Saturday, October 04, 2008

  • Saturday, October 04, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
From BBC:
A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

Sheikh Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric who is said to have wide influence among religious Saudis, was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd.
Because why would women need depth perception anyway? It's not like they can drive or anything!

A Bahraini commented on this story in Mideast Youth:
I have a more fitting proposal for clerics in favor of this bogus call; gouge your eyes out with a tack hammer if you wish to refrain from being seduced. Women should no longer pay the price of your disturbing and sickening mentalities.
  • Saturday, October 04, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hamas, proving again that it controls the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, demanded that the tunnel operators pay a penalty for each death as a way to ensure that the diggers are in safe working conditions.

Al Jazeera English had a story about the Rafah tunnel industry, both in print and in video, where they claim that Hamas doesn't allow the tunnel operators to smuggle in people, drugs or weapons. Al Jizz romaticizes the smuggler, saying that they are necessary for Gazans to survive, and that they only bring in things like "shoes, chocolate and 7-Up."

Of course, the esteemed journalist doesn't bother finding out if Hamas operates any of its own tunnels to smuggle weapons. Clearly, the tons of weapons and explosives that Egyptian authorities are finding constantly are meant for Gaza, so the Jazeera reporter is being more than a little disingenuous.

Meanwhile, there was another tunnel death, this time by "electrocution," in Rafah.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 193.

UPDATE:
A trader was murdered in Gaza. 194.

Friday, October 03, 2008

  • Friday, October 03, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Last night, during the debate, Joe Biden claimed:
[Bush] insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, "Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them." What happened? Hamas won.
Practically no one expected Hamas to win those elections, and I cannot find any record of Biden or Obama saying any such thing. All polls from before the elections has Fatah winning by double-digits.

But here's what I did find:

There was a letter with 73 Senate co-signers urging Bush to press Palestinian leadership to bar terrorist groups from participating in Palestinian legislative elections in December, 2005. Joe Biden did not sign it (although Obama did.)

And Joe Biden helped monitor the 2006 elections, and was quoted as saying:
I have just returned from observing yesterday’s Palestinian legislative elections. The process was free and fair. But the apparent results – a victory by the terrorist organization Hamas – are very sobering.
If he was so certain that Hamas was going to win, why would he have been so eager to legitimize the elections by monitoring them (as he did the previous year with the 2005 elections that Fatah won?)
  • Friday, October 03, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has been under pressure lately. Saudi newspapers have been criticizing it, their members have been associated with murdering and fatal high speed chases, and in general the religious police have felt that their grip on power has been slipping, and with it the morals of the entire great country of Saudi Arabia.

To counteract this, they have been stepping up their activities against the most immoral and depraved of Saudi society - the shopkeepers who sell adorned abayas:
In an attempt to reassert their power, Saudi Arabia’s religious police have ordered shopkeepers in downtown Riyadh to get rid of all adorned abayas, the black robes worn by women in the kingdom, as shopping picks up ahead of the Eid religious holidays next week.

Salesmen in Al-Maagaliah market, just across the block from the headquarters of the religious police, or mutawa’a, this week were turning away frustrated shoppers who wanted abayas with a hint of colour or decoration, telling them that shopowners could face fines or prison.

In recent years, the signature flowing robe that covers Saudi women from head to toe started to show some form with trimmed sleeves, beads or colour, a sign of relaxation of the strict social norms in the conservative kingdom.

Though the changes were subtle, abayas provoked a tug of war between the liberal voices lobbying to give women more choice and conservative religious institutions determined to impose their austere ways through the religious police.

Liberal commentators say the religious police who roam shopping malls and public places are using the crackdown to demonstrate their continued authority after recent moves that have curbed their arbitrary powers.

After allegations of gross violations of human rights led to media uproar, the mutawa’a have been banned from chasing suspects without an escort from the regular police. They have also been forced to carry government-issued identification cards.

Women’s rights activists, however, are concerned that the crackdown on the abaya marks a setback after early symbolic gains achieved since King Abdullah came to power in 2005.

“They [the mutawa’a] want women to be faceless, nameless and shrouded in blackness,’’ said Samar Falan, a women’s rights activist and writer based in the city of Jeddah.

