Tuesday, July 27, 2010

  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Al Arabiya:

Less than a year after its establishment, the Dubai-based first camel milk chocolate company is now ready to invade global markets with a new flavor to the world's most popular sweet.

In October 2009, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum established al-Nassma which, in partnership Austrian chocolate manufacturer Manner, aiming at producing 100 tons of the new product.

The world's first camel chocolate will be exported to Arab countries as well as Europe, the United States and Japan. The company is planning to sell its products at London's Harrods.

Al-Nassma is currently selling its products in the store attached to its farm, which houses 3,000 camels, as well as in luxury hotels and private airlines. Online shopping of al-Nassma chocolates will be launched within a month.

The Gulf is the best place to launch camel milk chocolate since it is home to the best camel breeds and camel milk is part of its diet due to its numerous benefits, said Martin Van Almsick, al-Nessma general manager and former manager of the chocolate museum in Cologne, Germany.

"Camel milk is healthier than cow milk," he told Al Arabiya. "It contains five times more vitamin C, less fat, less lactose and more insulin. This makes it perfect for people with diabetes and lactose intolerance."

Since al-Nassma chocolate is a luxury product, Van Almsick added, it will not be sold in supermarkets, but one mall in each UAE city will have an outlet.

"We aim to be the Godiva of the Middle East."
Well, it could be worse.
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic discovered a very interesting procurement item at a government contracting site:

The Army wants a Torah scroll.

And, in what appears to be somewhat against a fair RFP process, the Torah scroll it wants is so detailed that it can only be written by a specific scribe.

Here's the Statement of Work:
SOW Torah scroll and Container

1) The parchment should be 56cm tall made from a kosher animal processed by Bock, Kosher Parchment Manufacturer.
2) The height of parchment must be 56cm tall.
3) The actually Torah must be written by the Sephardic Sofer Rabbi G. Raviv, certified as a sofer and examiner by Machon Mishmeret STaM.  The Torah must be written in Sephardic block script written with Nahari ink following the Sephardic tradition and rulings of the Rambam and Rav Ovadia Yosef.  The script should be identical to the attached photograph and newly written. (See Photograph)
4) The finished Torah must be checked manually by the certified examiner Rabbi G. Davis who has studied under the master examiner Rabbi Akiva Garber, certified by the Belz Rabbinical Court.
5) After manually checking the parchment and the writing, the completed parchment must be Computer checked 2 times for textual errors by Machon Beit Yosef.
6) After the parchment is written it should be sown by Rabbi M. Hirshman IAW the laws of Sefer Torah by the Rambam and other Sephardic Poskim.
7) The Torah, upon completion and inspection, should be placed in a wood case of the Sephardic tradition.  The outside of the case, inlayed with the Star of David and appropriate for a 56cm scroll and be made IAW the appropriate Sephardic Jewish laws.  There should be a place on the case to affix a latch to close the case. The case should be constructed by the carpenter Y. Orian and be of the appearance of the attached photograph. (See Photograph)
8) The Torah and container should completed and received by Fort Benning NLT 20 Jan 2011.  Anytime early would be acceptable.


The government need not worry about getting the Torah in time for January. While it usually takes a year to write a Torah, it appears that the one they have in mind has already been written until at least Numbers 7:77 -

- which means it is at least 60% done.

And the case is not too ostentatious:



Now for the research.

The Torah is to be shipped to Fort Benning, GA.

Last year, the  ADL wrote an article concerning an incident that occurred in Fort Benning:

After a series of consultations with the Anti-Defamation League over the mistreatment of a Jewish trainee at Fort Benning last fall, The United States Army has now taken steps to improve support services for Jewish trainees on the base.

The Army has assigned a fulltime Jewish chaplain to Fort Benning, begun a Friday night worship service on base for Jewish families, started offering Kosher meals for incoming trainees, and is making plans for on base High Holiday services.

The changes come in the aftermath of an incident last October, when Michael Handman, a Jewish trainee, reported that he had been subjected to verbal harassment by two drill instructors who demanded he remove his yarmulke in the dining hall. In a separate incident, Handman was assaulted by another trainee.

