August 2007 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, August 31, 2007

What a cute little Palestinian Arab girl - with a submachine gun

A Palestinian girl holds a weapon next to militants from Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to the ruling Fatah movement, during a rally in the Old City of the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, Aug. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)Child abuse is just so precious when you have an Arab stringer taking the photos.Another peaceful image from this rally:Palestinian...

In Saudi Arabia, 28-year old women can't run away from home

Another strange story that illustrates the bizarre misogyny in Saudi Arabia:Following negotiations between the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Jeddah and the Family Protection Committee at the Makkah region’s Social Affairs Department, six sisters, who had run away from their drug addict father in Riyadh, were given a women’s shelter in Jeddah on Wednesday night. The girls had previously run away from their drug addict father and stayed...

This morning, Reuters released a bunch of pictures of "Palestinian cave residents:"Palestinian cave residents belong to the al-Hawamdeh and al-Daghamin clans cook "Mansaf" for a party lunch, south of the West Bank city of Hebron August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)Usually, photo essays like this are associated with a feature article, but not in this ca...

Luckily, Reuters in January published a classic piece of biased journalism that used these cavemen to bash Israel that explains who these people are:

Home sweet home for Suleiman Hawamdeh, a 73-year-old father of 10, is a deep cave in a barren West Bank hillside separated by a barbed-wire fence from a modern Jewish settlement.

Note how the author contrasts the cave dwellers with the "settlers" - and it soon becomes apparent why.

Hawamdeh and 120 other Palestinians inhabit the cluster of caves known locally as Quina Foq, which straddles the so-called "Green Line" that separated the Jewish state and the West Bank before the 1967 Middle East war.

They draw their water from wells and gather wood for cooking much like their ancestors, who first settled here during Ottoman rule more than a century ago.

You will never find Reuters referring to Jews descended from First Aliyah Zionists in this fashion, because the reporter is trying to evoke a sense of how these people have lived there forever, while Jews who have lived there just as long will always be thought of as usurpers. The use of the words "ancestors", "Ottoman rule" and "more than a century ago" all have the same purpose - but in the Middle East, a century is barely the blink of an eye.

Quina Foq's inhabitants eke out a living farming and herding sheep in the rocky hills about 40 km (25 miles) south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Many of the children go to school in the nearest Palestinian town, As-Samu': an hour's donkey trek.

The cave dwellers share a satellite dish and a television set, which is powered a few hours each night by a car battery.

Israeli authorities prevent them from building on the land, and the barbed-wire fence, which separates Quina Foq from the Jewish settlement of Shani, limits their access to a nearby forested area where wood for cooking is plentiful.

Notice how the article tries to imply that the Jewish residents are the cause of the fence being built, and that they are the threat to the Arabs.

Hawamdeh and other residents complain about the Israeli restrictions, but say they live in these caves by choice and have no intention of leaving.

"We belong to this land. It's the land of our ancestors," Hawamdeh said.

Once again, evoking history in a way that Reuters would never use for Jews.

His cousin, 31-year-old Ahmad, said: "I can't live in the city -- it's a big jail. I prefer to be here next to my livestock."

A few hundred yards away, Jewish settlers live in red roof-topped homes, some with backyard swimming pools.

Now, what relevance does this sentence have in a story meant to be about the cave dwellers? The cave people have made it clear that they do not want to live in towns or in houses. Yet to the Western audience of Reuters, this sentence reinforces the wire-service narrative that Jews are taking advantage of Arabs and keeping them in primitive conditions.

One of the oldest residents of Quina Foq, 70-year-old Yusef Kailil, said his grandfather was among the first Palestinians to settle in the caves in the 1800s.

Of course, in the 1800s they were Arabs who settled there from elsewhere, and nobody called them Palestinians. Reuters again is evoking the idea that these people have been there forever and carrying on a noble way of life threatened by Israel, when in fact they have been there for only a few generations, no longer than the first Zionist settlers and significantly less time than many Jews who lived nearby in Hebron.

"I was born here and I will die here," added 60-year-old Mohammad Rawashdeh.

