יום שלישי, 30 באוקטובר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

The liberation of a Jew-hater into a Zionist

Posted: 30 Oct 2012 12:00 AM PDT

From the Calgary Herald:
Kasim Hafeez grew up hating Jews and hating Israel. Now the 28-year-old British Muslim of Pakistani origin travels the world explaining how and why he has gone from a hater to a lover of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

His personal journey of going from chanting "Death to Israel" in London's Trafalgar Square to speaking about how he became a proud Zionist kept the Herald editorial board enraptured for much longer than our allotted hour on Thursday.

"To put it very bluntly, I was an anti-Semite," the 28-year-old Nottingham-based university administrator said.
[...]
In 2000, Hafeez travelled to Pakistan and got swept up in radical Islam in a big way, believing that Muslims had to rise up and fight the "evil Jews and help his oppressed Muslim brothers and sisters."

Upon returning to the U.K., Hafeez said he got further radicalized. He pulled out his iPad and showed photos of books, CDs and DVDs — including ones put out by the terrorist group al-Qaeda — that he bought openly at South Asian shops all over the U.K.

But his radicalization really ramped up upon attending university, where he studied political science, and with the help of his professors, turned virtually every class discussion towards how the Jews stole Muslim Palestinian land and were the root of all evil in the world.

After 9/11, Hafeez and his radical friends started attending "Stop the War" protests, which would "instantly turn into Israel hatefests."

He and his Muslim friends made a point of befriending "middle-class white kids from Oxford" for their PR value. "We didn't really see them as friends because we abhorred everything they stood for," he admitted.

Eventually, all of his activism didn't seem enough and Hafeez started saving money, hoping to return to Pakistan to attend a jihadi training camp. "Thankfully, it didn't pan out that way," he said, with a chuckle.

Hafeez's plans were scuttled by reading The Case for Israel, by Alan Dershowitz. He read the book with the intent to "prove it all wrong."

What he ultimately found out instead was that he knew virtually nothing about the region — that Jews, for instance, had lived in Israel for thousands of years and that a Palestinian state never actually existed. As he tried to prove the book wrong, the opposite started to happen:

"In hindsight, I never actually gave a real damn about Palestine, I was just obsessed with hating Israel."

Starting to suspect the cause he was prepared to die for was a colossal lie, Hafeez fell into a depression. When he got better, he decided to travel to Israel to see for himself in 2007.

What he noticed was, even though he was held for eight hours at Ben Gurion Airport for questioning, he was treated with great courtesy and decency by the Israeli guards, who apologized to him repeatedly and who were the first Jews he had ever actually talked to.

The contrast to how he was treated in Saudi Arabia in 2002 when he went on a religious pilgrimage, shocked him. At the Saudi airport, while waiting in line for passport control, he was sent to the back of the line five times to make way for Arab Muslims, who are considered superior to South Asian Muslims: "I've never experienced the level of racism like I did in Saudi Arabia."

By contrast, in Israel, while expecting to find apartheid signs directing Muslims to wait for one bus or another, what Hafeez saw instead were Muslims, Jews and Christians all going about their lives in harmony.

"Here's a state that's constantly called an enemy of Islam, yet Muslims have more rights in Israel than they have anywhere else in the Middle East," he said.

In Jerusalem, Hafeez visited the Muslim mosque — the Dome of the Rock, where no Jews are allowed — the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then also visited the most holy site in the world for Jews, the Western Wall. With his Saudi experience still fresh in his mind, he assumed Muslims would be barred, but he was welcomed.

As he stood among Orthodox Jewish men and others praying, Hafeez said when he reached out and touched the wall, he "burst into tears."

A rabbi asked him if he was OK. Hafeez said that he was. The rabbi asked him if he was Jewish. Hafeez said no. The rabbi then said, "That's OK, this is Jerusalem, it's everybody's home."

Years of hatred and animosity toward Jews and Israel melted away at that moment and Hafeez became a free man — like the people of Israel.

"Being so full of hate is just not healthy," said Hafeez, who visited 10 Canadian cities on this tour. "Life is just so much better when you're not so angry and full of hate."

In many respects, the costs have been great for speaking the truth. Hafeez has received death threats, and his father would rather continue to invest his life into hating Jews and Israel, than loving his son, whom he refuses to see.

Ultimately, Hafeez said he seeks to warn the West of the incompatibility of radicalized Islam with a liberal democracy.

"Radical Islam has been brilliant at using this term 'Islamaphobia' to stifle any debate about the negative influence of radical Islam on western society," he said.

"Radical Islamists are using freedom of expression rights to limit our freedom of expression," he warned. "We must stop this now."
There have been other articles about Hafeez, for example here.

