Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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• "The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble" - and a sequel
• #BDSFail in Brighton
• Al Shaabab planned attack on London's Jewish community
• 9/29 Links: Fatah-Draw Borders in Martyrs Blood, Iranian Spy Arrested, EU Funds Occupation of Cyprus
• Video: Rouhani smilingly bragging of how he deceived the West
• Muslims claiming that Mount of Olives is not a historic Jewish cemetery
• The bar for being a "moderate" is pretty low for Muslims (poster)

"The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble" - and a sequel Posted: 29 Sep 2013 05:00 PM PDT By James Thurber, first published in The New Yorker on August 26, 1939: Within the memory of the youngest child there was a family of rabbits who lived near a pack of wolves. The wolves announced that they did not like the way the rabbits were living. (The wolves were crazy about the way they themselves were living, because it was the only way to live.) One night several wolves were killed in an earthquake and this was blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that rabbits pound on the ground with their hind legs and cause earthquakes. On another night one of the wolves was killed by a bolt of lightning and this was also blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that lettuce-eaters cause lightning. The wolves threatened to civilize the rabbits if they didn't behave, and the rabbits decided to run away to a desert island. But the other animals, who lived at a great distance, shamed them saying, "You must stay where you are and be brave. This is no world for escapists. If the wolves attack you, we will come to your aid in all probability." So the rabbits continued to live near the wolves and one day there was a terrible flood which drowned a great many wolves. This was blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that carrot-nibblers with long ears cause floods. The wolves descended on the rabbits, for their own good, and imprisoned them in a dark cave, for their own protection. When nothing was heard about the rabbits for some weeks, the other animals demanded to know what had happened to them. The wolves replied that the rabbits had been eaten and since they had been eaten the affair was a purely internal matter. But the other animals warned that they might possibly unite against the wolves unless some reason was given for the destruction of the rabbits. So the wolves gave them one. "They were trying to escape," said the wolves, "and, as you know, this is no world for escapists." Moral: Run, don't walk, to the nearest desert island. It may be time to write a sequel. The Rabbits Still Cause All the Trouble Despite the wolves' efforts, a small number of rabbits did manage to escape to join cousins of theirs on the edge of a desert peninsula, the very desert where the rabbits' ancestors originally came from. While there were a large number of hyenas inland, who would catch and eat a few rabbits now and then, the rabbits felt safer and at home on their patch of land. They could even - for the first time in many generations - band together to fight back against their enemies to keep their tiny homeland relatively safe. The hyenas were alarmed, for rabbits had never stood up to them before. They used to be able to catch and eat rabbits easily, but now they had to contend with traps and snares that the rabbits invented. The Hyena League asked for advice from the foxes of the world as how to best deal with the rabbits, once and for all, since the foxes had so much experience. The clever foxes knew that the other animals never really liked the rabbits much, even when they were being eaten by the foxes. Their sly plan was for the hyenas to convince the other animals, who lived at an even greater distance, that the rabbits were threatening them. By repeating the words "aggressive killer rabbits" and "poor defenseless hyenas" and "hyenas losing their land" over and over and over again, the other animals soon started to believe that the hyenas were being persecuted and the rabbits were murdering them in droves. (Some of the animals even believed that landslides in the hyena country were caused by rabbits, since it was well known that rabbits like to dig holes. Eventually many of the animal told the rabbits that if only they would give part of their homeland to the hyenas, then the hyenas would be happy and the fighting would end. The rabbits, who just wanted to be left alone, tried to take the animals' advice, but the hyenas started attacking the rabbits even more. As a result, the rabbits had to build more hyena traps. The hyenas cried to the Animal Union that the rabbits were oppressing them even more.  The Animal Union, which has a very short memory  (and whose members were secretly afraid of the hyenas themselves,) believed the accusations, and demanded that the rabbits give up a little more of their land, and then some more, saying that surely the hyenas - being reasonable animals - would eventually be happy. The dismayed rabbits tried to argue that they were the prey and not the predators, but the Union said that the hyenas seemed very convincing in their desire for peace. The story hasn't ended yet, but it still has a moral: Don't rely on others to defend your desert island.  (h/t Joel B)

#BDSFail in Brighton Posted: 29 Sep 2013 01:30 PM PDT From Sussex Friends of Israel: Supporters of Israel came together today, to hold a Bagels Against Bigotry party outside Brighton's environmentally friendly refill store Ecostream, to counter a planned day of action and demonstration by BDS, the anti Israel group Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The bagel themed party started at 11.30am outside the Ecostream store on Western Road Brighton, with supporters offering home baked cakes and salmon filled bagels for passers-by to enjoy as they visited Ecostream. According to the Police just 45 members of the anti-Israel 'BDS' group attended the event billed by them as a national day of action. Within 20 minutes of their arrival the Police moved the protesters to the opposite side of the road, where their protests were not only drowned out by the passing traffic but also obscured by regular Brighton and Hove double decker buses. This week the Ecostream store has reported its best ever week of sales since opening in Brighton last year. During the event today there was a constant flow of customers refilling their oils, vinegars and environmentally friendly detergents, stocking up with dry goods, as well as purchasing their brand new Sodastream machines. Sussex Friends of Israel organiser Simon Cobbs said: "The turnout from supporters of Israel, from across the country today has been superb, we outnumbered the anti-Israeli groups by at least two to one, and at the same time we had a party. I want to thank everyone for their support today, it just shows what can be achieved when the community comes together to counter bigotry and eat bagels. More at Daphne Anson. (h/t Rabbi Andrea)

Al Shaabab planned attack on London's Jewish community Posted: 29 Sep 2013 11:30 AM PDT From The Toronto Star last week: A cache of intelligence detailing the training of Al Qaeda's East Africa group that was obtained exclusively by the Toronto Star may help explain how a small group of terrorists carried out the deadly siege that took Kenyan authorities four days to stop. "Each martyrdom seeker will be trained in Somalia preferably for two months and he will only know his mission," says one document discovered on a flash drive beside the slain body of the former African leader, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed. "The brothers will be pushed through many battles to see how they react under pressure and they will be analyzed to see if they can keep their composure. They will be tested mentally to see if they are smart enough to carry out these operations." The documents may be dated — "Fazul," as he was most commonly known among intelligence officials, was shot dead by Somali forces in 2011 — but looking at the former Al Qaeda leader's meticulous planning in the wake of the Westgate mall attack in Nairobi reveals chilling clues. The Star obtained the Fazul documents last year. Described by some counterterrorism officials as a "treasure trove of intelligence," the material was recovered on flash drives and inside the bullet-ridden Toyota Hilux that Fazul's driver tried to ram through a government checkpoint near Mogadishu. While there were dozens of documents, Internet frame grabs and media reports in English, Arabic, Somali and Swahili, along with more than 50 video clips, which appear to be shot from the back of a car, two documents provide the most insight. Training instructions are part of a planning paper titled "International Operations," where the targets identified are in the U.K. "Our objectives are to strike London with low-cost operations that would cause a heavy blow amongst the hierarchy and Jewish communities using attacks similar to the tactics used by our brothers in Mumbai," it says, referring to the 2008 Indian attack that lasted for three days. Some of the targets in the Fazul document include London's prestigious hotels and Britain's Stamford Hill and Golders Green neighbourhoods, populated "with tens of thousands of Jews crammed in a small area." The prestigious Eton School, attended by many members of Britain's royal elite, is also listed. "These attacks must be backed with carefully planned media campaign to show why we chose our targets to refute the hypocrites, clear doubts amongst Muslims and also inspire Muslim youth to copy." But don't call them antisemitic. They hate that. (h/t Geoffrey)

9/29 Links: Fatah-Draw Borders in Martyrs Blood, Iranian Spy Arrested, EU Funds Occupation of Cyprus Posted: 29 Sep 2013 10:00 AM PDT From Ian: Fatah Facebook: "Blood of Martyrs draws the borders of the homeland" During the current peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, Fatah chose to glorify violence and Martyrdom death as the way to determine "the borders of the homeland": "My homeland taught me that it is the blood of Martyrs (Shahids) that draws the borders of the homeland." That text, together with a picture of a man holding a rifle, was posted by the administrator of one of Fatah's official Facebook pages, "Fatah - The Main Page," on Aug. 26, 2013. Sarah Honig: Thanks for the revelations While Israel serially drew back from its positions in order to appease America and/or to coax Arabs into some modicum of accommodation, Arab orientations during all that time hadn't budged a fraction of a millimeter. Their only modifications were tactical. Instead of eradicating Israel in one fell swoop (which they didn't do only because they couldn't), they settled on slicing Israel's salami bit by bit to deprive it of strategic depth, render it more vulnerable to predations and erode it by demonization and demoralization. The basic premise remains that at most the de facto existence of the unwanted "Zionist entity" is acknowledged provisionally, that this entity must shrink and that Arabs have a right to deluge it. Whenever we concede even a theoretical point, we imbue Arab obstructionism with an aura of righteous respectability in the (kangaroo) court of world opinion. We irreversibly undermine our own case. Jewish leaders urge Abbas to publicly state his opposition to right of return A slate of 100 US Jewish leaders wrote Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to make public his opposition to a 'right of return' and his agreement to a demilitarized Palestinian state. The letter, spearheaded by the Israel Policy Forum, noted that in a recent private meeting, Abbas said an agreement would end the conflict and any Palestinian claims to "Haifa, Acre and Safed," and that a Palestinian state would not need "planes or missiles" but a "strong police force." Mideast quartet seeks Israeli, Palestinian action by 2014 Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Friday, top diplomats from the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union said in a statement that both sides should take "every possible step" to make ongoing US-mediated negotiations a success. "The quartet reaffirmed its determination to lend effective support to the efforts of the parties and their shared commitment to reach a permanent status agreement within the agreed goal of nine months," the group said in a statement released Friday. Hitler understood propaganda, so do the Palestinians The Palestinian narrative of victimhood, with its falsifications of history and politics, its portrayal of themselves as not only innocent but the most compelling victims in the world, its staging of events to blame Israel for atrocities they themselves have committed, its deliberate concentration on alleged injuries or deaths of children, and its achievement in persuading much of the media to accept and advance its manipulation of language and action, have all been part of its success in the propaganda war. That success is shown by the fact that a considerable proportion of the European population accepts the Palestinian propaganda that Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians, in spite of the reiteration by Palestinian leaders of their determination to eliminate the State of Israel. Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, is held responsible for the problems not only of the area but for those in the world in general. How the EU directly funds settlements in occupied territory Yet it turns out that despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey's invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU's official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus. Nonetheless, the EU maintains an entire separate program to direct funds to Northern Cyprus. They even put out a nice, colorful brochure last year. Iranian arrested in Israel on suspicion of espionage Israeli security officials recently detained an Iranian with Belgian citizenship who officials believe is an agent of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and whose main mission was to spy on American interests inside Israel. The agent, Ali Mansouri, was arrested at Ben-Gurion International Airport on September 11 by the Shin Bet security service while attempting to depart Israel for Belgium, the security agency said Sunday. He was traveling under the alias Alex Mans and had been observed photographing the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and recording activity there. He was found with photographs of the US embassy and other sites. Israel warned Kenya about terror attack, officials say Kenya was reportedly given specific warnings by foreign countries, including Israel, that there was a high risk of a major terrorist attack in the country before last week's violent takeover of a Nairobi mall. Kenyan newspapers reported that, according to intelligence sources, Kenya's chief of staff and four key cabinet ministers — treasury, interior, foreign affairs, and defense — received the warnings but failed to take action. PA official rejects partial control of Gaza-Egypt border crossing The Palestinian Authority does not want to return to the Rafah border crossing as part of a partial solution, Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of the Fatah Central Committee, said on Saturday. Rajoub's announcement came as Egyptian authorities reopened the Sinai-Gaza border crossing after a one-week closure. Syrian conflict takes a toll on Palestinian aid Displaced Palestinians are losing out to Syrians in desperate need of aid, and the United Nations is asking Arab countries to pitch in and bolster funding for its agency mandated with helping Palestinian refugees. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his counterpart at the Arab League, Nabil El Araby, are co-chairing a ministerial meeting Thursday in New York on the funding challenges that the UN Relief and Works Agency is facing. Egyptian Journalist Heikal: All Arab Countries Have Chemical, Biological Weapons; Nazi Scientists Helped Produce Them Lebanon: Four Dead Amid Rising Tensions in Hezbollah Stronghold Four people have been killed in a gun battle in the eastern Lebanese town of Baalbek, a stronghold of the Shi'ite Hezbollah terrorist group, highlighting ongoing tensions over the civil war raging in neighboring Syria. Shi'ite supporters and Sunni opponents of Hezbollah traded small-arms fire in running battles in the Bekaa Valley town last night. Two of the dead were identified as Hezbollah members, while the other two were identified as Ali Mustapha al-Rifai and Ali Sami al-Masri. It is not clear whether the latter two men were killed fighting Hezbollah forces, or were bystanders caught in the crossfire. Special Report: Hezbollah gambles all in Syria In the photograph the two robed men stand shoulder-to-shoulder, one tall and erect, the other more heavyset. Both smile for the camera. The picture from Tehran is a rare record of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meeting Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite paramilitary group. Taken in April during a discreet visit by the Hezbollah chief to his financial and ideological masters, the photograph captured a turning point in Syria's civil war and the broader struggle between Sunnis and Shi'ites, the two main branches of Islam. It was the moment when Iran made public its desire for Hezbollah to join the battle to help save Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said. At the time, Assad and his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, were losing ground to an advancing Sunni insurgency. Bahrain's FM says Hezbollah leader Nasrallah is a 'criminal' Bahrain's foreign minister slammed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday for criticizing the Sunni-led Gulf kingdom's treatment of its opposition Shi'ite population, AFP reported. "The people of Bahrain are above being addressed by a criminal whose hands are stained by the blood of innocents in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq," Khalid al-Khalifa wrote on his Twitter account. Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood Lashes Out At "Zionists" Over Egypt Anti-Brotherhood Moves Brothers in Jordan are not only displeased with Cairo's actions, but they're pretty sure they've located the culprit driving the effort: "The coupists are trying to reestablish oppression and tyranny as well as absolute military rule. They want to silence opposition and turn everyone into followers."… Bani Rsheid said the ruling "shows that the military rulers are going through a deep crisis and that they are weak and confused. Every day the coup's agenda, which is linked to the Zionists and some countries in the Gulf, becomes clearer," he added. Muslim Brotherhood moves office… to London The Brotherhood already maintains a London presence through which it was previously running the administrative affairs of the organisation. The London headquarters is a "research centre" headed by Ibrahim Mounir, former member of the Guidance Bureau and former Secretary General of the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran hacked U.S. Navy computers As President Obama appeals for better relations with Iran, unnamed U.S. officials are pointing fingers at Iranian hackers for spying on U.S. Navy computers. U.S. officials are saying that Iranian government or state-sponsored hackers penetrated an unclassified U.S. Navy computer network used for email and the "service's internal intranet," the Navy Marine Corps Internet, the Wall Street Journal reports. Greece arrests leaders of neo-Nazi party Four top officials of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party were among a flurry of arrests of party members Saturday, in an escalation of a government crackdown after a fatal stabbing allegedly committed by a supporter. It is the first time since 1974 that sitting members of Parliament have been arrested. Turkey's Crumbling Domestic and Foreign Policies Risk Downward Economic Spiral The decline of the Brotherhood in Egypt left Erdogan "raging on a daily basis," according to Georgetown-based Turkey expert Michael Koplow. His vitriol against Egypt ended up triggering economic retaliation, and more broadly his alignment against U.S. allies who backed the army cost Turkey precious import markets in the Gulf. Now Turkey's even losing the ability to export soap operas, to say nothing of an array of other goods: My Grandfather, the Nazi Mass-Murderer A steely-eyed Nazi killer picks off Jewish prisoners with a rifle from a balcony in a concentration camp in 1944. More than six decades later, a Nigerian-German woman who has studied in Israel thumbs through a book about the sniper and is shocked to learn the man is her own grandfather. In a memoir published this month with the chilling title "Amon: My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me", Jennifer Teege recounts her dark family secret and the extraordinary story of how her own life became enmeshed with one of history's grimmest chapters. Teege is the child of a Nigerian student and the German daughter of Amon Goeth, the commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp outside Krakow in today's Poland who featured in Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust drama "Schindler's List". Israel Daily Picture: The British Imperial War Museum; Presenting General Allenby Entering Jerusalem in 1917 Photographers accompanied the Imperial British Army forces throughout the battles of World War I in Palestine, starting at the Suez Canal in 1915 and continuing through the capture of Damascus in 1918. The grand scale of the fighting in Palestine is not fully recognized today even by historians, with attention often focused on the European front. One statistic may put the fighting into perspective: The British army suffered more than half a million casualties; the Turks even more.

Video: Rouhani smilingly bragging of how he deceived the West Posted: 29 Sep 2013 08:00 AM PDT Details here. But he's Western-educated! And he has such a nice smile! I think we can trust him this time. (h/t Ian and Yoel)

Muslims claiming that Mount of Olives is not a historic Jewish cemetery Posted: 29 Sep 2013 06:15 AM PDT Arabic media are reporting that Sheikh Sabri Abu Diab, imam of a mosque in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood, is claiming that the Jewish ties to Har HaZeitim - the Mount of Olives - are fictional. Diab claims that although the Ottoman government allowed limited numbers of Jews to be interred there, the hundreds of acres of the Mount are mostly filled with fake Jewish graves that were created only for Jews to grab more Jerusalem-area land. In reality, the Mount of Olives has been a Jewish graveyard since First Temple times. Some 150,000 Jews are estimated to be buried there. Tens of thousands of gravestones were desecrated by Jordan during the 19 years that the world considers a "status quo." Here is a photo of the gravestones being used as stairs for an Jordanian army camp: And here is a gravestone used to help build a latrine in Jordan: Indeed, the only people ever to fake graves in Jerusalem to grab land are, naturally, Muslims. But these are just competing narratives, and the Arab lies must be respected as much as historic truth, right? That seems to be the rule in the Middle East nowadays.

The bar for being a "moderate" is pretty low for Muslims (poster) Posted: 29 Sep 2013 03:30 AM PDT Judging from the news over the past few days, it appears that for a Muslim leader to sort-of grudgingly admit that the most well-documented historical fact even occurred is considered praiseworthy. That is a pretty good example of how the media assumes a priori that Muslims must not be held to the same standards as normal human beings. Right now, we have Israel being held to impossibly high standards far beyond what any Western nation at war has ever been held to while Arab and Muslim nations are held to absurdly low standards. One day, when the West starts to judge everyone by the same standards, we can start to have real progress towards peace.

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