| "Jews invented vaccines to weaken Muslims" Posted: 10 Feb 2014 08:30 PM PST From MEMRI: An article published by Mahnama Banat-e-Aisha, an Urdu-language magazine for Pakistani women, called the polio eradication campaign a Jewish conspiracy furthered by international organizations. The article was titled "Polio: Disease, Or Dangerous Jewish Conspiracy?" It alleged that several international organizations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO, Rotary International, the World Bank, and UNICEF, which were providing massive funding for international polio eradication campaigns, are serving Zionist interests.
Claiming that the eradication campaigns are a Jewish conspiracy, the article quoted reports from Urdu, Hindi, and English-language newspapers on various incidents in India of children contracting polio despite being vaccinated. It also referred to several such cases in Yemen and Indonesia, adding that Islamic scholars in Nigeria issued a fatwa against polio vaccination. The article also noted that Dr. Ibrahim Datti, a physician and president of Nigeria's Religious Law Supreme Council, accused the U.S. of including anti-fertility components in the polio vaccines.
The following are excerpts from the article: "The Jews, who dream of ruling the world, have invented different types of vaccines, drugs, and injections in an organized way to weaken Muslims in their beliefs on spiritual, practical, and moral levels, and make their bodies contaminated. The oral polio vaccine campaign is being run under a worldwide conspiracy - except in the Zionist countries. Its total focus is now on South Asian countries - India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The U.S. has already marked this area as an extremely strategic region."
"Have we ever thought why these greedy Jews and Christians are spending millions of dollars on this campaign?
"1) The Pentagon, a U.S. defense institution, provides about $100,000 million [sic] for this campaign every year.
"2) The WHO spends $150,000 million [sic] on this campaign every year.
"3) Rotary International also provides a sizable amount for this campaign. Like thousands of NGOs, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the NGO of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, has alone given $750 million for the vaccination of children in poor countries - more than double the amount that the U.S. government gave to the people affected by the tsunami. This will help the WHO vaccinate 90% of children around the world by 2015. All these organizations are known to work openly for the interest of Zionism.
"4) Institutions like the Center for Diseases [sic], the ICC Control [sic], and the World Bank are also investing huge amounts in such programs.
"5) UNICEF is supervising the polio vaccination campaign in India. It has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this campaign. On the other hand, the UN has continued the ban on the provision of essential drugs to Iraq since 1991. Because of this ban, half a million children have died in that country. As an alternative arrangement to save the children of that country, a pharmaceutical company was established in Sudan, but it was destroyed by a U.S. bombardment, and the UN remained a mute spectator. "
"[…] An analysis of how the polio vaccination is prepared is sufficient in order to understand how the virus is haram [forbidden in Islam], and unpious animals like monkeys, chimpanzees, dogs, mice, and pigs are being injected into our [Muslim] bodies. Experiments were carried out in different stages on 4,000 monkeys imported from India and the Philippines in 1955, at a deserted place near a river in the area of Bluffton, in southern California. After that, polio vaccines were prepared from their kidneys.
"None other than Jonas Edward Salk (1914-1995) was responsible for this achievement. Besides being a prominent bacteriologist, he was a great Jewish spiritual leader who is revered even now by Jewish religious scholars and rabbis. He established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the Lazola area of California in 1963. The annual budget of this [institute], one of the biggest biological laboratories of the world, is $120 million, and 400 scientists work there around the clock. For a long time, the U.S. government used the vaccine prepared in this laboratory for their sweeping polio drives." (h/t Blazing Cat Fur)  |
| French Jews looking to make aliyah Posted: 10 Feb 2014 05:30 PM PST From Religion News Service:By any standard, David Tibi is a French success story.
The 44-year-old dentist and father of five has a thriving practice and a house in the affluent Paris suburb of Vincennes. His wife is a doctor and he is a leading member of the Jewish community and holds a senior post in its Central Consistory of Paris.
But in early July, the Tibi family will pack their bags and join the thousands of Jews now leaving France. The house has been sold. A colleague will be handling the dental practice. The family is leaving on a one-way ticket to Israel.
"If my children are to live their full Jewish identity, their future is in Israel and not in France," Tibi said during an interview at his office in northeastern Paris, an area packed with kosher stores and restaurants. "Many Jews feel this way. There's a massive desire to leave."
Worldwide, immigration to Israel has stagnated and even declined. But French Jews are bucking the trend. Last year, a record 3,270 French Jews made aliyah — or immigration to Israel — a 63 percent hike from 2012. The Jewish Agency, which promotes aliyah internationally, estimates that figure could spike to 5,000 as early as this year, dramatically changing the face of Israeli immigration as well as France's own Jewish community, the largest in Western Europe.
...[R]ising anti-Semitism may be the strongest driver, manifest not only through rhetoric but also action. In 2012, a radical Islamist gunned down four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse.
More recently, two of Tibi's children were taunted on a tram. Tibi filled out immigration papers three weeks ago, making good on a project he had contemplated for years.
"My son is always asking me why there are police in front of his Jewish school, why we need to be searched each time we go to the synagogue," he said. "We are raising our children to live with this fear."
What troubles Tibi most is the lack of response on the part of the French.