Egypt asserts its masculinity; bars American woman for "insult"

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT

From Bikya Masr:
After allegedly insulting an Egyptian customs officer at the Aqaba port, an American woman was barred from entering Egypt, the ministry of interior said Tuesday.

The woman, who was trying to cross into Egypt from the eastern port of Aqaba, allegedly "verbally attacked" the customs officer over visa-related issues and when the ministry was made aware of the incident, the decision to forbid the women from entering the country was put into action.

Amr Roshdy, the spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs said that the necessary legal steps were made against the banned visitor.
The rest of this article shows what is obvious to anyone who actually observes the region, and it is missed by those who refuse to see the truth:
Reports mentioning the incident were cheered by online commentators.

One man said it was "a step in the right direction to regain Egypt's dignity" while another said that "this action puts us on the same level with the US."

Egypt's decreasing regional role and US dominance across parts of the region has made Egyptians yearn for action that proves Egypt's power and asserts its place internationally.
This is the honor/shame mentality that is the key to understanding the Arabic-speaking world.

Arabs will act in ways that are at odds with how Westerners would act - because they think differently.

The idea of such pride at banning a woman is ridiculous on its face, but once you put it in the proper context of an honor/shame society, it makes perfect sense.

And the last paragraph proves that it isn't Israel that the Arabs resent - it is Western power, viewed as being at the expense of Arab masculinity.

It might be a throwaway article, but if you don't understand it, you don't understand the Middle East.

Monday links/Sandy administrivia

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT

I continue to await the full force of Hurricane Sandy, headed pretty much directly at stately Elder Manor, and things will start to get really interesting this afternoon. I'm going on the assumption that my power will go out at one point between now and tomorrow morning.

So I'm queuing up as many posts as I can for tomorrow as the winds increase.

Oddly, my Google Nexus Galaxy phone has a built-in barometer. I don't understand why that would be considered a feature for a phone, even a smartphone, but I have been watching the numbers go down...and down....and down since yesterday. It was around 1000 mBar last night, but at 10:30 AM it was at 985, at 2:00 PM it is down to 972, at 3:45 it fell below 967. (I'm not adjusting for height above sea level.) (963 at 4:45.)

There is a neat map of US barometric pressure here.

Meanwhile, here are some links from Ian:
Peace Calling No Answer (video)
Concerned that U.S. policies toward Israel and Palestinians are hampering, not helping the peace process, an organization of Rabbis and peace advocates turn to Hollywood for a new script...a trilogy of satirical videos of which this is the third. Real Peace Middle East
via Daphne Anson

Douglas Murray: Palestinian Terrorists on the Payroll
British taxpayers are helping to pay the salaries of jailed bomb makers.
"Many British taxpayers, struggling to pay their family's way through a recession, might rightly wonder why their money is going to pay as much as £2,000 a month to people serving the longest sentences—those who have targeted Israeli buses and other civilian targets with suicide bombers, for instance. That is higher than the average wage in nearly all of Britain. You might be forgiven for wondering, if you were a struggling teaching assistant in the North of England, why failing to tick "suicide bomber" on your careers form should have left you so much worse off than a terrorist in the Middle East."

The Region: A friend who acts like an enemy is an enemy By Barry Rubin
"Here's the issue: A number of supposed allies of the United States don't act as friends. In fact, they are major headaches, often subverting US goals and interests. But to avoid conflict and, for Obama, to look successful to the domestic audience, Washington pretends that everything is fine."

From under the bus: A response to Efraim Halevy
"Halevy's airbrushed "history" leaves out Republican then-president Nixon's extraordinary backing of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and Ronald Reagan's formalization of strategic cooperation with Israel, which created the web of ties between the Pentagon and IDF and the progressive strengthening of Israel's military capability still in effect today. He omits Republican presidents who fought bitterly against the United Nations' "Zionism is Racism" resolution — and finally got that resolution repealed — and ignores then-president George W. Bush's diplomatic cover for the Second Lebanon War."

Palestinian Elections: Which Fatah Won? by Khaled Abu Toameh
"Abbas's term in office expired in January 2009, but this has not stopped him from continuing to cling to power. In wake of the results of the local elections, it has become obvious that Abbas does not have a mandate -- even from his Fatah faction -- to embark on any significant political move, such as signing a peace treaty with Israel or applying for membership for a Palestinian state in the UN.
Instead of going to New York next month to ask for Palestinian membership, Abbas should stay in Ramallah and work toward reuniting and reforming Fatah before his political rivals drive him and his veteran loyalists out of office."

