יום שלישי, 4 בספטמבר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

Latest freakout for Muslims: Bar Mitzvahs at the Kotel!

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 07:04 PM PDT

Well, it only took 45 years, but the Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation has discovered that many Jewish 13-year old boys have their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies at the Kotel.

And, as usual, they are freaking out. (The autotranslation is pretty funny so I left some of the bizarre translations in.)

The Aqsa Heritage Foundation released a statement Monday, 9/3/2012 saying that the Israeli occupation invents new ways to Judaize monuments and the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem and the area around the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Recently, they have increased the so-called "biblical baptism at the Wailing Wall" offering a free ceremony for Jewish youth from all over the country and funded directly from the Office of Israeli Prime Minister. The "Aqsa Foundation" said that such events are intended to Judaize the most important monuments directly linked to the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Wailing Wall, and asserted that the Wailing Wall is an integral part of the al-Aqsa mosque.

According to "Aqsa Foundation" monitors there have been many recent concerts that are held in the Buraq, under the title "puberty concerts at the Wailing Wall", or what might be called "biblical baptism at the Wailing Wall" for free. They set up concerts of adulthood for young Jews from all regions, from Jerusalem and beyond, where they are organizing a private bus carrying family members, including young Jews celebrating by reaching 13 years, to outside the Mughrabi Gate where they hold  dances and songs and biblical hymns, and then to be admitted to the area of Buraq beside the Wailing Wall, and are "baptized in Torah" and carry a "travel Torah - the Tanach" and dance at the squares and then admitted to the synagogue adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The costs of this "baptism" are taken care by the so-called "fund to maintain the legacy of the Western Wall" - a government-owned company directly subordinate to the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, which is being promoted through a special website, including explanations for the ceremony, video clips and a photo album.
The photos they are using to illustrate this terrible trend comes from a private tour guide who specializes in Kotel Bar Mitzvahs.

But the website they are referring to is, I think, this one from the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. I don't believe it is funded by the Prime Minister's office.

This press release is being propagated all over the Arabic media, from Egypt to the UAE.

The very idea of Jews doing strange puberty rituals in front of the Kotel with singing, dancing and Torahs apparently strikes a nerve.

Monday links

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 02:50 PM PDT

From Ian:
The Guardian Batsheva dance group: my deep shame at this bigoted festival protest
The Israeli contemporary dance company's performance had hundreds of shouting protesters outside and was continually disrupted
"A group of Scottish writers headed by Scotland's national poet Liz Lochhead (who has also taken government money on occasion) even wrote to the press calling for a cultural boycott of all Israeli companies and artists. This was what was effectively being imposed on the rest of us by the pickets outside.
I felt personally deeply ashamed and upset that these renowned international artists who were visiting the EIF were unable to perform their show in peace."

The Dangers of Accepting Iran as a Nuclear Threshold State by Dore Gold
"For all these reasons, letting Iran reach the status of a nuclear threshold power is a big mistake. In January 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress that the U.S. objected to Iranian nuclear weapons capabilities and not just to the production of the weapons themselves. But how is the U.S. translating that position into practical policy, especially when it comes to the use of force, when it becomes clear to the White House that diplomacy has reached a dead end?"

Gantz cautions Iran: IDF can hit any place, anytime
IDF chief of staff responds to threats to "wipe Israel off the map," says IDF ready for any scenario; Barak: Map of Middle East changing before our eyes, Israel must be prepared.

Channel 4 history of Islam sparks flood of complaints and presenter Tom Holland subjected to torrent of abusive tweets

Tom Holland responds to the programme's critics

The history of Islam is not off-limits
For instance, Holland spent a lot of his programme in Jerusalem – a city of relative unimportance in Islam. Many establishing shots were presented of Israel's security fence and CCTV cameras in the centre of the old city. But what Holland at no point mentioned was why he had not gone to film in another city which – mistakenly or otherwise – is far more important in Islam: Mecca. The reason is that Holland is not a Muslim and so is not only unable to film in Mecca but also is not allowed to go there. I think this is quite an important point and though I waited for it to be made, it never was. Holland simply refrained from saying why, throughout his programme, he was stuck in the countries he could travel in freely (Israel and Jordan).