As a result of Handman's complaints, the ADL entered into a series of conversations with Army officials and successfully persuaded them to move Handman to a safe location on the base and to take action against the men who had targeted him for abusive treatment.

The trainee who hit Handman was dismissed from the Army and the two drill sergeants were disciplined and forced to take a religious diversity training course.

At the time of the incidents, the base did not have a fulltime Jewish chaplain. They announced recently that Major Carlos Huerta will become Ft. Benning's on-base rabbi.

Until now, Jewish trainees and other personnel have had to arrange passes and transportation to go off base to attend Jewish services in Columbus, Georgia. Now, weekly and High Holiday services will be offered on the base. In addition, the Army has never before offered Kosher meals at Ft. Benning.
The author of the SOW, according to Microsoft Word properties? Carlos C. Huerta!

Now it makes sense - Fort Benning is going to have weekly synagogue services, and it needs a Torah in order to do it right.

(h/t DeJerusalem for the initial Atlantic link)
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Planet Iran translates a flyer, written in Persian and photocopied at that site, which announces the creation of Islamically-sanctioned brothels for the use of men making the pilgrimage to the Imam Reza’s shrine in Mash’had.

Bismellah al rahman a rahim

Temporary Marriage (Marriage is among the traditions of the Prophet Mohammad)

In order to elevate the spiritual atmosphere, create proper psychological conditions and tranquility of mind, the Province of the Quds’eh-Razavi of Khorassan has created centers for temporary marriage (just next door to the shrine) for those brothers who are on pilgrimage to the shrine of our eighth Imam, Imam Reza, and who are far away from their spouses.

To that end, we call on all our sisters who are virgins, who are between the ages of 12 and 35 to cooperate with us. Each of our sisters who signs up will be bound by a two year contract with the province of the Quds’eh-Razavi of Khorassan and will be required to spend at least 25 days of each month temporarily married to those brothers who are on pilgrimage. The period of the contract will be considered as a part of the employment experience of the applicant. The period of each temporary marriage can be anywhere between 5 hours to 10 days. The prices are as follows:

5 hour temporary marriage – 50,000 Tomans ($50 US)
One day temporary marriage – 75,000 Tomans ($75 US)
Two day temporary marriage – 100,000 Tomans ($100 US)
Three day temporary marriage – 150,000 Tomans ($150 US)
Between 4 and 10 day temporary marriage – 300,000 Tomans ($300 US)

Our sisters who are virgins will receive a bonus of 100,000 Tomans ($100 US) for the removal of their hymen .


After the expiration of the two year contract, should our sisters still be under 35 years of age and should they be so inclined, they can be added to the waiting list of those who are seeking long-term temporary marriage. The employed sisters are obligated to donate 5% of their earnings to the Shrine of Imam Reza. We ask that all the sisters who are interested in applying, to furnish two full-length photographs (fully hijabed and properly veiled), their academic diplomas, proof of their virginity and a certificate of good physical and psychological health which they can obtain through the health and human services of the township of their residence. Please forward all compiled material and send to the below address by the 31st of the month of Ordibehesht, 1389 (May 21st, 2010).

Attention: For sisters who are below 14 years of age, a written consent from their fathers or male guardian is required.

Address: Mash’had, Shrine of Imam Reza, Shaheed Navab-Safavi, Kossar passage, Bureau of Temporary Marriages
or call Haji Mahmood Momtaz : 98/511/222-5790
For further information, please refer to the Quds’eh Razavi website.
This seems a little too evil to be believed. The website does not say where this document was distributed, and I couldn't find any hint of such a place at the website listed.

But if it is true....holy crap.

(h/t Michael Ledeen via Soccer Dad)
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JTA:
A writer’s conference at a southern French university was canceled when unidentified Arab participants refused to attend with an Israeli author.

The University of Provence Aix-Marseille nixed the conference last week aimed at featuring Mediterranean authors.

“The story beneath all this -- and it’s an enigma -- is that nobody knows the names of the Arab writers” who refused to dialogue, Esther Orner, the Israeli author who was invited to the confab, told JTA Tuesday.

