Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Overnight open thread
More details on nefarious plot to destroy Al Aqsa with an earthquake
Saudi Grand Mufti says to destroy all churches in the Gulf
Pukewashing: Knesset votes to ban underweight models in ads (includes gratuitous photos)
Extreme leftist accusing Israeli textbooks of "turning nice Jewish boys into monsters"
By the way, rockets are still being shot from Gaza
The EU and PA collaborate to destroy Oslo
UNRWA in 1966 saw no problem giving aid to terrorists

Overnight open thread

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 07:24 PM PDT

Have a good evening!

More details on nefarious plot to destroy Al Aqsa with an earthquake

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 12:25 PM PDT

A couple of weeks ago I reported that an Islamic leader in the territories claimed that Israel was preparing to create an artificial earthquake to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple in its place.

Today a variant of this plan has come to light, thanks to the extensive intelligence network of the Islamists.

From Qudsmedia:

An expert in the affairs of Al-Aqsa warned of Israeli plan he described as "very dangerous" that targets the holy mosque and paves the way for a takeover by Jews and the extension of their control by the year 2020. The expert said that Israel is using 28 earthquake experts who are taking part in the planning to provoke an earthquake from underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque, which would be "the beginning of its demise."

The expert explained this during a symposium on Israeli plans to demolish al-Aqsa at the University College of Applied Sciences that the earthquake against al-Aqsa would be set off in 2020.

I wish I was one of the 28 experts dedicated to setting off an earthquake under Al Aqsa - precisely enough not to damage the Kotel - but I'm sure that the cunning Zionists managed to find just the right people to hatch this villainous plot.

Saudi Grand Mufti says to destroy all churches in the Gulf

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 11:05 AM PDT

From Arabian Business in a story I missed last week:

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region," following Kuwait's moves to ban their construction.

Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, stressed that since the tiny Gulf state was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, it was necessary to destroy all of the churches in the country, Arabic media have reported.

Saudi Arabia's top cleric made the comment in view of an age-old rule that only Islam can be practiced in the region.

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom. He is also the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas.

Elliott Abrams adds:

This report brought back memories of a trip to Saudi Arabia that I took in January 2001, before joining the Bush Administration. I travelled there as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the delegation (which included Cardinal McCarrick) met with government officials and religious authorities. To several, we made the argument that as Saudis claim to value religious faith and practice so deeply, surely they could understand the terrible hardship they were creating for the many Christians who lived in the Kingdom by forbidding them to worship. They can worship at home, came the reply (somewhat disingenuously, for we knew that the religious police often broke up such private religious services). That isn't enough, we argued, especially for Roman Catholics whose religion includes the sacraments that only a priest can administer. And there are roughly a million and a half Catholics, mostly Filipinos, here in Saudi Arabia, we said. Too bad, came the reply; they knew our rules before they came, and the rule is no religion other than Islam in Arabia. No churches. Period.

Well, we noted, there are churches in every other country on the Arabian Peninsula: Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE. You are the only exception. Are you suggesting that all those churches should be closed? Yes, came the reply. Every one of them.

Will this statement be vehemently condemned by the Western world? Will the UN hold a special session to denounce this bigotry and intolerance? Will other Muslims rise up in disgust and strongly oppose the Mufti's words, saying that he does not speak in their name?

(h/t Yoel)

Pukewashing: Knesset votes to ban underweight models in ads (includes gratuitous photos)

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 09:45 AM PDT

From Ha'aretz:

The Knesset yesterday passed a law banning the use of underweight models in advertising. The so-called "Photoshop law" also requires that any ad agency digitally altering photos to make models look thinner must disclose the fact in the advert.

The legislation is an effort to change idealized perceptions of beauty that, according to evidence presented to the Knesset, encourages eating disorders such as anorexia.

The law also bars the use of overly thin images from foreign advertising here, as defined by the commonly used medical measure of body mass index. Models with an index of 18.5 or less - or who appear to have such a low index - will not be allowed to appear in advertising.

Data from the Knesset's Research and Information Center presented at legislative hearings revealed that there are about 1,500 children, including teenagers, diagnosed with eating disorders in Israel annually. Evidence presented to the Knesset showed that exposure to idealized media images of bodies is one risk factor in developing an eating disorder, by glorifying the thin body.

As every Israel hater knows, this is a transparent attempt on the part of Knesset to distract the world from Israeli crimes. It is pukewashing.

