יום שלישי, 8 באוקטובר 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Yet another Israeli TV show coming to the US

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 10:00 PM PDT

From Deadline.com:

CBS has given a put pilot commitment to a single-camera comedy executive produced by Greg Berlanti. The project, based on the Israeli series Haverot (Little Mom), will be written by Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky who last season adapted another Israeli comedy for CBS, Mother's Day, which went to pilot starring Debra Messing. The new project revolves around three moms who live in a Brooklyn high-rise help each other stay sane (or try to) as they juggle their friendships, marriages and kids. ...The original series, produced by Yoav Gross Prods. for Channel 10 Israel and distributed globally by Dori Media, was created by Gross, Lital Schwartz, Shay Ben-Atar, and Liat Shavit.
Here's a trailer (with subtitles) for the Israeli version:



Another Israeli show  was picked up last week:
"Shkufim" )is based on the story of the assassination in Dubai of a senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Globes said. "It involves eight ordinary Israelis who wake up one morning and discover that their names, faces, and personal details have been splashed across the world's media on suspicion of involvement in an international crime. What begins as an apparent case of mistaken identity, escalates into a psychological espionage drama," the newspaper said. In the Fox series, to be called "False Flag", the characters will be Americans, rather than Israelis.

Last week Variety discussed how Israeli shows are becoming smash hits on five continents.

Today's PalArab lie: "Israel gives highest prison sentences on Earth"

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 07:00 PM PDT

From Ma'an:
Palestinian organization Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights revealed Wednesday that nine Palestinian prisoners currently being held in Israeli jails have the "longest sentences" of any imprisoned human being worldwide.

The organization's director, Fouad al-Khuffash, explained that "there is no other country on Earth that gives open-ended life sentences except the State of Israel, whose laws do not limit the number and length of life sentences given to Palestinian prisoners."

Al-Khuffash also listed the nine Palestinian prisoners with the longest prison sentences on Earth. Abdullah Ghaleb al-Barghouthy from Ramallah is currently holding the world's longest sentence. He was detained by Israeli forces on March 5, 2003 and was subsequently sentenced to 67 life sentences in prison.
Five minutes of web searching found:

Two Iranian conmen in 1969 when they were sentenced to 7,109 years in prison. One year for each of their transgressions.
The longest prison sentence ever handed down in US history is attributed to Dudley Wayne Kyzer. In 1981, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, he was found guilty for the murder of his wife. What lead the judge to sentence him to 10,000 years in prison? Apparently, the court decided that the brutality, with which he had slaughtered his spouse, more than merited such a long sentence.
The longest prison sentenced ever demanded by a court of law was given out in Spain, in 1972. Unlike other perpetrators on our list, who received sentences more befitting their crimes, the young Gabriel Grandos, age 22, was accused of fraud because of his failure to deliver a little over forty thousand letters. We understand that messing with the mail system is a serious offense, but a sentence amounting to nearly 400,000 years does seem a bit of an over-kill in this particular case.

It is also not unusual to give out consecutive life sentences for each murder one is responsible for. For example, Bobbie Joe Long of Florida was sentenced to 28 life sentences, 99 years sentence and 1 death sentence. He had raped more than 50 women and killed about half the number. In most cases they were raped before murder.

But killing 28 people is child's play compared to the list of terrorists in the Ahrar Center list, where the people responsible for killing as many as 67 people are reasonably expected to serve a life sentence for each life taken.

Unfortunately, people like Fouad al-Khuffash consider these monsters to be heroes. So who is more immoral - those who want to keep mass murderers in prison or those who want them freed and treated like heroes?

Yesha artists website

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:30 PM PDT

The last time I was in Israel, I spoke with a nice couple in Eli who were behind the "Orange Pages," a virtual marketplace for goods from Judea and Samaria.

They just started an affiliated English site that sells works from artists who also live in Yesha. Check it out here, before your country declares it illegal. (Of course, that will make the artwork more valuable!)

