Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Eight people, including an American, sentenced to prison for making fun of UAE on video
12/31 Link Pt2: A round up of 2013 Top 10's, Greatest IDF Moments of 2013.
I wish I was as optimistic as Yaffa Yarkoni in 1970
Top EoZ posts of 2013
12/31 Link Pt1: Incitement on PA Children's TV, Erdogan Supporters Shout ‘Are You Jewish’ Before Attacking
Latest Muslim leader accused of being a secret Jew is a good one
"A Blanket for Gaza" - Anti-Israel propaganda disguised as humanitarian aid
Abbas embraces terrorists, calls them heroes (poster)

Eight people, including an American, sentenced to prison for making fun of UAE on video

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 05:00 PM PST

Eight people accused of defaming the UAE's image abroad by producing a spoof documentary have received prison sentences.

American S C and Indians R and A were jailed for a year and fined Dh10,000 each by the State Security Court.

Two Emirati brothers, S D and S D, were given eight months and Dh5,000 fines. A third brother, AD, was pardoned.

A Canadian woman, a British woman and an American man were not detained and were sentenced in absentia to a year in prison and a Dh10,000 fine each.

The judge also ruled that copies of the video should be confiscated.

The 19-minute film was set in Satwa, Dubai, which they depicted as a dangerous neighbourhood plagued by warring gangs. To protect themselves, the characters practise martial arts using items of Emirati national dress including the agal, the black rope worn around the headdress, and naal, the leather slippers.

The detained American, a business consultant and amateur stand-up comedian and the convicted Emirati brothers – one a media and marketing manager and rapper, the other a student and part-time airline worker – posted the video on YouTube in October last year. They were arrested in April this year.

Defence lawyers said their clients had not intended to mock the UAE's culture or harm its reputation overseas.

They said the video was only intended to be a satire about how suburban teenagers had adopted gang culture and that the video started with a disclaimer saying: "The following events are fictional and no offence was intended to the people of Satwa and UAE."

The two Emiratis have already spent eight months in prison awaiting the verdict and are expected to be released soon. The American and two Indians will be released next month.

The American's name is Shezanne Cassim; he was born in Sri Lanka and went to University of Minnesota.

Here's the video. A bit long and not quite as funny as they probably intended, but it is harmless...unless you are a thin-skinned UAE official.

I'm sure that jailing eight people (and demanding that all copies of the video be confiscated!) will ensure that the UAE's sterling reputation remains flawless.

By the way, the UAE will host major concerts this year, including Santana, Eric Clapon, the Backstreet Boys, and Herbie Hancock. No one is calling for these artists to boycott the misogynist, intolerant country or to show support for an American in jail for exercising his right to express himself.

12/31 Link Pt2: A round up of 2013 Top 10's, Greatest IDF Moments of 2013.

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Empowering Palestinians who reject Israel's right to exist

That's right. The same America that until a few years ago led the free world in the global war against terror, now conditions its support for Israel, its chief regional ally in that war, on the Jewish state's willingness to release unrepentant, mass murdering terrorists back into Palestinian society.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it ought to go without saying that this policy hinders, rather than advances the cause of peace. It is impossible to rationally claim that by coercing Israel into releasing people like Juma Ibrahim Juma Adam and Mahmoud Salam Saliman Abu Karbish that the US is advancing the cause of peace.

Quote of Note: PLO Leader Zahir Muhsein

According to Mr. Muhsein, "the Palestinian people does not exist."
Who are we to argue?
Nonetheless, if the very point of "Palestinian" people-hood was something other than trying to rob the Jewish people of our homeland after persecuting us for 13 centuries, I would be more than happy to welcome them into the greater family of nations. However, since the "Palestinians" only emerged as a group for the purpose of doing the Jewish people terrible harm, within living memory of the Holocaust, I see no reason whatsoever in acknowledging them as a distinct ethnicity or nation, particularly given the fact that they are not a distinct ethnicity or nation. Nations do not come into existence for the sole purpose of destroying other nations and even if they sometimes did, those whom they seek to destroy are under no moral or ethical obligation to assist them by recognizing them.
Israel should cease undermining its own well-being by dealing with these people. Mahmoud Abbas should be entirely persona non grata, as should the PLO, Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority.