'Jumah at the DNC' Speaker: 'Muslims Visited America Prior to Columbus' & 'It Was a Muslim' Who Guided Him to the 'New World'

After a year without an envoy, Morsi's Egypt sends new ambassador to Israel

Anchor dons hijab for 1st time on Egypt state TV
Concern raised that the move represents a further shift towards Islamism under the newly-empowered Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas to boost military presence at Sinai border
Gaza government pledges to track down militants

Hamas official says Egypt, not Iran, should mediate unity

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Denies Comments on Postponing Statehood Bid

For Southern Israel, Start of School is Start of 'Rocket Season'
"We will not give them the satisfaction of disrupting the new school year," said Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council Head Alon Schuster. "Most of the education and public buildings in the council are fortified, including the new high school that will be inaugurated today."

IDF Blog: IDF Veterans on the 2012 Israeli Paralympic Team
Israel Defense Forces on Instagram

FT Field of dreams: Israel's natural gas
After decades of importing every drop of fuel, Israel has struck it rich, uncovering vast reserves of natural gas in the Mediterranean
Also:
Bombs stored in Gaza homes explode (CHA)

Egypt's sexual harassment of women 'epidemic' (BBC)
"If the girls were dressed respectably, no-one would touch them," one of them said. "It's the way girls dress that makes guys come on to them. The girls came wanting it - even women in niqab."

One of his friends told me the boys were not to blame, and that there was a difference between women who wore loose niqabs and tight ones.

A woman who wore a tight niqab was up for it, he added.
Anti-semitism in the new Egypt (Telegraph)

The other side of the Torah (TOI)
In January 2011, a pair of unique objects turned up in the ancient university town of Tübingen, Germany, when a Christian theology instructor and his wife bought a new apartment, occupied by an elderly, reclusive man. Shortly after the purchase, the man died, and his possessions fell into the hands of the new owners. Among these possessions were two original oil paintings depicting a uniformed Nazi German soldier and his wife.

On removing the paintings from the walls, the new owners discovered that these likenesses were painted on the back of sections of Torah scrolls. The texts of the scrolls were perfectly legible. One could clearly read from Sefer Shemot, parshiyot Ki Tissa and Vayakhel (Exodus 34:9-35:16), and from parshiyot Vayakhel and Pekudei (Exodus 37:13-39:6).
(h/t Josh)

Egyptian Jewish community sort of denies Alexandria High Holiday story

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 01:03 PM PDT

Last Thursday, I quoted the Point of No Return blog as saying that Egyptian authorities had canceled Rosh Hashanah services in Alexandria this year for "security reasons."

The story got picked up in Egyptian media.

Now, the Egyptian Jewish community is denying the story - sort of. Let's sort it out:

BBC Arabic says they say they will have services, but...
We already postponed the issue of inviting some visitors to join us during prayers, but we certainly we will establish our celebrations, where we will celebrate the High Holidays here with our small community we hold dear.

We have already postponed inviting visitors to offer prayers during the Jewish New Year (this year), and we hope that the situation improves and becomes more stable. It is known to the whole world that we are in the midst of a transition, and security measures are still being arranged, police are still working to achieve security and safety on the streets again, and no doubt that the necessary safety for all Egyptians, and our dear visitors.

The decision to postpone inviting visitors is a decision taken by the community alone, and is not imposed by the authorities as falsely claimed in the press.
JPost adds:
Yousef Gaon, the caretaker of the Eliahou Hanavi Synagogue, was quoted by a Jewish official as saying services will be held at the 180-year-old house of worship this year albeit without an ordained rabbi or cantor.

"The only difference is a rabbi and cantor who usually lead the services were denied entry to the country," the official, who is in close contact with the remaining Jews in the country, told The Jerusalem Post.

"Gaon said he would lead the services together with other members of the community. Prayers at the synagogue in Cairo will be held as usual. The rabbi who flies in every year was given a visa."

The official asked to remain anonymous not to jeopardize ties with Egyptian authorities.
Let's add a detail from Chabad:
Two weeks ago, the Rabbi of the Jewish Community in Alexandria, Egypt, Rabbi Avraham Nino-Dayan, contacted Chabad.info with a request to send Bochurim [young men] for Tishrei to help with a Minyan in the city which has had close to 2,000 years of continous Jewish presence.

After much hard work we were able to convince some Bochurim to go there, and discussions were taking place about the dates for the flights.

