יום שני, 19 בדצמבר 2011

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

A Dead Sea Scrolls vignette

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 08:00 PM PST

Jordan is complaining to UNESCO about the exhibition of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls currently being shown in US cities (the exhibit is in Times Square at the moment.)

This prompted me to look up what happened when Israeli troops took over the Rockefeller Museum that housed most of the Scrolls in 1967:

During the war, the Jordanians had fortified the Palestine Archaeological Museum and put gun emplacements in its main tower. The museum was strategically located outside the north-east comer of the Old City overlooking vital north-south roads in the Jerusalem area.

On June 6, Israeli paratroopers entered the building and secured it after feeble Jordanian resistance. One lieutenant—like most Israelis keenly interested in archaeology—immediately began to search for the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the display case was empty. Avraham Biran, director of the Israel Department of Antiquities, had received a call that same day from Carmella Yadin, Yigael Yadin's wife. She told him that Yadin had been notified that the museum would soon be in Israeli hands and asked if Biran would go to the museum and make sure that the scrolls and other antiquities were safe.

Biran needed no arm-twisting. He took two other archaeologists with him to the museum, where they were obliged to go in the back door, since the paratroopers were still engaged in a fire -fight in the front with Jordanians on the city walls.

Some of the paratroopers immediately conscripted Biran to give them, during the battle, an impromptu lecture and tour of the antiquities of the museum. The archaeologist was happy to oblige and led a few of the soldiers around the premises, with the sound of shooting and breaking glass coming from the front of the building. The next day, after the entire city had been secured, the paratroopers left. Some of them dutifully signed the guest registry as they filed out, complete with banal comments ("Fantastic," "Very pleasant").

In many ways, the Scrolls serve as a microcosm of the entire Israel/Arab conflict. During the 19 years that Jordan controlled the Scrolls, no Jewish or Israeli scholars were allowed to study them. Likewise, Jordan did not allow Israeli archaeologists to visit the Qumran site. Jordan made the scrolls Judenrein, just like the Old City of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.



More photos from the "open-air prison" of Gaza

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 03:00 PM PST

Electronic Intifada writers normally spend their time telling the world how Gaza is a war-torn hell on Earth where desperate citizens have lost so much hope that they have no choice but to embrace fully-justified terrorism.

But the blog also wants to tell its regular readers another narrative, that Hamas is not so bad and that things are really quite normal there (despite Israel's crippling siege, naturally.)

If you want to gain sympathy and money from EU-funded NGOs. you stick with the first story. If you want to score points for Hamas among fellow terror supporters, you tell the second.

And you hope that people who believe the first don't see the second, because all those billions of dollars meant to stave off poverty and hunger might very well go *poof!*

Here is an example of the second narrative in photos:





(h/t Omri)

Fayyadism: Jesus was a "Palestinian"

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 12:36 PM PST

A certain op-ed columnist for a certain prestigious newspaper loves to talk about what he calls "Fayyadism," the notion that a non-elected prime minister for a non-elected government who has virtually no public support is the potential savior of Palestinian Arab nationalism because of his moderate, pragmatic, Western-oriented mindset.

Last week, Fayyad said something that is completely at odds with history as well as religion. He said that Christmas was an opportunity to "celebrate the Palestinian identity of Jesus Christ."

I am no expert on Christianity, but I was under the impression that Christians believe that Jesus had a message for the entire world, not for one narrow set of people who were not going to be invented until some 1900 years later.

If the most moderate and most pragmatic leader in Palestinian Arab history can falsify history and insult hundreds of millions so easily, how can anyone expect that any Palestinian Arab leader would ever be trusted to say anything truthful?

The star-struck columnist would of course pooh-pooh this incident as simply politics, or playing to the crowd, or something. He would never notice the irony that the current government headed by Fayyad would have executed their citizens for selling land to Jesus, the Jew.

I'll give Fayyad credit for one thing, though. He is known for pushing transparency in government - and this lie is about as transparent as one can be.

