| Turkey to rebuild mosques in Gaza Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:58 PM PST From Hurriyet Daily News: Turkey will help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip repair mosques damaged in Israeli strikes and rebuild those torn down, the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate Mehmet Görmez said yesterday.
"As the Directorate of Religious Affairs, we will help them in every way possible to repair and rebuild the destroyed mosques," Görmez said after a meeting with his counterpart from Gaza, Salih Alreqed. (h/t D) 
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| "Attempted murder" against rabbi in New Jersey Posted: 11 Jan 2012 12:25 PM PST From CBS New York: Authorities are investigating a firebombing of a northern New Jersey home attached to a synagogue as attempted murder and bias-related arson.
The fire was reported around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford.
Police say someone threw explosive devices through the window.
"Incendiary devices were used to attempt to start of a fire in the upstairs portion of the structure which is a residence," Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg.
Rabbi Nosson Schuman, who lives in the home with his wife and five children, said he saw a flash of fire outside his bedroom window before his bedspread caught fire.
"The fire in the bedroom, I had to go put it out. My quilt was on fire. I had to put it out," he told WCBS 880′s Sean Adams. "Got the kids out and realized that this must have been a continuation of the hate crimes that have been occurring throughout the area."
Schuman said damage to his home and congregation were minimal.
CBS 2′s Christine Sloan reports Schuman suffered burns to his hands but neighbors said he is doing okay.
Authorities say multiple devices were tossed at the home, including Molotov cocktails and rigged aerosol cans. All appeared as if they were being aimed at the second floor of the house.
Officials say whoever did this was targeting Schuman.
"At this point it's not just a hate crime and a bias crime. It's now an attempted murder," said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli.
It comes just one day before a meeting between representatives of more than 80 synagogues, law enforcement and some Jewish day schools to discuss several incidents targeting Jewish temples in Bergen County.
There was a suspicious fire and two anti-Semitic graffiti incidents in the past few weeks. It is a small Orthodox synagogue that looks like a converted house: 
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| PA TV sermon: "Every evil in the world is caused by Jews" Posted: 11 Jan 2012 11:20 AM PST From MEMRI: Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon in Al-Bireh, the West Bank, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV on January 6, 2012.
Preacher: "Oh servants of Allah, every evil and catastrophe on the land of Palestine – moreover, in the whole world – is caused by the Jews.
"They generate civil strife with their clandestine handiwork, their despicable texts, their bitter hearts, and their abominable intentions.
"Allah said: 'Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it, but they strive to do mischief on earth. Allah loves not those who do mischief.' This is the history of the Jews.
"Many a covenant have they violated.
"Many a prophet have they slayed." I think Israel is way overdue for a peace treaty with these guys, don't you? (This was run on the official PA TV - not Hamas, not a pirate channel, but the TV channel that reflects the opinions of the PLO.) (h/t CHA) 
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| Egyptian media spinning Abuhatzeira tomb ban Posted: 11 Jan 2012 09:50 AM PST From Al Masry Al Youm: For the first time in years, nine-year-old Sherif and his friend Mahmoud, residents of the village of Damtu, are able to play freely outside their house, which is located across from the tomb of Abu Hasira, a 19th-century Jewish rabbi, after years of deprivation due to security orders.
Sherif, Mahmoud and all of the village residents were finally able to enter the area around the mausoleum without fear. Previously, anyone who tried to enter the area would be beaten, humiliated or imprisoned for weeks because former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly's security forces had turned the area around the shrine into a military barracks, forbidding anyone from approaching it.
The festival, scheduled for 9 to 10 January, is held on the annual anniversary of the death of Abu Hasira, whose mausoleum is located in the village of Damtu outside Damanhour. A number of political groups in Egypt announced Monday that they plan to protest at the Abu Hasira festival.
The usual security measures were absent around the tomb, which is located on top of the small village's highest hill. Only one police vehicle with five policemen can now be found at the mausoleum, and for the first time in years, dozens of village residents are visiting the shrine.
Abu Hasira was born in Morocco and, according to Jewish lore, the ship that was carrying him to Palestine sank. Abu Hasira floated on a straw mat that eventually landed on Syrian shores. The rabbi, according to Jewish tradition, went from Syria to Palestine and then on to Egypt.
He died in Damtu in 1880. Every year, thousands of Jews come to celebrate the anniversary of his death.
Al-Masry Al-Youm, together with a number of village residents and activists from the Beheira Governorate, visited the tomb, which Jews failed to visit for the first time after activists declared they would form a human shield to prevent any Israelis from setting foot in the area.
