Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Update on the blood libel/Visa story (updated)

As of this moment, Egyptian women's magazine El Kebar still has the article saying that Jews kill Gentiles to add their blood as an ingredient for Passover matzoh online.

And it still has the same Visa pop-up ad, 48 hours after first being informed about it.

So, whether they like it or not, Visa is still associated with perhaps the most offensive and libelous article against Jews imaginable.

The Visa representative told me that he would keep me informed of what was going on, but I have not heard anything since Friday.

Meanwhile, I looked a bit at Egypt Post, which is likely to be the Visa partner that actually placed the ad.

It turns out that Egypt Post is not a newspaper as I had assumed, but in fact it is Egypt's postal service. They do offer Egypt Post-labeled Visa cards. It is a governmental organization.

Which means that at the very least, the Egyptian government is literally sponsoring the most vile antisemitism imaginable, in Visa's name.

The chairman of Egypt Post is Dr. Ashraf Gamal El Din. He has degrees from British and Canadian universities, so he must know English. Here is his Facebook page, in case you want to ask him about whether he supports the hate and bigotry that was in that article.

UPDATE: Visa's spokesperson contacted me to say that they are working hard over the holiday weekend to identify and contact the right people to take the ad down, and he again emphasized that the article was intolerant and intolerable. On the other hand, he expressed frustration because (as I wrote Friday) Visa's hands are tied because they do not have a direct relationship with El Kebar and they have to go through proper channels, and within the context of their existing contracts, to try to take care of this, and it takes time.

04/19 Links: NYT Op-Ed Compares Hirsi Ali to Homophobes, Racists and Anti-Semites

From Ian:

Liberman slams EU's Ashton for remarks on Israeli measures against Palestinians

Liberman criticized the top EU diplomat for calling on Israel to reverse recent decisions made in regard to the West Bank and east Jerusalem, insinuating that she should concentrate on what he indicated were a multitude of more pressing issues.
He denounced the timing of Ashton's statement at a time when he said "there are many other instances around the globe of charged confrontations and conflicts that claim human life," citing the crisis in Ukraine, the Syrian civil war and violence in Iraq.
Liberman on Facebook sarcastically charged that "it was lucky that the European Union knows how to diagnose critical problems in the world and take care of them quickly and decisively." (h/t Yenta Press)

NYT Op-Ed Compares Hirsi Ali to Homophobes, Racists and Anti-Semites

Nesrine Malik, a contributing columnist at The Guardian, was featured in The New York Times Op-Ed pages likening women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali to racists, anti-Semites and homophobes and saying that free speech should be extended to all.
She began by claiming that Hirsi Ali had built a career based on hatred: "The defense of free speech often hides a multitude of sins. Since Brandeis University withdrew an honor it had intended to bestow on the author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, many have flocked to her defense in the name of free expression — no matter how offensive. But implicitly they are suggesting that Islam and Muslims are worthy targets of Ms. Hirsi Ali’s scorn. And their preciousness about the right to offend won’t be credible until they advocate extending it beyond Islamophobes — to racists, anti-Semites and homophobes, too."
New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson is still scheduled to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis University this May.

Liberal Kirstin Powers Exposes Hypocrisy of Left Wing Attacks on Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ever since Brandies offered, and then rescinded, an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born women's rights advocate has been under attack from the progressive "thought police." In her Friday USA Today column, liberal columnist Kirsten Powers points out the hypocrisy of the attacks saying, "Condemning the Catholic Church and Christianity broad-brush is heroic. But a woman who breaks with and criticizes Islam is a mouthy, immature narcissist who must be silenced."
Powers begins: "Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been a vocal critic of women's oppression under Islamic law. She's blasted arranged marriage, legally sanctioned domestic violence, genital mutilation, and the killing of adulteresses and rape victims. Despite being a supporter of abortion rights, an atheist, and an advocate of gay and women's rights, she is despised by many who claim to be defenders of women's rights. Over the years, they have worked to delegitimize her in the hopes that she will be silenced."