(h/t Dan)

Ditzy girl loves Saudi Arabia on YouTube

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 09:00 AM PST

From Al Arabiya:
Corissa Chantelle surprised her Youtube viewers when she donned a green T-shirt, a color similar to that of the Saudi flag, and sung in jubilation for the kingdom's Independence Day anniversary.

Chantelle, 22, who has a desire to meet King Abdullah, has a channel on YouTube, and nearly every Thursday she posts a video expressing her infatuation with Saudi Arabia and its culture.

On the videos, which so far have attracted more than 2.8 million viewers, she speaks some Arabic words and sentences and tries to throw in some Saudi Arabian vernacular.

...She also an avid supporter of the Saudi Ettihad soccer club and would like to see them play in their stadium, but the kingdom's conservative rules would not permit her to enter the stadium. However, she says she would not mind standing outside the grounds to support her team.

In one of her YouTube videos, Chanetelle wore a black Abaya, which was a gift from a friend from Saudi.

Here she is in all her ditzy glory:

Israel will pump its own gas from Tamar field in 2013

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 06:30 AM PST

From YNet:

The biggest deal in the history of the Israeli economy is underway: The Israel Electric Corporation on Thursday received permission from the company's board of directors to purchase natural gas from the Tamar gas field, located some 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Haifa.

The deal is estimated at $10-20 billion for the next 15 years.

The Tamar gas field is owned by several partners, led by the Delek Group controlled by businessman Yitzhak Tshuva and American company Noble Energy.

According to estimates, starting in 2013, the Tamar drilling will produce natural gas at a sufficient quantity to meet the State of Israel's energy needs for 15 to 20 years.
And not a minute too soon.

Early this morning, the gas line from Egypt to Israel and Jordan was firebombed for the tenth time this year.


Other, much larger gas fields off Israel's coast should be going live over the next decade, potentially enabling Israel to be an exporter of energy.

Abbas lie #3871: Hamas gives up violence, accepts "1967 borders"

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 04:00 AM PST

The president of the Palestinian Authority continues to lie, and the media continues to eat it up.

The latest:
Fatah and Hamas agreed that future Palestinian resistance to Israel will utilize popular and peaceful means, rather than military moves, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Saturday.

In an interview with the Euronews channel in Brussels, Abbas recounted his meeting with Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal about a month ago.

"We set the agreement's pillars, and Hamas agreed with us that resistance will be popular and adopt peaceful ways, rather than military resistance," the Palestinian president said. "The solution is the establishment of a state in the 1967 borders, and Hamas agreed to that, as well as to holding the elections on May 5, 2012."
Let's go over some of the things Hamas leaders said at the 24th anniversary rally last week:
"Resistance is the way and it is the strategic choice to liberate Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea and to remove the invaders from the blessed land of Palestine," Haniyeh told the crowd, which chanted: "We will never recognize Israel."

"Hamas, together with other stubborn resistance factions, will lead the people towards uprising after uprising until all of Palestine is liberated," Haniyeh said, referring to territory that includes the occupied West Bank and what is now Israel.

Denying speculation that Hamas would turn its attention to nonviolent resistance, Mr. Haniya said: "Today we say it clearly. Armed resistance and armed struggle are the strategic way to liberate the Palestinian land from the sea to the river."
Abbas has floated this idea a few times in recent weeks. The only English-language version I had seen was in Hurriyet in late November - and it is self-contradictory:
The militant Islamic group Hamas is ready to accept a Palestinian state within 1967 and is open to a discussion of recognizing Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday.

"I would wish that Hamas would agree to this," Abbas told reporters during a visit to Vienna. "Maybe this will be an issue to talk about in our next meeting."

Abbas also said the group, which runs Gaza, would only conduct "peaceful" resistance.

So is he saying what Meshal really said, or what he hopes Meshal would say at the next meeting?

Since Abbas hasn't met Meshal since then, it looks like Abbas was just trying to massage his lie.

Of course, no Hamas-oriented website has noted this supposedly profound change in policy for the terror group. Because it never happened, it never will happen, and it never could happen.

But Abbas knows that no matter how ridiculous the claim is, he'll manage to snag a few credulous Western reporters to believe him.
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