| Apparent terror attack in Jordan Valley; Israeli man killed Posted: 10 Oct 2013 05:25 PM PDT Ha'aretz has the story: An Israeli civilian was killed in an apparent terror attack outside his place of residence in the Jordan Valley on Thursday night. A woman who was with him was moderately wounded, but managed to escape and contact police.
The woman said she was asleep with her husband when they heard strange noises originating from outside their house. When they went out to investigate, they were attacked by Palestinians wielding iron rods and axes.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. IDF forces are sweeping the area.
The woman was evacuated to Haemek Medical Center in Afula. Horrific.  |
| 10/10 Links Pt2: An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: wake up!, StandWithUs Posters In Vancouver Posted: 10 Oct 2013 03:00 PM PDT From Ian:
An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: wake up! My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies.
I implore American Jews: do more.
Israel cannot fight this big battle alone. If you are affiliated with a Jewish organization, let it know you want it to actively, openly and unequivocally oppose the BDS campaign and those who support it. Inform yourself, your friends and families, by visiting websites of organizations like StandWithUs, Jewish Virtual Library, AIPAC, AJC and others that will update you and provide information about BDS and anti-Semitism. Standwithus to Place Pro-Israel Posters in Vancouver Skytrain Stations StandWithUs will display two different posters. One depicts Jewish loss of land from Biblical times to the present by juxtaposing a map of the ancient Jewish kingdom circa 1000 BCE, a map of the land designated as the Jewish homeland by the League of Nations in 1920, and a map of the much smaller Israel of today. The second ad, with pictures of Israeli and Canadian children waving their national flags, celebrates the shared values and freedom both countries enjoy. Circumcision won't be banned in Europe, officials say Responding to President Shimon Peres's recent personal appeal, Thorbjorn Jagland said there were no "legal provisions regarding the practice of circumcision of young boys for religious reasons."
"Nothing in the body of our legally binding standards would lead us to put on equal footing the issue of female genital mutilation and the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons," Jagland wrote in his letter to Peres.
"I understand the reaction of many people, specifically from the Jewish and Muslim communities, to the Resolution," he emphasized. 10 Ignored Facts of Moslem and Jewish Populations in Israel (h/t Daphne Anson) This hajj, Muslims need to ask questions about exploitation But if Muslims feel aggrieved about human rights abuses and hajj, then perhaps they ought to take a look at what is happening under the shadow of the heavy machinery surrounding Mecca, for the skyscrapers and shopping malls of Islam's holiest city are not being built by pixies.
This week, the Guardian highlighted the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers who are preparing Qatar for the World Cup in 2022. Similar scrutiny should also be applied to the projects under way in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, although these have traditionally tended to excite more indignation over the demolition of buildings with historic and religious significance than the erosion of rights of the workers razing mountains. It is a good thing there is more awareness about Islam's heritage and the need to preserve it. A natural extension of this activism and discussion are questions about the people shaping Mecca: who are they, and what are their living and working conditions like? MI5 Chief Warns British Public of Terror Threat Making his first speech as the Head of Britain's intelligence Agency, MI5, Andrew Parker says there are thousands of Islamic extremists living in the UK who see the British public as a valid target for attack.
According to a BBC report, the new head of MI5, also said Islamic terror had become more complicated to track than ever before. Canadian Muslims Protest "Honor Killing" Label As Racist Are they willfully misleading? Or are Canadian Muslims who are fighting federal funding to investigate honor violence in the Muslim (and other) communities simply naïve victims of the same propaganda used routinely to explain away the religio-culturally-based murders of Muslim women? Greek PM calls ties with Israel 'strategic, long term' Netanyahu, during his meeting with Samaras, praised the Greeks for taking a tough stand against the neo-fascist Golden Dawn Party and arresting six of the party's MPs following a public furor over the murder of an anti-fascist rapper by a Golden Dawn member.
In a joint appearance with Samaras after their meeting, Netanyahu said he wanted to commend his government for its "resolute opposition to neo- Nazism, anti-Semitism and racism. You have taken important steps, courageous steps that demonstrate clearly that Greece is a land of tolerance and freedom." New Director of Israel On Campus Coalition Vows to Empower Jewish Students Students need the tools to address the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement "before, during, and after a BDS campaign comes to campus," he says.
