יום שני, 27 בפברואר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Media bias: AP awards Palestinian Arabs their state

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 10:00 PM PST

Some bias in the middle of an AP article by Mohammed Daraghmeh:
It appears unlikely Israel's government would permit campaigning in east Jerusalem, one of three war-won territories that, along with the West Bank and Gaza, is to make up a Palestinian state.
Forget negotiations! AP has declared that everything beyond the Green Line is going to be part of the Palestinian state, no matter what. If they insist on it, they must get it all.

Is it any wonder why newspapers are going down the drain?

Jews are Judaizing Jerusalem?

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 07:05 PM PST

From AFP:
Qatar urged the United Nations on Sunday to investigate Jewish settlement expansion in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, warning that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories was unacceptable.

"We must act quickly to stop the Judaization of Jerusalem," said Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in his opening remarks at the International Conference on Jerusalem in Doha.

In his remarks, Sheikh Hamad called on the U.N. to "investigate the measures Israel has taken to Judaize Jerusalem since its occupation in 1967."

He said such an investigation would constitute the first step towards "forcing Israel to reverse those measures."

One cannot Judaize Jerusalem any more than one can wet water.  Jerusalem is Jewish through and through. Every stone is infused with holiness because of its Jewish past. Its sacredness to other religions is but a weak echo of the holiness it has been given by Jewish kings and prophets, prayers and tears.

The Muslim claim to the city, by comparison, is a poor attempt at a joke. There are no historic Muslim poems, songs, or prayers that extol the beauty or exhibit love for Jerusalem. The Muslim attitude towards Jerusalem is entirely derivative; it is not love but jealousy of the undeniable Jewish character of the city - a character that even today Muslims try desperately to erase, and miserably fail.

The centrality of Jerusalem to the Jewish nation was known to all before Mohammed was born, and it will remain past the time that Islam has been reduced to dust.

Compared to centuries of tradition, generations of veneration, and the yearnings of millions, the depraved braying of a Qatari ass is utterly inconsequential.

The professor who pushes anti-Israel propaganda (Algemeiner)

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 12:58 PM PST

My latest piece for The Algemeiner is online:
[Professor Amy] Kaplan accepts the premise of the question, that it is desirable to try to insert anti-Israel material into every class, but she notes that some courses (like biology or calculus, perhaps) do not lend themselves to such blatant propagandizing. However, she goes on, there is nothing to stop an intrepid teacher from not only injecting anti-Israel content into courses about literature and culture, but dedicated anti-Israel activist/teachers can actually create courses with that purpose in mind.
Read the whole thing.

Hamas starts campaign for female students to wear veils

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 12:00 PM PST

The Hamas Ministry of Education in cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Islamic Bloc student arm of Hamas has launched a campaign to encourage young women to wear veils.

The campaign was launched at the Ramla Girls' School east of Gaza City.

The campaign "seeks to instill virtuous Islamic values in the hearts of students, to feed their minds and souls and spirit with Islamic morality and ideas."

The Ministry of Religious Affairs is sending preachers to hold a number of seminars and religious lectures for the success of the campaign, praising the efforts of the girls of the Islamic bloc.

Here's the logo for the campaign:


How long until this "campaign" turns into law?

Hamas prisoners in PA prisons started a hunger strike

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 10:45 AM PST

In the wake of what is widely  perceived as Israel caving to Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan's hunger strike, four Hamas members started their own hunger strike in Junaid Prison, Nablus - against the PA.

They claim they were supposed to be released by now.

Two of them were apparently arrested for political reasons last September.

It will be interesting to see if the international community will show the same outrage against the PA as it did towards Israel for Islamic Jihad terrorist leader Khader Adnan's detention.

In related news, Ahlam Tamimi - the Sbarro's bomber who was among those released for Gilad Shalit - said in Amman yesterday that hunger strikes were a tactical move that will continue for at least two months, until April 17th, which is "Palestinian Prisoners' Day," for the purpose of reinstating prisoner privileges that had allegedly been denied since last year.

