יום שני, 23 ביולי 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

EoZ has a Wikipedia entry!

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 06:15 PM PDT

I don't know who wrote it, and now that I'm mentioning it I imagine the content will change for the worse, but still...pretty cool!


And no less than 14 footnotes, too!

(h/t Aaron)

Sunday Links

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT

From Ian:
Hamas debates declaring Gaza a 'liberated territory'
"PA fears the move would play into Israel's hands; Egypt had also been opposed, but may change tack under its Islamist president, Hamas hopes
"Hamas is considering declaring the Gaza Strip "a liberated part of Palestine" and cutting all commercial ties with Israel. According to the London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat Sunday, the idea was discussed in a meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi last Thursday, and will be discussed further in a meeting between Morsi and Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, this Thursday, July 26."
UPDATE: Hamas denies this.

Prime Minister's Office to BBC: We insist you call Jerusalem Israel's capital
British broadcaster has already changed its Olympics website once, now brands Jerusalem as 'seat of government'
"A quarrel between the Prime Minister's Office and the BBC over the broadcaster's disinclination to list Jerusalem as Israel's capital is rumbling on, with the PMO's spokesman sending a second letter demanding the BBC change its Olympics website to explicitly refer to the city as the country's capital."

Still refusing moment of silence, Olympic head says memorial will be held in Germany
Jacques Rogge says he will lead an IOC delegation to Munich's Furstenfeldbruck airbase in September

Israel denies its agents are hunting Olympic terrorists
"Israel reportedly "hunting Iranian-backed terrorists in Europe" to avoid repeat of Munich Defense Minister Ehud Barak: We are working to minimize chance of attack Security chief Amos Gilad dismisses story, says there are always general warnings."

Store sorry for selling toy Katyushas
Rocket launchers made by Dutch company available in pink, yellow or beige at London's Liberty department store
Still on Sale?

UNWatch: The Guardian's Ian Williams Lobbied for Bashar al-Assad's Syria to Join UN Security Council
"Using the same methods as the Assads themselves, Williams reframed the discussion away from Syria's despicable record by pointing at the Israeli bogeyman. It worked: Syria was elected by a huge majority of 160 out of 177 votes."

Honest Reporting: Romney Trapped by the Israel Lobby Spider?
Commenting on US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's upcoming visit to Israel, The Independent's Rupert Cornwell employs some disturbing imagery to describe the so-called "Israel Lobby."

Fighting anti-Semitism at the U of California
"For a university to solve its anti-Semitism problem, it needs to acknowledge that it has a problem."
From Zvi:

The author has a number of facts wrong, but he has an interesting and different perspective.


"Why we must challenge double standards on Israel"
By Carol Hunt, in the Irish Independent

(A slightly older piece by Ms. Hunt, also worth reading)

Iran's War on Israel
(For WSJ articles, do a search in Google on the title and then it should show up in full.)
Plus:
The Musta'arib Jews Who Have Lived In The Land Of Israel For More Than 3300 Years

Israeli bus comes under fire in Eilat

What's the most popular name in Gaza? Isn't it obvious? (Arabic)

Germany had a tip-off three weeks ahead of Munich massacre, Der Spiegel claims

The battle over the "occupation" narrative, by Dore Gold

Store sorry for selling toy Katyushas

(h/t Yoel, Leo dam Hofshi)

Top EoZ posts of the week

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT

It was a very busy week for the blog.

By far the most popular story was "Switched at Birth in Gaza?" which I updated with new information on Friday. It received thousands of hits and was linked to from many other blogs and news sites.

The mainstreaming of anti-semitism: Salon partners with Mondoweiss was also very popular, as was my coverage of the Bulgaria terror attack.

I expanded on my post about Bob Costas planning his own moment of silence in The Algemeiner, suggesting what the Israel Olympic delegation should do.

I showed that the UNDP made a big deal over problem of AIDS in Gaza, and then said that there were only eight living patients. And OCHA preposterously pretends to be "neutral."

Iran has been doing its own cyber-attacks against Israel.