Israel erected the barbed-wire fence about a year ago -- an extension of the barrier being built by the Jewish state in and around the West Bank.

In other areas, the barrier -- which Israel says helps stop suicide bombers but which Palestinians call an attempt to grab land, is made of concrete.

Again, an irrelevant fact meant for nothing else than to make Israel look evil. And notice how "Israel says" the barrier helps stop suicide bombers, rather than stating the facts that support that assertion.

Palestinian residents of Quina Foq say they have mixed feelings about the fence. On the downside, it prevents them from freely accessing the forested area below Shani as they have for generations.

But it also keeps the settlers at a distance, which has helped reduce the occasional hostilities which took place before it was erected.

It is the Jews who cause all the troubles with Arabs who just want to live in peace, according to Reuters.

The typical Quina Foq cave is 60 metres (197 feet) deep. The opening is carved from stone.

The caves are divided into three areas: a living space, a storage area and a kitchen.

Residents of the caves sleep on blankets and mattresses on the rocky floor. There is no running water and no electricity. They have no furniture and, apart from the shared television, no modern appliances.

In winter, they keep warm in the caves with small wood fires.

They say they sleep outdoors during summer to avoid snakes and scorpions that seek shelter from the heat.

Quina Foq has four water tanks, one for the people and three for their animals, which live in the caves during winter.

"We have water problems during the summer. We don't have other alternatives," said Mosa Rawashdeh, 27.

Except for moving out of caves, a practice that is hardly ancient according to their own testimony.

Beside the caves, the only permanent structure is a tent that serves as the television room. The Israeli army has told them to take the tent down because building on the land is prohibited.

"They are living in crisis," said Abdul Hadi Hantash, who handles land issues for the municipality of Hebron.

An Israeli army spokesman said the army was working with regional planning authorities, issuing orders to remove "illegal structures" in the West Bank built both by Palestinians and Israelis.

Israeli authorities occasionally allow one Palestinian with a donkey cart to cross the barbed-wire fence and gather branches that have fallen from the trees near Shani.
The Palestinians complain that they are required to gather all of the fallen wood, whether it is good for cooking or not.

So the evil Israelis have taken down a structure that these people - who willingly live without electricity and running water - can watch TV. And when Israel allows them to go through the dreaded barrier to get wood, it is in an evil way.

And if their community straddles the Green Line, that means that there was a border within their own community before "occupation" - yet there are no Reuters' stories crying about that.

Even though this article is seven months old it is a classic representation of how Reuters, arguably the most influential news service in the world, has no interest in balance or fairness - even when reporting "human interest" stories.

Israeli technology poised to save more US troops - again

Yet again, Israel has developed technology that has the potential to save countless American and allied soldiers' lives:Rafael Armament Development Authority, one of Israel's largest defense firms, has unveiled its next-generation "add-on armor technology" for combat vehicles: the Multi-Threat Armor Protection System. "We anticipate the successful integration of M-TAPS in the MRAP II (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles) and MPV programs," Nehemia...

A Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs, part 13

The stateless Palestinian Arabs became more and more fragmented as the 1960s dawned. As their numbers increased, so did their value to the ever-growing number of Arab leaders who wanted to act as their leaders.The Arab world at this time was far from unified. By 1960, there were at least three major players bidding for leadership of the Arab world: Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, King Hussein of Jordan and Abd al-Karim Qasim of Iraq. Each of them tried...

Human Rights Watch's amusing advice for Iran and Syria

Human Rights Watch just published a report that shows, not surprisingly, that Hezbollah targeted Israeli civilians during the Lebanon war. Even though this was fairly obvious, HRW used a couple of interesting methods to prove it - for example, Hezbollah's urging Arabs on August 9 in Haifa to evacuate shows that they were clearly targeting civilians and only wanted to kill the Jews.One of the stranger sections of the report was in HRW's recommendations...