At the last moment, the Egyptian government decided to cancel the trip and notified the Jewish community that "for security reasons" they will not allow Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services at the "Eliyahu Hanavi" synagogue, the last functioning synagogue in Egypt.
And one more fact from Al Masry al Youm to complete the picture:
The number of Jews in Alexandria is 18 women and 4 men, most of them elderly, all between their seventies and nineties, and most live in senior homes, some of them in their apartments with their aides, and for most of these, their children and grandchildren are living abroad.

Now it becomes a little clearer.

For the first time in some 2000 years, Alexandria will not have a minyan (quorum) for Rosh Hashanah. Their recent practice of importing people to help make the minyan will not occur this year because of the security situation in Egypt. Whether this was an explicit decision by Egyptian authorities or because of fear from the Egyptian Jewish community is not really the issue - the fact is that the Egyptian government will not protect any Jews who wish to visit as they have every year.

The community statement saying that services will be held is disingenuous, because Rosh Hashanah services without a minyan - even in a synagogue as beautiful and historic as the Eliyahu HaNavi shul - is not much better than doing it at home.  (Of course, they are afraid to say this explicitly.) Critical parts of the service cannot be done without the requisite ten men. Whether they are being barred explicitly or implicitly, the reason is because Egypt cannot guarantee the safety of Jewish visitors.

Because Egyptians would lynch them.

Would Iran lie about nukes? (ElderToon)

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 11:10 AM PDT

1500 year old Jewish town found near Beersheva

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 09:30 AM PDT

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced yesterday the discovery of a Jewish town near Beersheva that flourished in the 6th century CE.

Archaeologists uncovered two ritual baths and two public buildings with platforms on the Jerusalem-facing walls, indicating that they were either synagogues or Talmud schools.

It appears that the town was evacuated around the time of the Muslim invasion.

Indeed, it seems that the land of Israel had a significant - if not majority - Jewish population for centuries after the Roman conquest until the Muslim hordes came.

An aerial view of the town:

And some of the excavations:


(h/t The Muqata)

Franklin Lamb is quite a liar (updated)

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 07:30 AM PDT

A couple of years ago I noted that a Beirut-based writer named Franklin Lamb, an apparent Hezbollah groupie, publicized a "secret CIA report" that claimed that Israel would not exist in twenty years.

He added (on Iran's PressTV):
Lamb with former Hezbollah spiritual leader Fadlallah
The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.
The study is fictional, but his report ended up all over the crazy Left websites anyway. (The JC interviewed a number of Capitol Hill experts and all agreed it was false. Lamb claimed that he had proof, but never supplied it to TheJC.)

The supposed report appeared more to be Iranian wishful thinking than anything that was sourced in the US.

It looks like Lamb is going back to his 2009 playbook.
A paper entitled "Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East", an 82-page analysis that concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community.

The study was commissioned by the US Intelligence Community comprising 16 American intelligence agencies with an annual budget in excess of $ 70 billion. The IC includes the Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Defense Intelligence Agency, Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, State, Treasure, Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency commissioned the study.
Look how specific he is being! 82 pages! 16 intelligence agencies! And he goes through 15 points of the memo, all of which align very nicely with, again, Iran's view of Israel.

In fact, he even says:
[The report] notes Iran as an example of a country and people that have much in common and whose citizens have a real interest in enjoy [sic] bilateral associations (here an apparent reference to Israel and its US lobby) not determined by the wishes of other countries and their agents.

No wonder Lamb is a frequent guest and columnist on Iran's PressTV!

I have a sneaking suspicion that his resume there is padded, though. I can find no mention of him outside his own writings - no association with the many colleges he claims to have taught at, for example.

If you are going to lie, Lamb knows, you go all in. You make it very detailed, with specific quotes and dates. If you sound authoritative, most people won't bother checking.

Another great example of his lying style comes from this May article where he wrote:
During a late June 1982 meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Begin, Reagan was handed a note from George Shultz. Based on the information he had in hand, Reagan directly told Begin that the US had reliable information than Israel was using American weapons against civilians in Lebanon.

At this point according to Reagan, Begin became very agitated.

He lowered his glasses and while glaring at Reagan and shaking his index finger said, "Mr. President, Israel has never and would never use American weapons against civilians and to claim otherwise is a blood libel against every Jew, everywhere."

Following their meeting Reagan told Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, as reported by Weinberger and by various biographers of Reagan that "I did not know what the term "blood libel" meant, but I know that the man looked me straight in the eyes and lied to me."
It sounds so convincing - and indeed there was friction between the US and Israel over the alleged use of cluster bombs in Lebanon - but, again, these quotes simply cannot be found anywhere besides the writings of Franklin Lamb. Nothing in Reagan's autobiography, nothing in Caspar Weinberger's memoirs - zilch.

