יום רביעי, 18 בספטמבר 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Jesus and international law

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 06:00 PM PDT

From Irene, who recently gave us a brilliant letter to Catherine Ashton, here is another:
His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Città del Vaticano

Your Holiness:

Because we met some years ago when my Mercedes broke down in Assisi while you were visiting on pilgrimage, I feel emboldened to write directly to you. You may recall that I had just left my position as tenured Professor of Sharia Law and Bioethics at King Abdulaziz University Law School in Riyadh to become Senior Advisor in International Law for the European Union.

It was in the course of preparing a detailed analysis of the many legal issues related to the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, that it came to my attention that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be a grave violation of international law.

Although no mortal can truly foresee the time, the place, or the nature of the Second Coming, the sophisticated algorithms of modern prediction modeling software indicate that the Second Coming, like the First Coming, will be far more complex than the simple blaze of glory that some predict. Christ will most likely return to the places where He lived, worked, and preached, i.e., East Jerusalem and the West Bank (which was called Judea and Samaria until Abdullah, first king of the judenrein nation of Jordan, changed its name).

As you may recall, Abdullah successfully cleansed all Jews from those areas during the 1947-1949 Palestinian Arab and Arab League War, which attempted to annihilate the new state of Israel and expel any Jews not yet dead when the fighting stopped. The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, clarified Arab intent: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre that will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."

Ever since 1967, when Jews returned to live in the places from which they had been driven, such as Hebron, international law has strenuously prohibited Jews from living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

With respect to the rule of international law, Hebron is especially significant because that is where Arabs massacred the Jews in 1929. As you know, The Book of Genesis records Abraham's purchase of land in Hebron and the subsequent burial there of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. Hebron is where David was anointed King, and it served as his capital until he relocated to East Jerusalem.

If the Prince of Peace returned to Jacob's well in the West Bank and asked a Samaritan woman to draw water for him, this would constitute Jewish theft of Palestinian water, an international felony. Such action by Jesus would interfere disastrously with the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Even Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement, is opposed to the presence of Jews in the land on which Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, walked.

Jesus will surely attempt to return to Jerusalem's oldest neighborhoods and to Temple Mount, where He last preached. If He retraced His footsteps on East Jerusalem's Via Dolorosa, this would be an impediment to world peace, as well as an affront to Palestinian sovereignty. In addition, it would violate the 1907 Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, numerous United Nations resolutions, and the fourth Geneva Convention.

Your Holiness, this calls for the same kind of religious courage and international acumen that you exhibited this May when you canonized the Martyrs of Otranto, the 800 Christians slaughtered in 1480 by Ottoman Turks, while remaining silent on the plight of Christians in Turkish occupied Northern Cyprus.

I look forward to your encyclical exhorting the faithful to pray for a postponement of the Second Coming, as least until the European Union and the United Nations have ethnically cleansed the area and Hamas has established sharia law.

I have the honor to profess myself with the most profound respect, your Holiness' most obedient and humble servant.

Yours profoundly,

حسین بن علی
Hussein bin Ali, GCB
Senior Advisor in International Human Rights Law for the European Union

cc: Lady Catherine Ashton

9/17 Links Part 2: The UNRWA Dilemma, Learning from Oslo, Palestinians - Deserving of a State?

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 03:30 PM PDT

From Ian:
The UNRWA Dilemma
The Palestinian people, according to a recent study by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, 25 times more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall plan after the Second World War.
Most of these funds, according to the study, reached the Palestinian people through The United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
UNRWA is the only UN refugee agency dedicated to a single group of people, and the only agency that designates individuals as original refugees if they have lived in areas effected by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, for a minimum of only two years, before being displaced. UNRWA is also the only UN agency that designates the descendants of the original refugees as refugees as well – even though 90% of UNRWA-designated refugees have never actually been displaced.
Palestinians: Deserving of a State?
There are currently twenty-one Arabic countries, all in various states of dysfunction. Iraq, wracked by internecine warfare, is swiftly unraveling with 1,000 of its citizens murdered in sectarian conflict just in the past month. Syria, whose leader recently used Sarin to gas his own people, has long since ceased to be a country, having fractured along ethno-religious lines. And Egypt, always regarded as the premiere Arab state, is just barely functioning and teetering on the brink full-fledged civil war. The rest of the Arab world is in no better shape and there appears to be no end in sight to Arab internal conflict and its brutal consequences.
If past performance is any indicator, the Palestinian state, should it ever come to fruition will almost certainly end up like the rest of the Arab lot and devolve into a stateless, lawless region marked by extremism, violence and terror. Such an entity will pose a direct challenge to regional stability. Indeed, the clan-based ethno and religious schisms that currently exist within Palestinian society are not new and date back to the 1930s and 40s when the Husseini and Nashashibi clans violently battled each other for Palestinian leadership roles. (h/t NormanF)
JPost Editorial: Learning from Oslo
Kerry seems to be devoting too much of his effort to talks and not enough to changing realities on the ground. And this is unfortunate, since the simple truth is that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other PA leaders lack the will and/or the ability to negotiate a final-status peace agreement with Israel.
Instead, much more American energy must be invested in the more modest goal of building a viable Palestinian state that is capable of living in peace alongside Israel.
That means insisting that PA-sponsored media and schools put an end to incitement against Israel.
It also means improving Palestinians' day-to-day living conditions. The building of Rawabi, the first new Palestinian city, should be seen as a positive development.
Legal Experts Call on Kerry to Hold Palestinians Accountable
Hundreds of legal experts from the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel urged U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) exercise proper conduct in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations, Israel Hayom reported.
In a letter sent to Kerry on Saturday, the legal experts called on the secretary of state to enforce the rules and behavior stipulated and agreed upon in the preliminary negotiations, and to have the Palestinians stop detrimental behavior, including economic sanctions, boycotts, and acts of incitement.
Israel-PA Negotiations Continue Amid Jordan Valley Controversy
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority continued in Jerusalem on Monday, amid a familiar pattern of Israeli and American silence and PA leaks.
Israeli sources refused to confirm the meetings, in line with an agreement by the involved parties - Israel, the US and the PA - to refrain from public comments on the talks until real progress had been made. However, a Palestinian Authority officials leaked news of the latest meeting between the sides to AFP.
But while Israeli officials have remain tight-lipped about the talks, PA officials have made several leaks to the press.
IDF pulls soldiers out of communities bordering Gaza, Lebanon and Syria
In the past, the IDF's Southern Command placed soldiers at the entrance to nine towns and villages near the Gaza and Egypt borders, while the Northern Command secured 13 frontier communities in this way.
Evaluations carried out at IDF headquarters concluded that enhanced border security measures, such as electronic sensors, patrols, and lookout posts, combined with additional components, meant that the practice of placing soldiers inside the communities is no longer necessary.
"We know where the threats come from, what routes threats could take, and we understand these measures are no longer needed," the source said. "The need to defend from inside communities seems less relevant," he stated.
Israeli academic sues British labor union for racism and discrimination
The Israeli expert, who lives in Tel Aviv, had been due to lead a session for managers and union officials at the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust last May when he received an email stating that Unison had to his presence and its members would boycott the event, apparently because the invitation to an Israeli academic was in conflict with Unison policy. Although the health union has a long-standing boycott of goods produced in Israel settlements in the West Bank, lawyers for the academic told 'The Independent' that they could find no lawful justification for an apparent ban on Israeli citizens. (h/t Daphne Anson)
Israel dismisses letter in favor of EU settlement guidelines
Israel dismissed on Monday a letter by former European leaders calling on the EU to stick by its settlement guidelines.
As far as Jerusalem is concerned, the words of biased former officials are no longer significant.
"The people who signed the letter are no longer relevant and do not have control or say in the EU decision-making process," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. "This reflects their own biased positions and does not surprise us.
Secretary of State John Kerry has made it clear that these guidelines are not productive for the peace process or the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian discussions which have been held recently."
The Media is Still Obsessed With Israel
What Middle East story does the New York Times, the newspaper of record in the United States, deem so important that it devotes most of the front page of its 12-page SundayReview section this week, including eye-catching art work, and the bulk of two inside pages?
Is it about Syria?
After all, the U.S. Administration's surprise decision to turn to diplomacy and partner with Moscow to forge a deal on the Syrian chemical-weapons arsenal is one of the biggest geopolitical developments in recent history.
The Economist's extraordinarily misleading 12 words on why Hamas hates Israel
Yet Israelis still loathe Hamas, which carried out scores of suicide-bombings against Israelis in the early 2000s. Hamas, meanwhile, reviles Israel for its assaults on Gaza and its leaders.
That's why Hamas hates Israel?!
Well, for starters, Hamas's obsessive hatred, which manifests itself in explicit calls by their leaders to commit genocide against the Jews, likely has something to do with their founding charter, published in 1988. The document cites the wisdom of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' to "prove" that Jews are trying to take over the world, and asserts its theological commitment to destroying the Jewish state – regardless of where its borders are drawn – through a long-term strategy of violent jihad.
Jewish teenagers attacked at Paris sports court
According to France's Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, several teenagers "of African and North African origins" attacked the group of Jewish 13-year-olds from the Ner HaThorah Jewish school on Thursday. There were no serious injuries.
The attackers asked the Jews to stop "occupying the area," the report said, called them "dirty Jews" and said "Hitler didn't finish the job."
Netanyahu Launches New 'Begin Virtual Exhibit'
On Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a virtual exhibit to mark the centenary of the birth of Israel's sixth prime minister, Menachem Begin. Begin is now the first Israeli personality to be remembered in a joint initiative between the Google Cultural Institute and museums and cultural institutions around the world.
Curiyo promises more information, less annoyingly
Dynamic contextual advertising and linking on websites is a big business today, but many of these services leave much to be desired, according to information guru Bob Rosenschein. "I don't want to knock anyone, but many of these link services are very annoying," he told The Times of Israel. "I wanted to develop something that would be much easier on the eye, and much easier for users to digest — a service with as good a user interface and experience as possible."
It's for that reason he established Curiyo, a new browser add-on "that allows users to get more information about just about anything on the web, using dynamic contextual technology they can live with," he said.
Israeli Agricultural Technology to Gain Greater Access to India Farmers Through Centers of Excellence; 8 to Open in 2013, 29 by 2015
Ushpiz said Israel, which is known for its expertise in the dairy industry, is keen to collaborate with the Indian dairy sector to boost milk production.
"We are interested in dairy sector. We have expertise in raising milk productivity in extreme temperatures and limited water resources," the ambassador was quoted as saying.
Although India is the world's largest milk producer, the per capita milk output is the lowest in the world. An Israeli cow yields an average 12,000 liters of milk per year, four times greater than the 3,000 liters reported in India.
Israeli Tech Company Matomy Reportedly Plans 2014 London IPO at $400-$500 Million Valuation
Digital advertising technology company Matomy Media Group Inc. plans a 2014 initial public offering in London at a valuation of between $400 and $500 million, Israel's Globes business daily reported, citing unnamed sources.
Matomy was founded in 2006 by CEO Ofer Druker, Adi Orzel and Kfir Moyal. In 2010, Ilan Shiloach, chairman of the Israeli arm of international advertising giant McCann Erickson and his partner Nir Tarlovsky made a strategic investment in Matomy as part of their move into Internet advertising. In 2009, Shiloach and Tarlovsky founded TheTime technology incubator to nurture new media start-ups, and Matomy is based in the same building, in Tel Aviv's Ramat Hahayil.
Etrog-runners held at Ben Gurion
As many Israelis spend the days before the Sukkot festival browsing outdoor markets for the Four Species, Israeli customs authorities find themselves battling smugglers trying to sneak citrons into the country.
Over the past two weeks alone, four passengers have been caught in three separate incidents, trying to smuggle about 400 citrons, or etrogs, into the country without paying customs tariffs, the ultra-Orthodox website KikarHashabbat reported.
Simon Schama - The Story Of The Jews Part 3

Egyptian forces kill two Palestinian Arabs on boat fleeing to Sweden

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 02:00 PM PDT

Arabic media is reporting that a group of Syrian refugees, attempting to sail a ship to Sweden for asylum, were fired upon by the Egyptian navy. Two were killed, both of Palestinian ancestry.

The boat was leaving from Alexandria with more than 200 people aboard. 

This is supposed to be video of the boat.


The two dead were a 35 year old man and a 61 year old woman.

Sources say that the Egyptians were firing randomly at the boat at dawn today.

As of this writing, some 15 hours later, still no reports about this murder of Palestinian Arab civilians in English. But the IDF killing a terrorist during a firefight has already been featured in wire service and major news media articles.

Double standards, anyone?

If the land isn't controlled by Jews, the Palestinian Arabs aren't interested in it

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 12:30 PM PDT

I have noted in the past that the 1964 PLO Charter specifically excludes the West Bank, Gaza and a couple of other areas from the land it wanted to rule over.

Why? Because those areas were already controlled by Arabs, so Palestinian "nationalism" did not apply.

The Palestinian Arab national movement has, from its start, been geared towards denying Jews a state, and not towards building a Palestinian Arab  state. This simple fact has eluded generations of politicians, pundits and pseudo-peacemakers.

More evidence comes from the latest accusation that the PLO has hurled at Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mahmoud Habash, Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, revealed the existence of a deal between President Mohamed Morsi and Hamas to give up her part of the Sinai in order to expand the [Gaza Strip] sector and the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza.
The accusation is, of course, fiction. It is merely part of the war of words between Fatah and Hamas.  But the fact that a PLO official is making such an accusation is important.

Why should the PLO be against expanding Gaza into the Sinai?

It is crowded. It is tiny. It will never expand into Israel. So if Morsi is willing to give land for a Palestinian Arab state for free, why is this a terrible idea? The illusionary plan was not a land swap, it didn't involve Israel gaining anything - it was a gift. And the PLO would be dead-set against it.

Even if you argue that it would have allowed a separate Hamastan, separated from Fatahstan, why would that be different from the situation today? Both Hamas and Fatah will continue to pretend to talk about "unity" and practically no one would recognize Gaza as a state.

To the PLO, free land is anathema - if that land is not controlled by Jews.

Which proves, yet again, that the PLO has little interest in the welfare of its people, but simply uses them as pawns - just as all Arab leaders do. Their very existence as a people has only one purpose - to destroy Israel.

But the idea that anyone could be so cynical and callous towards their own people is incomprehensible to the West, no matter how much evidence there is. It is much easier to accept fantasies of "Palestinian nationalism "and their ancient desire for a home that never existed than to face the truth that an entire people was created to deny the Jewish right to self-determination.

The boars are back in town! Evil Zionist pigs return to destroy (only) Arab farms

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT

It's been over a year since I last reported on the perennial stories, often in Ma'an, of "Jewish settlers" releasing wild boars to wreak havoc on Palestinian Arab farmers.

But the boars are back!
Palestinian farmers in Salfit on Tuesday accused settlers of releasing wild boars onto their land to damage their crops.

Wild boars damaged a number of plum trees, fig trees, vineyards and other agricultural crops, farmers in the Wadi Shaer area of Salfit told Ma'an.

Farmers accuse settlers of deliberately releasing the boars onto their land.

Residents and local officials in the area have for several years complained that settlers release boars, which have caused injuries and destroy land in the rural communities.
This time, instead of reporting it as actual fact as it used to, Ma'an quotes a seeming authoritative source:
The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem says that while Israel claims it cannot control the wild boar population in the area, and the purposeful release of pigs cannot be confirmed, Israel's separation wall has pushed the animals to search for new habitats.
However, as I have documented, the ARIJ has directly blamed the boars on Jews in the past - by quoting Ma'an!

Since the boars are indigenous to the region, and they attack Jewish farms as well, the idea that the security barrier keeps them concentrated on only the eastern side is equally ludicrous. But, hey - this is Ma'an.

Its not like anyone important parrots the absurd accusations, right?

9/17 Links Part 1: Bibi's Red Line, UN Confirms Sarin, Iranian Pres. 'it's all a Zionist Plot'

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 09:30 AM PDT

From Ian:
Analysis: Obama's Learning Curve Meets Bibi's Red Line
With Obama's policies in Egypt and Syria exploding in his face, his Cairo Speech dreams of a new Middle East devolving into an Islamist chaos, and Iranian "engagement" taking the form of threats against his family, Obama may also be more aware, somewhere deep inside his political persona, of the seriousness of the threats Israel faces. Possibly, his original antipathy for Israel and Netanyahu may have been tempered by the reality of living in the White House for almost five years.
The upcoming UNGA is a moment of great historic drama. Binyamin Netanyahu can be expected to be in top form. All of his warnings over the years have materialized. The danger of WMDs in the hands of rogue states have been demonstrated for the world to see, in Youtube videos of dead children lying in rows. Last year – the feeling was that while Netanyahu drew his red line, Obama had probably flipped the channel on his TV set. This year, however, Obama has also drawn a red line, and has had to try to defend it.
Perhaps, at last, Netanyahu's red line has met Obama's foreign policy learning curve, in which case there is room for very cautious optimism. This time, perhaps, the meeting between the two leaders will not involve snubs and public rebukes, but take place in an atmosphere that is conducive to understandings that can truly deter Iran and Russia from continuing their game of nuclear chicken with the US and Israel.
Khaled Abu Toameh: King Abdullah Says No To Hamas
Jordan's King Abdullah has turned down a request from Hamas to re-open its offices in his country, according to informed sources in Amman.
The sources said that Qatar, one of the few Arab countries that continue to support Hamas, recently asked King Abdullah to allow Hamas to resume its activities in the kingdom.
The Jordanians banned Hamas in 1999 and stripped some of the Islamist movement's leaders, including Khaled Mashal, of their Jordanian citizenship.
One dead, dozens wounded in overnight clashes in Jenin
A wanted terrorist was killed and dozens were injured in clashes that erupted in the West Bank town of Jenin overnight Tuesday after an attempt to arrest the man was met with violent resistance, the IDF said Tuesday.
The soldiers encountered "a violent riot" as "Palestinians hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and improvised grenades at security forces who responded with riot dispersal means… Feeling an imminent threat to their lives, the soldiers returned fire toward the lower extremities of main instigators," the IDF said.
Russia training Palestinian women to be paratroopers
The Palestinian Authority revealed on Monday that Russia has been training Palestinian women as paratroopers.
The PA security forces published a number of photos showing the women by trained by Russian experts.
This is the first time that Palestinian women are trained as paratroopers.
The PA does not have any planes or helicopters.
Ninety-Five Percent of Palestinian Government Workers Stage Strike
Palestinian media is reporting that a massive government strike which occurred yesterday may escalate and expand in the coming weeks. Yesterday 95% of Palestinian government workers launched a one-day strike, after their union chief called on them to do so.
The union is promising that next week it'll be a two-day strike.
Isi Leibler: Putin's Russia now a force in the Middle East
With the passage of days, weeks and months, interest in controlling his stockpiles will wane and the possibility of taking action will be effectively forestalled.
There will be no consequences to Assad's actions, since Russia endorsed and the US capitulated to his demand that an agreement eschew any mention of reverting to military action should he renege on the deal.
In orchestrating his maneuvers in Syria, Putin has demonstrated not only his support of Syria and Iran, but his ability to stand up and deliver on behalf of his allies. Putin achieved regional hegemony through Russia's alliance with a broad Shi'ite arc that encompasses Iran, Syria and Lebanon, and is likely to include Iraq.
Elliott Abrams: The Syria deal
Nevertheless the deal with Russia does not punish Syrian President Bashar Assad or strike a blow at the regime; it merely says "don't do it again." So the lesson for dictators who commit atrocities is that you can use chemical weapons 10 or 15 times, and then you may be asked to give them up. Period. It's like telling an ax murderer that his punishment is to give up his ax -- or to promise to give up the ax and promise that he has no more axes hidden anywhere else.
The Syrian regime, and Iran, and Hezbollah, and Russia, seem very pleased with this diplomatic achievement. But why should we be?
UN report cites 'convincing' evidence sarin used in Syria
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented the UN inspectors' report to a closed meeting of the UN Security Council before its release.
"This is a war crime and a grave violation of … international law," Ban told the council in remarks distributed to the press. "The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves. … The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare."
Cameron: I wanted to act in Syria because of the lessons of the Holocaust
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who two weeks ago lost a vote in Parliament calling for military intervention in Syria, said he had wanted to act because of the lessons of the Holocaust.
"The horror of the Holocaust is unique but the lessons we learn from it are absolutely applicable right across our society at home and abroad. In particular, the lesson of not standing by," he told 500 guests at an appeal dinner marking the 25th anniversary of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) Monday night.
Four Reasons the Syria Deal Could Fall Apart
The framework agreement contains a series of deadlines and requirements that could slip in the face of a government that has long been secretive about its arsenal and resistant to international inspections. Complicating the picture is the 2 1/2-year-old civil war, which will make it difficult, if not impossible, for international inspectors to do their work.
Here are some of the deadlines laid out in the framework agreement Saturday between Messrs. Kerry and Lavrov and what could go wrong with them:
Assad's biological weapons absent from US-Russia deal
There is "not a word" about biological weapons in the agreement that US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, Channel 10 news said.
Assad has two biological weapons bases, one of them subterranean and a second in a coastal location, producing anthrax and other agents, the report said
Turkish warplanes shoot down Syrian helicopter
Turkey scrambled two F-16 jets along the border between its southern Hatay province and Syria after warning the Mi-17 helicopter it was approaching Turkish airspace shortly before 14:30 (1130 GMT), the military said in a statement.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said a warplane shot down the helicopter after it ventured up to 2 km into Turkey near the border town of Yayladagi. "It was repeatedly warned by our air defense elements," he said.
Report: Half of Syria's Hospitals Destroyed or Damaged
According to a report by The Telegraph, an open letter published by the world's leading general medical journal, The Lancet, claimed Syrian rebels are largely to blame for the disintegration of the country's medical infrastructure.
"Systematic assaults on medical professionals, facilities and patients are breaking Syria's health-care system and making it nearly impossible for civilians to receive essential medical services," the letter said.
Study: Syria rebellion 'dominated' by al-Qaida and Islamic jihadists
The Telegraph received an advance copy of defense consultancy IHS Jane's new report, which is due to be published later this week. It estimates that around 100,000 fighters are currently battling the Assad regime in Syria, but that they have splintered into as many as 1,000 separate factions.
One in ten rebels, including thousands of foreigners, have aligned themselves with powerful international terrorist groups, most linked directly to al-Qaida.
Around 30,000 to 35,000 more agree with that worldview, but focus largely on establishing an Islamic caliphate in Syria instead of actively seeking ways to spread the conflict beyond its borders.
Meet the 'moderate' Syrian sheikh young think tanker wants us to adopt
The State Department-funded Syrian Emergency Task Force and Elizabeth O'Bagy backed an anti-Semitic, anti-Shiite imam for presidency of the Syrian rebels.
O'Bagy ran into trouble earlier this month after The Daily Caller revealed her dual role as a pundit urging war on the Assad regime in Syria and a paid contractor for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a pro-rebel front group. But while she still held a position at a connected Washington, DC think tank, O'Bagy strongly supported the anti-Semitic, anti-Shiite Sheikh Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib for a leadership position in an imaginary conquered Syria.
Netanyahu to meet Obama, urge more pressure on Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington DC later this month, ahead of his scheduled address at the UN General Assembly in New York, and will urge a stepping up of pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear drive.
"In a week and a half, I will go to the United Nations General Assembly, and before that I will meet with President Obama. I intend to focus on stopping Iranian nuclear program. Really stopping the nuclear program," Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting Tuesday.
Report: Iran set to shut down nuclear site in deal with West
Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, is willing to shut down a key nuclear site believed to be central in the Islamic Republic's uranium enrichment program in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions that have crippled the country's financial sector, according to a report which appeared in the prestigious German weekly Der Spiegel.
According to intelligence sources who spoke with the newspaper, Rouhani is willing to allow Western inspectors to oversee the removal of centrifuges from the secretive Fordo plant. Rouhani may even announce the offer and delve further into details during his appearance before the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month.
Iranian President: "Clear to All of Us" That Western Moves Against Syria Part of Globe-Spanning Pro-Israel Conspiracy
Today he explained, according to Iranian and Western media sources, that Iran's interests in Syria are grounded in the fact that it is at the center of a global conspiracy to boost Zionist control. Iran's state-controlled Fars news agency described Rouhani's speech, which was given to what the outlet describes as "ranking commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)":
Egyptian Military Storms Islamist Held Village
Egyptian security forces stormed Delga, an Islamist-controlled village in central Egypt that had been the scene of some of the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt.
According to reports, Egyptian soldiers and police entered Delga in the Minya province just after dawn, firing tear gas and searching for suspects,AFP reported. Security forces had arrested 56 terrorists by Monday afternoon.
Egypt Air Force Jets in Northern Sinai
Egyptian Air Force jets were seen circling Tuesday in the skies of northern Sinai, over the area of Sheikh Zwaid, according to Voice of Israel public radio. Sounds of explosions were heard as the Egyptian military continued its anti-terrorist operations against Islamist militias.
Egyptian military jets are not allowed in Sinai according to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979. However, Israel has allowed the Egyptian military to operate in northern Sinai recently, in order to root out the terrorist infrastructure that had formed there.
Egypt to Re-open Rafiah for Special Cases, Say PA Sources
The Egyptians notified the PA that the crossing would operate four hours a day to allow patients and students to leave. The move came in response to a request by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the sources said.
The Rafiah crossing has been closed for security reasons ever since the Egyptian army started a crackdown against terrorists in the Sinai peninsula.
Ma'an reported that Abbas on Monday telephoned the chief of the Egyptian intelligence, Maj-Gen. Muhammad Tuhami, and requested that the crossing be opened to allow students and humanitarian cases to leave Gaza.

Muslims now get up to 19,884 women in Paradise

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 08:10 AM PDT

Or, how to discard your wife for a series of beautiful virgins:



Following are excerpts from a lecture delivered by Saudi cleric Muhammad Ali Shanqiti, which was posted on the Internet on March 23, 2013.
Muhammad Ali Shanqiti: Every Muslim man gets at least two black-eyed virgins in Paradise. Each virgin comes with 70 servants girls. You are permitted [to have sex] with the virgins as well as the servant girls. For every woman from this world who enters Paradise, you get 70 black-eyed virgins.
There are four types of women in Paradise. First, there are the women of this world who enter Paradise. Each one comes with 70 black-eyed virgins. The second type of woman in Paradise is the black-eyed virgin. Each comes with 70 servant girls. These servant girls are the third type. Sorry, there are only three types of women in Paradise.
[…]
If you get married in this world, then [in Paradise], you get your wife from this world, along with 70 black-eyed virgins with whom you are allowed to have sex, and each of these 70 virgins comes with 70 servant girls.
So how many women do you get? That's the minimum.
Now, let's assume that you are married to four wives, each of whom comes with 70 black-eyed virgins, and each virgin comes with 70 servant girls… How many does it come to? God help you.
[…]
Your reunion [with your wife] lasts for 70 earthly years. When the 70 years are about to come to an end, another black-eyed virgin calls to you from above: "Oh servant of Allah, don't we get a piece of you?"
You turn to her, and you see that she is more beautiful than the woman you are with. You ask her: "Who are you?" and she says: "I'm your virgin in Paradise. Allah told you about me, saying: 'There is more of them with Us'. I am one of the 'more'."
You leave that one and move on to the next. God help you…
You spend 70 years or so with her, and along comes the third, saying: "Oh servant of Allah, don't we get a piece of you?" You look at her, and she is even more beautiful than the one you are with.
[…]
Allah didn't think this one out all the way, though.

70 virgins x 70 servant girls for each wife comes out to 4900 servants, 70 virgins and one wife, or 4971 women total including the wife. Multiply by four wives to get 19,884 women. (MEMRI calculated wrong, forgetting to include the virgins. I'm not sure if the servant girls are virgins - they might be heavenly sluts.)

Anyway, at 70 years per woman, that is 1,391,880 years of sex.

This sounds like a lot, but we are talking eternity here, folks. Compared to "forever," a mere 1.3 million years is next to nothing. For 99.999999999999999999...% of eternity, poor Muslim men will have no one to nail under the benevolent eyes of Allah.

Will Allah allow the servant girls to attend to multiple men? That hardly sounds Islamic.

It must be that Allah, who knows best, is only telling Muslim men that they will have all these black-eyed virgins, but in fact he is sending them right to Hell to avoid the problems in the future when the women run out. I mean, Allah is not going to be happy with all the shoe-throwing and rioting that happens after 1.3 million years.

The story of the virgins and servants is meant to fool Muslim men. That's the only way this can work if Allah has infinite intelligence.

Muslims throw shoes, expel Fatah leader from Al Aqsa Mosque (video)

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 07:00 AM PDT

Today, Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad tried to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque - along with a Jordanian minister who was visiting.

However, he was treated as if he was a Jew.

Muslim worshipers and others pelted him with their shoes and expelled him from the area:



The protesters complained that he, and Fatah, was collaborating with Israel. Also they were said to be angry at an interview he made a few weeks ago where he said he would like to enter Gaza on back of an Egyptian tank.

I imagine that in the future, when Fatah officials visit the Temple Mount, they will need to bring security guards - just like the Jews. Or, if you follow the logic of certain Guardian writers, they should be forbidden from ever entering the Al Aqsa Mosque because it upsets other Muslims.

What this also teaches us is that the leaders of the Al Aqsa mosque are extremists. Even though they live on the West Bank. Shocking, I know, but the EU hasn't yet figured that out.

Roger Waters to present award at Amnesty International event

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 05:00 AM PDT

From Amnesty International:
Pakistani schoolgirl and education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai and American singer, human rights and social justice activist Harry Belafonte were today jointly announced as the recipients of Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2013.

...Roger Waters will make the presentation to Harry Belafonte accompanied by a special guest.
Yes, when Amnesty wanted to choose someone to present its highest honor, they chose someone who demonizes Jews and Israel.

Besides including the symbol of Judaism on an inflatable pig at numerous concerts, Waters recently specified how someone he disagreed with was Jewish, as if that is all that is needed to explain her odious (to him) actions.

Waters also consistently calls for the boycott of the only country in the region to respect basic human rights. For Palestinians. (As I've documented numerous times, the human rights record towards Palestinian by Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria are particularly odious.)

This is the person that Amnesty chooses to present a humanitarian award.

Belafonte definitely deserves to receive humanitarian awards. But he should refuse to accept any from Waters. You can tell him that on his Facebook page.

(h/t Yael)

Guardian columnist falls for the Muslim Diplomacy of Fear

Posted: 17 Sep 2013 02:00 AM PDT

The Guardian last Friday had a Comment Is Free piece by one Giles Fraser, where he warned of the dire consequences of allowing Jews to visit their holiest site:

An Israeli claim to Temple Mount would trigger unimaginable violence

The settler mentality is now increasingly focusing on what is politically the most explosive site on the planet
The orthodox position has long been that the Temple can only be rebuilt and sacrifices resumed when the Jewish messiah returns. There have been a few dissenting voices to this consensus – most notably, Maimonides – but since the foundation of the state of Israel, the idea of Jews returning to Temple Mount prior to the arrival of the messiah has been the obsession of a tiny minority. And mostly, like Sharon, driven by secular political rather that theological concerns. But as Israel continues its shift to the right, these dangerous voices are now entering the political mainstream. Back in March, the housing and construction minister Uri Ariel, who advocates the rebuilding of the Temple, visited the site as a "tourist". In April, Knesset member Miri Regev emphasised: "I do not understand why a Jew is not allowed to pray in the most sacred place for him – the Temple Mount." Religious services minister, Naftali Bennett, has announced he will work for legislation guaranteeing Jewish access. And the notoriously hardline Likud politician, settler and Knesset member Moshe Feiglin – who believes Israel ought to annex all of the West Bank and Gaza – stepped up the pressure on Binyamin Netanyahu in a speech in New York last week, calling on him to restore Jewish sovereignty over the site.

