Jordan bars Jews with religious items

Aug. 14, 2008
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST
Jordanian border officials refused to allow a group of Israeli tourists carrying religious objects such as talitot and tefillin to enter their country on Tuesday, saying it was "a safety measure" to avoid potential terror threats.

Thirty-six Israeli tourists on their way to Amman for a three-day tour were detained at the Sheikh Ali Hussein Crossing near Beit She'an at 6:30 a.m. and notified of a new regulation that prohibits entry into Jordan with tefillin, talitot, prayer books, Bibles or the Talmud.

"Our group was presented with two options," said Alan Novetsky, a recent immigrant from New York who was accompanied on the tour by his wife. "Either enter Jordan without religious objects or go back to Israel."

Novetsky said the group's suitcases were thoroughly searched for religious items. "They seemed to know exactly what they were looking for.

"It was very demeaning to have such a negative experience in what is billed as a friendly country. People in the group, including the tour guides, were quite shocked. No one had ever heard that Jordan imposed religious restrictions," he said.

"What made it worse was that the whole thing seemed to be directed solely at Jews. I saw Christians walking through into Jordan openly wearing crosses. Apparently, Christian religious symbols did not seem to be a problem for the Jordanians. I can well imagine the international outcry if Islamic tourists were to encounter such restrictions on their entry into Israel."

A Jordanian security official said the decision was taken only for "security reasons."

The official said that the decision had been in effect for a long time and Israeli authorities were aware of it.

"The Jordanian security authorities are responsible for the safety of all visitors to the kingdom and it is our duty to take all measures required in this regard," the official explained. He expressed regret that the tourists had been offended by the measure.

Novetsky said that at first the the guides tried to bargain with the Jordanian officials, promising to keep the religious items hidden and to pray inside the hotel. But the suggestions were rejected.

"The vast majority of the group decided that as proud Israelis, we were either going to be allowed to walk into Jordan holding our religious objects or we would not go in at all."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446197326&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jewish Community in Yemen

The Jewish community in Yemen faces a challenge.

Aggregated from Israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I have no idea what brought this on, but CNN did a report that was posted to the web on Friday about the Jewish community in Yemen. The Yemenite Jewish community, which has a very rich and ancient heritage, mostly lives in Israel these days with smaller pockets in the US and in London. But the small community just outside of Sana very strongly keeps to its traditions, as you will see in this video. I fear that this community may reach a bad end - God forbid - unless it leaves Yemen soon.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: NYNana who found it after CNN removed the original). [If the video is not included in your e-mail, go to jcommunitynews.blogspot.com

Jewish Agency evacuates hundreds from Georgia war zone

After establishing contact with Jewish community in war-torn South Ossetia, Agency coordinates evacuation to capital city of Tbilisi. As death tolls crosses 2,000, West announces delegation of EU, US, NATO officials en route to broker ceasefire

Yael Branovsky 08.09.08, ynetnews.com



"I'm staying here till the last Jew is evacuated," a defiant Bashu Mansharov told Ynet on Saturday after the Jewish Agency evacuated hundreds of Jewish Georgians to safety as Georgian-Russian hostilities continue to rage in South Ossetia.

At least 200 Jewish residents living near the ongoing Georgian-Russian hostilities have been evacuated by the Jewish Agency to the capital city of Tbilisi. Most from Gori.

Mansharov said the majority of those who have not fled are adult men who chose to stay behind and protect their homes and property. "I sent my wife, my two children and my mother-in-law away, but I will stay here until the last Jew leaves," Mansharov said. "Things here are bad, there are many wounded and killed, but even though I am a doctor I'm not in the hospital right now, because we're trying to get all the Jews out. I gave all of them the number of the Jewish Agency, so they could reach them for help."

According to the Agency, there are currently 12,000 Jews in Georgia, most of whom live in the capital. It also said there are still four Jewish families in South Ossetia that no one has been able to contact as of yet. Georgia's communications network in the region has been badly damaged.