(Update: And as commenter Mrzee points out - George Schulz was not yet Secretary of State in June 1982! He entered office the following month, after Reagan met Begin.)

But when you are in the employ of your Iranian/Hezbollah masters, telling the truth is not exactly one of the top criteria for the job.

UPDATE: Lori Lowenthal Marcus at the Jewish Press has a photo of Lamb with another of his heroes, child-murderer Samir Kuntar:


They look so happy together!

Infographic: Mahmoud Abbas' Political Empire

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 05:30 AM PDT

People don't quite get the relationship between Fatah, the PLO and the PA. Here it is in a nutshell, and one man controls them all:


Democracy, Palestinian Arab style!

US throwing Israel under a bus?

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 02:09 AM PDT

This report from YNet, if true, is really bad news:
The United States has indirectly informed Iran, via two European nations, that it would not back an Israeli strike against the country's nuclear facilities, as long as Tehran refrains from attacking American interests in the Persian Gulf, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.

According to the report, Washington used covert back-channels in Europe to clarify that the US does not intend to back Israel in a strike that may spark a regional conflict.

In return, Washington reportedly expects Iran to steer clear of strategic American assets in the Persian Gulf, such as military bases and aircraft carriers.

Israeli officials reported an unprecedented low in the two nations' defense ties, which stems from the Obama administration's desire to warn Israel against mounting an uncoordinated attack on Iran.
This comes on the heels of the US' very public scaling back of a joint military exercise with Israel:
The United States has reduced the size of a joint military exercise with Israel that was originally billed as being of unprecedented size, TIME Magazine reported Friday, citing "well-placed sources in both countries." The reduction, although officially attributed to budgetary restrictions, the scaling back of the exercise was put into the context of Washington's opposition to a military attack on Iran's nuclear program.

The annual exercise, Austere Challenge 12, was originally slated to include some 5,000 US troops, according to TIME. Instead, the United States will send anywhere between 1,200 and 1,500 troops, TIME reported.

Washington will still send the Patriot missile defense systems it planned to, but the crews that man them will not arrive, TIME reported.
And that in turn came while US General Martin Dempsey said he doesn't want to be "complicit" with an Israeli strike on Iran.

Even dovish Ha'aretz' Chemi Shalev slammed that remark, saying that effectively the US was goading Israel into a unilateral strike:
If I didn't know any better I would assume that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey is trying to goad Israel into attacking Iran. Otherwise, why would he go to such great lengths to try and persuade them that Israel is on its own and can rely only on itself?

Because that is the net effect of Dempsey's statements in London last week, especially his yet-to-be-properly-explained use of the word "complicit" as in "I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it." Complicit? As in what – war crimes?

Even if one accepts the validity of Dempsey's assertion that an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would "delay and not destroy" Iran's nuclear program, and even if one understands the need for him to spell out the Administration's belief that such an attack would "thwart" the "international coalition" – whatever that means – his use of the word "complicit" is somewhere on the scale between unfortunate and way out of line. And to make matters worse, despite the days that have passed, it has yet to be explained or retracted or apologized for, as the Wall Street Journal correctly pointed out in its Friday editorial.

[O]ver the past few days, the [Israeli] public has been bombarded by discouraging news that cannot but harden its attitude. After the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report that confirmed Israel's worst fears about Tehran's accelerated nuclear drive; after the disappointing pilgrimage of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and other world leaders to Tehran, and the ludicrous endorsement of Iran's "peaceful" nuclear programs by the 120 members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM); after the reports of the U.S. decision to scale down, for whatever reason, its participation in the joint Austere Challenge 12 military exercise; after all of these blows, Dempsey's spiteful choice of word was a virtual coup de grace. The much-abused cliché "the whole world is against us" was driven home, as was Hillel's guidance – mistakenly attributed in the GOP platform to their own elder, Ronald Reagan – "if I am not for myself, who will be?"

Perhaps Dempsey suffers from the same chronic misunderstanding of Israeli public opinion that afflicts many others in the Administration, including the White House. Administration officials have possibly misinterpreted the superficial newspaper headlines that "most Israelis are opposed to an attack on Iran". Perhaps they mistakenly believe that by upping the ante and maintaining the pressure, they are strengthening the hand of those opposed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's efforts to convince the Israeli cabinet that time has run out. Perhaps they are paying too much attention to pundits in both countries who claim that the U.S. needs to "bare its teeth" in order to get its point across.

