Thursday, November 04, 2004

  • Thursday, November 04, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon

Don't they look like they live in squalor, poor and desperate circumstances forcing them to have to blow themselves up? - EoZ
Palestinian men look at US presidential candidates Republican George W. Bush (L) and Democrat John Kerry on TV in the West Bank city of Hebron.(AFP/Hazem Bader)

Wed Nov 3, 4:05 PM ET



Palestinian men look at US presidential candidates Republican George W. Bush (L) and Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) on TV in the West Bank city of Hebron.(AFP/Hazem Bader)


Now, these guys are in a Lebanese refugee camp, where they haven't fought Israelis for years. But they have to keep their guns with them at all times, just in case! -EoZ
Palestinian fighters watch news on Arafat at their post in the Ain el-Helweh Refugee camp in southern Lebanon.(AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)

Thu Oct 28, 8:40 PM ET



Palestinian fighters watch news on Arafat at their post in the Ain el-Helweh Refugee camp in southern Lebanon.(AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

  • Wednesday, November 03, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
British Prime Minister Tony Blair devoted much of a brief speech congratulating President George W. Bush on his reelection Wednesday night to a call for a new coordinated effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Describing the need for such a solution as the 'single most pressing political challenge in our world today,' Blair urged the president to seek peace 'between Israel and Palestine' with the 'same energy' that he has pursued his agenda in Iraq. Blair placed this quest in the context of 'resolving the conditions and causes on which the terrorists prey.'

Blair's dramatic emphasis on the issue, and his pledge to work with Bush to advance it, underlined the British prime minister's desire to be seen as seeking a dramatic Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough in order to pacify the vast contingent of critics, inside and outside his own Labor party, of his firm alliance with Bush over the Iraq war.

And as we all know, devoting energy to I/P means pressuring Israel to keep giving Palestinians whatever they are asking for. -EoZ
  • Wednesday, November 03, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
See? They're just like us - only with assault rifles! - EoZ
Palestinian gunmen watch a television news report on the US presidential elections at the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.(AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)

Wed Nov 3,10:31 AM ET



Palestinian gunmen watch a television news report on the US presidential elections at the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.(AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)
  • Wednesday, November 03, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
(Paris) As French doctors continue to run tests on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat some medical authorities not connected directly to his case are suggesting that he may have HIV/AIDS.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath Monday said that all types of cancer had been ruled out.

Arafat has been visibly ill for more than two weeks. Last Wednesday he collapsed and briefly lost consciousness. Initial blood tests performed in the West Bank revealed a low blood platelet count. The Palestinian leader was airlifted to France where he is undergoing more tests.

But, with leukemia and other forms of cancer ruled out, the list of possible diseases is narrowing.

A low blood platelet count is a sign of a weakened immune system. In addition to cancer, the low count could be attributed to bleeding ulcers, colitis, liver disease, lupus, or HIV. It is believed that ulcers and colitis have already been ruled out.

Arafat has lost a considerable amount of body weight. Hopital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, southwest of Paris, also has some of France's best HIV/AIDS doctors.

For several years there have been suggestions that Arafat was bisexual.
Ion Pacepa, who was deputy chief of Romanian foreign intelligence under the Ceaucescu regime and who defected to the West in 1978, says in his memoirs that the Romania government bugged Arafat and had recordings of the Arab leader in orgies with his body guards.

If the suggestions that Arafat has AIDS are true, it is doubtful it would be made public.
  • Wednesday, November 03, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed on Sunday morning that the Israeli government has decided to allow the offer a US$10 million reward for significant information on the fate of air force navigator, Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon 18 years ago, Channel 2 TV reported Saturday.

The Israeli government agreed to offer the reward owing to the urgings of a special committee devoted to locating the missing navigator.

The committee, which was established two years ago, has been pressing the matter since its conception, but security forces objected until now, saying that such an initiative would interfere with other efforts to obtain information regarding the fate of Arad, Israel Radio reported.

According to Army Radio, the reward money would be funded in part by the government and in part by private contributions.