10/07 Links Part 2: Star of David Banned at Temple Mount, BDS - Same enemy, different dress

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT

From Ian:
Khaled Abu Toameh: As Peace Talks Continue, Palestinian Terror Groups Prepare for Jihad
So while the Palestinian Authority is continuing to talk peace with Israel, it is at the same time telling Palestinians that they should not expect anything to come out of the negotiations.
If the Palestinian Authority itself is declaring day and night that the talks with Israel are a waste of time, why shouldn't the terror groups prepare for war? And it is no surprise that a majority of Palestinians are convinced that a third intifada is on its way.
Star of David Not Allowed on Temple Mount
A volunteer with the Magen David Adom first aid service was forced on Sunday to remove his jacket with the organization's emblem before he was allowed to enter the Temple Mount. The emblem of Magen David Adom is a red Star of David.
The volunteer, Yonatan Tal, recalled the incident in a conversation with Arutz Sheva.
"I went up to the Temple Mount as I usually do. The weather was cooler so I put on my jacket [with the Magen David Adom emblem]," said Tal, who pointed out that the compound had been packed with tourists. As his turn came to enter, recalled Tal, he was called aside by a police officer who ordered him to remove his jacket. When Tal asked why he had to remove his jacket in order to enter the Temple Mount, the officer argued that this was the procedure.
JPost Editorial: Inhospitable Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a body composed of five left-wing political organization that include the Socialist Group, the Alliance of Liberal Democrats for Europe and the Group of the Unified European Left, has identified circumcision as a violation of male children's "physical integrity."
Luckily, PACE, which has called "to adopt specific legal provisions to ensure that certain operations and practices will not be carried out before a child is old enough to be consulted," is powerless to make binding laws.
Same enemy, different dress
But there are some lovely moments. Last month a beautiful young man wearing a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) sweatshirt crossed over to us and said simply: "What's your side?"
After listening in silence to my comrade Ben's explanation, he returned to the BDS mob, pulled off his sweatshirt, dropped it at their astonished feet and crossed back to stand with us for a while before going on his way.
As for me, far from feeling that I've strayed a long way from my teenage beliefs, I just smile, wave my Israeli flag proudly and recall who I dedicated my first book to: Menachem Begin, when I was just 18 years old. I knew what I believed then, and I know what I believe now.
The enemy may dress differently, but in the faces of the BDS crowd, I see the same ignorance and evil as I saw in the faces of the National Front, all those years ago.
Hitler's ally, Abbas's hero, Netanyahu's response
Nine months after the Abbas praise of the Mufti, on Oct. 6, 2013, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu chose the venue of a policy speech at Bar-Ilan University to respond to the adulation lauded on the Mufti by Abbas and by the official curriculum of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel's Prime Minister quoted the protocols of the Hitler-Mufti pact, presented as evidence against the Mufti in the Nuremberg war crimes trials. The records of the meeting between Hitler and the Mufti explicitly state that Hitler would exterminate the Jews in Europe, while the Mufti would enlist Nazi aid to exterminate Jews in Palestine, so as to establish a "JudenRein" state of Palestine.
To that end, the Mufti ensconced himself in Hitler's bunker, from where he recruited an Islamic unit of the Waffen SS, which actively engaged in the mass murder of Jews, while issuing Arabic language appeals on Nazi radio which incited Moslems to join the Nazi cause and to prepare for mass murder of Jews in Palestine.
Fighting for Israel on College Campuses
If HSJP (Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine) strove to convert students to their way of thinking, then they did the opposite of their goal: by lying, heckling, and bullying, they not only distanced me from their cause, but made me their staunch, determined, and active enemy. Now, I spend my days equipping college students with the facts.
The most important thing I have learned at CAMERA is to refuse to be meek and be quiet.
Israel supporters on campus and elsewhere must show the world that we will "not go gentle into that good night."
As a wise colleague of mine once said, "The moment you allow a falsehood to go unchallenged, you legitimize the purveyors' ridiculous claims. You allow them to win without even having to lift a finger." HSJP taught me this truly valuable lesson: that those of us who care about truth — about Israel — should never let them win.
Northeastern University Finally Responds to ZOA Report of Anti-Semitism in the Classroom, But Takes No Action
Boston's Northeastern University responded on Friday to allegations of rampant anti-Semitism from students by faculty on campus, after The Algemeiner pressed the school on why it hadn't answered a formal letter from three months ago from the Zionist Organization of America, which helped the students make their case.
The 12-page report from the ZOA cataloged a litany of student horror stories, including intimidation, class harassment and teachers indoctrinating an alternative reality version of Middle East and Israeli history. The report focused on Professor of International Affairs Denis Sullivan, now Co-Director of Northeastern's Middle East Center for Peace, Culture and Development, who did not respond to The Algemeiner's requests for comment.
More evidence the Guardian got it wrong on Rouhani's "Holocaust" remarks
The Guardian's reliance on an evidently faulty translation is more than simply an innocent error, but is part of a larger pattern – which we've commented on previously – of engaging in selective reporting and omissions in order to advance the desired narrative of a new "moderate" Iranian president.
Evidence which makes a mockery of this narrative abound, and include Rouhani's involvement in several deadly Iranian sponsored terrorist attacks against Jewish and American targets abroad, as well as his role in crushing pro-democracy movements at home.
Golden Dawn crackdown
The arrests of Golden Dawn members cannot be separated from the overall concern about anti-Jewish actions in Europe. Golden Dawn is a highly visible, nasty party, but the larger context is anti-Semitism that manifests itself not only on the Right, but also among the extreme Left and Islamists and in less pernicious but equally disturbing calls to ban circumcision and kosher slaughter.
Nairobi attack shakes sense of security for Kenya's Jews
Albert Attias, the head of the Jewish community in the Kenyan capital and an Israeli military veteran, wanted to communicate with his wife by text message so she wouldn't be overheard speaking Hebrew. Their Israeli connections were not something the couple were eager to advertise, even in normal circumstances.
"I was gravely concerned," Albert Attias told JTA, recalling the first hours of the deadly attack and two-day siege carried out by Islamic militants at the upscale shopping plaza that began on Sept. 21. "I prayed she'd get out before dark because at night anything could happen."
Man arrested for chanting 'Yid' at London soccer match
There was a heavy police presence at the West Ham United-Tottenham match as part of a crackdown on racism. Police threatened to take action against anyone who chanted the term for Jew, even if it was Tottenham supporters who use the term affectionately to deflect anti-Semitic abuse.
But the term, often used as a derogatory term for Jews, was sung with gusto by Tottenham fans and one was arrested at halftime for using it.
18 UK mosques 'agree to perform underage marriages'
Religious leaders appeared willing to agree to perform underage marriages at some mosques across the UK, an ITV Exposure investigation discovered.
Two undercover reporters called 56 mosques to ask whether they would perform the marriage of a 14-year-old girl.
Two-thirds of those contacted refused to perform the marriage but 18 of the respondents spoken to agreed.
Wearable ReWalk device finds an investor and strategic partner in Japanese robotics firm
A robotic exoskeleton that was demonstrated for President Obama earlier this year as one of Israel's most cutting-edge inventions is getting a boost from a Japan-based robotics manufacturer.
Yaskawa Electric Corporation has invested in and formed a strategic partnership with ARGO Medical Technologies, which makes a device called ReWalk that enables individuals with lower limb disabilities such as paraplegia to walk.
Warren Buffet acquires Israeli electronics company Ray-Q
Electronic components company TTI Inc. an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of American billionaire Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, announced on Friday its acquisition of Israeli electronics company Ray-Q Interconnect.
"It's not often a company has the opportunity to add such longevity and superior technical value to their service offering. I am very pleased to be bringing the wiring and harness assembly expertise of Ray-Q to the TTI teams in Europe and Asia -- and to the benefit of our customers worldwide," TTI Europe and Asia President Gene Conahan said in a TTI press release.
Apple Pays About $40 Million to Acquire 'Cue' Start-Up Created by 21-Year-Old Israeli
Tech giant Apple, Inc. will pay some $40 million or more to acquire a start-up created by 21-year-old Israeli Daniel Gross, formerly of Jerusalem, and now living in California, tech media reported at the weekend.
Israel's Calcalist website said Gross is a native of Katamon, Jerusalem, a yeshiva high school graduate and has been on pre-military leave. He planned to serve in the IDF after high school, but changed course after a small start-up he created generated interest in Silicon Valley.
40 Years Since the Yom Kippur War 1: The First Strike
40 years ago, during Yom Kippur, Israel faced one of the biggest challenges of its history. On October 6, hundreds of thousands of troops, thousands of tanks and fighter jets attacked simultaneously, surprising Israel at its northern and southern frontiers. Syria and Egypt were determined to get back what they had lost during the Six Day War. For the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, follow our series and learn about the major milestones of the conflict.

Does the UN consider Gaza legally "occupied"?

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 02:15 PM PDT

Ma'an says, at the end of an article:
Gaza [is] considered to be occupied by Israel according to the United Nations, as Israel controls the Gaza Strip's airspace, territorial waters and movement of people and goods.
This is false. Israel's control of airspace, waters and some of the borders is not a definition of occupation, and the UN has never made that claim - only clueless anti-Israel activists made that argument up, but it has no legal validity.

Ma'an, being the twisted news agency it is, swallows and regurgitates anti-Israel lies without bothering to check the facts.

Less than two years ago, UN Watch specifically asked the UN why it continues to refer to Gaza as "occupied" when under any sane interpretation of international law, it isn't. The UN replied:
Under resolutions adopted by both the Security Council and the General Assembly on the Middle East peace process, the Gaza Strip continues to be regarded as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The United Nations will accordingly continue to refer to the Gaza Strip as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory until such time as either the General Assembly or the Security Council take a different view.

Question: Can I follow up on that? It is the legal definition of occupation and why is Gaza considered occupied?

Spokesperson: Well, as I have just said, there are Security Council and General Assembly resolutions that cover this. For example, there was a Security Council resolution adopted on 8 January 2009 — 1860 — and that stressed that the Gaza Strip constitutes an integral part of the territory occupied in 1967. And as you know, Security Council resolutions do have force in international law.

Furthermore, there is a resolution from the General Assembly from 20 December 2010, and while it noted the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank, it also stressed, in quotes, "the need for respect and preservation of the territorial unity, contiguity and integrity of all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem". So just to repeat that the United Nations will continue to refer to the Gaza Strip as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory until either the General Assembly or the Security Council take a different view on the matter.
Note that the UN isn't saying that Gaza is legally "occupied." It is saying that Gaza must be referred to as "Occupied Palestinian Territory" - it is arguing nomenclature, not law. The Hague Conventions makes it clear that occupied territory refers only to portions of territory under control of another party, not that an entire territory is either occupied or not if only part of it is.  Otherwise, Turkey would be considered to be occupying all of Cyprus, not only the northern part, since Cyprus is clearly a single territory. That is nonsensical.

At no point does the UN respond to UN Watch anything about control of borders or airspace - because it knows that it would be laughed out of court if it tried to make that claim. Ma'an is lying.

I discovered that the UN only started using the term "Occupied Palestinian Territory" formally in 1998, well after Oslo, but the UN website has been busily rewriting the titles of its documents to retroactively refer to "OPT" years before it started actually using the term.

Analysis finds EU guidelines on Judea and Samaria legally problematic

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 12:15 PM PDT

The Kohelet Policy Forum has released a paper showing that the proposed EU guidelines against funding "activities" in Judea and Samaria are problematic under international law, even if you regard the territories as occupied.

Here is the executive summary:

EU's Israel Grants Guidelines: A Legal and Policy Analysis


The Israel Grants Guidelines adopted by the European Commission are singularly discriminatory against Israel. They contradict international law as established in U.N. documents and leading court cases, as well as the European Union's own interpretations of international law. 
The EU provides aid and financial cooperation to numerous countries that maintain settlements in what Europe considers occupied territory, such as Morocco, Turkey, and Russia. In none of these cases has the Commission imposed limitations on the aid akin to the Guidelines for Israel.

The Commission's position that the Guidelines are mandated by international law are further belied by EU programs that provide grants specifically for settlers in belligerently occupied territory, such as the EU's programs in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus.

Under international law, there are no prohibitions regarding organizations engaging in "activities" in occupied territories, yet the Guidelines bar funding solely on the basis of such "activities."

In pretending that the Guidelines fulfill the requirements of international law, the Commission exposes the EU to legal challenge for EU funding of parallel activity in belligerently occupied territories around the world, such as Northern Cyprus, Abkhazia and Western Sahara, and exposes its businesses operating in such places to liability.

The Guidelines have no precedent in similar arrangements between the U.S. and Israel.

The Guidelines seek to undermine territorial arrangements that are established by existing Israeli-PLO agreements and foreclose issues that are preserved for negotiations.

The Guidelines do not advance the EU position on sovereignty because they do not relate to activities that legally establish sovereignty or constitute recognition of sovereignty.

The Guidelines are unlikely to be accepted by Israel in their present form. Non-discriminatory alternatives include borrowing language from scientific cooperation agreements with the U.S. and extending the Guidelines to all occupied territories with funding relationships with the EU.
Obviously the authors have forgotten the most important rule of modern international law: Israel is always guilty, and laws must be re-interpreted retroactively to ensure that result.

Once you understand that rule, then everything makes sense again!

Czech president floats idea of moving embassy to Jerusalem, Arabs freak

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 10:15 AM PDT

From UPI:
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Czech President Milos Zeman of attempting to undermine the Middle East peace process.

Zeman said last week he might move the Czech Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the official Czech news agency CTK reported.

Zeman made the statements while attending a Days of Israel forum in east Bohemia where he said he planned to try to persuade whoever becomes prime minister and foreign minister following coming elections to consider moving the embassy, CTK said. Currently there are no foreign embassies in Jerusalem.

Erekat said Zeman's statements impact questions related to the final status of Jerusalem and called on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement to discuss Zeman's remarks.

The Palestinians seek to name East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. By moving its embassy to Jerusalem, the Czech Republic would be viewed by Palestinians as officially recognizing Jerusalem the capital of Israel, complicating peace negotiations.
Assuming that the embassy would be in the undisputed part of Jerusalem, why does this freak out the "moderate" Erekat? (as well as Hamas and the OIC)

I guess Israel's "peace partners" regard all of Jerusalem as Arab and that the Green Line is not quite as much of a "border" as they pretend it is to Western media.

This Czech news site is very sympathetic to the idea of moving the embassy.
Briefly: The blame for how things are today can be attributed to the Arabs, who rejected the plan for the partition from the UN itself, which resulted in Arab aggression against Israel militarily. ....If Israel in the first war with the Arabs (1948-1949) had lost, it probably would not exist. By winning a war and gaining that part of Jerusalem, [Israel] could choose it as its capital. The fact that a third war with the Arabs (1967) allowed [Israel] to gain the remaining (East) section of the city is from this perspective essential. It is essential that the capital of Israel was (since 1949), is and will remain Jerusalem. It has all the attributes of the vast majority of the major capitals of the world: the seat of the head of state, government and parliament and other central authorities.

...The holy city became the capital of ancient Israel's monarchy three thousand years ago.

Yet we have see incredible absurdity. Jews are denied the right to freely choose their capital. Although the parliamentary process democratically chose Jerusalem, the vast majority of embassies are located in Tel Aviv. Including the Embassy of the Czech Republic. To this nonsense the Czech president wants to issue a red card - to move the mission of the Tel Aviv district administrative center to the capital of the host country. This effort deserves sympathy, recognition and support.
It is sad that one so rarely sees something that makes so much sense regarding Israel in the non-Zionist media.

10/07 Links Part 1: Fatah praises terrorist shooter of 9 year-old, 51 Dead In Egypt

