Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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"Siege " news: Cement prices in Gaza plummet Posted: 18 May 2013 07:21 PM PDT Gaza tunnel owners are complaining that the price of cement has plummeted, because of Israel allowing far more construction materials into Gaza in recent months. The price per ton of cement has gone down to 370 shekels (roughly $103.) This is about the same price that cement costs in the US. Israel has allowed organizations like UNRWA to import construction materials for projects in Gaza, in an attempt to ensure that Hamas doesn't use it to build weapons bunkers and tunnels to kidnap Israelis. As a result, there are more apartments available and the demand for homes and cement has gone down. A tunnel owner said that the amount of cement he was smuggling dropped from 1500 tons a day to 500 tons  a day over the past several weeks. He said that tunnel jobs were disappearing. Meanwhile, Egyptian police continue their very real siege of Gaza: Hundreds of Palestinian travelers were stranded at Rafah crossing on Gaza's border on Saturday as Egyptian police refused to open the terminal, in protest over the kidnapping of their colleagues. Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces closed the airport and seaport in el-Arish on Saturday, also in protest over the kidnapping of seven Egyptian police and soldiers on Thursday in Sinai. Maher Abu Sabha, the general director of crossings and borders, said 800 Palestinians were stranded on the Egyptian side of the crossing on Saturday morning. The number was expected to reach 1,000 by the end of the day. Most travelers are waiting for the crossing to reopen in hotels in el-Arish. They include sick people who had received medical treatment abroad, pilgrims and students who study abroad. Egyptian police closed the gates of Rafah crossing on Friday after gunmen kidnapped seven Egyptian servicemen in an ambush in Sinai's Wadi al-Akhdar early Thursday. Four of the captured men worked at Rafah crossing, sources at the terminal said. Egyptian forces stepped up a campaign to close tunnels along the border amid concerns the captured servicemen would be smuggled into the Gaza Strip. I still have yet to read any article describing this as a "siege" or "collective punishment" of Gazans. UPDATE: Hamas is also blocking anyone from traveling through the tunnels under Rafah.

Saturday Links Posted: 18 May 2013 06:00 PM PDT From Ian: Honest Reporting: Maybe Israel Isn't Behind the Middle East's Despair The just resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict is impeded by a decades-old intolerance of the Jewish presence in the Middle East. Because rejecting the right to self-determination is unpalatable to a western mindset, this intolerance is disguised through inversions. It is a conflict that is passed off as territorial, but is existential. It masquerades as a concern for "human rights" but ignores true injustice. It heaps selective opprobrium on Israel alone for an impasse in peace talks but overlooks official Palestinian Authority glorification of terrorism and jihad which makes peace anathema. Sarah Honig: While we keep kvetching Camp David eventually flopped, according to Ben-Ami, because "the Palestinians refused to give us any inkling about where their demands would terminate. Our impression was that they constantly sought to drag us into a black hole of another concession and another, without there being anything like a discernible finish-line." Ben-Ami's unavoidable conclusion was that "more than the Palestinians want their own state they want to condemn ours… They always leave loose ends… to keep viable the option that at some future point someone would pull these ends and unravel the Jewish state." Kerry to visit Israel, Palestinian territories next week Secretary of state to make third trip to the region in as many months since taking the post Stand With Us: Palestinian History of Violence Barry Rubin: Who's More Dangerous: Sunni or Shia Islamists? In short, while one can make the case for Shia Islamism being the more dangerous—at least as long as Iran might get nuclear weapons—one must very carefully examine the implications of that judgment in every specific case. Promoting Sunni Islam is no panacea but rather substitutes longer-term for shorter-term threats. From Al Jazeera to Columbia University: Joseph Massad's obsession with Israel Whether the resulting ideas are articulated in a Columbia University classroom or on Al Jazeera or Stormfront makes little difference as far as their substance is concerned. I tried to illustrate this point in my recent post on Massad with some quotes (I have added here two more) that are either from Massad or from Stormfront – see if you can tell them apart: The Interfaith Racket: Passport to Credibility Could anyone get anything more wrong? People wanted to "knock [Ahmed] down" because he was the first Muslim peer? Because Ahmed was the first Muslim peer, most people were eager to do anything they could to cover for him, forgive him, reinstate him time and again – and even now, as the rabbi has just shown, are not able to believe the words that came from his mouth in Pakistan because they so differed from the words that came from his mouth at interfaith meetings in London. Yet Another Jewish Org Poised to Honor a BDS Enthusiast American Friends of Soroka Medical Center are giving an award at their gala to Mandy Patinkin, an American Jewish celebrity who supports economic warfare against Jews living and working in Judea and Samaria. Sinai Bedouin Hint: We Were Better Off Under Israel Bedouin tribes in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula implied on Thursday that they were better off living under Israeli rule and that they have been suffering since Israel withdrew from the region as part of the peace agreement with Egypt. One dead, dozens wounded in sectarian clashes in Egypt One person died and dozens were wounded during clashes between Muslims and Christians late Friday night outside a Coptic church in Egypt's second city, state newspaper al-Ahram reported, in the latest violent sectarian row in the Muslim-majority country. Assad's Government Tortured Citizens, Says HRW Syrians were arbitrarily detained and tortured by government forces in security buildings in northern Syria, says Human Rights Watch. Syrian rebels: Dozens hurt in chemical weapons attack in Damascus Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons-laced mortars in a Damascus neighborhood Saturday, injuring dozens, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed. Unmoved by Israel, Russia will send top air-defense system to Assad Moscow says it must honor its deal with Damascus, even though Netanyahu warned Putin that delivery of S-300 missiles could plunge the region into war Moroccan jailed for plotting to bomb Milan synagogue A 22-year-old Moroccan man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for planning terrorist attacks on Milan's main synagogue and Jewish school. Gush Halav: Home to the Maronites Khalloul explained that like Father Abraham, the Maronites originated in Aram (an enormous area stretching from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea). Over time, they dispersed throughout the Middle East. When the Arabs swooped into the region early in the 7th century, they tried to force Islam on the Aramaen population in general and the Maronites in particular. Yet despite immense pressure, the Maronites, like the Jews, refused to abandon their faith. Since then, Aramaen Maronites have been continually persecuted by the Arabs. Most of the area's Maronites eventually moved for safety into the Lebanese mountains, where they tilled the rocky hills. Thousands were killed in a bloodbath that took place in the mountains in 1860. The Farhud – the riots against the Jews of Iraq During Shavuot, Iraqi Jews will commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the "Farhud" – the riots that took place on Shavuot, June 1-2, 1941. In the riots reminiscent of Kristallnacht in Germany, 179 Jews were murdered, hundreds more wounded and much Jewish property looted. The memory of the riots remains fresh in the minds of Iraqi Jews. Similar attacks occurred against almost all Jewish communities in Arab countries, for thousands of years. The Jews did not declare war on their hosts.

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