Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Iran's PressTV still obsessed with "Zionist" Olympic logo
Another Palestinian Arab killed during Ramadan
Thursday links
Funniest Arabic headline of the day
Egyptian video says Israelis are celebrating soldier deaths
New "Gauss" malware grabbing Lebanese bank information
Egypt closing up smuggling tunnels, Hamas angry
Infographic: Goodwill gestures

Iran's PressTV still obsessed with "Zionist" Olympic logo

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT

I thought after they won some medals they had dropped this, but apparently not.

This latest illustration at PressTV sets new Olympic records for stupidity:

ZOIN! (Or, right to left, ONZI!)

So if the games are so Zionist, why does Iran have 8 medals so far and the Zionist state - zero?

Is it because we Zionists are trying to brainwash Iranians with all those medals with the Zionist Nazi logo? Is it to make them complacent so we can attack their nuclear facilities without them noticing?

I'm sure there is an explanation just as logical as this graphic.

(Last chance to buy my Zionist Olympics T-Shirt!)

Another Palestinian Arab killed during Ramadan

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 12:50 PM PDT

This time - in Iraq.

Qudsnet reports that unknown gunmen killed 31 year old Ahmed Mustafa Naji in a hail of bullets outside his home in Baghdad.

The article goes on to say that Iraqi authorities have raided the Palestinian section of the town three times during Ramadan.

The number of Palestinian Arabs in Iraq has gone down from 35,000 to about 7,000 since the Gulf war, as Iraqis have been targeting Palestinians who were felt to be collaborators with Saddam Hussein.

Sounds like apartheid, doesn't it?

Thursday links

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 12:10 PM PDT

Palestinian "President" Nears Record

"Next week, Mahmoud Abbas will enter the 92nd month of his 48-month term, and now has Yasser Arafat's record in sight. Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, running essentially unopposed (his opponent was a 72-year old woman with no political party). In 2004, in the ninth year of his four-year term, he left office on account of death. His second-in-command was elected president less than two months later, running essentially unopposed (Hamas boycotted the election). Abbas is now midway through the eighth year of his own four-year term, almost certain to break Arafat's record if he can just stay healthy."

Iran pledges support as Syria battles rebels

"Iran will continue to back the Syrian government, which acts as a pillar of an Iran-led regional alliance, a high-level Iranian diplomat has told President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus."

Turkey's nightmares coming true in Syria

US expert says most troubling scenario for Turkey may also be the most likely one: protracted chaos and sectarian conflict, leaving a security vacuum across the border

New US intelligence report shows Iran moving closer to nuclear weapon

Haaretz reports that official estimate, which pulls back 2007 claim that Iran had halted weaponization program, brings Washington in line with Israel
"The report is a 180 degree turn from the last NIE on Iran, in 2007, which reported that Iran had given up on its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and had not returned to it."

Saudi Arabia says it would 'intercept Israeli planes en route to Iran'

Message reportedly received via Washington seen as warning against unilateral strike
"Defense Minister Ehud Barak said later Thursday he had received no such message."

Desert Reconnaissance Battalion commander: "We were prepared in advance"

"This is the decorated IDF hero that led the battalion that successfully protected Israel against the massive attack launched from Egypt on Sunday. And yeh he's a black muslim. He Doesn't sound like the product of an "apartheid regime", spoils the BDS narrative."

IDF article about him here.

Cairo Tightens Egypt's Blockade of Gaza After Sinai Terrorist Attack

"The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement (BDS) has been conspicuously silent about the ramped up Egyptian blockade of Gaza. In the past, the BDS movement's well-oiled social media and petition campaign has pretended that the Gaza blockade existed only on the Israeli side when, in fact, Egypt, Gaza's main partner, has enforced its own air-sea-land blockade for the past half-decade. In fact, Egypt maintains an embassy in Gaza. The Muslim Brotherhood, which won big in recent Egyptian elections, considers Hamas to be its Palestinian chapter. However, on the ground, Egypt has long blockaded Gaza out of dire security concerns. Those concerns were ignited as never before by the brazen assault on Egyptian soldiers."

