| US Ambassador visits Mea Shearim before Passover (video) Posted: 27 Mar 2012 11:00 PM PDT From the US Embassy in Israel: 
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| Park Slope BDS defeated/Buy Israeli Goods Posted: 27 Mar 2012 08:40 PM PDT The Park Slope BDS resolution was voted on and soundly defeated tonight, 61-39%, in yet another BDS Fail. So this is as good a time as any to remind you that the annual Buy Israeli Goods Day is this Friday. Here are a couple of ideas for shopping: For those interested in wine, the Israel Wine Company has a Wine Club where they will ship you six bottles of the finest Israeli wines either quarterly or monthly. Looks very interesting. Kidron Soaps creates hand-crafted, unique soaps such as their Milk and Honey soap. I've tried them, and they are very nice. A wide selection of Israeli products can be found at the Judaica Web Store. I had never heard of Negev Nectars until now, when they handed out flyers at the meeting - and they aren't even stocked by Park Slope. Just for sheer capitalist chutzpah you should check them out for Buy Israeli Goods Day! 
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| A new "crisis of Zionism" every decade Posted: 27 Mar 2012 04:45 PM PDT 1930s (Ben Gurion) 1940s (Hannah Arendt) 1950s (Mordechai Kaplan) 1960s (Life Magazine) 1970s (Moshe Davis) 1980s (Zvi Kasseh et. al.) 1990s (Zvi Sobel et. al.) 2000s (Shlomo Sharan et. al.) 2010s (Peter Beinart) Amazing that Zionism is still alive and kicking, isn't it? 
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| How wonderful life was in Jerusalem when it was divided Posted: 27 Mar 2012 01:25 PM PDT As the "Global March to Jerusalem" gets closer (now the organizers are absurdly claiming 2 million marchers!) we can look back on how wonderful things were in Jerusalem when Jordan controlled half the city - the situation that the entire world seems to believe is the best solution. From Time, April 28, 1952, in an article entitled Strangled City: Jerusalem, holy city of three great religions, is dying from strangulation. The rope around its neck is the barbed wire which separates Jew from Arab, the New City from the Old.
Before the Arab-Israel war of 1948-49, Jerusalem was a thriving community of nearly a quarter of a million people. Today, divided between Israel and Jordan, after three years of "armistice" without real peace, it is a 1,650-sq. mi. economic wilderness. Blocked gates, streets dead-ended by dragons teeth and rusting barbed wire, roadblocks and ruins divide the two cities, which for economic well-being must be one. On the Arab side, 100,000 people live without money to buy plentiful goods. On the Jewish side, somewhere between 110,000 and 140,000 people live with money but no goods to buy. The people watch each other uneasily. The wife of Jacob Meyerbaum and the wife of Ahmed Abu Mohammed hang the morning's washing out on lines which are separated by only a few yards. Then they return to equally empty kitchens.
Business on both sides of this divided city is almost dead. The proprietor of Bulos' souvenir shop just inside Jaffa Gate in the Arab section surveyed his empty store and the empty street leading to the gate where Arab Legionnaires, checked kaffiyehs on their heads, blocked the way. "Before the war," he said, "at this time of the morning the street would be jammed with tourists from the King David Hotel. By Sunday night the counters would be empty and the cash register full of those beautiful old Palestinian pounds. Today I've got a store full of goods, one clerk who has nothing to do but talk politics with his cousin—and the cash register hasn't got a dozen Jordanian dinars in it."
Some Arabs talk hopefully of internationalizing the Holy City as called for by the U.N.'s Nov. 29, 1947 resolution. But most doubt it will come about. "The resolution will never be enforced," said a Christian Arab, "because the big powers don't care about it. But even if the U.N. fulfilled its word, the two governments which now divide Jerusalem would fight it. The Israelis surround us on three sides and the Jordanians block us off on the fourth. We are in a prison."
There is a great deal of grumbling about the way U.S. Point Four aid is being handled. For instance, a $1,200,000 emergency shipment of U.S. wheat was stopped short at Amman, and never found its way across the Jordan River for distribution to the needy in Jerusalem. The reason: Jordan, quite suddenly, discovered that she had a bumper wheat crop coming up, and that this foreign wheat, which had been sought to avert serious famine, would drive prices down. In the meantime, Jerusalem has almost no wheat, and bread is short.