If so, they are misreading the situation. Most Israelis, in fact, are not opposed to a military attack on Iran at all. Most Israelis are convinced, in fact, rightly or wrongly, that military force is the only way that the Iranian nuclear drive can be stopped. The number of Israelis who support an Israeli attack now together with those who prefer an American attack later combine to form an overwhelming and unassailable majority.

But most Israelis are rightly afraid of the consequences, especially if they decide to go it alone. And they know full well that the U.S. will do a much better job. So as long as they believe that there is an outside chance that the U.S. might carry out the task, or at least lend its formidable hand to an Israeli strike, they are willing to give more time to diplomacy and sanctions. As long as they believe that when push comes to shove, the U.S. will "have Israel's back", as President Obama has promised, they will continue to press Netanyahu and his cabinet to accommodate the Administration and to give peace a chance, if Washington really insists.

Dempsey's harsh language may very well be understood by Israeli decision makers as a shot across the bow that cannot be ignored, but the popular interpretation will be that Israel cannot rely on the U.S. and needs to take matters into its own hands.

If President Obama wishes to dissociate himself from his army commander's tone, explicitly or not, his upcoming speech at the Democratic National Convention provides a good and possibly last opportunity. If he continues to maintain his excessively low profile, as he has until now, many Israelis will be persuaded that he too does not wish to be "complicit", and that Israel must take its fate into its own hands, before it's too late.
And this is from the WSJ article mentioned:
The irony for the Administration is that its head-in-the-sand performance is why many Israeli decision-makers believe they had better strike sooner than later. Not only is there waning confidence that Mr. Obama is prepared to take military action on his own, but there's also a fear that a re-elected President Obama will take a much harsher line on an Israeli attack than he would before the first Tuesday in November.

If Gen. Dempsey or Administration officials really wanted to avert an Israeli strike, they would seek to reassure Jerusalem that the U.S. is under no illusions about the mullahs' nuclear goals—or about their proximity to achieving them. They're doing the opposite.

Since coming to office, Obama Administration policy toward Israel has alternated between animus and incompetence. We don't know what motivated Gen. Dempsey's outburst, but a President who really had Israel's back would publicly contradict it.
Indeed, it appears that the administration is remarkably tone-deaf in understanding how Israelis think and how to reassure them. Nothing symbolizes this more than sending Patriot missile systems to Israel- without sending the support teams necessary to man them.

Finally, even AP realizes that Iran's public statements against developing nuclear weapons doesn't preclude them building them except for the last screw.
Iran could be shaping its nuclear ambitions after Japan, which has the full scope of nuclear technology - including the presumed ability to produce warhead-grade material - but has stopped short of actually producing a weapon. It creates, in effect, a de facto nuclear power with all the parts but just not pieced together.

More than two years ago, Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani essentially embraced Tokyo's nuclear model during a visit to Japan that included a stop in Nagasaki, of the two cities destroyed by American atomic bombs World War II.

Larijani met with Japanese officials and praised the country's nuclear program as a symbol of a third path that dates back to the 1970s, when then Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata told reporters that Japan "certainly" could possess nuclear arms "but has not made them."

The major difference, however, is Israel and other U.S. allies, such as Saudi Arabia. They would have to adapt to a huge balance-of-power shift with Iran on the doorstep of having nuclear arms.

Following Japan's path would allow Iran to push their nuclear technology to the limit while being able to claim it has adhered to its international pledge not to develop a bomb.

Yoel Guzansky, an Iranian affairs expert for Israel's Institute of National Security Studies, believes Iran could be adopting a Japan-style policy to reach a "nuclear threshold."

"Israeli can't live with the uncertainty of a nuclear threshold state," he said. "Iran could push over (to weapons capability) at any given moment."

This is where Iran might seek seams in the unity of the West and its allies: Could some live with an almost-armed Iran rather than risk a war that could send oil prices skyrocketing and risk spilling conflict across the region?
This official Iranian ambiguity seems to be enough to split the West between those who see things clearly and those who want to keep their heads in the sand.

The tragedy is that the US, from all indications, seems to be moving to the latter category.


פורסם על ידי zoom ב- 0:05

אין תגובות:

הוסף רשומת תגובה

הירשם ל- תגובות לפרסום (Atom)