| Egyptian teacher under investigation for ..."scandalous dancing." (video - WARNING - it isn't scandalous)noreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 05 Jan 05:45 | | There is a controversy in Egypt over a video showing a female teacher dancing with male teachers. The teachers were taking a cruise down the Nile, a trip which was organized by the Teachers Union in West Mansoura. The female teacher was honored as the "ideal teacher" for teaching Arabic. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education in Dakahlia, Egypt, decided to refer five teachers in the West Mansoura Educational Administration to the Administrative Prosecution for investigation. The women who is encouraging the dance is also under investigation, as are the male teachers. The video is all over Arab websites as "scandalous." At no time is the teacher not modestly covered. At no time does she touch any of her dance partners. I don't know why this is more scandalous than anyone going on a bus in Egypt. Here's the video: The female teacher is...Read More |
From Ian: When They Start Talking About 'Anti-Zionism,' Natan Sharansky Knows What They Really Mean Listen to my interview with the former Soviet refusenik on how to spot antisemitism. Also, fixing the sometimes fraught relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. About a month ago, I finally had the opportunity to talk to him in advance of something called the Z3 Project on Israel-Diaspora relations. The California-based group asked me to interview Sharansky to discuss his work in improving ties not between Jews and gentiles but between Jews and Jews—primarily between Israel and the Diaspora. Of course, I jumped at the chance to talk to my childhood hero. I was curious about many things, but I wanted to get his take on the current wave of antisemitism. To say that Sharansky has experience with antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism would be an extreme understatement. As a former Soviet "Prisoner of Zion," he spent years under torturous conditions in the gulag. He knew that when Soviet leaders began to talk about Zionism, all Jews, Zionist or not, were in trouble. When he was finally released and immigrated to Israel, he was surprised to notice the same phenomenon. That's when he came up with what he called his "3D test" of antisemitism. They are: Delegitimization of Israel Demonization of Israel Double standards in judging Israel Put them together, you can bet that what is billed as criticism of Israel is actually...Read More |
In Peter Beinart's Substack, he writes: In 1984, in an essay in The London Review of Books, Edward Said observed that while Palestinians were increasingly talked about, they still weren't often listened to. "Never has so much been written and shown of the Palestinians, who were scarcely mentioned fifteen years ago," he noted. "They are there all right, but the narrative of their present actuality – which stems directly from the story of their existence in and displacement from Palestine, later Israel – that narrative is not." Said was the exception that proved his own rule. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was a frequent guest on Charlie Rose. His columns graced The New York Times. But he was largely alone. A study by the University of Arizona's Maha Nasser found that of the opinion columns in The New York Times that discussed Palestinians between 1970 and 2020, less than two percent were written by Palestinian authors. In The Washington Post, the figure was one percent. They were absent because America's public debate about Israel-Palestine largely pitted dovish Zionists against hawkish Zionists. Anthony Lewis versus William Safire. Arthur Hertzberg versus Elie Wiesel. Thomas Friedman versus Charles Krauthammer. Daniel Kurtzer versus Dennis Ross. Jeremy Ben-Ami versus Alan Dershowitz. Roger Cohen versus Bret Stephens. The participants changed but the terms of the debate remained largely the...Read More |
From Ian: Eli Lake: What Biden Can Learn From Trump's Iran Policy Faced with these escalations, the Biden administration has tried to walk a tightrope on Iran. On the one hand, it has continued to hold out hope for diplomacy even though Iran's diplomats in Vienna will no longer meet with the U.S. envoy. The U.S. has also relaxed enforcement of some sanctions, leading to an increase in Iranian oil exports, but has not unilaterally lifted them. And early in his administration, Biden ordered a missile strike on Iranian-backed militia bases in response to an attack. Most troubling, however, is that the U.S. has let it be known that it does not approve of Israeli intelligence operations against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Some administration officials doubt the efficacy of Israel's sabotage and assassinations inside Iran, according to the New York Times, fearing that they provide an incentive for Iran to build back its nuclear program better. This is the wrong message. Not only does it risk alienating America's most important ally against Iran, as former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer noted at a web conference this month. It also risks more provocations from Iran: If the regime's leaders believe they face only economic consequences for their predations, then they will continue to test America's resolve. That's why Biden, like the Iranian regime, should...Read More |
By Daled Amos Mahmoud Abbas is getting ready to celebrate the 18th year of his 4-year term as president, while polls periodically list all the people who would beat him if and when the Palestinian Arabs ever do hold elections again. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Teflon terrorists of Hamas appear to escape responsibility for the mess they have made of Gaza. According to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in 2018: Almost all Palestinians view conditions in the Gaza Strip as dire, bad or very bad. Responsibility for this situation is placed first on Israel, then the PA, and finally Hamas. But for Gazans, the blame is placed first on the PA, with Israel and Hamas second and third respectively. [emphasis added] According to the poll, things are so bad that 45% of Gazans surveyed indicated that they want to emigrate -- compared to only 19% of those Arabs living under the Palestinian Authority. Close to half of Gazan Arabs wanted to leave, yet they did not hold Hamas responsible.
And it was not as if there was no public criticism of Hamas. In October 2017, just 5 months before the PCPSR survey was done, MEMRI reported on Hamas Gaza Officials Internal Criticism, referring to o Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, who called for a reassessment of Hamas relations with Fatah, and for a...Read More |
Hamada Faraaneh was born in Amman and was a member of the Jordanian parliament in 1997, but he is also a former member of the DFLP and a current member of the Palestinian National Council.
He writes in Ad Doustor that Palestinian violence pays. His example is interesting. On Saturday, May 15, 2021, US President Joe Biden called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, following the outbreak of the May 10 Ramadan Intifada, which Hamas called the "Sword of Jerusalem" intifada. The intifada, which spread to Palestinian Arab cities in the 48 areas, and the destructive Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian bombing, however modest it seemed, of the 48 areas, pushed the Israelis to shelters and disrupted the economy. President Biden's call for the first time since he took power on January 20, 2021, with President Abbas, would not have taken place without the events of the May Ramadan uprising and its repercussions, in an atmosphere of sharp escalation between the Palestinians and Israelis. Biden literally told the Palestinian president over the phone: "The United States is making efforts with the concerned parties in order to achieve calm and reduce violence in the region." So the Palestinian presence in the confrontation is...Read More |
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