Archive for June 25, 2012

Despite win, Egypt’s new president will have his hands tied

The Muslim Brotherhood has won the presidency and nearly half the seats in the Egyptian parliament, but it will still have to tread lightly with its domestic and foreign policies.

 

 

The commotion was expected. As soon as Farouk Sultan, the chairman of Egypt’s election committee, began reading out loud on live television the number of votes received by Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first Islamist president ‏(more than 13 million‏), the crowd stopped him with their loud shouts − some of them happy and some angry.

Mohammed Morsi casts his vote

Egyptian presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi waves after he casting his vote at a polling station northeast of Cairo on June 16, 2012 - Photo by AP

 

Only then, in that electrifying moment, after more than an hour of hearing tiresome details of the appeals filed with the committee, did it become clear that Morsi won with a lead of slightly under 1 million votes, in a country of 85 million. Continue Reading »

‘Warning! Your Salad May Be Turning You Into An Infidel!’

An Egyptian Salafist group warned that eating tomatoes are “forbidden because they are Christian.”

By Rachel Hirshfeld

 

An Egyptian Salafist group appears to be trying to retract a post on Facebook that warned that eating tomatoes are “forbidden because they are Christian.”

Islam tomato

Islam tomato -Photo: Facebook/Popular Egyptian Islamic Association

 

The Muslim traditionalist group, calling themselves the Popular Egyptian Islamic Association, claims that tomatoes are offensive if they are cut in such a way that reveals the shape of a cross, according to the Now Lebanon website.

“Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian,” the group posted on its Facebook page, along with of a photo of tomato cut in half to reveal what could be interpreted as a cross. Continue Reading »

Peres: Israeli patience with rockets wearing thin

Speaking at Jewish Agency Assembly, president says if Hamas continues to endanger civilians, Israel will be forced to retaliate.

 

 

Israel’s patience against rocket attacks was wearing thin, President Shimon Peres implied at the opening of the Jewish Agency Assembly in Jerusalem on Sunday, as he cautioned Hamas against further firing of rockets

As he had at the opening of thePresidential Conference last week, Peres saluted the strength, the courage and the dedication of the residents of southern Israel in coping with the current barrage of rocket fire from Gaza.

President Shimon Peres - Photo: Marc IsraelSellem

President Shimon Peres - Photo: Marc IsraelSellem

“We can stop it and we will stop it,” he said.

Continue Reading »

Eyeballing Iran? US commissions 361 cruise missiles

US Navy to get 361 new Tomahawk cruise missiles, most of which are meant for Fifth Fleet destroyers based in Bahrain. Meanwhile, pressure to mount military strike against Tehran is permeating presidential campaign

by Yitzhak Benhorin

 

 

WASHINGTON – The United States has commissioned 361 new Tomahawk cruise missiles, and some 238 of them are meant to find their way to the Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, Ynet learned on Sunday.

Tomahawk launch (Archives) Photo: US Navy website

Tomahawk launch (Archives) - Photo: US Navy website

According to the Business Insider, the deal – inked on the backdrop of repeated deadlocks in the nuclear negotiations between the West and Iran – may suggest that the US is gearing for a possible military campaign against the Islamic Republic. Continue Reading »

Thousands of Israeli protesters block streets in Tel Aviv, clash with police

Police arrest 89 after protesters smash windows of banks at Rabin Square, block major highway.

By Gili Cohen , Yaniv Kubovich and Asaf Shtull-Trauring

 

 

Police arrested 89 demonstrators after more than 6,500 people converged in and around Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Saturday night, protesting the arrest on Friday of Daphni Leef, a leader of last summer’s social protest movement.

Police arrest a demonstrator during a protest for social justice in Tel Aviv

Police arrest a demonstrator during a protest for social justice in Tel Aviv. - Photo by Tomer Appelbaum

 

The protesters blocked Ibn Gabirol Street north to Rabin Square, before moving and blocking Ayalon highway. Around 20 demonstrators were removed by police after breaking into branches of Hapoalim, Leumi and Discount banks. Continue Reading »

Report of Slain Gaza Child A Fake, IDF Says

Gaza’s Hamas leaders claim a young child was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel: There was no airstrike.

By Maayana Miskin

 

Hamas leaders in Gaza announced Saturday that a young child had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The child was identified as Ali Muataz al-Shawaf, 4.

Pictures of the child’s bloody body were published in Palestinian Authority media outlets.

However, IDF officials later revealed the story as a lie. There was no Israeli airstrike in the region in which the child was killed, they asserted.

IDF officials confirmed that a Gaza terrorist was killed in an airstrike elsewhere in Gaza.

Continue Reading »

Arab World: Siege mentality

The Hamas leadership in Gaza has been energized by its expectations that the Muslim Brotherhood will soon be in control in Egypt and sees itself as the vanguard of an anti-Israeli front.

By JONATHAN SPYER

 

This week, the Hamas rulers of Gaza chose to abruptly shatter the fragile framework of assumptions which have governed relations between Israel and Gaza since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead in early 2009. By taking responsibility for the launch of a barrage of Kassam rockets into the Negev, Hamas essentially announced the birth of a new phase in its long war of attrition with Israel. Continue Reading »

Hamas: Gaza truce as of Saturday night

Ceasefire between Gaza terror groups, Israel achieved via Egyptian mediation, senior Hamas man says; more than 20 rockets hit Israel Saturday, IDF hits terror cell

by Elior Levy

 

A ceasefire between Gaza Strip factions and Israel will go into effect Saturday night following Egyptian mediation efforts, senior Hamas man Ayman Taha said in an interview with a Palestinian televisions station Saturday evening.

Gaza rockets explode in Israel Photo: Eliad Levy

Gaza rockets explode in Israel - Photo: Eliad Levy

Earlier Saturday, Israeli defense officials said that quiet in Gaza will be met with quiet, but denied that ceasefire negotiations were underway or that a truce deal was achieved. Continue Reading »

U.S. blog Business Insider: U.S., Israel continue preparations for strike on Iran nuclear facilities

The website cites U.S. defense contracts and Israel’s new military preparations, suggesting that ‘all sides are getting ready for whatever may come.’

 

 

Israel and the U.S. are pushing forward with preparations to jointly strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, the U.S. blog Business Insider reported on Saturday.

“U.S. defense contracts, an… F-16 acquisition, and Israel’s new military preparations suggest that all sides are getting ready for whatever may come,” the report says.

An Iranian security directs media at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

An Iranian security directs media at the Bushehr nuclear power plant - Photo by AP

According to the blog, the U.S navy has recently signed a $338 million contract with defense contractor Raytheon to “provide the Navy with 361 Tomahawk cruise missiles in their most recent configuration. Continue Reading »

Fayyad: Hamas losing support in Gaza, West Bank

PA PM says Gaza-based group avoiding elections because it is pessimistic about results; condemns Netanyahu over settlements.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Hamas has been avoiding elections because it is pessimistic about their outcome, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview with The Washington Post published Friday.

“It is a well-known fact borne out by various opinion polls that there has been a steady erosion in Hamas’s standing, both in the West Bank and Gaza,” Fayyad said. “I believe that is why they have been dodging elections.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad - Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Fayyad said that it was unacceptable that elections have not been held recently in the Palestinian Authority, calling a vote “overdue” and saying that it is “something I believe is going to happen, and I hope sooner rather than later.”

Continue Reading »

Hebrew National hot dogs not kosher, lawsuit claims

Consumers say meat processing services provided to ConAgra Foods fell short of standards necessary to label company’s products as kosher. Lawyer: This is an invisible fraud

Reuters

ConAgra Foods Inc has been sued by consumers who contend that hot dogs and other products sold under its Hebrew National brand are not kosher.

The lawsuit alleges that meat processing services provided to ConAgra by privately held AER Services Inc fell short of the standards necessary to label Hebrew National products as kosher. As a result, they said, ConAgra misled consumers and was able to charge premium prices.

Illustration Photo: Visual Photos

Illustration Photo: Visual Photos

Eleven individual consumers filed their complaint in May in Minnesota state court. Continue Reading »

Palestinians push UNESCO to make Bethlehem’s Nativity church a World Heritage site

 The effort by the Palestinian Authority is drawing resistance; World Heritage Committee meeting starts on Sunday.

 

 

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is becoming the church of contention, with a bid by the Palestinians to use their position as the newest members of the UN’s cultural arm to obtain World Heritage status for the iconic Christian site – and perhaps boost their own campaign for legitimacy.

The effort by the Palestinian Authority, like its overall efforts for global recognition for an independent Palestinian state, is drawing resistance. And it may fail at the World Heritage Committee meeting that starts Sunday. Continue Reading »

The Gaza Strip – Will normality ever return?

The Islamists of Hamas are being squeezed towards pragmatism

from the print edition

 

 

OVERCOMING five years of punishing siege, bombardment and war should be a cause for celebration. But Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules the coastal enclave of Gaza, was not cheering the anniversary of its military takeover on June 14th. Its initial pride at imposing internal security, constructing an effective administration and rebuilding Gaza by burrowing tunnels into Egypt is turning to embarrassment. Hamas officials have grown fat on the proceeds. The movement seems increasingly confused and evasive about its political direction.

The Economist

In recent months Hamas has dithered and bickered about whether it should seek reconciliation with Fatah, the secular-minded party that runs the bigger bit of the would-be Palestinian state on the West Bank, or preserve its near-monopoly on power in the isolated Gaza Strip.

Continue Reading »

CAROLINE B. GLICK: The Brotherhood’s useful idiots

You have to hand it to the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. They know how to play power politics.

 

 

You have to hand it to the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. They know how to play power politics. They know how to acquire power. And they know how to use power.

Last Friday, the day before voters by most accounts elected the Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsy to serve as Egypt’s next president, The Wall Street Journal published a riveting account by Charles Levinson and Matt Bradley of how the Brotherhood outmaneuvered the secular revolutionaries to take control of the country’s political space. Continue Reading »

Why are only the Palestinians considered ‘refugees’?

Following Israeli urging, U.S. Congress asks the U.N. to clarify why Palestinians can transfer their “refugee” status to descendants  • The request could possibly change U.S. funding for UNRWA.

By Shlomo Cesana

 

 

The U.S. Congress has approached the U.N. looking for an explanation as to why only the Palestinians have been allowed to pass on the status of refugees from generation to generation.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in a recent video campaign about U.N. policy toward Palestinian refugees. | Photo credit: Foreign Ministry

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in a recent video campaign about U.N. policy toward Palestinian refugees. - Photo: Foreign Ministry

According to official U.N. treaties, a refugee is defined, in short, as someone who was forced to leave his or her home due to persecution.

Continue Reading »