יום שני, 20 בינואר 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

PLO foreign minister: If Jews have a history in the land - then we don't

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 08:01 PM PST

From an interview in Asharq al-Awsat of Palestinian Arab Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki:

Q: You said that there are a number of contentious issues. Which is the most intractable?

This is the issue of recognizing the Jewish nature of the Israeli state. This is a sharply contentious issue. It would be dangerous to recognize this because this would mean our acceptance of the dissolution of our own history and ties and our historic right to Palestine. This is something that we will never accept under any circumstances.
Isn't that interesting? The Palestinian position is that if there is any Jewish history in Israel, then Palestinian Arab history goes *poof*.

So they must deny history in order to maintain their bogus claims!

Now, it is true - there is no particularly Palestinian Arab history to speak of before the 20th century. No one identified themselves as Palestinian, there was no particularly Palestinian cuisine or dress or culture (although some towns did have their own specific costumes and crafts.) But this answer betrays how flimsy Palestinian Arab ties to the land are.

Imagine if a US official said that he or she could not recognize Native Americans as being their own peoples - because to do that would be to deny American history. It makes no sense because there is an independent American history that occurred over the past 250 years, some concurrent with Native American history. Indigenous American history is not much of a threat to American history.

Yet PLO officials cannot accept a Jewish people or Jewish history! They know that their own ties to the land are superficial and recent compared to the Jews. Their history begins with the advent of Zionism; without Zionism they would never have become a people in any way. They'd be Syrian or Egyptian of Jordanian today. Anyone using the word "Palestinian" today would use it roughly the same way we use the word "Levantine" - there are no "Levantine people" even though plenty of people have been born in the Levant.

History is not the Palestinian Arabs' friend. Any honest look at history shows how shallow their claims on the land are. And every single PLO official knows this fact very well.

This is why they expend enormous efforts to change history. That is why they promulgate crackpot Khazar theories and adore idiots like Shlomo Sand. That is why they insist that there were never a Jewish people.

But if you want to know the full reason why Palestinian Arabs can never accept historic fact, just read this 2011 article by former PLO negotiator Ahmad Samih Khalidi from the Institute of Palestine Studies I quoted a few years ago:

[I]f Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, then the lands that it occupies today (and perhaps more, for there are as yet no borders to this "homeland") belong to this people by way of right. And if these lands rightfully comprise the Jewish homeland, then the Arab presence there becomes historically aberrant and contingent; the Palestinians effectively become historic interlopers and trespassers—a transient presence on someone else's national soil.

This is not a moot or exaggerated point. It touches on the very core of the conflict and its genesis. Indeed, it is the heart of the Zionist claim to Palestine: Palestine belongs to the Jews and their right to the land is antecedent and superior to that of the Arabs. This is what Zionism is all about, and what justifies both the Jewish return to the land and the dispossession of its Arab inhabitants.

Clearly, this is not the Palestinian Arab narrative, nor can it be.
Even in this passage, there is a Freudian slip that shows that Khalidi knows the truth: he correctly refers to Jewish immigration into Israel as a return to the land!

The Palestinian Arab position is that they cannot claim the land unless history itself is changed.  And that is exactly what they are doing.

(h/t @WarpedMirrorPMB)

EoZ poster site

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST

I started a blog with my posters, comics and infographics. I still have plenty to post there but you might want to check it out at Middle East Posters and Cartoons.  (Some might like this view better.)

(I'm still considering whether to post others' posters as well....but for now, let me finish mine.)

Israeli flags seen in Lebanon!

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST

Maariv reports:

For the first time since the Second Lebanon War, Israeli flags are flying again over Lebanon, but this time it is not that IDF forces retook southern Lebanon, but the Lebanese are filming a movie about the period before the Israeli withdrawal.

Dozens of military vehicles, armored personnel carriers, soldiers in olive uniforms, guard posts and checkpoints were set up over the weekend in southern Lebanon, all with IDF markings and Israeli flags. The scenes will soon be on Lebanese TV screens, but the photos are bringing quite a few curious people on the Lebanese side and the Israeli side rubbing their eyes in amazement, not understanding what the IDF is doing a hundred meters deep in Lebanese territory.


I imagine that this movie will be as accurate as the Hezbollah theme park in Southern Lebanon is.