Is anti-Zionism the same as antisemitism?

The standard defence against any accusation of antisemitism nowadays is to claim that you are an anti-Zionist (generally considered by the main stream media to be a good, liberal, enlightened position) and not an antisemite (generally considered by the main stream media to be a very bad thing). That is certainly the 'defence' that Nicolas Anelka, for example, will be using since even his openly antisemitic hero whom he claims his salute was dedicated to, has already used it himself.
So, following on from my previous posts (the difference between the Nazi boycott of Jews and the Israel boycott movement, and what leftists really believe) I have produced a chart below which obviously confirms that anti-Zionism and antisemitism have absolutely nothing in common.

Analysis: Can Israel annex the Jordan Valley under international law?

Essentially, all of the above arguments, both for and against, can be made regarding the Jordan Valley, with two wrinkles.
Those supporting annexation might try to argue that at worst, Jordan, like Syria, attacked Israel first in 1967, but at best, the Jordan Valley was part of the Israeli-Palestinian disputed areas in which, unlike the Golan which had been under Syrian sovereignty, there really was no prior sovereign Palestinian country in control of the territory, to which it would now have to be returned.
Unlike the Golan, the Jordan Valley can be said to be part of the Oslo process (in which it was categorized as Area C, remaining under Israeli control at least until later negotiation stages) and its successor talks.

Eugene Kontorovich: Murders or Houses: Kerry's V.A.T. on Peace

Moreover, if the occupation were so terrible (or real) one would think Abbas would be in a hurry to get to the bargaining table without any preliminaries. This suggests Abbas is not in such a hurry to get an "end of the occupation" so much as particular tactical wins. Moreover, the fact that a top priority for Abbas is the release of mass murders so they can be feted and remunerated shows that "peace" is not vaguely on the horizon, regardless of whether a Kerry diplomatic achievement is. If Bibi partied down with Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein, it would be the end of his career.
But aren't houses less important than justice for the murdered? Of course. However, unlike the release of terrorists, a construction freeze is fundamentally related to the substance of the negotiations themselves. That is, of all the proposed "gestures," the freeze would not only be problematic in itself, but would have Israel start negotiations on its back foot.

PM: Murderers are not heroes

Peace will only come when Israel's "security and settlement interests" are ensured, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, adding "settlement interests" for the first time into his usual formula about Israel's security needs.
Netanyahu, speaking in Tiberias at a conference on Galilee development, also took the Palestinian Authority to task for the reception it gave the released Palestinian security prisoners overnight.
"Peace will come only when our security and settlement interests will be ensured," he said, placing "settlement interests" together with "security ones," a new formulation and slight change of nuance that could have significance as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrives Thursday to push forward the talks with the Palestinians.

Misled by Bimkom, Reuters Must Correct on Shuafat Building

We noted, in part, Browning's factual error, in which he claims:
Palestinians in and around Shuafat have lacked officially approved residential plans for over 45 years, according to the Israeli building rights group Bimkom – meaning any construction since then is illegal and subject to possible demolition.
After the publication of our analysis, we received a detailed response from Ariela Smilensky-Deri, the spokeswoman for the municipality's engineering department, regarding building plans for Shuafat in which have enabled the construction of hundreds of residential units in Shuafat in recent years.

Chief Palestinian Authority Negotiator: Peace Talks With Israel Have Failed, Pointless to Continue

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, said on Monday that since peace talks with Israel have failed, it is pointless to continue negotiating for the duration of the nine- month agreed upon period, Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported.

