Egyptians learn about islamic terror, but will they draw the conclusions

It's maybe too much to expect Egyptians to have anything but hatred of Israel, but if today's funeral of the murdered soldiers is anything to go by, the islamists are not going to have it all their own way. Unlike in Turkey, maybe because of what has happened to the military there, the egyptian army does not look like rolling over to have its tummy tickled by the Muslim Brotherhood in the near future. 

Yet again we see how those who scheme against Israel finding their plans go awry. The islamic terrorists in Sinai could not have expected such a backlash against them from Egypt. Egypt has long tolerated terror against Israel, even in the times of our 'friend' Mubarak. As long as Israel bled Egypt has been happy for hundreds of tunnels to be built where rockets and munitions have been smuggled to Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza. Yesterday the chickens came home to roost.

Even arabs have understood the cruelty of this islamist group that slaughtered 15 border guards about to take their end of Ramadan meal. Nothing is too cruel for those acting in the name of 'allah the merciful' if jews are to be killed. but thankfully no jews were killed, which made it all the worse. If jews had been killed in the raid that would no doubt have helped to mitigate the cruelty of, in egyptian eyes. As it is all that can be done for the Muslim Brotherhood is to blame the Mossad for the killings. If in doubt or if the truth is too close to home, blame the jews.

Egyptian soldiers' funeral hums with anger for the Brotherhood
The soldiers' funeral resembled an anti-Brotherhood protest, with angry crowds asking attending military officers to save them from 'the rule of Morsi'

In a tense scene, hundreds of Egyptians gathered at Al-Rashdan Mosque in Cairo's Nasr City district around midday on Tuesday to attend the funeral service held for the 16 Egyptian guards killed at the Egypt-Gaza border on Sunday.


Security forces were heavily deployed around the mosque, and several of the surrounding streets were blocked off.

Getting close to the mosque, Ahram Online found families of the killed soldiers, as well as some public figures, mourners and many angry protesters.

The group was split between those who had made it inside the mosque to pray for the killed soldiers and the rest who waited outside in anger, chanting almost without pause, and at times fighting with each other.

Protesters mainly chanted against President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, describing them as "betrayers of the country" and claiming that the Brotherhood collaborated with Hamas, which they accuse of involvement in the killing of Egyptian soldiers.

“Down with the rule of the Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood” and “The Brotherhood are agents and betrayers” were among the slogans that were chanted.

The infuriated protesters also kicked out any citizen whom they suspected to be a member of the Islamist group. Most bearded men were labelled as members of the Brotherhood and were forced to leave.

The angry crowds did not physically assault any of them, but on several occasions they pushed them away. “You kill the person, then walk in his funeral,” many protesters shouted, while forcing the suspected members of the Brotherhood to leave.

Most of the protesters interviewed by Ahram Online at the scene expressed support for former presidential candidate and Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, and Tawfiq Okasha, a controversial media figure, as well as the military council.

“No one in Egypt wants him [Morsi]; many of those who voted for him, did it for money,” said Soad Hassan, 58.

Inside the mosque the atmosphere was also electric. Hisham Qandil, Morsi's newly-appointed prime minister, was present at the prayers and was physically assaulted by protesters. Several protesters threw their shoes at Qandil when he was inside the mosque.

Other public figures also attended the prayers, including former presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, the Al-Azhar Grand Imam, former prime ministers Kamal El-Ganzouri and Essam Sharaf, and MP in the now-dissolved parliament, Mohamed Abu Hamed.

Protesters not only condemned the Brotherhood, but also many of them begged army officials as they passed by to end what they called “the rule of Morsi.”

“Isn’t this enough of the Brotherhood's rule? We want you back,” repeated one of the protesters as an army officer left the mosque. The army officer stopped, looked the man in the eyes and asked him to bear with them, explaining that they are with the people.

After the prayers, families of the deceased soldiers, mourners, protesters and high officials walked for around 10 minutes in the middle of a hot summer day, as part of a march at the Memorial of the Unknown Soldier.

The coffins of the 16 soldiers were also carried by ambulances from the mosque to the march at the memorial. High officials including Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the military council, attended the march, but they didn’t complete it until the end, as angry protesters ran towards them chanting with anger against the Brotherhood.

Many of the families of the deceased soldiers did not like the angry chants and described them as disrespectful and inappropriate.

“I didn’t want the funeral of my nephew to be filled with these disrespectful chants. I don’t know who to blame. God only knows who is responsible,” said Ferial Ahmed, aunt of soldier Bassem Ahmed. Ahmed died at the age of 26, and was two weeks away from his engagement ceremony.

However, the few members of the Brotherhoods who attended the scene were silent in most cases. “We are misjudged and only God will show the truth one day,” Elham Ali, Brotherhood member and housewife told Ahram Online.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said that Morsi was absent from the military funeral to allow the public to easily attend the event, as a presidential cavalcade may have caused "obstacles."

Following his assault, Prime Minister Qandil also did not attend the military funeral that followed the prayers.

Generations of hatred for Israel (don't call them antisemites)

Dan Snow - getting paid to spread hatred of Israel

The Snow family earning their living from journalism and other media epitomises the hatred of jews and Israel to be found among British broadcasters (The Dimbleby family are another example. See here for Jonathan Dimbleby's defence of journalist and arch demoniser of Israel Jeremy Bowen). Nepotism assures that future Snow progeny will be assured of thriving in British media to spread the next generation of poison against Israel.