"Once we had one million French on the streets against anti-Semitism. Now we have three million on Facebook and Twitter who are supporting Dieudonne," he said, referring to a controversial French comic who is known for his anti-Jewish discourse.
...Tibi, who is president of the Paris-area Jewish community, is watching the departures and listening to the talk. "It's a snowball effect," he said, predicting the exodus may reach 8,000 Jews a year.
The fallout is already evident, he added. Students are leaving Jewish schools. The community is searching for new leaders and reconsidering costly construction projects.
Tibi is feeling the loss in other ways. "I was born in France. I did my studies in France. I am extremely sad to leave a country that gave me a lot," he said. "But sometimes even when you love, you have to leave."  |
| 02/10 Links Pt2: Hamas endorses BDS; Hungary’s Jews to boycott state Holocaust ceremonies Posted: 10 Feb 2014 03:00 PM PST From Ian:
BBC's Yolande Knell dons her campaigning hat yet againLet's take a closer look at Knell's claim of "returning to land" in Ein Hijleh – also spelt Ein Hajla. According to a paper produced by the Palestinian NGO ARIJ in 2012:
"Deir Hajla is one of the oldest monasteries in both Palestine and the world. It contains mosaic floors dating back to the Medieval Ages, which were later renovated. In the north-east side of the monastery there is located 'Ein Hajla (Hajla Spring) which, according to popular legend, the Canaanite village of Beit Hajla (meaning the house of hopscotch) was built upon. However, in the Roman era, it was called Hajla (the translation of which refers to the partridge bird) (Al Dabbagh, 1991) which is presently frequent in the region."
Here's a clue to the origin of that "Roman era" name:
"The Monastery, known in Arabic as Deir Hajla, seems to preserve the Hebrew name Bet Hoglah, which is mentioned in the biblical description of the lands of the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua18:19)." If Jews attacked Muslims in Mecca, world media would cover nothing else for a monthImagine that this week, Jews got angry and hundreds attacked Palestinian Arabs with rocks at the holiest Muslim site in the world. Imagine that this violence came after a handful of Muslims came to pray peacefully at the site, and even though hundreds of Jews attacked police officers, only seven were arrested. Can anyone imagine the endless news stories and media reports which would emanate as a result? The New York Times would have three front-page stories; there would be countless United Nations and European Union condemnations, and CNN's Christiane Amanpour on site. Media coverage would be non-stop.
But, in reality Arabs attacked Jews repeatedly over the last few days at the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, so it is barely a news story. Palestinian Arab violence against Jews is a regular occurrence, and as the media seemingly expects the Arabs to throw rocks, they don't afford it much media coverage. From the archives: Oxfam and the Israeli "gas chambers"A less well-known episode, but one that reveals much about the evolution of Oxfam's attitudes towards Israel, occurred in October 1977. Oxfam's then director-general Brian W. Walker had just returned from a visit to Jordan and Israel. His observations in the West Bank prompted him to write to Judith Hart, the Minister for Overseas Development in James Callaghan's Labour Government. His letter contained a number of remarkable suggestions, not least of which was that Oxfam would be happy to assist a British minister to "travel incognito" into Israeli occupied territory via Jordan.
By far the most disturbing aspect of Walker's letter, however, was the allegation that Israeli policies in relation to West Bank water resources amounted to a crime against the Palestinian people that could be compared to the Holocaust.
"The policy being followed by Israel," Walker declared, "is in no real sense different from the use of the gas chambers by the Nazis – for a 'living' death is, in many respects, worse than death itself." SodaStream boycotters are bad peopleIn a blog post for Mondoweiss, somebody named Annie Robbins has expressed her delight in SodaStream's falling stock prices. Let's give Ms. Robbins the benefit of the doubt and try to follow her reasoning all the way through: 1) She wants to help Palestinians. 2) SodaStream employs Palestinians. 3) The best way to help Palestinians is to pressure SodaStream into closing its factory and never opening another one in the West Bank. If Ms. Robbins had her way, several hundred more Palestinians would be out of work — all in the name of helping Palestinians. Huh? Her reasoning is so weak that it begs the question whether she actually cares at all about improving the lives of Palestinians.
Answer: Probably not. Hamas endorses BDSWhat company they keep. Hamas endorses BDS
Do you want to stand with Scarlett Johansson, for universal rights, and strong economic and cultural ties, or do you want to stand with the genocidal terror group Hamas? BDS Fail Of The Day: Do-It-Yourself Home Bomb EditionThis next video contains the discernible lack of talent you'd expect from a BDShole video, but throw in some bonus child endangerment for good measure.
Make Seltzer and Boycott Sodastream VIDEO The Weekend Australian/ 4 Corners One-Sided Investigation: What Can You Do?I am not going to recount examples of Palestinian youth committing grave crimes. Many case studies are linked in the articles above; horrific examples of 16, 17 and 18 year olds engaging in terrorist activities resulting in loss of innocent life.
Honest Reporting has prepared a fantastic piece debunking these distortions. Please read Rock Solid Reporting Down Under? and send it around.
WHAT YOU CAN DO? BE AN ADVOCATE…
To be effective in setting the record straight we cannot rely merely on our communal leadership to pave the way. It is up to every single one of us to rally strong; take to Facebook, Twitter and challenge the main media outlets for the sake of balance, reason and so the death of countless Israeli terror victims is not in vain. Hungary's Jews to boycott state Holocaust ceremoniesRepresentatives of Jewish organizations raised their concerns Thursday at a meeting with Orban's chief of staff, Janos Lazar, who heads the state's Holocaust memorial year program. At the meeting, Lazar said Orban would address the concerns this week.
[PM] Orban already wrote to Jewish leaders last month defending the German occupation monument, saying it would commemorate all Nazi victims.
Meanwhile, several synagogues and other Jewish institutions have unilaterally announced that they will decline funding from the Holocaust memorial year Civil Fund.
"We are sad to have witnessed how in recent weeks the remembrance initiatives have become unworthy pawns in governmental political games as Hungary approaches its parliamentary elections," a statement from the Bet Orim Reform congregation said Sunday announcing that it would not accept the Civil Fund grant. "Bet Orim does not wish to be part of this kind of political strategy." Greek opposition party drops candidate after anti-Semitic rantThe Greek Jewish community welcomed Syriza's decision to drop Karypidis.
"With this decision, Syriza launches a strong and clear message towards the Greek society that anti-Semitism is to be condemned as a phenomenon of racism and bigotry that breeds hatred against Jews," said a statement from the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece. (h/t Bob Knot) New Presbyterian Church USA Arab-Israel Study Guide Blasted as 'Hateful Document'The 74-page study guide, titled "Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide," was produced by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church USA and released ahead of its national assembly in June.
"Every couple of years, in the run-up to the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s General Assembly, anti-Zionist activists in the denomination put forth a hateful document that assails Israel's legitimacy and antagonizes Jews in the United States. It happened in 2010, it happened in 2012 and it happened again in 2014 with this document," Dexter Van Zile, Christian Media Analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, told JNS.org. Time for Some Answers From United Church of Christ on Pilgrim PressThe Pilgrim Press—the publishing house of the United Church of Christ, a liberal Protestant denomination headquartered in Ohio—has a stockpile of misinformation and anti-Jewish contempt in its warehouse in Cleveland. It comes in the form of its most recent printing of "Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians," by Rev. Dr. Gary Burge, a professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.
This book, which is now in its second edition, depicts Jews as unworthy of living in the land of Israel. Citing John 15:6, Burge writes in the book's second edition, "Branches that attempt living in the land… which refused to be attached to Jesus will be removed." In the first edition, Burge was much harsher, stating that these branches would be "cast out and burned," but in both editions, the author's message is clear: Jews are not entitled to live in the land of Israel because they have rejected Jesus as their messiah. Ex-CIA chief: Anti-Semitism likely in Pollard caseWoolsey's told Israeli Channel 10 TV Saturday that Americans who spied for other countries including South Korea, the Philippines, and Greece were freed after short sentences, while Jonathan Pollard is still jailed after 25 years.
Pollard was a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy when he gave thousands of classified documents to his Israeli handlers. He was arrested in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison.
"I certainly don't think that it is universally true, but in the case of some American individuals, I think there is anti-Semitism at work here," Woolsey said. (h/t Bob Knot) Former President George W. Bush Presented with ADL's Highest HonorThe ADL cited the former president's inspirational leadership in promoting democratic values worldwide when faced with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 during one of the most dramatic and consequential periods in American history; his commitment to securing Israeli-Palestinian peace; and his establishment of the United States' first Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.
"The best Middle Eastern policy starts with an alliance with the only democracy in the Middle East, and that is Israel. ... The cornerstone of peace begins with an unshakable US-Israel alliance," stated Bush. One Hour Translation app is gold at Sochi OlympicsIsrael's One Hour Translation app, the fastest professional translation service in the world with more than 15,000 active translators in 100 countries, has been named the top mobile application to use while cheering on your team at the Sochi Olympics. The UK newspaper, The Telegraph, cited OHT as the best of five apps to use when following the Winter Games.
One Hour Translation, which has its headquarters in Israel, is offering a free translation service for over 70 languages during the Olympics. Twitter users need to tweet @OHT with an image or text to be translated and the company will send a real-time translation from a professional translator. For example, "@OHT Where is the skating rink? English – Russian." Inside the Israeli-made security system at SochiAn Israeli company called NICE Systems (yes, really) has deployed a network of platforms that provide the Sochi Olympic Games with what they need most: a real-time "integration system platform" that "takes points of data — video images, radio communications, phone calls, access control alarms — and blends it all into a single operating system that interacts with all of that," according to Bill Besse, a security specialist and Andrews International vice president, when interviewed by risk-management publication CSO Online. ClickSoftware Gains on 59% Jump in New Clients: Israel OvernightClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (CKSW:US), the Israeli company that makes computer programs used to manage workforces, rallied in New York after reporting a 59 percent surge in new customers last year.
Shares of the Petach Tikva, Israel-based company increased 7.2 percent to $9.35 last week, extending this year's rally to 25 percent. The Bloomberg Israel-US Equity Index of the largest Israeli companies traded in New York added 0.3 percent, led by Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. SodaStream International Ltd., the Israeli maker of home soda machines, increased 2.8 percent. Perrigo Co., a maker of generic over-the-counter medicines, had the biggest discount among dual-listed companies. Israel's WLCSP becomes first foreign co-founded company to go public in ChinaWafer Level Chip Scale Package (WLCSP), a portfolio company of Israel's Infinity group, became the first foreign co-founded company to go public in China when it debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday.