04/18 Links Pt2: Prosor: The Middle East War on Christians; US calls Ukraine leaflets ‘grotesque’

From Ian:

Ron Prosor The Middle East War on Christians

This week, as Jews celebrate the Passover holiday, they are commemorating the Bible's Exodus story describing a series of plagues inflicted on ancient Egypt that freed the Israelites, allowing them to make their way to the Holy Land. But over the past century, another exodus, driven by a plague of persecution, has swept across the Middle East and is emptying the region of its Christian population. The persecution is especially virulent today.
The Middle East may be the birthplace of three monotheistic religions, but some Arab nations appear bent on making it the burial ground for one of them. For 2,000 years, Christian communities dotted the region, enriching the Arab world with literature, culture and commerce. At the turn of the 20th century, Christians made up 26% of the Middle East's population. Today, that figure has dwindled to less than 10%. Intolerant and extremist governments are driving away the Christian communities that have lived in the Middle East since their faith was born. (h/t Serious Black)

Egyptian Christians Slammed for Visiting Israel for Easter

On Sunday, the Arab news website Elaph alluded to an Israeli government ploy by citing sources in Egypt’s travel industry that claimed Israeli visas issued for Easter travel were really intended for another “mass” immigration of Coptic Christians to Israel. These fears stem from earlier waves of Christian emigration.
It is doubtful that Egypt’s ruling class views as disagreeable a potential exodus of Copts. It is more likely to be encouraged, if not fostered, just as in the evacuation of Jews from Egypt during the Nasser era. Currently, focusing on such “news” creates an opportunity to criticize and condemn imaginary offenses by Jews and the Israeli government.

Sarah Honig: We are the accusers

What has become known as Kerry’s “poof” speech is precisely what Israel was afraid of – being blamed for the predictable flop of Kerry’s delusional project.
Kerry can postfactum posture self-righteously and smugly deny having blamed Israel but that’s precisely what he did when he enumerated Israel’s supposed sins one by one. He then dramatically paused for a studied special effect – replete with expressive hand gestures – before resorting to really sophisticated phrasing: “Poof, that was sort of the moment.” The suggested cause and effect was unquestionable. No belated pedantic quibbles can erase Kerry’s intentional, even vindictive, anti-Israel smear.
If anything, Kerry’s cynical performance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee underscores all the reasons for Israel not to make concessions just in order to make a good impression.

Caroline Glick: The disappearance of America’s will

The most terrifying aspect of the collapse of US power worldwide is the US’s indifferent response to it.
In Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East and beyond, America’s most dangerous foes are engaging in aggression and brinkmanship unseen in decades.
As Gordon Chang noted at a symposium in Los Angeles last month hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, since President Barack Obama entered office in 2009, the Chinese have responded to his overtures of goodwill and appeasement with intensified aggression against the US’s Asian allies and against US warships.

How did Jews build a state without tons of money from the EU and NGOs?

Here is an entire article from official PA news agency Wafa:

A public information coordination committee to oversee a group of sub projects funded by the European Union in support of the livestock subsector was recently formed, under which the communication efforts between the institutions implementing projects in the Livestock-based Livelihoods (LbL) programme, said a press release on Thursday.

The full LBL project, worth approximately EUR 11 million, was launched in 2013 in order to support the development of the Palestinian the livestock subsector. This committee will work in parallel with the project coordination framework and Project Steering Committee, which includes the Ministry of Agriculture and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and CARE and Oxfam Italia in addition to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU).

The three sub-projects constituting the LbL programme are ; (i) ‘Moving herders from aid dependence to self-sustaining growth through livestock husbandry development and market expansion (SULALAH)’, implemented by UAWC and the consortium (ii) ‘Strengthening Livestock Holders’ Livelihoods in Area C (Rawasi)’ implemented by CARE International and the consortium; and (iii) ‘Support Livestock-based Livelihood Programme of Vulnerable Populations in the oPt, the Institutional Level Component’ (LbL-i) implemented by FAO. In addition to, (IV) 'Regional Bedouin Governance (RBG) implemented by Oxfam IT, which is also made possible by the generous support of the EU.

The committee will organize and arrange the strategic implementation of visibility and communications efforts between the projects, to export a unified message to reach the largest possible audience, in addition to publishing news that reflects the joint work between the projects.

So a communications committee is being formed to coordinate between three or four disparate EU-funded programs to help the Palestinian Arabs raise livestock. The EU is pouring millions of euros into these initiatives, which seem vitally important.

Now, how did a bunch of Jews manage to build an entire state without having the equivalent of such wonderful institutions as the Public Information Coordination Committee? Somehow, with limited knowledge of farming and raising animals, Jews managed to put together a modern, relatively efficient agriculture-based state during the first 20 years of Israel's existence, while at war with every neighboring state, with little or no support from NGOs and governments.

Here we are, 20 years after Oslo, and about 18 years after the PA first gained autonomy to govern its own day to day life, and they somehow cannot survive for a week without huge injections of aid for so many projects that new projects have to be created to coordinate the older projects!

Now, how could the Jews (who we are constantly being told were outside colonialists with no ties to the land), without outside help, manage to build their infrastructure under British rule and catapult from there into creating an impressive, modern state in so little time? And how could the Arabs (who we are constantly told are indigenous to the area) not know how to even raise livestock without serious injections of cash and having their hands held every step of the way?

04/18 Links Pt1: Kansas JCC holds service; Examining Extremism in the Wake of the Kansas JCC Violence

From Ian:

Kansas JCC holds ‘unity service’ after shooting attack

“Why would such a tragedy befall three good souls? Why do bad things happen to good people? We don’t know,” said Rabbi Arthur P. Nemitoff of Congregation B’nai Jehudah. “God did not cause this pain. But like us, He is weeping.”
Those were among the first words uttered at the Service of Unity & Hope, held at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City on Thursday, four days after the neo-Nazi activist Frazier Glenn Cross shot and killed Dr. William Lewis Corporon and his grandson Reat Griffin Underwood there. Terri LaManno, the third victim, was shot dead minutes later at Village Shalom, just up the street.
The JCC was overflowing with more than 1,500 people who came together in a gathering of faith and love. Among the crowd were hundreds of the local clergy and dignitaries from Overland Park, Leawood and Kansas City, Kansas, as well as officials from as far as Washington, DC.

Examining Extremism in the Wake of the Kansas JCC Violence
When Anti-Zionism Bleeds into Anti-Semitism - In the Wake of the Deadly Kansas City Shootings

It was revealed that the Neo-Nazi killer in Kansas had praised Max Blumenthal on the neo-nazi forum that he frequented

Israel Forming Super PAC to Attack Paul & Obama
This is some big dookee, yaw'll. http://runronpaul.com/interviews/isr...on-paul-obama/ Jew journalist Max Blumenthal exposes and explains this attempt by a foreign government Israel, to buy the presidential election for the neo-con, war-mongering republican establishment. Like I've been saying, the kikes simply do not trust a lame-duck black president with the name Hussein.
A few weeks prior, Max had re-tweeted a neo-nazi's rant about "Jewish Supremacism in the 20th Century," the same 20th century which saw the Holocaust, the worst genocide of the Jews in history.
However that same user, whose rant about "Jewish Supremacism in the 20th century" Max Blumenthal retweeted, had also tweeted this shocking anti-Semitic abuse at a Jewish twitter user
It was revealed that the Neo-Nazi JCC shooter had wanted to publicize what he described as the hateful anti-gentilism of the Talmud:
One of Max Blumenthal's collaborators, David Sheen, is an avowed Judeophobe who in a series of shocking tweets revealed his hatred of Judaism and the Torah and the Talmud, believing them to be anti-gentile. David Sheen features prominently in Max Blumenthal's new book, Goliath, as well as Blumenthal's videos. David Sheen also has a penchant for ranting against what he calls, "Jewish supremacists." Previously, such hateful language and Judeophobia had been seen mostly on the far-right neo-nazi forums where the JCC killer became radicalized.

In the wake of the deadly shooting, Max wrote an article on Mondoweiss attempting to link the gunman's Nazi ideology to Zionism. The post quickly garnered over 100 comments. Almost all the commentators at Mondoweiss used the Nazi targeting of the JCC as an occasion to lash out at Zionism and Israel. An official editor at Mondoweiss with thousands of posts, Annie Robbins, sought to portray the anti-semitic shooting as an Israeli Mossad conspiracy acted out through the Israeli Foreign Ministry. This was in response to another regular Mondoweiss commentator, bilal a, who has had thousands of comments on Mondoweiss. "Bilal a" implied that the shooting may have been carried out by the Zionists since only Christians died, and it was on Passover eve, and the blood libel teaches that Jews use Passover as a time to sacrifice non-Jews.

I, and a bunch of other people, received a response from Visa Middle East about the apparent Visa sponsorship of El Kebar, where a vile blood libel was published this week.

We are aware that a Visa-branded advert has appeared in Egypt's El Kebar magazine. We can confirm that the advert was not placed by Visa, nor do not directly advertise in this magazine. Visa provides marketing materials and use of its logo to its partners who wish to market Visa-branded products. We are investigating whether this is another parties' advertisement making use of our brand and will address accordingly. Visa condemns intolerance of any kind and is working to resolve this quickly.

There was a similar reply on the comments section of the blog by Andy Woolnough, a Visa employee based out of the UAE (whose position I did not catch.)

I called Woolnough up to understand more about how these partnership agreements work and who the partner might have been. I also wondered how a partner would link back to a Visa website itself.

He told me that Visa has no direct relationship with the consumer, and all of the cards it issues are through banks. When Visa is promoting a product or sponsored events it doesn't do it directly but creates marketing materials and their partners (usually banks) market it directly to consumers.

They are working hard to figure out who the partner is for these ads. The Egypt Post seems likely as their name is on the ad, but since this is a Friday as well as Easter weekend this is taking longer than it normally would. "This content is intolerant, we can all agree to that."

Once the partner is determined they will "have a conversation" about it. When pressed for more details, Andy said that everything is dependent on the specifics of the partnership agreement they have to figure out what can be done. When I asked what would be done if the partnership agreement didn't cover circumstances like this - would Visa sue to protect its brand? - he responded that he highly doubts that the agreement has such an omission; as Visa is one of the top brands in the world.

He emphasized that certainly Visa did not place the ad directly and it has no direct relationship with El Kebar.

Woolnough also said that "the highest levels of the company are aware" of this situation.

For my part, I told Andy that my goal was not to denigrate Visa's name but to pressure Arab media to understand that publishing hate has consequences, and that Visa was my lever to get their attention. So I am keenly interested in finding out who this partner is and in contacting them for a statement about how this happened and what they intend to do about it. Unfortunately, if it is The Egypt Post they probably don't give a damn about an antisemitic article, which is why I need Visa to protect its own brand and dissociate itself from a magazine that publishes such hate.

He promised me that he would keep me informed as he finds out more, and I told him I would keep my readers informed as well.

From Palestinian Media Watch, translating Al Hayat al Jadida:

Released prisoner Issa Abd Rabbo has enthusiastically resumed his hobby, which the occupation had prevented him from [pursuing] during the 30 years he spent in the occupation's prisons.

Abd Rabbo told our correspondent: 'I have resumed my hobby of stamp collecting with enthusiasm, to make up for what I lost during my time in prison'...

Before his arrest, Abd Rabbo collected stamps, and among them was a collection of Jordanian stamps he had cut out of postal envelopes. After his arrest, he tried to pursue his hobby in prison, because he was certain he would be spending a long time in the new place. Indeed, after the period of interrogation, he started collecting stamps from letters sent to prisoners...

Abd Rabbo said: 'I asked each prisoner to save the envelope for me so I could cut out the stamp or stamps attached to it. During my long time in prison, I collected 100 stamps, which accompanied me whenever I moved between nearly all of the occupation's prisons'...

He said: 'I'm proud of the stamps I collected in prison, but it was difficult for me to pursue [my] hobby in prison, because there were many restrictions, few letters arrived, and the quality of the stamps [was poor]. Prison also affects our hobbies, and I had no special albums to put the stamps in properly, so I put them in an envelope - the same one that left prison with me.'

In the interview he also complains about not having chewing gum in prison.

Abd Rabbo had another interview shortly after his release where the stamp collector describes how he murdered two Jewish hikers:

An Israeli car approached, with two in it. I said, here's a chance and I don't want to return empty-handed. They left the car... and walked towards the valley, and sat down under a pine tree. I went down to them. Of course I was masked and was carrying a rifle. He asked me: Are you a guard here? I told him: 'No, I'm in my home.' I told him: 'You are not allowed here. This is our land and our country. You stole it and occupied our land and I'm going to act against you.'
They were surprised by what I told them. I tied them up of course and then sentenced them to death by shooting, in the name of the revolution. I shot them, one bullet each, and went [hiding] in the mountains... I went to my aunt and told her: 'We have avenged Muhammad's blood.'"

I think that Oxfam and Amnesty and HRW need to put out some 100-page reports about these shocking revelations from Israeli prison.

Can you imagine a place where confessed murderers don't have the simple human right to put stamps into proper albums and to chew gum whenever they want to?

It is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and numerous UN resolutions. At least, the lawyers for "human rights" NGOs will find a way to say that it is, since they are not bound by what international law actually says.

Iran plans terror attacks as it negotiates with the West

From the Bangkok Post:

Investigations into two suspected foreign terrorists are progressing swiftly as one of the men admitted to a planned attack on Israeli tourists in Khao San Road during Songkran, according to an investigator.

The source announced progress in the probe after Thai media yesterday reported the suspected terrorists have been held for questioning since the beginning of Songkran.

They were arrested on suspicion of links to militant Islamist group, Hezbollah.

The men have been identified as French-Lebanese national Daoud Farhat and Lebanese-Filipino national Youssef Ayad.

The source said Mr Farhat held a French passport and Mr Ayad carried a Philippines passport.

According to their passports, both were born in Lebanon, though authorities have yet to confirm if the travel documents are genuine.

Mr Farhat is visiting Thailand for the first time, while this is Mr Ayad's 17th visit to the country.

Both arrived several days before the Songkran festival started on April 13.

Assistant national police chief Winai Thongsong said the men were arrested at different locations in Bangkok after Thai police received intelligence from Israel about a planned attack on Israeli tourists during Passover, the Jewish festival which coincided with Songkran.

The source said investigators believe at least nine suspected foreign terrorists connected to Hezbollah are somewhere in Thailand. Authorities are attempting to track them down, he said.

The source also said Mr Ayad had given useful information to police.

He admitted his group entered Thailand to carry out a bomb attack against Israeli tourists and other Israeli groups on Khao San Road during Songkran.

"Now we can seize materials, such as nails and bolts, used in making bombs from their homes in Bangkok.

"We are taking the holder of the Philippines passport to Rayong province to search for more bomb-making material kept there," the source said.

The location of the stash in Rayong has not been revealed as the suspect did not know the name of the place, but told investigators he could remember where it was.

"If we had been unable to arrest the men during Songkran, a bomb attack would certainly have taken place somewhere on Khao San Road," he said.

Khao San Road is a popular destination among Israeli tourists.

Pol Lt Gen Winai said the two suspected foreign terrorists will be deported back to the last countries they travelled from immediately after Thai police finish questioning them.

He did not name the countries.

"They are still being questioned thoroughly. We have not yet pressed any charges against them.

"Once we finish questioning them, we will deport them," Pol Lt Gen Winai said.

Meanwhile, National Security Council chief Lt Gen Paradorn Pattanatabut confirmed Thai authorities are focusing on the capture of another foreign terrorist.

Both Mr Farhat and Mr Ayad are listed on the website Stop910.com, which collects information on suspected terrorist cells operating in Asia, and carries notices of financial rewards for information.

According to immigration police, the third suspect, Bilal Bahsoun, may not have entered Thailand.

Actually, he did:

The three suspected foreign terrorists held for questioning regarding their possible involvement with the Islamist Hezbollah militant group will be deported back to Lebanon.

The three suspects - identified as Daud Farhat, Yousef Ayyad and Bailal Bahsoun - were held after their plane landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Hezbollah does nothing without Iranian approval, and in cases of terrorism outside Lebanon, almost certainly Iran plans and provides logistics for the attacks.'

While Western nations continue to negotiate with Iran on its nuclear program, Iran continues to plan and sponsor terror attacks.

So far, I have not found any indication that Hezbollah denies this plot.

Fighting BDS: Tips and Strategies (Honest Reporting)

A new slideshow by Honest Reporting:

Fighting BDS - Tips and Strategies from HonestReporting

Egyptian "expert" pushes Passover blood libel. Sponsored by Visa.

Hafzi

MEMRI translates an article from Egyptian magazine El Kibar by Firnas Hafzi, a supposed expert on Hebrew who also writes about fashion, beauty and health.

The article breaks new ground in the classic Passover blood libel, recycling the historic medieval blood libels as fact and adding new accusations against Jews.

The article, along with illustrations from antisemitic and even Nazi sources, is online.

Excerpts:

In another stage of the Passover celebrations, [the Jews] combined the preparation of matzas and the offering up of sacrifices with their enmity towards non-Jews, especially Christians, and mixed the blood of one of their victims into the matza [dough. This was done] especially on Passover, Purim and circumcision rituals. They also used blood in acts of sorcery and witchcraft...

...The draining of the victims' blood is done in [several ways. One method is] by means of a barrel lined with needles. This is a barrel the size of the victim's body, with sharp needles that stick into all his limbs when he is placed in it, so that his blood slowly trickles down from every part of his body. This entails excruciating torment, which gives pleasure to the Jews who become drunk with joy at the sight of the blood dripping from the victim's [body] to the bottom of the barrel and into a container placed there to collect it. [Another method] is to slaughter the victim like a sheep and collecting his blood in a vessel, or else slashing the victim's veins in numerous places so that the blood flows from the wounds into the vessels. Then the blood is handed to a rabbi who prepares a matza laced with human blood in order to please the Jewish god, Jehovah, who thirsts for blood. The Jews can rejoice in their holidays only if they eat matza laced with the blood of non-Jews.

Based on this false [narrative] in the Torah and this barbaric behavior anchored in delusions, we can understand what motivates the Zionist leaders to kill Arab children in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said, insolently, 'whenever I hear of the birth of an Arab child I cannot sleep at night.'

...The Jewish crimes which came to light throughout history and which were investigated and tried are a drop in the ocean compared to the Jewish crimes that no one knows about. The thousands of children and others who vanish around the world are probably victims of Jewish rituals. Their blood surely lies in Jewish stomachs along with the holiday matzas.

The Jews have tried denying that they drain the blood of non-Jews and use it in their holiday matzas, and they continue to deny it. Rabbi Moussa Abu 'Afia [one of the Jews implicated in the 1840 Damascus blood libel] converted to Islam during the investigation into the [murder] of Father Toma in order to escape punishment. He gave important testimony regarding the Talmud and the directions it contains that hint at crimes and barbarity.

As part of the efforts to deny [the Jewish crimes], Jewish Americans wrote stories about vampires in the 1970s, in order to disassociate themselves from the accusation of sucking human blood and deceive [the mechanisms of] justice. During that period they spent millions on Dracula films, in order to deceive world public opinion. They claimed that those who slaughter children and adults and suck their blood are lunatics and that all this has nothing to do with them and their religious rituals. On February 14, 1964, the [Egyptian] magazine Al-Musawwar published a story about vampires in Colombia after many [Colombian] children had been slaughtered to shed their blood. Neither the magazine nor the investigators in Colombia dreamed that the vampires might be Jews, rather than [people who] sell blood to hospitals.

Out of hundreds of millions of Arabs, I cannot find a single one denouncing these lies and incitement.

We know from past experience that such naked antisemitism in Arab media cannot be solved by merely publicizing it. Most Arabs are not even aware that there is anything offensive about describing Jews as murderous bloodsuckers.

However, a major advertiser for Al Kibar is Visa, with this ad popping up on most articles and shown on the main page:

I emailed to Visa's media relations departments for Egypt (nbaradhy@visa.com) , the US (globalmedia@visa.com) and Europe (europeanmedia@visa.com).

Dear sir or madam,

Visa Middle East is a major advertiser for Egypt's El Kebar magazine. Every online article seems to pop up your ad for the FIFA World Cup promotion.

The current issue includes a sickeningly antisemitic article by Firnas Hafzi that calls Jews "vampires," that claims that Jews kill Christian children to drink their blood and mix them with Passover matzah, and that the Dracula story was made up by Jews to deflect from people realizing that they are the ones who suck people's blood.

And that is just the beginning.

The article is here, the translation is here. Your ad is linked from the front page of the El Kebar website and pops up when viewing this vile antisemitic article.

I would hope that now that you are aware that your brand is being associated with the most disgusting kinds of incitement, that you will not only drop all sponsorship of this magazine but also demand that El Kebar issue a strong apology for publishing this filth.

