| Israel: "Hollywood's hottest spawning ground" Posted: 02 Jan 2012 04:30 PM PST From the LA Times: When the season finale of the Showtime thriller "Homeland" ran last month, it didn't just cap Claire Danes' triumphant return to series television — it marked the latest milestone for a small country that lately has become an improbable player in Hollywood.
"Homeland," which broke Showtime's ratings record for a first-year series finale, is adapted from the Israeli show "Hatufim" (Prisoners of War). It's one of a host of U.S. programs that began life as a Hebrew-language series in this Mediterranean nation of only 8 million people. "Who's Still Standing?," the new NBC quiz program in which contestants answering incorrectly are dropped through a hole in the floor, is also an Israeli import. So is the former HBO scripted series "In Treatment," which starred Gabriel Byrne and ran for three seasons.
And that's just the beginning: Nearly half a dozen shows in development at U.S. networks — including the divorce sitcom "Life Isn't Everything" (CBS), a time-travel musical dubbed "Danny Hollywood (the CW) and the border-town murder-mystery "Pillars of Smoke" (NBC) — are based on hit Israeli series, their themes and language tweaked for American audiences.
Unbeknown to most viewers, a small group of creators and industry types has built a pipeline between Israel and the Los Angeles entertainment world 9,000 miles away. Although many American Jews have a political relationship with Israel, the entertainment pipeline is a new development born of the maturation of the Israeli television industry — and has turned a nation known for politics into Hollywood's hottest spawning ground.
..."When you don't have a lot of money, you find more interesting and clever ways to write a script," said Daniel Lappin, the creator of "Life Isn't Everything," a sitcom about a divorced couple that can't get out of each other's lives that ran for nine seasons in Israel. Lappin — who like Raff and Stollman, also spent some of his formative years in the U.S. — is working with "Friends" writer Mike Sikowitz on the CBS version of "Life."
American executives, who for years looked to more established territories for imports, say they've felt a certain kinship with Middle East creators.
"God bless those Israelis," said NBC entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt, whose network has "Still Standing" and "Pillars of Smoke." "They've somehow done a great job of finding things that translate well." Wow. "Zionists" really do control Hollywood! At the rate things are going, BDSers might have to throw out their TVs. (h/t David H) 
|
| Muslims at Madame Tussaud's Posted: 02 Jan 2012 12:45 PM PST From FrontPage: With all the major official sites closed the day after Christmas, my wife and I headed over to Madame Tussaud's to take in the famed tourist trap. As we strolled the halls filled with famous cultural figures, most from the 20th century, we came across the wax doll for Albert Einstein. And there, crowded around the figure, stood five young Muslims – two male, three female. While other guests stood next to the model and smiled, or put an arm around it, these Muslim worthies stood next to the wax model – and put their hands around its throat, simulating strangling it. At first, I couldn't believe what I was watching – did Einstein do something to offend these people? – but then it dawned on me that they were doing this because Einstein was a Jew. In fact, Einstein was the only prominent Jew in Tussaud's. And who wouldn't want to strangle a prominent Jew, after all?
That suspicion was confirmed a few minutes later when we reached the wax statue of Adolf Hitler. Britons and Americans tried to choke the figure, or pointed their fingers at it in imaginary guns, or yelled at it. These young Muslims happily stood next to it, and took smiling photographs with it as though they'd stumbled upon a friendly uncle. Which, in a way, they had.
And, of course, nobody said anything to these delightfully diverse young people. Mustn't show evidence of that old, imperialist spirit, you know. And from Edgar Davidson: I was not actually going to post about my visit to Madame Tussaud's in London yesterday because I wasn't sure how much could be extrapolated from a single visit, but by a remarkable coincidence, Daphne Anson reports today on a very similar recent experience written by American Ben Shapiro.
What I saw were several different groups of Muslims (women with hijabs and men) queuing to have their photo taken with the Hitler waxwork and two of the men actually gave the Nazi salute. As it was a bank holiday (and raining heavily) it was incredibly crowded in there and I did not want to stay long. I looked at the scene around Hitler for about 3 minutes. I also saw two other European looking men have their photo taken while giving the Nazi salue, so it would be wrong to say this was a uniquely Muslim phenomenum, although these two guys seem to be doing it as a joke. In contrast the Muslims, as similarly observed by Ben Shapiro, seemed to regard Hitler is a genuinely admired leader.