"We've got to prevent anti-Israel forces from making inroads with campus leaders," Baime says. "We've got to deny Israel's detractors the opportunity to set the parameters of the campus conversation about Israel, and at the same time, we've got to fortify the confidence of the pro-Israel members of the campus community. Because in my view, the greatest threat of BDS is the erosion of confidence of the pro-Israel students and others on campus." 'Alarming' Anti-Israel Campaign On Rutgers Campus Some 1,000 students at Rutgers New Brunswick campus woke up to an alarming eviction notice, informing the students to vacate within 3 days time or have their belongings destroyed.
The Rutgers New Brunswick chapter of "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) posted the eviction notices on Sunday evening on the residence hall doors on all five campuses as part of a campaign called "The Palestinian-style eviction movement."
The movement originated at New York University and has trickled across the nation, said Rutgers SJP President Aman Sharifi, and that this same campaign was demonstrated at schools including Harvard University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of California, Berkeley. 'Anti-Semitic Elmo' goes to jail A man who gained notoriety for going on anti-Semitic rants while dressed in an Elmo muppet suit in New York was sentenced to a year in jail for trying to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts, where he worked briefly on a computer project.
Dan Sandler, who has used the name Adam Sandler as well, showed no remorse for his crimes and said as much to Judge Robert Stolz as he was sentenced at the Manhattan Criminal Court, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Pope Francis Reiterates Desire to Visit Israel During the meeting, after Edelstein urged Pope Francis to visit Israel, the pontiff emphatically replied, "I'll come! I'll come!" Edelstein also asked the pope to continue to combat anti-Semitism, the Jerusalem Post reported.
"There is still anti-Semitism in the world," Edelstein said. "I ask you to use your influence to combat it." Top 10 incredible Israeli advances in vision October 10 is World Sight Day – a perfect opportunity to present some of the amazing advances coming out of Israel for treating medical conditions of the eye and making life easier for people who are blind or visually disabled.
Ongoing research at Israeli universities is constantly testing new approaches, such as sensory substitution devices, or a substance in algae that improves vision in people with retinal disease.
Here are 10 of many Israeli innovations that are already, or someday will be, transforming the field of vision. Israeli Technology a New Step in Finding a Parking Spot Israeli developers have introduced the newest parking solution on the market.
Anagog, an Israeli location-based technology company, unveiled on Monday an automatic algorithm that can analyze and identify where and when a parking space will be available.
Unlike other services, Anagog company says the technology's automatic nature will update the user instead of the user having to update the system. BrightSource takes solar thermal energy home to Israel Some of the earliest pioneers of solar energy started in Israel 30 years ago with the company Luz. Luz went on to become Luz II, then BrightSource, which is now a US-based solar power company about to flip the switch on a massive 377-megawatt solar thermal farm in the California desert.
And at the start of 2014, the sun and stars will align and a dream will be coming true for Israeli solar pioneers and visionaries like BrightSource Israel CEO Israel Kroizer. Fox buys Israeli TV series at French festival The deal was made at the MIP Festival in France, an annual international television event for buying, selling, distribution and financing of media content, the Ynet news outlet reported Thursday.
"Malabi Express" was created by comedia Miki Geva, who also stars in the show. It follows the fate and fortunes of three Israelis who move to Brazil. Israelis Star in Nobel Prizes, so Why Doesn't BDS Boycott Them? Intentionally or not, TIME magazine's report did not note that two of the winners were Israeli citizens.
It is doubtful that TIME was suddenly being so pro-Israel that it wanted to bury the facts from the Boycott Israel movement, which includes academics in Britain and other countries in Europe as well some in Australia who want to punish for the supposed "occupation" Israel by breaking off ties with its universities.
That would mean the Israelis would not be able share research with them, but in this childish game, it is the anti-Zionists who would lose out. Perhaps they deserve their own punishment. If the BDS folks were intellectually honest, they would protest against the Nobel Prize judges for awarding professors from Israleli universities. Nobel Prize Winner's 'Traumatic' Escape from the Nazis Karplus was born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1930 and narrowly escaped Austria when Germany took control of the country in 1938, he wrote in
a lengthy article in the Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure in 2006.