Also at the Algemeiner, I expanded on a post from last year about The Fake Child Artists of Gaza, which generated a large amount of traffic to the older post. This time the story got more attention than last time.

A lot of people liked my article about the HuffPo writer who publishes bizarre anti-semitic conspiracy theories on fringe websites.

Finally, thanks to a popular German news blog, my "Apartheid?" posters received thousands of new views.


Complaint against Temple Mount soccer

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT


Last year, for Tisha B'Av, I posted an article with videos and photos about the daily desecration of the Temple Mount done by Muslims, symbolized by the fact that they routinely play soccer in their supposedly "third holiest place."

And a couple of months ago I showed how AP justified the soccer (and volleyball!) by saying that it was one of the few open spaces for Muslims in Jerusalem, so it is essentially a park, not just a holy place.

One Israeli has apparently had enough:
David Vazna filed a complaint, Thursday, with the Moriah police in Jerusalem, regarding Arabs playing soccer on the Temple Mount. He says the game is an insult and desecration of a holy place, which carries a sentence of a year in prison.

He said that friends serving in police positions at the holy site asked for his assistance in dealing with the daily phenomenon. Vazna says the office of Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told him it would respond to his request to use its influence to get the police to act to eliminate the practice.
The article is over a week old, and I haven't heard anything since, but we need more people to complain about this constant desecration of Judaism's holiest place.

(h/t Judge Dan)

Mahmoud Abbas' connections to the Munich Olympics massacre

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT

This Sports Illustrated article from 2002 has some details that are relevant on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympics massacre.

Following the Oslo Accords of 1993, the mastermind of Black September's Munich attack enjoyed a certain respectability. Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, a.k.a. Abu Daoud, sat on the Palestinian National Council, where in 1996 he joined a majority in voting to revoke the clause in the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction. Though Israel had long known of his role at Munich -- Mossad was believed to have been involved in a 1981 assassination attempt in which he was shot six times -- he even carried an Israeli-issued VIP pass that allowed him to shuttle between his home in Amman, Jordan, and the occupied territories.

All that changed in 1999 after Abu Daoud openly acknowledged his role in the Olympic attack, both in his memoir, Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich, published in Paris, and in an interview with the Arab TV network al-Jazeera. Germany issued an international arrest warrant on Abu Daoud, and Israel canceled his travel credentials, barring him from the Palestinian lands he had spent his adult life trying to liberate....

"At the time, it was the correct thing to do for our cause," Abu Daoud told SI. AP
In late July, SI's Don Yaeger went to the Middle East to find the 72-year-old Abu Daoud. After five days in Syria, where he met with leaders of several Palestinian groups, including the Palestinian Authority, PA president Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction and the militant Hamas, Yaeger received a call from Abu Daoud, who said he was in Cyprus. Abu Daoud, who would not reveal where he resides -- saying only that he lives with his wife on a pension provided by the PA -- agreed to answer written questions. Among his claims, in his memoir and to SI, are these:

Though he wasn't involved in conceiving or implementing it, "the [Munich] operation had the endorsement of Arafat." Arafat is not known to have responded to the allegations in Abu Daoud's book. In May 1972 four Black Septembrists hijacked a Sabena flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv, hoping to free comrades from Israeli jails. But Israeli special forces stormed the plane, killing or capturing all the terrorists and freeing every passenger, leaving Arafat, by Abu Daoud's account, desperate to boost morale in the refugee camps by showing that Israel was vulnerable.

Though he didn't know what the money was being spent for, longtime Fatah official Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen, was responsible for the financing of the Munich attack. Abu Mazen could not be reached for comment regarding Abu Daoud's allegation. After Oslo in 1993, Abu Mazen went to the White House Rose Garden for a photo op with Arafat, President Bill Clinton and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. "Do you think that ... would have been possible if the Israelis had known that Abu Mazen was the financier of our operation?" Abu Daoud writes. "I doubt it." Today the Bush Administration seeks a Palestinian negotiating partner "uncompromised by terror," yet last year Abu Mazen met in Washington with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
[...]