“We kept quiet when we should have confronted the radicals. I believe Muslim women should dress modestly and cover their hair, but they do not have to look gruesome.”

They should focus on fighting vices, not women,’’ says Buthaina Nassr, another activist. “I do not understand why they force us to wear black in such a hot country while men can wear white.”
In other Sharia news, Saudi Arabia announced that terrorism suspects will be tried in Sharia courts.

Which means that if the terrorists memorize enough of the Quran, they should be able to get out of jail earlier.
  • Friday, October 03, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon

Palestinian children enjoy the last day of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at an amusement park in Gaza City.


The first thing I think when I see pictures like these is, wow, Gaza is just like Darfur!
  • Friday, October 03, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
A young man, whose age is being variously given as 17, 19 or 20, was shot and killed in Khan Younis. According to Palestine Today, he was a member of Islamic Jihad. A bus full of Hamas supporters were passing by, clapping and singing, and the victim asked them to stop singing because they were passing a funeral home. An altercation broke out, starting with rock throwing but escalating quickly into gunfire.

Hamas is calling reports out of Israel that Americans are helping Egyptians find tunnels - 42 in September alone - "fabricated," saying it is a Zionist plot to cause division between Hamas and Egypt.

Members of Hamas met with Mahmoud Abbas for two hours last night to discuss re-unification - in other words, ways that the PA can become even more terrorist than it already is.

"Lofa", which seemes to be a PA-aligned "human rights" monitoring group, accused Hamas of 21 human rights violations between September 19-28. These include murder, abductions, torture and attacking worshippers at a mosque.

The PCHR, which normally publishes its own exhaustive list of supposed Zionist crimes every Thursday, has not done so this week as of yet. However, it completely believed "eyewitnesses" who lied saying that "settlers" murdered a Palestinian Arab shepherd a few days ago.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 192.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

  • Thursday, October 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon

One of the frustrating parts about Olmert's public announcements of abject surrender to everything Palestinian Arabs are demanding, with no real quid pro quo, is that Olmert represents no one. He is still legally the prime minister but he has no mandate; yet he is hell-bent on achieving this great Zionist defeat and victory for terrorism.

Less reported, though, is the fact that Abbas has no mandate either. According to PA law, since amended by the truncated PA parliament, Abbas' term ends in January 2009, and Hamas has already stated that they will no longer recognize Abbas as president after that date. Since much of Olmert's surrender involves doubling the size of Hamastan into the Negev, this is no small matter.

It is ironic that Israel's greatest hope to not make a catastrophically stupid capitulation is the disunity and weakness of their enemies.
  • Thursday, October 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Thousands of Syrian troops are massed at the northern border of Lebanon.

The Lebanese that still care about their independence from Syria are not happy:
In recent declarations following Monday’s explosion in Tripoli, former President Amine Gemayel and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea have both expressed their worries concerning Syria’s heavy military deployment and President Bachar al Assad’s recent declarations comparing Lebanon to Georgia.

Amine Gemayel insisted that the deployment of Syrian troops along the northern border of Lebanon is “not innocent”.

Samir Geagea considered that Assad’s statement following Monday’s explosion in Tripoli is “extremely dangerous”. Lebanese Forces added that the statement “clearly shows that (Assad) is preparing Syria for another military interference in Lebanon. Some of the cells of Fatah al Islam, which are the making of Syrian intelligence are still active in Tripoli and wanted to take revenge from the army”.
Other Lebanese think that Syria will attack under the pretext of stopping Islamist groups in northern Lebanon.

The Syrians have given different reasons for the buildup - first to say that they were to stop smugglers (which Amir Taheri finds laughable), and then to say that it was part of a deal with Lebanon to "avert problems."

Say goodbye to any chance for a truly independent Lebanon.
  • Thursday, October 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
In Bahrain, a surprising proposal:
The foreign minister of staunch US ally Bahrain has called for the creation of a regional grouping of Arab states with historic foe Israel, as well as Iran and Turkey, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"Israel, Iran, Turkey and Arab states should sit together in one organisation," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa was quoted in the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat as saying.