The station said the offer would be published worldwide on December 1.
  • Wednesday, November 03, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Shin Bet security services and the Israel Defense Forces said yesterday they have in recent weeks arrested 16 Bethlehem residents who are suspected of having planned a series of large-scale terror attacks in Jerusalem.
The cells are said to have planned to dispatch two pairs of suicide bombers to the Mea She'arim neighborhood in the capital, and to carry out a terror attack using an explosive-laden ambulance. Also attributed to one of the cells is a plan to attack a bus carrying worshipers to Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem.

Based on details released by security forces yesterday, Hamas was meant to provide the suicide bombers for the missions, while Islamic Jihad was supposed to supply the explosive devices. Some of those arrested, including four teenage would-be suicide bombers, served in the Palestinian national security services. Among those arrested is Hamed Dar'awi, an active member in the PA's national security services, who is said to have been the planner of the ambulance attack.

The cells are said to have received instructions from Palestinian militant leaders in the Gaza Strip.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

  • Tuesday, November 02, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
Harvard professor Ruth Wisse said on Friday that Israelis should not be blamed for the hardships of Palestinians in a talk that focused on a speech last week by pro-Palestinian activist and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein. On-campus flyers advertising Epstein’s speech two weeks ago compared images of Jews in Nazi Germany to Palestinians at Israeli security check points.

The event was sponsored by Chabad at Stanford, in conjunction with the Jewish Law Students Association, Jewish Med Students Association, Jewish Business Association and Israel Peace Initiative.

“We felt a speech by Professor Wisse would be a constructive response to the events,” said Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of Chabad at Stanford.

Greenberg told The Daily that Wisse’s talk was not intended to directly refute Epstein’s, although in a press release about Wisse’s talk Greenberg said that “students are clearly outraged about Hedy Epstein’s remarks.”

While her audience ate Challah bread and drank champagne for the Kiddush, Wisse discussed the origins and effects of anti-Semitism. Her most pointed remarks related to the current political situation between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Of course the Palestinian people suffer — it is genuine, it is undeniable, they can’t advance; the Jews would love to cure that suffering, but it is not a problem that the Jews created, and it is not a problem that the Jews can solve,” she said. “The Jews want to do anything to accommodate at any price, but this will not solve the problem. We can not afford to do this, it does not help.”

One student asked Wisse about the extent of Israel’s mistakes in its treatment of Palestinians.

“Could we do it better? Of course, but the one thing we cannot bear is one who believes that we are responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians,” Wisse said. “People who believe this are lying, and that lie is disastrous for both Jews and Palestinians.”

Wisse placed blame instead on the Arab world and on Palestinian politics.

“Why have the Palestinians insisted on keeping refugees?” she asked. “The greatest scandal is that the Palestinians have allowed their people to remain refugees. This is not a creation of Israel, it is a creation of Arab rulers.”

Wisse said the Arab world continuously launches attacks against the Jews, who remain silent and want to be accepted. She said this attempt to “be nice” has led many Jews to willingly accept responsibility for the Palestinian suffering.

“Anyone who takes responsibility for something that they neither did nor can correct is adding to the sum of the evil. The Arab rulers are responsible for the Palestinian conflict and they have to resolve this problem.”
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
The victims were identified as Shmuel Levy, 65, of Jaffa; Leah Levine, 64, of Givatayim; and Tatiana Ackerman, 32, of Tel Aviv. Shmuel Levy was laid to rest at 1 p.m. in the Yarkon cemetery. Leah Levine was buried at 2 p.m. in the Yarkon cemetery.

Fourteen of the wounded remain in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, six of them with serious injuries and the rest with moderate-to-light wounds, a hospital spokeswoman said.

In the Wolfson Hospital in Holon five people remain hospitalized with only one in moderate condition. The remaining four suffered light injuries.
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
If anything was guaranteed to annoy the Palestinians, it was a comment made by Yasser Arafat's wife after the birth of their daughter, Zahwa. As Suha Arafat proudly showed off the Palestinian leader's only child at the �1,100-a-night hospital in Paris in July 1995, she declared: 'Our child was conceived in Gaza, but sanitary conditions there are terrible. I don't want to be a hero and risk my baby.'