New poll of Arab attitudes

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST

This comes from a University of Michigan study released recently. I'm highlighting only some of the results; others shows somewhat more tolerance.

01/19 Links: Netanyahu to UN: The Truth Won’t Hurt Talks, Laser-Based Rocket Interceptor!

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST

From Ian:
UK parliament launches inquiry into funding for UNRWA, Palestinians
The British parliament has formed a committee of inquiry to probe the flow of funds used by the international refugee agency UNRWA to support the Palestinians, according to an exclusive report first revealed on Saturday by The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew-language sister publication, The Post.
According to the report, the British government contributes 90 million pounds annually in aid to the Palestinians. A third of that sum is earmarked for UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.
The parliamentary committee was formed in response to heavy lobbying by pro-Israel organizations and with the encouragement of former Israeli Labor MK Einat Wilf. The committee is due to submit its recommendations to parliament soon.
"UNRWA is perpetuating the notion that the descendants of refugees are themselves refugees, and it is based on this principle that the Palestinians are demanding the right of return, something that will not happen in any future agreement," Wilf said. (h/t Bob Knot)
US, Canada urge UNESCO not to postpone exhibit on Land of Israel
"UNESCO's decision is wrong and should be reversed," said US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power on Friday. "The United States has engaged at senior levels to urge UNESCO to allow this exhibit to proceed as soon as possible."
"UNESCO is supposed to be fostering discussion and interaction between civil society and member states, and organizations such as the Wiesenthal Center have a right to be heard and to contribute to UNESCO's mission," said Power.
In spite of her harsh rebuke, the US had opted not to sponsor the exhibit, which bore the sponsorship seal of only three countries, Canada, Israel and Montenegro.
Netanyahu slams UNESCO for scrapping Israel exhibit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a scathing criticism of the UN's cultural agency at his Cabinet meeting Sunday, for indefinitely postponing an exhibit on Jewish connections to the Holy Land.
"It would not harm the negotiations," Netanyahu said in a statement. "Negotiations are based on facts, on the truth, which is never harmful. But what does harm the negotiations is the automatic summoning of Israeli ambassadors in certain countries regarding matters of no substance, while significant violations by the Palestinian Authority pass without a response.



Jewish man stabbed in Kiev in suspected anti-Semitic attack
A Jewish man was stabbed in the leg Friday night outside a synagogue in Kiev in a suspected anti-Semitic attack in the Ukrainian capital.
Dov Baar Glickman was attacked by three assailants, who knocked him to the ground and stabbed him multiple times, Ynet reported. He managed to drag himself to a nearby ritual bath and was taken from there to a hospital. He was in good condition, Israel Radio reported. (h/t Bob Knot)
Kerry said set to present framework deal at end of month
US Secretary of State John Kerry is reportedly set to present a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the Palestinians at a conference in Jordan at the end of the month, London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat reported on Saturday.
Palestinian sources told the newspaper that the document was just a vague outline with flexible contents, as the two sides are due to discuss the particulars of the agreement as peace talks proceed through April.
Canada's PM urges Abbas to negotiate with 'Jewish State of Israel'
Stephen Harper, the staunchly pro-Israel Canadian prime minister, was scheduled to arrive in Israel Sunday afternoon, marking his first official trip to the Middle East and the first visit to the region by a sitting prime minister from the North American country in over a decade.
Harper's support for Israel was underlined in a press release issued by his office about the trip, which used the "Jewish State of Israel" formulation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asking the Palestinian Authority to endorse as one of Israel's conditions for a peace deal. "Canada supports the Palestinian Authority's efforts to build the institutions and infrastructure necessary for a viable Palestinian state established through a negotiated agreement with the Jewish State of Israel," the press release stated, in a section discussing Harper's scheduled meetings with Palestinian leaders during the trip.
Demonstrations Held Throughout Israel in Opposition to Kerry Peace Plan
Demonstrations were held across Israel on Friday against the peace plan currently being pushed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported.
The demonstrations took place at several motorway intersections, with protesters waving signs bearing slogans such as, "To Keep Israel Safe, Don't Surrender to Kerry", the paper said.
PM: Hamas would do well to take into account Israel's policy of responding forcefully to every rocket fired
Israel will maintain the quiet in the South by forcefully responding to every rocket attack coming from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet at its weekly meeting Sunday.
Netanyahu's comments came just hours after the IAF killed an Islamic Jihad member who allegedly took part in the launching of rockets on Ashdod Thursday evening.
"We are determined to preserve the quiet in the South," Netanyahu said. "We do this through a policy of prevention and by responding powerfully against those who try to harm or hurt us. I suggest that Hamas take our policy into account."
IDF Blog: IDF Targets Palestinian Islamic Jihad Terrorist Ahmad Sa'ad
The IDF successfully targeted a terrorist operative involved in recent attacks against Israel. The terrorist was planning further attacks on Israel in the coming days. Ahmad Sa'ad, a senior operative in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, was in the northern Gaza Strip when an IAF aircraft carried out the mission. The IDF operated in order to eliminate an imminent threat to the lives of Israeli civilians.
Ahmad Sa'ad was a key Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in the Gaza Strip specializing in rocket launching. Sa'ad is personally responsible for the launching of five rockets towards Ashkelon on January 16, 2014 which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
LA Times: Palestinians Fire First, Israel Breaks Ceasefire
This LA Times headline is a sneak preview of more misleading reporting of Palestinian terrorism:
Israeli forces attack Gaza in new round of cross-border violence
The headline deliberately portrays Israel as an aggressor while a "new round of cross-border violence" is the equivalent of the "cycle of violence" where Palestinian terrorism and Israeli responses are treated as morally equivalent. (h/t Bob Knot)
Revealed: Terror Attacks Doubled in 2013
Terrorist attacks nearly doubled in frequency in 2013, according to new data released by the IDF. There were 62 terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) in 2013, compared to 35 the year before.
The IDF website quoted senior sources as saying that the violence is still nowhere near "Intifada" levels.
Israeli company to unveil laser-based rocket interceptor
The new system, Iron Beam, is a high-energy, laser-based defensive system designed to knock mortar rounds, artillery shells and other projectiles out of the sky, according to a report Saturday on the industry website Israel Defense (Hebrew).
Iron Beam is designed to complement the Iron Dome missile defense system by focusing on smaller projectiles and "pinpoint defense," the report noted.
The system would be most relevant to the Negev town of Sderot, which is situated less than four kilometers from Gaza and, therefore, largely unprotected by Iron Dome.
Kuwait bails UAE meet over Israeli presence; Iran stays
The presence of a senior Israeli minister at a renewable energy conference in the United Arab Emirates garnered mixed reactions from other delegates on Sunday.
While the Iranians, who have been continually at odds with Israel over their nuclear program, left a lower-level delegate in position at the International Renewable Energy Agency meeting in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait decided to boycott the event altogether in protest at the presence of Silvan Shalom, the minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water.
Egyptian security forces destroy 8 Gaza tunnels
Citing an Egyptian military source, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported that the tunnels were demolished in order to protect Egypt's borders "in all strategic directions." (h/t Bob Knot)
Palestinian Minister Mahmoud Habbash: Jihad Should be Directed at Jerusalem, Not Syria


Lebanon says spying device with Hebrew letters discovered
A mysterious device reportedly containing Hebrew writing was discovered by authorities in southern Lebanon near the border with Lebanon Saturday, the country's state-run news agency reported.
A statement from the Lebanese Army, carried by the National News Agency, reported that an Indonesian unit serving in the international peacekeeping body UNIFIL found the device near the town of Adaisseh, Lebanon.
State-run Iranian press claims that "Zionists planning to annihilate Islam"
In reality, Iran wants to annihilate Israel. But we have seen many times that Islamic supremacists tend to project their own evils onto those whom they fear and hate. "Zionists planning to annihilate Islam," by Catherine Shakdam for Press TV, January 18: (h/t Bob Knot)
Iranian President Rohani: Geneva Agreement Means the Superpowers Have Surrendered to Iran


