יום שני, 19 באוגוסט 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Arabic media is off the deep end; impossible to puzzle out the real story anymore

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 10:00 PM PDT

Usually, one can figure out what is going on in an Arab country by reading the propaganda and spin on different sides of the story and boiling it down to something approximating truth.

Right now, for Egypt, this is impossible.

Rumors and pure hate are far more in evidence than actual facts. We are seeing possible Pallywood situations, such as this one where Al Jazeera apparently accidentally showed a fake dead person, who had no wound and then moved his leg:


But we have real Western reporters who have seen real deaths, without any doubt, of hundreds of MB members, so even if this one is fake, this video turns from Pallywood into - anti-MB propaganda.

Make no mistake - the Egyptian leadership and many other Egyptians loath the Muslim Brotherhood. Nothing says "hate" in Arabic like calling your opponents Jews. Here is a fake MB logo going around:


The Brotherhood is doing the same; I had mentioned the rumor that Sisi is really Jewish, and that is now being accepted as fact by Islamist websites without any skepticism.

Last month a rumor started that the Muslim Brotherhood met secretly in Islanbul to plan the next stages of their plan to take over Egypt again. The "leaked minutes" of the supposed meeting have gotten bigger and bigger over several weeks, until now the meeting is said to have determined to put women and children in the rallies, to hold demonstrations constantly to exhaust Egyptian security, to start a campaign of suicide bombings in Egypt, to encourage Hamas and Takfirist groups to fan throughout the Sinai and attack the Suez Canal, to earn a billion dollars from arms smuggling and then use those arms to destabilize Egypt.

While the MB is capable of doing this stuff, it is all fantasy from their opponents. Constant rumors in Egypt about Hamas attacks in the Sinai are similarly unlikely.

And this is the problem - one literally cannot believe a thing one reads in the Arabic media. Even Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are being shown to be unreliable as they report on their side of the story above all.

This is the worst I have ever seen, even worse than the Shiite/Sunni media wars over the Syria situation.

Freedom Tower, now

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 05:30 PM PDT

It's been a while since I posted a photo of Lower Manhattan. Last time (I think) was two years ago, when the new World Trade Center was under construction.

Previously, as in 2008, I had done entire panoramas of the area.

Here is what the new World Trade Center looked like last week.You can see a number of new buildings built since 2008, making it a completely different skyline to what it was.

Daughter of SA activist talks about demonization of Israel

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 03:30 PM PDT

Esther Meshoe, daughter of conservative South African parliamentarian, Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, refutes false allegations of apartheid on the part of Israel.




((h/t IsraDocuMentalist)

El Al plane turns around for 11-year old cancer patient who lost passport

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 01:30 PM PDT

From The Daily Mail:
An Israeli airline – with the support of everyone on-board – turned around a plane to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient.

All set to fly to New York August 7 to attend a camp for paediatric cancer patients, Inbar Chomsky, was taken off an El-Al Airlines flight after her passport went missing. Despite a frantic search by airline staff, passengers and the group Chomsky was travelling with, her passport was gone, flight attendants had no choice but to remove the sick girl.

Tears in their eyes, everyone said good bye to the devastated young girl after a half hour search aided by airline staff and passengers failed to turn up the girl's passport, according to Haaretz.

'El Al sadly called her mother to tell her that Inbar's passport was lost and that the girl, who had been fighting illness so valiantly, would not be able to fly to Camp Simcha' Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline wrote in Yeshiva World News. 'What a horrible experience for an 11 year old girl.'
Minutes after the doors closed and the plane taxied away from the gate, a fellow camper looking through another girl's backpack found Chomsky's passport and told flight attendants, according to Haaretz.

What happened next is virtually unheard of, especially post-9/11.

The plane's pilots immediately stopped the plane, according to Haaretz, and after about 45 minutes were able to convince air traffic control to let them return to the gate to pick Chomsky up, Pinsky wrote.

Still overcoming her disappointment while at the gate with Elad Maimon, program director of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline, Chomsky and others watched in disbelief as the plane turned around, said Haaretz. 'The flight attendants could not believe their eyes,' Maimon told the paper. 'They told me they had never seen such a thing.'


'Planes rarely return to the gate after departing, read an El Al statement, continuing that 'after consulting with El Al crew on the plane and El Al staff at the airport the decision was made and the plane returned to pick up Inbar.'