Abu Hasira's tomb lies in the center of Damtu. It is located on a 5-meter-high hill, where a closed shrine encloses the rabbi's tomb, and three other tombs, which Jews say belong to his grandchildren. Abu Hasira's tomb is covered with a large piece of black cloth embossed with Hebrew phrases embroidered with gold thread.
The room that includes the mausoleum is 30 square meters in area and includes three oil paintings of the Jewish rabbi, a marble plaque written in Hebrew at the entrance, and a group of small coin-like pieces placed on top of one of the adjacent tombs. It also contains a small, broken wooden painting and nine wooden windows, most which have been broken as a result of rocks being thrown at them.
After the revolution, a group of people tried to demolish the tomb, but village residents stopped them.
"We are against the tomb, but at the same time we are against demolishing it in such a manner. The revolution didn't erupt to demolish such tomb," said Mohamed Fawzym, one of Damtu's residents.
Umm Abadam, a 50-year-old woman, might be the only resident suffering from the festival's cancellation. She benefited from being the closet neighbor to the tomb.
She used to earn money cooking food for the visitors of the tomb.
"What were [visitors] doing? I used to sell to them. In the beginning, they bought cows and goats from the village. People from Tanta used to come here and sell them cloth. But the number of visitors has decreased, and I was forced by security to not sell them anything," Umm Abadam told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Bassiony Mohamed, another village resident, shed light on another aspect.
"We had suffered a lot from the visits of Jews. Secret police were all over the place. During the festival, we weren't able to move freely. The secret police were summoning the people who live close to the tomb and threatening them if something bad happens at the festival," Mohamed said. While the article sheds some light on the situation, it is filled with spin. The newspaper is trying hard to make it sound like the residents have no problem with Jews, but only with the security services that made their lives miserable. But articles about the pilgrimage from previous years show real Jew-hatred, and not merely people upset at the security forces: In 2008, villagers described it as "another foothold of Jews in Egypt", and complained about practices of the Jewish revelers from the " slaughter of pigs and drinking, dance and exercising unethical behavior." A group of lawyers sued to stop "this harassment and moral pollution" caused by the Israelis and the Jews of Europe to the people of the village. The earlier article made it sound like the security cordon was in place only for the week that the pilgrims would arrive, unlike the Al Masry al Youm article that says it was year-round. Villagers also described "alcoholic celebrations spilled over the tomb, and then the slaughter of sacrifices that are often sheep or pigs, roasting meat, and dancing. Celebrants then hysterically sing Jewish melodies as they become almost naked, and then say some prayers, entreaties and tears to the tomb, burning, beating their heads on a wall and asked for their needs." And the Facebook groups and others who are determined to stop Jews from coming to Egypt are explicit that they simply don't like Jews in Egypt. We don't even have to go to previous years to see the hatred of Jews from the residents of the village. A blog called AntiAbuHosira quotes a newspaper as saying the villagers would allow Jews to come "over their dead bodies." Another Facebook group calls on the tomb to be "destroyed immediately." And who exactly broke every window with rocks? 
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| Iran's currency in freefall; leaders panicking Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST From Reuters: Iran's currency has slid 20 percent against the dollar in the last week despite central bank intervention, and Iranians concerned about the economy said on Tuesday attempts to send text messages using the word "dollar" appeared to be blocked.
The central bank reportedly pumped $200 million dollars into the market last Wednesday after new and much tougher U.S. sanctions prompted nervous Iranians to change rials into hard currency, accelerating a rise in the price of dollars on the open market.
Saying it would act to stabilise the currency, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) imposed a rate of 14,000 rials to the dollar - up from record lows of around 18,000 rials - but many exchange offices would not sell at that price.
By Tuesday the exchange rate had risen again to around 17,000 rials, according to exchange bureaus, 50 percent more than the CBI's "reference rate" of 11,240 rials.
The currency slide is a huge risk for consumer prices in a country where the official inflation rate - considered an underestimate by many economists - is already around 20 percent and rising.
In a hint of political sensitivity over the issue, Iranians, long used to controls over Internet and mobile communications, said they were unable to send text messages containing the word "dollar".
"My colleagues and I tried to text each other in the office and to our surprise we found that texts that included words like 'dollar' and 'foreign currency' could not be delivered," said Malek, a 45-year-old government employee in Tehran.
Newspapers reported on the problem, adding that officials had denied filtering text messages. Reuters calls to officials went unanswered.