What do you plan to do about this, and when?

I am a news blogger with thousands of readers, and I am writing about this article and your sponsorship of it.

I look forward to your speedy reply.

I urge you to write to Visa as well.

Here is a chance to make a difference.

(h/t Irene)

UPDATE: Visa responds.

04/17 Links Pt2: Ed Miliband is No Friend of Israel; More Flights to T.A.; SodaStream Stocks Surge (update)

From Ian:

A perplexing rewriting of history

“The Encyclopaedia of Jewish-Muslim relations from their origins to the present day” was launched in November 2013. There is a more modest English version, published by Princeton.
Critics such as the authority on Sephardi Jews, Professor Shmuel Trigano, have charged that the encyclopedia is nothing but a work of propaganda. It is all the more insidious because so much money has been spent on its promotion. Unusually for a book, the encyclopedia has a website all to itself and was the subject of a TV series on the French channel Arte.
Among the sponsors are The Alliance of Civilisations (co-sponsored by Spain and Turkey, and adopted as a UN initiative which excludes Israel from its Council of Friends), whose task is to change the ‘narrative’ by promoting the Spain of the Three Religions, the Andalusian Golden Age, and so forth.
As far as Arab collaboration with the Nazis is concerned, Dr. Roth accuses Henry Laurens, the author of the two pages on the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, of minimizing his role. There is no mention, says Roth, of the pro-Nazi Palestinian leader Fawzi al Qawuqj, or the Mufti’s broadcast calls for genocide on Radio Berlin, nothing on the Mufti’s creation of the SS Handschar division staffed by Bosnian Muslims, nothing about the part he personally played in condemning 20,000 European Jewish children to the death camps, and nothing about the Mufti having contact with the Nazis as early as 1936.
Regrettably, the Encyclopaedia is typical of the politicization of the study of Islam and its treatment of non-Muslims. Young minds are being brainwashed by a sanitized version of history with a huge promotional budget – replete with distortion, minimization and omission. Are we going to sit back and let it happen?

Iraqi Writer: The Jews Are Behind All Confrontations Worldwide

In an antisemitic article titled "Al Qaeda – a Zionist Product," Iraqi writer 'Amr Hadi Al-'Issawi argued that the Jews viewed other peoples with arrogance, following the directives of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and that they have deceived other peoples –the Arabs in particular – and fed them poison for decades. Al-'Issawi added that the Jews and the Hebrew state are responsible for stoking conflict in all the world's hotspots, and are behind all major events in the world, including the toppling of the constitutional monarchies and the deposing of Arab dictatorships – this, in a bid to transfer control to political Islam and set the entire region ablaze as a prelude to the establishment of Greater Israel.

Obama Apologizes To Muslims For Anti-Jewish Kansas Attacks (satire)

“In is unconscionable that in twenty-first century America a man can, with the pull of a trigger, manage to generate solidarity, even empathy, for non-Muslims,” read the statement. “In the name of all Americans of conscience, we beg the forgiveness of our Muslim countrymen and resolve to work diligently to prevent any cause for sympathy for anyone else, especially Jews.”
Muslim representatives welcomed the apology as a necessary first step. “We would have liked to see a more comprehensive expression of solidarity with our worldview,” said the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Mahder Fahkir. “But this is at least a suitable preliminary indication that we are headed in the right direction, that eventually the non-Muslim establishment will acknowledge that no other religious or ethnic group is worthy of protection. We encourage our non-Muslim co-citizens to embrace their status as dhimmi.”
Other leaders said the statement did not go nearly far enough. “Where is the open condemnation of Israel? Where is the naked justifying of the act as a natural consequence of Jewish behavior?” wondered influential political commentator Max Blumenthal, whose Jewish followers number at least in the teens. “The president squandered a golden opportunity to state openly that violence against Jews can only be blamed on Jews, since nobody else has any agency.”

Lucknow, India shows how entrenched Muslim antisemitism is

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi is an Indo-Judaic Studies Scholar and Muslim-Jewish Relations Activist, employed as an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Gautam Buddha University, Greater NOIDA, India.