I'm used to the range of British media's war against Israel. The BBC likes to end news with a little Palestine snippet, something for listeners to take away with them and reflect on about the evils of the Israeli state. Daily the BBC animus reveals itself anew. Last week the BBC was forced to make a correction regarding its information on its website about the Olympics which allowed palestinians east Jerusalem as their capital whilst 'forgetting' that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Israel seemingly doesn't have a capital. One is reminded of Ernst Bevin's missives to the “Jewish authorities in Tel-Aviv” shortly after the founding of Israel. Ben-Gurion returned such letter to the sender unopened. And then there was that photo to represent Israel, a soldier shouting at an arab. The only country so treated by the BBC.

Britain used to have men of calibre such as Lloyd George and Balfour, people steeped in the Bible who believed that the Jewish People would not be complete until their national home was reconstituted in its ancient lands. They understood the jewish connection to Israel. So did Tony Blair and PMs Brown and Wilson. This was despite the Labour Party being traditionally anti-Israel. Now the Labour Party is getting out of bounds for jews. And the Conservative party leaders such as Cameron ('prison camp' Gaza)and Hague are only too happy to bash Israel from Turkey or wherever else they think they can drum up some trade in the arab and islamic world.

But there were always those who hated the very thought of jewish nationalism or simply of jews, those British statesmen and military who from the very moment of the British occupation of the Land of Israel in 1917 did their best to frustrate the declared British pro zionist policy (for Britains own strategic, imperial and christian reasons). People such as Colonel Waters Taylor would even spread rumours such as that the zionists wished to attack the Temple Mount mosques, which led to massacres of jews in 1921.

The Snow family belong to those haters of Israel, a family that takes its opportunities to lambast the tiny jewish country surrounded with enemies.

During Israel's ineptly code-named Cast Lead war with Hamas in 2008, the normally urbane Jon Snow used an interview with the similarly urbane Mark Regev to excoriate Israel, to give Regev a dressing down in the old British imperial tradition when dealing with 'uncivilised natives'. Regev might have been shocked but he refused to reply in kind to Jon Snow. The interview was aimed at 'proving' that Israel had committed war crimes by creating civilian injuries in Gaza. The fact that Israel was trying to target Hamas fighting amongst civilians ( and thus taking civilian status away from such areas) whilst doing its utmost to spare civilians was ignored. Snow terminated the interview when Regev asked a question of his own, whether Snow agreed that Hamas was an authoritarian regime (and thus people were afraid to talk about Hamas violence, that Hamas munitions and attacks could also be responsible for injuries amongst the civilians).

'Israelis enjoy tourist and commercial relations with Turkey which have been hard won....you've now rewarded it by attacking a fleet and killing Turkish nationals'

”That's a great way to win friends isn't it?” Jon Snow

Jon Snow goes on to ask whether Israel will “lift the illegal blockade on Gaza”? Of course the blockade is recognised even by the UN as legal.

Snow then asked about another boat the “Rachel Corrie” supposedly bringing in aid to Gaza. Regev said that the boat could go to Ashdod and have all its aid delivered, or go to Egypt, the egyptians having made a similar offer. Snow ignored that fact and then launched a tirade about not being able to trust Israel. Egypt was ignored by Snow because it didn't fit in with his implied story of a hateful Israel trying to starve Gaza.

Snow finished off his hectoring interview by suggesting that Israel would be at war with Turkey soon if Turkish warships accompanied another flotilla. Regev looked bemused asking whether this journalist was serious? Snow's hatred of Israel is only too obvious.

The talkback on Snow's blog has this post:

“He simply would not let Mr Regev make his points. That is not professional, whether you agree with Regev or not, he should at least be given opportunity to answer the questions, and not be cut off  simply because the interviewer doesn’t like his answers.
It was interesting to see a different approach the following night when Jon interviewed Raymond McCord about the proposed compensation for victims of the NI troubles. Mr McCord was permitted to use similar arguments without being interrupted and cut off.
It looks ever so like one rule for the Jews, and another for everyone else. By the way, I’m neither Jewish, nor Zionist, just a thinking watcher of Channel 4 news (most nights).

Until today I didn't know that Peter Snow was also part of the hate Israel fest. I happened to watch the last half of a documentary made by him and his son Dan Snow about the Yom Kippur war. The information about the war seemed mainly accurate although when talking about a ceasefire at the end of the war, they without any evidence said Israel broke it. There was no mention of the fact that the ceasefire was forced on Israel to stop it destroying Egyptian aggression once and for all, that as soon as Israel began to win the war Russia and Egypt demanded a ceasefire.

But at the end of the film Israel's defeat of Egypt was glossed over. Israel got no credit for having ended the war with two Egyptian armies in its grasp, nor for resupplying them instead of annihilating them when they were at Israel's mercy. Instead the sufferings of the egyptian soldiers were discussed, how they were dying of thirst, how they had no food. There had been no such understanding of the sufferings of the many thousands of Israelis who had died in an unprovoked attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the jewish year, of the soldiers killed on the Bar Lev line, the sufferings of those who held out throughout the time that they were surrounded by Egyptian forces. And of course, Israel allowed those Egyptian armies to survive. It let them receive food and water. Of course that was too trifling a detail for the Snow family to mention.

If the Snow family describes suffering, it must only be arab suffering with jews only being linked with causing that suffering rather than its alleviation, which took the Snow duo to the next point.

