Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Infographic: PalArab attacks for first half of 2012
Egypt paper recalls how Jews and Arabs lived together, skips a few facts
Sunday links
Photos: Gaza kids sharing Eid candy with masked terrorists
The "kill Aisha" conspiracy grows!
Something else for BDSers to boycott
Abbas says "Next year in Jerusalem"
Thousands more flee Syria, Lebanon increasingly unstable
Top EoZ posts of the week

Infographic: PalArab attacks for first half of 2012

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 08:00 PM PDT

Egypt paper recalls how Jews and Arabs lived together, skips a few facts

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 03:30 PM PDT

The Al Ahram youth newspaper has an article on how Ramadan is now celebrated in the old Jewish quarter of Cairo and how Jews used to live there in harmony with Arabs.

It is a nice article, with interviews of old Arabs who recall fondly their Jewish friends and even their being asked to do things forbidden to Jews on Shabbat.

The old Jewish quarter is now a shopping district, but without any Jews:

While the article is certainly not anti-Jewish. it tries to distinguish between "Egyptian Jews" and the "Zionists who now live in Israel," who are presumably not the nice Jews that they recall.

However, the article contains a glaring mistake in its description of how the tens of thousands of Egyptian Jews disappeared. It merely says "since 1948, Jews began to migrate from Egypt, sold everything and migrated either to Israel or to different countries."

Of course, the Jews were stripped of their possessions, subject to violent and often deadly attacks, and eventually expelled from Egypt.

As Wikipedia summarizes:

By the 1940s, the situation worsened. Sporadic pogroms took place in 1942 onwards. In 1945, the Jewish quarter of Cairo was severely damaged. As the Partition of Palestine and the founding of Israel drew closer, hostility strengthened, fed also by press attacks on all foreigners accompanying the rising ethnocentric nationalism of the age. In 1947, the Company Laws set quotas for employing Egyptian nationals in incorporated firms, requiring that 75% of salaried employees, and 90% of all workers be Egyptian. As Jews were denied citizenship as a rule, this constrained Jewish and foreign owned entrepreneurs to reduce recruitment for employment positions from their own ranks. The law also required that just over half of the paid-up capital of joint stock companies be Egyptian.

After the foundation of Israel in 1948, difficulties multiplied for Egyptian Jews. That year, bombings of Jewish areas killed 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200, while riots claimed many more lives.[26] During the Arab-Israeli war, the famous Cicurel department store near Cairo's Opera Square was firebombed. The government helped with funds to rebuild it, but it was again burnt down in 1952, and eventually passed into Egyptian control.

In the immediate aftermath of trilateral invasion during the Suez Crisis of 1956, on November 23 by Britain France and Israel, a proclamation was issued stating that 'all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state', and it promised that they would be soon expelled. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Europe, the United States and South America, and Israel, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Some 1,000 more Jews were imprisoned.

After the 1967 war, more confiscations took place. Rami Mangoubi, who lived in Cairo at the time, states that nearly all Egyptian Jewish men between the ages of 17 and 60 were either thrown out of the country immediately, or taken to the detention centres of Abou Za'abal and Tura, where they were incarcerated and tortured for more than three years. The eventual result was the almost complete disappearance of the Jewish community in Egypt; less than a hundred or so remain today.

I had not heard of the 1945 riots, and looked them up:

And it turns out that the Egyptian 1945 riots sparked a much larger pogrom in Tripoli a few days later:

It is so much nicer to recall how tolerant your country was and ignore how anti-semitic it ended up being as it ethnically cleansed its entire population of Jews.

Sunday links

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 01:15 PM PDT

From Ian:

The sinister alliance of the Islamist-Marxist axis

"Since the year 2000, there has been an increasing convergence between those who belong to the radical left and those who promote Islamism in the West. One of the key areas in cementing their rapprochement has been the Palestinian question. The new "alliance" was further reinforced during the past decade by the Iraq war, the Second Lebanon War, and the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2009."