The atmosphere in the bars and coffee houses reminds me of the early 1930s in the U.S. when jobless men sat around all day with nothing to do except feel sorry for themselves. The men of Jerusalem don't know where to go, which way to turn. There are no leaders, no men with messages. Even the evil former Grand Mufti has lost a substantial part of his following, because he no longer does anything, no longer sends his devoted followers money.
In Jerusalem today you see oldsters and middle-aged men, but few vigorous, ambitious educated men in their 20s. The reason is simple. Those who can are getting out. They are working all over the Arab world as teachers or junior staffers in oil companies. One sees them in Syria, Iraq, and up & down the length of the Persian Gulf, sad, lonely for the lovely hills of Judea. They are a new race of wanderers from the Holy Land.
I mentioned the declining number of young men in Jerusalem to one of Palestine's greatest jurists the other night. He nodded sadly and said: "Yes. Our people are disintegrating. The young ones, the strong ones are all going away. The ones we must count on in the future will not be here when we need them. But could you tell them not to go? What is there for them here?" 
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| EoZ mentioned in a 419 scam? Posted: 27 Mar 2012 12:20 PM PDT Have I been outed? I just came across this, from the Banking Insurance Securities website: AML/CFT: the funniest 419 scam ever? Scam e-mails are nothing new and usually they are so boring they don't even register. But "Woolcock" paulwk@gmail.com 's "Money Transfer" scam mail is so amusing it justifies being included in the Fraud Hall of Fame. By the way, it was sent to an e-mail address at "countermoneylaundering.com." Twit.
**PLEASE TREAT THIS MESSAGE AS CONFIDENTIAL**
I believe you might have received this similar case before but this is different with proof.
I write this message personally to you for transferring of GBP 2hundredmillion into an account.
SOURCE:
I was a cab-driver since 6 years ago. I had different customers that call for my attention, most expecially businessmen and women.
On November 12, 2011, I carried a man who is known as an Elder of Ziyon to a Hotel in Dubai, in my car was an authorised summed(?250M) and signed cheque without a name written on it, so I had to rush back to the Hotel but unfortunatly, the man is dead.
Check the news here:
[link removed] [too bad! -EoZ]
The other day I went to my bank manager who investigated the cheque and confirmed that the cheque has been already confirmed, that if the cheque is deposited it will be cashed, so he decided to help me by deducting 10% of the money after it is cashed.
I successfully cashed the cheque on a fake name and fake account done by the Manager so I moved my own share to another bank by draft.
Therefore, I am ready to give you 25% to receive this money instalmentally.
BUT IN ANY CASE YOU ARE AFRAID TO GIVE YOUR ACCOUNT, YOU CAN OPEN A NEW ONE WITH 0.00 TO RECEIVE THIS MONEY.
IF YOU CAPABLE OF RECEIVING THIS MONEY PLEASE FILL AND FORWARD THE FOLLOWING DETAILS:
NAME:
COUNTRY:
Best Regards,
P Woolcock
**PLEASE TREAT THIS MESSAGE AS CONFIDENTIAL** Apparently, the news article linked to refers to the death of Ahmed Rezaie, son of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief, found in a Dubai hotel in November. So, I've been outed as an Iranian who died in Dubai. Bet you didn't see that coming. 
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| Arabs freak over Israelis at belly-dancing festival (video) Posted: 27 Mar 2012 10:50 AM PDT
 From Al Arabiya: The third annual International Belly Dance Festival in Marrakech, has stirred controversy in Morocco after it was announced that Israel will partake in the event.
The Mediterranean Delight Festival has been met by a surge of objections whether by Marrakech youths who refuse to have Israeli participants in their city or by rights organizations that oppose normalization of ties with the Jewish state.
Statements lashing out at the festival started with the appearance of two Israeli names on the list of participants: Belly dancer and belly dancing trainer Simona Guzman and stylist and owner of an Israeli belly dancing school Asi Haskal.
Both are among a group of belly dance experts who will be assigned the mission of training participating dancers as well as organizing workshops about the mechanisms of belly dancing and belly dancing performances as part of the festival's activities.
Several pages were created on social networking website Facebook condemning Israelis on Moroccan soil and considering the festival a form of normalization that is done by the organizers against the will of the people.
