Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 29, 2014

Report: Two Muslim teenage girls planned to suicide-bomb synagogue in Lyon

Sources from the Directorate General of Internal Security told JSSNews that the Jewish community of Lyon has just escaped a major disaster.

Two Muslim girls, 15 and 17, were arrested in Tarbes Venissieux a week ago, when they planned to blow themselves up at the Great Synagogue of Lyon.

The two teenagers, who communicated only on social networks, wanted to die as martyrs, like the "Islamikaze" attacks that kill innocents almost every day somewhere in the world.

"These girls were part of a network of young Islamists that are monitored by the services" says an Internal Security source who wishes to remain anonymous.

Originally the girls were suspected of wanting to join jihadists in Syria.

(h/t Yenta Press, Alexi)

08/29 Links Pt1: A Pro-Hamas Left Emerges; Why a Liberal Rabbi Unsubscribed to the New York Times

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Another tack: Genuinely knocked for a loop?

The fact is that Britain had been exporting jihadist terror for years while pompously upholding its pluralist posture.
Two British Muslims also paid a lethal visit to Israel in April, 2003. Asif Muhammad Hanif, the suicide-bomber who took three innocent lives at Mike’s Place on Tel Aviv’s sea front was a London lad. His absconded accomplice, Omar Khan Sharif, came from Derby, where he attended posh private schools and enjoyed all the best that the UK could offer.
But in their case, there was no British shock or shame. Atrocities against Israelis can always be explained away and even forgiven. The ultimate expression of this mindset was enunciated by Cherrie Blair, then-resident at 10 Downing Street, as Tony’s better half. Her husband keeps himself busy after his retirement from the premiership by serving as the Quartet’s special envoy to the Middle East and he serially churns out plans for peace and for Palestinian rights.
Mrs. Blair argued during the bloodiest days of the Second Intifada that suicide-bombers are driven by utter desperation. Israeli occupation, she intoned, had rendered the poor, hungry, direly oppressed Palestinian masses, straining piteously under Israel’s brutal yoke, so hopeless that they were ready to detonate themselves.
Cherrie had nothing to say about the bombers’ victims and she vehemently denied that she was making excuses for terror, stressing – with just the right tone of righteous indignation – that we need to examine what made young people despair so.

A Pro-Hamas Left Emerges

Efforts by the literary scholar Judith Butler several years ago to include Hamas in the camp of the global Left illustrated a lack of historical knowledge that is simply not acceptable among professional historians. But Procrustean distortion in the name of a cause is apt to overwhelm any fealty to professional standards among ideologues of all stripes. In every sense of the word, Hamas is an organization of the extreme Right and rejects all of the values that at one point defined leftist politics ever since the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and large parts of the secular Left of the 20th century. This summer, the "Hawblog" group statement has offered support to an organization that has attacked the values that used to define the Western Left and made hatred of the Jews as Jews and the destruction of the Jewish state its primary goals. If these scholars have any criticisms of Hamas at all, they did not voice them at a time when doing so mattered.
It was probably only a matter of time before seven decades of leftist antagonism to Israel would lead to waging political warfare in support of an organization known for terrorist attacks against civilians, religious fanaticism, and anti-Semitism of a most foul and familiar sort. In summer 2014, that moment has arrived.

Israeli Liberals’ Advice to Diaspora Jewish Counterparts: Grow Up

While Strenger didn’t elaborate, another Israeli professor and dedicated leftist, Michael Gross, did exactly that in a guest column for Haaretz two days earlier. Rhetorically asking what standard Diaspora Jewish liberals use to evaluate Israel’s liberalism or lack thereof, he continued, “Do they mean a well-functioning public health care system, expansive reproductive rights, gun control, a ban on the death penalty or inexpensive higher education?”
Gross obviously knows the big issue for most liberal Diaspora Jews is “the occupation.” His point is that like any real country, Israel is multi-faceted. And if you examine the real Israel in all its complexity, rather than treating it as a cartoon character with no existence beyond the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, then on many trademark issues to which liberal Jews accord great weight in their own countries, Israel is actually closer to the liberal ideal than America is.
Essentially, both men were making the same argument: If liberal Diaspora Jews would look at Israel as a real country, rather than as a projection of their fantasies, they would see it was neither as perfectly good as they once imagined it nor as irredeemably evil as they imagine it today. Like any other country, it has real problems, and like any other country, it deals with some problems better than others, but its positive qualities are no less real than its flaws.
And if Diaspora Jewish liberals are incapable of seeing the real Israel through the cloud of their adolescent fantasies, then that isn’t Israel’s fault. It’s their own.

Would Beinart have supported the Klan in 1964?

The ‘peaceful protests’ that Beinart refers to center around attempts to destroy the security barrier that protects Israel against the infiltration of terrorists, as occurred during the Second Intifada when hundreds of Israelis were murdered by suicide bombers. They have a secondary purpose of trying to provoke police and soldiers into responses that can be used as weapons in the propaganda and legal wars being waged against Israel.
The idea that the Palestinian national movement, whose objective is the destruction of Israel and the murder or expulsion of its Jewish residents, is anything like the US civil rights movements of the 1960s is not just entirely wrong but an obscene inversion of reality.
To Beinart’s rejoinder that I see Palestinians only as “haters and killers” and not as human beings, that is insultingly false. But the political movement and ideology that Beinart wants us to support is one of hating and killing.

Hamas encouraging the next generation of terrorists

Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh visited the families of "martyrs," specifically the family of Hamas terrorist Mohammed Abu Shamala, and took the time for some photo-ops:

(h/t Bob Knot)

Fake civilian of the day

PCHR describes Mahmoud ‘Abdul Nasser Bahar, 22, killed in Shuja’iya July 20, as a "civilian."

He was actually a Hamas terrorist.

His body was found with 2 other "civilians" who were males in their 20s.

Mahmoud Abbas, in the same interview where he lied about Netanyahu accepting a Palestinian Arab state on the 1949 armistice lines, also attacked Hamas - and accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid.

Abbas said, "Hamas has a shadow government in Gaza, and they have undersecretaries for ministries, and if this continues, it will threaten the continuation of the national unity - and the exam is coming soon. I know that it's not instant, and it takes months to end the split, but we'll know from the first day of the provision of aid to Gaza, whether the aid reaches the people or not, and this is something specific and explicit. you can government of national consensus to govern and operate in Gaza."

Abbas bitterly noted the assault against the PA's Minister of Health when he entered the Gaza Strip during the war.

He said that he had spoken with Khaled Meshaal about how Hamas placed members of Fatah under "house arrest" and shot them in the legs, and also the public executions of "spies" in the streets, that Hamas tried and executed on their own without consulting the"unity" government The PA remained silent because Abbas didn't want to criticize Hamas during the fighting. He agrees that spies should be executed, but according to the law.

The PA is also claiming victory in the war. An official told Al Asharq al Awsat that the deal was with the government in Ramallah, not Hamas, and pointed out that it was essentially the same one that Hamas had rejected five weeks earlier.

As far as Israel is concerned Abbas said "We will not forgive and Israel will not get away with its crimes. We have a lot of ways and tools to ensure that criminals don't get away with their crimes."

He didn't say anything about the war crimes of thousands of rockets that his Fatah groups brag about shooting towards Israeli towns and kibbutzim.

Report: Malaysian women joining ISIS for "sex jihad"

Last year there was a flurry of news stories that resulted when the Tunisian Interior Minister claimed that some Tunisian women had gone to Syria to have sex with multiple jihadists. Some of the details of the story - such as a supposed fatwa to allow such actions - were questioned.

Now the story has resurfaced with ISIS and Malaysian women.

From The Malaysian Insider:

Malaysian women are believed to have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) forces to offer Jihad Al-Nikah or sexual jihad, senior intelligence officials told The Malaysian Insider.

Authorities confirmed that three Malaysian women have journeyed to the Middle East to join up with Isis forces.

Jihad Al-Nikah refers to a controversial concept where Sunni women allegedly offer themselves in sexual comfort roles to fighters for the establishment of Islamic rule.

The concept originated from a Wahhabi edict around 2013, that called for Sunni women supporters to come forward for sex jihad and boost the morale of fighters battling against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

"These women are believed to have offered themselves in sexual comfort roles to Isis fighters who are attempting to establish Islamic rule in the Middle East.

