Sunday, May 17, 2009

  • Sunday, May 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Allah works in mysterious ways.

Sometimes, he decides to reveal himself with strange natural phenomena:
In Dura, the Arabic word Allah (God) was found written in honeycomb.

The honeycomb with Allah apparently inscribed in it was found in an apiary owned by Akram Al-Arab.
Here's the holy honeycomb:And here's Allah's name:
Other miracles have included the Allah fish:

And the Allah ear:


Not only that, but Muslims have discerned Allah's name in clouds:


And, Allah be praised, in the waves accompanying the horrific tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands:

Other examples include anthills, cantaloupes, watermelons, tomatoes, outer space, the human hand. And for each occurrence, there is much rejoicing at Allah's munificence.

Yet for some reason, when Allah's name miraculously appears on an ice cream logo or a sneaker logo, that is not cause for rejoicing, but for seething.
  • Sunday, May 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
AP brings us this absurd staged picture:

A Palestinian passed out from tear gas fired by Israeli troops, holds a key symbolizing the keys to houses left by Palestinians in 1948, during a demonstration marking the 61st anniversary of "Nakba," Arabic for catastrophe, in the West Bank village Bilin, near Ramallah, Friday, May 15, 2008.

Wow - a Palestinian Arab man tragically passes out from Zionist tear gas and yet manages to heroically hold his fist in the air, maintain his grip on a fake key shoved towards the cameraman, all in front of dramatic barbed wire.

What are the odds that the photographer would be so lucky?
(h/t LGF)
  • Sunday, May 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The top story in the "Palestine Telegraph," and English Gaza-based publication, is a little piece of Holocaust denial, by "Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore."
If the number of Ashkenazi Jews that died in any circumstance whatsoever, so long as these deaths were unquestionably linked to the actions of the Third Reich and those of its associates, when added to those that are known to have been slaughtered in the many concentration and death camps throughout Europe, comes to six million or more I'll be the first to publicly abandon my scepticism and wholeheartedly embrace that figure; but over the years the overt posturing and highly intimidating conduct of those that have set themselves up as the sole guardians of this contentious issue, and doing a rather poor job of it I must add, and when legitimate issues are raised have nothing to contribute and can only resort to hectoring, using the worst kind of disparagement they can think of and back this up in the most infantile way by employing the old and disingenuous chestnut of anti-Semitism in respect of a faith sect that isn't even Semitic: Ashkenazi Jews are the direct descendants of white (Caucasian) Europeans that converted to Judaism in the 10 century in the same way that their white Christian counterparts did in relation to their religion - and dishonestly using the legal process and questionable laws to get their way and silence critics or even those whose only purpose it is to impartially seek out the truth, only serves to reinforce my reservations about the iconic figure of six million Ashkenazi Jews being killed at the time of Europe's holocaust, as those that would like for everyone to slavishly believe and accept this version of events, because they say so, hope for and even demand.

...if this malicious falsehood is to be believed about the Nazis wanting to eradicate all Jews from the earth, how come that not a single Falasha or Sephardic Jew ended up in concentration or death camp anywhere while allegedly six million of their European counterparts were being toasted on a regular basis? The truth is Adolf Hitler and his Nazis had it in for white, European Jews but the post-war white spin doctors along with their propagandists can bring themselves to accept that no Falasha or Sephardic Jews were on the Nazis' death list.
If, in that amazingly run-on sentence that takes up the entire first paragraph, the "professor" is trying to say that the actual number of Jews killed in World War II was closer to 5 million than 6 million, that might be a defensible position - some Holocaust researchers do believe the number is closer to 5 million, and the proof that he craves for that somewhat lower number can be found here. The implication of the article is that he believes the number is far, far less.

He is on less sure ground in his other claim of not a single Sephardic Jew being killed or imprisoned in the Holocaust. While European Jews took the brunt of Hitler's Final Solution, thousands of Jews from Northern Africa were rounded up and placed in concentration camps and truckloads were sent to Europe for their deaths.

Not that we need any more proof for the most documented crime in history.

More interestingly, for someone who is so interested in the truth, "Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore" seems to be a fiction. The only place he exists on the Internet is in articles and emails; there is no indication of any professor at any university with that name, and no real academic would refers to himself as "Professor Doctor".