Islamic Jihad releases a book on how to fight Israel

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 09:25 AM PST

Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades' Media Division has just published an e-book on how to fight Israel.

It is titled, simply, "Fight."

It supposedly documents how the Zionist mind works and how to defeat it.

A spokesman said "The book increases the awareness of all the jihadist Mujahideen on the land of Palestine, led by the Mujahideen of Al-Quds Brigades, in order to prepare the psychological and logistical support based on sound science to confront and defeat the Zionist army." Thousands of copies were distributed to all members of Islamic Jihad.

You can download it here.

It is hard to use translation tools on the PDF file (the text is reversed) but the book seems to be heavy on coming up with ways to destroy Israel's morale.

Remember that Islamic Jihad has courted recently by Fatah as part of "unity" talks.

The return of the "apartheid week" cult (National Post)

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 08:10 AM PST

From Jonathan Kay at the National Post (Canada):
In Syria, the Assad regime continues to rain artillery on rebel positions in the city of Homs, killing journalists and innocent civilians alike. Iran's mullahs are set to execute a Canadian citizen for the crime of operating a web site they don't like. The new Libyan regime is torturing Gaddafi loyalists. And Egypt's rulers are prosecuting NGO leaders on trumped-up charges. And so next week, Canadian left-wing activists will congregate in Toronto to express their hatred of … you guessed it: Israel.

The events of March 5-9 will take place as part of the 8th annual Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), and will feature presentations such as "Cutting the Ties to Israeli Apartheid: Cultural and Academic Boycott," and "Rhymes Of Resistance And The Sounds Of Existence — with poets Remi Kanazi, Red Slam and Chand-nee." The IAW website is full of the usual rhetoric about Israel's "criminal" actions. There is not a word of acknowledgement about how utterly ridiculous it is to run a week-long event vilifying Israel when right next door in Syria, the government has just exterminated more Arabs than were killed in both Intifidas, the 2008 Gaza conflict, and the 2006 Lebanon war combined.

The timing of IAW this year truly does represent something of a farce. The eyes of the entire world are focused on Syria and the Strait of Hormuz. Even West Bank Palestinians themselves now seem more concerned with building up their economy than with grand international gestures aimed at the Jewish state. And in the "occupied" Golan Heights, Druze Muslims have been stirring — not against Israel, but against the Assad regime that many once looked to for "liberation." In the streets of Cairo, Sana'a and Tunis, no one is talking about Israel — only about when they will get the democracy they were promised. Only among cultish, single-minded anti-Israel activists has the news of the Arab Spring failed to circulate.

The word "cultish" is used here advisedly — because even some veteran anti-Israel activists are getting tired of the false mantras that circulate at IAW events. This includes no less an anti-Zionist than Norman Finkelstein (who has called Israel a "vandal state" that "relentlessly and brutally and inhumanly keeps these vicious, murderous wars"). Speaking to an interviewer earlier this month, he attacked the animating philosophy behind IAW — the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) — as a "cult," and an unsuccessful one at that.

National Post editorial writers have attended BDS events here in Toronto, and they all contain the same rousing assurances that the BDS movement will bring Israel to its knees. The self-consciously enforced spirit of viva la revolución solidarity that permeates these rallies reminds one of communist rallies in the days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Year after year, we hear the same clichés about how the BDS movement is on the cusp of victory. Yet the Israeli economy continues to prosper, and the only groups that have fallen into line with the boycott call are scattered NGOs and low-tier universities. "All [the BDS] claims about 'victories' [against Israel]: These 10 fingers more than suffice to count their victories," Mr. Finkelstein said this month. "It's a cult. The guru says: 'We have all these victories,' and everyone nods their head."...

IAW and BDS are not what they seem: As some of Israel's own fiercest critics themselves now admit, these are dishonest cults meant to enlist ill-informed activists in a campaign to destroy the Jewish state.