Jewish radicals and anti-Semitism

"Robert Wistrich, Hebrew University professor of European and Jewish history and director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of anti-Semitism, has just published his 29th book,"From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel."

Groups Blast Carter's Role at Convention

"When it comes to Israel and the Middle East, President Carter has unfortunately embarrassed himself — as his analysis and commentary has been stubbornly wrong, harmful to the peace process, and getting worse all the time," said Harris. "I'm confident that he won't be speaking to the Party about Middle East policy."

MEMRI: Hizbullah MP Ret. General Walid Sakariya: Iranian Nuclear Weapon "to Finish Off the Zionist Entity"
From Ian:

Tourism to Israel continues record-breaking pace in July

Last month saw nearly 700,000 visitors, 10% of whom came from America; more than 2 million tourists have arrived this year

Golden Raisman honors slain Israelis

US Jewish gymnast says she would have supported moment of silence for Munich 1972 victims
"Jewish American Olympian Aly Raisman honored the memory of slain Israeli athletes after she took gold in the women's floor exercise Tuesday. Raisman, whose routine was set to the music of Hava Nagilah, said she would have supported a decision to observe a moment of silence in honor of the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich games."

Study: Different Jews Are Genetically Alike

"While it's easy to be flip about studies on the similarities of Jews in far-flung places, a study recently released by a consortium of colleges in the United States, Israel, France, and Spain, did yield some interesting results:"

Israel confronts world hunger with a solar-powered desert oasis

"The best of Israel's agri-tech and clean-tech innovation is combined in a new oasis system that could help feed millions of desert-dwellers."

Also...

I published a wrap-up of the Emirates Photo Competition and FIAP at The Algemeiner

Jewish Ideas Daily on two opposing viewpoints about The Levy Report. I like the second one better...

Time for the EU to ban Hezbollah (TheJC)

IDF begins draft of haredim without problems (JTA)

The Atlantic on Orthodox Jewish migration to the suburbs, and why it is unlikely that they will return to live in cities.

(h/t Zach N.)

Funniest Arabic headline of the day

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 10:40 AM PDT

From Firas Press:

[Hamas official] Ghazi Hamad: "We will not allow terrorist groups to grow in the Gaza Strip"

Egyptian video says Israelis are celebrating soldier deaths

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 09:05 AM PDT

From MEMRI:

Following is an excerpt from an Egypt TV video about the Sinai massacre of Egyptian soldiers, which aired on Channel 1 on August 7, 2012.

Voice: Who do you raise your weapons against?
Wake up! Awaken!
Arise from your slumber.
You are slaughtering one another, while the others sleep in the bosom of fornication.
Who do you raise your weapons against?
Against those who persevere, steadfast on our borders?
Or against those who drove us from our homes years ago?
Who do you raise your weapons against?
Israel celebrates today, and the news of our dead causes them joy, as long as our newborns are being orphaned, and we are being slaughtered from vein to vein.
Forgive us, oh the wounded!
You have been wounded for something that causes shame.
Or maybe you cannot be ashamed anymore?!
Who do you raise your weapons against?
Who do you raise your weapons against?
Title: "Those who do not deserve death were killed by those who do not deserve life."

Even when they know that extremists are murdering them, they want to redirect all the hate towards Israel.

Because hating Israel is pretty much the only thing Arabs can agree upon.

New "Gauss" malware grabbing Lebanese bank information

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 07:45 AM PDT

Here are the conclusions of a full analysis of the newly-discovered "Gauss" malware, written by Kaspersky Labs:

Gauss is the most recent development from the pool of cyber-espionage projects that includes Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu. It was most likely created in mid-2011 and deployed for the first time in August-September 2011.