While he doesn't regret his role in the operation, Abu Daoud told SI, "I would be against any operation like Munich ever again. At the time, it was the correct thing to do for our cause. ... The operation brought the Palestinian issue into the homes of 500 million people who never previously cared about Palestinian victims at the hands of the Israelis." Today, he says, an attack on an event like the Olympics would only damage the Palestinians' image.

Daoud also was interviewed about the Munich massacre for a film called "One Day in September," produced by John Battsek and Arthur Cohn for Sony Pictures Classics. Director Kevin Macdonald said Abu Daoud admitted Black September was merely the cover name adopted by Fatah members when they wanted to carry out terrorist attacks.

The PLO operative recalled how Arafat and Abu Mazen both wished him luck and kissed him when he set about organizing the Munich attack.

In an interview in 2006, Abu Daoud described how the Olympics massacre was a great victory for the Palestinian Arab cause:
Discussing the Palestinians' struggle for a homeland and rejecting the use of the word "terrorist" to describe its fighters, he said of the Munich days: "There was nothing we weren't prepared to do to keep the Palestinian cause in the public eye.

"Before Munich, we were simply terrorists. After Munich, at least people started asking who are these terrorists? What do they want? Before Munich, nobody had the slightest idea about Palestine."

"Today, I cannot fight you anymore, but my grandson will and his grandsons, too," he said, addressing Israelis.
Unfortunately, the murderous calculus of the PLO was correct. Only two years after Munich, Yasir Arafat was honored at the UN.

When Abu Daoud died in 2010 of kidney failure in Damascus, Mahmoud Abbas praised him without any equivocation:

President Mahmoud Abbas sent a telegram of condolences yesterday over the death of the great fighter Muhammad Daoud Oudeh, 'Abu Daoud,' who died just before reaching 70. The telegram of condolences read: 'The deceased was one of the prominent leaders of the Fatah movement and lived a life filled with the struggle, devoted effort, and the enormous sacrifice of the deceased for the sake of the legitimate problem of his people, in many spheres. He was at the forefront on every battlefield, with the aim of defending the [Palestinian] revolution. What a wonderful brother, companion, tough and stubborn, relentless fighter. [Al Hayat al Jadida, July 4, 2010]

President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday held a telephone conversation with the family of the Shahid (Martyr) fighter Muhammad Oudeh, Abu Daoud, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and former head of the movement's Supervisory Committee, and expressed his condolences over [Oudeh's] death.

During the conversation the President noted [Oudeh's] life filled with the struggle, his devoted effort, and the enormous sacrifice of the deceased for the sake of the legitimate problem of his people, in many spheres. He was at the forefront on every battlefield, with the aim of defending the [Palestinian] revolution." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 5, 2010]
And official PA media were even more explicit in their praise for the Olympic massacre and its architect:
"In its [Black September terror group's] ranks were many distinguished men and women, headed by the Panther of Palestine, Salah Khalaf 'Abu Iyad.' Abu Daoud was one of his prominent assistants. His [Abu Daoud's] name shined brightly in the German city of Munich in 1972, where the Olympics took place....May Allah have mercy on this great Fatah fighter and patriot, Abu Daoud."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 6, 2010]

(I posted the SI article originally in 2005.)

Islamists take over Syria border post with Turkey; Kurds take control of their lands

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Just great:
Rebel forces gained control of the Bab al-Hawa crossing between Syria and Turkey on Thursday.

But by Saturday evening, a group of some 150 foreign fighters calling themselves as Islamists were in control of the Bab al-Hawa post, an AFP photographer said.

Some of the fighters said they belonged to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), while others claimed allegiance to a group called Shura Taliban.

They were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket launchers and improvised mines.

The fighters identified themselves as coming from a number of countries: Algeria, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and the Russian republic of Chechnya.
But there is some better news, as the Kurds are asserting control of their lands in Syria:
On the second day of events in Syrian Kurdistan, several more cities have fallen into the hands of Kurdish groups.