WLCSP's founding investors were Infinity and China' CVSC, and until the IPO, Israeli shareholders controlled some 38% of the company.
"We are honored to be the co-founders of a great company which is also a symbol of China-Israel cooperation," said Infinity Group founder and managing partner Amir Gal-Or. "We are exceptionally proud that WLCSP is the first company based on Israeli technology to go public in China." How 'disruption' won Waze its $1 billion exitAnd are there any lessons early-stage and still-unborn start-ups can learn from Waze's success?
Yes there are, said Yahal Zilka, a partner and co-founder of Magma Venture Partners, one of the VC firms that invested $12 million in Waze way back when — in 2008, in a Series A funding round. "So far, Waze has been the largest mobile Internet exit ever," Zilka noted at an investor's forum in Herzliya last week. "We decided back then that Waze had what it takes to succeed, because it brought a real disruption to the marketplace."
"Disruption," Zilka said, is what investors look for in an app or a start-up. What disruption means, however, depends on context. It can mean a completely new product to serve a market no one thought existed; it can also mean a more efficient way to accomplish a goal. It can even mean developing a new take on an existing, tried and true service or product, and coming up with a fresh way to extend market reach. Based on his experience, those disruptions, said Zilka, are worth lots of money at exit time. Rolling Stones to rock Ramat Gan Stadium June 10The Rolling Stones will perform on June 10 at Ramat Gan Stadium, according to a source close to the production. According to the source, the show will probably be promoted by Shuki Weiss, who represents all LiveNation concerts and events in Israel. Russian Jews remember Israeli athletes murdered at 1972 Munich Olympic GamesAbout 200 people assembled at a hotel just outside the Olympic gates Sunday. Jews from the city of Sochi joined Israeli delegates, embassy officials from Moscow and American visitors from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidism founded in Russia in 1775 and centered in the Smolensk region for 100 years. Now the leadership resides in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
"Today we will think of our brothers who died only because they were Jews," said Lazar, a member of the movement who lives in Moscow. "Now, unfortunately, the whole world understands the threat of terrorism." Sunshine Across Israel  |
| Stuff from today's Arab media Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:00 PM PST Islamic Jihad celebrated the return of the body of a terrorist who killed 4 Israelis in a yeshiva in Otniel in 2002. They inflated the number of people he killed from 4 to 6 and claimed they were all "soldiers." This article says that the infighting in Egypt and Yemen is a dream of the Jews, "God's wrath be upon them.." Another article tells us that "Jewish insolence has no limits" as it says that the Holocaust is a hoax, Jews collaborated with Hitler, and all the Jews who left Arab countries all did so voluntarily except for the ones who were frightened into leaving by Jewish terror attacks. A respected columnist in Al Hayat, Jihad el-Khazen, says that as a graduate of American and Arab universities he is an expert on science and history, and that evidence shows that the Jewish and Christian Bibles are myths. The Quran, however, is perfectly correct. Another article is entitled "Israel is a racist and a fascist society and doomed to extinction." He goes through a list of supposed Zionist crimes (genocide, ethnic cleansing) and is upset that the UN overturned the "Zionism is Racism" resolution. Perhaps, you think, I am cherry picking. Well, yes and no. These are some of the most egregious antisemitic and anti-Zionist articles just from today. However, you will never find anyone disagreeing.  |
| The insanity never ends: Sheikh Qaradawi accused of being a Mossad agent Posted: 10 Feb 2014 11:00 AM PST One of the more interesting (and relatively under-reported) aspects of Egypt's 2013 coup is the insane hate that the new Egyptian leadership has for the previous one and for Islamists in general. Being more liberal is not at all correlated with intelligence. Of course, the way to insult fellow Arabs remains the same: just accuse them of being Zionist. The latest example comes from Egypt's Al Bawabh News, an anti-Muslim Brotherhood newspaper. They are accusing Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi - one of the most influential clerics in Sunni Islam, whose weekly Qatar-based TV show reaches tens of millions, and who explicitly supports killing Israeli civilians - of being a Mossad agent! Qaradawi is originally from Egypt, supports the Muslim Brotherhood and has been very critical of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries who do not support the Islamist group. The logic behind this brilliant analysis is that Qaradawi has not specifically condemned recent reports of Jews visiting the Temple Mount. It just so happens that Qaradawi's weekly broadcast sermon was cancelled for the past three weeks, and at the last minute this week, indicating that he may be ill. (He only admitted to having a cold.) But the Al Bawabh article goes on from there. It claims that he has visited Israel three times, that he knows Hebrew, and that he has met with senior rabbis (a few years ago he did greet a delegation of Neturei Karta idiots, and has had to fight rumors that he is pro-Israel ever since.)  The article goes on to claim that Qaradawi was praised by the US Congress (according to some news stories, he has been banned from the US since 1999), it quotes an Egyptian professor who calls him a "prostitute" for the West, that there are photos of him with the Chief Rabbi of Israel (in reality, last year Qaradawi boycotted an interfaith conference when he discovered a liberal Jew would attend,) and that he met with Jews in Gaza. Here is a graphic from the homepage of this same news site, indicating that the Muslim Brotherhood is in fact Zionist itself: Liberal, religious, Islamist, reformer, secular - there is always one constant in the Arab world, and that is how much they hate Jews and Israel. In public.  |
| 02/10 Links Pt1: What “Non-Violent” Palestinian Protests Really Look Like; AQ Recruits Children Posted: 10 Feb 2014 09:00 AM PST From Ian:
What "Non-Violent" Palestinian Protests Really Look LikeEven as IDF forces try to keep the peace, Palestinian "demonstrators" resort to rock throwing and other acts of violence against Israeli soldiers.