What made things worse, critics argued, is that the official website was translated into eight languages including Hebrew but excluding Arabic.
Some also objected to the festival altogether on the grounds that it violates the values of a conservative society like Morocco and encourages the "propagation of vice," as they put it.
The pictures of belly dancers on the website, they added, offers insight into the "indecency" the event is bound to promote.
Political and religious calls for cancelling the festival, due to take place May 10-14, have been gaining ground amid speculations over the reaction of the festival administration which has not yet made any official comment.
The second edition of Mediterranean Delight, also held in Marrakech after Turkey's refusal to host the festival, also saw many objections by residents of the city who staged protests in front of the hotel where the festival was held. A group called Moroccan Youths of the Third Palestinian Uprising was among the protestors. One of the Israelis, Simona Guzman, is the producer of the festival. Somehow I don't think she's going to cave to pressure so easily. Here she is performing: Asi Haskal has his own website. Here is one of his performances (so I don't get accused of only pandering to my male audience): Another Israeli who will be there is Anabel: 
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| Hamas celebrates 10th anniversary of Netanya Passover massacre Posted: 27 Mar 2012 09:30 AM PDT Hamas' Palestine Times website has a glowing tribute to the Hamas terrorist who detonated the suitcase bomb at the Park Hotel in Netanya ten years ago. Wikipedia describes the attack: During the Jewish holiday of Passover in 2002, Park Hotel in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya held its traditional annual Passover seder (festive religious meal) for its 250 guests, in the hotel dining room located at the ground floor of the hotel. During this holiday the hotel consisted many elderly Jews who didn't have family and relatives in Israel.
In the evening of 27 March 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber disguised as a woman approached the hotel carrying a suitcase which contained powerful explosives. The suicide bomber managed to pass the security guard at the entrance to a hotel, then he walked through the lobby passing the reception desk and entered the hotel's crowded dining room. At 19:30 pm (GMT+2) the suicide bomber detonated the explosive device he was carrying. The force of the explosion instantly killed 28 civilians and injured about 140 people, of whom 20 were injured severely. Two of the injured later died from their wounds. Some of the victims were Holocaust survivors. Most of the victims were senior citizens (70 and over). The oldest victim was 90 and the youngest was 20 years old. A number of married couples were killed, as well as a father together with his daughter. One of the victims was a Jewish tourist from Sweden who was visiting Israel for Passover. Hamas for some reason doesn't note that 20 of the 30 victims were over 70 years old. Shula Abramovitch, 63, of Holon David Anichovitch, 70, of Netanya
Alter Britvich, 88, of Netanya Frieda Britvich, 86, of Netanya
Andre Fried, 47, of Netanya Idit Fried, 47, of Netanya
Dvora Karim, 73, of Netanya Michael Karim, 78, of Netanya
Eliezer Korman, 74, of Ramat Hasharon Yehudit Korman, 70, of Ramat Hasharon
St.-Sgt. Sivan Vider, 20, of Bekaot Ze'ev Vider, 50, of Moshav Bekaot
Ernest Weiss, 80, of Petah Tikva Eva Weiss, 75, of Petah Tikva
Anna Yakobovitch, 78, of Holon George Yakobovitch, 76, of Holon
Sgt.-Maj. Avraham Beckerman, 25, of Ashdod Shimon Ben-Aroya, 42, of Netanya Miriam Gutenzgan, 82, Ramat Gan Amiram Hamami, 44, of Netanya Perla Hermele, 79, of Stockholm, Sweden Marianne Myriam Lehmann Zaoui, 77, of Netanya Lola Levkovitch, 70, of Jerusalem Sarah Levy-Hoffman, 89, of Tel-Aviv Furuk Na'imi, 62, of Netanya Eliahu Nakash, 85, of Tel-Aviv Chanah Rogan, 90, of Netanya Irit Rashel, 45, of Moshav Herev La'et Clara Rosenberger, 77, of Jerusalem Yulia Talmi, 87, of Tel-Aviv Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall seeing any Arabs protesting against this attack, or writing anguished op-eds about how a fellow Muslim could have done such a thing. No Arab groups popped up on college campuses calling for solidarity with Jews against terror. There were no UN resolutions condemning the massacre. But there was a PA-sponsored soccer tournament in Tulkarem named after the suicide bomber. 