Her remarks highlighted the widening gulf between the Palestinian 'first lady' and her people - many of whom live on little more than �3 a day per family.

The spendthrift image of Mrs Arafat was further enhanced when French authorities launched an investigation into claims that $11.4 million (�6.22 million) had been transferred from Switzerland to two of her French bank accounts between July 2002 and 2003.

The sums were on top of an allowance of $100,000 (�54,500) which Mr Arafat, 75, sent his 40-year-old wife each month. Mrs Arafat and Palestinian representatives in Paris described the claims as Israeli propaganda.

Mrs Arafat, however, failed to deny the transactions outright in an interview with the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Al-Hayat. 'Prime minister Ariel Sharon is responsible for this vicious leak,' she said. 'What's strange about the rais [president] sending money to his wife overseas, especially when I handle Palestinian matters and interests?'

Mrs Arafat was born in Jerusalem to a wealthy family. She spent her formative years in Nablus and Ramallah, where her Oxford-educated father was a banker. Her mother, Raymonda Tawil, an outspoken author, was frequently placed under house arrest by the Israeli authorities.

Mrs Arafat has always had strong connections with the French capital and spent much of her youth in Paris, staying at her mother's flat and reading politics at the Sorbonne.

She has lived in Paris full-time since 2000, ostensibly so that Zahwa - named after Mr Arafat's mother, who died when he was five - could receive treatment for leukaemia, although close friends suggest that she was also worried by the second intifada. At all events, until Friday's mercy mission, she had not returned to Ramallah and has been granted French citizenship.

In November last year, the American television network CBS investigated Mrs Arafat's way of life. The programme claimed that she lived on an entire floor of the exclusive Bristol Hotel in Paris at an estimated cost of �8,700 a night for more than a year. The hotel, however, claimed it had never seen her.

Last year, Mrs Arafat bought a multi-million pound flat in the chic 16th arrondissement, in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe and handy for the Champs-�ly�es. She owns another property in the wealthy suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

She is often seen in the front rows of Paris fashion shows, or shopping with the wife of the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and the sister of the King of Morocco. She favours the haute couture designer Louis F�raud and the upmarket shoe-maker Christian Louboutin. Her hair is expensively highlighted.
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yasser Arafat pumped millions of dollars into the Aksa Martyrs Brigades even as he let his disillusioned security forces go without pay for months, according to a forthcoming book by Matt Rees, the Time Magazine bureau chief in Jerusalem.

The revelation comes as Palestinian officials announced this week that the Palestinian Authority was unable to pay the salaries of its civil servants and security personnel for November. Arafat, who is receiving medical treatment in Paris, reportedly phoned his finance minister to order him to pay the salaries on time.

In an incident described in 'Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East,' due to be published this month by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Rees reveals how Arafat sent $2 million to the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Gaza in June 2002 but provided only a pittance to pay the salaries of his official security forces.

According to 'Cain's Field,' an advance copy of which has been obtained by The Jerusalem Post, two senior Palestinian intelligence officers visited the home of Major-General Abdel Razak al-Majaideh, commander of Arafat's Gaza National Security Forces, in June 2002. The intelligence officers, who had not been paid for several months, learned from Fatah contacts that Arafat just sent $2 million to the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Gaza. An outraged Majaideh complained to them that Arafat sent him only $30,000 to pay the wages of all the Palestinian security officers in the Gaza Strip.

'It was the equation of Arafat's interests,' writes Rees. 'Two million dollars against $30,000. Arafat was working against his own people, ignoring them while he shoveled wads of cash to gunmen.'

For the first time, Rees reveals the inside story of Arafat's divisive, self-destructive rule, detailing what the gunmen did with the cash they received from Arafat.

He shows how the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, ruled Palestinian towns like gangsters in defiance of security officials who gradually learned they didn't have Arafat's backing.
Rees also recounts the shocking story of a Christian girl from Bet Jala, near Bethlehem, who was coerced into sex and then murdered by Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders in Bethlehem.

After killing the girl, the group's leaders released a statement saying that they 'wanted to clean the Palestinian house of prostitutes.'