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT

From Ian:
PMW: Fatah praises terrorist shooter of 9 year-old
After a nine-year-old girl was shot in the Israeli town of Psagot in the West Bank yesterday, the administrator of an official Fatah Facebook page praised the terrorist shooter. He related the attack to a sniper attack that killed an Israeli soldier in Hebron two weeks ago. Writing on behalf of Fatah, the page administrator praised "the sniper of Palestine" who began his work in Hebron (the shooting of the soldier), passed through El-Bireh (the shooting of the girl), and - according to the Fatah Facebook page administrator - will continue in more places in the future: (h/t Yenta Press)
Terror victim's father says two centimeters saved his daughter's life
The life of Noam, 9, was saved because the bullet that hit her on Saturday night didn't move two centimeters to the left or the right, her father Yisrael Glick told reporters as he described the terror attack in his Psagot settlement home.
"It was a miracle," he said as he stood on Sunday morning in the hallway outside the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in the Sha'are Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, where his daughter is being treated.
MK Chetboun: Releasing Terrorists Encourages Terrorism
Chetboun, who is currently serving on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, met with the town's officials and visited the family. The MK was also given a briefing by military and police officials. This was followed by a meeting with the head of the Binyamin Council, Avi Roeh, along with Binyamin Brigade Commander Lt-Col. Yossi Pinto.
"Terrorism is rearing its head, and it is impossible not to see this in the context of the two previous shootings in the past few weeks," Chetboun said, referring to the shootings of two IDF soldiers by Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorists in recent weeks.
Fatah Official: Israel is to Blame for Psagot Attack
Speaking to Kol Yisrael radio, Jibril Rajoub was asked if he condemns the attack, to which he responded, "Listen, listen, I condemn everything that causes damage. I condemn it and I condemn those responsible for it. And those responsible for it are the Government of Israel and the prime minister of Israel."
Rajoub went on to say that the Israeli government was responsible for the attack, in which nine-year-old girl Noam Glick was wounded, because it "incites and provokes by building settlements."
BBC Watch: Nine year-old wounded in attack in Psagot: BBC silent
The day after the incident, October 6th, a message praising the attacker was posted on an official Fatah Facebook account. Despite the fact that the head of Fatah is also the president of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the same PLO which is currently conducting negotiations with Israel, the BBC apparently does not find this story newsworthy.
CIF Watch: Is the Guardian unmoved by the recent terror attack on a 9-year-old Israeli girl?
Thus far, the Guardian has not devoted any coverage to the attack on Noam.
Their dearth of coverage regarding the attempted murder of a little Israeli girl stands in contrast to their coverage, in July, of a 5-year-old Palestinian boy who was briefly detained by Israeli troops after throwing rocks at cars near Hebron. Here's a snapshot of the Guardian video report on the incident:
Erekat protests Czech president's call to move country's embassy to Jerusalem
Czech President Milos Zeman's proposal to move the Czech Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem prompted Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator in the peace talks with Israel, to send a letter of protest to Prague stating that such a move would undermine the peace process.
Zeman publicly voiced his views on the subject at the opening of the annual Days for Israel forum in Hradec Kralove in East Bohemia last week.
According to the Czech news agency CTK, Erekat has asked the Arab League and other Arab organizations to call extraordinary meetings at the ministerial level to support the Palestinian stance.
Hamas to PA: Stop Talking to Israel
Hamas on Sunday called on the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, to stop peace talks with Israel. Instead, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, the PA should work for national unity.
Abu Zuhri said that the remarks made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his speech at the Bar-Ilan University, according to which negotiations with the PA are fruitless so long as the PA refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, require the PA to renounce the dialogue with Israel, implement the terms of the reconciliation plan between Hamas and Fatah and formulate a strategy agreed to deal with the "Zionist stubbornness and crimes," as he put it.
Death Toll in Egypt's Bloody Sunday Stands at 51
More than 246 people were wounded during the day as Egyptian security forces clashed with supporters of ousted former President Mohammed Morsi.
Supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement were protesting in several cities to show their displeasure of the military's overthrow of the former president. The demonstrations took place as thousands took to the streets on the 40th anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel - known as the "Yom Kippur War" by Israelis, and the "October War" by Arabs.
The Muslim Brotherhood has not yet had the last word
Over the past few months, the Muslim Brotherhood's brand of political Islam has suffered several blows. First, it lost power in Egypt. Second, the movement's popularity in Jordan has weakened if not been put down by the Hashemite monarchy. Third, Muslim Brothers in the Syrian opposition have lost their standing to a stronger al-Qaeda. Fourth, Hamas is also losing its standing in Gaza in light of the tension with the current Egyptian regime. Fifth, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ally of the Brothers, is facing a popular protest, while another ally, North Sudan's Omar Al-Bashir, has also seen violent demonstrations against his rule in the country.
And yet the Muslim Brotherhood is far from finished. Sunday underlined that.
Gunmen kill 6 Egyptian troops near Ismailia
Suspected militants killed six Egyptian soldiers near the Suez Canal and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a state satellite station in Cairo on Monday, suggesting an Islamist insurgency was picking up pace three months after an army takeover.
Huge explosion hits security HQ in Sinai
A massive explosion, possibly from a car bomb, hit the security headquarters in a southern Sinai town, killing three people and wounding 48, Egyptian officials said Monday.
The attack came hours after six Egyptian soldiers were killed by gunmen in an attack near the Suez canal. It was not immediately known if the incidents were linked.
Also Monday, at least two rocket-propelled grenades slammed into a compound housing the country's main satellite earth station in a southern Cairo suburb, security officials said.
Israel's Final Warning on Iran
The coming weeks probably represent the last opportunity for Iran and the international community to reach an enforceable deal that will dismantle Tehran's nuclear weapons program, before Israel concludes that time has run out, that Iran has gotten too close to creating its first atomic bombs, and that the time for a military strike has arrived.
Despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's well-planned and deceptive charm offensive at the United Nations last week, so far not a single uranium-enriching centrifuge has stopped spinning in the underground nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom. The heavy water plutonium facility at Arak is moving forward, and Iran has already amassed enough low-enriched uranium for the production of seven to nine atomic bombs.
What Would Be a Good Deal on Iran's Nuclear Programme?
There needs to be intrusive inspections, including to all sites which are suspected by the IAEA of being related to weaponisation research, such as Parchin, which the IAEA has been demanding access to for years.
The plutonium track needs to be solved. Once the Arak heavy water reactor (which is capable of producing weapons grade plutonium) becomes hot it will be impossible to stop it. Israel took out the Iraqi reactor at Osirak in 1981 before it went hot, and according to media reports, did the same with a Syrian reactor in 2007, so the situation is very dangerous.
There needs to be a strict timeframe. It would be best if during talks the Iranians freeze their programme, so the clock is stopped. If the Iranians insist on continuing their programme, there must be a very limited timeframe, otherwise they are just buying time until they reach a critical breakout capacity.
The heaviest sanctions should be left in place until it is clear the Iranians are serious.
If the major sanctions are lifted and then they fail to fulfill their obligations, it will be very difficult to regain the momentum and build up the pressure again.
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei Says U.S. is 'Untrustworthy, Self-Important and Breaks its Promises'
Iran's Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, said he was "pessimistic about the U.S. government," describing the administration of President Barack Obama as "untrustworthy, self-important and breaks its promises," according to the UK Telegraph on Sunday.
As US touts thaw in Iran relations, Iranians spit on Obama image, prepare for 'Death to America' day
And while the Obama administration and U.S. media have generally portrayed the phone call and Twitter exchange between Obama and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani as evidence of warming relations, in September the website of the Quds cyber officers posted an image of Obama, wearing a Nazi field marshal's uniform, surrendering with his hands on his head. The caption reads, "In the not too distant future…. One [Gen. Qasem] Soleimani is enough for all the enemies of this country."
Kerry: WMD destruction a 'credit to the Assad regime'
Kerry, speaking at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said the Assad regime deserves credit for its speedy compliance thus far with the UN Security Council resolution calling for the elimination of the weapons. However, Kerry stressed that Assad is not off the hook yet and needs to continue to comply with UN demands.
"I think it's extremely significant that yesterday, Sunday, within a week of the [UN] resolution being passed, some chemical weapons were being destroyed," Kerry said at a press conference Monday in Bali.
Forget Chemical Weapons. Assad Regime Uses Starvation as Tactic Against Rebels
With the threat of using chemical weapons now off the table, the Syrian regime has apparently turned to even more punitive actions to force rebellious citizens into submission: blockade-induced starvation. For months now the government of President Bashar Assad has encircled the rebel-aligned suburbs south and east of the capital Damascus, cutting off road access, telephone connections, water and electricity. But in the wake of the Aug. 21 chemical-weapon attack on the area, which rebels and the West blame on the regime, the government tightened the blockade even further, increasing fears that mass starvation might lead to even more deaths than the estimated 400 to 1,400 victims of the chemical attacks. Already six have died from malnutrition, according to activists, and as winter approaches, conditions are likely to worsen. One rebel brigade has dedicated its forces to breaking the siege in Moadhamiya, a town about 10 km from Damascus that has been under siege for more than six months.
Erdogan Embraces "Separate but Equal"
In the most recent German elections, Cemile Giousouf, a 35-year old daughter of a Turkish immigrant, was elected to the Bundestag as a member of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. That is good news. For too long, Europe has been a pot in which little has melted.
Alas, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan now seeks to keep it that way. He has now demanded that European countries teach the children of the Turkish Diaspora in Turkish, rather than the language of the land
Saudi Poet: I Would Pray for Hitler's Soul
In a diatribe against the Russians for supporting Bashar al-Assad's regime, Saudi cleric and poet Muhammad Al-Farraj praised Adolf Hitler for "barbecuing the Russians and the Jews through and through with gasoline."
Saudi Cleric and Poet Muhammad Al-Farraj Lauds Hitler for "Barbecuing" Russians and Jews