He writes in Café Dissensus:

I grew up in Lucknow, a major centre of Muslim scholarship and culture, home to prestigious institutions of Islamic studies, Nadwātul Ulamā and Firangi Mahal. Except for a Jewish writer from Ahmedabad, Sheela Rohekar, who publishes in Hindi and has settled in Lucknow, and a few American and Israeli Jewish converts to Hinduism, there are no Jews in the city. Yet they find frequent mention in the Muslim discourse there. The mention is almost always negative in nature. Anti-Israel protests are common in the city and, during the American led invasion of Iraq, flags of Israel and America were drawn on the floor at the entrance to the biggest tourist attraction there, the Shia Muslim monument, Asafi Imambara (also called Bara Imambara), so that nobody could enter it without trampling the flags.

The attitudes of the Muslims of Lucknow towards Jews, like anywhere else in India, except in Mumbai, where they happen to be neighbours, are shaped by secondary sources of information and not as a result of any direct contact with them. The Muslim press in Lucknow is openly prejudiced against them. Its bias against Jews can be illustrated by a number of examples.

My doctoral research on “The Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’ in India”, was misrepresented in the Urdu (the lingua franca of a large number of South Asian Muslims) press as a Zionist conspiracy against Islam aimed at depriving it of its bravest followers, the Pathans/Pashtuns, as they see themselves, by convincing them of their Israelite roots and then persuading them to migrate to Israel and populate the disputed territories there. The Freemason Temple in Hazratganj in Lucknow is perceived by Muslims to be Jewish-owned and that is exactly how it is represented by the Muslim journalists in Lucknow. A movement has been initiated to liberate its building, which used to be an imāmbārā before being leased to the Freemasons, from the alleged Jewish control....

While a Holocaust film retrospective, the first ever in South Asia, was in progress at two universities in Lucknow – the Bābāsāhéb Bhīmrāo Ambédkar University and the University of Lucknow – in September – October 2009, the two most popular Urdu daily newspapers there, Rāshtriya Sahāra and Aag, published stories denying the Holocaust. The articles were largely based on the arguments made by the well-known Holocaust deniers, viz., David Irving, Harry Elmer Barnes, David Hoggan, Paul Ressinier, and Arthur R. Butz. A large section of South Asian Muslims deny that the Holocaust ever took place, or raises doubts about its magnitude and scale, and even if it does acknowledge it as a historical fact, any serious reference to the Holocaust is often accompanied by a comparison with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Maulana Kalbé Sādiq, the veteran Shia cleric, once said in an interview, “…the Bush administration certainly is anti-Islam. This owes, in large measure, to the power of the Zionist lobby in America. Pro-Zionist Jews control large banks, many industries and much of the media in America, and if they leave America, the country will collapse. And it is this lobby, in addition to the extreme right-wing Christian lobby, that is behind the clearly anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim policies of the Bush government.”
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Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, who was the rector of Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow and Founding Chairman of the Trustees of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, wrote in his book, Islam and the World (u.d.): “…they [Jews] were destined always to live in subjection to other nations and ever to be exposed to injustice, oppression, chastisement, extradition, troubles and hardships. Political serfdom, oppression and anguish suffered indefinitely had produced in them a typical racial character. They were notorious all over the world for excessive pride of blood and greed. Meek and submissive in distress, they were tyrannical and mean when they had the upper hand. Hypocrisy, deceit, treachery, selfishness, cruelty and usuriousness had become the normal traits of their nature. In the Qur’an we find repeated references to the extent to which they had sunk into degradation in the sixth and the seventh centuries” (pp.22-3).

Because of wonderful organizations like MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch, Muslims in the Arab world are a bit more careful about openly espousing hatred for Jews, instead pretending that they are only against Zionists. When you get out of the Middle East, however, you can often see that Muslim hatred of Jews is endemic.

Aafreedi does end his piece on an optimistic note mentioning a few Indian Muslims who are reasonable and open-minded about Jews. It is always nice to see that there are some Muslims who can think independently and who can shake off the hatred they grew up with, even to a small extent. The New York Times just featured one such tiny group in Gaza which is somewhat more moderate than their fellow Gazans. Certainly such people should be applauded, if for nothing else than their bravery.

But no one should mistake the existence of such small, anomalous pockets of sanity as a trend.