Fawzi Shangal, the leader of the Kurdish Accord Party in Syria told Rudaw that the city of Amude and Efrin fell on Friday and they expect Derek city liberated within hours.

Shangal maintained that the Kurdish cities fell without any major clashes. The forces of the Assad regime withdrew from the area, he said.

"According to the Erbil agreement [signed between Syrian Kurdish political factions] On June 11, the Kurdish National Council and the Council of Western Kurdistan have formed a joint leadership to run those cities," he said.

Members of the Democratic Union Party [PYD] raised the Kurdish flag alongside the official flag of the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] on all government buildings in the newly liberated cities on Friday.

Kobane, in the province of Halab [Aleppo], was the first Kurdish city near the Turkish border to be liberated yesterday.

On Thursday PYD stopped soldiers of the Free Syrian Army [FSA] from entering Kobane as the news of the liberation reached other parts of the country.

"The Kurdish forces rejected a request by the FSA and told them that they [Kurds] can control their own areas," Hussein Kochar, a PYD official told Rudaw.

Kurdish leaders are preparing for the full liberation of Syrian Kurdistan and the responsibility of restoring peace and order in those cities.
And another city was liberated from Assad's troops this morning in Syrian Kurdistan.

The biggest wild card in Syria is still Assad's chemical weapons.

(h/t Yoel)

Israel-haters know they are lying (followup to Metro-North Map that Lies ad) (UPDATED)

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Last week I reported on the lying advertisements that were posted in Metro-North railroad stations this month, showing the ridiculous Map That Lies.

The person who put the ads up, Henry Clifford, told Fox News, "There's always room for discussion of different sides of every story, but there's no room for discussion on fact. Anyone who challenges these maps and the content of these ads, it's their obligation to show that they're historically wrong. The ball is in their court."

I responded with a point-by-point refutation of the maps, pointing out that now the ball is in his court. Besides an initial response claiming he is too busy to do a full response, and even after I sent him a reminder email on Friday, he has not bothered to respond.

But Yaacov Lozowick emailed him a similar reply to mine - a bit shorter and better written. And Clifford's response to that email proves, yet again, that the anti-Israel crowd knows that they are lying, but they pretend they are lying for a good reason.

Here is his entire response to Yaacov:
In any format the bottom line is irrefutable - the Palestinian people have lost most of their homeland.
What happened to your professed interest in facts, Henry? You issued a challenge to disprove the ads based on facts, and they were disproved easily. But now, instead of admitting that your ads are lies, you are appealing to what you clearly consider "the bottom line."

Your pithy response indicates that you cannot respond to the facts. It indicates that you believe that lies are justified for the Palestinian Arab cause you advocate.

If you were a real man, consistent in your words and deeds, you would publicly admit that the ads were deceptive and have no relationship to the truth.

But you aren't. You are just a hater, and lying to further your hate is par for the course for you and the anti-Zionist crowd.

UPDATE: He finally replied to me, similar to his non-reply to Yaacov:
I'm sorry, I have received at least 500 emails, 90% positive, am flooded with requests for comment or interviews, I just don't have time to debate. The Palestinians have lost most of their homeland and the earth is not flat. You can't change fact.

Yet that is exactly what this hypocrite is trying to do with these ads.

Gas pipeline to Israel/Jordan bombed yet again

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 04:34 AM PDT

From Egypt Independent:
February 2011 explosion
The pipeline transporting Egyptian natural gas to Israel has been bombed for the 15th time since the January uprising last year, according to North Sinai Governorate sources.

The explosion, which took place in the Taweel area, 10 km east of Arish city, would appear to confirm that gas exports to Israel have restarted.

The source referred to information about the resumption of gas exports to Israel four days ago.

However, Mohamed Ayyoub, head of the Gasco Company in Arish, denied that exports had restarted, saying the gas inside the pipeline was left from before Egypt had announced it was halting gas exports. According to sources, the company continues to pump gas to keep the equipment efficient but does not pump the gas to Israel.