Nicolas Anelka, sex, and the triumph of hatred

The lesson, though — and there is a chilling lesson here — relates to hatred's capacity to brand its bitter mark on the souls of those who are prone to carrying chips on their shoulders, those who feel grudges and slights, those who believe that they are not being given their due — be they the German masses in the years approaching World War II, whipped up by Nazi incitement, or multi-millionaire soccer players who have nonetheless managed to convince themselves that the world is against them, stirred up by cynical politician-comedians.
Anelka hadn't scored a goal in England in more than two years. Now he had broken that dry spell, to the ecstatic relief of his teammates, his management, tens of thousands of adoring fans in the stadium, and untold numbers watching across the globe. What a moment, so long yearned-for. What a release. But in those first glorious seconds of triumph, influenced by his cynical, anti-Semitic friend, he was able to suppress the instinctive sense of delight and joy almost all of us would have felt and would have exhibited. To easily suppress those instincts.

French 'quenelle' comedian faces trial for gas chamber slur

Paris prosecutors on Monday ordered the opening of a criminal investigation against the comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, according to the news site 20minutes.fr. They were reacting to the airing of a television show about Dieudonné earlier this month on France 2, in which Dieudonné said: "When I hear about Patrick Cohen, I say to myself: You see, the gas chambers… It's a shame."
Cohen, a veteran journalist for France Inter, earlier this year criticized France 2 for giving airtime to people with what he termed "sick minds." He named Dieudonné along with Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss professor who is banned from entering the United States for his support for Palestinian terrorist groups; Holocaust denier Alain Soral; and Marc-Edouard Nabe, an anti-Zionist writer who has been accused of anti-Semitism.

Wiesenthal Center Accepts Tony Parker Apology, Calls for Statement in French

Jewish human rights group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), has accepted an apology issued by NBA star Tony Parker, after strongly criticizing his past use of the "quenelle" gesture which is widely considered to be anti-Semitic, and has been described as "the Nazi salute in reverse." However, the group said that it is crucial that Parker also issues the statement in French.

BBC Sport amplifies Anelka excuses, downplays antisemitism

Given that the target audience of this report is for the most part unlikely to be well versed on the subject of antisemitic trends in some of the darker corners of French social media and considering that this offensive trend appears to be spreading in the sporting world, it is especially regrettable that BBC Sport has wasted the opportunity to adequately clarify the background to the controversy surrounding Anelka's action to BBC audiences, instead opting to amplify assorted excuses and downplay the antisemitism of Anelka's racist friend.

UN Watch: Top 10 worst U.N. decisions of 2013

1. The UN Human Rights Council elected Hezbollah supporter Jean Ziegler, founder and recipient of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, as a top advisor.

BBC corrections and complaints – 2013 round-up

With the end of the year approaching fast, it is time to take a look at some of the corrections the BBC has made over the past year – and some it has not.
On the BBC News website, corrections can be divided into those made clear to audiences in a footnote and those which are 'stealth' corrections with no public acknowledgement of changes made to reports.

Top Ten MidEast Media Mangles for 2013

This year, the media have blundered all too many times in reporting on the Middle East. There were, unfortunately, countless potential "winners," but CAMERA has identified our...

Jordanian wins prestigious Israeli research scholarship

A 26-year-old Jordanian master's student in Israel, Zainab Taya, will be the first Jordanian ever to receive the Yair Guron Memorial Scholarship, for her work using desert plant extracts to halt the spread of cancer cells. Taya studies and performs her research at the excavation extension of the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, which operates under the auspices of Ben University.
Her scholarship, meanwhile, will be awarded in January at the Yair Research Station, part of the Central and Northern Arava Research and Development center. (h/t Bob Knot)

Justin Timberlake to perform in Tel Aviv in May

Open your calendars and mark the date: Barring any last-minute changes, American pop star Justin Timberlake is set to perform in Israel on May 28th in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park, Israel Hayom has learned.

7 people who stood with Israel in 2013

Let's be real: 2013 was a tough year for Israel in the public eye.
From biased headlines in the international press, to the BDS movement, to the rising tide of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism sweeping across the world, we got the memo: There are a lot of people who really don't like Israel.
But you know what? These shmucks get enough air time as it is, so we're going to take the focus off of them for a change, and instead talk about the wonderful people who have stood with Israel in 2013.

ISRAEL21c's top 10 most-read stories of 2013

ISRAEL21c takes a look back at a busy year of stories to bring you our 10 most popular stories.

A new medical device for the blind, mouthwatering goodies, and a new 'Postcard From Israel' travel series won over YouTube viewers in 2013.

Israeli high-tech soared in 2013

Waze acquisition leads year of impressive exits and rise in mobile and web investments.

WATCH: Greatest IDF Moments of 2013

2013 was a momentous year for the IDF. Through all of the challenges and celebrations, we remained focused on our supreme goal: to defend the people of Israel.
This year, as every year, terrorism struck Israeli civilians and soldiers. Whether it was gunfire on troops, rockets fired at civilians, explosives placed near soldiers, or attempted kidnappings, terrorist organizations did their utmost to carry out attacks against the State of Israel – but the enemy's determination only strengthened our resolve to defend Israel and its citizens.

I wish I was as optimistic as Yaffa Yarkoni in 1970

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

From a French TV show in 1970, Israeli legend Yaffa Yarkoni singing (in French and Hebrew) the Israeli classic "Bashanah Haba'ah:"

The Hebrew lyrics mean:

Next year we will sit on the porch and count migrating birds.
Children on vacation will play catch between the house and the fields.

You will yet see, you will yet see, how good it will be next year.

Red grapes will ripen till the evening, and will be served chilled to the table.
And languid winds will carry to the crossroads old newspapers and a cloud.

You will yet see, you will yet see, how good it will be next year.

Next year we will spread out our hands towards the radiant light.
A white heron like a light will spread her wings and within then the sun will rise.

You will yet see, you will yet see, how good it will be next year.

Nowadays is it even conceivable that a Jewish Israeli performer could go on a European TV show without being interrupted by the haters along with protests outside and calls for boycott? (Arab Israelis wouldn't have a problem - only Jews.)

I hope next year is better.

Other notable posts:

It only takes two words to see how imbecilic Max Blumenthal is
EU, knowing it is wrong, still refuses to correct "1967 borders" terminology
The Church of Scotland has big problems with the Old Testament
A history lesson for congenital liar Shlomo Sand
The biggest Gaza myth of all

There are plenty that I missed, but this is a pretty good sample of what I did this year. With your help, I plan to keep going in 2014, which is my tenth year of blogging!

12/31 Link Pt1: Incitement on PA Children's TV, Erdogan Supporters Shout ‘Are You Jewish’ Before Attacking

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST

From Ian:

Netanyahu condemns hero's welcome for prisoners

"The essence of the difference between us and our neighbors can be seen in one picture," Netanyahu said at the seventh annual Galilee Conference Tuesday, referring to the sight of throngs of Palestinians giving the released prisoners — almost all of them convicted of murder — a hero's welcome.
"While we prepare to take very painful steps in an effort to try and reach an agreement that would end the conflict, they, along with their top leadership, are celebrating," said the prime minister.
"Murderers are not heroes," he declared. "This is not how one educates for peace."

Report: Israel tells US it will not release Israeli-Arab prisoners

The official told Channel 2 that Israel felt "deceived" by Kerry, who caved to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' demand to increase the number of prisoners released from 82 to 104, and led him to believe Israel would be willing to release prisoners with Israeli citizenship.
The PMO denied that claim by the official as well, saying Kerry did not deceive Israel on the peace talks, Channel 2 reported.
Netanyahu reportedly told Kerry that while Israel was not willing to release Israeli-Arab prisoners as a gesture to the Palestinians, it would be willing to release them as a gesture to the US, in return for the release of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard.

Abbas: 'No final deal until all prisoners are released'

"This is day of happiness for our nation, our families and our prisoners, the heroes, who have seen the light of freedom," he said. "We are guaranteeing that this won't be the last time that prisoners are freed."
Abbas said that for the prospective fourth release he hoped that sick prisoners would also be freed, and that they would be sent home and not expelled to other places. He also said that he would not tolerate one Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail if there was to be a peace agreement.
"There won't be a final agreement with Israel until all the prisoners are released."

Woman who Saved Terrorist Protests his Release

Twenty-one years ago, Jerusalem woman Bella Freund was propelled into sudden fame when she saved an Arab terrorist from an angry mob. Freund ran across an angry crowd beating a 21-year-old terrorist who had just stabbed and wounded two Jewish children; she protected him with her body for nearly half an hour, taking blows meant for him and preventing the mob from killing him on the spot.
Her act was widely publicized at the time, and later inspired the song "Bella Bellisima" by the popular Israeli band Dag Nachash.
Now Bella is in the public eye again – this time, protesting the impending release of the terrorist she saved, along with over two dozen others. She explained to Arutz Sheva that the release of the terrorist undermines the very values that propelled her to save his life.

2 Officers Honored For Preventing Bat Yam Bombing

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino awarded a certificate of honor to two police officers, whose actions saved many lives in the Bat Yam bus bombing on December 22. The award was decided on following an investigation of the incident.
The incident occurred on a Dan Bus Company 240 line bus on its way from Bnei Brak to Bat Yam. As the bus arrived in Bat Yam, a passenger notified the driver to the presence of an unattended bag with wires protruding from it, at which the bus was evacuated.
Police arrived at the bus only 4 minutes after the suspicious bag was noticed, helping to distance civilians from the site. A police bomb squad officer was wounded in the blast, but otherwise casualties were avoided.

Children's hate speech against Jews broadcast on PA TV children's program

This is the fifth successive year that official PA TV has chosen to broadcast these statements by children accusing the Jews of poisoning Arafat. Originally, they were part of a larger collection of statements by children broadcast at an official Arafat memorial, several of whom repeated the libel that the Jews murdered Arafat. However, this is the first time this hate speech has been broadcast as part of a program directed at children. Following the boy and the girl's statements, the PA TV host confirmed the libel:

Arafat, Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State (REVIEW)

State of Failure: Arafat, Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State, by Jonathan Schanzer (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.)
In the Palestinian case study, Palestinians have attempted to circumvent the building phase in favor of "instant statehood," that is to argue that because we think we should have a state, we will.
Enter Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who specializes in Palestinian politics. In his latest book, State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State, he methodically details the corruption, lack of leadership and countless excuses by the Palestinians to avoid building a viable state, in favor of Jewish rejectionism at large. As the author correctly describes Arafat's leadership, "While Arafat was revered by his people for almost singlehandedly focusing the world's attention on the Palestinian cause from the 1960′s until his death, the problem of corruption would, to some extent, define his legacy."

Hamas reels as Egypt dubs its twin a terror group

Egypt's establishment daily Al-Ahram called the decision to ban the Brotherhood "an earthquake" for Hamas, quoting Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum as saying that his movement is "proud" of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood school of thought.
Fatah rushed to jump on the Egyptian bandwagon. On Sunday, its central committee called on Hamas to "join the national movement and stop intervening in Egypt." Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf said that Hamas's refusal to cut its ties with the international Muslim Brotherhood proved that "it couldn't care less about the interests of our people.
"This Hamas position proves once again that its priorities were and continue to be realizing the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and not the interests of the Palestinian people and their just national cause."

Hamas Finishes 2013 With a Whimper, Not a Bang

Quite simply, Hamas does not enjoy that kind of clout anymore. Over the past 12 months, the fortunes of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas that loudly proclaims, "Islam is the Solution," have gone from a peak to a trough in a dizzyingly short space of time. In Tunisia, the governing Islamist Ennahda party was chastened by a coalition of secularist groups, and is currently in the final stages of handing over to a caretaker government. And in Egypt, where the Brotherhood was first formed in the late 1920s, the regime of Mohamed Morsi that came to power in 2012 was unseated by the Egyptian military, following angry demonstrations against the Brotherhood that, left unchecked, might have resulted in a nasty civil war.
In these conditions, Hamas is just about clinging on to power in Gaza. But all the signs are that the Gaza Strip's Palestinian residents are becoming more and more fed up with Islamist rule. Recently, a fuel crisis triggered by Egypt's destruction of tunnels from Sinai into Gaza that had been used for smuggling, as well as a tax hike on fuel prices engineered by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, compelled Hamas to cancel the celebrations around the 26th anniversary of its formation.

Jordanian Palestinian who writes for 'Post' indicted in Jordan for 'inciting hatred'

Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian writer and academic from Jordan who has written op-eds for The Jerusalem Post, was indicted in a Jordanian court for incitement and damaging the image of Jordan.
"The court has indicted me for the crime of 'inciting hatred and attacking Jordan's image and the image of its one nation,'" Zahran told the Post.
The indictment also mentions that since his arrival in the UK, he started writing in Israeli newspapers.

The Tragedy Of Syria's Child Refugees

The civil war in Syria, which has been raging for three years, has created an unprecedented refugee tragedy: The largest displaced population is probably the "domestic refugees" – those who have remained in the country despite having lost their dwellings to the destructive forces of war. Nearly as large a group – and the focus of this paper – are the "refugees" proper, namely those forced by circumstances of war and violence to leave their country for an unknown future in mostly neighboring countries.
For more than six decades, the Middle East has been preoccupied with the Palestinian refugees. That will no longer be the case. The enormity of the number of the Syrian refugees and the very special demographic structure will likely shove the Palestinian refugee issue onto a back burner. It is the nature of history that new problems displace old ones. There is an important Roman legal principle of Lex posterior derogat priori ("most recent law overrules previous ones on the same matter"). And so will be the case with refugees.

A Film Joins the Fight Between the Syrians and Saudis

The movie depicts a young Abdul Aziz as a violent plunderer raiding desert camps, stealing valuables, maniacally smashing a man's head with a stone, and performing religious ablutions with the blood of an enemy. He is portrayed as a dishonorable hypocrite, permitting the stoning of a young couple for alleged adultery while he rapes several women. (Anzour avoided some taboos: there are no explicit sex scenes.)
The King is presented as a lustful brute throughout his life. In several scenes, he is a wheelchair-bound old man who, with a quivering hand, reaches between the thighs of a nervous girl in a niqab to deflower her. As if all that wasn't enough, the movie portrays Abdul Aziz as a tool of the British who sells out Palestine by agreeing to allow the creation of a Jewish state in its place.
Anzour draws a straight line from the alleged cruelty of the late King to global terrorism, 9/11, the London bombings, Osama bin Laden, and the armed Syrian rebels fighting Assad's forces. It is not subtle. "We might have killed the man," a male voice says over an image of bin Laden, "but did we kill the idea?"

Iran doesn't take Obama's military option seriously, says Oren

Moreover, Oren warned, there was "nothing that would indicate" the Iranians believe US President Barack Obama would ever resort to force to prevent them from attaining the bomb.
He stressed that if Iran is not stopped at the enrichment stage, thwarting it once it had moved the key components of its bomb-making program underground would require thoroughly unlikely "massive, massive bombing campaigns" that would "flatten all of Iran."
And any last-resort Israeli military intervention, Oren acknowledged, has become "much harder" since the charming, mild-mannered Hassan Rouhani succeeded the confrontational Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's president and the US-led international community became deeply engaged in diplomacy with Iran.