Rees writes that the 'thugs sexually degraded her, punished her for it, and then claimed the position of moral champions from a society that they more than anyone were responsible for sullying.'

'Cain's Field' also reveals the story of the deputy chief of General Intelligence in Gaza, Zakaria Baloush. He tired so much of Arafat's double game that he announced he would run against him for the job of president.

Arafat never held the elections, but he did try to persuade Baloush to return to the fold. When Baloush told Arafat he could no longer work for the head of General Intelligence in Gaza, Amin al-Hindi, Arafat said: 'So kick him out. Throw him into the sea.'

Rees says that Arafat ran the Palestinian Authority just as he had the PLO - as a personal fiefdom where no one ever knew whom to trust. 'He never made the transition to a responsible, orderly government,' said Rees.

Relations with Israel, even during the Oslo years, were also subject to Arafat's duplicity. Rees writes of a Palestinian intelligence officer who wanted to give information to the Shin Bet about Israeli MIAs from the battle of Sultan Yakoub in 1982. When the intelligence officer brought the Israeli officials to Arafat, the Palestinian leader rebuffed them, saying that the intelligence officer was sick and needed to stay home for medical treatment."
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
On the same day that three Israelis were killed and more than 30 were wounded by a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv's Carmel Market, a report was released by the police about Israeli Arabs' volunteering for the Civil Guard.
In the northern police district, where 11 Arab demonstrators were shot dead by police in October 2000, the increase in volunteers, from 700 to 4,400, was most impressive. The volunteers, some in police uniforms and others in their civilian clothes, patrol Jewish and Arab communities and help the police in community affairs where the difficulties are the greatest.

This is an amazing achievement, first and foremost for the police. It is true that police attitudes toward Arab citizens still suffer from many flaws and failures, including outright harassment, according to the Mossawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel.

However, based on much evidence from the local authorities and Arab citizenry, the volunteers' work succeeds in easing negotiations between the citizenry and police. Therefore, at least some of the wall of alienation and hostility that rose dramatically after the October 2000 events has been cracked, and a new foundation has been formed for welcome cooperation between Jews and Arabs.
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
It's not too late for some Americans living in Israel to send in their absentee ballots, Haaretz has learned. For residents of certain states, including key battleground states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, today is the deadline for overseas residents to send in their vote, provided the ballots are postmarked on November 2.
'People at the county board of elections are bending over backward to accommodate overseas voters,' said Mark Zober, chair of Democrats Abroad in Israel. 'They want to do everything in their power to avoid the appearance of trying to prevent people from getting out to vote. The election in 2000 was a mess, and what's going on now is defiantly a reaction to that.'

Although many states' deadlines were 'rock rigid' only one month ago, election boards in places like New York will now accept ballots up to 13 days after election day.

'Most registered voters living [in Israel] have already sent their ballots,' Zober added, 'but the extension is good news for some people who still haven't.'

Estimates of votes originating from Israel range, but even the lower estimate, some 30,000, is nearly double the turnout in the 2000 election. Some party activists put the number of voters as high as 60,000; Democrats and Republicans agree that the turnout is unprecedented.

'I've never seen anything like this,' said Marc Zell, one of the founders of Republicans Abroad in Israel, as he distributed ballots at a registration event in Efrat last week. 'The number of Americans [in Israel] coming out to vote in the 2004 election is unquestionably unprecedented. I worked hard to get the vote [out] in 2000, but the numbers weren't even close to what we have here. People were still under the impression that their votes didn't matter.'

Though the vast majority of Americans in Israel are registered Democrats, many have discarded party loyalties in hopes of reelecting President Bush. Registration events aimed at Americans in the ultra-Orthodox communities who identify with Bush's conservative stance on issues like abortion and gay marriage have also given the Republican ticket a boost here.

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Follow by Email

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Hasbys!