The head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, Asadollah Asgaroladi, estimated that annual inflation stood at 40 percent this month and that it would have been 27 percent without the currency slide, Khabaronline, a website close to the government, reported. There is nothing in the official Iranian press about this. In related news, India is set to cut Iranian oil imports: The union government [in India] has told refiners to reduce Iranian oil imports and find alternatives as New Delhi may not seek a waiver that would protect buyers of Tehran's oil from a fresh round of U.S. sanctions, two industry sources said on Wednesday.
India, Iran's second largest oil buyer after China, is already struggling to pay for the crude due to existing sanctions, and fresh U.S. measures aimed at isolating Iran over its nuclear programme will make payment even harder.
The South Asian country buys from Iran about 12 percent of its oil needs, or 350,000-400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and worth $12 billion annually.
Indian oil firms were told by officials at a meeting on Monday that the government was not planning to seek an exemption from the U.S. sanctions, and were advised to reduce dependence on Iran and be ready with alternative supply sources. It looks like the increased Western sanctions against Iran - and threats of new sanctions - are finally starting to take effect. It is a shame that they were not in place years before. Is this a case of better late than never? (h/t Yoel) 
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| Two tunnel families shooting each other in Rafah, Egypt Posted: 11 Jan 2012 07:10 AM PST Two competing family owners of Gaza smuggling tunnels have escalated their war with each other on the Egyptian side of Rafah. Five people have been injured in recent days from gunshots between the clans. There have also been kidnappings. Witnesses say that the families shoot at each other during the afternoons. The families have installed machine guns on the roofs of their houses. Some Palestinian Gazans go through the tunnels to help with the fighting. The report says that there is effectively no police presence in Rafah since the Egyptian Revolution; the military guards the border and the entrances to the city only. The tunnel trade to Gaza remains lucrative and strong as ever. 
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| Haniyeh again says "Jihad is the only option" Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST Ismail Haniyeh was quoted in a Gulf newspaper as saying that Hamas remains committed to "resistance" - and he didn't mean protests. The Hamas leader in Gaza said that "resistance that did not stop as many people imagine, but we are at the stage of study and planning to come back strong as ever, because the Palestinians know that their holy places will not return except by Jihad." Haniyeh added that "the resistance of the Palestinian people is the only option to restore the Islamic holy sites, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that jihad is our choice for the restoration of holy places in Palestine." Haniyeh returned to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening after finishing his trip that led him to Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey. 
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| Another Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated Posted: 11 Jan 2012 04:10 AM PST From Iran's PressTV:  A terrorist car bomb explosion around a square in northern Tehran has killed yet another Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded two bystanders.
The victim, identified as Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was a chemical engineering graduate of Iran's prominent Sharif University of Technology and served as marketing deputy of Iran's Natanz nuclear installation.
Witnesses say they spotted a motorcyclist attaching a sticky bomb to a car near a college of the Allameh Tabatabaei University in the Iranian capital on Wednesday.
An investigation is underway over the incident.
Wednesday's terror bombing bears the hallmark of a 2010 terror attack that killed Majid Shahriari, another university professor, in Tehran.
On November 29, 2010, unidentified terrorists slapped adhesive bombs onto the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi and detonated them.
Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi, the current director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, and his wife sustained minor injuries and were rushed to a hospital.
On December 2, 2010, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that the Israeli Mossad, the American CIA, and the British MI6 all played a role in those attacks.
Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, another scholar at Tehran University, was assassinated by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010.
The terror bombing took place near the professor's home in northern Tehran. Many analysts assume that the Mossad is behind these assassinations. At least one longtime Iran observer thinks that most of the recent examples of sabotage and assassinations are really from internal Iranian opposition. Another possibility: A top Iraqi security official claims that the Mossad has increased its recruitment efforts in country's Kurdish region, focusing mainly on Iranian refugees.
According to France's Le Figaro, the move is part of Israel's efforts to wage an intelligence war against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The refugees, which according to the paper's sources are Iranian dissidents, are recruited by Israeli agents to target Iranian nuclear experts. (h/t Yoel) 
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| Tel Aviv named "Best Gay City" Posted: 11 Jan 2012 02:38 AM PST From JPost: Tel Aviv was voted the best gay city of 2011, according to an online poll on LGBT travel website gaycities.com.
"The gay capitol of the Middle East is exotic and welcoming with a Mediterranean c'est la vie attitude," the website said.
Tel Aviv garnered 43 percent of the vote, far ahead of the next competitor, New York City, which raked in 14%.
Other cities on the list included Toronto, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, New Orleans, and Mexico City. I wonder how Ramallah did. After all, as a tiny percentage of gay people know, the Palestinian Arabs are far more tolerant towards gays than Israel is, and every gay person who voted for Tel Aviv in this poll is obviously "pinkwashed" with evil Zionist propaganda. 
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