Jean-Raymond Fanlo, a Spanish literature professor at the University of Provence Aix-Marseille, told the French media that one of the Arab authors against Orner’s presence at the conference was “a major writer around which we will organize a vast program in Marseille schools for back to school.”

Fanlo refused to divulge the author’s name for fear of adding controversy to the widely covered story.

As a result of the Arab refusal, the university said in a July 20 statement that it was forced to cancel the whole program.
More details from YNet:
..."The idea was to convene authors living in the Mediterranean basin to discuss their works," said Orner in a conversation from her home in Tel Aviv. "Everything was fine until June 17 this year when the organizers met to finalize details regarding the time table of the conference when they received a notice from certain authors that if authors from Israel attend, they will not participate."

Orner said that none of the organizers fought for her, but instead, simply canceled her participation. The only one who expressed an opinion and resigned from her position as one of the conference organizers was Ann Roche, who invited Orner in the first place.

"I received a letter from the other organizers that said, 'We don't have anything against you, and we are against the boycott of intellectuals and cultural figures, but we are against Israel's politics,'" recounted Orner.

"I wrote them in response, 'How can such an important university allow foreign people to dictate what you should do.' They made justifications, but did not cancel the conference."

Distressed, Orner contacted her friend Rachel Samoul, a highly regarded blogger covering the cultural event. "After she published the story, the issue suddenly had a great impact online. The Jewish community in France got involved, and then the organizers decide that if it had reached such proportions, it is best they cancel the conference."

The university's announcement to cancel the conference, dated July 20, says:

Un colloque « Ecrire aujourd’hui en Méditerranée : échanges et tensions »,
programmé en mars 2011 à l’Université de Provence prévoyait la rencontre
d’universitaires et d écrivains issus de l’ensemble du pourtour méditerranéen.
La présidence de l’université a été informée du refus de certains participants de
dialoguer avec un auteur et universitaire israélien. La décision a été prise
d’annuler la manifestation.
« L’université étant universelle, toute entrave à l’universalité est contraire à
l’essence de l’université. Tout universitaire qui met comme condition à sa
participation à un colloque la non participation d’un autre universitaire falsifie
l’esprit de l’université et par là-même s’en exclut.
L’annulation du colloque « Ecrire aujourd’hui en Méditerranée : échanges et
tensions », répond à un souci de respect de l’esprit universitaire, qui est d’abord
un respect des personnes. On ne colloque pas avec qui exclut le dialogue ».
Even though the university is couching its cancellation in terms of respect for people also means that Arabs can have veto power over any academic conference by refusing to participate. The proper response, of course, is to hold the conference and shame the Arab boycotters publicly.

The university chickened out. As a result, the same scenario will be repeated.
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Goldstone Report was released last September.

The Goldstone Commission members were appointed on April 3. They first convened on May 4. They spent about 10 days in Gaza listening to testimony from people whose testimony was guaranteed not to offend Hamas, and another two days in Geneva listening to other people.

By the beginning of August, they were done with their investigation and started writing the report.

In those mere three months, they say they investigated some 36 incidents from thousands that occurred during a complex military action. These incidents were specifically chosen to make Israel look as bad as possible - in other words, they chose incidents for which they felt that there was overwhelming evidence that Israel was wholly in the wrong, based on the already biased evidence and testimonies.

As Goldstone said,
The Report contains an analysis of 36 specific incidents in Gaza as well as a number on the West Bank and in Israel.

In Chapter XI of the Report, for example we detail a number of specific incidents in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal consequences. These were, with only one exception, where the facts establish that there was no military objective or advantage that could justify the attacks

...These attacks amounted to reprisals and collective punishment and constitute war crimes.

The bolded statement is the linchpin of the Goldstone Report. Based on the Goldstone Commission's supposed military expertise, faced with incomplete evidence and biased testimonies, they determined that Israel engaged in numerous operations in Gaza that had no military advantage and therefore, in the view of the commission, must have been purely for reasons of punishing ordinary Gazan civilians.