Unlike Ben Shapiro I did not witness any anti-semitic scenes around the Einstein waxwork. Perhaps not many people know he was Jewish. (h/t Daphne Anson) 
|
| Fatah Youth Movement, Women's Brigades honor master terrorist Posted: 02 Jan 2012 11:05 AM PST Ma'an Arabic reports that the Jerusalem branch of the Fatah Youth Movement marked the anniversary of Dalal Mughrabi's birth last Thursday at her sister's house. Mughrabi was the ringleader of the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre which killed 38 Israeli civilians including 13 children. The movement recalled stories of her "heroism." Meanwhile, the Fatah Women's Brigades celebrated the anniversary of the PLO's founding with a celebration of all woman terrorists, featuring Mughrabi, highlighting that they are no longer just staying in the kitchen but that they are also in the forefront of the resistance. While looking up the Fatah Youth Movement I stumbled on this webpage which may be associated with that group. This screenshot tells you everything you need to know: 
|
| Hamas again denies abandoning violence Posted: 02 Jan 2012 09:50 AM PST Qatar's prime minister, Hamad bin Jassem al Thani, said that Hamas has ended "armed resistance." And, once again, Hamas denies it: The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, would never give up armed resistance against the Zionist regime of Israel, a Hamas official said, rejecting reports that the group has accepted to end its armed struggle against the Israeli regime.
"Hamas has not abandoned any method of resistance since the very first day of its establishment 24 years ago and it will continue the same path in future," Ismaeil al-Ashqar, who also represents Hamas in Palestine's parliament, told FNA on Sunday.
He made the remarks in response to the claims made by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani that Hamas has ended armed resistance.
"Hamas will never give up armed resistance," al-Ashqar underlined. Al Ashqar told FARS that "Hamas deals with resistance as an overarching concept that impacts all aspects of intellectual life: cultural, artistic, political, military, and security. We apply our understanding by following the appropriate methods [of resistance] depending on the circumstances and conditions....Armed resistance is one of the ways in which we pursue our goals, and how to use this method or tactic is subject to circumstances at the time." As Hamas tries to play both sides of the fence, we will be seeing lots more of this type of thing. 
|
| Summing up Cast Lead (Jonathan Sacerdoti in New Statesman) Posted: 02 Jan 2012 08:25 AM PST A rare, and welcome, dose of reality in a decidedly liberal publication: Three years ago, Operation Cast Lead saw Israel send troops into the Gaza Strip in response to the thousands of rockets and mortars launched into Israeli civilian areas. Which other government in the world wouldn't defend its citizens in such circumstances? If some wish to portray this operation as a "massacre", they would have to ignore the facts to do so. John Stuart Mill wrote in 1862 that "war is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things". Indeed today, even with laws, regulations and technology intended to lessen the horrors of battle, war is always ugly and tragic. But sometimes, it is still an essential response to something far uglier. In 2006, following the Israeli disengagement and pullout from the Gaza Strip, there was an increase of 436 per cent in the number of Palestinian rockets launched towards Israel from that very territory. For some time, Israel resisted a large-scale military response to such acts deliberately aimed at civilians. As a result, the attacks got worse, and every country, including Israel, has the moral responsibility to defend its people from such actions. Increased Palestinian terror attacks from Gaza were the cause of Operation Cast Lead. Yet Israel's is a conscript army. Indeed Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to protect its young soldiers (witness the efforts make to secure the release of the kidnap victim Gilad Shalit), and does not send them to war easily. In the three years since the operation, there has been an unprecedented 72 per cent decline in the number of rockets launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza. No surprise, then, that Israel's Defence Forces Chief of Staff should call the operation "an excellent operation that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas". (However, that deterrence is still not enough to have prevented Palestinians from launching 1,571 rockets since the operation, including one attack with an anti-tank missile on a clearly identifiable Israeli school bus.) Just as Israel's erection of a security fence to prevent homicide bombers from infiltrating Jerusalem saw a bigger than 90 per cent reduction in such attacks, Operation Cast Lead was undeniably effective in reducing terror attacks from the Gaza strip. The numbers speak for themselves. Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, has repeatedly commented that, "during its operation in Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare." Furthermore, he points out that the steps taken in that conflict by the Israeli Defence Forces to avoid civilian deaths are shown by a study published by the United Nations to have resulted in, by far, the lowest ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in any asymmetric conflict in the history of warfare. Kemp explains that by UN estimates, the average ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in such conflicts worldwide is 3:1 -- three civilians for every combatant killed. That is the estimated ratio in Afghanistan. But in Iraq, and in Kosovo, it was worse: the ratio is believed to have been 4:1. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ratios were very much higher in Chechnya and Serbia. In Gaza, it was less than one-to-one. Since the 22-day Gaza operation, Israel has also been demonstrably fastidious in its efforts to protect civilian lives while targeting combatants. The Israel correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly sites Israel's record this year, saying "the IDF killed 100 Gazans in 2011. Nine were civilians. That is a civilian-combatant ratio of nearly 1:10." In fact, Israel's effort to combat the Hamas regime in the Gaza strip, while still safeguarding the rights of civilians, can be seen in her actions away from the battlefield as well. Despite the continued and sustained terror attacks from the area, around 60 per cent of Gaza's electricity comes from Israel, rather than from Gaza's other neighbour, Egypt, against whom no missiles are launched by the Palestinians. Israel allows thousands of tonnes of goods to pass into Gaza weekly, and provides a large amount of the strip's water. If destroying infrastructure were truly Israel's aim, as some claim, this goal could be achieved without the risk to Israeli soldiers inherent in operations which see them sent into the Gaza strip. It is time to stop blaming the Israeli government and defence forces for protecting Israeli civilians. Instead, we must demand that Palestinian leaders (and their apologists) work towards improving the welfare of their own citizens, rather than constantly attacking Israel's. One point about the civilian to combatant death ratio: I have not seen the statistics to back up the IDF's claim that only nine civilians have been killed this year in Gaza. PCHR's numbers make it look like the ratio is more like one civilians for every 3 terrorists killed. As we know, the PCHR is hardly reliable either, but they do give the names and ages of each victim. Even if you take PCHR's numbers at face value, a 1:3 ratio is still nine times better than the 3:1 ratio that is considered normal for these kinds of wars. (h/t Ian) 
|
| PLO members moving money from Jordan banks to foreign accounts Posted: 02 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST Jordan's Ad Dostour is reporting that there has been a large amount of money being transferred recently by Palestinian Arab officials from Jordanian banks to foreign banks. The paper reports that a major investigation into PA corruption has been postponed. The conjecture is that PLO and former PLO officials are scrambling to hide their embezzled money before the investigation starts up again. (Or maybe some of them were tipped off.) There have been a number of resignations lately in the PA because of embezzlement. Meanwhile, the PLO plans to create a special committee to figure out exactly where all of its assets are hidden. According to the article, most of the PLO's real estate holdings are still unaccounted for. They are assumed to be in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. 
|
| The New York Times' anti-Israel op-ed index (DG) Posted: 02 Jan 2012 05:40 AM PST For six months, the former blogger previously known as Soccer Dad, now known by his initials DG, has been keeping track of the op-eds in the pages of the New York Times that had to do with Israel, seeing if they were pro-Israel or anti-Israel. Here is his roundup of the past six months:
July 2011 - Anti-Israel 5 / Pro-Israel 2
August 2011 - Anti-Israel 4 / Pro-Israel 0
September 2011 - Anti-Israel – 14 / Pro-Israel 1
October 2011 - Anti-israel - 6 / Pro-Israel - 3
November 2011 - Anti-Israel - 6 / Pro-Israel - 2
December 2011 - Anti-Israel 4 / Pro-Israel 0
The final tally for the last six months of 2011, is 38 anti-Israel opinion articles and 7 pro-Israel opinion articles; a ratio of more than 5 to 1. (I double counted one of each at the end of October and beginning of November. The dates in the papers archive differ from the actual date appearing in the article.)
Clearly September was the worst month with fourteen anti-Israel op-eds. It's important to remember that in September Mahmoud Abbas was pursuing the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) at the UN. The opinion articles therefore served as providing support for the UDI effort.
Even though the official New York Times editorial position was that Israel and the Palestinians needed to negotiate, at least four of the op-eds I counted either implicitly or explicitly supported the UDI. Despite the official editorial stance, it's pretty clear that the editors of the New York Times were not especially upset by Abbas's effort to bypass the negotiations. (Additionally Abbas wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he explicitly spelled out his intent to use the UDI to pursue diplomatic action against Israel. An editorial appearing ten days later didn't even mention the op-ed.)
Perhaps the lowest blow was the publishing of an op-ed by Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert. Olmert argued that even though he made an offer to Abbas that was rejected, it was up to Netanyahu to make the same (or better) offer to Abbas because it was essential to make a deal. Aside from the absolutely incomprehensible negotiating advice (tell the guy who refused to negotiate in good faith that he hasn't lost anything) the op-ed was written by a disgraced politician, who has no credibility in Israel.