Every Friday, a similar scene repeats itself in Palestinian villages throughout Judea and Samaria. As Israeli soldiers do their best to keep the region secure, Palestinians throw rocks in unprovoked attacks against IDF forces. Israel protects the right of Palestinians to protest peacefully, but so-called "Palestinian demonstrations" often turn violent.
In this video, an IDF officer explains to Palestinian demonstrators that they have the right to protest peacefully, but asks them not to use violence against Israeli troops. Their only response is to throw rocks in an attempt to injure or kill IDF soldiers. Rocks kill peopleAs American Secretary of State John Kerry encourages the possibility of a Third Intifada against Israel, and media worldwide continues to claim that rock-throwing is non-violent, Israelis continue to be injured from Palestinian Arab rock throwers. As this video reminds us Rocks Kill People.
It should be noted that American border patrol police "consider rock-throwing to be deadly force which sometimes demands the same in response." Throwing rocks is violent behavior – and protection from rocks is vital.
Let us hope and pray that this little girl makes a full recovery. Boycott or Opportunity? You Can't Have BothBut destroying Israel as a sovereign state is the primary goal the boycotters themselves have never hidden, as much as some naive American Jewish liberals wish they would adapt and sanitize their tactics by concentrating on the West Bank alone. If you don't believe me, pay heed to Phil Weiss, editor of the anti-Semitic website Mondoweiss: "If BDS is such a powerful tactic that they can use to pressure Netanyahu for a two-state-solution… why shouldn't Palestinians use the tactic to their ends? Why accept a deal for a fragment of the country you once lived in, negotiated by a collaborationist government?"
What, then, should those genuinely committed to securing a peaceful resolution between Israelis and Palestinians do, if they reject boycotting? I would suggest, at the outset, talking to the right people with the most creative ideas—people like Daniel Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream, who aced an interview with the BBC's toughest interrogator, Jeremy Paxman, by pointing out that peace needs to be fueled with economic opportunities for both peoples, even if that means breaking with dogmatic slogans about the illegitimacy of Jewish settlements.
As Birnbaum argued, some of those opportunities might eventually sustain a Palestinian state. But if we unthinkingly buy into the propaganda of the boycotters, there won't be any opportunities to begin with. It's time for Israel to wage a formidable Public Relations campaignSome analysts believe the Palestinian Authority (PA) is going to quit the talks soon and blame Israel for the failure.
Then, the PA will immediately launch a massive drive with their numerous sympathizers to organize more boycotts on Israel, alienate Israel further from the mainstream, and try to delegitimize the Jewish Nation.
Consequently, by shrewd public relations and persistence the PA might accomplish what no nation or combined nations have been able to do in modern Israeli history including coordinated warfare and terror. Bennett: Western peace efforts keep blowing up in our facesFar from helping Israel achieve long-lasting tranquility, and helping the Palestinians flourish too, Bennett argued, 20 years of well-intentioned internationally brokered peace efforts have had the opposite effect — provoking violence and instability. "It's a bit frustrating when people come from outside and think they have a magic solution," he said. "They come. [Their] entering the fray creates a whole new wave of terror. And then when it fails, we're stuck with the consequences."
What's needed, the Jewish Home party leader argued, are not good intentions but realistic ones. And his own "stability" plan — under which Israel would annex some 60 percent of the West Bank and grant full citizenship to the 70,000 Palestinians who live there, while giving the remaining Palestinians elsewhere in the territories self-government but not statehood — while admittedly "imperfect," said Bennett, has the advantage of being realistic. Livni Hints PA Will Acknowledge Israel as Jewish State: 'Expect to be Surprised'At one point a heated exchange took place between Livni and Minister of Pensioner Affairs Uri Orbach (Jewish Home).
Orbach said that, "While it is clear to us that Israel is a Jewish state, the Palestinians will never accept this fact." In response, the Justice Minister, who is leading Israel's negotiating team in framework agreement talks with the PA, implied that they may be about to change course. "Expect to be surprised," she said. "And if they [the Palestinian Arabs] are willing to recognize us as a Jewish state, would you then be willing to divide the country?" Netanyahu to meet with Obama in US in MarchPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make a five-day visit to the United States in the first week of March, during which he will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House and deliver a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, the date of the meeting with Obama has yet to be set, but the details are expected to be finalized in the coming days. Netanyahu and Obama last met in September, when Netanyahu traveled to the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly meeting. Yeshiva Students Attacked by Arab Rock-Thowers in GalileeRock attacks by Arabs against Jews are no longer restricted to Judea and Samaria. Last Thursday, dozens of yeshiva students in the lower Galilee were attacked by stone-throwing Arabs as they attempted to visit the tomb of a Jewish sage near the village of Ilabun.