Alisa Gourari, an 18-year-old model who was runner-up in the World Super Model competition, has modeled for Max Mara and Valentino. She has starred in a number of Israeli advertising campaigns but is too thin to meet the requirements of the new law. She said the debate over underweight models is important, but she too said the law applied limits without regard to whether the model was healthy at his or her weight.

Here is Gourari:

She does look scarily skinny.

Here are some of the 55 other Israeli models from Fashion Model Directory. Unfortunately, they do not mention the models' weights, so I cannot calculate which ones would be affected by this law. You guys will have to do the exhaustive research yourselves.

Israela Avtau

Elinor Gal

Yael Goldman

Shelly Hazan

Hial Marin

Tehila Rich

Tal Shomron

(h/t Dan)

Extreme leftist accusing Israeli textbooks of "turning nice Jewish boys into monsters"

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 08:25 AM PDT

From The National (UAE):

One asserts that Israel's Palestinian citizens shun modernisation and are building houses illegally. Another alleges the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank steals water from Israel. And elsewhere, that Palestinians have been a "terrifying demographic problem" for Israel.

Such statements are part of mainstream schoolbooks in Israel that teach an "anti-Palestinian" approach in a bid to prepare Jewish children to be aggressive towards Palestinians once they serve in the army, according to a new book.

To be released this month in the UK, the book - Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education - is the first to publicly provide evidence that Israeli schools have racist textbooks, said Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University who has researched dozens of Israeli schoolbooks published since the 1990s.

"I was looking for reasons of why nice Jewish boys turn into monsters when they join the army," said Ms Peled-Elhanan, in an interview at her home just outside Jerusalem.

"They never meet Palestinians face-to-face as children, so the textbooks are all they know."

Variants of this article will start appearing momentarily, even though the book is still a month away from being released. This means that Nurit Peled-Elhanan's vitriol and lies can be unopposed for quite some time before anyone can take the time to prove that her research is biased and often blatantly dishonest. And how many people will spend the $80 to actually read it? They will read the articles in Al Arabiya and The Guardian and believe that they know what they need to know about the book.

How do I know she is a liar? Because when she gave a presentation about her thesis (not even a scholarly paper) at the request of the PA, IMPACT-SE demolished it by looking at the very same textbooks she felt were problematic.

It seems unlikely that her research methods have improved much since then.

I excerpted parts of that report in this post last year, in response to her interview in The Guardian then.

As the IMPACT-SE report concluded:

From what we have shown, it is clear that Dr. Peled-Elhanan set out with the objective of labeling the Israeli curriculum racist. Motivated by her personal political agenda rather than an investigative spirit, she shot her arrow and then drew a target around it – or stated her preconceived thesis and then tried to find evidence for it. That was not an easy task, since Israeli school textbooks do not contain significant racist material, but she was not deterred by this problem. She made a formidable effort to find supposed evidence, whatever the cost.

By the way, rockets are still being shot from Gaza

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 07:05 AM PDT

But the "cease fire" is still holding, as long as your definition of "cease fire" is one-sided:

A two-day lull in Gaza rocket fire came to an end on Monday morning when a Qassam exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.

The Color Red alert sounded in several area towns around 9:50 am, and residents were urged to seek shelter. The rocket hit shortly after.

And today:

A mortar shell fired from Gaza exploded in an open area in Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.

The EU and PA collaborate to destroy Oslo

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT

This week is the annual meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee on Assistance to the Palestinians in Brussels. At this conference, the PA is presenting a paper, entitled "Equitable Development: Moving Forward Despite the Occupation," which includes this recommendation:

To tackle proactively the growing phenomenon of inequitable socio-economic conditions and quality of life driven by constraints on our ability to implement our development agenda throughout the land within the June 1967 borders – in particular, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the 'seam zone', the Jordan Valley as well as all other parts of the so-called 'Area C'.

Their press release accompanying the paper was a bit more explicit:

This paper sets out the policies the government will take in the latest stage of our journey towards our own free country, an independent Palestine. While Israel, through its demolition and annexation policies on the ground, is destroying the possibility of reaching a two state solution, the paper calls on the international community to step up their efforts in Area C and East Jerusalem, if they are still committed to the idea of the two state solution.

The Oslo accords, of course, says that the final borders were up for negotiations, and until that is solved Area C is under exclusive Israeli control. Some 97% of Palestinian Arabs live in Areas A and B. When the PA is telling its Western donors to pay money to develop Area C, they are telling them to defy Oslo.