Karplus described how attitudes towards him and his family changed even before the Nazi takeover of Austria, and how two boys he and his brother had
considered their best friends began bullying them.  |
| 1926: Egyptian and Zionist teachers visit each other Posted: 10 Oct 2013 01:30 PM PDT This is what peace would look like. And only one side wants it. From the Palestine Bulletin, April 13, 1926:  |
| It's also the 40th anniversary of Austria capitulating to Arab terrorists over Schoenau Posted: 10 Oct 2013 12:00 PM PDT It isn't only the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. The Schönau Castle, in Austria, used by the Austrian government as a transit camp for Russian Jews who had been permitted to leave Russia prior to emigrating to the West or to Israel. In the words of Yehuda Avner: [On September 28, 1973,] a train carrying Jews from communist Russia en route to Israel via Vienna was hijacked by two Arab terrorists at a railway crossing on the Austrian frontier. Seven Jews were taken hostage, among them a 73-year-old man, an ailing woman and a three-year-old child. The terrorists issued an ultimatum that unless the Austrian government instantly closed down Schoenau, the Jewish Agency's layover near Vienna where the emigres were processed before being flown on to Israel, not only would the hostages be killed, but Austria itself would become the target of violent retaliation. The Austrian cabinet hastily met and, led by chancellor Bruno Kreisky, capitulated. Kreisky announced that Schoenau would be closed forthwith, and the terrorists were hustled to the airport for safe passage to Libya. The entire Arab world could hardly contain its glee... Some analysts believe that Israel's leaders were so preoccupied with the events in Austria that they were not focused on what was happening in Egypt and Syria. Meir went to Europe in late September: [Speaking to the Council of Europe] she said, "Since the Arab terrorists have failed in their ghastly efforts to wreak havoc in Israel, they have of late taken their atrocities against Israeli and Jewish targets into Europe, aided and abetted by Arab governments." This remark caused a fidgety buzz to drone around the packed chamber, and it seemed to deepen when she spoke bitterly about the 11 Israeli athletes kidnapped and murdered at the Munich Olympics the summer before, an outrage compounded by the German government's subsequent release of the surviving killers in return for the freeing of a hijacked Lufthansa plane and its passengers.
"Oh yes, I fully understand your feelings," said Golda cynically, arms folded as tight as a drawbridge. "I fully understand the feelings of a European prime minister saying, 'For God's sake, leave us out of this! Fight your own wars on your own turf. What do your enmities have to do with us? Leave us be!' And I can even understand" - this in a voice that had gone grimmer than ever - "why some governments might even decide that the only way to rid themselves of this insidious threat is to declare their countries out of bounds, if not to Jews generally then certainly to Israeli Jews, or Jews en route to Israel. It seems to me this is the moral choice which every European government has to make these days."
And then, chopping the air with balled fists, her face as granite as her eyes, she thundered, "European governments have no alternative but to decide what they are going to do. To every one which upholds the rule of law I suggest there is but only one answer - no deals with terrorists, no truck with terrorism. Any government which strikes a deal with these killers does so at its own peril. What happened in Vienna is that a democratic government, a European government, came to an agreement with terrorists. In so doing it has brought shame upon itself. In so doing it has breached a basic principle of the rule of law, the basic principle of the freedom of the movement of peoples - or should I just say the basic freedom of the movement of Jews fleeing Russia? Oh, what a victory for terrorism this is!"
THE ENSUING applause told Golda Meir that she had gotten her message across to a goodly portion of the European Council, so off she flew to Vienna. Ushered into the presence of the impeccably dressed, bespectacled, heavy-set man in his mid-60s whom she knew to be the son of a Viennese Jewish clothing manufacturer, she extended her hand, which he shook while rising with the merest sketch of a bow, but not budging from behind the solid protection of his desk.
"Please take a seat, Prime Minister Meir," he said formally. "Thank you Chancellor Kreisky," said Golda, settling into the chair opposite him, and placing her copious black leather handbag on the floor.
"I presume you know why I am here."
"I believe I do," answered Kreisky, whose body language bore all the signs of one who was not relishing this appointment.
"You and I have known each other for a long time," said Golda softly.
"We have," said the chancellor.
"And I know that, as a Jew, you have never displayed any interest in the Jewish state. Is that not correct?"
"That is correct. I have never made any secret of my belief that Zionism is not the solution to whatever problems the Jewish people might face."
"Which is all the more reason why we are grateful to your government for all that it has done to enable thousands of Jews to transit through Austria from the Soviet Union via Schoenau to Israel," said Golda diplomatically.
"But the Schoenau transit camp has been a problem to us for some time," said Kreisky stonily.
"What sort of a problem?"
"For a start, it has always been an obvious terrorist target..."
Golda cut him off, and with a strong suggestion of reproach, said, "Mr. Kreisky, if you close down Schoenau, it will never end. Wherever Jews assemble in Europe for transit to Israel, they will be held to ransom by the terrorists."
"But why should Austria have to carry this burden alone?" countered Kreisky with bite. ....
THE CHANCELLOR settled his elbows on the desk, steepled his fingers, looked the woman directly in the eye, and said sanctimoniously, "Mrs. Meir, it is Austria's humanitarian duty to aid refugees from whatever country they come, but not when it puts Austria at risk. I shall never be responsible for any bloodshed on the soil of Austria."
"And is it also not a humanitarian duty not to succumb to terrorist blackmail, Herr Chancellor?"
Her words, sudden and raw and angry, were a declaration of war. What had begun as conflicting views between opponents was now a nasty cut-and-thrust duel between antagonists.
Kreisky shot back: "Austria is a small country, and unlike major powers, small countries have few options in dealing with the blackmail of terrorists."
"I disagree," seethed Golda. "There can be no deals with terrorism whatever the circumstances. What you have done is certain to encourage more hostage taking. You have betrayed the Jewish emigres."
The man's brows drew together in an affronted frown. "I cannot accept such language, Mrs. Meir. I cannot..."
"You have opened the door to terrorism, Herr Chancellor," the prime minister spat undeterred. "You have brought renewed shame on Austria. I've just come from the Council of Europe. They condemn your act almost to a man. Only the Arab world proclaims you their hero."
"Well, there is nothing I can do about that," said the Austrian in an expressionless voice, looking uncomfortably still. And then, with a hint of a shrug, "You and I belong to two different worlds."
"Indeed we do, Herr Kreisky," said Golda Meir in a voice cracked with sardonic Jewish weariness. "You and I belong to two very, very different worlds." And she rose, picked up her handbag, and made for the door.
As she did so an aide to the chancellor entered to say the press was gathered in an adjacent room awaiting a joint press conference. Golda shook her head. She asked herself, what was the point? Nothing she could say to the media could make any difference. Kreisky wanted to keep in the good books of the Arabs - it was as simple as that. So, she turned and hissed in Hebrew to her aides, "I have no intention of sharing a platform with that man. He can tell them what he wants. I'm going to the airport."
To him she said contemptuously, "I shall forgo the pleasure of a press conference. I have nothing to say to them. I'm going home," and she exited through a back stairway.
FIVE HOURS later she told the waiting Israeli press at Ben-Gurion Airport, "I think the best way of summing up in a nutshell the nature of my meeting with Chancellor Kreisky is to say this: He didn't even offer me a glass of water." Golda Meir's visit with Kreisky was on October 2, only four days before the Yom Kippur War. In December 1973, the Schönau Castle Jewish center was closed but the international outcry forced Austria to replace it with the Wöllersdorf National Association of the Red Cross of Lower Austria for refugees.  |
| The best high school in Israel is - Druze! (updated) Posted: 10 Oct 2013 10:30 AM PDT From Ha'aretz: A little way past Carmiel, in the central Galilee, you turn northward at the Rama intersection and continue straight for several kilometers until the right turn to Beit Jann. On the edge of Mount Meron, 150 kilometers from Tel Aviv, you will find Beit Jann High School, the best secondary school in Israel. Best, that is, at least according to the conventional standard of percentage of students who graduate with a bagrut (matriculation) certificate. The school was at the center of much media hoopla earlier this month after it emerged that the Druze town of some 11,000 residents had ranked third in the nationwide rate of high school seniors eligible for a bagrut in the 2011-12 school year.
To achieve that, the school, Beit Jann's only high school (though some young people from the town attend school elsewhere), underwent a veritable revolution: According to data recently received by the school, their graduating seniors in June 2013 had a bagrut eligibility rate of 100 percent. In this, it bested schools from far more well-to-do communities in the Sharon and other central regions − including private schools that have admission requirements and charge high tuition fees.
Beit Jann, one of the poorest towns in Israel, whose residents are ranked in the second-lowest decile in terms of socio-economic level by the Central Bureau of Statistics, will again be declared one of the communities offering the best education.
As recently as 1999, the bagrut eligibility rate for Beit Jann's high school graduates was a mere 13 percent − among the country's lowest at the time. Since then it has gone up gradually every year. Although one can graduate high school without earning a bagrut certificate, this state-awarded certification is required if a student wants to apply for university. In the 2011-12 academic year, the bagrut eligibility rate at Druze schools reached 54.8 percent, higher than the nationwide average of 49.8 percent and similar to the eligibility rate at Jewish schools (55.3 percent).