Which just goes to show the level of scholarship and veracity one can expect from "The Palestine Telegraph."
  • Sunday, May 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Over the weekend, a Gaza man's body was found in the smuggling tunnels under Rafah.

A woman in her 20s was found stabbed to death near Ramallah.

An 11-year old Gaza boy was killed in one of those "mysterious explosions" we hear about every so often.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 79.
  • Sunday, May 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From The Tehran Times:
AMMAN -- Israel is promoting Iranophobia in the Middle East, but the Zionist regime is the real threat to the region not Iran, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Saturday.

“I have come to the World Economic Forum to say that Israel is behind the Iranophobia plot and is seeking to depict Iran as the main threat to the security and economy of the region. Everybody should be aware that the only threat in the region is Israel’s occupation and not Iran,” he told the Mehr News Agency correspondent in Shuneh, Jordan.

“Although this meeting is an economic event, as you see, the dispute between Israel and Palestine is the focus of the discussions,” he added.

The 2009 World Economic Forum meeting on the Middle East opened at the Dead Sea port of Shuneh, Jordan on Friday.

He also said, “One might wonder what a Palestinian is doing among businessmen at a meeting on economy. We are here to deliver a message, and that is peace, security, and economic development in the region can only be realized after the end of the Israeli occupation.

Before the end of the occupation of Palestine, any economic development in the region would be unreal, he noted.
Here we have a classic example of how little Palestinian Arab "leaders" care about their own people, and indeed how "hawks" such as Binyomin Netanyahu care more about ordinary Palestinian Arabs than people who claim to represent them.

Erekat, an accomplished hypocrite and liar, is showing his love for Iran even as many Arab leaders (including Abbas) are increasingly skittish about the mad mullahs who openly support Islamic radicals like Hamas and Hezbollah and oppose obstinately secular movements like Fatah.

Moreover, he is telling his people that they should sit still, continue to take money from the West and do everything they can to avoid prosperity and economic growth because his concept of "peace" is more important than their everyday lives.

This, of course, is all happening at the same time that PA leaders and their relatives grow rich at the expense of these same people with their corruption and nepotism. Apparently, some Palestinian Arabs can take advantage of economic opportunities, as long as they are the right ones in high places. The ones who inexplicably still live in so-called "refugee camps" as well as those who try to make a decent living in Bethlehem and Ramallah must remain patsies of people like Erekat forever, because to him and the rest of their so-called leadership these people are far more valuable as pawns and statistics whose entire purpose is to be used as photo-ops to pressure Israel.

Netanyahu wants to improve the lives of Palestinian Arabs before tackling issues like statehood. One could naively make an argument that the two issues should go forward simultaneously. Erekat's position, however, is that the 61 years of enforced Palestinian Arab misery is an optimal situation and must be prolonged, and his people are only there to be used so he and his fellow "moderate" leaders can continue to make asinine statements like these and still retain the respect of the world.
  • Sunday, May 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Some notes on Gaza alleged victims, if anyone wants to follow these avenues of inquiry, please let me know:

#387, Ayman Yousif Khalil al-Majayda, was apparently a cook for the Al Qassam Brigades. He was killed along with a terrorist at a al-Qassam site in Khan Younis on December 27th, 2008. No one on his memory page calls him anything but a martyr. Are support personnel for military targets legitimate targets themselves under Geneva?

#659, Kamla Ali Mustafa al-‘Attar , an 82-year old woman who died in an alleged Israeli attack in the 'Alatatra area on January 5th. No one else was killed at that time in that area - could she have died from natural causes?

There is a list of 1278 "martyrs" that was widely circulated; one of the Arabic lists can be seen here. In the space of a few weeks the number of "martyrs" that the PCHR said died in Gaza went from roughly 1250 to over 1400. Can anyone try to line up this list with PCHR and see if there are any patterns of the ones who don't match up? If they were mostly males 20-30, it might indicate Hamas trying to hide its casualties; if they are disproportionalty elderly or very young it might indicate that the PCHR was counting natural deaths as victims.

It seems worthwhile to go through the PCHR list based on the location the people were allegedly killed. It can indicate who is a likely militant (if someone was killed at the same time/place as many terrorists) as well as other anomalies, especially people who died in a place/time that no one else died.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

  • Saturday, May 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
This is my 6000th post published on this blog.