Passengers cheered and cried, wrote Pinsky, saying they shared 'Inbar's happiness and excitement,' and calling it 'one of the greatest moments' he has ever witnessed.

Located in the Catskill Mountains roughly two hours north of New York City, an area long-popular with Jewish tourists, Camp Simcha is a summer camp meant to uplift the spirits of children living with cancer and other similar medical problems, according to its website. Campers are medically supervised and take part in sports, carnivals, talent shows, helicopter rides and other activities.

Bayard Rustin and black civil rights leaders' support for Israel in the 1970s

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 10:30 AM PDT

As the US gets ready to mark the 50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous March on Washington, it is a good time to remember one of the organizers of the march, one of King's colleagues, and an indefatigable supporter of civil rights, Bayard Rustin, who will be posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rustin was not only a famous supporter of civil rights, but he also supported gay rights, was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism, and a staunch supporter of Israel. As the book "Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement" notes:

Rustin always wrote and spoke against anti-Semitism. In the summer of 1967, the SNCC Newsletter published a pro-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), anti-Israel article, which Rustin was quick to denounce....

Rustin was a strong supporter of Israel. As in the SNCC Newsletter, black anti-Semitism often took the form of opposing Israel and supporting the PLO as representing victims of imperialistic "Zionism." Rustin, in contrast, saw the Jewish state as a social democratic island surrounded by theocratic dictatorships. In supporting Israel, he was supporting a cause important to most Jews and, by implication, showing that the much publicized anti-Semitic statements of black militants did not represent a broad black viewpoint. In June 1970, the A. Philip Randolph Institute ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, "An Appeal by Black Americans for United States Support to Israel." The ad expressed support for "the most democratic country in the Middle East." It was sympathetic to the plight of Arab refugees but argued that continued conflict did them more harm than good. In its last line, the text urged that the United States provide Israel "with the full number of jet aircraft it has requested."

This was an astonishing statement for someone who had once been a pacifist.
In his column, Rustin frequently spoke out for Israel. Here is his column about the Yom Kippur War:






Rustin was also the director of BASIC, the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee, which published this remarkable full page ad in the New York Times when the UN was about to vote on the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution. Here is the entire ad, with the notable African Americans who signed it (including Hank Aaron, Harry Belafonte, Vernon Jordan and others)  formatted to you can read it here:







See also Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers and Gil Troy.

(h/t Faith M.)

8/18 Links: PA Radio - "One day" no Israel, Coptic Tragedy in Egypt, Sherlock in Jerusalem