Sadat's honour gained by almost winning the 1973 war (the Snow's couldn't even bring themselves to declare Israel as having defeated the arabs. This attitude comes from the Snows seeing Israel's wars through arab eyes. Mohhamad Heikl even wrote a book about the “War Egypt almost won”). So of course no credit was given to Israel for having made peace overtures to Sadat in the past, nor was Israel's having given the Sinai back to Egypt as part of that peace even mentioned by them.

This is a tragedy, that as with Germany in World War I, Egypt doesn't know just how soundly it was defeated in 1973. Because of this, egyptian society has been clamouring during the Arab 'Spring' to tear up the peace treaty. Egypt's army has not been so interested in this purely because its generals know the truth about the extent of the defeat. But just as the German people did not about their defeat, that Egyptians still don't know about theirs could lead to another war of aggression against Israel.

The Snow program about the Yom Kippur War finished of course with, the poor suffering palestinians, the supposed root cause of all problems in the middle-east. And the backdrop for spouting this nonsense which we see ever more clearly with the current Syrian civil war, was of course the “barrier,” the concrete wall with watchtowers, part of the security barrier which is mainly a fence. Much better to show the intimidating wall if you want to demonise Israel though. And of course there was no explanation of the second intifada, of the thousands of Israeli dead and injured in suicide bombings and other terror attacks which made the building of the fence necessary in the first place.

But then by their own account, the Snow family have a history of distorting information and diverting blame. One ancestor, a general at the infamous Somme offensive determined to lay the blame for his own part in the debacle at the feet of another general, and got him sacked.

So much for the Snow family.

When you ask yourself why there is so much British hatred for Israel, don't think of anything jews have done, of jews living in Judea and Samaria, but rather of generations of hatred, the old hatred of the jew that gets renewed and updated daily. British media puts out a never ending stream of propaganda about the middle-east where Israel is the villain and arabs are the victims.

British journalists get trained in universities, are thoroughly indoctrinated by Palestine days in student unions, and by history courses given by professors who write books where the history of Israel and the arab conflict is distorted to show that zionists always intended to drive out a peaceful and indigenous 'palestinian' population.

What makes trying to put over Israel's case worth while is however not in  attempting to convince the unthinking masses and their indoctrinated elite who swallow media lies whole, but that there are always the tiny few who are prepared to listen, to think for themselves and to come to their own conclusions. Peter F Whyte is one of those people. He very possibly doesn't like Israel at all, but at least he's prepared to listen without instantly discounting anything Israelis say as propaganda. Alan Johnson is another, as is Richard Kemp. The Rev James Parkes who wrote about the origins of anti-semitism was another rare and true friend of the jewish people. Parkes was a priest who specialised in jewish history and came to love jews, unlike most of the church cadre. When you think about it there are quite a few. Stephen Harper comes to mind, the PM of Canada who scotched Obama's '67 'borders' attack on Israel at the G8.

A few good friends is all we need.

It's too much to expect Obama to wave the big stick at US enemies

Batting for Turkey's islamists

The only country Obama would really like to hit is Israel. In this presidency there has not been a week when Obama's minions have not attacked Israel, a constant invective he's directed against Israel over the last four years. He snubbed Netanyahu when he visited the White House, created a diplomatic storm over jewish villages in Judea and Samaria whilst ignoring the constant incitement against jews, and over indefensible 1967 lines, and distorted Israel's claims to Israel (peddling the lie in Cairo that Israel's claim to Israel rests on the Holocaust). Even last week the CIA was used to as cover for a new calumny about Israel spying on the USA.

Not one week without some bashing of Israel by Clinton or others of the Obama administration.

We need to go back and remember Obama's trying to pull a fast one in imposing the Auschwitz borders on Israel when Netanyahu came to the USA.



Despite Netanyahu having been ambushed, his response at the White House press conference with Obama was masterful, as was his address to Congress. The reception Netanyahu got was nothing but a slap in the face for Obama and Israel's enemies.




The US people understand that Israel and the USA face the same enemies, that Israel is the USA's only true ally in the region.

Whilst arabs dream of destruction and genocide Israel grows

Hatred clouds our enemies' judgment

In an ideal world one might think that arabs would look towards Israel to discover its secret, of how it can exist as a successful democracy working for all its citizens, jew, christian and arab in a sea of misery; of how Israel's economy can bound forwards from year to year whilst its neighbours' citizens wallow on a few dollars a day. Elsewhere in the middle east the 'free floating' ethnic and religious hatreds are turning in on themselves.


Israel's detractors misinform themselves about Israel, its society, economy, population and its capability to survive. They are never surprised to learn that they are wrong but go on to repeat the myths and invent new ones. This is on balance not always such a terrible thing as when the enemy can't even bring itself to properly understand how Israel ticks, it's that much easier for Israel to survive and prosper. And prosper it does despite all the claptrap about its economy (according to them donated by the USA), sepharadim and ashkenazim and the poverty in Israel (exaggerated although in this case real).


So now arabs are happy to discover Israel's demography is against it, that Israel is about to disappear within the next 20 years, and all without arabs having to lift a finger. In your dreams buddy.