"This concept may seem controversial but it has arisen as certain Muslim women here are showing sympathy for the Isis struggle," an intelligence official told The Malaysian Insider.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said one of the Malaysian women had travelled to the Middle East in December last year.

"The woman, in her 30s, went to Turkey before meeting up with middlemen who helped her to complete her journey to Syria via land routes.

"Another Malaysian woman in her 40s is believed to have linked up with Isis forces sometime in April this year," the source said.

The intelligence official said Malaysian women were not the only ones who were performing sexual jihad as there were also other Muslim women involved.

"Intelligence exchanged with other countries revealed that Sunni Muslim women from Australia and the United Kingdom had also joined up with Isis."

The intelligence official said Isis had issued a decree or edict in June this year ordering for the conscription of Jihad Al-Nikah or sexual jihad.

"Shortly after the town of Mosul in Iraq was captured by Isis forces, people were ordered to send unmarried women to jihad for sex," the intelligence official revealed.

"In its proclamation, Isis threatened to impose shariah law on all those who failed to comply with the edict or decree," the official added.

This goes much further than the Tunisian report, but I don't know how reliable the Malaysian Insider is or how good their "intelligence sources" are.

08/28 Links Pt2: Abbas aide: Israel 'fabricated' beheading of James Foley, the Holocaust

From Ian:

Abbas aide Dr. Husam Zomlot: Israel 'fabricated' beheading of James Foley, the Holocaust

Hanan Ashrawi attacks Obama for acknowledging Jewish history

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA denies Israel's history, claiming the Jewish people never lived in the land of Israel before the Balfour Declaration, never built a Temple in Jerusalem, and more. These false claims form the basis for PA denial of Israel's right to exist.
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi:‎ ‎“Look at the most dangerous ‎thing that Obama said to [NY Times journalist] Thomas Friedman. Once again, he ‎‎[Obama] has adopted the discourse of Zionist ideology. He adopted it when he came to ‎this region, speaking about the Jews' return to their land, and that this is a Jewish ‎state, the Zionist dream, and so on. Obama’s adoption of the discourse of extremist ‎Zionist ideology and his turning it into a basis for political decision-making is ‎dangerous."

Hanan Ashrawi attacks Obama for acknowledging Jewish history

Egyptian Pres says Qatar & Turkey Inciting Chaos In Middle East

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said two of the leading state-sponsors of the Muslim Brotherhood terror group -- Qatar and Turkey -- have unloaded millions of dollars in expenditures to incite upheaval in the Middle East.
“Qatar, Turkey and the international organization of the Brotherhood are currently establishing many companies, newspapers, and websites. They allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to spread chaos among the Arab nation, destabilizing Egypt and destroying the Egyptians,” Sisi said in a meeting with Egyptian newspaper heads.
Sisi talked about the role Egypt must have in ensuring the security of a Palestinian state. The Egyptian president has been a consistent critic of terror group Hamas -- the Palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood -- in its governance of the Gaza Strip.

I guess I should be flattered, but... (update)

A couple of weeks ago I noted that the Simon Wiesenthal Center had taken one of my posts, word for word, as part of a submission to the UN.

This is very flattering, but they didn't use my name (which I fully understand) but they also didn't ask permission. I would have been happy to give it to them, of course. It is cool to see my research being used beyond the blogosphere.

Today, Danny Ayalon wrote a Facebook post describing the similarities between ISIS and Hamas.

His list was a bit different from the one I created on the same theme last week. But he used my graphic, which had been shared hundreds of times on Twitter, to illustrate his post - and my name was removed from it. Here's the original.

Again, it is nice to see that my work gets spread around to prominent people. But, come on - it is common courtesy to ask permission to use another person's work or to give credit. Even if he re-created the graphic using his own list instead of mine, I wouldn't mind.

(h/t Judge Dan)

UPDATE: The person from Ayalon's NGO who had posted the graphic emailed me saying that he grabbed a version that was floating around that already had my name removed, so they didn't know that it came from me. He was very nice about it and added links to my FB page in the comments.

From Egypt's Al Ahram, which is close to the government:

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that a humanitarian convoy has crossed from Egypt's Rafah border crossing into the war-torn Gaza Strip, becoming the first aid sent to Gaza by the UN organisation since the start of the seven-year Israeli blockade in 2007.