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT

From Ian:
Obama clogged up in the 'heart of the Arab world'
In June 2009, President Barack Obama made a landmark speech setting out a new US policy toward the Middle East — and the world. To deliver it, the newly elected president traveled to Egypt, which his then-press secretary Robert Gibbs described as "a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world."
Four years later, the Cairo streets through which Obama traveled are burning. The past week's violence in Egypt may finally push the US toward a conclusive decision — propping up or cutting off Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's military-controlled interim government.
Merkel: Anti-Semitism a threat to democracy in Europe
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said anti-Semitism and racism remain a threat to democracy in Europe almost 70 years after the end of World War II.
Merkel cited the ongoing trial of five alleged neo-Nazis over the killing of 10 people between 2000 and 2007, and the fact that Jewish schools and synagogues still require police protection, as evidence of the problem in Germany.
George Mason U. Student: "Jews had their golden age under Muslim rule"
With such iconic conservative luminaries like Walter E. Williams associated with George Mason University, one assumes students are generally well-informed and reasoned in their opinions.
So this video of one of its scholars from the school's Students Against Israeli Apartheid group may be shocking:
College students shout down Israeli speaker then claim their free speech was violated
This is what we've come to.
A group of anti-Israel students showed up at a talk from an Israeli speaker, heckled and shouted him down, then claimed that their free speech rights were violated when the school disciplined them.
No wonder Florida Atlantic University ranks dead last for college life.
Anti-Semitic Slurs by Morsi Protesters on the Temple Mount (VIDEO)
Another group chanted and accused Abdel Fattah el-Sisi guilty of treason and they questioned, "Are you a Jew or what?"
The pro-Morsi Muslims carried banners that said, "Sisi: hypocrite, traitor, working for the Jews," as well as, "Murderer, agent, traitor, criminal, butcher."
There were others in the crowd who compared Sisi to Adolf Hitler. Under the pictures of Hitler was written: "I killed the Jews for my people and for my flock." Under the picture of el-Sisi was written: "I killed the children of my people and my flock for the Jews."
PA radio: "One day" there will be no Israel
Radio announcer: "Greetings to all our listeners and happy holiday to you, our people in occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel), 1948 Palestine, the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel, created in 1948)... Greetings to our people in Acre, Nazareth, Tiberias, Haifa and Jaffa (all Israeli cities)... May your Palestinian identity be rooted in your hearts and minds. Allah willing, one day Palestine will be Palestine again!"
[Voice of Palestine (official PA radio), Aug. 8, 2013]
Hussein Aboubakr: Coptic tragedy in Egypt
There once lived a great Jewish community in Egypt that has been lost forever. Just as 80,000 Egyptian Jews were abused and fled, today Coptic Christians are facing similar religious persecution, yet they don't have any other home country to turn to. Today, the world is preoccupied with the current political turmoil in Egypt, while ignoring the ongoing catastrophe faced by an indigenous Middle Eastern Coptic Christians. One of the churches burned by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, was the Prince Tadros Church in Al Minya – a 4th century church which contained ancient manuscripts on Orthodox theology. Is the West ready to accept such a loss? Are power and money more important than human life and history?
Egypt's Christians Attack Western Media Coverage
The Egyptian Coptic church has released a statement backing the country's military-backed government, and slamming the western media for its coverage of the violence in Egypt, which has killed more than 600 people.
Referring to perceived sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood by western media outlets, the statement, translated by Al Arabiya, called on the West to "read objectively the facts of events, and not give international and political cover to these terrorists and bloody groups."
Tamarod movement calls on Egyptian government to cancel Camp David peace treaty
The Tamarod ("Rebellion") movement in Egypt has joined a campaign calling to stop US aid to Egypt, and to cancel the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel, Daily News Egypt reported on Saturday.
The campaign is in response to "unacceptable" US interference in Egyptian political affairs, after US President Barack Obama decided to cancel a joint drill with the Egyptian military in response to the outbreak of violence in the country earlier this week.
Report: Israel Assured Egypt that U.S. Aid Won't be Cut
Israel has been pressuring the United States not to stop the military aid that it provides to Egypt, fearing the fate of the peace between the countries, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.
According to the report, Israel and Egyptian Defense Minister General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have been in close contact throughout the latest crisis in Egypt. The diplomats told the New York Times that Israel assured Egypt it did not have to worry about the U.S. threat to cut its enormous aid package to that country.
American al-Qaida militant calls for attacks on US diplomats
Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million US price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the US ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said.
IDF retaliates after mortars fired from Golan Heights
The IDF fired a Tamuz missile at a Syrian military post in the Golan Heights after several mortars were fired from the Syrian side of the border into Israel earlier Saturday.
According to the IDF, the missile destroyed a Syrian cannon which had fired artillery at Israel.
Iranian nuke chief says country's nuclear program has 18,000 centrifuges
Tehran has a total of 18,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, Iran's outgoing nuclear chief said Saturday. The number is higher by a third than is publicly known.
Uranium enrichment is a process that can be a pathway to making nuclear weapons.
Toronto marks anniversary of anti-Jewish violence
It was August 16, 1933, less than seven months after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, and a Protestant youth team from St. Peter's Church was playing against Harbord Collegiate, a mostly Jewish squad that included some players of Italian background.
Toronto, at that time, was dominated by its white, Protestant majority, and both Jews and Italian immigrants faced discrimination by the establishment. Like their American and European counterparts, Canadian Jews were restricted from certain professions and social clubs, and faced quotas at academic institutions. Signs in store windows and in the city's Beaches neighborhood read "No Dogs or Jews Allowed," and a "swastika club," inspired by the new regime in Germany, was even parading its hatred on the shores of Lake Ontario, proudly bearing the symbol of Hitler's aggressive new Reich.
Menachem Begin: His legacy, a century after his birth
Menachem Begin, Israel's sixth prime minister, was born 100 years ago today. A century after his birth, and more than two decades after his death, it behooves us all, regardless of our political stripes, to take a moment and reflect on the profundity of his contribution to the Jewish people.
That claim will undoubtedly strike many as strange, since more than half a century after he helped rid Palestine of the British, Begin is still disparaged by many of the very same Jews who see in the American revolution a cause for genuine pride.
2,700 year old Hebrew inscription uncovered in City of David
Thousands of fragments of pottery, candles, ceramics and figurines dating to the end of the First Temple were discovered during archaeological excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem, located on a narrow spur south of the Temple Mount, surrounded on all sides by valleys, near the Gihon Spring and the Arab village of the Silwan.
The findings were discovered during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the most important of which being a ceramic bowl with a partially-preserved Hebrew inscription, possibly containing the name of a Biblical figure.
Spaniards to Play Jewish Slaves in Upcoming Film 'Exodus'
Thousands of Spaniards in the depressed southern region of Andalusia lined up on Friday morning to play the role of slaves in film-maker Ridley Scott's Biblical epic "Exodus", hoping for a way out of unemployment, AFP reported.
In a region with unemployment at 35 percent, the prospect of work as an extra with a daily wage of 80 euros ($107) has sparked a rush in Almeria where casting is being held for the story of Moses and the Jewish exodus from Egypt to the promised land.
Benedict Cumberbatch voices new documentary on Jerusalem
He might be instantly recognizable as Sherlock Holmes in the critically acclaimed BBC remake about the famous London detective, but Benedict Cumberbatch has doffed his deerstalker to narrate a new documentary about Jerusalem.
The 45-minute film traces the history of the city, following three of its young residents - a Jew, a Christian and Muslim.