The students had gone to visit the tomb of Rabbi Matya Ben Harash, a Talmudic sage. According to Shaul Pu'a, a student at the yeshiva, some 50 students proceeded from a bus that had brought them to the site to the tomb itself. A crowd of Arab youths gathered as they walked.
The attack began when they returned from the tomb to the bus. According to Pu'a, some of the students had gotten back on the bus when the rain of rocks began. Pu'a said that he believed the Arabs waited until that exact moment to carry out the attack, because they believed it was unlikely that anyone would get off the bus. Fatah to appoint a deputy to AbbasDespite his ailing health, 78-year-old Abbas has not nominated a deputy either. Abbas has unilaterally extended his term as president since January 2009 amid a political schism with rival movement Hamas, revolving around — among other issues – the arrangements of new presidential and parliamentary elections.
According to the Palestinian Basic Law, if the president is to become incapacitated, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament must fill the position pending new elections to be held within 60 days. The current speaker of parliament is Hamas member Aziz Dweik, a fact adding to Fatah's angst over the day after Abbas. Egypt, Russia Seal $2B Arms DealThe source, who asked not to be named, said the two Gulf kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and the UAE played a "vital role" in sealing the deal.
The official revealed that the first tranche of Russian weapons to Egypt will be delivered before mid-2014. The delivery and payments will both be phased, he explained. Egypt's top satirist Bassem Youssef returns to TVEgypt's top satirist returned to television on Friday for the first airing of his show since it was pulled three months ago, and he skewered the public and media for lionizing the army chief widely expected to be the country's next president.
In taking aim at the frenzy of support for Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Bassem Youssef went further in his criticism of the army-backed political order than anyone else currently allowed on the airwaves. Still many outstanding issues between Iran, IAEAIran's promise to clarify its use of detonators marks only an initial step by Tehran to address long-standing allegations of past nuclear weapons research, the UN atomic watchdog said Monday.
"This is the first step that is taking place now," International Atomic Energy Agency chief inspector Tero Varjoranta told reporters at Vienna airport after returning from Iran.
"There is still a lot of outstanding issues so now we are starting on the PMD," he said, referring to alleged "possible military dimensions" of Iran's nuclear activities, mostly before 2003.
On Sunday, Iran and the IAEA agreed a new seven-step plan to increase transparency, including a pledge by Iran to provide "information and explanations for the Agency to assess Iran's stated need or application for the development of Exploding Bridge Wire detonators". Iran Claims 'Biggest Army In Region' on Revolution AnniversaryTo mark 35 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the regime held a special display of the nation's domestic military industry advances in the last decade, bragging that it has the "biggest army in the region."
The pinnacle of Iranian warfare was presented in the Shihab 1, 2 and 3 missiles, which feature a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), enabling them to strike Israel. The missiles are fired from subterranean launchers, making them difficult to detect by satellite. Iranian Navy Commander Vows to Sink U.S. WarshipsA top Iranian naval commander threatened to destroy U.S. warships and kill American soldiers just a day after Iranian vessels approached U.S. waters for the first time in history.
"The Americans can sense by all means how their warships will be sunk with 5,000 crews and forces in combat against Iran and how they should find its hulk in the depths of the sea," Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the commander of the elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy, was quoted as saying Sunday in the regional press. Iran Hangs Arab Poet As 'Enemy of G-d'Despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's "charm offensive," which has sealed an interim nuclear deal and lifted US sanctions, the Islamic regime remains brutal as ever. An Arab-Iranian poet and human rights activist was executed in late January for being an "enemy of G-d."
Hashem Shaabani, an ethnic Arab and popular composer of Arabic and Persian poetry, was hung in an unidentified prison on January 27 along with Hadi Rashedi, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. He was the founder of Dialogue Institute, which promoted Arabic literature and culture in Iran.
The 32-year-old poet spoke out against the mistreatment of ethnic Arabs in Iran's Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq. He was arrested in February or March 2011, on charges of being a "Moharabeh," namely an "enemy of G-d." Hezbollah Pledges to Keep Fighting in SyriaLebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria's bloody civil war, as the conflict approaches its fourth year.
At a ceremony in the Beirut suburb and Hezbollah stronghold of Ouzai, the Iranian-backed group's second-in-command, Sheikh Naim Qassem, struck a familiar chord, branding Syrian rebels "takfiris" - a derogatory word for Sunni Muslim extremists. Reports: Hezbollah Vetoes New Cabinet, Leaving Lebanon Government in LimboThe current caretaker cabinet took control of Lebanon in April 2013, after the stability of repeated governments was undermined by Hezbollah and its allies. Hezbollah's veto over the proposed new cabinet composition, which came despite statements from March 14 figures signaling expanded willingness to make concessions, leaves efforts to restore political stability in limbo. Turkish FM Davutoglu: Turkey, Israel close to a deal Turkey and Israel are as close as they have been yet to ending the long-running saga over the Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying Sunday.
Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News quoted Davutoglu, who has been an acerbic and vocal critic of Israel, as saying in a televised interview that "there has recently been a momentum and new approach in compensation talks. We could say that most of the differences have been removed recently in these discussions." Israeli diplomatic officials, continuing a policy that has been in place for the last few weeks, refused to comment on the matter. Last week officials in the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry were instructed not to talk about the issue. Turkish Jews Targeted in Terrifying Anti-Semitic AttackEven amid reports that Israel and Turkey are close to "normalizing" relations again, it appears that the long-term impact of years of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement since the souring of relations in 2010 will be far more difficult to roll back.
Arutz Sheva has seen an email by a Turkish Jewish businessman, relating a harrowing anti-Semitic attack on him and his partner in the northwestern Turkish town of Babaeski, in the country's Marmara district, once again highlighting fears for the future of Turkey's 15,000-strong Jewish minority.
The two men - who requested anonymity - were visiting clients in the Thrace Region, when they stopped off in the town for a lunch break. But upon making their orders at a local restaurant, they were in for a nasty shock. Turkish protesters clash with police over online censorshipTurkish riot police Saturday used tear gas grenades and water cannon to disperse more than 2,000 people demonstrating against new Internet curbs that have sparked alarm at home and abroad.
Large numbers of police with body armor and shields backed up by armored water cannon trucks deployed against the chanting, mostly young crowd around Istanbul's emblematic Taksim Square. Ankara 'was on brink of severing Paris ties' over Armenian genocide bill, Turkish envoy saysAnkara was on the brink of downgrading ties with Paris if a bill criminalizing denial of genocide was approved by the French Constitutional Court, Turkish Ambassador to France Tahsin Burcuoğlu revealed Feb. 8. Al-Qaeda And Its Offshoots Train And Indoctrinate Newborns, Toddlers, And Preschoolers – Captured On TwitterIncreasingly over the past decade, Al-Qaeda and its affiliates and sympathizers have been aiming their outreach and recruitment efforts at pre-teens, and even much younger children. As part of these efforts, Al-Qaeda sheikhs are reaching out directly to Muslim youth. For example, last year, in an audio lecture released by the Al-Qaeda media arm Al-Sahab, emerging Al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Maulana Asim Umar urged even the youngest Muslims to "not stay with [their] parents" and to leave the "luxury" of home and "city life" to wage jihad, like the Prophet Muhammad before them. In fiery terms, he exhorted them: "A youth whose heart is filled with desire, spirit, and love for jihad does not rest in his home; do not stay with your parents and do not enjoy the luxury of home... To fulfill the promise, one group preferred to sacrifice love for parents, leave the city life, and go to the mountains of Afghanistan, the snow-covered hills of Kashmir, and to continue fighting the enemy for the supremacy of Islam and to preserve the honor of their mothers and sisters..."  |
| Iran's snow job continues Posted: 10 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST From MEMRI (but the video is in English): Iranian Nuclear Chief Salehi: If U.S. Violates Deal, Iran Will Get "Back on Track" within Hours
In a recent TV interview, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, discussed his country's nuclear program. When asked by the interviewer how long it would take Iran, technically speaking, to get "back on track" if the U.S. violates the terms of the Geneva deal, Saleh responded: "A few hours." "Will we do that?" the interviewer asked, and Salehi answered: "If we need to produce 20% - yes, we will do it."
Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on Press TV (via the Internet) on February 4, 2014.
Interviewer: The United States says that it has managed to dismantle at least parts of Iran's nuclear program. What do you say to that?
Ali-Akbar Salehi: Well, you can come and see whether our nuclear sites, nuclear equipment, and nuclear facilities are dismantled or not. The only thing that we have stopped and suspended – and that was voluntarily – is the production of 20% enriched uranium. That's it.
Of course, there is another thing that we have undertaken. We have committed ourselves not to install main equipment – and it has been defined what that main equipment is – in the Arak 40 megawatt heavy water reactor.
The nuclear facilities are functioning, and our enrichment is proceeding. It is doing its work, it is producing the 5% enriched uranium, and those centrifuges that stopped producing the 20% will be producing 5% enriched uranium.
In other words, our production of 5% will increase, and the entire nuclear activity of Iran is going on.
[...]
The best part of this Joint Action Plan is the research part. It is so clear that R&D has no constraint.
[...]
We have always been at the negotiating table. It's the other side who appeared at some times, and disappeared at other times. We have never declined negotiating with the 5+1.
[...]
We have always shown our good intentions, but we hope that this time, they really come with good intentions and good faith. If they really come in good faith and with good intentions, this is an opportunity that they can utilize. Otherwise, Iran will pursue its natural course.
[...]
Interviewer: If President Barack Obama is defeated by pro-Israeli lobbies in the Congress – the likes of Bob Menendez and Mark Kirk – and the United States decides to violate the terms of the Geneva deal, how long will it take, technically speaking, for Iran to get back on track?
Ali-Akbar Salehi: A few hours.
Interviewer: Will we do that?
Ali-Akbar Salehi: Well, if we need to produce 20% - yes, we will do it. And from Matthias Kuntzel at TOI: Last week I attended a discussion with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif and witnessed his ability to mesmerise his listeners. The event took place at the German Council of Foreign Affairs in Berlin.