Don't forget if you are involved in any IAW counter-protests that you may use my posters freely (photos appreciated!)



(h/t Ian)

Video of stoning attacks on Israeli cars

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST

Here is video of the vicious stone attacks on Zehava Weiss and others' cars in Beit Ummar last week:



Apparently, because AP And AFP uncharacteristically released good photos of the incident, prompting Israeli media to cover the story, Channel 10 in Israel managed to find an actual videotape (since many reporters were there waiting for cars with Israeli plates to be stoned, some with video.) I don't know which service took this video.

Chances are that the tape would never have been released if it wasn't for the publicity. It isn't newsworthy on its own.

Yesterday, the uber-moderate PA prime minister Salam Fayyad described incidents such as these as "non-violent."

(h/t Israellycool)

Abbas inciting Arabs in Doha with bald-faced lies about Jerusalem

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 03:56 AM PST

There is a conference in Doha this weekend called the "International Conference on Jerusalem." Participants include some of the most extreme Israel-haters on the planet, including Knesset members Haneen Zoabi, Ibrahim Sarsur, Jamal Zahalka, and members of Neturei Karta. Also there are representatives from UNRWA and other UN agencies as well as many prominent Arabs.

One keynote speech was given this morning by Mahmoud Abbas, and it proves yet again what a liar and inciter he really is.

Among his statements:

The Israeli occupation authorities, using the ugliest and most dangerous methods, are accelerating in an unprecedented way the implementation of plans ...to erase and remove the Arab-Islamic and the Christian character of East Jerusalem.

The occupying power is attempting to change the parameters and the structure of the Maqdisi scene the smallest details, believing they can wipe from the memory of the world and consciousness that are immediately evoked by the name of Jerusalem the image of the shimmering golden dome Dome of the Rock, the remarkable image of the juxtaposition of the brotherhood of the minarets of mosques and the domes of the churches, in the shadow of the city walls that are witness to the history and memories and facts, and the illusion that they are able to replace them, and bring a different scene serving illusions of superstition and arrogance of power, and they are by virtue of brute force that are able to invent history and install their allegations, and the abolition of facts, religious and historical.

Hurva before its destruction in 1948
Abbas here is not claiming that the Jews are trying to destroy the Dome of the Rock. He is referring to the building of synagogues in the Old City, specifically the Hurva. When the Hurva was rebuilt and dedicated, on the exact spot that it had been destroyed by Jordanian troops along with some fifty other Jerusalem synagogues in 1948, the major objection by Palestinian Arabs was that - given that the Jewish Quarter is on a hill - the Hurva's dome is taller than that of the Dome of the Rock. (Islamic law says that the tallest structure in a city must be a mosque.)

So now photos of the skyline of the Old City prominently show a synagogue, just as they did before 1948. This is what Abbas is objecting to, as he hypocritically is claiming that Israel is fabricating history of the city. And he himself is now claiming that Jerusalem historically only had churches and mosques - but no synagogues. In other words, the liar Abbas is trying to destroy the Jewish character of Jerusalem, today, while he falsely claims that Israel is destroying its Christian and Muslim character.

Since the occupation authorities to remove the Mughrabi neighborhood after the 1967 war in the Old City of Jerusalem, they still continue to demolish houses that carry symbolic importance, such as historic generosity of the Mufti and others, and build settlements in more than one site on land confiscated from the citizens of the holy city.