Population trends of arabs and jews in Israel are converging to around three which means that Israel is under no demographic threat within the 1967 lines. And even over the lines in Judea and Samaria Israel could quite happily annex the 4% of lands which are essential to Israel's security and on which jewish villages stand and still maintain a healthy population ratio that will ensure the survival of Israel as the Jewish State. 
There is no need at all to annex any but lands essential to Israel's security. Even if Israel annexed all of Judea and Samaria the results of absorbing an aging arab population of around 2 1/2 millions (Spengler explains that UN estimates which include palestinian arabs living abroad exaggerate the figures by up to a million people) would not become the dire threat supposed. 

It is better to read the Ettinger and Spengler articles linked above to better understand why the excerpts below are the product of fantasy:

 Israel: a Future in Doubt questions the survival of Israel as a political state and ‘a national entity’ beyond the next 10-20 years because of internal and external factors. The book, authored by Richard Laub and Olivier Boruchowitch, states that the very existence of Israel in the Middle East is at stake. They cite conditions such as mounting anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism sentiment having a dire effect on the survival of Israel, as well as the rapid rise of Islamic forces in neighbouring countries who look at Israel “as an integrated extension of the ugly western imperialism that generated it”.

 Israel’s constant efforts to attract new immigrants by claiming to be ‘the national homeland for world Jewry’ appears to be losing its impact. For the first time in four years, the number of new colonisers has gone down. The Israeli ministry responsible for receiving and assimilating new immigrants has reported that their number in 2011 was 18,968 compared to 19,231 in 2010. It also became apparent that the number of immigrants coming from Russia and Ethiopia — who do not have a clear designation as Jews yet by the conservative rabbinical authority — has increased compared to the number of confirmed and practising Jews from other countries.

 “Most immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union did not come to Israel because they yearned to live the Jewish life among Jews, but only to better their lives in a material way,” says Israeli writer Yaron London in an article titled White Immigrants, Black Immigrants. He goes on to say that “if the doors of the rich western countries were to open for them, they would have never come to Israel in the first place”.

Obama sets the CIA against Israel

Israel has always had powerful enemies within the US administration, dating back to the Secretary of State Marshall who tried his best to prevent Truman recognising the state of Israel. Unlike Obama, Truman was willing to give Israel a chance. 

In the last year of the Bush administration the CIA headed off a green light to Israel to attack Iran's nuclear industry with a doctored report the so called 'intelligence estimate' which said Iran had given up attempts to make nuclear weapons in the early years of 2,000. This was nonsense as the IAEA report made clear recently.

Now the CIA is at it again, most likely at the behest of the Obama administration which will go to any lengths to stop its allies from defending themselves.  Obam has single handedly ruined the USA's reputation throughout the world. The US is known now for selling its friends down the river. This has had a knock on effect not only for Israel, but for China flexing its muscles in Asia, threatening war against the Philippines and now occupying islands that belong to other nations of Vietnam and Philippines.

This propaganda against the USA's best ally in the middle east should stop, but I fear it won't until the american people have seen the last of its president who hates the USA and its allies.

US sees Israel as main spy threat

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press

 The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.

 The incident, described by three former senior U.S. intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel.

 It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched.

 In a separate episode, according to another two former U.S. officials, a CIA officer in Israel came home to find the food in the refrigerator had been rearranged. In all the cases, the U.S. government believes Israel’s security services were responsible.

 Such meddling underscores what is widely known but rarely discussed outside intelligence circles: Despite inarguable ties between the U.S. and its closest ally in the Middle East and despite statements from U.S. politicians trumpeting the friendship, U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat.

 In addition to what the former U.S. officials described as intrusions in homes in the past decade, Israel has been implicated in U.S. criminal espionage cases and disciplinary proceedings against CIA officers and blamed in the presumed death of an important spy in Syria for the CIA during the administration of President George W. Bush.

 The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.

Israel employs highly sophisticated, professional spy services that rival American agencies in technical capability and recruiting human sources. Unlike Iran or Syria, for example, Israel as a steadfast U.S. ally enjoys access to the highest levels of the U.S. government in military and intelligence circles.

 The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the sensitive intelligence and diplomatic issues between the two countries.

 The counterintelligence worries continue even as the U.S. relationship with Israel features close cooperation on intelligence programs that reportedly included the Stuxnet computer virus that attacked computers in Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities. While the alliance is central to the U.S. approach in the Middle East, there is room for intense disagreement, especially in the diplomatic turmoil over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

 "It’s a complicated a relationship," said Joseph Wippl, a former senior CIA clandestine officer and head of the agency’s office of congressional affairs. "They have their interests. We have our interests. For the U.S., it’s a balancing act."

 The way Washington characterizes its relationship with Israel is also important to the way the U.S. is regarded by the rest of the world, particularly Muslim countries.

 U.S. political praise has reached a crescendo ahead of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s scheduled meeting Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Their relationship spans decades, since their brief overlap in the 1970s at the Boston Consulting Group. Both worked as advisers for the firm early in their careers before Romney co-founded his own private-equity firm. Romney said in a speech this past week that Israel was "one of our fondest friends," and he criticized Obama for what he called the administration’s "shabby treatment" of the Jewish state.

 "The people of Israel deserve better than what they’ve received from the leader of the free world," Romney said in a plain appeal to U.S. Jewish and pro-Israel evangelical voters.

 Obama, who last year was overheard appearing to endorse criticism of Netanyahu from then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has defended his work with Israel. "We’ve gotten a lot of business done with Israel over the last three years," Obama said this year. "I think the prime minister - and certainly the defense minister - would acknowledge that we’ve never had closer military and intelligence cooperation."

 An Israeli spokesman in Washington, Lior Weintraub, said his country has close ties with the U.S.

 "Israel’s intelligence and security agencies maintain close, broad and continuous cooperation with their U.S. counterparts," Weintraub said. "They are our partners in confronting many mutual challenges. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless and contrary to the spirit and practice of the security cooperation between our two countries."

 The CIA declined comment.

 The tension exists on both sides.

Palestinian archaeologist says he's found coins under the Kotel thus 'disproving' jewish history

One method archaeologists use to date buildings are by finding artifacts beneath them. That inevitably involves destroying the original building. How else would you get to the strata underneath it? The Temple retaining walls were built on bedrock, which is one reason they have withstood earthquakes over the milennia.

Palestinian arab archaeologist Jamal Amro has however managed to find 17 coins predating the Western Wall that were underneath it. He doesn't say how he managed to do this, or how there can be another archaeological strata where objects can be found underneath a wall built on bedrock.

This lie that the Western Wall was built after 16 AD after coins were 'found' underneath it is too ridiculous to lend credence to. But the lies come thick and fast, such as the one that never seems to go away of Israel plotting to destroy the Temple Mount mosques. That Israel could have done this any time in the last 45 years, and would have done so by now if there was any truth in this is too much for Israel's detractors to think about. They will keep repeating the lies, as this is all in a 'good' cause of undermining Jews, their history and their legitimate claims in Jerusalem and Israel (before the state of Israel was established many jews were killed in pogroms after such claims of trying to harm the Temple Mount mosques).

The 'archaeologist' doesn't say how he managed to extract the coins from under thousands of tons of wall without hurting himself. You'd think this person would be ashamed to put his name to such an obvious lie, and to bring it to a conference, even of sympathisers. Does hatred of jews forbid any participants at such conferences from allowing their common sense to work?

My thanks to myrightword blog for the link



Archaeologist rebuts Jewish claims about their alleged temple
[ 06/12/2011 - 09:38 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Palestinian archaeologist Jamal Amro declared he made a discovery of 17 ancient coins that vindicated further the false story and belief of Jews about their alleged temple in occupied Jerusalem.

The coins date back to 16 AD, which means they were minted 20 years after the death of Herod the Great whom the Jews allege he built the second temple, Amro added.

He demonstrated his finding on Monday in a news conference held by the Islamic-Christian commission for the support of Jerusalem and the popular national congress of Jerusalem in Ramallah city.

The archaeologist told the attendees that these coins were found under Al-Buraq wall (wailing wall) which is claimed to be the western wall of the alleged Jewish temple.

He added this discovery confirmed that the building of the wall happened after Herod in the era of Roman ruler Valerius Gratus.

He also stated this discovery left the Jewish archaeologists in a state of shock and frustration because it just proved further their false claims and beliefs about the legend of the temple.

All archaeological discoveries that were found before this one in the Arab city of Jerusalem and around the Aqsa Mosque date back to ancient Arab and Islamic eras especially the times of Umayyad and Abbasid reigns up to the Ottoman rule, the Palestinian archaeologist said.

'Provocative' Jews on the Temple Mount

It must hurt the Waqf that jews who visit the Temple Mount are peaceful tourists. Amongst all the pictures taken by the Waqf there are non which show any disrespect or bad behaviour. Which isn't surprising as this is after all Judaism's holiest shrine.

But that doesn't stop constant accusations of 'provocation' and of 'storming' the area. But what can we expect from an institution the head of which is foaming at the mouth in wishing for a new Holocaust to take place.


It must be said that this Maan article is mild in comparison to that put out by the Waqf:

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Dozens of Jewish worshipers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque guarded by Israeli soldiers on Monday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said. Around 58 Jewish worshipers and 28 Israeli soldiers toured the mosque, the foundation said in a statement. Such visits are provocative, particularly in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the group added. The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood. Some in the far right in Israel propose building a Jewish temple on the sanctuary. The flashpoint site is under the custody of the Islamic endowment authorities, and visits by Israeli extremists have been roundly condemned by Palestinian officials.

Defend christians by telling muslims how much you hate Israel

Archbishop Theodosius Atallah Hanna christian discrimination by arabs elicits hate speech against...... Israel!

This Alt-Neu strategy attempts to deal with muslim discrimination and ethnic cleansing of christians. Various christian denominations, most notably the Catholic and Anglican churches subscribe to the thesis that by underlining just how much christians have in common with muslims in their hate for Israel, christians will be protected from the consequences of arab and islamic bigotry towards christians and jews. This hasn't been true in the past, and it isn't now either. 

Christian communities throughout the middle east are being decimated by islamic intolerance, almost without protest by established churches. The only protests we hear about are when Israel is lambasted for fictitious acts against christians. Christ At The Checkpoint was one of the more recent acts of infamy linking the fable of Jesus' suffering and the deicide, to that of the invented torments of palestinian arabs today. 

That conference showed that the basis of support for palestinian arabs by christian churches is inspired by the old hatred for jews, of the replacement theology which can never come to terms with a thriving Israel. Israel according to this theology should not exist, and jews should never again rear their heads in their ancient land. For such people, Israel is a constant provocation, just as it is a never ending "aggression" for arabs and muslims.