A little more Temple Mount hypocrisy

When Israel tries to do anything around the Temple Mount, even though it does it transparently and with utmost care for archaeological treasures, the Arab world howls with rage about "desecration" and how Israel is trying to "Judaize" Jerusalem.But when the Waqf really does desecrate the holiest site on the planet, they just call it "maintenance" and howl about Jewish "interference." From Al Hayat al-Jadida, autotranslated:Aqsa Institution said that...

Clan clash kills kid

Ma'an reports:A Palestinian citizen called Isma'il Majaydah 17 was shot dead by a relative of his during a clan clash in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.The family said the killer was a member of the Hamas-affiliated Executive Force. It is interesting that when 17-year old terrorists get killed by Israel, they are called "children," but when they get killed by Hamas, they are "citizens."The PalArab self-death count, dormant for a week,...

Falafel, shwarma and a side order of slander

Gulf News published an article by an Arab American being very upset over people describing foods such as falafel, shwarma and hummous as being "Israeli" foods.The author backs this up with reference to "tens" of websites that do describe those foods as Israeli.While this may be the case, I am unaware of any serious person who claims that Israelis originated any of these foods, and a quick perusal of Google shows that the top three sites with the...

Isaac Newton's Hebrew handwriting

The Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem has a collection of Isaac Newton's non-scientific writings, many of them theological.In a manuscript where Newton discussed aspects of the Temple in Jerusalem, we can see here where he actually writes in Hebrew in addition to English and Lati...

Waqf destroying parts of Temple Mount again

A followup to an earlier post, from Ynet:Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday they fear priceless relics could be damaged by a mechanical digger being used by Muslim caretakers to carve out a utility trench at one of Jerusalem's holiest shrines.The work is being carried out on the plaza revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and by Jews as the Temple Mount."It is appalling that in one of the most important archaeological sites...

Intellectual dishonesty in NYT on Brooklyn Arabic public school

Samuel Freedman in the New York Times engages in an effectively dishonest characterization of the critics of the Khalil Gibran public school that is opening in Brooklyn next month:Last Feb. 12, you may recall, New York education officials announced plans to open a minischool in September that would teach half its classes in Arabic and include study of Arab culture. The principal was to be a veteran teacher who was also a Muslim immigrant from Yemen,...

Olmert to allow Church of the Nativity terrorists to return for Ramadan

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, it looks more and more likely that Olmert will allow the 40 or so people who defiled the Church of the Nativity to return from where they were deported.And the idea is just as stupid and abhorrent now as it was then.Bethlehem - Ma'an - Palestinian sources said on Tuesday that they believe that the file on the deportees from the Bethlehem Nativity Church will be closed during the holy month of Ramadan and that the deportees...

Daughter of Ziyon's interesting trip through the JBlogosphere

The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon had an interesting JBlogosphere experience recently, and I asked her to write it down so I could exploit her talents for my blog. Since she is about to go to Eretz Yisroel for her seminary year, I wanted to get everything out of her that I could before she left....One day, I was minding my own business and surfing through a couple ofmy favorite blogs, playing link-jumping from site to site, interestedonly...

Huffington Post publishes a great legal history of the "territories"

Sorry for quoting the whole thing, but it is as good and accurate a history of the disputed territories as one will ever find. By Robert Eisenman: Christiane Amanpour in her "God's Warriors: The Jews" broadcast on CNN this weekend - aside from giving voice to as many anti-Israel and anti-"settlement" critics as one might imagine and almost no "Jewish" (really?) God's Warriors, except to portray them in the most trivialized manner - must have...

This week was the much anticipated ninth "United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names," perhaps one of the more boring functions of the UN.Israel submitted a number of papers describing the difficulties of using UN standards for Biblical names, as the Biblical names are so well-known and tourists who use maps would be confused if Israel transliterated...

Fayyad closes down 103 "charities"

From Ma'an:Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday revealed that his government has decided to close 103 charitable societies.Fayyad alleged that the closure was for 'legal reasons'.The PM claimed that the beneficiaries of the societies will be compensated.In a meeting with representatives of local newspapers, Fayyad said that the interior minister, Abdur Razzaq Mahmoud al-Yahya, ordered the closure of the charities after deeming...