Beyond that, this idea has nothing to do with state-building. It is purely political, and meant to pressure Israel. The PA knows quite well that structures built without cooperation with Israel are often destroyed, and it also knows that Israel would face criticism when destroying illegally built structures funded by the EU.

The proof comes from a widely cited Guardian article last week:

Two large solar panels jut out of the barren landscape near Imneizil in the Hebron hills. The hi-tech structures sit incongruously alongside the tents and rough stone buildings of the Palestinian village, but they are fundamental to life here: they provide electricity.

Imneizil is not connected to the national electricity grid. Nor are the vast majority of Palestinian communities in Area C, the 62% of the West Bank controlled by Israel. The solar energy has replaced expensive and clunky oil-powered generators.

According to the Israeli authorities, these solar panels – along with six others in nearby villages – are illegal and have been slated for demolition.

Nihad Moor, 25, has three small children. The family live in a two-room tent kitted out with a fridge, TV and very old computer. She also has a small electric butter churn, which she uses to supplement her husband's small income from sheep farming.

"The kids get sick all the time. At the moment, because of a change in the weather, they all have colds. Without electricity I wouldn't even be able to see to help them when they need to use the [outdoor] toilet at night," Moor says. "I don't want to imagine what life would be like here if [the panels] were demolished."

Imneizil's solar system was built in 2009 by the Spanish NGO Seba at a cost of €30,000 to the Spanish government. According to the Israeli authorities, it was built without a permit.

World newspapers and bloggers seized on the idea that Israel was heartlessly demolishing the power source for this tiny village.

In fact, the entire village is illegal, and was built only in recent years:

Major Guy Inbar, a spokesman for Israeli military authorities, said of the demolition orders: "All the tents and buildings have been built illegally. Of course the solar panels were also built illegally. Using the backing of international assistance does not give immunity to violations." He stressed, however, that no final decision has been taken yet regarding the fate of the panels and turbines and that a subcommittee of military administrators is studying the matter.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, denies that Israel is harming peace prospects through its policies in Area C. "We are acting in the framework of signed agreements. We were willing to move forward to sign more agreements, but that is not happening because the Palestinians refuse to negotiate." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made an Israeli freeze on settlements in the West Bank a precondition to resuming peace talks.

This idea of funding illegal development projects in Area C did not originate with the Palestinian Arabs. As the incident above illustrates, it was first thought of by European NGOs, working outside the framework of the Oslo accords.

And last year, the EU itself released a paper showing that they also want to sidestep Oslo and use these gimmicks to pressure Israel politically.

State building efforts in Area C of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the EU are therefore of utmost importance in order to support the creation of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state. Full and effective Palestinian development of Area C will require the re-designation of Area C to Areas A and B. This objective has to be pursued at the political level. Enabling measures should, however, be pursued in the interim to support Palestinian presence in and development of this area.

Among the EU report recommendations:

Supporting development projects in Area C including by for example building new schools, community centers, clinics, municipal buildings, roads, irrigation, water and other infrastructural projects.

Supporting Palestinian private sector development in Area C in areas such as tourism, site protection, industrial parks, wastewater treatment, solid waste, landfills, water pipelines, electricity infrastructures etc.

Enabling the PLO/PA to plan and develop programs in Area C.

The new PA document mirrors the EU recommendations from last year of bypassing Oslo and Israeli law and building in Area C without coordination or even a master plan.

The intent is clear: to embarrass and pressure Israel. The Guardian played its role perfectly. After all, who can be against clean solar energy? Only a monster, it seems, would demolish solar panels sorely needed by a village that sprung up sometime in the past decade.

Interestingly, the EU officially says that it does not want to circumvent existing agreements between Israel and the PLO:

From the Commission prospectives, beyond this emergency situation, its is important the framework established by the Tripartite Action Plan must not be destroyed. The achievement of Paris meeting of 9 January 1996 must not be cast aside.

The PA's announcement yesterday must be seen in the entire context of a major international attempt to circumvent the Oslo accords and to pressure Israel. If only the same effort would be made to pressure the PLO to go back to the negotiating table.

Obviously, when the PLO feels that Europe will do all their work for them, they won't even consider negotiations. These initiatives are meant to bypass talks and to go straight to the PLO-demanded final solution of taking land without any compromise or concessions. It is no wonder that the PLO feels that it can ignore peace talks - it knows that Europe is backing them up.