News quiz

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 07:00 AM PDT

In which Middle Eastern country did a suicide bomber blow himself up in a playground yesterday, killing 13 children?

Which Middle Eastern country is building a 2-meter high wall along its border with Syria to stop refugees from crossing the border?

Which country reacted furiously to an Al Qaeda video threatening it, jailing a journalist who posted a link?

In which US Middle Eastern ally were 53 people killed yesterday by police?

In which Middle Eastern country was a German embassy security official killed this weekend? Hint: In the same country, a UNICEF official was kidnapped.

In which Middle Eastern country were 8 killed by mortar fire yesterday in a Christian neighborhood in its capital?

Which Middle Eastern conflict was recently singled out as "the main issue" in the Middle East by the French foreign minister?

Arab Christian describes Muslim bigotry, reveals more than he intends

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 05:00 AM PDT

I've given Ray Hanania both criticism and praise for his positions as an American of Palestinian origin. We exchanged insults over his support for Helen Thomas' bigotry. Even today he plays fast and loose with the facts. But this piece in Saudi Gazette is worth reading because it is a rare Arab critique of Muslim anti-Christian attitudes:
Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightwing anti-peace Zionist, met with a Christian Orthodox priest from Nazareth, Father Gabriel Nadaf, to discuss ways Christian Arabs could become more a part of Israel. The meeting enraged Muslim activists who denounced Father Nadaf as a "Christian Zionist," and as a "Jew."

I understand what Father Nadaf is doing. He recognizes that Christian Arabs live in a precarious world with Muslims. They believe that just maybe, Israel might be a better protector of Christian Arab interests. Christian Arabs are denounced for even raising this issue in public. We're not allowed to talk about it. It's haram! It's a sin. But to Christian Arabs, it is real.

In truth, the relationship between Christian Arabs and Muslim extremists is worsening. But the real problem is that mainstream Muslims are doing nothing to confront these fanatics, and in fact they even refuse to see it as a problem that needs to be addressed. But the hatred by Muslim extremists against Christian Arabs is growing. It's getting worse and many Christian Arabs believe that maybe Israel cares about us more.

This problem has to be viewed in a different, more complex context. The Arab-Israeli conflict is not a simple issue of two sides hating each other. Christians are in the middle. On the one hand, Muslims claim we are "brothers" in arms against Israel. But what happens to us when Israel is gone? Will Muslims respect us or, will Muslims merely resort to confronting us next.

There is an old Arab saying that I grew up with as a child that goes: "On Saturday the Jews. On Sunday the Christians." We all know what that means. Once Israel is out of the way, Christian Arabs will be next.

...Their voices of rage and hatred should be confronted not by their Christian Arab targets but by the mainstream Muslim community. I shouldn't be the one confronting him. Mainstream Muslims should be confronting these wild voices of hateful insanity.

It's incidents like these that have many Christians today concerned about the real long-term goals of Muslims. Are Christian Arabs equal or are we just a short-term opportunity to be abandoned once Israel is destroyed by them.
This piece is notable for a different reason than the obvious of exposing Muslim bigotry in a Saudi publication.

Hanania takes it as a given that Muslim Arabs' major goal is destroying Israel, a viewpoint that he says he doesn't share. Yet even he says "when Israel is gone," not "if." To Arabs, moderate and extremist, Christian and Muslim, Israel is still considered a temporary blight on Arab land that cannot possibly survive; and as long as this attitude remains then real peace is impossible. This simple fact also undercuts Hanania's own thesis in the previous absurd piece I linked to - it is Israel's strategic strength that keeps things peaceful, not a "balance of power." See this previous post about how there really is no such thing as an Arab peacenik.

Christians can breathe relatively easy as long as Israel exists to act as a lightning rod for Arab hate.  Too bad most Western observers don't realize what is self-evident to all Arabs.

As far as I can tell, this piece was not translated into Arabic anywhere, so the people who need to read it never will.

"Boycott Israel" - the music video

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 02:27 AM PDT

Very nice job:



However, I would have concentrated more on Western nations - how Canada and Australia treated natives, how European nations acted in Africa and elsewhere, how Switzerland and France take away rights from Muslims, and so forth. Israel's human rights record compares very well with everyone, not just Third World nations.

(h/t Leeor)
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