Mr. Zarif succeeded in dazzling his audience – about 250 foreign policy experts — with commonplace sentences such as: "global security is indivisible", "dialogue is necessary" or "war is not a good option." He came across as an Iranian Gorbachev, a good-hearted reformer defying the powers of darkness.
Yet a few days earlier he had bowed his head before the grave of a particularly sinister figure — Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was not only responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed 241 U.S. soldiers in their barracks building in Beirut, but is also considered the "inventor" of Islamist suicide bombing.
This was not mentioned in Berlin. Zarif presented his country instead as "a status quo power" and an island of moderation within a sea of extremist violence. "We do not support terrorists," he claimed with a mischievous smile. "We do not fund them." "We will never start a military operation against anyone." The audience hung on Zarif's lips, nobody laughed. The fact, that Iran's Revolutionary Guards interfere in Iraq and Lebanon and recruit and instruct Shiites from all over the world to conduct military operations in support of Assad was obviously forgotten.
The Berlin audience preferred to believe what Zarif claimed. It willingly surrendered to Zarif's smile and sonorous bass and rewarded him with applause.
"You have built up today a lot of trust," stated Paul Freiherr von Maltzahn, the Secretary General of the German Council of Foreign Affairs in his closing words of thanks. Read the whole thing.Iran only has to lie. The western media and politicians are very willing to do the rest of the propaganda work for them. (h/t Josh K)  |
| Fatah, Hamas talking (again) about unity Posted: 10 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST I haven't bothered to write about "unity" between Hamas and Fatah for a while, because every single attempt for the past few years has been a joke, often meant more to head off internal Arab Spring-type protests than to actually try to unify. Hamas does not want to give up its hold on Gaza. The latest attempt has a slightly better chance though - because Hamas has been rocked by the Egyptian coup, losing its main monetary sponsor and partner. Hamas and Fatah will hold meetings to discuss the implementation of a national reconciliation agreement on Sunday evening and Monday morning, members of both movements told Ma'an.
Fatah official Nabil Shaath and Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said they considered reconciliation a top priority, and that an earlier meeting between a Fatah delegation and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was a success.
"We realize that the road to freedom and independence is still a long one and needs a lot of work, and the first step is Palestinian unity," Shaath said.
"There cannot be a state without Gaza," he said.
Shaath also praised Hamas' recent decision to allow Fatah lawmakers to return to Gaza.
Al-Hayya echoed Shaath's statements.
"We at Hamas want to be united with Fatah and not interfere in Fatah internal issues," he said.
Al-Hayya said Hamas had sent a letter to President Mahmoud Abbas, saying "that we support him in his position of protecting our principles." Hamas is hurting for cash, and Fatah may be its best hope to stay afloat. If the Fatah-led PA would take over the Rafah crossing, for example, then Hamas-hating Egypt would probably keep it open more. Exports from Gazs could increase if Israel could deal with the PA directly on those issues. When the current negotiations between Israel and the PA collapse, Hamas would have one less reason to avoid unity, because one of its conditions has been to stop negotiating with Israel and continue based on jihad. And when it comes down to it, Fatah and Hamss are not that far apart ideologically, as much as Western media and pundits like to pretend they are. They both explicitly support terrorism and both agree that terror is not in their best interests at this time. Islamic Jihad and other terror groups are convenient to use for today's attacks, and both Fatah and Hamas can claim that they are innocent. While it is still a longshot, this time there may actually be a chance for some sort of quasi-unity between the two. It would necessarily involve the PA moving away from a peace posture, but the West would provide cover for them since so much of the media and Western governments and NGOs have been so invested in the lie of Fatah "moderation" for so long.  |
| Egyptian fatwa: If your wife is a Muslim Brotherhood member, divorce her Posted: 10 Feb 2014 02:00 AM PST From Al Arabiya:"If a man discovers that his wife belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, he should divorce her," said preacher Mazhar Shahin in the show he presents in one of the private Egyptian satellite channels. "It is like having a bomb sleep in your own bedroom," he added.
In this case, Shain explained, the wife should be given the chance to sever all ties with the Brotherhood, but if she refuses, the husband has to divorce her. Shahin, who is also the imam of the Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square and is known as "the imam of the revolution," attributed his fatwa to the "jurisprudence of priorities" in Islam, through which, he argued, it becomes obvious that Egypt takes priority over individuals.
"If the interests of my country contradict those of my wife, I would definitely choose my country," he noted. "A man can find many other women to marry, but there is only one Egypt."
Belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, however, does not mean the wife should be stripped of her financial rights, according to Shahin, who stressed that the divorce has to "comply with God's laws." The fatwa, Shahin said, also gives the right to any woman who finds out that her husband belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood to seek divorce.
For Shahin, divorce is considered the lesser of two evils for the wife because otherwise the husband might report her to the police. "It is better for her to end up divorced than to end up in jail." Shahin was referring to the case of a man who reported his wife to State Security for belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In his complaint, the husband said that he only found out his wife is a Brotherhood member after Islamist President Mohammad Mursi came to power. "After the Brotherhood was toppled, the group started assigning her missions," the complaint added. "That is why she traveled to the United Kingdom and Germany." Well, at least he didn't say to behead her. Maybe next year.  |
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