UNRWA in 1966 saw no problem giving aid to terrorists

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 01:00 AM PDT

In 1966, Congressman H. B. Frelinghuysen and Senator Edward Kennedy both demanded that UNRWA stop giving food and other aid for any members of the Palestinian Liberation Army, the military wing of the PLO.

From the New York Times, June 13, 1966:

This became a particularly touchy issue for the US when the PLA announced that it would fight alongside the Vietcong.

UNRWA, however, didn't understand the problem with providing free aid to people who wanted to destroy Israel. At this time UNRWA was already thoroughly biased as it wholeheartedly identified with the Palestinian Arab cause against Israel. Its response to the US demand is remarkable in how clueless UNRWA was even then.

From JTA, October 17, 1966:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees admitted to the General Assembly here today that it is providing rations to refugees who are members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the group sworn to make war against Israel and receiving military training for that sole purpose.

Strong objections to such UNRWA activity was voiced here by many governments at the Assembly last year. Among the opponents to UNRWA aid for the PLO were not only Israel but also the United States, which contributes 70 percent of the UNRWA budget. However, Laurence Michelmore, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, which provides relief, housing and education for the Arab refugees, reported to the Assembly today:

"A special aspect of the question of ration rolls deserves mention. Doubts have been expressed by some Governments about the propriety of the Agency's issuing rations which may be consumed by young men in military training under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The host governments (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon) do not consider that these doubts are well-founded. In the light of these differences, arrangements have been made for special added donations to the amount of $150,000 which meets the total cost of any rations consumed by the young men in question.

"The Commissioner-General is satisfied that these arrangements provide a practical means of disposing of the problem insofar as the Agency is concerned. Contributors to UNRWA, who may have been concerned about this matter, may thus be assured by the Agency that their contributions will not be used to furnish assistance to refugees receiving military training under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organization."

It was noted here immediately that Mr. Michelmore did not disclose the source of the $150,000 worth of "added donations," which, it is believed, come from the Arab countries. However, it was observed that he has made it clear that, whatever the source of the extra funds, the monies are being channeled through the United Nations agency in the form of rations.

A highly placed spokesman for the Israeli delegation, asked about Mr. Michelmore's statement regarding the furnishing of UNRWA rations to military trainees in the PLO, stated: "It is outrageous that the United Nations lends itself as an instrument in this sort of operation."

A couple of weeks later, the US condemned UNRWA for its tone-deaf response:

The United States Government strongly condemned today the provision of United Nations relief to Arab refugees serving in the Palestine Liberation Organization and the failure of the United Nations organization in charge of refugee relief to remove from its ration rolls the large number of refugees who are not entitled to U. N. aid.

These statements were made by U.S. Ambassador Harding F. Bancroft, the American representative in the General Assembly's 101-member Special Political Committee.

Referring then to the problem of aiding members of the PLO, Mr. Bancroft told the Committee: "Since the Palestine Liberation Army came into existence, many young men on the agency's ration rolls have been recruited into it -- and yet have remained on the ration rolls. The United States delegation made clear last year that we consider it inadmissible for a U. N. agency to supply rations to men serving in an army dedicated to the solution of the repatriation question by armed force and, indeed, to the overthrow of the government of a member of the United Nations."

He recalled that the United States objected last year to the provision of UNRWA aid to members of the PLO and told the Assembly: "My government's position as stated last year is one of principle. We believe the Assembly should not give the impression that it condones or regards with indifference the involvement of any United Nations agency with an organization which avows such purposes."

In the end, nothing happened. The US continued to fund UNRWA and UNRWA continued to provide aid to terrorists. In fact, in response to an incident after the 1967 war where Israel forced some 4000 PLA members to leave Gaza, UNRWA went out of its way to say that they were still refugees under its rule and as such should continue to get aid. I don't know all the details from the episode, but the UNRWA report for 1966-67 says:

[B]etween three and four thousand young men among the registered refugees in Gaza were forced to leave the Gaza Strip because the Israel authorities believed them to be members of the Palestine Liberation Army. They are now housed in a government-run camp in the Tahrir Province. UNRWA regards this group as falling under paragraph 6 of General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES-V) and has at the request of, and in agreement with, the Government of the United Arab Republic, undertaken to give assistance to the group.

UNRWA: part of the problem in the 1960s and still part of the problem today.