Egyptian authorities reportedly seize 1.7 million documents proving Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo
"Elaph, a Saudi-owned news site, reported that Egyptian police received notice that the packages were being held at a shipping company in the Nasser City district of Cairo. Upon arriving at the scene, police found over 1.7 million documents dating back to the 19th century, dealing with Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo. The documents, according to the security source speaking to the Saudi site, weighed over two tons."
Covered on EoZ over a week ago: Egyptian police: Attempt to smuggle Jewish property papers out of Egypt

The Strike on Sudan: A Lesson for Iran?
"A weekend paper showed two maps - a map marking the distance from Israel to Khartoum, and a map showing the distance from Israel to Iran. Significantly, the distance to Khartoum is quite a bit further and so, in this airstrike, Israel is sending another message to Iran."

Iran, Argentina set to meet in Geneva over 1994 Jewish center bombing
Buenos Aires demands the extradition of 8 terror suspects, including Iranian defense minister and former president

Historian slams Germany for ignoring anti-semitism
German-Jew Dr. Julius H. Schoeps accuses the Bundestag of shelving report documenting Jew-hatred in the country.

Honest Reporting: TV Host Refuses to Back Down After Calling Israel a "Cancer"
On Tuesday 23 October, Irish broadcaster Vincent Browne referred to Israel as a "cancer" during his live show on TV3 channel's Tonight With Vincent Brown.

Argentine National Library cancels anti-Israel event
The Argentine National Library has canceled its program "The Ethical Trial of the Israeli Occupation and Colonization of Palestine," The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

New Warsaw museum preserves 1,000 years of Jewish life
Museum of the History of Polish Jews aims to join the ranks of Yad Vashem and the US Holocaust museum, but does not focus only on tragedy

Remaining Jews in Gondar to be brought to Israel
By next September, all remaining eligible Ethiopian Jews in the Jewish Agency camp in Gondar, Ethiopia, will be brought to Israel and the camp will be closed • The Jewish Agency is preparing them for life in Israel.

BrightSource gets $80 million more for California solar plant
The Ivanpah solar power plant, being built using technology developed in Israel, will be the largest in the world

Palestinian Arab mother proudly places suicide belt on her son

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 11:00 AM PDT

From Palestinian Media Watch:

The Facebook page for Fatah in Lebanon has posted this picture of a mother dressing her young son with a suicide belt. This picture was posted on the Fatah site together with an imaginary conversation between the son who is being sent to his death and the mother encouraging it.


"My mother dressed me in a strange belt (i.e., a suicide belt).
I asked her: 'What is this, mother?'
She said: 'I will put it on you and you will go to your death!'
I said to her: 'Mother, what have I done that you want me to die?'
She shed a tear that hurt my heart and said: 'The homeland needs you, son. Go and blow up the sons of Zion.'
I said to her: 'Why me and not you?'
She said: 'I will stay in order to give birth to more children for the sake of Palestine.'
I kissed her hand and said to her: 'Keep it up, mother, for you and for Palestine I will kill the impure and the damned.'"
[Fatah-Lebanon's Facebook page,
posted Sept. 3, 2012, accessed Oct. 28, 2012]
That photo has been going around the Internet for a couple of years; not sure where it originally came from.

PMW gives lots of other examples of encouraging children to kill themselves for the cause.

Egyptian Shiites upset over belly dancing to religious song

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 09:00 AM PDT

From Al Arabiya:
A belly dancer stirred a wave of anger among Shiites in Egypt as she appeared in an Egyptian movie raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Imam Ali, highly venerated in Shiite Islam, who called for banning the movie to screen in theaters.

Baha Anwar Mohammed, spokesman of Egyptian Shiites, has condemned belly dancer Dina for her performance in the film "Abdo Mouta" to be offensive and highly disrespectful to the People of the House (Ahl al-Bayt), the family of Prophet Muhammad, particularly important to Shia Muslims.

Baha was quoted by Egypt's al-Sabah newspaper as saying that the country's Shiites will file a complaint to the general prosecutor against the film demanding to ban it from screening as it insults prominent Islamic figures.

Shiites believe Imam Ali and the rest of Ahl al-Bayt as prophet's successors. Baha called on Egypt's Al-Azhar Islamic School and its Grand Mufti to condemn "such abuse" to the prophet's family.

Dina, the belly dancer, denied her performance in the movie was meant to offend Islamic prominent figures.

She responded, "I am a Muslim and no one can say that I abused the people of the Prophet, God forbid. It's just a song, and the dance was not tacky at all"

Although the song "Virtuous Mother of Hasan and Husain" praises Fatima, the fact that a belly dancer dances to it was seen as highly inappropriate.
Here is Dina performing. May be NSFW.