Today's news from Bahrain

A Thai prostitute complained to Bahraini police that a Saudi client had stolen her handbag. Needless to say, the Saudi got off scot free and she is being deported.---------------------A 20 year-old Bahraini woman got drunk and a man photographed her naked. The pictures became very popular, very quickly as people Bluetoothed the picture from phone to phone. Needless to say, the Bahraini police arrested her for "immoral acts" and the man who took the...

PalArabs do not horribly murder IDF soldier in Jenin

According to Ma'an:The Palestinian security services on Monday returned an Israeli officer who had mistakenly entered Jenin, in the northern West Bank.Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli officer entered the city via An Nassera Street in a white car and wearing his uniform.The witnesses also revealed that a Palestinian police car stopped the Israeli officer when he arrived in the main square of the city centre and escorted him to the Mukataa.When the...

Morning links

The Anonymous Liberal compares US and Israeli prisoner policies, and finds that Israel affords far more human rights to terrorists than the US does, even though the US threat is a fraction of Israel's. (via Israel Matzav)Meryl Yourish notices that when CNN rebroadcast its "warriors" series twice over the weekend, it made sure that the Jewish segment always was played while people were awake. The other two's orders were switched.The Los Angeles Times...

Fatah reacts to Hamas' "Lion King" cartoon

Last week, Hamas broadcast an anti-Fatah cartoon. It starts off with a scene of a lion, clearly resembling Disney's Lion King, who is finished with his meal of an animal with a Jewish star on his remaining bone. Then a gang of Fatah rats, led by a rat who speaks with canned quotes from Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan, takes over Gaza - using American money and Israeli weapons to destroy institutions, kill children, set fires, take off a woman's veil,...

Hamas stealing drugs from Gaza hospital?

Palestinian Press Agency, which is very anti-Hamas, claims that an adviser to Hamas leader Haniyeh has been stealing pharmaceuticals from the Shifa hospital in Gaza and transferring them to a Hamas-run hospita...

Saudi teacher beats up student, parent

The Arab News just gets better and better....In this story, a teacher beat up his student, and when the father came to investigate, he got beaten up too:“I received a telephone call from my son at the end of the academic year. He wanted help and so I hurried to the school. When I saw Yasir, I thought he had fallen and didn’t think a teacher had beaten him up,” said Abdullatif.The father said that when he went into the school, the teacher screamed...

Saudi Best Wife Award

Here's another great "human interest" story in the Arab News that shows, subconsciously, how twisted Arab society is:TABUK, 27 August 2007 — A man here recently stated that if there was a Best Wife award in the country, his first wife would win it. The reason is that his wife is exceptionally wise and understanding, he said.When he informed her that he wanted to take a second wife a couple of weeks ago, she took the initiative and found a pretty...

A PLO co-founder dies

From Ma'an:A member of the Arab Nationalist Movement's liaison department, Ahmad Mahmoud Al-Jamal, died on Saturday.Al-Jamal was born in 1940 in the Palestinian village of Lubya. He was one of the founders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Al-Jamal worked in the PLO's Damascus-based office until his death.If the PLO is the "sole representative of the Palestinian (Arab) people," and if the West is so hot on saying that it is "moderate,"...

Freedom of the press, PalArab-style (IX)

The series continues....From AP via Jpost:Hamas militiamen tried to arrest a prominent Palestinian journalist late Saturday, but left the scene at the urging of Hamas political leaders after a group of reporters blocked the force from entering the man's home.The attempted arrest of Agence France Press reporter Sakher Abu El Oun came a day after Hamas beat a group of journalists covering a demonstration protesting the Islamic militant group's rule...

The CNN/Amanpour trifecta

Once I read Seraphic Secret's account of Part 3 of CNN's Moral Equivalence Festival, I realized that I had to read the transcript for myself and join the party."Now, God's Christian warriors -- the religious right in America."Even though we knew this is what the Christian part would be about, it is still amazing to think that the honchos at CNN cannot see a gaping, huge, gigantic difference between the Taliban and Jerry Falwell.Would it even be conceivable...