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| Hamas' jihad against Gaza taxi drivers Posted: 27 Mar 2012 08:15 AM PDT When you already control the press, the schools, the mosques, the trade unions, and every public gathering, what is here left to do to stop any vestige of freedom of expression? Why, the taxi drivers! Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have detained some 120 taxi drivers for allegedly spreading "rumors" about the Strip's worst power crisis in years.
Gaza's attorney general confirmed that the drivers have been taken into custody.
Residents in Gaza told the Associated Press that there is "growing talk" suggesting that the Islamic militant Hamas is keeping separate supplies of fuel for its loyalists.
The detentions began over the weekend and signaled that Gaza's Hamas rulers are increasingly concerned about the political backlash over the crippling shortages of fuel and electricity. Hamas' Palestine Times site has two separate articles about the dangers of loose-lipped taxi drivers. In one, police spokesman Maj. Ayman Batniji confirmed that the police arrested dozens of taxi driver "rumor mongers," saying "We launched a campaign through the media to warn drivers against circulating rumors about the crisis of electricity and fuel....These drivers triggered rumors among the passengers in an attempt to destabilize the home front in the Gaza Strip." He insinuated that many of the drivers were Fatah members, and he said that the police released those drivers after receiving personal pledges not to return to promoting "rumors," they also suspended their licenses for six months. In the other article, a Hamas reporter enters a taxi and engages in conversation with the driver, and discovers that the driver engages in conversation about any topic! As the reporter said, he felt that he had a human version of Google and Wikipedia, but some of what the driver said was not true (according to Hamas, of course.) 
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| Iran and Hamas agreeing to cooperate in case of war Posted: 27 Mar 2012 07:00 AM PDT Al Mustaqbal of Lebanon reports that the recent visit by Hamas' Mahmoud al Zahar to Iran was meant to strengthen ties between Hamas and Iran and to talk about specific tasks for Hamas in case Israel attacks Iran's nuclear program. According to sources familiar with the details of the visits, there were meetings between the highest level Iranian political and security officials with leaders of Hamas. Zahar's visit to Tehran involved the following objectives:
1. Determine the role of Hamas in Gaza if Israel attacked Iran.
2. The introduction of missiles into the Gaza Strip to strengthen the Hamas arsenal that would be ready for any confrontation that could erupt between Israel and Iran. It is assumed that Gaza is one of the arenas of battle.
3. Increased financial support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran gave Ismail Haniyeh $33 million that was distributed immediately after his return to the sector to the staff of Hamas.
4. To thwart reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah in order to keep the Gaza Strip a reliable tool of Iranian influence. The article goes on to say that Iran is encouraging al-Zahar's influence against Khaled Meshal within Hamas. 
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| EoZ gets results! Turkish agency pulls Hitler shampoo ad (updated) Posted: 27 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PDT The sickening Turkish commercial for shampoo that included actual footage of Adolf Hitler has been pulled, after days of complaints worldwide triggered by my post about it last week. Millyet reports that the cosmetics company Biomen announced "taking into consideration the sensitivity of the Jewish community, as of today, we stopped broadcasting the ad." My YouTube video of the commercial has over 128,000 views, and the issue was reported in all major media including Reuters, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the Daily Mail and hundreds of other newspapers and media outlets. (h/t Simonebilman) UPDATE: Indeed, the advertising agency M.A.R.K.A. has removed the video from their site as well. 
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| Al Jazeera has Merah murder video (updated) Posted: 27 Mar 2012 04:10 AM PDT From AFP: The Al-Jazeera news network said Tuesday it was considering broadcasting videos shot by an Islamist extremist killer during a shooting spree in southern France that shocked the country.
French police said Monday they had copies of the videos, shot by Mohamed Merah during a series of killings that left seven dead, that had been sent on a USB memory stick to Al-Jazeera's office in Paris.
Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, had previously boasted of filming his killings and witnesses had told police that he appeared to be wearing a video camera in a chest harness.
"We are not a sensationalist network. We are not looking to broadcast images without measuring the risks and consequences," Al-Jazeera's Paris bureau chief, Zied Tarrouche, told French news network BFM-TV.
"This is why management will decide today during a meeting in Qatar whether to broadcast this video or not," he said. "We should know in a few hours."
