Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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• Jordanian newspapers fall for spoof news report
• An important anti-Israel Arab meme
• Proctor and Gamble loves Israel
• French news site publishes Arab street theater as IDF abuse
• More intra-Arab fighting gets downplayed
• "Israel among countries with most negative global influence"
• Oh, by the way, Iran's leader said he wants to destroy Israel
• Abbas targets corruption - but only of his enemies

Jordanian newspapers fall for spoof news report Posted: 17 May 2012 06:49 PM PDT From the spoof site the Pan Arabia Enquirer: AMMAN: British Glamour model and renowned children's author Katie Price yesterday issued a warning to government officials in Amman over the name 'Jordan', claiming that her celebrity profile was now enough to secure its full global trademark. [She was formerly professionally known as sinply "Jordan." - EoZ] "I can't believe that them Jordanese folk have been using my name for so long," the disgusted model told reporters yesterday at the launch of her own range of charcoal, or weapons-grade plutonium or something, before going on to describe the time when she first found out. "I hadn't not never heard of it before, then one of my nan's friends said she going Jordan on holiday and knew she wasn't not talking about me." Katie Price's solicitors, Bed, Knobs & Broomsticks, are claiming that, with 185 autobiographies and 65 reality TV shows already under her belt, the model has a far greater international connection to the name 'Jordan' than the country of Jordan, which has so far only been the setting for Laurence of Arabia and a few rubbisher films. "We strongly feel that Jordan is using the fame and enormous goodwill of Jordan's name to attract people to its country," they said in a statement, adding that they were calling for "damages of $1 billion or an immediate cessation of the name 'Jordan' by King Abdullah and his fellow countrymen" The first few comments on the story, seemingly from Arab readers, assumed that it was true. And now at least two Jordanian newspapers are running this story as if it is true. The first was Assawsana on Wednesday, followed by Ammon News early Friday, both headlining that Price is suing Jordan for one billion dollars over the use of "her" name.

An important anti-Israel Arab meme Posted: 17 May 2012 02:05 PM PDT A Jordanian newspaper, Assabeel, has published an op-ed that rehashes a theme that I have seen before in the Arab world but that rarely gets mentioned in English. The article, by Salah al-Khalidi, states that while Israel may be 64 years old now, that is still very young in terms of history. Israel, to Khalidi and most Arabs, is a minor aberration of history that will ultimately disappear and be forgotten. A Jewish state in Palestine is a bizarre cacophony, ...it is like a festering strange virus that appears in the human body, and acts as a parasite from the body's organs...The State of the Jews on the land of Palestine is a rotten infestation in the body of humanity and does not have any justification for its survival; despite the lapse of these years it has existed - and it will go through more years yet - but those years are short, and humanity will get rid of it, God willing, at the hands of the Mujahideen God willing. Ages of nations is analogous to ages of individuals, and if the age of individuals is measured in years, or tens of years at most, the age of nations is measured by centuries. History tells us that the pre-Islamic nation Israel did not last for centuries on the land of Palestine, that is, they did not live the lifetime of even one individual, and the state of Israel ended after the death of Prophet Solomon peace be upon him. History tells us that any nation invading and occupying another nation will not last for long...The Crusaders went to the Holy Land for permanent residence therein; but they didn't last even two centuries, before they were expelled by the Muslim Ummah to wake up the spirit of jihad for the sake of God, mere years in human terms. We must learn from history. We live with a Jewish-based challenge, to truly witness history, and we must look ahead, and not remain prisoners of the Arab reality, and in fact the Jewish might is transcendent and empty!! The signs and signals that indicate the short life of the Jews in Palestine are many, and is growing, but Muslim seers must deftly pay attention to it, and draws the attention of the nation to it!! History will record that the State of the Jews on the land of Palestine, died in her childhood crawling, before standing on the her feet, God willing. This way of thinking - in terms of centuries and millennia, not years and decades - is part and parcel of the Arab world. This is why they can talk about non-permanent truces with Israel - as long as the direction is that Israel is losing its land, then the Arabs can afford to be patient. They know that Westerners think in terms of election cycles and not eras. Sacrificing a few generations of Palestinian Arabs to being stateless is a small price to pay in the long run for the ultimate good of reclaiming "Palestine." And this is why they are not afraid of Zionism. They regard Zionism as a temporary political phenomenon like Communism, and political fashions don't last too long. But they are deathly afraid of Judaism. Judaism is far older than Islam, and committed Jews have the ability to think in terms of centuries - and look at the Arab conquest of Palestine as a temporary phenomenon that only lasted a few centuries itself, before the Ottomans and then the British. Jews can look at Islamic history as an anomaly, and their continued existence as a nation is what scares Arab Muslims silly. When Zionists base their territorial claims on international law, the Arabs are happy; as that is another fad that can change over time. But when Jews assert their claim based on their history and faith, Arabs go crazy - because they have no answer to that, and no realistic hope that Judaism will fade away the way they think Zionism will. But they remain hopeful that the Jews will disappear as well. The name of the essay, after all, is "The brief age of the Jews."

Proctor and Gamble loves Israel Posted: 17 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT It is not only high-tech companies like Google and Intel who invest heavily in Israel. Proctor and Gamble, the consumer products and pharmaceutical powerhouse, also looks to Israel for innovation. From Forbes: I visited P&G office in Tel Aviv. Lital Asher-Dotan, who established Procter & Gamble first R&D hub in Israel called "P&G Israel House of Innovation", explained why P&G calls Israel a "startup nation."  Image of P&G office in Tel Aviv by Shannon Reaudeau In the entry lobby of P&G office, which is 20 minutes away from Google's office in Tel Aviv, there are a few samples of different products sold by P&G in Israel. Among the usual health and beauty brands (Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Oral B, Gillette, Tampax, Pampers …) and brands of household cleaners (Ariel, Lenor, Swiffer, Tide …) there were also different prizes and trophies P&G Israel has received for the development of innovative products. However, what surprised me the most was that besides all these products and prizes there was a copy of the acclaimed book Startup nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. Procter & Gamble takes Research and Development  seriously: it invests $2.8 Billion annually and has 9,300 employees in R&D worldwide. The Israel House of Innovation (IHI) was created five years ago by CEO Bob McDonaldand one of the key goals is to create alliances between P&G and Israeli innovators. Procter & Gamble's Israel House of Innovation collaborates with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which carries out more than 1/3 of all academic scientific research in Israel;Powermat, which has only 70 employees and is developing wireless battery rechargers. By the way, Jay-Z participates in the JV with Powermat and P&G  not only as a spokesperson but also as an investment partner.  P&G  has also signed on bilateral agreement with Israeli Chief Scientist providing Israeli start ups that collaborate with P&G favorable access to governmental funding. Present in over 180 countries and with total revenues of about $80 Billion, P&G is the world's largest Multinational consumer goods company. Procter & Gamble has promised to deliver 3-6 % of growth per year or about extra $5billion in annual revenue. Open innovation is the key to this growth: the giant established in 1837 aims to have 50% of all innovation (not only on new products but also on internal systems) having elements from outside of the company. Jeff Weedman, P&G Vice President, External BD:             Our JV with TEVA represents the lessons learned that we need better access to Innovation and global abilities while we can provide the in-depth consumer knowhow." Read the whole thing.

French news site publishes Arab street theater as IDF abuse Posted: 17 May 2012 10:30 AM PDT Here is a screenshot from L'Express from last month: It is captioned "Palestinian prisoner" and appears to show an AFP photo of IDF soldiers abusing a Palestinian Arab. However, it was no such thing. As the French IDF blog notes, the "soldiers" were not wearing standard IDF uniforms or helmets. In fact, this photo was taken at a demonstration on Land Day in Lebanon! The actual caption from AFP read: Palestinian refugees pose as Israeli soldiers arresting and beating a Palestinian activist during celebrations of Prisoners' Day at the refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh near the coastal Lebanese city of Sidon on April 17, 2012. L'Express silently removed the photo with the offending caption from its website without an apology. Par for the course. More here. (h/t Rudi)

More intra-Arab fighting gets downplayed Posted: 17 May 2012 08:55 AM PDT From Al Arabiya: One person was killed and five were wounded on Thursday in fresh clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime districts in the north Lebanon port city of Tripoli, a security official said. "Sporadic clashes involving the use of rockets and machineguns began at around 4:00 am (0100 GMT) between the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tebanneh and Jabal Mohsen," said the official, who requested anonymity. Battles first erupted on Saturday between residents of the rival neighborhoods after security forces arrested Shadi al-Mawlawi, an Islamist, on alleged charges of belonging to a terrorist organization. Mawlawi's supporters say he was targeted because of his help for Syrian refugees fleeing to Lebanon. Some 500 of them blocked a main road leading into Tripoli on Monday and said they would leave only after Mawlawi was released. A total of ten people, including a soldier hit by sniper fire, died in the port city and dozens were wounded in the fighting. When you think about the Middle Eastern countries where the most Arabs are being killed, Israel is pretty far down the list. Just ask people from Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Algeria and Bahrain, as well as Lebanon, all of where Arabs have been killed over the past month by government forces. But according to PCHR, not a single Palestinian Arab was killed by the IDF in the same time period.

"Israel among countries with most negative global influence" Posted: 17 May 2012 07:30 AM PDT The BBC published a new Globescan poll and, as usual, most news media are misunderstanding it. Ha'aretz gets it almost right but is still not quite there: Israel has been ranked in the top four countries that most negatively influence the word, according to a global public opinion poll conducted by the BBC. The poll, which surveyed citizens from 22 countries around the world, places Iran in first place, with 55 percent of those surveyed rating it as a negative country. Pakistan ranked second with 51 percent, and in joint third place were Israel and North Korea, with 50 percent of respondents negatively evaluating both countries. The broad international survey was an initiative of the BBC World Service, and carried out by GlobeScan, in collaboration with the the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland – Program on International Policy Attitudes. Over 24,000 people from 22 countries took part in the poll, which was conducted from December 2011 to February 2012. The survey's findings on global attitudes toward Israel are worrying indeed. Last year's survey already that attitudes toward Israel were negative, but the situation has become more serious this year: Some 47 percent of participants in the 2011 survey had negative views of Israel's influence on the world, but this year the number has gone up to 50 percent. The problem with the articles about this is that they don't notice the countries that are not in the survey. Only 16 countries, plus the EU, were subjects of the survey. No Arab countries were asked about. Neither was Turkey. Only two Muslim countries were in the questionnaire - and both of them were at the bottom (Iran and Pakistan.) Also, the poll found: Fifty per cent of Americans have a favourable view of Israel in 2012, and this proportion has increased by seven points. At the same time, the proportion of negative ratings has gone down six points to 35 per cent and, as a result, the US has gone from being divided in 2011 to leaning positive in 2012. These are the most positive views on Israel's influence expressed in the US since tracking began in 2005. Apart from the US, the most favourable views of Israel are found in Nigeria and Kenya, where views have also shifted since 2011. A majority of 54 per cent of Nigerians (up 23 points) rates Israel positively, and the country has moved from being divided to leaning positive in 2012 (54% positive vs 29% negative). In Kenya, negative ratings have fallen ten points (to 31%), while positive views have risen by 16 points (to 45%), shifting the country from leaning negative in 2011 to leaning positive in 2012. At least YNet didn't repeat last year's mistake when reporting on this poll. This is not to say that the poll isn't worrying. It generally reflects the media bias against Israel in the same countries surveyed, and that disproportionately negative coverage is the engine driving these results. People's  attitudes reflect their exposure to information, and if the information is bad, their opinions would follow suit. Here are the main results for countries' attitudes towards Israel's influence in graphical format.

Oh, by the way, Iran's leader said he wants to destroy Israel Posted: 17 May 2012 05:58 AM PDT And defeat the US, too. From Israel HaYom: Israel has, for years, cautioned against Iran's intentions and the dangers of its nuclear ambitions, but on Wednesday former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar gave the world yet another reason to heed those warnings. Aznar, speaking to a crowd in Jerusalem, recalled a meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he expressed his intention to destroy Israel. "In a private discussion we held in Tehran in October of 2000, Ali Khamenei told me that Israel must be burned to the ground and made to disappear from the face of the Earth," Aznar told the audience. The former Spanish prime minister went on to say that Iran's spiritual leader also said that "Iran's war against the United States and Israel is inevitable." Aznar was in Israel as a guest of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, currently headed by former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Dore Gold. Gold asked him, "When Khamenei was talking about wiping Israel off the map, was he referring to a gradual historical process involving the collapse of the Zionist state, or rather its physical-military termination?" Aznar answered, "He meant physical termination through military force." The former Spanish leader also told the crowd that Khamenei described Israel as "an historical cancer, an anomaly," and said that he was "working toward Iran defeating the United States and Israel in an inevitable war against them." This is only surprising to Juan Cole's acolytes, who won't believe it anyway.

Abbas targets corruption - but only of his enemies Posted: 17 May 2012 03:11 AM PDT Ma'an reports: A former adviser to late President Yasser Arafat is accused of embezzling tens of millions of dollars, the head of the PA anti-corruption commission said Wednesday. Rafiq Natsheh told Ma'an his commission sought an international arrest warrant for Muhammad Rashid after he failed to respond to earlier summons by the foreign and justice ministers. Rashid, who was an economic adviser to Arafat, is accused of embezzling money from the Palestinian Investment Fund by setting up front companies. Corruption in the Palestine Investment Fund? That rings a bell: [T]he Palestine Investment Fund [is] a sovereign wealth fund that Abbas controls through a board he handpicked and whose by-laws he rewrote. Since 2006, the PIF has awarded contracts exclusively to Abbas's cronies, including his sons, Yasser and Tareq. The PIF-backed Wataniya cellular phone company, which drew on international-donor funding, inked a lucrative advertising contract with Tareq, while his brother Yasser sat on its board. The Abbas family is now said to be worth millions, with lavish property holdings and investments throughout the Middle East. Moreover, the Abbas machine quietly enriches Hamas as it enriches itself. According to a former Palestinian Authority adviser, Yasser Abbas staffed the Karni Crossing cargo terminal in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip with the stated purpose of ensuring that goods and aid reached Gaza without reaching Hamas. But the customs and border unit at the crossing is not on the Palestinian Authority payroll, and it abuses its monopoly on Gaza's only cargo terminal to pocket fees and kick them back to Hamas. The pieces all fit together when you read Challah Hu Akbar's great reporting of the issue: In February I reported that the Palestinian Authority was targeting Mohammad Rashid, a former advisor to Yasir Arafat. At the time Rashid was being targeted for his alleged ties to InLightPress, a website critical of the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas, which the Palestinian Authority blocked access to along with a number of other websites. However, the targeting of Rachid has been ongoing for a number of years. Mohammed Rashid is an Iraqi Kurd, who was Yasir Arafat's senior economic adviser. He was formerly the head of the Palestine Investment Fund, however, he resigned in October 2004.  In March 2008, Ahmad Al-Mughani, the Attorney General of the Palestinian Authority, began an investigation into Rashid's finances. It isn't that the PA is rooting out corruption. They are only going after people who are already on their enemy list and using corruption as an excuse. (Not that Rashid isn't corrupt - he probably is. But so is Abbas.)

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