Cool!

Friday, May 15, 2009

  • Friday, May 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Isaac's Dad brings up some very good points in the comments, and while they have been said in passing, they are important to mention explicitly:

1. Excuse me if I missed it, but can you put a permalink to the PCHR study in a prominent place on your sidebar?
I was thinking about doing something similar to the self-death count. When I find some time....
2. With regards to that study, it struck me that the IDF's explanation for the discrepancy on the total number dead (natural deaths) was insufficient, leading to some further questions:

a. How does the PCHR treat "friendly fire" deaths? It strikes me as odd that I have not seen any reporting on how many Palestinians were killed by Hamas fire during the conflict.
We of course have no evidence either way. The PCHR's methods are to interview families of the dead. The families have incentive to say that their loved ones were "martyred" by Israel because the dead become heroes and the families get money from Palestinian Arab leaders for the rest of their lives. The PCHR also has incentive to demonize Israel. Without being there, we cannot prove that there were friendly fire incidents, but it seems certain that such incidents occurred.
b. How does the PCHR treat casualties as a result of "secondary explosions." We know that Hamas, and other factions, hid reams of explosive material that were targeted by the IDF and have seen the secondary explosions. I assume the IDF does not count deaths as a result of secondary explosions (intentional and unintentional) as their responsibility, and rightly so.
We've mentioned that as well, and it is equally certain that there were deaths from such explosions (not to mention Hamas booby traps that were accidentally tripped by Gazan civilians.) Unfortunately, we don't have anything to prove it. The PCHR says it uses "customary humanitarian law" to determine human rights violations and I don't think secondary explosions are mentioned. Most human rights organizations would lay the blame on the people who caused the initial explosion, not distinguishing between bombing a weapons depot and a fuel depot when assigning blame for deaths. Of course, the weapons depot is a legitimate target but HR activists would probably say that the expected civilian damage has to be proportionate to the miliitary advantage of the attack. It is one of the grey areas that need to be clarified.
3. With regards to Rayyan and his family, I understand that they are counted as civilian casualties by PCHR and that you and the IDF have said Rayyan was a legitimate target (I agree), but the argument should not end there. It was acknowledged in the Palestinian press that Rayyan and his family were aware his compound was to be bombed and had time to leave. It was alleged, and has not been denied by the Palestinians, that his compound was used to store weapons and explosives. Consequently, his home, and those that would protect it were combatatants, but, more importantly, even if his home was mistakenly targeted, Rayyan, and his family members who chose to remain, are responsible for their own deaths, because they chose to stay. In essence they performed a suicide mission by staying, with the media as the target. It should be noted on this point that, unlike many Palestinians in camps who may have had some difficulty finding a place to stay, the Rayyan family is a very large clan with multiple homes, and at least one family member stayed away.
To me, the Rayyan case was a classic case of human shields. Israel dropped leaflets and "knocked" on the roof, and Rayyan pretty much forced his wives and children to stay with him. If we ever get to phase 2 of the analysis of the PCHR figures, we would try to identify human shield cases by comparing last names of militants and last names of women and children killed at the same place on the same day. It would be interesting to know how the IDF classified Rayyan's family, however.
  • Friday, May 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
I couldn't find the original story, but Palestine Today quotes an Egyptian newspaper saying that President Obama and his delegation will be "checked" for swine flu upon entering Egypt.

The report by «Egypt Today» Wednesday quoted an anonymous Egyptian official saying that Obama, and the accompanying delegation, which is estimated about one thousand people, would be subject to the procedures established by the Presidency of the Republic. The newspaper did not mention the nature of the checks, but it quoted an Egyptian expert that they will pose questions regarding the extent of the seriousness of the visit and the entry of the virus causing «swine flu» to Egypt as the United States as the top of the list of countries hit by the virus.


UPDATE: Here's the story (h/t A.L.)
  • Friday, May 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
In a little-reported story even among the Palestinian Arabic press, Hamas has prevented groups from holding rallies to mark "Nakba day" in Gaza.

The Popular Struggle Front put out a statement saying
Such practices by the security forces of the Hamas movement of preventing the national marches to commemorate the Nakba show the state of division in the Palestinian street, which has overshadowed the work on national unity.

