יום שבת, 12 במאי 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

Friday Links (Ian, plus)

Posted: 11 May 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Amnesty International and Muslim Discrimination in Europe
Amnesty International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks. Nowhere does it call on Muslims to accept responsibility – not only for problems brought about by the refusal of many of them to accept the values of the majority, but also for their efforts to displace these values with their own.
A BCF Update on the Canadian Mosque that teaches hate

The real Palestinian refugee problem - Clifford D. May

Al-Qaeda Ladies' Choir Struts Its Stuff in Rebel Syria

Syrian protesters: "Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin"

Jihad comes to Egypt – Raymond Ibrahim.

Also, see Challah Hu Akbar on reports that Hamas has a force to stop rocket fire, and Hamas' denial.


Palestinian Arabs are buying mobile homes and setting them up as illegal outposts in Judea and Samaria in Area C, banking on Israel not doing anything about it.

Toameh goes into detail on the hypocrisy of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate outlawinmembers who talk to Israeli journalists.

The Nation has an absurd article implying that Israel targets Palestinian Arab soccer players, teams and stadiums. I don't have time to properly fisk it all, but one of the "soccer players" that the author says Israel targeted was this guy, a member of the Al Qassam Brigades. But he might have also played, so that makes him a soccer martyr. (h/t @YehudaSchlussel)

Latest Latma

Posted: 11 May 2012 10:30 AM PDT

I like this one.

Junk science claims birth defects in Gaza from white phosphorus

Posted: 11 May 2012 08:25 AM PDT

There is a new study out that claims a high correlation between birth defects in Gaza and exposure to white phosphorus:
According to a new scientific study there is "a strong correlation of birth defects newborns and parent's exposure to attacks with white phosphorus": at the registation at birth 27% of parents with birth defect children declared exposure to white phosphorus while only 1.7% of parents with normal children made the same declaration.

The report entitled "Birth Defects in Gaza: Prevalence, Types, Familiarity and Correlation with Environmental Factors", published today by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, was carried out by a team of Palestinian and Italian researchers at the Al Shifa hospital, where 28% of total births in Gaza Strip occur.
And if you read the study itself, it is filled with all kinds of statistics and verbiage that makes it sounds really, really scientific.

But there is a huge flaw in the methodology that invalidates the entire study: it relies almost completely on a survey of the parents to determine whether they were exposed, or think they were exposed, to WP.

Since the parents were surely aware if their kids were born with defects, they naturally would want to blame external factors for their situation.

While the authors - most of whom are Palestinian Arab - said that they verified exposure to WP by using UN maps of the area, they only verified it for the parents who reported exposure, not for all the parents. And nowhere do they describe their methodology of determining how "close" the parents were to the alleged WP locations - within ten meters or within the same square kilometer? It is basic science that if you don't determine these parameters before you do the research, then you are painting the bulls-eye after shooting the arrow. In other words, it is possible that they fudged the statistics (consciously or not) to make it appear that the parents of BD children had more exposure to WP sites than parents of healthy babies.

Which was, coincidentally, the exact finding they were looking for when they embarked on this entire project.

There are also some likely statistical issues. Out of a study of 2,933 total births, 44 were found to have birth defects; out of those, only 12 were reported to have been exposed to WP. The entire study is based on these 12. Combined with the bias in the questionnaire, this makes the study pretty meaningless.

(While the authors admit that 40% of the parents who had children with BD were first cousins, they said that this was the rate among all parents in Gaza.)

Also, the births in the study were for children conceived over a year after the Gaza war, not for patients who were pregnant during the war. So not only are they trying to say that WP causes birth defects, but that it continues to do so after weeks or months of exposure of the sites to the weather.

According to Medline, white phosphorus is not known to cause birth defects - and evidence that it causes birth defects over a year after parents' exposure is even more suspect.

It seems clear that this study was created and performed to come to a pre-determined conclusion. It is not science; it is anti-Israel advocacy pretending to be science.

For other anti-Israel junk science stories see here, here, here, and here.