"Aren't we all members of a global organisation called the United Nations? Why not (come together) on a regional basis? This is the only way to solve our problems. There's no other way to solve them, now or in 200 years."

Al-Hayat, which interviewed the Bahraini chief diplomat in New York, said he had proposed the establishment of a regional bloc in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

And an unsurprising response:
an NGO yesterday slammed the Foreign Minister's comments.

"We are dismayed and outraged at such repeated normalisation overtures with the Zionist enemy,"

Bahrain Anti-Normalisation Organisation's secretary general Abdulla Abdulmalik said.

"Such moves represent an affront to our parliament and public opinion, who are totally inimical to any form of normalisation."

He accused the minister of disregarding MPs, Bahraini people and civil society, who unflinching support the Palestinian struggle.

He described it as the translation of the American pro-Israel project in the Middle East, also known as the Greater Middle East.

"The moribund Arab League Peace Initiative at least acknowledges the Palestinians' basic legitimate rights," he said, accusing the minister of seeking to normalise with Israel for free.

Media Line notes:
While Bahrain's leadership has been willing to meet with Israeli officials, it is a nation led by a Sunni dynasty ruling a Shi’ite majority, making greater change unlikely.
We have heard from this Bahraini organization before.
  • Thursday, October 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Via Weasel Zippers comes this awesome video - meant as propaganda for "Hamas in Iraq" - that shows jihadis trying to shoot a rocket at US soldiers and blowing themselves up instead.

Why they packaged this up as some sort of victory is anyone's guess. I imagine if death is so wonderful, it doesn't matter much how it is achieved...



WARNING: This video includes a dying jihadi - with an instant replay in slow motion, no less - and really obnoxious jihadi singing.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

  • Wednesday, October 01, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
The New York Sun folded on October 1. Here is part of an article about its demise by Sol Stern at the City Journal:
As I have done every weekday morning for the past few years, I opened the door of my apartment yesterday to pick up my copy of the New York Sun. Immediately, I spotted the headline above the fold announcing the paper’s demise. No surprise, of course. All of us who counted ourselves as the Sun’s friends knew this day was coming. Still, the paper’s demise is a profoundly sad moment for the city. It feels as if a cherished and inspirational colleague has passed away and, moreover, that our democracy and civic life are diminished.

...But the single greatest void left by the death of the Sun will likely be its principled commitment to telling the unvarnished truth about the great struggle of our times—the battle between democratic civilization and the forces of worldwide jihad. In some respects, the Sun was a Jewish paper in its editorial management, its financial backing, and its staff. And it didn’t try to hide its passions or equivocate about the moral imperative of defending Israel. It was openly Zionist at a time when that label has become a term of disdain in the sophisticated world of liberal opinion. It refused to be deterred by the bogus charge of “dual loyalty” hurled by academics like Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer and nervous Jewish journalists like Time magazine’s Joe Klein. Almost every week for the past six-plus years, the Sun ran a column by the brilliant Israeli (originally American) writer Hillel Halkin that invited readers to see Israeli democracy and society, warts and all, from the inside. More than any other daily newspaper of our time, the Sun helped its readers understand that in standing up for the defense of Israel, they were also standing up for the defense of America.
I have quoted the Sun often in this blog, and it has done many stories that one would simply not see elsewhere. It will be sorely missed.
  • Wednesday, October 01, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here's some of what's been happening during the past couple of days:

A 16-year old PalArab girl from Jenin was arrested by Israel for planning a suicide bombing in Netanya. Apparently, information about her plans came from the PA security services.

A 17-year old boy was killed by "stray bullets" in Rafah while visiting a friend.

Hamas is accusing Fatah of torturing a prisoner to death. Fatah denies it, saying that he died from illness. I don't have enough information to call this one a "self-death."

Some 150 children in Gaza have been injured from toy guns. It seems that "toy guns" in Gaza shoot plastic bullets that can cause serious injuries, especially to eyes. But they are very popular; the peace-loving Gazans like to buy these guns for their kids for Eid.

On Monday, a shell from Gaza aimed at Israel fell short and landed on the Gaza size of the fence.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 191.

AddToAny

EoZ Book:"Protocols: Exposing Modern Antisemitism"

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

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 19 years and 40,000 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

Blog Archive