So majority christian hatred for Israel is an unsurprising thank you to Israel for its toleration of minorities, the full equality given them by Israel, the help that Israel is all to ready to extend to the christian community. As Israel has never asked for loyalty and thanks from its christian communities, it rarely gets any. Just the opposite, there is a veritable war against Israel by most christian denominations in Israel of which the Greek Orthodox are one of the most inveterate. Its archbishop Capucci was caught in Israel gun running for the PLO. It seems that the Church will only thank those who beat christians, that murder them, that kidnap and convert them to islam, that ethnically cleanse christians. Israel can't win as it will never stoop to returning an eye for an eye, no matter what the provocation. 


Israel will keep to its ideals, will remain an oasis of peace and tolerance for all in the middle east. The Israel which extends full civil rights to jew, muslim, bahai, christian and all others without favour or discrimination is the Israel I love and cherish. This is what encourages me above all to defend it.

Archbishop Theodosius Atallah Hanna stressed Wednesday the necessity to protect Palestinian Christians and rejected any efforts to undermine their rights.

During a visit to Ma'an in Bethlehem, he said “they (Palestinian Christians) must be preserved because their absence is considered a big loss for everyone including Muslims.”

Commenting on claims of foul play by relatives of two Gaza Christians who converted to Islam, Hanna said that “Christians are not mercenaries or fifth column, they live in their homeland Palestine and among their people.

“They should be respected and kept as they are an integral part of the homeland”.

He rejected treating people differently according to their religion and stressed the necessity of equality between Muslims and Christians. He also emphasized the need to live in a civil state that respects citizens equally.

Regarding events in Syria, Hanna said Syrian people’s fair demands must be supported and he rejected any exploitation by other countries of these demands.

He added: "We rejected violence, murder and torture since the beginning of the Syrian events. Syria is under a global war that aims at weakening it and an attempt to spread religious strife into it."

He reiterated his opposition to Israeli plans aiming to to "Judaize" Jerusalem and Palestinian holy places in addition to stealing their land. He called Israel "an illegal country."


He concluded by demanding that Arabs and Muslims take responsibility for Jerusalem and Palestine.

It is of course interested to contrast the Bishop's straightforward denunciations of Israel. E.g. of 'Judaising' the Jewish ancient city of Jerusalem in which they have been in a majority in since records began (ever heard of the Bible Archbishop?), with the euphemism and indirect speech directed at muslims. There is no direct denunciation of arab ethnic cleansing of christians, or of the murder of christians or of the forced conversions, only a plea that christians be recognised as palestinians like any other, to be able to live without discrimination.


Sorry Archbishop, the only place where you will find christians soon in the middle east will be in that country you hate so much, and where you live, Israel. Christians are in the process of being wiped out of arab countries, not a little because of your behaviour and that of other cowardly church leaders who believe that by following the age old prescript of kicking jews when problems in society arise, they will curry favour with the islamic bullies.


If christian churches had united to protest, to publicise christian plight in the muslim world, to demand in world forums and in countries where the Church has influence, then things might have been different. It's already too late for Iraq's christians.

Muslim Waqf incitement against any jewish visiting of the Temple Mount

After yet another posting by the Elder of Ziyon showing a group of religious jews with young children walking around the Temple Mount, I decided to put what he says each time this happens to the test.

Are the Waqf really so hate filled, so intolerant that just the fact that jewish religious tourists' feet tread on that holiest of areas sacred to jews throughout millenia can be taken by muslims as 'provocation'? Is this enough for the muslim Waqf to write about "occupation" and "storming" of the mount? Are the jews not doing something to provoke all this invective, this emotive language?

The Waqf object to the jews taking pictures, but take many of their own. The pictures of the jews show them simply walking around and doing nothing in particular. If these are the worst pictures that the Waqf can find to portray the terrible behaviour of the jews, then this speaks volumes not of the jews but of the brimming over hatred for jews per se by the muslim authorities who control the Temple Mount.  There is no recognition at all of Moshe Dayan's magnanimous gesture in 1967 which left the jews' most holy place in muslim hands, all in the cause of peaceful coexistence. More fool you Moshe. A lifetime living with arabs, understanding their language, and still not understanding the basic dynamics of the middle east. If you have power you have peace. If you are perceived as weak  you will be attacked.

That jews setting up a tripod to take pictures arouses Waqf wrath brings yet again into question any possibility of ever coming to an agreement with palestinian arabs, of any chance of ever living as equals, side by side together in peace. Jews don't want to lord it over arabs, just to live peacefully with them in Israel. That is too much for the Waqf and its religious leader the Mufti, the supreme religious authority for palestinian arabs.


The Waqf piece alludes to the so-called 'science' students who seem to be a paramilitary force, of being prevented from rioting by the 'occupation' force. Religious jews with their kids peacefully walking around and learning about their history is obviously the utmost provocation for these people.


The problem is therefore not anything the jews are doing, but that they exist, that they are there. The jewish visitors' very peacefulness is a 'provocation' to those anti-semites who long for the times when they could drive a herd of sheep and cattle through the jewish worshippers praying in the narrow space at the Kotel on Yom Kippur. This was a new innovation by the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin El Husseini with the connivance of the British Mandatory authorities. They in collusion with the Mufti in the 1920's forbade the blowing of the shofar on the most holy day of the year for jews.

When jews tried to erect a mechitza (a curtain to separate men and women) at the Kotel, this was the pretext (nothing changes, as now the call was that el Aqsa was 'under attack') for the arab riots throughout the country in which hundreds of jews were killed and injured, the ancient jewish community living in Hebron attacked with many killed. The community was ethnically cleansed and remained so until 1967. The interesting thing is that the jews were not even 'zionists', just apolitical jews living as they had always done with their muslim arab neighbours. The riots only happened because of perceived weakness of the authorities. The arabs saw that the British were either with them, or would do nothing, and used the opportunity to play out their hatred against jews.


Of course whilst the Ottomans ruled Israel, if a jew was caught on the Temple Mount of in the Cave of Machpela in Hebron he would be lynched. Just to go to the Western Wall during Jordanian times needed production of a baptismal certificate by foreigners.


Arabs take the long view, see the jews as crusaders and bide their time until jews can be evicted and killed as 'crusaders on holy muslim ground'. The Mufti of Jerusalem could not have made himself clearer only a few months ago in a talk (rather an emotion filled bout of screaming, the spewing of hate filled invective) to the 47th Conference of the terrorists of Fatah.




Yet again my thanks to the 'Elder'. The wall of hostility by our foes can not be broken down by any gestures we make. Israel must keep up its guard and remain strong, until such time our arab neighbours tire of violence and war, as happened with the Germans. This didn't happen after the First World War but only after terrible devastation and losses to the German people. Germans needed to  have their nihilistic wish and efforts to destroy our people and build a German empire bombed out of them. After at least 4 million dead, Germany learned to hate war. Arab intransigence and aggression must similarly follow such a process, which is maybe happening now in Syria if not elsewhere. 

 There is nothing we can do to change the realities other than refuse to be intimidated by threats of violence, to peacefully assert our rights to visit our holy place such as the Temple Mount , and to defend ourselves aggressively when we are attacked.

Israel despite itself is condemned to always live in an armed peace, to never let down its guard, and moreover to never make the slightest concession unless matched by our opponents. Concessions have always been misinterpreted in the past, as weakness by Israel, and not as an olive branch, a concrete sign of Israel's wish to live in peace together.


The many concessions by Israel have always led to more incitement and conflict, and it is because of this refusal by Israel to learn from past mistakes that Israel, is to blame for arab efforts against it on every level. If Israel gives something for nothing, to the arab mind and culture unexplainable weakness which leads to more threats and demands. This is the middle east, not post modern europe, and Israel's politicians must understand. 

The Translation is by Google and therefore not always easy to understand. The message is however clear, the Temple Mount should be 'Judenrein':

Main »News, violations and attacks» "Al-Aqsa Foundation settlers from the group" Attiyrat Cohanim "storming Aqsa and a video camera documenting Tdnashm provocatively"Al-Aqsa Foundation settlers from the group" Attiyrat Cohanim "storming Aqsa and a video camera documenting Tdnashm provocativelyTuesday, July 24, 2012, 16:51Print this topicNews, violations and attacksAdd a comment

 For a third day in a row: storm and the desecration of the maximum:Trapping Msatab science students after the arrest of one of them and threaten others by preventing them from entering the Al-AqsaIn a summary of the developments taking place in the al-Aqsa mosque said: "Al-Aqsa Foundation for the stop and Heritage" in a statement Tuesday, 24/7/2012, about 30 settlers stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque and desecrated its facilities, but the interesting thing is today transferred witnesses from "Institution Building-Aqsa and the holy sites" A group of four settlers from the group "Attiyrat Cohanim" extremist, including two children, stormed at the tenth-Aqsa mosque by the Mughrabi Gate, carrying a video camera with a stick installation, and the Mughrabi Gate turned directly towards Midhat cup and has one of the settlers photographed the children and an interview with the settler the other on a bench by the cup, try a guard of al-Aqsa mosque to prevent them from shooting, but police occupation confronted him, and insisted on allowing the settlers photography, and occurred between the guards of Al-Aqsa and the occupation forces Mlasna reciprocal, and in the meantime, combine a number of occupation forces to guard the settlers during the imaging process by the settlers who have completed pictorial tour around the eastern side, it is likely that these settlers were preparing a report for television broke into the extreme.
 He adds witness during his interview with "Al-Aqsa Foundation" It's in these moments, a number of older students terraces of science and turned towards the east to get to know the truth of what is happening there, and immediately suffered three of the Special Forces and two officers and members of the police occupation and cordoned off the area, After the out settlers from the door of the series gathered police and officers on the ring science students and arrested Abu Ayman - Ghassan Younis, one of the students Msatab flag and threatened to others that they will not allow them to enter the al-Aqsa mosque, and they know that the possession of cameras and they will work to prevent the introduction of these cameras to Far, in the same sustenance occupation forces prevented a school science project Msatab from the use of a small loudspeaker was used to provide one of science lessons in the Al-Aqsa.

 In the same context has confirmed that "Al-Aqsa Foundation" The number of settlers from the day they perform rituals of Jewish and Talmudic Temtemat and rituals in different parts of the Far, especially next to Bey off the Dome of the Rock.

 So in this charged atmosphere stressed occupation forces on the worshipers entering the Al Aqsa Mosque to perform the noon prayer, and since the morning hours present in the arena of maximum scores of students of terraces of science and an audience of worshipers from the people of Jerusalem and the pioneers of the march of flags and the number of visitors from different regions.

 This followed the "institution-Aqsa" on these events by saying: "We see what happened today in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and what happened in the last days of break-ins and the desecration of the Aqsa Mosque, and previous statements from agencies of the Israeli occupation, look at them into danger, and we stress that the occupation will not work to impose the status quo in the Al Aqsa Mosque, and to make incursions and attacks on Al-Aqsa and as is normal, we emphasize that the al-Aqsa mosque is a prerogative of the Muslims and Muslims alone, also emphasize that the presence of the occupation in the Al-Aqsa is the presence of occupation of the void, which is evanescent in the near future, but we stress again the importance of intensifying tension pack up and increasing daily communication early in the Al Aqsa Mosque. "

The silver lining in the Arab Spring's cloud

In my previous article, "Thinking the unthinkable about Lebanon, shiites and Hezbollah", I predicted that if the Assad regime in Syria is defeated, there will be a catastrophic shakeup of the middle-east, not all to the detriment of Israel, and very possibly much to its advantage. I further hoped that Israel is now in its post-Turkey phase actively encouraging the Kurds to take this possibly never to be repeated opportunity to wrest another portion of their nascent state away from Syria.

Today I read that this is indeed happening, that the Iraqi autonomous Kurds have been training Syrian Kurds, that there is what appears to be a united command being formed, and that the Syrian Kurdish region is now at leat semi-independent of the Assad regime. Happily Assad is not interested in picking a fight with the Kurds, and only too eager to let them pose a headache for Turkey next door. Turkey is of course training, protecting and supplying the islamists fighting to bring Assad's regime down. The weapons and money are s upplied mainly by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the USA. Obama gave Turkey's islamist government responsibilty for the supply of the opposition to Assad with the predictable result that the islamists gain. Michael Totten believes that the islamists will nevertheless not have it all their own way once Assad falls as there are to many fissures in Syrian society. But the counter to that is that with enough brutality any rule can be imposed, such as that of the Assad family all these years, or the unpopular Mullahs in Iran, or a sunni majority regime post Assad. Force of arms has time and again been shown to be the antidote to any lack of popular support.

The news could however hardly be better. Non-arab Kurds, natural allies of Israel have at the very least a loose federation now. Turkey has 14 million restive Kurds with no love at all for the Turks occupying their lands. Their territories in eastern Turkey (which also contained a million Armenians until the genocide) make up a third of the total land in the present Turkish state.

And then there are the Kurds of Iran, who could right now be wondering when their turn will come? And come it well might if sanctions are made to bite even harder. A collapse of the Iranian economy may well lead to the large population of restive Azeris and the Sunni minority to look to their own futures away from Iran.

The tectonic plates are shifting in the middle east, and the picture is not all bad for Israel. Indeed, the slow burn of Syria is the best of all possibilities, steadily weakening this most implaccable of Israel's foes, a country responsible for thousands of dead Israelis, for a generation to come. One can not rejoice over killing, but both sides in the Syrian civil war have great hatred of jews and Israel, and would turn their guns on Israel if given the opportunity. That they choose to kill themselves means that much less of a chance of Israelis, jews and arabs being killed by terrorists from Syria or Lebanon.

There is a lesson here not only for Israel, but for the USA, that it is not always helpful to intervene in other people's disputes. Rarely does it work out as previously anticipated and Israel has learned this lesson well from its past ventures (justified) into Lebanon. This time Israel steered well clear of helping either side in the civil war, a  wise policy. It might be nice to see a group friendly to Israel take power in Syria, but failing that impossible situation arising, then what is happening now could not be bettered. The Assad regime and its opponents are bleeding the country, which is very possibly going to split asunder into separate cantons ruled by the different tribes and ethnicities. As a unitary country Syria could possibly cease to exist.

Which brings us again to Lebanon. In my previous article I surmised that maybe the shiites could be weaned off their enmity for Israel once the reality of their position amongst a sea of sunni hostility sinks in. The Lebanese shiites have been sitting pretty for many years in their radicalism and acts of aggression against not only Israel but against the Lebanese people. And as if they did not have enough enemies, the Lebanese shiites seem to have backed the wrong horse in Syria. Well they weren't really given an option, as the minority shiite/alawite Syrian regime has protected and supplied them all these years, giving them the feeling of a deep hinterland all the way to Iran. But that is all about to end.

Iran's long arm in Lebanon is looking intensely vulnerable. Once Assad goes, Hezbollah is in shtuch. The Lebanese might very well sink again into civil war and the christians and sunnis, along with the Druse might soon be looking to rid themselves once and for all of Hezbollah, and settle some old scores with the shiites in the south. Of course there is a large shiite enclave in Beirut that could be the first to feel the heat. The shiites in the south, as the christians before them could well change their spots and look to Israel's support as a replacement for that of Iran. Israel would do well to encourage this split in the shiite camp when the time comes, during a future Lebanese civil war. This could see Hezbollah ceasing to exist. Israel's north would then be protected by a new buffer as in the 1970's.

In the Lebanon alliances are ephemeral, Israel must be prepared to take advantage of situations when they happen.

And all this  with hardly a mention of Turkey's problems such as its economy wedded to hot credit, consumption and tourism that has slumped this year. Arab and Iranian tourism has melted away. Long term Turkey has an aging population, unlike the Kurds.

And as for Israel, it will keep growing and gaining strength as long as it keeps its head, and doesn't have any more Olmerts who wish to give Israeli lands to its enemies (Did you know that Russia was given a mass of real estate in the centre of Jerusalem, courtesy of Olmert?). Despite our leaders, we can always depend on arabs to help. If Abbas had accepted all the lands Olmert had offered in 2008, Israel would have become in defensible again.