Egyptian child preacher robotically chants for destruction of Israel

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 07:00 AM PDT

From MEMRI:




Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims...martyrdom on the path of Allah is a religious duty incumbent upon you, oh believers. It is your path for salvation in the eyes of the Lord. Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims. (repeated twice)
Pray: "Oh Allah, destroy Israel" (Amen) Oh Allah, destroy Israel. [inaudible] the accursed Sharon, Bush and Obama. 
The kid looks, literally, brainwashed. He shows no comprehension of his words, and he appears more like a distracted singer who knows the lyrics by heart than someone who understands the hate he is mindlessly chanting.

Ironically, this brainwashed kid is being used in turn to brainwash thousands more watching him on TV.

Don't worry, though - he might have no idea what he is saying now, but in a few years he might turn into this teenage preacher.

Joke: Ha'aretz issues a correction for "apartheid" libel (UPDATE)

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT

From CAMERA:
Five days after the publication of a distorted headline which was picked up by numerous international media outlets, Ha'aretz today published a clarification. In the last several days, numerous critics, including CAMERA, have weighed in about Ha'aretz's coverage of the Dialog poll, including the false headlines. The English online version was "Survey: Most Israeli Jews support apartheid regime in Israel," and the print edition was likewise wrong and damaging: "Survey: Most Israeli Jews advocate discrimination against Arab citizens."

Today, this clarification appears in the Hebrew print edition:

It states (CAMERA's translation):

The wording of the front-page headline, "The majority of Israelis support apartheid in Israel" (Ha'aretz, Oct. 23), did not accurately reflect the findings of the Dialog poll. The question to which most respondents answered in the negative did not relate to the current situation, but to a hypothetical situation in the future: "If Israel annexes territories in Judea and Samaria, in your opinion, should 2.5 million Palestinians be given the right to vote for the Knesset?"

...A small correction buried on page five about a highly visible front-page headline does not do justice to the problem. Levy's articles about the poll continue to inflict damage on Israel's international image. The clarification, though important, does not begin to put out the fire. It's reasonable to assume that most of those who celebrated the initial erroneous reports have no clue that a clarification was printed.
Read the whole thing, including how this is a pattern at Ha'aretz.

I can say with certainty that the original "apartheid" article was instantly reproduced throughout the Arab media, and is still being reported as fact today.

This was the second false "apartheid" headline in less than two weeks; the first one was also clarified after the fact. And that false story - that the Israeli government officially admits that Jews are a minority ruling a majority hostile Arab population - was also instantly flashed across the world in Arabic, as well as in the West.

The amount of damage that Ha'aretz is knowingly causing the State of Israel is immense. They are so eager to paint their country as a horrid, racist entity that their vitriol often exceeds that of Arab publications themselves. The joke that Ha'aretz is Israel's Hebrew-language Arab newspaper is not far off from the truth.

Journalists must be cognizant of the impact of their words. In the cases of many Ha'aretz writers, like Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar and Amira Hass, it appears that they are in fact quite aware of that impact - and that is exactly why they lie. Imagine the boost to their egos, knowing that the most absurd charges against Israel get immediately picked up as fact by newspapers worldwide!

As CAMERA notes, Ha'aretz' editors need to be held accountable for this sickening habit of twisting facts to fit a pre-existing agenda hostile to the state and people of Israel.  Israelis know this - that is why Ha'aretz' circulation is a fraction of those of the top three Israeli papers, and its website is ranked a dismal 7th among Israeli news sites.

However, news media worldwide that rely on Ha'aretz as a reliable news source must be made aware of what Israelis know - that Ha'aretz is acting more like a propaganda rag than a respectable newspaper.

UPDATE: A longer correction, written by Levy, ridiculously claims that the lies "were not made intentionally, but as a result of neglect due to time pressure." He then goes on to defend his bias and his conclusions.

Keep in mind that the poll was done over five weeks before the story was published.

IDF drops leaflets on Gaza warning residents to stay away from border, terrorists

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 02:30 AM PDT

Arabic media is reporting that the IDF has been dropping leaflets onto southern Gaza Monday morning warning residents to stay safe.

The flyers, spread from Rafah to Deir al Balah, tell Gazans to stay at least 300 meters away from the border with Israel. It also urges them to stay away from rocket launchers and terrorists. The leaflets say that the terror groups pose a threat to people's lives, their families, their children and their property. The papers further said that that terrorists are firing rockets from populated areas into Israel, saying it will pursue the launchers.

Pro-terror media outlets warned other Arab newspapers in the area - and even in Egypt - not to publish the text or images of the flyers, so as not to play into the hands of the IDF and to avoid having Gazans read the "lies" of the enemy.

Similarly, Hamas has been gathering up the warnings and burning them as fast as they can, ostensibly to reduce "confusion."

And, incidentally, the entire concept of human shields doesn't work as well when the shields refuse to play along.
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