Israel demolished the area in front of the Kotel in 1967 in order for Jews to be able to worship there, as the Arab homes there would have made that impossible. Here is how Israel's UN representative described the area at the time in response to similar complaints by Jordan:
The Jordanian Government deliberately profaned the sacred character of the Wall by erecting adjacent to it structures of secular services, warehouses and toilets, and converting its immediate precincts into a slum. It accordingly became essential to remove these installations and restore the dignity and the sanctity of the Holy Place as a very first step after the battles in Jerusalem had ceased. Moreover, archaeological excavations are being conducted in order to remove part of the earth and refuse that have accumulated at the Western Wall in the course of time and which cover its lower layers. This is a proper archaeological operation, and it is being conducted in a way that assures that nothing will damage the Wall or jeopardize its character as a Holy Place or impair in any way the Haram esh-Sharif area situated beyond the Wall.
It is to be noted that the Western Wall is a recognized antiquity and was treated as such also by the Mandatory Government, which also assumed responsibility for its maintenance and upkeep.

...The contention in the letter of the Permanent Representative of Jordan that "the Wailing Wall and the entire adjacent area are an integral part of Al-Haram esh-Sharif" is a wilful attempt to confuse the issue. The Mughrabi Quarter, consisting of a group of dwelling houses, to which the letter of the Permanent Representative of Jordan makes particular reference, is not a holy site. It faces the Wall but is also entirely separate from it. Its status is no different from that of secular property, whether or not owned by religious institutions as a source of income, in any other city in the world.

No modern civilized Government or municipal administration would have tolerated the slum conditions which the Jordanian Government created in this Quarter. One of the first things which the Government of Israel had to do was to embark on a programme of urban improvement, which included resettling the unfortunate inhabitants of this Quarter in respectable conditions.
The Mufti reference is to the Shepherd Hotel, an eyesore that was purchased legally by a Jew and whose only historic importance is the fact that is was once owned by an unabashed anti-semite.

Abbas goes on:
[The occupation wants to] carry out continued excavations that threaten to undermine Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to extract evidence that supports the Israeli version of Judaism. They failed miserably, but that did not prevent her from implementation of all that would create a Jewish character to the city, ... the preparation of models of what they call the Temple in order to build on the ruins of Al Aqsa, to the establishment of a so-called biblical garden at the expense of the lands and houses of Jerusalem.

Here Abbas is stating as fact that Israel plans to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque, a lie designed to incite Muslims to rise up against Jews.

He is also lying in saying that Israeli archaeological work has not found any evidence of Jewish history in Jerusalem. In fact, the most important findings in recent years came not from Israeli digs - but from sifting the discarded remains of the disgusting wanton destruction of priceless artifacts by the Waqf on the Temple Mount, in the news again today. Beyond that there have been exciting findings nearly every week that prove beyond all doubt the ancient Jewish character of the city - as if that is even in dispute by anyone.

The occupation authorities carried out ethnic cleansing, with all that entails, against the Palestinian citizens, to make them at best a minority in their city, their resident status only for strengthening the Jewish presence to build more settlements.
Of course, Jews have formed the majority of Jerusalem's population since the mid-1800s. And there is no "ethnic cleansing" - there are more Arabs in Jerusalem now than at any time in history.

The occupation authorities work through the impoverishment of the holy city and the destruction of its infrastructure and hit its economy, which has always been in all ages the booming center and head of economic activity and tourism, medical, educational, and an incubator for cultural, intellectual and artistic endeavors in Palestine.
In 1967, the eastern part of Jerusalem was essentially a neglected slum. There was even a UNRWA refugee camp called Mascar in the old Jewish quarter that UNRWA closed - in 1965! - because conditions there were so horrendous and unsanitary.

Between 1948 and 1967, Jerusalem was a neglected backwater of the Arab world. There were essentially no Muslim pilgrims going there. And while thousands of Christians would indeed visit Jerusalem every Easter, that number increased dramatically after Israel regained possession of the holy city.

Abbas is pushing lies and incitement, and his speech is filled with hypocrisy about things like freedom of worship when he would ban (or, at best, severely restrict) Jews from ever visiting their holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere if given half a chance.

This speech reveals the ugly face of Mahmoud Abbas and how he is not interested in peace or co-existence at all, let alone the truth.

(h/t Alex for link to program)
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