US congresswoman calls on EU to ban Hezbollah

The chairwoman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros- Lehtinen (R-Florida), sent a letter – ahead of the annual Al-Qods Day marches in Europe on Saturday – to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, urging the EU to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Ashton slams Ahmadinejad's 'hateful' words comparing Israel to 'cancerous tumor'

EU foreign policy chief joins Ban Ki-moon and the Obama administration in condemning Iranian president's Friday speech

Jewish groups step up protest over UN head's trip to Tehran

Ban Ki-moon should not visit a country whose leaders have 'routinely, ritually, and sometimes daily called for the annihilation of a UN member state,' says AJC

U.S. Says Iraqis Are Helping Iran to Skirt Sanctions

When President Obama announced last month that he was barring a Baghdad bank from any dealings with the American banking system, it was a rare acknowledgment of a delicate problem facing the administration in a country that American troops just left: for months, Iraq has been helping Iran skirt economic sanctions imposed on Tehran because of its nuclear program.

Ex-Malaysian PM reasserts Israel 'rules world by proxy'

Mohamad, long known for his anti-Semitic views and avid support for the Palestinian cause, said during a summit for the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 2003 that "the Nazis killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million [during the Holocaust]. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

Zubeidi released as gesture for Eid al-Fitr

Former al-Aqsa Brigades commander in Jenin released from Jericho prison together with seven other inmates "On Friday, Zubeidi's brother announced he was launching a hunger strike in protest of his incarceration. Zubeidi claimed he was never formally charged with any offence."

Militants fire RPG at Egypt army convoy, injure 3

The attack took place while the police were on their way back to the city of el-Arish after arresting two suspects at the border town of Rafah, a security source said.

Official: Yemeni militants infiltrated Egypt before Rafah attack

Ten Yemeni militants infiltrated Egyptian soil two months ago and trained local Jihadi cells in the Sinai peninsula, a security official said Friday.

Shoot dead Osama bin Laden for $325: Former SEAL recreates compound so people can copy raid on Bin laden complex

Offers people the chance to participate in a re-enactment of the Seal raid that executed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani compound last year

How a film on Africa's 'lost' Jewish tribes rekindled its maker's own Jewish identity

Laurence Gavron splits her time between France, Israel and Africa — where, along with focusing her lens on 'Jewish' tribes, she's now also begun a unique political career in Muslim-dominated Senegal

New solar device keeps homes warm, even in cold climes

An Israeli water heater gathers sun like bees gather honey, retaining enough heat to warm more than just dishwater.

BBC The Best of Men (on YT video might disappear)

90-minute film told the true story of Dr Ludwig Guttmann, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who founded the Paralympic Games.

Photos: Gaza kids sharing Eid candy with masked terrorists

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 11:30 AM PDT

A very revealing photo-essay on the Islamic Jihad Al Quds Brigades website shows eager kids offering candy and cookies to masked Islamic Jihad terrorists.

One child, Mahmoud, told the Islamic Jihad "media war" correspondent, "Since yesterday, my friends and I have been planning to visit the Mujahideen; we were waiting for this moment, and my mom that prepared for me festival cakes and candy in order to present it to them."

Thanking the kids, one of the brave masked mujahadeen said "We thank the mothers of these children who baked festival cakes for the the mujahideen, and assure them that we will not deviate from the option of Jihad and resistance at all costs and no matter how great the sacrifices and difficulties."

"These aren't exploding candies, are they?"

"Hey, one kid is eating my candy! I must shoot him!"

"Say 'Jeeeeehad'"

Isn't that sweet?

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

The "kill Aisha" conspiracy grows!

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT

The Arab rumor that a toy gun says "Kill Aisha" has now reached the Salafists of Tunisia, as they are confiscating the blasphemous gun that says "Go! Go! Go! Pull over and save the hostages!"

I've covered this bizarre story, where it pops up in different places in the Arab world, a number of times.

Here's the latest video showing the outrageous gun:

But I smell a larger plot.

Searching through the many outraged videos made by Islamists trying to start rioting over a toy gun, you notice that there are many different variants of this toy.

Why make so many variants of a gun that says things that are insulting to Muslims?

It must be that as soon as one is confiscated, another is made to take its place, in order to brainwash poor Muslim kids into wanting to kill Mohammed's favorite wife (or, perhaps, any nearby 6 year old girl)!

The phrase "Save the hostages!", which is a pretty boring sound clip for such awesome looking toy guns, must have been deliberately chosen for its hidden meaning in Arabic! Why else would it be re-used in so many toy weapons?

Circles within circles. I wouldn't put it past Islamophobic Westerners to conceive such a plot.