2012 terror attacks you never heard about

Posted: 11 May 2012 06:45 AM PDT

From the IDF Blog:

Very little of what actually goes on in Israel is reported by mainstream media. A lot of incidents are never published–though they're very significant. Here's a brief recap of the incidents which were just short of the next big terror attack, but which you probably never heard of:
  • January 2: IDF force captured 2 Palestinian men carrying illegal guns. The two were taken in for investigation near Nablus while the M-16 rifle, an Uzi, and matching ammunition they carried were confiscated by security forces.
  • February 21: A powerful explosive device was uncovered along the Israel-Egypt border. Israeli forces saw a man hurling a suspicious bag and immediately fleeing the scene. The explosive was detonated in a controlled manner. No one was hurt.
I would add that there are countless incidents of Molotov cocktails and large rocks being hurled at cars and buses, which could have fatal results. Those are barely reported by even the right-wing Israeli press because there are so many of them. (Here's a firebomb attack from just today.)

(h/t Mike)

Palestinian Arabs prefer to buy Blue and White!

Posted: 11 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Al Watan Voice reports (excerpted and slightly paraphrased):
Imad is a manufacturer of soap and detergents in Bethlehem. His products used to be labeled in Hebrew but in a fit of patriotism he replaced all the labels with Arabic-only labels.

And his sales plummeted.

Imad says: "I get frustrated when a customer comes to me, asking: 'Where's the Israeli soap?' All this time they are thinking the producers and manufacturers of these products they consume in their homes are Israelil this is really frustrating."

Imad says his products are much less expensive than their Israeli counterparts.

"I am surprised of the Palestinian consumer, who deals with the products only by their source, and is ready to buy expensive Israeli products but does not even consider our own national product that is sold at reasonable prices."

Some Palestinians prefer Israeli products, thinking they are the best. People say there are clear distinctions between the Israeli and Palestinian products in terms of quality. Many say that they buy Israeli because Israeli factories are subject to strict quality control by the government, so they trust them more than the Palestinian products.

Economic analyst Khalil Assali says that despite the growing awareness among the Palestinian public of the importance of relying on domestic products during the past few years, some prefer Israeli products mostly because consumers have gotten used to the idea that the Palestinian goods are not as high quality. They also are skeptical of the lower-priced Arab goods, thinking they must be inferior.

The economic ministry has over the past years launched several campaigns to boycott Israeli products and to choose local goods instead.

The estimated proportion of Israeli goods in the Palestinian market, according to the latest survey of the Ministry of the Economy, is about eighty per cent compared to eight to ten percent for local products in Palestinian markets.
Once again we see the huge disconnect between how the Israel-haters claim that Palestinian Arabs support boycotting Israeli goods - and how actual, real Palestinian Arabs act in the exact opposite way.

And it is not because they are forced to, as some anti-Zionist idiots like to pretend. They want to buy Israeli, and it is the BDSers and their Israel-hating supporters who are acting against their wishes - and interests.

Hamas breaks up a literature festival

Posted: 11 May 2012 02:50 AM PDT

From PCHR:
[A]t approximately 17:00 on Wednesday, 09 May 2012, the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature was initiated in the ancient al-Bashal Castle in the east of Gaza City, with a number of Arab poets and writers in attendance. The colloquium was opened with a speech by 'Amru 'Izzat, an Egyptian blogger, who talked about liberty. Following the opening of the colloquium, a security officer wearing civilian clothes arrived at the place and introduced himself as a member of the Palestinian police investigation department. He cut off the electricity and requested the attendees to leave the place. Shortly after this occurred, a number of security officers were deployed to the place when attendees refused to leave. They confiscated cameras that had filmed the colloquium, chaos spread and the colloquium was broken up.
Ma'an adds:
Security forces cut off electricity and forbade the audience from taking photos on their mobiles [the PJS] said. They also "attacked" Hazem Shahin, a member of an Egyptian band, the syndicate said.

It was not immediately possible to contact visiting members of the festival because they were afraid to discuss the incident until their departure. The event will conclude in Cairo.
The Hamas chief of police apologized saying it was an "individual error." But the fear that even the foreign participants have to speak about what happened says volumes about how the Gaza leadership is pretty much the same as any other Arab dictatorship.

In related news, Hamas also forcibly stopped an Al Quds TV crew from filming a story a couple of days ago.
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