This sea change at Druze schools was generated by the veteran teachers, who were not replaced and received no outside reinforcements. The student populations, too, were in some cases made up of the same young people who had been attending these schools for years, and who had even failed in the past. The dropout rate also fell. It is an amazing story, worth reading in full. Over the past few years, Israel has increased its funding of Arab and Druze schools a great deal. But in the end the most important factor in a school's success is when the administration and the community demand excellence. The whiners are the ones who will always be left behind. And they are the ones who prefer to blame Israel for everything rather than try to solve the problem. (h/t Yoel) UPDATE: The Wondering Israeli points out a followup Mida article about the school. It points out that the success was not from cheating on exams, as some assumed - because the school admins discovered cheating in the late 1990s, the bagrut percentages plunged from 50% to 12% when they cracked down, and that's when the school administration decided to start the innovative program to bring the scores up. It also points out that Beit Jann High School cannot be considered one of the top schools based only on the percentage of students passing the bagrut, because that is a minimum standard - other Israeli schools have much more advanced programs, even if they have lower bagrut scores.  |
| 10/10 Links Pt1: Wishful thinking is not a strategy, Fatah Still Refuses to Recognize Jewish State Posted: 10 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT From Ian:
Douglas Murray: New Extremist Foxes Welcomed into U.S. Chicken Coop And say hello again to two of the most appallingly over-promoted and sinister figures involved with the current U.S. government: Mohamed Elibiary and Dalia Mogahed.
Of course, you may not want to: as the terror goes on worldwide, and the situation around the globe slips continuously in the Islamists' general direction, there is a growing and terrific ennui among much of the West. Among much of the Western world, terrorists' marauding is another case of, "Oh, just that Islamism again." You say a person is not good? Well, we can't be bothered to find out. The very condition that so few people can raise themselves to be bothered is part of the problem: "The trouble with all the nice people I knew in Germany," the British author Stephen Spender wrote in his Berlin diary in the 1930s, "is that they were either tired or weak."
Thankfully there are a number of people who can still rouse themselves to point out how outrageous Western governments' hiring policies are these days -- as when Mohamed Elibiary was promoted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Council. Yet despite these heroic individuals pointing out Elibiary's track record of support for Islamists worldwide, the appointment held -- and so it was that the U.S. government welcomed another fox into its chicken coop. Wishful thinking is not a strategy A fundamental principle of foreign policy is that if you will an end, you must will the means to that end. To achieve a "big turn in foreign policy" requires more than wishful thinking, it requires a strategy. In this case, it might begin with the recognition that, throughout recorded history, there have been nations committed to acquiring power over others. Iran today is self-evidently such a nation. Is there a way to persuade Iran's rulers to constrain their ambitions?
Those who study Iran disagree on many points, but there is broad consensus on this: Consistent with Khomeini's teaching and practice, the regime has no higher priority than its own survival -- because without revolutionary leaders no "revolutionary dreams" can be realized. Poll: Majority of Israelis believe US projecting weakness on Syria, Iran Asked whether the US was projecting weakness on Iran, affirmative answers were given by 60% of Israelis, including 64% of Jewish respondents and 40% of Arab respondents. Only 22% of Israelis said the US was projecting power, including 20% of the Jewish respondents and 31% of the Arab respondents.
When asked the same question about Syria, the results were similar. Sixty three percent of Israelis said the US was projecting weakness. Among Jews, 66% answered affirmatively and 49% of Arab respondents said yes. Twenty three percent said the US was projecting power, including 22% of Jewish respondents and 28% of the Arabs surveyed. IDF strikes Syrian target in response to shelling The IDF fired a Tammuz missile Wednesday at a Syrian target across the northern border, in response to mortar shells from Syrian territory landing near an army position in the Golan Heights and injuring two soldiers.
According to the IDF, the target in Syria took a direct hit. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the Syrian side. Knesset Members Thwart Anti-Israel Move at Geneva Meeting Members of Knesset Meir Sheetrit (Hatnuah) and Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) were able to thwart an anti-Israel initiative promoted by Palestinian representatives at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva this week.
The Palestinians tried to insert an "emergency motion" into the agenda that called for all parliaments to boycott Israel and condemned settlement construction, Israel Hayom reported. Shock in Samaria: Israeli Leftists at Anti-Semitic Rally Israeli leaders in Samaria were horrified to learn this week that Israeli leftists with the Yesh Din organization took part in an Arab celebration on the ruins of the Jewish community of Homesh.