The Rouhani delusion

After all, the whole purpose of sanctions was to give the regime a stark choice – keep your nuclear weapons programme at the risk of economic collapse, or survive in exchange for dismantling it.
Rouhani's analysis shows that Iran was dangerously close to that moment of truth – and sanctions relief in exchange for reversible concessions gives it the kind of breathing space it has been denied until now. Considering how hard it was to get there, this is the worst possible unforced error that diplomacy could score.
For almost a decade, the United States and the European Union built a sophisticated, multilayered sanctions architecture to persuade Iran to comply with its international obligations. Those obligations are defined by six Chapter VII Security Council resolutions that patient diplomacy successfully pushed through – and that the interim deal has now undermined.

Iranian chief negotiator: 'Good progress' in nuclear talks

Iranian deputy foreign minister and lead negotiator Abbas Araqchi told state-run Press TV that "relatively good progress" had been made in the Geneva meeting and that the results of the negotiations would be announced later Tuesday.
However, he said, there remained issues to work out "at the political level."

Critics Slam EU Response After Top Lebanese Hezbollah Foe Murdered in Beirut Massive Car Bombing

The murder will likely be read against deepening sectarian violence spilling into the region from inside Syria, where the Iran-backed Assad regime has been fighting a nearly three-year war against largely Sunni rebel groups. An upcoming conference in Geneva designed to dampen the violence has been severely criticized for potentially maneuvering Syrian Sunnis into accommodating the regime, and the international reaction to Chatah's assassination has fueled similar criticism. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton reacted to the attack by calling on "Lebanon's political leaders and the Lebanese people to put aside all differences and join forces… to restore security in the country." Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), criticized Ashton's statement:

Lebanese Army Reportedly Finds Launchpads Used to Strike Israel

The Lebanese Army found four rocket launchpads that may have been used to strike Israel on Sunday, Lebanon's The Daily Star reported on Monday, citing an unnamed security source.
The Daily Star said the Army discovered the launchpads in Khreibet, in south Lebanon, where two rockets fired towards Israel's Kiryat Shmona likely were launched from. In a statement, the Army said two rockets were launched into Israel from somewhere in Khreibet at 7:02 a.m.

Egypt Calls on Arab Countries to Blacklist the Brotherhood

AFP reported that Egypt called on Arab League members to enforce a counterterrorism treaty that would block funding and support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Cairo also wants the League's members to hand over wanted Islamists linked to the Brotherhood, to which deposed president Mohammed Morsi belongs, the report said.
Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said that Arab League members that signed the 1998 counterterrorism treaty should enforce it against the Brotherhood.

Report: Erdogan Supporters Shout 'Are You Jewish' While Attacking Istanbul Woman

The group of attackers, who numbered 15-20 according to the victim, were leaving a rally hosted by Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Friday night. The event, which was held outside Istanbul's airport, was hosted in honor of Ergodan who was returning home from an international trip.
The thugs then encountered the young woman, who is only identified by the paper by her initials E.Y., as she was leaving an anti corruption protest at Istanbul's Taksim Square. They then began to shout "are you Jewish" as they attacked her physically, the paper reported.

Latest Muslim leader accused of being a secret Jew is a good one

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 07:15 AM PST

If you want to insult your opponent in the Muslim world, you can't do better than to call him a Jew - or worse than a Jew.

We've already seen Muslim Brotherhood supporters claiming that Egypt's al-Sisi is Jewish, and we've seen Sisi's supporters saying that the original founder of the Muslim Brotherhood was Jewish.

We've seen Shiites accused of being worse than Jews, secularists accused of being worse than Jews. and Islamists accused of being worse than Jews.

So who's left?

Why, it is our favorite antisemite and popular TV preacher, Sheikh Yussuf Qaradawi!

According to a pro-Shiite newspaper, "research" has shown that Qaradawi's family came from an area where
Jews of the Bani Qurayza tribe had fled from Arabia to Egypt. His grandfather practiced usury, just like the Jews, and gouged farmers with high interest loans. He would confer with Jewish rabbis on how to do his immoral money lending business. In other words, while they don't want to say it explicitly, Qaradawi is of obvious Jewish descent!