In fact, I received a secret memo from a highly trusted, highly reliable source who has never lied to me (to my knowledge) detailing how far this toy gun conspiracy goes. I'm convinced it is real, but I'll research it for a couple of hours and prove to myself that it is legitimate before releasing it and unleashing a torrent of deadly Muslim riots. (I'm a responsible journalist, after all.)

The truth must be heard!

Something else for BDSers to boycott

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT

From Shalom Life:

One in six women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. That's a staggering number, and one of the most common places where women will be victimized is in nightclubs.

Ever since date rape drugs have become easy accessible, women have had to be on high alert whenever drinking in public, otherwise someone could easily slip an odorless and tasteless drug that can render a person unconscious and put them in a position to be taken advantage of.

An israel professor of Tel Aviv University, Fernando Patolsky, and his partner Michael Ioffe, have invented what will hopefully become a common sight in bar and clubs around the world, an Anti-Date Rape Straw.

The straw can currently detect the two most common drugs being used, ketamine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, of GHB. Patolsky and Ioffe are working on adding more drug detection abilities, including rohypnol, aka ruffies.

The idea is that women will carry the straw with them when they go out, and they can reuse the straw as many times as they like until the straw encounters the presence of any date rape drugs. If the straw detects any drug in the drink, a chemical reaction will be created and the straw will change colour, depending on the drug.

Patolsky and Ioffe hope to commercialize the product within a year.

What a moral dilemma for Israel-hating women who like to party!

(h/t Max)

Abbas says "Next year in Jerusalem"

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 05:37 AM PDT

Mahmoud Abbas laid a wreath in honor of mass murderer Yasir Arafat today, on the occasion of the first day of Eid al Fitr.

He said that next year he hopes to lead a Palestinian Arab state along the so-called "1967 borders" with its capital in Jerusalem.

And the pro-PA media outlet Palestine Press Agency headlined the story as him saying "Next year in Jerusalem."

He also led Eid prayers at a nearby mosque, along with a large number of prominent PA officials and diplomats.

Abbas also sent a representative to lay another wreath at a memorial for "martyrs" (i.e., terrorists) in Jericho.

Abbas received best wishes for the holiday from Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu - and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Thousands more flee Syria, Lebanon increasingly unstable

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 03:26 AM PDT

From Ya Libnan:

In the last few days, thousands of Syrians have poured across the borders of neighboring countries, fleeing increasing violence in their homeland but creating tension elsewhere.

More than 170,000 Syrians have sought sanctuary in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq,at least 12,000 of them just in the last three days — leading to a growing humanitarian crisis, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.

At least 168 people were killed across the country Friday, activists said, many of them in the cities of Aleppo, Damascus and Dara, as the regime of President Bashar Assad uses attack helicopters and warplanes with greater frequency in its assaults on towns and cities.

Syrians fleeing to Lebanon, however, are finding a potentially unstable situation there as well.

The leader of a prominent Lebanese political party on Friday called for declaring a state of emergency as the Syrian conflict spilled over into his country.

Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, called for the measure a week after Lebanese politician Michel Samaha was arrested and accused of planning to target Sunni Muslims in Lebanon. And on Wednesday, a powerful Shiite Muslim clan abducted dozens of Syrians and other foreigners in retaliation for the kidnapping of one of their kin by Free Syrian Army rebels.

More abductions were reported Thursday, though the clan denied responsibility.

"The image formed in every citizen's mind now is that Lebanon is an uncontrolled state with no authority, constitution or rules whatsoever," Geagea said in a televised news conference in which he condemned the abductions. "No matter how righteous and decent their cause was, nothing justifies what happened, as it paralyzed the country and annulled the state's role."

Speaking of Samaha, the latest details in the case show Lebanese impotence:

Lebanon President Michel Suleiman said on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should call him and explain the transfer of weapons from Syria to Lebanon in the car of former Information Minister Michel Samaha.

" The Lebanese judiciary accused a Syrian official of sending weapons to Lebanon , and I expect the Syrian president to call me and explain the incident . I hope this call will take place," National News Agency quoted Suleiman as saying.

Following his arrest, several reports revealed that Samaha confessed under interrogation that he had transferred "explosives from Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out bombings in North Lebanon, particularly in the area of Akkar, with Syria's knowledge."

An Air France flight bound for Beirut last week was forced to land in Syria because protests effectively closed the Lebanese airport