Police in Istanbul break up protest against new Internet restrictions
Riot police in Istanbul have used water cannons against hundreds of people protesting a government plan to expand controls over the public's use of Internet.
Police did that Saturday to prevent a protest march down a main street to denounce the draft bill that would allow Turkey's telecommunications authority to block websites accused of privacy violations without a court decision.
Has Turkey Become Pakistan on the Med?
Recent events in Turkey certainly put Turkey in the same category as Pakistan. Indeed, increasingly, it seems that Turkey has become Pakistan on the Med. Early on Tuesday morning, anti-terrorism police raided six different locations around Turkey in order to disrupt al-Qaeda operations, including depots of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) at Kilis, near the Syrian border. The raids led to the detention of approximately 25 people, some of whom have faced trial for al-Qaeda support, and others who have been active recruiting volunteers to fight with al-Qaeda and the Nusra Front inside Syria.
A normal government would celebrate the eradication of al-Qaeda support cells on its territory. Not so, Turkey: By the afternoon, the Turkish government had relieved the officers who had carried out the raids, putting them on mandatory leave. Likewise, when police stopped two buses in Gaziantep apparently headed toward Syria and found ammunition and anti-aircraft weaponry, the result was not prosecution of those on the buses but retaliation against the police officers who had carried out the raid
Map in TDSB student day planner fails to cite Israeli capital, publisher blames official Canadian policy
A Toronto Israeli family says they were confused by the omission of Israel's capital from their son's public school day planner, until they found out that waffling on the existence of an Israeli capital is actually official Canadian policy.
"We thought, 'Is it an honest mistake?'" said Amir Lavie, whose family emigrated from Israel three years ago.
It was over dinner that Mr. Lavie's son, a student at Forest Hill Public School, first noted the error. In the boy's day planner, provided by the Toronto District School Board, he found that it contained a map that appeared to intentionally omit Israel's capital city.
Pope may seek to unseal Holocaust-era archives
The relationship between the Vatican and the Jews has improved greatly over the past 30 years, and confidants of Pope Francis I say he intends to take another step forward: opening up the Vatican archives to address accusations that the Holy See, led by then-pope Pius XXII, neglected the plight of Jews during the Holocaust.
"The pope is consistent with all he said as a cardinal, and as pope he will undoubtedly make happen what he said he would do when he was a cardinal," Argentinian Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a friend of the pope, told The Sunday Times, based on conversations with Francis.
Wounded Syrian couple treated in Israel
During our exit from the village we were fired on by the army and my brother was killed before my eyes. We managed to escape back to the village and were treated in a field hospital. But the wounds got worse -- until my cousin took us to the border and we got into Israel for treatment," the woman said. Her brother, 19, fought with rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Currently the couple remains hospitalized, both in the same room. The woman is struggling with being away from her family, but admitted that she did not expect such friendly treatment from her enemy. "We were surprised by the treatment and dedicated medical care we got in Israel," she said. "We hesitated coming to Israel, because we were taught to hate it. We were taught this is a brutal enemy state, but we learned that reality is different. People here have a conscience. Our enemy is in Syria, not in Israel. If only we could stay here."
Africa: The next big destination for Israeli start-ups?
If you still think of Africa as a backwater where people live in squalor, you're behind the times, according to Dr. Aliza Belman Inbal. "Africa today is a lot different from it was even a decade ago," said Inbal, director of the Pears Program for Innovation and International Development at Tel Aviv University. "Technology has reached even the most remote villages, with solar energy systems providing electricity in many places where the electrical grid hasn't been installed, and cellphones being used for everything from Internet surfing to banking."
This technology development means big opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to brave a foray into Africa. Traditionally, Israeli entrepreneurs have looked to the U.S. or Europe for funding and for customers, but it's time to upend that tradition, said Inbal. "Six of the ten fastest-growing markets in the last decade were in Africa, and there is a great need there for the kind of things Israeli entrepreneurs do best, like mobile apps, environmental technology, agricultural technology, and more."

British MP calls Israeli flag "Nazi"

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST

From Grahame Morris, British Labour Party politician, and Member of Parliament for Easington, on Twitter:


In case he deletes it...
I guess the next step in his career will be to write for Iran's PressTV.

(h/t Randy)

College sociology textbook peddles anti-Israel lies - and excuses for Bin Laden

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST


The University of Calgary (and maybe many others)  is using a textbook called "Culture of Prejudice: Arguments in Critical Social Science," (2003, 2008) by Judith C. Blackwell, Murray E. G. Smith, and John S. Sorenson.

