יום רביעי, 26 בדצמבר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

Somehow, zillions of reporters in Bethlehem missed this story

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:52 PM PST

From Holy Land Missions, December 21:
Pressure from the local community is forcing the hands of the Bethlehem municipality to take down a large Christmas billboard sign that has Jesus on it.

"€œIn the birthplace of Christianity, we have seen over the years that the Christmas holiday has been reduced to snowmen and bells,€" said Pastor Steven Khoury of Holy Land Missions; the ministry behind putting the 1200 square foot sign up. He added, "€œThe essential message of the holiday season has been taken away for fear of what the dominant factors in Bethlehem would say."

Vandals had cut the electric cable surrounding the sign to ensure that it would not be lit up during the night. Barraged with phone calls from the local community, the municipality informed Pastor Khoury that many are campaigning asking us to take down the sign. ...The billboard sign is located at Manger Square with the slogan "Jesus born to die and rose again. Invite him into your heart so you might live - Merry Christmas"€ has caused some people to come out of their cars and take pictures.

Out of fear of repercussions, no one is willing to sell electricity access to the billboard. So Pastor Khoury has been going out with a portable generator and several high beam spotlights and lighting the sign up himself. Anticipating that the sign might be coming down any time, Khoury quickly did one last film next to the billboard sign.


How did every single reporter in Bethlehem miss a story about a pastor who was trying to put up a billboard with a Christian message?

It has an attractive protagonist, who speaks English well. It is an underdog story. It is about freedom of religion. It has the irony of Jesus being absent from Bethlehem. This story is made for TV and print media.

There must be a reason why the reporters ignored this story. Perhaps because of the types of people who are against the sign? Pastor Khoury doesn't identify them, so it is unclear who they are.  All we know is that they are dominant in Bethlehem (so they can't be Christians), that they are from the local community (so they can't be Jews)  that they are threatening those who support the message with violence (so they can't be Quakers,) and that reporters are reluctant to report when these people are acting against freedom of religion and freedom of expression.

This is a tough one.

(h/t Petra)

Saudi network says enemy sheikh needs a psychiatrist

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 03:30 PM PST

From Al Arabiya:
The Middle East Broadcasting Center's children entertainment channel MBC3 hit back on Tuesday at a prominent Saudi preacher who urged parents to prevent their kids from watching the channel because its content promotes "atheism and corruption" according to him.

Sheikh Mohammad al-Arifi, known for his controversial statements, wrote in a twitter post, "It is prohibited to enable your child to watch MBC3 children; its scenes are full of ideas of atheism and corruption; remove it now; your child is in your care."

MBC3 issued a statement describing Arifi's twitter post as "tendentious and far from reality altogether."

The MBC3 statement pointed to a previous seen as preposterous religious edict by Arifi in which he said a daughter should not sit alone with her father for fear that she might tempt him into lusting after her.

"Words cannot describe such mentality and such rationale, especially that it is coming from individuals who should be at the psychiatric hospital to treat abnormal thinking instead of issuing fatwas," the MBC statement added.

Sheikh Arifi had called on his followers on Twitter to boycott advertisers on MBC channels. Ironically as some commentators may see, the sheikh presents a religious show on another Arab television network which has a similar grid of programming and Western content.

"Mitzvah Day" in Detroit - for Jews and Muslims

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:04 PM PST

Transcript from NPR:
Now we turn to a community in Detroit that's unexpectedly playing Santa Claus today. You may have heard the joke that Chinese restaurants get packed on Christmas Day with all the people who don't observe the holiday. About 20 years ago, the Detroit Jewish Community Relations Council decided to forgo the chop suey and instead spend the day serving the city.
The council now runs an annual Mitzvah Day that brings out close to a thousand people - mostly Jewish, but other faiths participate, as well. And they volunteer at homeless shelters, group homes and nearly 40 other projects around the city. We wanted to hear more about this service event, so we've called on two faith leaders in the Detroit area who've been involved for a number of years.
Micki Grossman is the co-chair of Mitzvah Day, which she's participated in for the past two decades. And Dr. Muzammil Ahmed has organized members of his Muslim community to pitch in, as well. He's head of the Michigan Muslim Community Council. Welcome to you both.
MICKI GROSSMAN: Thank you.
MUZAMMIL AHMED: Thank you.
HEADLEE: Micki, let's begin with you. We know about the Chinese food joke. That's been a long-running bit of humor. But how did this begin with the Jewish Community Relations Council? Why did the group decide to spend Christmas Day differently?
GROSSMAN: Well, first of all, I have to tell you that traditionally, in the Jewish community, synagogues and temples had independently picked up programs and would go into a soup kitchen and so forth on Christmas Day. They would have their men's club and sisterhood do something like that.
So there were a few congregations that did it. About 20-some years ago, it actually was a group of women who - Jewish women, who did volunteer work during the year who sat around and discussed the fact that: Why don't we do something big on Christmas Day? And see what we could do about it. And so we started out that way.
I didn't originate the plan, but I was on that steering committee. And we had about 200 volunteers that year, men and women.
HEADLEE: Well, for those of our listeners who are not Jewish, explain what mitzvah means and how a mitzvah is part of the Jewish faith.
GROSSMAN: Mitzvah is a commandment. It's become translated as a good deed, but it actually is a requirement that we have to do something to repair the world, to make life better for other people. Whether they're homeless, hungry, sick or poor, that's just one of the tenets of our faith. And so we use the word mitzvah. And so it became Mitzvah Day that we're going out and doing something good, and it's also a good way to spend the day or part of the day.
HEADLEE: So, Dr. Ahmed, does the Muslim faith have something like mitzvah? Is that also a commandment for Muslims?
AHMED: It certainly is. One of our five pillars of faith is giving zakat, which is charity. And as part of charity, we consider performing charitable acts and deeds something that is highly encouraged and very much an example that we want to set for ourselves and our families. So doing service work, doing small things and large things for the community is something that is an integral part of our faith.
HEADLEE: But why Christmas? How did the people in your Muslim community get involved, and why choose Christmas as the day for serving the community?
AHMED: That's an excellent question, and in some way, I think we're following the footsteps of the Jewish community in that many Muslims that have been in America have been doing a lot of charitable activities and functions over the years, but on Christmas Day, we don't necessarily celebrate Christmas, but we did want to recognize and respect the people around us that do have wonderful experiences on this day. And we wanted to share in that experience somehow, yet maintain our own independence and identity. And the Mitzvah Day seemed like a wonderful way to give back to the community at a time when they need it. And the community has always stepped forward to stand up for the Muslim community in recent months with different things that have happened. We thought this would be a great time to be able to give back.
GROSSMAN: Could I jump in for just a minute? Because...
HEADLEE: Of course.
GROSSMAN: ...about three years ago, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council was having lunch with two leaders from the Muslim community, and they were just sitting around talking. And somehow, Robert told them about preparing for Mitzvah Day, and he had said, you know, this is something for us to do, because we don't celebrate Christmas the same way.
And so that's how it evolved. And it's ongoing. I mean, we have many partnerships that the Jewish and Muslim community do together, but this has become a spectacular event.

Tuesday links

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 12:45 PM PST

From Ian:
Palestinians Burning Their Bridges
"The Palestinians and their leadership have spent the last 20 years converting a strong Israeli majority in favor of the peace process into one that regards the whole concept as a dangerous fantasy. Twenty years ago the Israeli left romped in an election that relegated the Likud to minority status. In next month's Knesset elections, not even the Labor party will spend time advocating for more concessions to the Palestinians in exchange for the hope of peace. Terrorism, the second intifada, the rise of Hamas and the conversion of Gaza into a terror state have effectively destroyed the Israeli left. But rather than react to this somber shift in the mood of their neighbors with an attempt to restart peace talks or to convince them that their goal is to end the conflict rather than to merely continue it on more advantageous terms, the Palestinians are planning on doubling down on their negative image."

Majority in House: Punish PLO, Close Its Office
A majority of the House of Representatives wants to punish the PLO and close down its DC office, but the Senate rejected a similar move.

Maikel Nabil Sanad, Political Activist and Blogger Brings Tidings From Egypt to Israel
"I'm breaking a taboo coming to Israel, but I'm not the first Egyptian to do so," said Maikel Nabil Sanad, a political activist and blogger who was jailed and tortured for 302 days for criticizing the Egyptian army post-Mubarak. He was pardoned by the Egyptian military in January 2012 following international pressure and efforts of several different human rights organizations including UN Watch.

As Hagel's star withers, will a blunt-talking policy wonk drop her kids to take the Pentagon?
Michele Flournoy has been touted by conservatives, Israel supporters, women's rights activists and Democrats for the US defense secretary post. But does she even want the job?
"A senior Republican Senate aide told Politico that Flournoy was well versed in Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system, which is partially funded by the US, as well as regional arms sales and the importance of Israel's military edge over its neighbors.
On Iran, her views seemingly fall in line with the pentagon's official position, that a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities must be kept on the table, though the option is not an effective one."

Bethlehem's Christmas war on Jesus
"The Khoury's live in Bethlehem. Steven was raised there where his father, Dr. Naim Khoury, started Holy Land Ministries in 1980. During the past 32 years Steven, his family and the ministry's congregations have experienced opposition to the gospel of Jesus the Messiah, God's incarnate Word made flesh.
There have been threats and muggings, fire bombs and murder. Many believers have fled the region, but the Khoury's remain. Every Sunday, worship and teaching are broadcast from speakers atop their local church's steeple, clashing with Islamic calls to prayer."

Radical Muslims Take Anti-Christian Protest to St Paul's Cathedral on Christmas Eve
"A group of radical Muslims is planning to use St Paul's Cathedral to protest against the sins of British society and the fallacy of the Bible.
The protesters were due to gather outside the cathedral at 1pm, while a Christmas Eve Eucharist takes place inside.
Ahead of the protest, radical preacher Anjem Choudary claimed that Jesus belonged to Islam and that British society was riddled with "sin".

Honest Reporting: The 5 Best Articles of 2012
"I don't want to let the curtain fall on 2012 without acknowledging that sometimes, Big Media gets the story right. While looking over content for the 2012 Dishonest Reporter Awards, I promised myself I'd follow up with a positive list. It's my own subjective list, and I invite you to post your own list of articles in the comments section."

Eye on the UN: Antisemitism & The Latest Performance of Roger Waters

Egyptian Army Thwarts Rocket Smuggling to Gaza
Armed forces in the Sinai foiled an attempt to smuggle 17 rockets to Gaza.
"Armed Forces personnel in North Sinai, in cooperation with local Bedouins, foiled an attempt on Monday to smuggle 17 rockets to Gaza, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
A military source told the agency that the rockets are a French-made TDI model, caliber 68 mm, range three kilometers and can be used air to land or land to land."

'Agent 15' Paralyzing Syrian Victims
Assad's forces probably are using "Agent 15," which causes paralysis. The worse news is that Assad has more deadly chemical weapons.

Russian military presence in Syria poses challenge to US-led intervention
Advisers deployed with surface-to-air systems bolster President Assad's defences and complicate outcome of any future strikes

Assad's Cash Problem: Will Syria's Dwindling Reserves Bring Down the Regime?
"But it is the Syrian leader who faces total collapse in the face of bankruptcy. So dire are Assad's finances, in fact, that in recent months Russia flew eight plane-loads of Syrian banknotes, printed in Russia, to Damascus, in a kind of rescue package estimated to weigh about 240 tons, according to flight records obtained by ProPublica, a U.S.-based non-profit investigative journalism organization."

Female Warrior to be Honored for Killing Terrorist
A female soldier from the Caracal unit who killed a terrorist near the border with Egypt will be given a citation on Tuesday.
"The Head of the IDF's Southern Command, Tal Russo, will award a citation on Tuesday to a female fighter in the IDF's mixed sex Caracal unit, who shot and killed a terrorist who carried out a terror attack near Israel's border with Egypt in September."

Spain, Israel plan to work on infrastructure projects
"Spanish Development Minister Ana Pastor Sunday opened the door to Spanish businesses and experts to participate in big infrastructure projects that Israel will put up for bidding in the near future at a total cost of more than 10 billion euros (USD 13.2 billion).
Expansion of ports, electrification of railroad lines, new highways, tunnels and even the construction of a mixed high-speed train line between the Mediterranean and Red Seas are some of the projects to which Spanish firms will aspire after the signing Sunday of a technical cooperation agreement between the two countries."

Sacramento City Council Members Who Resisted BDS Dedicating Ambulance to Ashkelon
"The ambulance was given as a gift to Ashkelon by Robert Leeds, a 13-year-old from the Los Angeles area who wanted to make a contribution to a worthy civic cause, according to a StandWithUs press statement. Attendees of Leeds's bar mitzvah, instead of giving him gifts, were told to designate money toward the ambulance.
"The ambulance dedication is a thank you to the city of Sacramento for approving the newest sister city resolution with Ashkelon last August despite opposition from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in their on-going attempts to pariah the state of Israel," Gail Rubin, representing the Sacramento-Davis area chapter of SWU, told JNS"

Israel Daily Picture: Christmas in the Holy Land 100 Years Ago
The photographs on this page were taken by the American Colony Photographic Department before and after World War I when the British captured Palestine after 400 years of Ottoman rule.

Egyptian sheikh says secularists are even worse than Jews

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST

El Balad reports that Sheikh Mahmoud Murad Amam, a preacher in Damanhour, attacked Egypt's secularists while delivering a sermon Friday.

He described secularists as "more dangerous than the Zionists and Jews."

"They are receiving external funding to destabilize Egypt," he said, adding attacks on the media and journalists, accusing them of lying and slander against him for their reporting on his previous sermons.

(h/t Lachlan)

Arab nations still reneging on pledges to the PA

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:20 AM PST

From Ma'an:
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday criticized Arab states for evading their financial commitments to the PA.

Arab countries have yet to follow through on a pledge in March to provide a financial safety net of $100 million monthly to the PA to mitigate Israeli sanctions, which were imposed in November.

During a visit to Jenin, Fayyad called for an urgent Arab summit to address the PA's financial crisis.
So what else is new?

Dead Sea Scrolls and 15th century Mishnah online

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:30 AM PST

The Dead Sea Scrolls:
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is very proud to present the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a free online digitized virtual library of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Hundreds of manuscripts made up of thousands of fragments – discovered from 1947 and until the early 1960's in the Judean Desert along the western shore of the Dead Sea – are now available to the public online. The high resolution images are extremely detailed and can be accessed through various search options on the site.

With the generous lead support of the Leon Levy Foundation and additional generous support of the Arcadia Fund, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Google joined forces to develop the most advanced imaging and web technologies to bring to the web hundreds of Dead Sea Scrolls images as well as specially developed supporting resources in a user-friendly platform intended for the public, students and scholars alike.


The Mishnah:
The text of the Mishnah describes the first written account of the early Jewish oral tradition and the earliest significant work of Rabbinic Judaism. It dates from the period of the second century BCE at a time when persecution of the Jewish populations gave rise to the fear that the details of the oral traditions dating from the first five centuries BCE might be lost. As a written authority it is second only to the Bible text and can be used as a source of authority for making judgments. The Mishnah is divided into six orders (Shisha Sedarim) and over the next six centuries, along with further commentaries, came to form the Talmud. The major part of the text of the Mishnah is written in Hebrew and reflects the debates which took place in the first and second centuries CE by a group of Rabbinic thinkers known as the Tannaim. It teaches by drawing on examples of specific judgments along with debates by notable Rabbis, and discusses problems from all areas of human existence.

This is one of only three complete manuscripts of the Mishnah, and considered to be 'an outstanding witness of the western type of Mishnaic Hebrew'. Of the manuscript, Schiller-Szinessy (vol. ii p. 9) writes: 'Although this copy can lay claim neither to a very great age, nor to absolute correctness, we cannot hesitate to pronounce it to be a MS. beyond all price.' Edited by W. H. Lowe, 'The Mishnah on which the Palestinian Talmud Rests' (Cambridge, 1883) – although that title can be considered inaccurate given more recent research on the manuscript.

((h/t Yoel)

Today's fake PCHR "civilian"

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 05:45 AM PST

Hamas continues to slowly release obituaries of terrorists killed during Pillar of Defense. (HRW used the absence of names on the Al Qassam website as evidence that the dead could not be terrorists!)

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights described a "civilian" death this way:
At approximately 19:50 on Saturday [November 17], an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a gathering of Palestinian civilians in Wadi al-Salqa village, killing Ali Hassan Bin Saeed, 25, and wounding 3 others.

But Hamas released Saeed's obituary today, referring to him as a "mujahid."

Saeed was born in Saudi Arabia, but went to UNRWA schools in central Gaza. He attended Palestine Technical College for management and office automation, and received his bachelors degree in business administration. He joined Hamas in 2005 and the Al Qassam Brigades in 2006. He was involved in working on several weapons smuggling tunnels and participated in Cast Lead as well as Pillar of Defense.

This is one of the people who are being identified in the media as a "civilian" killed by Israel, basing it on PCHR's bogus statistics.

(poster h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Bibi Netanyahu's Christmas message - and Ha'aretz' hallucinogenic interpretation

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:00 AM PST



 Barak Ravid in Ha'aretz writes a truly bizarre article that discerns anti-Muslim bigotry in this brief talk.
"Today Christian communities throughout the Middle East are shrinking and many of them are in danger," said Netanyahu, according to the announcement published by his bureau in Hebrew and English. "...this is of course not true in Israel. Here there is a strong and growing Christian community that participates fully in the life of our country."

Netanyahu did not specify in his greeting exactly who is threatening to annihilate the Christians, but it's clear from the wording that he means the Muslims. As he did last year, he emphasized that the Christian community in Israel is large and that it enjoys freedom of religion and freedom to worship, but this year he added a hinted reference to the "Judeo-Christian heritage."

The reference is to a sensitive term taken from the conceptual world of the rightist-evangelical anti-Muslim wing of the Republican Party.
Dexter Van Zile in The Algemeiner points out that every Christian knows that Muslim extremists are indeed threatening Christians in the Middle East; it hardly needs to be mentioned.

In fact, by not mentioning the Muslim tormentors of Christians, Netanyahu was going out of his way to make his Christmas message upbeat, not the hateful rant Ravid thinks it is.

Moreover, Ravid asserts that Netanyahu "hints" of the the phrase "Judeo-Christian heritage" and implies that this is an unforgivable anti-Muslim phrase.

In reality, the phrase is not as loaded as Ravid believes it is - it has been used way before modern Zionism.

Netanyahu's actual words can hardly be more innocuous - or accurate.  He said "We hope that you will recall the places where Judaism and Christianity emerged." Who but a conspiracy theorist can find offense at that sentence?

Just like Netanyahu doesn't use the word "Muslim," he doesn't use the phrase "Judeo-Christian." Ravid is basing his article on what Netanyahu doesn't say and draws fevered conclusions from what he believes are the secret racist beliefs underlying the message with these omissions!

This isn't the work of a journalist or of a editorialist - these are the ravings of a paranoiac who is determined to see hidden meanings in everything uttered by his imagined enemies.

Finally, it is useful to point out that, unlike Netanyahu's positive message for Christians on the holiday, Mahmoud Abbas' Christmas message was literally filled with explicit hateful attacks on Israel and Zionism, referring to the Jewish state's "injustice and tyranny" and Israel's desire to "Judaize the whole earth." He accuses Israel of "eroding the national and religious culture" of Palestinian Christians. He says that Israel is "tormenting" Palestinian Arabs and making their lives a "living hell." Beyond his explicit message of hate, Abbas further implies that Palestine is only sacred to Christians and Muslims, not Jews.

The contrast between Netanyahu and Abbas could not be starker.

Ha'aretz, of course, has nothing bad to say about Abbas' speech. In fact, it never even reported it. That would upset the narrative of the evil, extremist Netanyahu versus the moderate, liberal Abbas. We can't have that.
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