Generalizing from these cherry-picked incidents, Goldstone then implies that the entire war was at least in part for that same purpose - a war to target Gaza civilians. As the report said:

While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole.

Since then, the Israeli government has released three reports about the Gaza war. These reports reflected painstaking investigations of the Goldstone 36 incidents as well as those alleged by various NGOs and others. Even a cursory look at the Israeli reports on the specific incidents shows that the number of man-hours spent in interviews and reviewing evidence far outweigh what Goldstone did, and that the seriousness with which they took these investigations likewise far outstripped Goldstone's.

While a couple of the incidents were found to be problematic, the vast majority of these incidents were shown by the Israeli investigators to fall within the guidelines of the laws of war. Incidents that Goldstone was convinced had no military value and were purely a spiteful targeting of civilian infrastructure were shown, at length, to be the exact opposite.

For example, Goldstone describes the destruction of the Sawafeary chicken coops. He spends most of the paragraphs describing the terror of the family living there and other ultimately irrelevant information. The only paragraphs that describes the destruction were these:

946. Mr. Sawafeary and Mr. Mughrabi informed the Mission that they had watched Israeli armoured bulldozers systematically destroy land, crops, chickens and farm infrastructure. Mr. Mughrabi stated that he watched the bulldozers plough through fields with crops and trees, destroying everything in their path. Mr. Sawafeary stated that he saw less, as he was watching through a small opening because he was afraid of being seen and shot. He stated that he saw only two or three “tanks”, but was not in a position to say whether there were more. He watched as the armoured bulldozers destroyed the chicken farms, crushing the wire mesh coops with the chickens inside. He could not see his own farms and the chickens he could see being destroyed were not his. He noted that the drivers of the tanks would spend hours flattening the chicken coops, sometimes stopping for coffee breaks, before resuming their work.

948. The Mission visited the site and saw the still flattened mesh coops, which had been
covered with corrugated iron, as well as the remains of water tanks and machinery

Based on this evidence - a chicken farm that no one disputes was destroyed - Goldstone concludes:

955. An inspection of the scene indicates that the area is relatively sparsely populated. The Mission rejects the idea that the Sawafeary farm was destroyed in the pursuit of any military objective.

956. The destruction of the farms appears to have been wanton and not militarily necessary. Not only were the coops with the chickens destroyed, but all of the plant and machinery of the farms as well.

957. From the facts ascertained by it, the Mission finds that the Sawafeary chicken farms, the 31,000 chickens and the plant and material necessary for the business were systematically and deliberately destroyed, and that this constituted a deliberate act of wanton destruction not justified by any military necessity.

Because the commission could not imagine any scenario where the chicken coops can be justifiably destroyed, it concludes that no such justification could exist.

Now look at the IDF report:
(1) The Sawafeary Chicken Coops
122. According to allegations included in the HRCFF Report,58 in January 2009 IDF forces bulldozed several chicken coops owned by the Sawafeary family in Zeytoun, purportedly as part of a deliberate strategy of destroying civilian infrastructure.

123. The command investigations conducted with regard to this incident reveal that the Sawafeary chicken coops were destroyed for reasons of military necessity.

124. Specifically, the investigations revealed that the area around the Sawafeary chicken coops was occupied by an IDF ground force beginning on 4 January 2009, as part of the ground maneuver, with the intention to take control of rockets and mortar launching sites and reducing the number of terror attacks on Israeli territory. The force took positions in several houses, including one house that was adjacent to the chicken coops. This positioning was necessary to secure the area for military operations against Hamas and to protect the IDF troops in those operations. The IDF’s defense plan for this area needed to meet three serious threats to the safety and security of the IDF troops: the firing of anti-tank and RPG missiles on IDF positions; sniper fire; and infiltration of terrorist operatives into the immediate vicinity of the forces in order to plant and detonate explosive devices, including by suicide bombers.

125. The terrain in the area made this location more dangerous for IDF forces. The area was agricultural in its original use and thus included many orchards, groves, and greenhouses, located between and around the houses occupied by the IDF. This made it harder for the IDF to identify Hamas positions and fighters. The threat was not theoretical—on 5 January 2009, an RPG missile was launched at one of the IDF positions in that area. In addition, several shooting incidents occurred originating from the orchards located to the south of the chicken coops.

126. In order to overcome these threats, the IDF decided to create a security zone around each of the IDF positions with a perimeter of 20–50 meters around each post, which would allow uninterrupted observation and firing capabilities for the force in each position, as well as joint protection among the different IDF outposts. These security zones allowed IDF forces to anticipate at an earlier stage the approach of terrorist operatives.

127. The Sawafeary chicken coops were located only a few meters away from one of the key IDF positions. The IDF position was, itself, dictated by the lay of the terrain in the area. As the command investigation determined, this IDF position could not be adequately secured if the chicken coop structures were left intact. The demolition of these structures was needed to allow a clean line of sight for protection of IDF forces. The investigation also determined that the decision to destroy the coops was consistent with the demands of the principle of proportionality: there was a compelling military need for the area to be cleared for the safety of the IDF forces and for the success of IDF operations against the Hamas forces operating in the area. The local commanders determined that these advantages outweighed the damage to private property that would result from the demolition. The commanders avoided the destruction of residential buildings or other facilities in the area, when such destruction was not required by military necessity or appeared to be disproportional.

128. The MAG reviewed the findings of the command investigation and concluded that the destruction of the chicken coops was lawful, as it was necessary to protect IDF forces operating in the area. It did not violate the limitation on destruction of private property because it was justified by military necessity. The MAG also found that the destruction of the chicken coops did not violate the ban on destroying any object that is indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. It was dictated by the location of specific operations against Hamas,
and not part of a campaign to interfere with the production of food supplies in Gaza. It was not intended to deny the civilian population in Gaza access to essential commodities.59 As a result of these findings, the MAG determined that no further proceedings were necessary.

129. Although the MAG found no violation of the Law of Armed Conflict in this incident, he recommended several changes to IDF procedures in cases involving destruction of private property, which are detailed below in Section IV of this Paper. In particular, the MAG found that the decision to destroy the chicken coops was made by a relatively junior IDF officer, and that such decisions were more appropriately and typically made at more senior levels. While the MAG found that the particular rank of the officer making the decision did not indicate wrongful or criminal conduct (as neither the Law of Armed Conflict nor IDF procedures at the time required that such decisions be taken by an officer of any particular rank), he has recommended that the IDF’s procedures for destruction of civilian property be reviewed in several respects, as detailed in Section IV below.
In short, Goldstone looked at the scene without even having a clue as to why Israel would want to be in the area, what its objectives were there, what dangers it faced and how those dangers could be minimized. The commission, despite the presence of an anti-Israel colonel who has no experience in real-life conflicts, made an ill-informed judgment that there was no military advantage to this action.

This is not an isolated incident. Example after example of comparing Goldstone to the IDF reports shows that Goldstone was out of his league in determining military necessity. Yet he made recommendations based not only on incomplete data, but on sheer ignorance of how modern urban warfare works. He shows no knowledge of even the basics of what the IDF goals were in the operation. And, worst of all, rather than admit his ignorance of the issues, he made assumptions that there could be no possible reason he is unaware of that would justify the destruction of civilian property or the deaths of civilians altogether.

In some ways, the Goldstone Report is the human-rights equivalent of asymmetric warfare. Terrorists can attack a target with relatively little planning and at relatively little expense. To defend against crude attacks takes much planning and incredible expense. Similarly, a Goldstone (and HRW) can parachute into a war zone for a couple of weeks with limited expertise and lots of biased witnesses, determine that Israel targeted civilians based on ignorance of the basics of war, and it takes Israel months and months to refute the charges.

By the time the true story comes out, the entire world has already made up its mind. And, in this case, the response gets no press coverage altogether, except for the few cases where the IDF admits it could have done a better job or some individuals went against IDF policy.

Yet it is impossible to respond to scattershot allegations in real time - if one cares about the truth. The damage was done because of the irresponsible and ignorant charges that were made last year. Even worse, Goldstone and his team still sanctimoniously insist that there has been no response to their report that has any value. It is as if their 700 page report, filled to the brim with irrelevancies, is authoritative based purely on its size.

Goldstone could have written a fair report even without Israeli cooperation. He could have spent a bit of time with people who are real experts, rather than relying on a self-selecting set of people who responded to his "call for submissions."

More importantly, he could not have come to his conclusions without having already been convinced ahead of time  that the IDF could possibly have waged a war, on a policy level, as a punitive measure against civilians. His failure to go a little deeper betrays he fact that he investigated in order to support a foregone conclusion, not to find out the truth.

The bar to make such an accusation against any modern army should be significantly higher than accepting problematic testimony and making uninformed assumption - yet this is exactly what Goldstone did.
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
You might want to go to this worthless on-line petition demanding that Israel be banned from the Olympics and leave a message that is not quite in sync with what the petitioners would prefer.
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
AFP reports via Al Arabiya:

In the steamy depths of a centuries-old bathhouse beneath Gaza's crowded streets, Murad Awad channels positive energy by prying toxins from tired flesh.

The bathhouse, known as Hamam al-Samra, has survived centuries of conflict, and these days Awad uses Asian massage therapy to ease the more recent pain of war and isolation in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave.

As he smears rosewater on fingers and squeezes lemon juice over toes, he speaks of a symbiosis of mind, body and universe and discusses forces that transcend the toxic political disputes gripping the territory.

"This place has nothing to do with the outside world. It's for people who love beauty," the heavy-set 33-year-old says as he applies sharp pressure to the feet of a young man laid out on a stone bench, who moans from the pain.

A stone plaque on the wall says the bathhouse was last renovated in the 13th century during the Mameluke empire that ruled from Cairo. Its owner, Selim al-Wazir, claims it has stood for 1,000 years.

On the main wall hangs a huge portrait of the iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his one-time deputy Khalil al-Wazir, better known as Abu Jihad, one of the owner's famous relatives who was assassinated in Tunis in 1988.

Al-Wazir family mostly supports the late Arafat's secular Fatah movement, but the hamam welcomes Palestinians of all political persuasions, including the Islamist Hamas which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

"Hamas comes here all the time. Their men and their women come here," says Wazir, a jovial man who enjoys good relations with everyone.

The hamam has survived decades of Israeli incursions, unscathed except for a bomb dropped during the 1956 war with Egypt that punched a hole in the roof, Wazir says. The damage has since been repaired.

"They know that the man who built this hamam was a Jew from near Nablus, so they don't attack it," he says, adding that Israelis used to come before the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising in 1987.

The name al-Samra refers to the Samaritans, an ancient religious community in the northern West Bank with close ties to Judaism.
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon

Al Arabiya reports that a number of Palestinian Arab hunger strikers are now in hospitals in Norway, as they seek political asylum there.

According to a UNHCR report:
Palestinian Mahmoud Hegazy, who has been on a hunger strike for a week will strike until he gets an answer on his asylum application. Hegazy has been waiting a year and a half for a decision from the Norwegian Immigration Appeals Board (UNE). Five other strikers have already ended their hunger strike as they believe they have already made their point clear. Hegazy sought asylum in Norway since he fears for his life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The six Palestinians started their hunger strike after that UNE needed four months extension to decide on their asylum applications. Both reception center staff in the city of Svolvær and the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) would prefer that Hegazy ended his strike, but he will continue for as long as he receives a decision from the authorities.

The Al Arabiya article says that the problem is that Norway requires a valid passport to prove that they were Palestinian. Apparently, in the past there have been many illegal Arab immigrants pretending to be Palestinian in order to get into Norway, so they have tightened up the requirements.

The Palestinian Authority has been withholding passports as a form of political football with Hamas.

It is unclear what danger Hegazy is claiming to be in, and why he fears for his life in the territories. Putting the facts together, it is possible that he is affiliated with Hamas or another terrorist organization, although maybe he is just caught in the Fatah-Hamas passport conflict.
  • Tuesday, July 27, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Arabic sites are talking about a European taxi company that has put anti-Israel messages on its fleet:

It includes a decal with an Israeli flag dripping blood and another with a "universal no" symbol slashing through an Israeli flag.

An indirect mention of the story I found on Facebook indicates this is happening in Holland.

UPDATE: Eric and Suzanne in the comments say that it was only a single driver, the message has been removed and the company apologized.

It is noteworthy that the way the Arab sites are framing this is in terms of "Arab nations would never do this - we are not as pro-Palestinian as Europeans are!"

Monday, July 26, 2010

  • Monday, July 26, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an (Arabic) reports that there was a speedboat race off the coast of Gaza today.

12 boats participated in the competition.

The boats have 40 hp engines.

They want to be able to compete internationally.

I think they have a good chance to beat the teams from the other starving nations of Congo, Somalia and the Sudan.

On the other hand, don't count the Congo out of the competition. They're really hungry.
From the JC:

Members of the Swedish Jewish community have expressed sadness after an attack on a synagogue in the city of Malmö.

Security has been stepped up after a bomb threat was left at the synagogue and the following day a firecracker exploded outside, shattering three windows.

It was reportedly the second threat to the synagogue in as many weeks.
Sweden, Israel and the Jews adds:
As reported by the local newspaper Skånskan, since the beginning of the year there has been an increased threat against Jewish families in Malmö. The feelings of insecurity and lack of personal safety are today so strong that some Jewish families have chosen to leave the city, or even to leave Sweden. Following the public outcry by the Jewish community in Malmö and the formation of a group to foster communication among various ethnic groups in the city, Chairman of the Jewish Community Fred Kahn had reported that hopes were that the situation now looked a little brighter.

Until now…

In an interview after this recent attack against Malmö’s synagogue, Fred Kahn stated to Skånskan’s reporter:
“We see this as an attack, alternatively as an attempted attack. This is not the case where somebody accidently happened to set off some firecrackers.”

The local police force feels that it is not necessary to enforce security around the synagogue although it is evident that the Jewish Community remains in a state of constant threat. How long the small Jewish community can persist under threat in Malmö while being forced to bear the cost of intensive security protection, and without the freedom to openly identify as Jews, is anybody’s guess. Despite Mayor Reepalu’s belief that this is the Jews’ problem, evidence shows that violence is everybody’s problem in Malmö.

The Forward went to Malmö a few weeks ago, and its lengthy report showed that anti-semitism there is endemic and growing:

At some point, the shouts of “Heil Hitler” that often greeted Marcus Eilenberg as he walked to the 107-year-old Moorish-style synagogue in this port city forced the 32-year-old attorney to make a difficult, life-changing decision: Fearing for his family’s safety after repeated anti-Semitic incidents, Eilenberg reluctantly uprooted himself and his wife and two children, and moved to Israel in May.

Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, with a population of roughly 293,900 but only 760 Jews, reached a turning point of sorts in January 2009, during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. A small, mostly Jewish group held a demonstration that was billed as a peace rally but seen as a sign of support for Israel. This peaceful demonstration was cut short when the demonstrators were attacked by a much larger screaming mob of Muslims and Swedish leftists who threw bottles and firecrackers at them as police seemed unable to stop the mounting mayhem.

“I was very scared and upset at the same time,” recalled Jehoshua Kaufman, a Jewish community leader. “Scared because there were a lot of angry people facing us, shouting insults and throwing bottles and firecrackers at the same time. The sound was very loud. And I was angry because we really wanted to go through with this demonstration, and we weren’t allowed to finish it.”

Alan Widman, who is a strapping 6-foot-tall member of parliament and a non-Jewish member of the Liberal Party who represents Malmo, said simply, “I have never been so afraid in my life.”

There are an estimated 45,000 Muslims in Malmo, or 15% of the city’s population. Many of them are Palestinians, Iraqis and Somalis, or come from the former Yugoslavia.

But the problem is not just Muslims, and not just Malmo’s.

A continentwide study, conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, released in December 2009, found that that 45.7% of the Europeans surveyed agree somewhat or strongly with the following statement: “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.” And 37.4% agreed with this statement: “Considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews.”