During the celebration Jewish symbols at the site were replaced with PLO flags, and a banner was waved that depicted a man in religious Jewish garb with a spear through his mouth. BBC Watch: Makeover by BBC's Knell produces 'conservative' northern Islamic Movement Knell's efforts to persuade readers that the northern Islamic branch has a policy of confining itself to "the struggle for Palestinian independence at home" also seem distinctly bizarre in the context of the recent demonstrations the movement held in support of its parent movement in Egypt.
But it is Knell's euphemistic description of the Islamic Movement as "conservative" and her failure to inform readers of its ideology, its activities and its Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood links which stand out most in this article. Her 'makeover' actively prevents BBC audiences from gaining any information or insight which might "[e]nhance UK audiences' awareness and understanding of international issues" as defined in the BBC's 'Public Purposes'. Fatah Spokesman Reiterates Refusal to Recognize Israel as Jewish State The Sharjah-based Al Khaleej newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas reiterated its rejection of the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any peace deal must include the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by the Palestinian Authority.
"This is the language of acquiescence and we won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state," Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf was quoted as saying. "Let Israel go to the United Nations and demand changing its name into the Jewish state." If the objective behind Netanyahu's speech is to ask the Palestinians to give up their rights, he added, "then we all refuse to give up our rights." Khaled Abu Toameh: PLO official: Palestinians 'seriously considering' declaring failure of peace talks Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that this was one of the scenarios that were discussed during the last meeting of the Palestinian leadership.
Amireh accused Israel of seeking to "win time" and blame the Palestinians for the failure of the US-sponsored talks. Mashaal: Stop Peace Talks, Start Armed Struggle Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has called for an end to Palestinian Authority peace talks with Israel and for an armed struggle to "liberate Jerusalem".
The Maariv daily newspaper quoted on Wednesday the comments that Mashaal made during a visit to Turkey.
"Hamas's military power is the only way to liberate Jerusalem," the head of the group's political bureau was quoted as having said. Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas calls for meeting with Fatah to counter Israel's 'schemes' on Jerusalem Mashaal said in his speech that no Palestinian or Arab or Muslim leader is authorized or has a mandate to sign an agreement that "harms" Jerusalem and the holy sites.
"Protecting Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque against Judaization, demolition and division should be a shared national goal," he said.
Mashaal called for a decisive Palestinian, Arab and Islamic stance toward Jerusalem that rejects any concessions in the city. We Gave Iran an Antique as a Token of Goodwill. Only Problem? It's Fake Not only is it a fake, it's a bad fake. The saga of the griffin, from its production to its much-touted return to Iranian President Rouhani during his recent visit to New York, demonstrates how fakers of ancient art fool the gullible wealthy with the connivance of museums and scholars. More profoundly, it shows how ancient (or not so ancient) artifacts are made to carry cultural and diplomatic weight, in this case for a deeply problematic opening in relations between the United States and Iran. Iranian Speaker: We Have a Surplus of Uranium Iran's parliament denied on Wednesday remarks made by its speaker, according to which the country has a surplus of enriched uranium and plans to use this as a bargaining tool at nuclear talks.
The speaker, Ali Larijani, told The Associated Press in an interview the surplus uranium would be discussed with Western powers in the context of whether Iran will halt its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent. US cuts hundreds of millions in aid to Egypt While the State Department did not provide a dollar amount of what was being withheld, most of it is linked to military aid. In all, the US provides $1.5 billion in aid each year to Egypt.
Officials said the aid being withheld included 10 Apache helicopters at a cost of more than $500 million, M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The US also is withholding $260 million in cash assistance to the government until "credible progress" is made toward an inclusive government set up through free and fair elections. The US had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and canceled biennial US-Egyptian military exercises. Egypt: US Aid Threats Won't Stop Us from 'Fighting Terror' Egypt, government officials said Thursday, will "not be pressured" by the United States into changing its policies on how to deal with Islamist radicals. "Egypt will not submit to American pressure," a government spokesperson said in the wake of an announcement by Washington that it would withhold some military assistance. JPost Editorial: Egypt, US aid and Israel Hundreds of billions of dollars have not cinched for the US the loyalty of Nouri al-Maliki's regime in Iraq or Hamid Karzai's regime in Afghanistan.
Money and aid and networking, it appears, do not buy influence.
Therefore, Israel should not be overly concerned with the prospect of the US cutting aid to Egypt.
As long as Cairo has an interest in maintaining good relations with Israel it will do so, regardless of US aid. If on the other hand for whatever reason Egypt's leaders cease to see peace as important, the $1.5b. in aid will do little to stop the slide. 'Arab Spring' to Cost $800 Billion The Arab Spring will cost Arab countries roughly $800 million, according to a report by Dubai-based economists with the banking giant HSBC.
Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria, where the Arab Spring uprisings led to leaders' depositions or civil war, were, unsurprisingly, among the hardest-hit countries. Jordan, Lebanon and Bahrain were also estimated to have suffered serious financial losses due to political turmoil. Libyan prime minister released after brief abduction Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan was freed from captivity just hours after gunmen abducted him Thursday at dawn from the hotel where he resides in the capital, Tripoli, according to the state news agency.
The brazen abduction — apparently in retaliation for the US special forces' raid over the weekend that seized a Libyan al-Qaida suspect from the streets of Tripoli — reflected the deep chaos and lawlessness gripping Libya.  |
| Crazed antisemitic rant on Kuwait TV Posted: 10 Oct 2013 07:30 AM PDT Everywhere you look, there are Joooooz! From MEMRI: Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti scholar Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna, which aired on Al-Rai TV on September 30, 2013:
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: First of all, as a Muslim, I believe that [the Jews] are evil. It is not that evil is in their genes, but their cultural education is based upon the Talmud, which derides the goyim, or "the others." For them, even God is racist. Yahweh is the god of the Israelites alone. The word Elohim is barely mentioned, and Yahweh belongs to the Jews alone. Racism became part and parcel of this religion, or this people. The Jews became a separate people with its own religion. Incidentally, it is the only religion that does not proselytize.
Interviewer: Because they consider all the others to be Gentiles...
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Right, they think the others will defile them if they join their religion. I am not saying that the Jews have evil in their genes. But it is remarkable that at least a quarter of the stories in the Koran are about the Israelites, or the Jews. Everything Allah warned us about through the story of Moses – how they slayed the prophets, and so on...
Interviewer: All contemporary studies deal with religious Jews, and not with the secular Jews who assimilated in Europe.
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: What is remarkable is that, secular or not, the Jews are racist. The founders of the so-called "Israel" – Weizmann and Ben-Gurion – were atheists. But if they had truly dissociated themselves from the religion, how come they were the most zealous about gathering the Jews, under Zionism? If you are truly an atheist, you should assimilate in your country – in Poland, Russia, or America. After all, religion does not interest you... The most zealous Jews are the atheists. This proves that it is a lie that they are atheist, even if they say they are.
Interviewer: As you said, even if they are secular, their racism and their upbringing shape their view of people.
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: I have written extensively about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and about the writings of the late Dr. Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Massiri. I have seen the evidence provided by those who deny that The Protocols is genuine, and those who affirm that it is. If you compare the evidence of the deniers, like Dr. Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Massiri, with the evidence of the affirmers, the latter is stronger.
What is incredible is that those who deride the affirmers for believing that everything is a conspiracy and that the Jews are behind everything are themselves accusing Czarist Russia's secret services of a conspiracy.
Interviewer: They accuse the Russians of forging that book.
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: That's right.
[...]
I'm not saying that evil is in their genes. Allah created them with the same disposition as any other human being. However, the education that they impart to their children – based upon the Talmudic notions of contempt for others, killing others, practicing usury, and considering themselves superior – is what turned them into a people with hatred for the others.
[...]
You could say that the Jews are a group with a certain function. That is why then ran secret organizations and secret parties, and why they practiced prostitution, usury, and so on.
Interviewer: It is said that they are a closed group, forced to sink so low in Europe.
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Take a look at the Armenians. They do not have organized prostitution. How come they did not form secret parties, like the Freemasons or the Illuminati?
Interviewer: Even though the Armenians were a persecuted minority...
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: The Armenians were not persecuted by the Ottomans. That's a lie. On the contrary, it was the Armenians who persecuted the Muslims of the Ottoman state. We should be talking about the Armenian massacre of the Muslims, not vide versa. I could talk for an entire show about that, backing it up with documents, and with the testimony of people sent by the League of Nations.
[...]
Who is not familiar with Charlie Chaplin? Mamduh 'Udwan mentions in his book that Charlie Chaplin is a Jew.