Tarrouche said the videos showed the attacks in chronological order and had been edited into a montage.
"There was a mixture of religious music and chants, lectures, and recitals of verses from the Koran," he said, adding that a letter was included with the USB key that claimed the attacks in the name of al-Qaida. BBC adds: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged TV stations not to air video of the attacks by gunman Mohamed Merah as al-Jazeera discusses showing footage. AP adds: [Al Jazeera's] Tarrouche said the images appeared to have been taken from the point of view of the killer, perhaps from a camera hung around his neck. He said they were a bit shaky but of a high technical quality.
The video had clearly been manipulated after the fact, according to Tarrouche, with religious songs and recitations of Quranic verses laid over the footage.
"You can hear gunshots at the moment of the killings. You can hear the voice of this person who has committed these assassinations. You can hear also the cries of the victims, and the voices were distorted," Tarrouche said. DPA adds: The postage date on the parcel was March 21, according to France Info - the day on which the police siege of Merah's Toulouse apartment began. He was killed a day later in a shootout with police. So French police need to figure out whether Merah or an accomplice mailed this video (as well as who edited it.) AFP continues with Merah's father's threat to sue France: French officials reacted with fury on Tuesday to threats from his father, Mohamed Benalel Merah, to sue France over his son's death.
"If I were the father of such a monster, I would shut my mouth in shame," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told Radio Classique.
A senior adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, also lashed out at the lawsuit threat.
"It is his right, but only one word comes to mind: indecent," he told France Culture radio. "This guy was a monster who killed in cold blood."
Mohamed Benalel Merah told AFP on Monday he planned to sue French authorities for having shot his son instead of taking him alive.
"France is a big country that had the means to take my son alive. They could have knocked him out with gas and taken him in," he said. "They preferred to kill him.
"I will hire the biggest named lawyers and work for the rest of my life to pay their costs. I will sue France for having killing my son." UPDATE: Al Jazeera decided not to release the video. 
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| Anti-Israel idiots disrupt Brandeis event (video) Posted: 27 Mar 2012 02:44 AM PDT From " Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine:"  On Monday, March 26th 2012, members of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP), together with Waltham and Boston area Palestine solidarity activists, disrupted a Town Hall Meeting with 5 members of the Israeli Knesset (MKs) at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts. The event, whose sponsors included Brandeis University, the Ruderman Foundation, and a number of Boston-area Zionist organizations, was aimed at strengthening relations between Israeli political leaders and the American Jewish community. The activists mic-checked the panel, protesting the undemocratic nature of the Israeli apartheid state and notified the offending officials that until their government ceased its discriminatory policies they were not welcome by students at Brandeis University community events. The activists were pushed outside the hall by police officers and private security guards. One Brandeis student was arrested and another was injured while being thrown to the floor by a police officer.
The panel included Knesset members Ofir Akunis (Likud), Lia Shemtov (Yisrael Beitenu) and Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beitenu).....
The activists wore blue T-shirts with the word "apartheid" written in Hebrew across the chest. They stood up before MK Ofir Akunis began speaking at the event and shouted:
Israel is an apartheid state and the Knesset is an apartheid parliament!
We will not welcome Israeli officials to any Brandeis University event until apartheid ends!
Notice that the BSJP press release (which seems to have been the source of the JPost coverage of the event) only mentions the names of 3 of the 5 MKs who visited. The reason? Because one of the others was Ilan Gilon, from the far left Meretz party. And the other was Raleb Majadele, of Labor - who is an Arab! Yes, the hypocritical protesters were yelling "Knesset is an apartheid parliament" in front of an Arab member of Knesset! (UPDATE: After I posted this, BSJP added the other two names.)
If you want to protest the Jewish state, just check your brain at the door. It is to Brandeis' credit that they sponsored this event, and my understanding is that BJSP is a tiny fringe group that no one at Brandeis pays any attention to. Which is probably why they feel they must resort to hysterics like this. In the end, they just want to feel like they aren't irrelevant crybabies. Here's a shaky video that BJSP proudly put up, showing the brilliant ability of a few college students to disrupt a roomful of mostly older Jews at a synagogue. It is the audio equivalent of graffiti. I'm sure their parents are so proud. (h/t Benjamin) 
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From Al Arabiya:
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה