יום שבת, 10 באוגוסט 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

8/09 Links Part 2: Egypt Blockades Gaza Where Are the Flotillas?, Bizarre Egyptian Conspiracies

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 02:30 PM PDT

From Ian:
Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt Blockades Gaza Where Are the Flotillas?
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 34,000 trucks carrying more than 950,000 tons of goods entered the Gaza Strip through Israel.
The Egyptians, like most Arabs, do not care about the Palestinians. They want the Palestinians to be Israel's problem and to continue relying on handouts from Western countries.
The Arabs do not care if the residents of the Gaza Strip starve to death as long as Israel will be blamed.
Egyptians close down Gaza crossing for holiday
Egyptian officials have closed Rafah several times over the last month as tensions between the Egyptian military and the Strip's Hamas rulers, backed by the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, have come to a boil.
Cairo recently elected to sharply decrease the number of operating hours at the terminal, from nine to four, leading to a drop in the number of people crossing over from about 1,200 to 150 a day, according to MENA, citing Egyptian officials.
Sydney U. against BDS, but not taking any action against BDS professor
"The University of Sydney does not consider the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy appropriate and it is not University of Sydney policy," Dean Duncan Ivison of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences said.
He was responding to inquiries on the recent lawsuit filed by the Shurat HaDin Legal Action Center against Prof. Jake Lynch.
At the same time, said Ivison, "we encourage academics to contribute to public debate and deliberations on issues spanning local, national and international boundaries within their area of expertise, in conformity with the law and the policies and obligations of the university. For this reason the university does not intend to take any specific further action on this matter."
Activists to Disrupt Celebration at Israeli-Owned British Shop
Anti-Israel activists are threatening to disrupt the birthday celebration of an Israeli-owned shop in Britain, and local police are preparing themselves accordingly.
The Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday that Sussex police are preparing for potential trouble as hundreds of anti-Israel activists and members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) are expected to picket outside the Israeli-owned EcoStream store in Brighton.
Palestinian Leaders Use Photo Ops to Hide Their True Intentions
Furthermore, according to Palestinian Media Watch, during Barcelona's visit, a sportscaster on Palestinian Authority television stated that "Today Barcelona comes to visit Palestine and nothing else. Only Palestine and its capital Jerusalem, Eilat, Rosh Hanikra, and all the Palestinian cities in the north, south, west, and east."
Who are the dreamers and who are the realists?
Egyptian NGOs Condemn Anti-Christian Violence
The NGOs urged security officials for higher protection and intervention during future clashes between Islamist groups targeting Christian civilians.
In a recent case, in the village of Minya's Beni-Ahmed, sectarian violence broke out last Saturday as many Christian-owned properties were destroyed and homes were torched.
Former Muslim Brotherhood MP: The Holocaust – The Greatest Lie Of The Modern Age
In an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Musawwar, published March 6, 2013, former Egyptian Shura Council member and current Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member Fathi Shihab Al-Din called the Holocaust "the greatest lie of the modern age and the gravest incident of organized historical international blackmail." Stating that while the rumor of the Holocaust was started by the U.S. intelligence apparatuses in order to ruin the reputation of Germany and its allies in World War II, and also to serve as a pretext for dropping atomic bombs, the seeds of this lie, which he claims now prevents criticism of Israel, were sown by the Zionists many years previously. He added that they had spread this rumor using the global media.
Army, Brotherhood Conspiracy Theories Try to Win Egyptian Hearts
The army has not stood by and let the Brotherhood get all the headlines; they, too, have theories about the Islamists, and according to one curious theory, Morsi, in an attempt to alleviate Egypt's financial situation, tried to "sell" most of Sinai to President Barack H. Obama. Egypt was to receive $8 billion for the Sinai. The U.S. would have set up bases and helped itself to Sinai oil, while part of the area would have been set up as a state for PA Arabs. It was only the intervention of the army that prevented Morsi from going through with the plan.
Turkish president calls for Morsi's release, slams Egyptian 'coup'
Gul said Turkey had supported the 2011 uprising against strongman Hosni Mubarak and the election that brought Morsi to power.
"Unfortunately, the historic step towards democracy failed in less than two years. The coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was a clear derailment of the country's progress," he wrote.
His description of Morsi's overthrow as a coup is likely to rile the Egyptian military, who say they were enforcing the will of the people as manifested in huge demonstrations against his rule, and do not seek to exercise power.
Turkish pilots kidnapped in Beirut
Security officials say the two men, both Turkish nationals, were seized as they were traveling in a van with other crew members from the Beirut International Airport to a hotel early Friday.
The officials say six gunmen ambushed the car on an old airport road, snatched the two men from the vehicle and let the rest continue on. The incident occurred at about 3 a.m. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Amid the 'deceptive quiet' of the Lebanon border
He described the current situation as "a deceptive quiet" and said he had drilled into his soldiers the need to "go from 0-100 in a second," assuring this reporter that, as opposed to the period before the Second Lebanon War, his men all understood that a conflict in this region could turn into war in an instant. "Our company's motto is War Tomorrow," he said. "That's how we train them, so they are ready to make the mental switch, if necessary."
For now, it would seem, it is not — with Hezbollah still deeply engaged in Syria — but the border region, which has produced little in the way of news in recent months, is far from peaceful.
Minister: Iran Nuclear Program Could be Destroyed in 'Hours'
The international community must make it clear to Iran that it has only two options: end its nuclear program voluntarily, or "see it destroyed with brute force," Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz has said, speaking to the Washington Post.
Demolishing Iran's nuclear program by force is entirely possible, he said, estimating that it would take "a few hours of airstrikes, no more."
He was not overly concerned with the possibility that Iran could fire missiles on Israel in response to an international attack on its facilities. Such an attack would cause "very limited damage," he said, explaining that Israel would be able to intercept most of the missiles.
Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi dices with death for a moustache in Pakistan
PAKISTANI businessman Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi has been kidnapped, threatened with death, forcibly displaced and lives apart from his family: all because of his enormous moustache.
Impeccably trimmed to 30 inches (76cm), Afridi spends 30 minutes a day washing, combing, oiling and twirling his facial hair into two arches that reach to his forehead, defying gravity.
"People give me a lot of respect. It's my identity," said the 48-year-old grandfather in the northwestern city of Peshawar, when asked why he was prepared to risk everything for his whiskers.

Even 8 year old Egyptian boys harass women during Eid

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 12:30 PM PDT

From Al Ahram:
The anti-sexual harassment campaign "I witnessed harassment" confirms several cases of sexual harassment over the holiday weekend these past two days - including perpetrators as young as 8 and 10 years old.

The campaign deployed more volunteers around downtown Cairo during Eid El-Fitr, the holiday that ends the Ramadan month of fasting, when sexual harassment is known to explode.

Reports described everything from verbal to physical assault and mob sexual attacks.

Volunteers raise passersby's awareness and intervene when they see harassment. The group says they increased volunteers around cinemas when films start playing, when crowds are larger in number and harassment cases likewise increase.

Sexual harassment has been a growing problem in Egypt. More than 99 percent of hundreds of women surveyed in seven of the country's 27 governorates reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment, ranging from minor harassment to rape, says the UN, Egypt's Demographic Centre and the National Planning Institute in a report in April.
Hey, if even 8 year old boys are harassing women, they must have a good reason. We should work to understand the root causes and eliminate them.

In other words, women should be banned from all public areas of Egypt, since the existence of women in public causes the men to act the way they do.

I mean, isn't that the logic that some people use concerning Arab and Islamic terrorism?

Report: IDF bombs kill 5 jihadists on Egyptian side of Rafah (UPDATE)

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 10:30 AM PDT

From JPost:
An Israeli Air Force drone reportedly struck a jihadist rocket launcher in the Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli-Egyptian border, killing at least five suspected terrorists who were planning to launch shoulder-fired missile at Israel, Egyptian military sources told Palestinian news agency Ma'an on Friday.

Ma'an reported that a large explosion was heard on Friday afternoon in Rafah, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

An IDF spokesman said the army does not comment on reports published in the foreign media.

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered to close the Eilat Airport for two hours.

On Friday, Ma'an quoted an Egyptian security source as saying the IDF's decision to close the air[port] was a precautionary measure taken by Israel based on Egyptian intelligence that terrorists in Sinai planned to target the Jewish state with missiles.

The IDF instructed the Israel Airports Authority to close down the airport in the southern city which borders Egypt due to a "security assessment." The IDF did not release any specific details on the security reasons which prompted the closure.

According to the Egyptian official cited by Ma'an, Salafi terrorists in Sinai planned to target Israel with shoulder-launched missiles with a range of 70 km, which would put them in well in range of the airspace over Eilat Airport.
Al Ahram adds that "sources say that the air attack was in coordination with the Egyptian authorities."

Al Arabiya is quoted as saying that the IDF aircraft/drones were in the skies for a while before the explosion, and that the jihadists intended to shoot rockets at Israel.

Arab critics of Egypt's interim government will have a field day with this, saying that this is proof that the Egyptian leaders are Zionist.

UPDATE: Egypt denies Israel was involved. Which it would do whether it happened or not.

8/09 Links Part 1: Tom Friedman's Incredible Blunders, An Interview with Irwin Cotler

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT

From Ian:
Sarah Honig: Judenfrei is fine and dandy
The fact that Abbas never neglects to emphasize that Israelis (which really means Jews) would be strictly banned from his state should signify how impossible any practicable and sincere peace is. Abbas, the world's pampered darling, harbors no qualms about denying Israel any quid-pro-quo for what he demands of it.
Thus Abbas upbraids Netanyahu for "demanding recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. We have rejected, and will reject, this demand. We know what his intention is. He wants to undermine the Palestinian-Arab presence inside Israel and prevent the return of refugees." In other words, rather than be accepted rightfully as a Jewish state, Israel is tolerated at most as a multinational temporary entity and candidate for impending Arabization. It wouldn't be left in peace unless it submits meekly to said Arabization and the eradication of its Jewishness.
Canadian MP: Incitement is far worse than checkpoints
The last decade has witnessed the expanding delegitimization campaign against Israel in the field of international law. The interview with Professor Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of parliament for the Liberal party, was conducted against the backdrop of the renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the planned release of Palestinian prisoners -- subjects on which he has much to say.
After Egypt, Pointless to Negotiate With Iran
At this point, the only way Tehran will stop developing a nuclear weapon is if the regime is overthrown or if the U.S. or Israel take military action. But outside of empty rhetoric, Obama hasn't given Tehran any reason to believe that he's willing to use force.
If Obama would rather tolerate a nuclear Iran than support a military strike, he should say so. His current strategy seems to be to delay a decision until Tehran develops a bomb – at which point it will be too late to attack. This is bad policy. And it is unacceptable leadership.
Iran's Khamenei: Peace talks will force Palestinians to relinquish their rights
Khamenei said Friday that the renewed peace talks would "encourage the aggressors to increase their aggression and suppress the rightful resistance of the Palestinians," according to AFP.
The Iranian leader called on the Muslim world to be active in supporting the Palestinian cause and condemning Israel.
"The Muslim world must not back down from its support for Palestine, and it should condemn the oppressive action of fierce Zionist wolves and their international supporters," AFP quoted him as saying.
Israel and the Gulf states: It's complicated
Perhaps ironically, the Arab Spring does not make easier for the Gulf states' autocratic leaders to get closer to Israel again, experts say. For the first time in history, public opinion has become a determining factor of the Arab world's political system, and the rulers in the Gulf will think twice before admitting any sort of engagement with the Zionist entity.
It's not so much about the Gulf nations' love for the Palestinians. "The leaders of the GCC states couldn't care less about the 1967 borders," said a Jerusalem source intimately familiar with GCC politics. "For all that matters to them, the Green Line could be somewhere between Ohio and Maryland. It is the conflict that bothers them, because it strengthens the radical forces in the region."
The New York Times Tries to Smooth Over Tom Friedman's Incredible Blunders
On August 7, Times columnist Thomas Friedman argued that Israel needed to get on board with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's initiative to restart the peace process to head off increasing isolation of the Jewish state. To bolster his point he cited the alleged cancellation of a performance in Israel by Eric Burdon, former lead singer of the British rock group, the Animals. Friedman quotes the British newspaper, the Independent, as writing,
"but now Eric Burdon is not even turning up at all having deciding to withdraw from a planned concert in Israel."
Unfortunately, for Friedman, a week before his piece appeared, Burdon's performance in Israel took place without a hitch. Worse still, he didn't get the alleged quote from the Independent right.
Are Jews the most incompetent "ethnic cleansers" in the world?
Of course, debating the "question" of whether Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians seems at first glance to be as productive as 'arguing' whether or not Jews are trying to take over the world. However, unlike the latter charge, which, no matter how hateful and irrational, is not really quantifiable, the former malicious smear – reflecting the "Israel as the new Nazis" narrative which Richard Landes argues indicates (among other pathologies) a desire to be freed from Holocaust guilt – can be easily refuted by a few population statistics.
"The Palestinian population in the West Bank increased from 462,000 in 1949 to more than 2.5 million today.
In Gaza, the population increased from 82,000 in 1949 to 1.7 million today."
Additionally, to add further context:
"The number of Arabs killed (since 1920) in Arab-Israeli wars is less than the number of Arabs killed by Arabs in Syria alone since 2011."
NYT reports on Syrian patients in Israel: BBC still mum
We have mentioned the resounding BBC silence on the subject of wounded Syrian nationals receiving medical care in Israel on numerous occasions.
If perhaps one had thought that the reason for that silence was a lack of access to the story for the foreign media (although the Israeli press has been covering it diligently), then a recent report in the New York Times indicates that this is clearly not the case.
Zanzibar acid attack: British teenagers were 'targeted' and had been attacked before
Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both aged 18, had argued with a local shopkeeper days before two men on a moped threw acid in their faces and Katie had separately been attacked for singing during Ramadan.
One friend suggested they might have been singled out because they are Jewish, and local police said they wanted to speak a radical Islamic preacher who they believe may have inspired the attack. (h/t Serious Black)
'Warning over Sinai terrorists prompted Eilat airport closure'
A warning from a senior Egyptian official, that terrorists in the Sinai armed with missiles planned to target Israel, reportedly prompted the closure Thursday of the airport in Eilat.
The high-level Egyptian military official said Salafi groups had come into possession of missiles with a range of 70 kilometers and intended to target the airport in the Israeli Red Sea resort town and other Israeli targets, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported Friday.
Wiesenthal Center calls for boycott of 'Hitler wine'
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging wine distributors to boycott Italian wine-makers Vina Lunardelli for selling a line of Nazi and fascist branded wines
The company has created a cult following featuring labels portraying Adolph Hitler over Nazi slogans, including "Mein Fuehrer," "Sieg Heil," and "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer."
US auction house offers Schindler documents
An auction house is offering a collection of documents from Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Jewish workers at his factories during World War II, including a letter he signed that paved the way for the rescue chronicled in the 1993 movie "Schindler's List."
The letter, dated Aug. 22, 1944, describes permission to move his enamelware factory, workers included, out of Krakow, Poland, to Czechoslovakia, a move that historians say allowed him to save the workers.
Kahneman to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
US President Barack Obama awarded Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton psychologist known for his application of psychology to economic analysis, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The White House release Thursday naming Kahneman and other recipients notes that the Princeton University scholar, who shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002, escaped Nazi Europe and served in the Israeli army.

UNRWA dean of education posts Hitler quote on FB

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT

Dr. Fares Haider is the Dean of Student Affairs for UNRWA in Jordan.

His Facebook pages are filled with pithy self-help advice and slogans, presumably meant for students.