It would be hard to overstate how dangerous an idea this is. The vast majority of orthodox rabbis have reiterated their opposition to it. But the settler mentality is now increasingly focusing on what is politically the most explosive site on the planet. If they succeed, a billion Muslims worldwide would go ballistic.
Fraser is wrong on a number of levels.

While the haredi world is generally against visiting the Temple Mount, the consensus among modern Orthodox Jews is that (with proper preparation and caveats) it is certainly permissible to visit the site, as long as one stays away from areas that the actual Temple and the Holy of Holies was. It is certain that, for example, the Herodian extensions on the southern part of the Mount - including where the Al Aqsa Mosque was built - are nowhere near the Temple site.

He also seems unaware that Jews are visiting the Temple Mount virtually every day. Usually less than a hundred a day, but still a core of people visiting and some even praying - and the Muslims know it, document it,  write lots of articles condemning it and sometimes they even start throwing stones and Molotov cocktails because of  it.

But nothing apocalyptic has happened. The Jews return, and in general outside of grumbling nothing bad happens.

Equating those who want to visit the Temple Mount with a "settler mentality" is also condescending, to say the least. My visit to the Temple Mount earlier this year was because I wanted to have a rare opportunity to see Judaism's holiest spot for myself. Certainly, those who assert their rights to live in the land of their forefathers are more likely to be the types who want to assert their rights to visit their holiest place. Why are people who strive for their own human rights be considered inherently bad?

I doubt that Fraser is Jewish, but he seems to be strangely obsessed with the halachic ban on Jews ascending to the Mount. But shouldn't that be a right that Jews have - to decide to visit or not to visit based on their own beliefs and the evolving halachic thinking on the topic?  The decision of whether Jews should be allowed access to their holiest site should not be left to Fraser or the Muslims or the EU or the UN, but based on simple fairness and freedom of religion. Isn't that what liberals believe?

Look at how Fraser describes what would happen if Jews would visit and pray at the Mount: "a billion Muslims worldwide would go ballistic." No, they won't. They will threaten to go ballistic, but the proper response to that is for Jews to assert their rights. Giving in to threats is not a strategy - it is surrender.

Fraser also seems unaware that the Muslims who threaten violence if Jews should be given more access also are against all non-Muslim visitors, of which there are thousands every month.Should those tourists also be banned because of Muslim threats?  If the Guardian wants to pay for Fraser to report from the Temple Mount, will he take the principled position that he might anger Muslims and therefore refuse?

Finally, the best argument against Fraser's thesis comes from Muslims themselves. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry Monday made yet another condemnation of Jews visiting the Temple Mount, and warned about a supposed mass rally of Jews throughout Jerusalem during the upcoming Sukkot holiday. But one statement that the Ministry made was telling.

It said that the absence of Muslim reaction to Jews visiting the Mount has emboldened the Jews to continue to do so.

In other words, Jews have been visiting the Mount for years now. Little bad has happened. Now, Muslims are upset at themselves for not reacting strongly enough! Their actions have been nowhere near their fiery and inflammatory rhetoric.

Muslims have used threats of massive violence for over a century to force Westerners to cower in fear. Sometimes, they actually kill a few people. But their actions are rarely anywhere close to their rhetoric. Not once has there been a popular Muslim war against a Western nation based on perceived insults to Islam. But such a war has been threatened countless times.

Finally, I wonder what Fraser thought when the Mohammed cartoons were published. After all, the Muslims threatened mass violence, and several people were killed. Did he demand then that the Western freedoms of expression be curtailed in the face of Muslim threats? Thousand of Muslims indeed "went ballistic."

Luckily, Denmark in general supported freedom of expression then, and the furious Muslim reaction calmed down in only a few days. This was the proper reaction.

Shouldn't Muslim threats to Jewish freedom of religion - even if it is only a minority of Jews who feel they must ascend to their holiest site -  be treated the exact same way? 

Or are Jewish religious rights somehow inferior to the rights of Danish cartoonists?
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