Prior to the UDI effort, it was reported that the PLO had hired a PR firm. Given the editorial support of the Palestinians by the New York Times, one has to wonder if the money was wasted. I would argue that the PR firm might have been successful in pushing the NYT even further in the direction it already was going. Ron Dermer's letter to the NYT a few weeks ago also tallied up its op-eds and found that 19 out of 20 were negative towards Israel in a three month period. 
|
| Corrupt Egyptian army sells pasta and rents wedding halls Posted: 02 Jan 2012 03:00 AM PST Jadaliyya last week had an utterly fascinating article about the profit-making enterprises of the Egyptian army, and the corruption that comes from it. Should the production of pasta, mineral water, butane gas cylinders, and gas station services qualify as classified military secrets? And does discussing these enterprises in public pass as a crime of high treason? The leaders of the Egyptian Armed Forces believe the answer is "yes."
Until this very day, the role of the military establishment in the economy remains one of the major taboos in Egyptian politics. Over the past thirty years, the army has insisted on concealing information about its enormous interests in the economy and thereby keeping them out of reach of public transparency and accountability. The Egyptian Armed Forces owns a massive segment of Egypt's economy—twenty-five to forty percent, according to some estimates. In charge of managing these enterprises are the army's generals and colonels, notwithstanding the fact that they lack the relevant experience, training, or qualifications for this task.
The military's economic interests encompass a diverse range of revenue-generating activities, including the selling and buying of real estate on behalf of the government, domestic cleaning services, running cafeterias, managing gas stations, farming livestock, producing food products, and manufacturing plastic table covers. All this information is readily available on the websites of relevant companies and factories, which publicly and proudly disclose that they belong to the army. Yet for some reason the military establishment insists on outlawing any public mention of these activities.
Why is the budget of the Egyptian army above public transparency and accountability? Is it because it is exclusively concerned with national defense and thus must remain classified? Not really.
....The part of the military's budget that is kept secret has little to do with national defense and more with the huge profits the army accrues from the production of non-military goods and services. In other words, these budgetary items have to do with: how many bags of pasta and bottled water were sold last month; how much money "Wataniyya", the military's gas station, generated last year; how many houses "Queen", the military's cleaning services company, attended to this month and how many nurseries the same company is in charge of running; how many truckloads of fresh beef have the military's high-tech slaughterhouses in East Uwaynat sold this year; how many cabins they managed to rent out in the north coast Sidi Crir resort last summer; and how many apartments they sold in Kuliyyat al-Banat residential buildings and at what price? All these items together make up the "classified" part of the army's budget, which the military establishment insistently keeps off the public record and out of the reach of parliamentary and public deliberation as well as oversight. Attempting to discuss the army's so-called classified activities in public could result in military prosecution and trial, because these are, supposedly, "national security secrets" that Egypt's rivals—like Israel—must not find out about.
...Of greater concern is how many of the army's leaders have entered into networks of corruption and unlawful partnerships with private capital.
...As the managers of a state-owned economic empire built on corruption and oppression of working classes, military leaders have become decisively complicit in repressing labor and violating their rights.
Being an army general, a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP), and a Member of Parliament for ten years almost guarantees that one is part of a corruption network. General Sayed Mishaal perfectly fits this profile. Before becoming Minister of Military Production, Mishaal was a director of the National Service Projects Organization (NSPO). During that time, he was also a member of the NDP, and as an MP for Cairo's district of Helwan for three consecutive terms from 2000 to 2011. He used to proudly brag about managing to name the military-produced bottled mineral water Safi after his daughter. Mishaal was removed from his post after the revolution as a result of referrals to the General Prosecutor accusing him of wasteful spending of the ministry's funds. Mishaal's victory in parliamentary elections in Helwan was made easy by the fact that he could mobilize the votes of tens of thousands of individuals who work at "Military Factory 99," located in the district. Mishaal used to show up at the factory to celebrate and make merry with the workers during election campaign events, only to disappear and hardly return after his victory.
The name "Military Factory 99" has also become associated with the repression of workers, especially that labor-employer relations in the factory are not subject to traditional union or government regulations. In August of 2010, Factory 99's workers broke out into intense protests after one of their colleagues died as a result of an explosion. The director of the factory, who was also a general, had brought in a number of gas cylinders in order to test them out, even though the workers were not trained to use them. When several cylinders exploded, he told the workers that it would not matter if one or two of them died. Then, when one of them did in fact die, they stormed his office, gave him a beating, and then staged a sit-in. Subsequently, the workers' leaders were tried in military courts for charges of revealing "war secrets" on account that they spoke publicly about butane gas cylinders. There's lots more in this well-researched article. One of the commenters pointed to this article in Al Masry al Youm that alleges that army-owned chemical companies are creating an environmental disaster, killing animals and destroying nearby farms. The army is the most stable institution in Egypt - and it is rotten to the core. Even without the prospect of the Islamist takeover, this does not bode well for the country. (h/t Arthur) 
|
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה