יום חמישי, 4 באפריל 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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Pseudo-academics to hold "Right of Return" conference at Boston U

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 03:20 PM PDT

This weekend, a conference is being held at the Boston University Law School Auditorium advocating the Palestinian Arab "right to return" to destroy Israel demographically.

Of course, there is no such "right" and the papers being presented are a far cry from scholarly. I discussed this conference briefly in February.

The roster of speakers include Joseph Massad, who I have dismantled a few times, and Salman Abu Sitta, the author of the "Atlas of Palestine 1948" that Benny Morris comprehensively demolished.

I looked a little more at Abu Sitta and found this piece where he claims that some secret Red Cross documents prove Jews poisoned Arabs in Acre in 1948 with typhus:

Acre was to be the next Zionist target. The Zionists besieged the city from the land side, and started showering the population with a hail of mortar bombs day and night. Famous for its historical walls, Acre could stand the siege for a long time. The city water supply comes from a nearby village, Kabri, about 10kms to the north, through an aqueduct. The Zionists injected typhoid in the aqueduct at some intermediate point which passes through Zionist settlements. (see map)

The story can now be told, thanks to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) files which have now become available, 50 years after the event. A series of reports, under the reference G59/1/GC, G3/82, sent by ICRC delegate de Meuron from 6 May to about 19 May 1948 describe the conditions of the city population, struck by a sudden typhoid epidemic, and the efforts to combat it.

Of particular importance are the minutes of an emergency conference held at the Lebanese Red Cross Hospital in Acre on 6 May, to deal with the typhoid epidemic. The meeting was attended by: Brigadier Beveridge, Chief of British Medical Services and Colonel Bonnet of the British Army, Dr Maclean of the Medical Services, Mr de Meuron, ICRC delegate in addition to other officials of the city. The minutes stated that there are at least 70 known civilian casualties, others may not be reported. It was determined that the infection is "water borne", not due to crowded or unhygienic conditions as claimed by the Israelis. It was decided that a substitute water supply should now come from artesian wells or from the agricultural station, just north of Acre (see map), not from the aqueduct. Water chlorine solution was applied, inoculation of civil population started, movement of civil population was controlled (lest refugees heading north towards Lebanon will carry the typhoid epidemic with them, as intended by the Zionists).

In his other reports, de Meuron mentioned 55 casualties among British soldiers, who were spirited away to Port Said for hospitalisation. General Stockwell arranged for de Meuron to fly on a military plane to Jerusalem to fetch medicine. The British, who left Palestine in the hands of the Jews, did not want another embarrassing incident to delay their departure.

Brigadier Beveridge told de Meuron that this is "the first time this happened in Palestine". This belies the Israeli story, including that of the Israeli historian Benny Morris, that the epidemic is due to "unhygienic conditions" of the refugees. If that was so, how come there was an almost equal number of casualties among British soldiers? Why did such conditions not cause epidemic in such other concentrations of refugees, under far worse conditions, in Jaffa, Lydda, Nazareth and Gaza?
A quick look at the Palestine Post archives reveals that the epidemic was due to the chlorination in Acre having broken down the previous month, before the influx of refugees.

Now, why didn't other refugee populations come down with typhoid? Well, they did; this article is from August 1948:


And was this the first outbreak of typhoid in Palestine? Not even close; typhoid was common in the 1930s and 1940s. Here's just one of many articles about typhoid, this one in Haifa:


It takes literally minutes to expose Abu Sitta as a liar. 

Which makes him a fitting speaker at a conference for a "right" that is as fake as his academic honesty is. 

See also Richard Cravatt's analysis of this conference. 

(h/t Dan)

Man injured in Mavi Marmara to donate compensation to terror groups

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 01:25 PM PDT

From Hurriyet Daily News:
One of the victims of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla has announced that he will .
donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad

Activist Mehmet Tunç said he would donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine himself, adding that he would not touch even "one Turkish Lira" of it at a press conference today.
Isn't that special?

Wednesday Links Part 2

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 12:30 PM PDT

From Ian:
The blood-libel sisterhood
This is why Ashrawi must have realized that she was going to be in financial hot water if MIFTAH didn't issue an apology: "It has become clear to us after investigating this incident that the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member. The said staffer has been reprimanded and all our staff has been informed as to the disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews."
Now there's remorse for you — Palestinian-style, that is.
Israel: Marmara Apology Tied to Iran Nukes
Deputy Foreign Minister Elkin says restoring relations with Turkey is at top of government's agenda.
According to a report by defense analyst Anthony Cordesman, quoted by the Brookings Institution's Noah Shachtman in Wired Magazine last year, while a U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program would be launched primarily from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, an Israeli strike would require using a quarter of the Israel Air Force's fighters. "The jets will have to hug the Syrian-Turkish border before flying over both Iraq and Iran. And that is not exactly friendly territory," wrote Shachtman.
'You Can Fool Some People Sometime': BS Gets BDS a Win at UC Riverside
As some of you might know, the student senate at UC Riverside voted on March 6 to divest from companies doing business in Israel. You'd think that the UCR students had risen up in outrage at supposed Israeli "apartheid". That is, after all, what "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) --sponsors of the divestment motion -- want you to think.
But don't be fooled. The UCR senate did not pass the divestment bill because UCR students agree with the SJP. The senate passed the divestment bill, quite simply, because it was swindled. Because the SJP orchestrated it so that opponents of the bill did not get their say.
Honest Reporting: The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel?
Yes, Israel, like all countries, has its unfortunate problems of racism. But the problems described by Australian feminist columnist Ruby Hamad don't justify The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel. Hamad has a big-time problem with the Miss Israel crown going to 21 year-old Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw:
"It is a mistake to assume, when an individual belonging to a marginalised group manages to break through the barriers barring them to success, that suddenly these barriers no longer exist."
First of all, Hamad botched the facts on what she thinks is her strongest part of the condemnation:
BBC yet again promotes the notion of Israel as a racist society
But when an Ethiopian-born Israeli woman became Miss Israel and when an Arab-Israeli woman won the local version of 'The Voice' singing the same song as Alexandra Burke, the BBC found it insufficient to concentrate on their personal achievements alone.
CAMERA: Where is Amnesty Stat Gideon Levy Cites?
Not for the first time, Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy plays fast and loose with Palestinian casualty figures.
In his March 31 column, Gideon Levy attributes a Cast Lead Palestinian casualty figure to Amnesty International, though a thorough search of the organization's materials does not turn up any such figure.
2 rockets fired from Gaza explode in southern Israel
Projectiles hit near Sderot after overnight IAF strikes; defense minister in Jerusalem warns Israel won't tolerate renewed missile fire
First time since Pillar of Defense: IAF carries out strikes in Gaza
Following two incidents of mortar fire from Gaza, Palestinian sources report that IAF carries out air strike against Gaza targets. Earlier, IDF tanks returned fire after mortar lands in Golan Heights
Israel hits Syrian outpost in response to cross-border fire
Army post at Tel Hazeka targeted by IDF tanks after patrol comes under attack by light arms and mortar lands in Golan; no injuries or damage on Israeli side
Galloway tweets Hamas some love
Why hasn't Khaled Meshal retweeted him yet?
Israel honored with tough-to-land medical conference invite
An Israeli delegation will be attending TedMed in DC, and a TedMed conference will be held in Israel – the first time this prestigious conference has been 'exported'
IBM Research celebrates 40 years in Israel
IBM celebrated its hundredth birthday last year. And for 40 of those years, the international technology leader has maintained a research lab in Haifa, Israel, its largest one outside the United States.
While today it seems obvious that major corporations with heavy investments in R&D would want to have a division in Israel, in 1972, when IBM Research opened its Israel office, that was hardly the case. In fact, it was more a matter of IBM not wanting to lose one of its top scientists, Israeli-born Prof. Josef Raviv, who wanted to move back home.
Tale of the '50 Children' to Debut This Holocaust Remembrance Day on HBO
Journalist Steven Pressman first learned of the 50 children rescued by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus in 2002 from his wife Liz Perle, the Krauses' granddaughter, who had possession of a formerly hidden and unpublished manuscript written by Eleanor decades earlier.

Egyptian media, president upset at Jon Stewart

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 11:00 AM PDT

Egyptian newspaper Rassd shows a video clip of Jon Stewart talking about Egypt's problems today, saying that he is "insulting Morsi". Here it is, subtitled in Arabic, and it is pretty funny:



This clip is being embedded in many other Arab news sites, although they are not nearly as upset.

The good news is that the YouTube video is getting a lot of "thumbs up" from the Arab audience.

The video was posted by the US Embassy in Egypt, drawing a reprimand from Morsi:

Egypt's Presidency accused the US Embassy in Cairo of engaging in "negative political propaganda" after the embassy posted an episode of the Daily Show in which the show's host, well-known American comedian Jon Stewart, slammed President Mohamed Morsy and expressed solidarity with Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef, who presents an Egyptian show modeled on Stewart's.

"It's inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda," stated the official Twitter account of Egypt's presidency in reply to the US Embassy in Cairo.
(h/t Ian)

Wednesday Links Part 1

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 09:30 AM PDT

From Ian:
Where Is the Feminist Outrage Over Discrimination in Gaza?
Refreshingly, the feminist writers from The Nation and Ms. Magazine did not openly come out and lay the blame for this public relations debacle at the feet of Israel.
But I will buy a free dinner at the vegan, slow food, locavore restaurant of your choice, in the city of your choice, if you can find one article in either publication by a feminist writer that explicitly and substantially criticizes Hamas and the Palestinians for their terrible and discriminatory mistreatment of women in Gaza. And especially this most recent incident of discrimination against Palestinian women.
Raping Women in the Name of Islam by Khaled Abu Toameh
What happened to the two women in Libya is a big disgrace not only to Islam, but to all those who sympathize with fundamentalists and terrorists, including the "scholars" and "sheikhs" who authorize such crimes.
Moderate Muslims who fail to strongly condemn the Muslim terrorists and rapists also bear responsibility for the crimes that are being committed in the name of Islam.
The gang rape in Libya will also cause tremendous damage to the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. As of now, families of "pro-Palestinian" activists around the world will have to think ten times before sending their daughters on humanitarian aid convoys.
New Fatwa permits rape of non-Sunni women in Syria
Jordanian Sheih Yasir al-'Ajlawni is certainly not the first cleric to legitimize the rape of infidel women in recent times. Calls to capture and rape non-Muslim women are appearing with increasing frequency and from all corners of the Islamic world.
Court finds stone-thrower guilty of murder
In a groundbreaking decision, a military court found a Palestinian man guilty of murder for throwing a rock at an Israeli car, causing it to crash and killing the driver and his infant son.
The court at Ofer military prison on Tuesday found Wa'al al-Araji, 25, from Halhul, to be directly responsible for the deaths in 2011 of Asher Palmer and his 1-year-old son Yehonatan.
Is Norway funding the murderers of Israelis?
"The country's 3 largest opposition parties have asked for an investigation into Norwegian financing of the PA".
Too much of a good thing? Palestinians realize downsides of foreign aid boom
With food insecurity soaring and GDP declining, Palestinians in the West Bank are waking up to the fact that their foreign aid dependent economy is unsustainable.
The Tunnel Economy
Commercially speaking, these tunnels offer an opportunity to smuggle subsidized Egyptian goods and commodities that are banned from being exported, such as petroleum products or certain food items. Successive Egyptian governments have failed to find ways to reduce these subsidies—which deplete their budgets—for fear of social unrest. Likewise, these tunnels also represent an opportunity for more clandestine trades such as arms dealing.
The biggest beneficiaries of the tunnel trade may be the select group of families on both sides of the border, some of whom have transformed into millionaires, in addition to the Hamas government and what it collects from tax on smuggled goods.(h/t Zvi)
MEMRI: Egyptian Author Alaa Al-Aswany On Situation Of Copts In Egypt
In an ironic article, Egyptian author Alaa Al-Aswany describes what it is to be "a Muslim in Britain," metaphorically referring in fact to the state of the Copts in Egypt, who suffer from severe persecution and discrimination. The following are excerpts.
ElBaradei slams ban against Iranian tourists in (Egyptian) mosques
On Twitter, ElBaradei wrote, "How come we, Sunnis and Shias, perform pilgrimage together yet we talk about preventing Iranians from visiting some of the houses of God?"
Saudi man who paralysed his best friend in knife attack faces having his spinal cord severed in 'eye-for-an eye' punishment
The ultra-conservative desert Kingdom enforces Islamic law and on rare occasions issues punishments based on the ancient code of an 'eye-for-an-eye'.
Ali Al-Khawahir was 14 years old when he stabbed his friend in the backbone and has been imprisoned for 10 years.
Lego denies discontinuing Jabba's Palace over race claims
Toy manufacturer Lego has denied claims by Austria's Turkish community that it is withdrawing one of its Star Wars products because of allegations it was riddled with racist stereotypes.
Also:
The Jewish "Occupation" of Judea?
One has to wonder why the international community decided to use the term West Bank even after the area was liberated. And the fact that all Jews were forced out of Judea and Samaria during Jordan's illegal occupation is something you rarely hear in the media or anywhere else. I guess people want to maintain the false image of Jews in Judea and Samaria as "foreign occupiers"? Well, they are not foreign occupiers. Jews lived in the so called "West Bank" for ages…. That's until all of them were either killed or forced out of the area after Jordan's occupation started in 1948.

Child on PA TV: Jews "murdered children, raped women in city squares, defiled the Quran"

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 07:45 AM PDT

From PMW:



Earlier this month, Palestinian children were taught Islam-based hatred of Jews on the weekly PA TV children's show The Best Home. A young girl recited a poem filled with both Islamic hate messages and other libels demonizing Jews.

Girl: "Allah created me and formed me
He made me prouder and made me a Palestinian
He made defiance flow like blood in my veins
And I made the revolution burst forth like clay stones
I raised the flags of certain victory:
Allah's book [the Quran] and the tradition of the most esteemed among prophets [Muhammad].
I called in the voice of hidden justice
I lit a fire like volcanoes under their feet
I refused to be submissive and degraded
I rejected [everything] but dying with the honor that will give me life
From a nation that has forgotten the Muslims' heroism
- Omar ibn al-Khattab and Saladin - [Muslim fighters who conquered Jerusalem]
from between the whistles of the bullets I sing:
'Long live the nation of Fatah and Yasser Arafat'
Allah's enemies, the sons of pigs (i.e., Jews, in Islamic tradition)
Destroyed and uprooted the olive and fig trees
They murdered children with guns, like snakes
They cut off their limbs with stones and knives
They raped the women in the city squares
They defiled Allah's book [the Quran] in front of millions
Where is the nation of Islam?
Where are the nation of Islam and the Jihad fighters?
Where is the fear of Allah in Jerusalem, which has been defiled by the Zionists?"
PA TV host: "Bravo, applause, applause, applause to Hadeel."
[PA TV (Fatah), March 22, 2013]

Oxfam covers for Miftah's doubletalk

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 06:00 AM PDT

So far, most of the NGOs that fund Miftah have been silent during the blood-libel controversy I discovered.

Oxfam, however, just responded to a couple of my readers' inquiries (and then to mine) with a canned response which illustrates a troubling downplaying of the issue:

Thank you for making us aware that a blog post published on the website of one of our partners, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), included reprehensible anti-Semitic statements.

MIFTAH has removed the offensive blog post and issued a public apology on its website. MIFTAH has assured Oxfam that the individual behind the post has been reprimanded. Oxfam Is clearly on record as opposing the use of language or acting in ways which promote hate or discrimination.

Oxfam has worked with MIFTAH since 2010. Currently, MIFTAH and three other partners are implementing Oxfam's regional project Supporting Women's Transformative Leadership in Changing Times. The project targets marginalized women and men to support women's rights and gender justice with the goal of increased empowerment, self-confidence, and leadership roles for women in public and private spheres.
Oxfam is surely aware that the section of Miftah's site where the offensive article was published was not a "blog" but an essay section where they republish articles they think are interesting for their readers. They even index the section so their readers can read other articles from the same author, and Nawaf al-Zaru has been featured five times.

Oxfam should also be aware that the "apology" was not issued in Arabic, the language of the hateful essay, meaning that Arabic-language readers of Miftah have no idea what Miftah's opinion on the medieval blood libel is, and for all they know Miftah supports that heinous lie.

Moreover, Oxfam must also be aware that Miftah did not issue its English apology until it felt under pressure to do so.

Finally, this response did not even address one of the writer's points about Miftah, that they have praised suicide bombers.  And not in their "essay" section, either, but under their own name. (NOTE: Since that essay was discovered and publicized, Miftah has also silently removed that essay - but you can still find it archived at the UN!)

Clearly, Oxfam wants to find excuses for Miftah instead of holding it to a standard that it would hold any Western NGO.

Miftah silently removes its essay praising suicide bombers

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 04:00 AM PDT

I noted last week that Miftah, the NGO that published the medieval blood libel as "open dialogue," also published an essay - under its own name - that praised female suicide bombers:

Fighting Back

Palestinian women have also participated in the resistance. As the conflict grew more intense and young men were recruited to carry out military operations against Israeli targets, several young women also decided to join the ranks of the resistance movement. In January 2002, 28-year-old nurse Wafa Idrees, detonated a bomb in Jerusalem's Jaffa Street, killing one Israeli and injuring 150 others. She was also killed in the blast.

This marked the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause. Over the next two years, seven other women carried out similar operations, the most deadly of which was carried out by Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old attorney from Jenin. Hanadi detonated explosives strapped to her body in a busy Haifa restaurant, killing 19 Israelis and injuring 50 others.
As it initially did with the blood libel article when it was exposed, Miftah has now silently removed that piece as well.