Nasrallah says he'll go to Syria to fight if necessary. Let's hope so!

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT

Hizballah's leader Sayyed Nasrallah made another of his ramblling Friday speeches where he spouted about Israel, America, "Takfiris" and other groups that he is upset at this week, all the while pretending that he is defedning his beloved people of Lebanon that he is dragging into the Syrian war.

In reference to the massive car bomb in the Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut last week, he said:
One of our responses to such explosions is: If we had 1000 fighters in Syria, they will become 2000, and if we had 5000, they will become 10 000, and if the battle with those terrorists required that I go with all Hezbollah to Syria, we will all go for the sake of Syria and its people, Lebanon and its people, Palestine and Al-Quds, and the central cause.

We put an end to the battle, and we set a time for this battle to end, and as we triumphed in all our wars with Israel, if you wanted us to enter a fierce battle with you, I assure to everyone that we will triumph against Takfiri terror. The cost of the battle will be high, but the least cost is being slaughtered like ewes and waiting for the murderers to come into our house.
Throughout the speech, as in this section, he tries to pretend that he is fighting Israel and defending Lebanon against Israel, claiming that all of the attacks against Hizballah are controlled by the "Zionists."

Meanwhile, Lebanese politicians are increasingly critical of Hizballah's adventurism:
Former Prime Minister and Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri blasted on Saturday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's recent speech and said it threatened to further involve Lebanon in the Syria war.

"Nasrallah's speech did not contribute to defusing tension in Lebanon on the contrary it served as an escalation of Lebanon's involvement in the Syrian fire." Hariri said adding: "Sedition is the essence of terrorism, and the most dangerous kind."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said Hezbollah's participation in the Syrian war is not part of his agreement with the militant group and stressed that he is against any intervention outside the Lebanese territory.

"This is a private initiative for Hezbollah, there is no agreement between us and them in that matter. We are against any intervention outside the Lebanese territory," Aoun said in an interview with Al-Hayat newspaper which was published on Saturday.

Hezbollah has been widely criticized by Lebanese and Arab leaders for supporting the Alawite-dominated Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad against the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels who are trying to overthrow the 40 year old dictatorship.

BBC will take out gratuitous reference to "Israeli apartheid" at Proms broadcast

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 05:00 AM PDT

From Al Arabiya:
The BBC is due to cut comments made by violinist Nigel Kennedy about "apartheid" in Israel when it broadcasts his concert, performed with Palestinian artists as part of the Proms musical festival, on British television channels next week.

The concert, held at London's Royal Albert Hall last week, featured 17 musicians from the Palestine Strings, the troupe performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons alongside Kennedy.
Kennedy likened the situation in Israel to apartheid in South Africa.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's a bit facile to say it but we all know from experiencing this night of music tonight that giving equality and getting rid of apartheid means there's a chance for amazing things to happen," said Kennedy.

The decision to cut Kennedy's comment was made due to "editorial reasons," they removed because of "the way it fitted in with the program, " a BBC spokesperson told Al Arabiya English.

"Nigel's comment to the audience at his late-night prom on August 8 will not be included in the deferred BBC 4 broadcast on August 23 because it does not fall within the editorial remit of the proms as a classical music festival."

Kennedy dedicated his performance at the Proms to Palestinians, according to his introduction.

"The concert tonight is very emotional, because I am performing for people who are imprisoned, to give them two hours of fun and show them that the world has not forgotten about them," he said.

Dressed in popular Palestinian garments, the players from the Palestinian orchestra played a specially-curated fusion of classical work with Arab and folk music alongside the celebrated violinist.
Al Arabiya's headline calls this "censorship."

You can hear Kennedy's comment about "apartheid" starting at about 1:05, and it causes a 30 second ovation from the British audience:



The snippet of the video released so far by the BBC sounds like it was an interesting concert despite Kennedy's hate, as their version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons added some "Eastern" influence.



To my untrained ear, the violin that is meant to sound Arabic sounds surprisingly like Eastern European Jewish music as well.

Remember that two years ago, Israelis performing at the Proms were interrupted by protesters and the BBC broadcast was stopped.

As far as I can tell, no one called to boycott these young Palestinian Arab musicians, there were no heckles or yelling interrupting their performances, and there were no crowds outside yelling at attendees for supporting a group that represents those who celebrate murderers of Jews.

US State Dept. upset at Israel releasing murderer of an American

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 02:00 AM PDT

From Eli Lake at The Daily Beast:
For decades, the United States has urged foreign governments not to free prisoners who have killed Americans. But a man who murdered an American was freed this week by Israel in a prisoner-release deal encouraged by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Among those released Tuesday as an inducement to the Palestinian Authority to return to peace negotiations was Al-Haaj Othman Amar Mustafa, a Palestinian convicted in 1991 of killing Frederick Steven Rosenfeld, who the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time of his death reported was a former U.S. Marine and U.S. citizen.

Mustafa was sentenced by an Israeli military court to life after he and two other assailants murdered Rosenfeld in 1989, 21 years after the former Marine emigrated to Israel. According to an Associated Press account of Mustafa's trial before a military court, Mustafa and two others met Rosenfeld as he was hiking near the settlement where he lived in Ariel. At first, the three men befriended Rosenfeld and even posed for a photo. "Minutes after the picture was taken, the three stabbed Rosenfeld and left him for dead, according to their confession," the AP dispatch said.

Today Mustafa is a free man, one of 26 Palestinians released from Israeli jails on Tuesday, the first group of a total of 104 prisoners Israel has promised to free in exchange for Palestinian participation in a new peace process. The list of prisoners was negotiated with the Palestinian Authority, at the urging of Secretary Kerry.

Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the State Department, told The Daily Beast Thursday, "The State Department conveyed the administration's concerns regarding the release of this prisoner to the government of Israel, while recognizing the victim was a dual national of Israel and the United States."

Harf said the Israeli side "acknowledged our views, but it was ultimately their decision to determine which prisoners to release. This is a very difficult situation for all involved, and further highlights the importance of making these negotiations successful."
Hold on.

The US Secretary of State pressured Israel into releasing 104 terrorists, the first batch of which contained only murderers and accomplices to murder. The position of the State Department's leader is clearly that releasing murderers is essential to the peace process (against all logic.)

But now that one of the victims is found to be American, this thought process is suddenly flawed?
"As I understand the facts, there are only two possibilities," said Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration and a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It was a very bad screwup by the State Department not to demand that he remain incarcerated or it is a silent change of policy. I believe the policy has always been that we oppose the release of anyone who has committed terrorism against Americans."

Abrams pointed to U.S. public statements in 2005 after Germany freed Mohammed Ali Hammadi, a member of Hezbollah who participated in the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. When Hammadi was released in 2005, a State Department spokesman said, "We're going to make every effort to see that he stands trial in the United States for what he did and face justice."
It isn't a change of policy - it was a mistake.

There is only one possible explanation.

The position of the State Department is that murderers of Americans must never be released, but murderers of Israelis must be released.

The US must never negotiate with terrorists, but Israel must.

The US must track down and attempt to arrest any terrorists who murdered Americans who do get released from prison, but Israel must promise not to do that.

In short, US policy is "Do as I say, even if it is the polar opposite of how I act."

You see, because it is for  "peace."
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