WFP announced it will send another convoy to cross into the costal enclave during the coming days. It praised the Egyptian government for opening the Rafah crossing and allowing WFP's convoy to "procure food in Egypt." The statement referred to the Egyptian Red Crescent as the coordinator of all the crossing of humanitarian goods through Rafah.

Egypt is congratulating itself for opening the Rafah crossing to the WFP, implying that somehow Israel's "blockade" was preventing the aid from going through Rafah up until now.

The truth is that Egypt had closed off the Rafah crossings for its own reasons since 2007, but now is seeking praise for opening them!

Now, is it true that the WFP hadn't gotten any aid into Gaza since 2007? Not at all. The WFP has been continuously working in Gaza, bringing food in through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing. That never stopped, even during the war. Al Ahram misrepresented what the WFP said:

For the first time since 2007, a humanitarian convoy of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) successfully crossed from Egypt into the Gaza Strip today, carrying enough food to feed around 150,000 people for five days.

After a seven-hour drive from Alexandria – where the food was procured – across the Sinai Peninsula, WFP’s trucks arrived at the Rafah crossing. The convoy of 18 trucks carried 15,600 food parcels – part of a total batch of 25,000 food parcels. The parcels include ready-to-eat food such as canned meat, canned beans, tea and dates. A second convoy with the remaining parcels is expected to cross into Gaza in the next few days. This is the first time that WFP has used the Rafah crossing point since the start of the Gaza blockade in 2007.

Israel has been providing continuous access for aid to Gaza. Egypt treated their fellow Arabs like dirt. And now Egypt is pretending that it is the good guy!

Of course - the world will believe Egypt.

08/28 Links Pt1: Liberman: Take Away Their Guns -- Then We'll Talk; Pallywood comes to Australia

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Is the Gaza War Really Over?

It is important to note that these cease-fire demands are not part of Hamas's or Islamic Jihad's overall strategy, namely to have Israel wiped off the face of the earth.
Many foreign journalists who came to cover the war in the Gaza trip were under the false impression that it was all about improving living conditions for the Palestinians by opening border crossings and building an airport and seaport. These journalists really believed that once the demands of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are accepted, this would pave the way for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
To understand the true intention of Hamas and its allies, it is sufficient to follow the statements made by their leaders after the cease-fire announcement this week. To his credit, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's leader, has never concealed Hamas's desire to destroy Israel.
Hamas and its allies see the war in the Gaza Strip as part of there strategy to destroy Israel. What Hamas and its allies are actually saying is, "Give us open borders and an airport and seaport so we can use them to prepare for the next war against Israel."

Avigdor Liberman: Take Away Their Guns -- Then We'll Talk

For the end of the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to be achieved, those who strenuously, violently fight against any form of peace must not be allowed the means to do so. In our conflict, Hamas, which has neither interest in nor intent toward peace, has to be diminished. The terrorist group is a malevolent force. It continually hijacks any possibility of a better future for the peoples of the region. It must not be allowed to maintain its stockpiles of weapons.
The circumstances in Gaza must be changed radically. Israel fully supports a broad international effort to provide all the necessary means to rebuild the civilian infrastructure and economy in Gaza, provided there is a concerted parallel effort to prevent Hamas from rearming itself with weapons systems and rebuilding its terrorist infrastructure. Hamas cannot be allowed to rebuild its military force and prevent the essential international aid being directed to the Palestinian residents. Ultimately, the best guarantee for rebuilding Gaza and developing its economy will be demilitarization.
As long as Hamas remains armed, its weapons represent the strongest and most violent veto of peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

MEMRI: Marwan Barghouti In Message From Israeli Jail: The Time Has Arrived For Fatah Members To Take Part In Comprehensive Resistance Against Israel

Against the backdrop of the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Fatah Central Committee member Marwan Barghouti issued a message from the Israeli prison where he is incarcerated for directing multiple terror attacks in which many Israeli civilians were killed and wounded.
In his message, published in full by the Gazan internet daily Alwatanvoice.com on August 20, 2014, Barghouti urged Fatah, which he called the leader of the "Palestinian revolution," to adhere to the path of resistance in all its forms, both non-violent and violent; this, in order to end the occupation and siege, and in order to leverage the ongoing Palestinian national struggle and the attainment of independence, even at the cost of martyrdom or imprisonment.