As for Gush Katif, the wild Palestinian mob destruction of all the synagogues there is just too fresh and painful a wound to talk about ...
Under Palestinian rule, Tulul Abu el Alayiq, near Wadi Qelt and Jericho, has been left to decay. This is an important archaeological site where Hasmonian kings and Herod built their winter palaces. The nearby Naaran synagogue -- perhaps the earliest synagogue in Israel -- is threatened by Palestinian real estate developers who are building practically atop the site. Israeli archaeologists who have managed to visit there say that the Palestinian Authority has let the place rot.
The authority has also allowed villagers to encroach upon the important synagogue remains in Eshtemoa in the southern Mount Hebron area. Neither Israeli archaeologists nor Israeli worshippers and tourists have access to the site (which is located in Area B), despite the fact that the Oslo Accords supposedly guaranteed this.
 | | Mosaic at Na'aran synagogue |
It is important to note that these three sites are specified by name in the appendices to the Oslo Accords, and defined as historical and religious sites which the Palestinian Authority is supposed to preserve, and to which they are supposed to provide access for Israelis.
The greatest crime of all -- an antiquities crime of historic proportions -- has been committed over recent years by the Palestinian Wakf on the Temple Mount. In 1999, the Wakf dug out hundreds of truckloads of dirt from caverns known as Solomon's Stables beneath the upper plaza (more than 1,600 square meters in area and 15 meters deep) without any archaeological supervision or records. Thousands of tons of earth rich in archaeological remains, from all periods of the Temple Mount, were haphazardly dumped into the Kidron Valley and the city garbage dump at El-Azaria. The Wakf also destroyed stonework done by Jewish artisans 2,000 years ago in the underground "double passageway."
Thousands of years of layered history -- Jewish history, of course -- were gouged out the ground with heavy machinery and shoveled out of sight. UNESCO didn't even burp.
Israeli archaeological students are still sifting through this precious rubble, and have found numerous antiquities from the First and Second Temple periods, including stone weights for weighing silver, and a First Temple period bulla (seal impression) containing ancient Hebrew writing which may have belonged to a well-known family of priests mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah. Other findings are from the late period of the Kings of Judea (7th and 8th centuries BCE), including about 1,000 ancient coins, jewelry made of various materials, stone and glass squares from floor and wall mosaics, and many other items. He also documents some destruction of Christian historic and religious sites. UNESCO is silent, of course. (h/t Ian) 
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