No apology. No mention of why it published an essay that is purportedly against its own stated core values to begin with.  Once again, Miftah is acting like a child caught next to a broken lamp, football on the floor,  rather than an organization that takes responsibility for its actions.

In only one week, I am the one that prompted Miftah to remove the blood libel essay, I am the one that prompted Miftah to apologize for it, and I am the one that prompted Miftah to remove the essay praising terrorists (although NGO Monitor also called them on it.). If it wasn't for our shaming them, nothing would have happened. When is Miftah going to take responsibility for its own actions rather than waiting for "obscure websites" to "smear' them? I could find an encyclopedia of lies in the Miftah site - but why should I be the one doing this?

Miftah appears more concerned over Hanan Ashrawi's reputation than the truth. You can find the offensive essay archived at the UN's UNISPAL site (and, at the moment, in Google's cache.)

Miftah's problems are deeper than just one "junior level staffer" - they are systemic to the organization, and as long as its funding NGOs ignore the problem, things won't get any better.

Those Palestinian Arab "moderates" sure love to incite violence

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 01:35 AM PDT

Ha'aretz reports:
A 64-year-old Palestinian security prisoner died of on Tuesday morning at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, sparking clashes in Hebron between protesters and Israeli security forces and the declaration of a three-day hunger strike by other Palestinians jailed in Israel. Security was beefed up in prisons in case of further unrest.

Maysara Abuhamdieh, from Hebron, had been serving a life sentence since 2002 for attempted murder, membership in Hamas and weapons possession.

After being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in February, Abuhamdieh was under the medical care in Be'er Sheva. A week ago, after his condition was judged to be terminal, the Israel Prisons Service initiated an early release request for Abuhamdieh, who died before for the request could be processed.
I am deliberately quoting Ha'aretz because if there was the slightest possibility that Israel was responsible for Abuhamdieh's death, they would report it.

Mahmoud Abbas has no such qualms, as his official WAFA news agency reports:
The presidency Tuesday held the Israeli government fully responsible for the death of Palestinian prisoner Maysara abu hamdiya, who died due to medical negligence by the Israeli prison services.

President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that the arrogance of the Israeli government stopped in the way of responding to Palestinian efforts to secure the release of the prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiya, who died in prison due to medical negligence by the Israel Prison Service.

"We tried working on Abu Hamdiya's release due to his medical condition, but the Israeli government refused to respond to the PA's efforts in releasing him, which led to his death," he said.
What did our new favorite PA NGO, Miftah - that claims to be dedicated to the "philosophy of promoting accurate and credible information" - have to say?

Miftah said it deplored his death "following medical negligence in which he... did not receive the care and proper treatment by the management of prisons of the occupation."

This is similar to how both the PA and Miftah responded to the death of Arafat Jaradat. The same Ha'aretz article reports
In February Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old Palestinian prisoner, died of a heart attack in Megiddo Prison. Other inmates claimed that he was in good health and that his death was the result of torture while in prison at the hands of Israeli security forces. Poisoning and torture were ruled out as causes of death in Jaradat's autopsy.
How did Miftah report it?
His family, and frankly the entire Palestinian people, knows better. Jaradat, seen also by a Palestinian doctor who participated in the autopsy, was covered in wounds, bruises and contusions. He had two broken ribs – which Israel claims is the result of CPR efforts to revive him – and massive bruising on his chest, shoulders and face. According to Prisoner Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe, Jaradat also had broken bones in his neck, arms and legs. During a court session in the middle of his interrogation process, his lawyer, Kameel Sabbagh said Jaradat was extremely fatigued and had complained to him of severe pains from the beatings and from being tied in the same position for several hours on end.

Other bits and pieces of Jaradat's story are surfacing, all which incriminate Israel and its interrogators in his brutal death. According to his family members, the night he was arrested, an Israeli intelligence officer brought him briefly back to see his family so he could "bid them farewell."
There is zero evidence for broken bones in his "neck, arms and legs," nor of alleged torture, nor of the absurd story about "bidding farewell." But Miftah reports them as fact.

The most absurd rumors and lies gain currency in the PA, not from fringe characters but from the PA itself as well as from Western-funded NGOs who will blindly believe the most absurd, uncorroborated reports and dismiss any information that comes from Israel.

Is inciting Arabs to start riots something you would expect from "peace partners" and from NGOs that claim to support peace and democracy?
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