Qaradawi had called for jihad against Syria and Hezbollah, which pretty much explains this whole accusation.

"A Blanket for Gaza" - Anti-Israel propaganda disguised as humanitarian aid

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 05:00 AM PST

From ANSAmed:

The Palestinian ambassador to Rome launched a campaign Friday to raise funds through movements, associations and private citizens for the population of the Gaza Strip. ... ''We are asking Italians to help prevent the latest in a long string of tragedies,'' Palestinian ambassador Mai Al-Kaila told journalists in outlining the initiative Una Coperta per Gaza ('A Blanket for Gaza').

In Gaza, the rain and snow of the past few days led to a breakdown of the precarious sewage system, flooding the streets of towns and villages and swamping homes, schools and infrastructure never repaired after the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead. Clean water was mixed with waste water, and now there is not a single tap for clean drinking water in the entire Gaza Strip, which 1.8 million Palestinians call home. The Palestinian ambassador noted that amid this situation, Israel has not only continued with its embargo that prohibits even the entrance into the territory of medicine, but also opened its dams, through which the Israeli State's waters are flushed out into the Mediterranean, contributing to the breakdown of the entire sewage treatment system and flooding Gaza with putrid mud. The situation is entirely out of control, the ambassador said, calling for ''international mobilization'' for the people living in the Gaza Strip, most of whom have been left without a roof over their heads,food, drinking water, and heating. ''Over half of the population in Gaza live in refugee camps,'' Mai Al-Kaila noted, ''in tents and makeshift shelters.'' ... Encouraging the Palestinian diplomatic office to launch the campaign, the ambassador said, ''were in part Pope Francis's words at Christmas and his appeal to share with the poor.

The donations (20 euros for a blanket) should be addressed to "Una Coperta per Gaza"/ Missione Diplomatica Palestinese/IBAN: IT 36 E 02008 05211 000021004086

Funny. I follow Gaza pretty closely and this is the first time I have heard that there was a shortage of blankets. .

It is also interesting to read that Israel prohibits medicines to Gaza (they don't,) Israel opened "dams" (that don't exist,) and that most Gazans don't have shelter or live in tents or temporary structures (which is absurd) and that over half of Gazans live in refugee camps (actually, about 30%.)

The PLO ambassador to Italy (who used to work for UNRWA) knows the truth. But she knows something more important: that lies that are provided as part of a "humanitarian aid campaign" will not be questioned by most people. Who would presume that blankets for people who don't have a blanket shortage is a cover for anti-Israel lies? Especially when Pope Francis is quoted to support the campaign of falsehood!

This "charity" is nothing of the sort. It is skillful propaganda directed by the PLO. And they know, from experience, that anti-Israel lies will be swallowed whole, especially when disguised as "humanitarian aid." (I fully expect that not a single blanket will be sent to Gaza from this campaign - no one is asking for them. Israel routinely sends truckloads of blankets, sheets and mattresses to Gaza.)

I found a photo of Mai al-Kaila from when she was "ambassador" to Chile. Note the map behind her that erases Israel - a map that features the Fatah logo:

Abbas embraces terrorists, calls them heroes (poster)

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST

This photo was on Mahmoud Abbas' Facebook page today.

Here's video of Abbas welcoming the terrorists as heroes and his speech at the ceremony.

During his speech Abbas said "We promise that it will not be the last time, but there will be a batch of heroes coming to us all the time and in the near future, God willing....This is the day the joy of all of us the joy of our people for our prisoner heroes who came out today to the light of freedom to live free, we congratulate you and congratulate ourselves with these heroes who arrived here and who arrived in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the rest will come, God willing."

He said that soon there will be a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem and the Palestinian flag will fly over the minarets and churches of Jerusalem.

We know what would happen to the synagogues if he had his choice.

יום רביעי, 1 בינואר 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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