Here is a poster he placed on his personal Facebook page:


The text says "'The two most important rules in order to be successful - the first: never give up. The second: remember the first rule'. Adolph Hitler"

He captioned it "Military rules for success ... good morning all."

(He got it from this strange Facebook page where they make posters out of quotes from everyone from Jefferson to Stalin to "Dr. Gregory House.")

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Lebanon barring Palestinians refugees from Syria

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 05:09 AM PDT

Once again, the Arab world shows its derision for their Palestinian brethren. And once again, the world ignores blatant discrimination against Palestinians - when done by Arabs.

From HRW:
The Lebanese government began on August 6, 2013, to bar Palestinians from entering the country from Syria. Refusing to allow asylum seekers to enter the country violates Lebanon's international obligations.

Two Palestinians told Human Rights Watch that they were among about 200 Palestinian asylum seekers barred from crossing the border, after Lebanese General Security on August 6 abruptly changed its entry policies for Palestinians living in Syria.

The Palestinians stranded at Lebanon's border include entire families, children, the elderly, and the sick. Some spent the night in the area between the two countries' border posts, fearing for their safety if they returned to Syria, without shelter or bathroom facilities. Some have family members waiting for them in Lebanon. Others say they have no homes to return to in Syria as they have been destroyed during the war, or no money to return home, even if it were safe.

A Palestinian asylum seeker stuck at the border told Human Rights Watch that at approximately 6:45 p.m. on August 6, Lebanese border guards told him and other Palestinian asylum seekers waiting to enter that the guards had received a call from the Lebanese General Security office telling them not to allow any more Palestinians to enter the country. After this announcement, the only Palestinians allowed to enter Lebanon were Palestinians with Lebanese wives or mothers, or who had plane tickets to leave Beirut that day. General Security made no public announcement of the change in policy.
Lebanon is still allowing tens of thousands of Syrians to enter the country. It is only discriminating against Palestinians.

Jordan has a similar policy and Egypt also discriminates against Palestinian Syrians.

Blatant, explicit and rampant discrimination against Palestinian Arabs happens every day, and is indeed enshrined in the laws of every Arab country which does not allow them to become citizens while all other Arabs can.

Keep this in mind the next hundred times you hear Arabs say that the "Palestinian issue" is their number one priority, and the key to solving all the problems in the region. They don't mean that they care about Palestinians - it means that they regard the destruction of Israel is their number one priority, and the Palestinian Arabs are useful only as pawns in that goal.

In reality, the Arab world hates Palestinians nearly as much as they hate Jews.

But there are no "pro-Palestinian" groups that can be bothered to point that out.

Jordanian MP calls to kidnap Israelis; Israel protests; Jordan supports him

Posted: 09 Aug 2013 03:07 AM PDT

In early July, during a parliamentary debate, Jordanian MP Tareq Khoury called on Jordan to "kidnap members of the Israeli embassy in Amman or Israeli tourists visiting Jordan to get Israel to release Jordanian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails."

He said that such a move would be "an honorable precedent in the history of the Kingdom."

He added that the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel was a humiliation to Jordan because it doesn't protect Jordanian prisoners - which include mass murderer Abdallah Bargouthi.

Israel lodged a protest at these statements where a Jordanian MP demanded that Jordan violate international law and existing agreements with Israel.

Now Jordan responded - by telling Israel to shut up.

You see, Israel's protests are considered by Jordan to be an unacceptable infringement on its sovereignty. Furthermore, in the response it said that Jordan's constitution allows members of Parliament to say whatever they want.

They point out that the first article of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan demands "respect for Jordanian sovereignty and the political independence of Jordan."

I had no idea that Jordan's independence is so weak that merely protesting someone's words endangers Jordan's political independence.

By the way, Article 11 of the peace agreement mandates "To abstain from hostile or discriminatory propaganda against each other, and to take all possible legal and administrative measures to prevent the dissemination of such propaganda by any organization or individual present in the territory of either Party."
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