Here is part of the blurb for the book:

Contesting the putative "even-handedness" of many introductory social science texts, this innovative book presents strong and provocative arguments on contemporary social issues that will stimulate readers to think critically. The principal theme of the book is that social science is at its best, and most exciting, when it confronts and refutes "cultures of prejudice"—intricate systems of beliefs and attitudes that sustain many forms of social oppression and that are, themselves, sustained by ignorance and fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar. Such a critical social science, it is argued, can make an important contribution to promoting human freedom and extending human capacities.

As we will see, the book does the the exact opposite of its stated purpose.

Here are two passages:

Often, nationalist ideologues propose a mystical attachment with certain territory. Where nationalism is aligned with or defined by religious identity, it may even be asserted that the group has been given the right to this territory by the authority of a supernatural being. Thus, a Chosen People will need to inhabit its Holy Land in order to fulfill its divine covenant, with unfortunate consequences for any other populations who may inhabit the territory but who are not considered part of the nation. For example, European invaders and their descendants imagined they had a Manifest Destiny to acquire the Americas and nearly exterminated the indigenous population in the course of taking possession. More recently, supernatural sanctions have been invoked by Israelis who violently dispossessed the population of Palestine. As Israel came to be defined as a Jewish state, promised to them long ago by a supernatural being, most of the Palestinian population was expelled; approximately 4.5 million still live there as refugees. Millions of Palestinians remain under military occupation, under constant surveillance and regular attack by Israeli forces, including tanks, fighter planes, and helicopter gunships. Their houses and land have been destroyed or expropriated and given to hundreds of thousands of armed settlers. Former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir simply dismissed their suffering by asserting that "Palestinians do not exist." While international media audiences are well informed about the dreadful attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers, the far higher rate of Palestinian deaths and casualties is defended as retaliations or self-defence. The 1993 Oslo peace process simply gave an extremely constrained form of power to Yassir Arafat's corrupt regime, while allowing the occupation to continue.
How many inaccuracies and baldfaced lies are in this single paragraph? Zionists did not historically invoke the "Chosen People" phrase to justify their desire to return to their ancestral lands; indeed one has nothing to do with the other. (That part alone is borderline antisemitic.) It is  a lie to say that most of the Arabs were "expelled." There are not 4.5 million "refugees" living in the borders of British Mandate Palestine even by the bizarre UNRWA definitions. Palestinian Arabs are not under "regular attack." None of their houses have been "given" to "armed settlers." Golda Meir never said the phrase "Palestinians do not exist." (The authors quote it twice in this book.)

This is a college textbook, being used, today, where I can count at least 6 lies in a single paragraph.

Here's another passage:
One thing leads to another. Osama bin Laden and his al Qteda terrorist organization presented three conditions for ending their "holy war" against the United States both before and after the events of September 11, 2001: first, that Israel retreat from the territories that it occupied in 1967 and that an autonomous Palestinian state be recognized; second, that the trade sanctions imposed upon Iraq that have cost the lives of over one and a half million people, most of them children, over the last decade be lifted; and third, that United States military bases established in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 be closed. An overwhelming majority of humankind would likely sympathize with these demands, even as they would condemn bin Laden's methods and reject his program of establishing repressive, fundamentalist theocratic states throughout the "Islamic world." At the same time, most inhabitants of the Third World-and a great many people elsewhere-would consider the terrorist methods of al Qaeda no more "evil" (to use President George W. Bush's favoured term) than the methods employed by the US and other major powers in maintaining a global order that serves the interests of huge transnational corporations while perpetuating the grinding poverty of billions of people.
Did Bin Laden demand that Israel withdraw to 1967 lines? Did he demand a Palestinian state be recognized? Did he ask that trade sanctions be lifted? (For that matter, did 1.5 million Iraqis die because of these sanctions? )

No. His "letter to America" after 9/11 stated "The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased." His fatwas before 9/11 were to kill every single American and its allies: "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."

The "letter to America" had, in fact, seven demands, not three, and they do not correspond at all with what this textbook says:

The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

 The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

 What we call you to thirdly is to take an honest stance with yourselves - and I doubt you will do so - to discover that you are a nation without principles or manners, and that the values and principles to you are something which you merely demand from others, not that which you yourself must adhere to.