“[There is] quite a high level of anti-Semitism that is hidden beneath critics of Israel’s policies,” said Beate Kupper, one of the study’s principal researchers, in a telephone interview with the Forward, citing this data and a tendency to “blame Jews in general for Israel’s policies.”

Most of Malmo’s Muslims live in Rosengard, the eastern part of this de facto segregated city, where the jobless rate is 80%. Satellite dishes dot the high-rise apartments to receive programming from Al-Jazeera and other Arabic-language cable networks that keep Malmo’s Muslims in constant touch with the latest Arab-Israeli developments.

Sylvia Morfradakis, a European Union official who works with the chronically unemployed, those who have been without work for 10 to 15 years, said that the main reason that 80% to 90% of Muslims between the ages of 18 and 34 can’t find jobs is that they can’t speak Swedish.

“Swedish employers insist workers know Swedish well, even for the most menial jobs,” Morfradakis said. She added, “The social welfare concept for helping without end does not give people the incentive to do something to make life better.”

Some Jewish parents try to protect their children by moving to neighborhoods where there are fewer Muslims in the schools so that confrontations will be minimized. Six Jewish teenagers interviewed recounted anti-Semitic abuse from Muslim classmates. According to their families, though the incidents were reported to the authorities, none of the perpetrators was arrested, much less punished.

One victim was Jonathan Tsubarah, 19, the son of an Israeli Jew who settled in Sweden. As he strolled through the city’s cobble-stoned Gustav Adolph Square on August 21, 2009, three young men — a Palestinian and two Somalis — stopped him and asked where he was from, he recalled.

“I’m from Israel,” Tsubarah responded.

I’m from Palestine,” one assailant retorted, “and I will kill you.”

The three beat him to the ground and kicked him in the back, Tsubarah said. “Kill the Jew,” they shouted. “Now are you proud to be a Jew?

“No I am not,” the slightly built teenager replied. He said he did this just to get them to stop kicking him. Tsubarah plans to go to Israel and join the army.

Meanwhile, 86-year-old Judith Popinski says she is no longer invited to schools that have a large Muslim presence to tell her story of surviving the Holocaust.

Popinski found refuge in Malmo in 1945. Until recently, she told her story in Malmo schools as part of their Holocaust studies program. Now, some schools no longer ask Holocaust survivors to tell their stories, because Muslim students treat them with such disrespect, either ignoring the speakers or walking out of the class.

Malmo reminds me of the anti-Semitism I felt as a child in Poland before the war,” she told the Forward while sitting in her living room, which is adorned with Persian rugs and many paintings.

I am not safe as a Jew in Sweden anymore,” a trembling Popinski said in a frail voice. But unlike others, she intends to stay in Sweden. “I will not be a victim again,” she said.

It is very worth reading the whole thing.
  • Monday, July 26, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
I'm still looking for ways to "monetize" this blog without negatively impacting the reader experience. Here's what I've been trying.

I added a Google AdSense ad in my left sidebar, but way down the page, because I didn't want to push down my other widgets. Not surprisingly, practically no one is clicking on it. This is resulting in a whopping profit of about $0.05 a day.

I added a customized Google search engine on the right side that searches a list of Zionist blogs and Israeli newspaper websites. So far, so good, but I am sure I will be adding sources to that search to make it better. The results page, which opens in a new window, has ads. It does add some value, IMHO, especially when you are looking for that one thing you know you read somewhere....

I also added Google AdSense ads in my RSS feed. It also is generating a couple of pennies a day.

The Amazon search engine I had placed way out of the way generated pretty much nothing after the first couple of days, so I just placed it on the right sidebar so it will be visible to everyone. If you want to buy a book or video from Amazon, consider a search from my site I will get a minuscule cut of the profits.

I'm looking at tip-jars, but haven't found anything that I like yet.

Let me know if any of these things are screwing up your webpage or slowing down the site even more than it already is.

In other administrivia, I got rid of the EoZ Message Board page and added an EoZ Video Page.in case you want to see (most of) my videos in one place, including the ones I didn't put on YouTube.

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