"In The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Andrew Bostom explodes the delusional myths with which too many in the West obscure the truth of Muslim Jew-hatred"
-- Bruce S. Thornton

Islam Without Apologetics by Bruce S. Thornton
8 August 2008 [excerpt]

According to received wisdom,

an Islamic faith that once tolerantly coexisted with Jews and Christians has been traumatized by the twentieth century and its destructive ideologies(such as fascism, communism, and nationalism), by the depredations of European colonialism and imperialism, and by the displacements wrought by globalization.

These developments, according to such apologists as John Esposito and Reza Aslan, have given rise to a distortion of Islam,

one manifested not just in “Islamist” terror but also in the virulent anti-Semitism visible today throughout the Middle East and in Europe’s Muslim communities. A religious culture that once embraced the kindred “people of the book”—Jews and Christians—has now been infected by European anti-Semitism, just one more way that Western cultural dysfunctions have damaged the traditions of a proud faith.

The problem with this tale, as Andrew Bostom documents in The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, is that it isn’t true.

A physician and professor of medicine at Brown University, Bostom demonstrated a doctor’s fidelity to empirical evidence in his previous book, The Legacy of Islamic Jihad, showing how violence against the infidel is central to Islamic doctrine, theology, and jurisprudence. He now performs a similar service in examining Islamic anti-Semitism, exploding the delusional myths with which too many in the West obscure the truth of Muslim Jew-hatred.

As he did in his earlier book, Bostom provides copious documentation from primary sources—including the Koran, hadith (traditional accounts of Mohammed’s deeds and sayings), sira (early biographies of Mohammed), and other Muslim texts—as well as modern scholarly commentary, including his own introduction, which summarizes his conclusions. His use of such an abundant body of scholarship makes it difficult for critics to dismiss his arguments as biased interpretations of the evidence.

As he writes,

“For the Muslim masses, basic Islamic education in the Qu’ran, hadith, and sira . . . may create an immutable superstructure of Jew hatred on to which non-Muslim sources of Jew hatred are easily grafted.”

Islamic anti-Semitism begins, as do all things in Islam, with the Koran—the immutable, infallible, timeless words of Allah dictated to the Prophet—in which Jews are cursed with “abasement and humiliation” and are “deserving of Allah’s wrath” because they rejected Mohammed. Jews are further characterized as corrupt, treacherous rebels and infidels whose destiny is to be the enemy of the true believers.

Read more of this article.

Iranian TV documentary traces Zionist themes in "Meet the Parents"



Video and transcript: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1811.htm

May 28, 2008 Clip No. 1811

Iranian TV Documentary Series Traces Zionist Themes in Western Movies: "Meet the Parents"

Following are excerpts from an Iranian TV documentary on Zionist themes in Hollywood cinema. The program, which focused on "Meet the Parents," aired on IRINN TV on May 28, 2008.

Narrator: As has been mentioned before, one of the regular methods of Zionist propaganda is to use Jewish characters in films to present the idea that Zionism and the [Jewish] religion are one and the same.

[...]

Iranian film director Masoud Deh-Namaki: They are shrewd, because they do not reveal all their thoughts. As I've said before, they deal with the subconsciousness of the viewer. Later, they use these ideas in more substantial contexts, such as articles and serious films. The viewer, who is exposed to these ideas from a young age, does not need any explanation, because subconsciously, he has already absorbed these ideas.

[...]

Iranian documentary filmmaker Mohammad-Reza Khosaravi-Far: In order to highlight the oppression [of the Jews] and to make it more interesting, these people have begun to make comedy films. A striking example of such films is "Meet the Parents." In this film, they tried, using the comedy genre, to make the viewer not merely understand, but become convinced of this oppression and the holocaust, and of how much the Jews suffered hardships in the 1940s and 1950s.

[...]