Its geographical distribution is unique; the majority of infections were found in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. One of the modules from Jan 2012 contains the path "c:\documents and settings\flamer\desktop\gauss_white_1". The "flamer" in the path above is the Windows username that compiled the project. Given the focus on Lebanon, the "white" version identifier can probably be explained as following: "the name Lebanon comes from the Semitic root LBN, meaning "white", likely a reference to the snow-capped Mount Lebanon." (Wikipedia)

Code references and encryption subroutines, together with the Command and Control infrastructure make us believe Gauss was created by the same "factory" which produced Flame. This indicates it is most likely a nation-state sponsored operation.

Between Gauss' functions, the "Winshell.ocx" module which gives the name to the malware as "Gauss", steals credentials required to access online banking accounts for several Lebanese banks – including the Bank of Beirut, Byblos Bank and Fransabank. This is the first publicly known nation-state sponsored banking Trojan.

Another feature which makes Gauss unique is its encrypted payload, which we haven't been able to unlock. The payload is run by infected USB sticks and is designed to surgically target a certain system (or systems) which have a specific program installed. One can only speculate on the purpose of this mysterious payload.

The discovery of Gauss indicates that there are probably many other related cyber-espionage malware in operation.

The current tensions in the Middle East are just signs of the intensity of these ongoing cyber-war and cyber-espionage campaigns.

It isn't too hard to guess that some Lebanese banks are probably a major conduit for Westerners to transfer money illicitly to and from Iran. Following the money is a time honored way for spies to find what they are looking for.

It is worth noting that Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kaspersky Labs which has been discovering a lot of this nation-state malware, has ties to the KGB and has a view of the Internet that is decidedly anti-freedom. Not that his researchers are not doing a good job, but he is a political animal and he will make sure his company only does what his politics allows - and his politics coincides to a great degree with what Russia wants.

Egypt closing up smuggling tunnels, Hamas angry

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 06:10 AM PDT

In reaction to the deadly attack killing 16 Egyptian soldiers on Sunday, the Egyptian government has sent many bulldozers and other large earth-moving machines to close smuggling tunnels going to Gaza, starting with those that are far away from residential areas.

Sinai residents have reported to Ahram Online that heavy machinery of the state-owned Arab Contractors company is being used to destroy tunnels linking Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip. The destruction of the tunnels is happening under the supervision of Egyptian military forces.

Hamas leader Mahmoud El-Zahar confirmed that the Egyptian military was closing the tunnels and would abort any attempt to build new ones.

Hamas, which was looking forward to Mohamed Morsi add a commercial crossing in Rafah, is upset that he is doing the opposite. Hamas denies that any Gazans were involved in the attack and is calling Egypt's moves "collective punishment."

Opportunistic traders doubled the prices of some smuggled goods within hours of Egypt's starting to close the tunnels. Diesel fuel and construction materials are being affected. Also, medical patients who had been crossing Rafah for treatment are being denied passage.

Hamas is already going on a media offensive about what a hardship this is causing Gazans, as it has in the past to pressure Egypt to increase the amount of electricity it sends to Gaza and to try to get them to open a fuel pipeline in Rafah. But this time the residents of the Sinai are the ones who are protesting against any opening of Gaza, and Morsi will have a hard time keeping his promises to Gaza when he has his own people so angry.

Morsi also seems slightly embarrassed that his Muslim Brotherhood has publicly blamed Israel for the attack, when the Egyptian military is saying otherwise and even admitting that Israel passed intelligence about a possible attack to their Egyptian counterparts. Morsi is also dealing with the embarrassment of not attending the funerals of the dead soldiers, which angered many Egyptians.

Not only that, but there are reports that Morsi is demanding that the Hamas government extradite three suspects in the attack.

Hamas is putting up a front of caring about the soldiers, declaring three days of mourning and hoping that they can gain the sympathy of Egyptians again. But it must also play to appearances to its people, to Fatah and to the larger Arab world. Those are all incompatible now. And blaming Israel is unlikely to work this time.

Any way you look at it, this attack was a game changer for Egypt's relationship with Gaza.

(It will be interesting to see how human rights organizations will try to pin the blame on Israel for Gaza's new shortages.)