Interviewer: The book is titled The Judaization of Knowledge.
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Yes. Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest actress in the history of France and Europe, was Jewish. Why is Madame Curie from Poland more famous than her husband? She became famous because she was Jewish, while her husband, who invented radium and uranium with her, was not. But Madam Curie, who was Jewish, became famous.
Interviewer: Philosopher Abd Al-Rahman Badawi in Vol. 3 of his encyclopedia of philosophy, sharply criticized Einstein, saying that the Jews had turned him into a legend. True, he was a scientist, but there was also an accumulated legacy.
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: Take, for example, Oppenheimer, who invented the nuclear bomb. A Bengali Muslim invented it along with him, but he didn't become famous. Everybody knows Oppenheimer as the "Father of the Nuclear Bomb."
When you check the writings of writers and journalists, you always see the Jews, because the media is controlled by Jewish companies, such as Rupert Murdoch, the owner of CNN. He is a Jew. Even Reuters... Do you know what Reuters'' full name was? Israel Reuters. That is Reuters – the most famous news agency in the world.
Interviewer: Do you think that Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, was being unfair to the Jews when he wrote, in an entire chapter: "Wherever they are, the Jews are loyal only to their own groups, and they segregate themselves from the country where they live"?
Muhanna Hamad Al-Muhanna: That's true.
[...] Off-the-wall crazy and obsessed with Jews. But he doesn't think that Jewish traits are inherited. That makes him a moderate!  |
| Jordan formally asks Israel to ban Jews from Temple Mount Posted: 10 Oct 2013 05:45 AM PDT  | | Jews visiting the Temple Mount this morning | Today, Jordan called on Israel to prevent Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount.. The Minister of State for Media Affairs and government spokesman Mohammad Al-Momani said that "the insistence of the Israeli occupation authorities to allow Jewish extremists to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a stirring of religious conflict and a flagrant challenge to the feelings of all Muslims." He called for Israel to "prevent the entry of Jewish extremists to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to avoid provoking violence." Momani also called on "the great powers and international organizations to move to take a firm stance against the schemes and practices of the Israeli occupation against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy places." "Israel's practices towards the holy places is rejected and condemned and contrary to international conventions and treaties," he added, saying calling for "Israel to stop its continuous violations of the holy city." I have yet to find a single "human rights" organization that is willing to say that Jews have the right to peacefully visit their own holy places. HRW, Amnesty, Oxfam - nothing. They talk about freedom of religion, but that doesn't seem to apply to everyone. Probably because they don't want to be firebombed by the peaceful people who demand that Jewish holy places be Judenrein. Meanwhile, the official news agency of Israel's "peace partner" complained that "Israeli fanatics along with members of the ruling Likud party Thursday carried out several provocative tours of Al-Aqsa Mosque, an Islamic holy place in Jerusalem's Old City."  |
| Video allegedly of Hezbollah killing wounded Syrians sparking outrage Posted: 10 Oct 2013 03:30 AM PDT From the Daily Star Lebanon: A YouTube video purporting to show Hezbollah fighters shooting to death several wounded Syrians has sparked outrage on social media sites.
A spokesman said Hezbollah was preparing to issue a response to the video, but it had yet to do so when The Daily Star went to press.
The video, which is 1 minute and 40 seconds long, shows several men dressed in camouflage fatigues and sporting yellow ribbons on their shoulders. After they pull what appear to be several severely wounded men out of a van, they shoot them to death at point blank range. Some of the fighters use foul language as they execute the men, who are dressed in civilian clothing.
Speaking with a Lebanese accent, their commander then scolds his fighters for their comments, reminding them that their actions are religiously sanctioned and that they are killing the men "for the sake of God."
The Daily Star was unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the video.
Opposition sources were divided over whether the incident took place recently in rural Damascus, or immediately after the fall of the town of Qusair in Homs province in June. Here it is (warning: graphic)  |
| Arab boys still desecrating Temple Mount with soccer games Posted: 10 Oct 2013 01:36 AM PDT Last month I noted that Israel's Public Security Minister had promised to have the police enforce a ban on Arabs playing soccer on Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount. I guess it was too good to be true, as this new short video shows: Remember: Jews respectfully walking around their holiest place is "desecration" and "incitement." Arabs playing soccer, throwing stones and firebombs are fine. These are the rules that the world somehow swallows without question. (h/t YMedad)  |
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