Deh-Namaki: The nuclear weapons of [the Israelis] remain unused in their arsenals. Instead, they conquer the world with cameras, negatives, and frames.

[...]

Narrator: It is no coincidence that when the legitimacy of the Zionist regime is in crisis, one of the familiar Hollywood characters – the honest, clumsy Jewish citizen – is portrayed once again. The appearance of this citizen in "Meet the Parents" reflects the desire of a kind, peace-loving person to marry into a genteel American family. This symbolizes the extent to which the Zionist regime needs the Western fundamentalist regimes.

[...]

Iranian documentary filmmaker Reza Eskandar: [In such films] the character of the Jew is always praised and glorified. The Jew is always depicted as a positive and trustworthy person. Even if, by chance, he is involved is something wrong, it is only because he was pursuing a very lofty goal, and not because he was a bad man by nature.

[...]

Narrator: "Meet the Parents" is one of Hollywood's comedies produced in recent years, which includes humoristic scenes, and take bold jibes at traditional American society. At the same time, however, it cunningly tries to arouse the viewer's compassion and sympathy toward Zionist beliefs.
------------

As documented by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) www.memritv.org

Any Iranian attempt to close Gulf 'self-defeating': Pentagon

[AFP] The Pentagon said Tuesday that any move by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz would be "self-defeating" because its weak economy is so heavily dependent on oil revenues.

"Shutting down the Strait, closing down the Persian Gulf, would be sort of a self-defeating exercise," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. "That doesn't say anything about whether we tolerate such a thing to happen."

Morrell's comments came in response to a warning by the new head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that Iran could easily close the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil passes.

[40% of all seaborne oil traffic passes through the Strait of Hormuz]

General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced Monday that Iran has successfully tested an anti-ship missile with a range of 300 kilometers (180 miles.)

"And given the equipment our armed forces have, an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be very easy," Jafari said on state television.

Morrell argued, however, that Iran would be the first to be hurt if it closed the Gulf.

"I don't think it is Iran's interest to shut down the Strait of Hormuz or the Persian Gulf, or attempt to do so," he told reporters.

"They have a very weak economy at this point which depends almost entirely on their oil revenue," he said.

Point - Counterpoint

If you already convinced that Israel is working against its best interests, read Nicholas Kristof's Op Ed in the NY Times "Tough Love for Israel," and go no further.

But if you can entertain the possibility that Palestinian terrorism and rejectionism has at least something to do with the lack of peace, take a look at CAMERA's rebuttal to Kristof.

Among the more interesting arguments examined by Kristof and CAMERA has to do with comparisons between the situations in Northern Ireland and the Palestinian/Israeli conflicts:

Kristof: Peace-making invariably involves exasperating and intransigent antagonists and unequal steps, just as it did in the decades in which Britain struggled to end terrorism emanating from Northern Ireland. But London never ordered air strikes on Sinn Fein or walled in Catholic neighborhoods. Over time, Britain's extraordinary restraint slowly changed attitudes so as to make the eventual peace possible.

CAMERA Note: "London never walled in Catholic neighborhoods?" Apparently Kristof's expertise does not extend to Northern Ireland either. There are walls (or so-called "peace lines" ) running throughout Belfast, separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.

Here's one photo of such a wall in west Belfast:

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/photos/belfast/peaceline/peaceline1.htm

In addition, Kristof ignores the fact that the two conflicts are completely different: England wasn't fighting to protect its homeland from utter destruction. Sinn Fein sought to oust the British from Northern Ireland, not from England itself, while the Palestinian extremists seek to annihilate Israel. That is, Kristof has once again created his own reality.

Furthermore, Israel has been extremely restrained in the face of relentless terror attacks. Building a separation barrier has reduced terrorism and therefore (prior to the escalation of rocket attacks against Israel), the need for large-scale counter-attacks.

That notwithstanding, it is highly questionable whether it was British "restraint" that made peace possible. Google that conflict and you'll find many theories.