The blast apparently took place in a depopulated area and was caused by improvised explosive devices. No casualties were reported.
Reuters adds:

The blast occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning at al-Tuwail, east of the coastal Sinai town of al-Arish, at a point before the pipeline splits into separate branches to Israel and Jordan, security officials and witnesses said.

An official in the company that manages the pipeline said exports of gas to both Israel and Jordan had been halted since an explosion that hit the pipeline in April and that the flames were caused by residual gas.

Residents in al-Arish, however, said gas shipments had begun three days ago through the pipeline, which at one point supplied Israel with about 40 percent of its natural gas.

Egypt in April terminated its agreement to supply gas to Israel because of what it said was a business dispute.
Piecing this together, it seems that Egypt never resumed pumping gas to Israel, nor to Jordan, since April. Some testing or maintenance probably occurred a few days ago and Sinai residents assumed that the shipments were resuming, so they arranged for another bombing.

Given that Egyptian officials have been sentenced to prison for selling gas to Israel at low prices, it seems very unlikely that any gas shipments were resuming.

The main party to be impacted by these explosions is not Israel - but Jordan. Jordan was far more dependent on Egyptian gas than Israel was, and it is interesting that this time the pipeline was bombed before the split.

Arabs being hurt by other Arabs isn't news, though.

Just some Muslims planning terror attacks

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 02:30 AM PDT

Two articles from The Times of Israel:
BOSTON (AP) — A Muslim-American man admitted Friday that he plotted to use remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives to blow up the Pentagon and US Capitol.

Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to terrorists and attempting to damage and destroy federal buildings by means of an explosive.

Ferdaus was arrested last year after federal employees posing as members of al-Qaeda delivered materials he requested, including grenades, machine guns and plastic explosives.

Under a plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed to drop four other charges. Prosecutors and Ferdaus' lawyers also agreed to jointly recommend a 17-year prison term. Sentencing is set for Nov. 1.

Ferdaus grew up in Massachusetts and has a physics degree from Boston's Northeastern University.

Prosecutors said Ferdaus began planning jihad, or holy war, against the United States in 2010 after becoming convinced through jihadi websites and videos that America was evil. He later contacted a federal informant and began meeting to discuss the plot with undercover agents.
And:
A Muslim husband and wife convicted of planning a terror attack against Jews in Manchester, England, were jailed Friday.

Shasta Khan, who was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism and two counts of possessing information likely to be useful in an act of terrorism, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The 38-year-old hairdresser, who had pleaded not guilty, will serve four years minus the 350 days she spent on remand.

Her husband Mohammed Sajid Khan, 33, an unemployed car valet, was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection, which means that after a minimum of seven-and-a-half years, his position will be regularly reviewed by a parole board. He had pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism.

The sentences "reflect the fact that Mohammed Sajid Khan was clearly the dominant character in this terror plot, and we hope he spends a long time behind bars," said Mark Gardner, spokesperson for the Community Security Trust, an organization which provides security advice, infrastructure and manpower to British Jews. "We will never know if Shasta Khan would have turned to terrorism had she not married her husband."

The Khans were in the early stages of building a home-made bomb, following instructions they found on the internet, when their plot was discovered in July 2011. Police had been called to their home in Oldham, greater Manchester, following a domestic dispute.

They had spent months scouting out potential Jewish targets in Manchester, including two synagogues and the Jewish Agency building.

They couple, who had met on the internet in 2010 and married just six weeks later, had become radicalized by material they read on the internet, including an English-language magazine published by an al-Qaeda affiliate.
Both Muslims.

Both became would-be jihadist murderers based on stuff they read on the Internet.

Both chose targets that have only peripheral involvement with Israel.

Now, certainly they only represent a "tiny minority of Muslims" that we hear so much about.

But if that tiny minority is only 14% - which is the number of Muslims who felt 9/11 was completely or mostly justified - that is still tens of millions of adult Muslims who are potential jihadists. (And 23% felt that 9/11 was "partially" justified.)

It is not exactly a comforting thought.
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