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

subscribe via email

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Categories

#PayForSlay Abbas liar Academic fraud administrivia al-Qaeda algeria Alice Walker American Jews AmericanZionism Amnesty analysis anti-semitism anti-Zionism antisemitism apartheid Arab antisemitism arab refugees Arafat archaeology Ari Fuld art Ashrawi ASHREI B'tselem bahrain Balfour bbc BDS BDSFail Bedouin Beitunia beoz Bernie Sanders Biden history Birthright book review Brant Rosen breaking the silence Campus antisemitism Cardozo cartoon of the day Chakindas Chanukah Christians circumcision Clark Kent coexistence Community Standards conspiracy theories COVID-19 Cyprus Daled Amos Daphne Anson David Applebaum Davis report DCI-P Divest This double standards Egypt Elder gets results ElderToons Electronic Intifada Embassy EoZ Trump symposium eoz-symposium EoZNews eoztv Erekat Erekat lung transplant EU Euro-Mid Observer European antisemitism Facebook Facebook jail Fake Civilians 2014 Fake Civilians 2019 Farrakhan Fatah featured Features fisking flotilla Forest Rain Forward free gaza freedom of press palestinian style future martyr Gary Spedding gaza Gaza Platform George Galloway George Soros German Jewry Ghassan Daghlas gideon levy gilad shalit gisha Goldstone Report Good news Grapel Guardian guest post gunness Haaretz Hadassah hamas Hamas war crimes Hananya Naftali hasbara Hasby 2014 Hasby 2016 Hasby 2018 hate speech Hebron helen thomas hezbollah history Hizballah Holocaust Holocaust denial honor killing HRW Human Rights Humanitarian crisis humor huor Hypocrisy ICRC IDF IfNotNow Ilan Pappe Ilhan Omar impossible peace incitement indigenous Indonesia international law interview intransigence iran Iraq Islamic Judeophobia Islamism Israel Loves America Israeli culture Israeli high-tech J Street jabalya James Zogby jeremy bowen Jerusalem jewish fiction Jewish Voice for Peace jihad jimmy carter Joe Biden John Kerry jokes jonathan cook Jordan Joseph Massad Juan Cole Judaism Judea-Samaria Judean Rose Judith Butler Kairos Karl Vick Keith Ellison ken roth khalid amayreh Khaybar Know How to Answer Lebanon leftists Linda Sarsour Linkdump lumish mahmoud zahar Mairav Zonszein Malaysia Marc Lamont Hill Marjorie Taylor Greene max blumenthal Mazen Adi McGraw-Hill media bias Methodist Michael Lynk Michael Ross Miftah Missionaries moderate Islam Mohammed Assaf Mondoweiss moonbats Morocco Mudar Zahran music Muslim Brotherhood Naftali Bennett Nakba Nan Greer Nation of Islam Natural gas Nazi Netanyahu News nftp NGO Nick Cannon NIF Noah Phillips norpac NSU Matrix NYT Occupation offbeat olive oil Omar Barghouti Only in Israel Opinion Opinon oxfam PA corruption PalArab lies Palestine Papers pallywood pchr PCUSA Peace Now Peter Beinart Petra MB philosophy poetry Poland poll Poster Preoccupied Prisoners propaganda Proud to be Zionist Puar Purim purimshpiel Putin Qaradawi Qassam calendar Quora Rafah Ray Hanania real liberals RealJerusalemStreets reference Reuters Richard Falk Richard Landes Richard Silverstein Right of return Rivkah Lambert Adler Robert Werdine rogel alpher roger cohen roger waters Rutgers Saeb Erekat Sarah Schulman Saudi Arabia saudi vice self-death self-death palestinians Seth Rogen settlements sex crimes SFSU shechita sheikh tamimi Shelly Yachimovich Shujaiyeh Simchat Torah Simona Sharoni SodaStream South Africa Sovereignty Speech stamps Superman Syria Tarabin Temple Mount Terrorism This is Zionism Thomas Friedman TOI Tomer Ilan Trump Trump Lame Duck Test Tunisia Turkey UAE Accord UCI UK UN UNDP unesco unhrc UNICEF United Arab Emirates Unity unrwa UNRWA hate unrwa reports UNRWA-USA unwra Varda Vic Rosenthal Washington wikileaks work accident X-washing Y. Ben-David Yemen YMikarov zahran Ziesel zionist attack zoo Zionophobia Ziophobia Zvi

Blog Archive