 We also advise you to stop supporting Israel, and to end your support of the Indians in Kashmir, the Russians against the Chechens and to also cease supporting the Manila Government against the Muslims in Southern Philippines.

 We also advise you to pack your luggage and get out of our lands. We desire for your goodness, guidance, and righteousness, so do not force us to send you back as cargo in coffins.

 Sixthly, we call upon you to end your support of the corrupt leaders in our countries. Do not interfere in our politics and method of education. Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.

 We also call you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of sub dual, theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting the Jews because this will result in more disasters for you.
His second fatwa mentioned three of America's "crimes" and, again, nothing about Israeli "occupation" - he wanted Israel destroyed.

These are only two paragraphs in a book of 359 pages, looking at subjects I know something about. And the anti-Israel rhetoric doesn't end there: on page 330 we are told that while Jordan's killing of thousands of Palestinian Arabs in 1970 was "ghastly" they wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for Israel, on page 61 the same point about Jews claiming the land because of proimises by a "supernatural being" is repeated, on page 67 it says that the US has provided weapons to Israel to "kill large numbers of Palestinians," on page 90 it says that the Mossad uses torture regularly,  on page 69 Israel is explicitly called a "terrorist state."

How many hundreds of distortions and lies are in this book being given to clueless university students?  How can universities allow books that don't have a modicum of fact-checking? Why are the authors not today despised and blacklisted in the world of academia for their horrendous use of lies to push their own political agendas under the cover of "fighting prejudice"?

Isn't using lies to demonize an entire people the very definition of "prejudice"?

And how many other textbooks are being given to college students in the West that are just as filled with lies and distortions?

To say this is outrageous is an understatement.

(h/t Calgary United With Israel)

The Great Kuwait Zionist Potato Scare

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 03:47 AM PST

From Gulf News:

The highly offensive potatoes
Kuwait's commerce ministry has launched an investigation into reports that Israeli potatoes were being sold in cooperative societies.

"The ministry is currently coordinating with several parties to reach a conclusion about the allegations and ensure that they are not malicious," ministry sources told local daily Al Kuwaitiya.

"The ministry has a zero-tolerance policy towards the import and sale of Israeli products and if there are Israeli potatoes in the stores, there will be stringent action against those involved," the sources said.

Khalid Al Subai, the deputy head of the Consumer Protection Society, was quoted by the Kuwaiti daily as saying that Israeli potatoes had been sold in several cooperative societies and that he held the commerce and industry ministry and the country's customs responsible.

"The product has been spotted in several places and I would like to know how those in charge of monitoring the import of foreign products allowed it into the country," he said.
However, Abdul Aziz Al Samhan, the head of the Cooperative Societies Union, has denied the existence of any Israeli products in Kuwait's cooperatives. "This is definitely a red line that no one is allowed to cross under any name," he said in a statement.

"We do deplore the allegations by some people and the accusations they levelled at Al Nassem Cooperative claiming that it was selling potatoes in bags with an Israeli label," he said.

The Customs have denied the claims about the sale of Israeli products in Kuwait and insisted that the potatoes being sold in cooperatives were from Jordan, he added.

Al Samhan called for an end to the "electoral manoeuvres" and "the fabrication of unsubstantiated accusations, slander and falsehoods."

"We in the Union do know that putting a false label on the product bags is an indication of bankruptcy or a way of having fun at the expense of others. Such acts have unfortunately sparked an online debate and raised questions about the authenticity of the news," he said.

For Al Samhan, placing an Israeli label on the product does not make sense at all.

"Will selling Israeli products increase sales? We will not tolerate this fabrication and there will be serious questioning. We will find out who is behind this attack on Al Naseem Cooperative, especially that we know that it has a clean record," he said.
The story is all over Kuwait media even though it apparently started on Twitter.

Sale of Israeli goods is a violation of Law 21 of 1964. There is an entire office in Kuwait dedicated to the boycott. One newspaper said "there are tight customs procedures to prevent Jewish products from leaking to the market."

The Jeleeb website comments, "This is a calamity if it is true."

A calamity!

If you want to stop any Arab economy dead in its tracks, all you need is an inkjet printer and a blank white label sheet.The Arabs will do the rest themselves.

(h/t Bob Knot)
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