The decision is blow to all efforts to end the division and reconciliation and the restoration of unity.
Leftists across the world denounced Hamas' anti-democratic and anti-freedom actions.

And if you believe that one...

Thursday, May 14, 2009

  • Thursday, May 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon

Saudi Arabia held its first beauty pageant over the weekend and already they're embroiled in their own scandal.

Topless photos of Miss Saudi Arabia have surfaced ... you can see her entire forehead.

(from Giglish)

  • Thursday, May 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Go for it.
  • Thursday, May 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Iran's PressTV:
Iran has arrested individuals behind a scheme to 'smear the government' through importing alleged Israeli oranges into the country.

"We are absolutely certain that the oranges were not imported from Israel and that the stickers were fabricated," Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

"It is obvious that the move was aimed to smear the government and overshadow its anti-racism activities," he explained.

"[In addition to those detained,] some people have been summoned or invited for further study of the case, the result of which will be announced accordingly," the minister went on to say.

The oranges which were allegedly imported from Israel sparked controversy in Iran, as Tehran bans any sort of dealings with Tel Aviv.

The oranges had stickers with a sign that read Jaffa Sweetie Israel PO. However, they were distributed in boxes bearing 'made in China' imprints.
I like the "anti-racism" line.

(Actually, the Jaffa Sweetie is not an orange, but a pomelit.)
NGO Monitor has linked to our results along with other researchers. The Backspin blog of Honest Reporting had also linked to our research. Someone had posted many of my articles about the PCHR at Cleveland Indymedia. Richard Landes at The Augean Stables republished my Casualties of Truth article. Now I have to find the time to learn a content management system so I can create a nice looking website to show our research....and while I am computer literate, even the simple ones take hours to learn and configure.
  • Thursday, May 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an Arabic reports:
The Al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas, on Thursday morning, announced the death of 20-year-old Khaled Ghalban of Khan Younis during his "mission of jihad in particular."

The announcement said Qassam Ghalbanwas killed in the performance of his duty of jihad, particularly in the task, without giving any details.
That means either he blew himself up or another Hamas member killed him. There have been recent reports of Hamas infighting.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 76.
  • Thursday, May 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hamas' PR machine chugs along, with credulous Westerners believing any old lie as long as it gives them hope. Here's a particularly laughable example:
GAZA CITY, May 14 (IPS) - A founding member of Hamas says he hates all weapons and insists that his organisation is not anti-Jewish.

In an interview with IPS, Sayed Abu Musameh described frequent claims in the European and U.S. press that Hamas's charter is based on enmity towards Jews as a "big lie".

"In our culture, we respect every foreigner, especially Jews and Christians," he said. "But we are against Zionists, not as nationalists but as fascists and racists."

Musameh also contended that Hamas has long been ready to agree a truce - known in Arabic as a hudna - with Israel but that Israel had refused all offers and imposed a crippling economic blockade on Gaza. The firing of Qassam rockets on the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Sderot was designed "not to destroy Israel or to destroy Israeli people" but to "make them notice our siege."

"I hate all kinds of weapons," said Musameh. "I dream of seeing every weapon from the atomic bomb to small guns banned everywhere."
The Hamas Charter includes such loving statements towards Jews as:
...our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave...

The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim)."

The Nazism of the Jews does not skip women and children, it scares everyone.

The other Arab and Islamic states are required, at the very least, to facilitate the movement of the Jihad fighters from and to them. We cannot fail to remind every Muslim that when the Jews occupied Holy Jerusalem in 1967 and stood at the doorstep of the Blessed Aqsa Mosque, they shouted with joy: "Muhammad is dead, he left daughters behind." Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.

...more steps need to be taken by the Arab and Islamic peoples and Islamic associations throughout the Arab and Islamic world in order to make possible the next round with the Jews, the merchants of war.
As far as that "hudna" that Hamas has offered, it had a few small preconditions - like Israel surrendering Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria first.

Hamas' respect for Christians is so all-embracing that the few remaining Christians in Gaza live in fear of attacks and often choose to prostrate themselves to Hamas in the vain hopes of being left alone. And Hamas members are not shy about their naked hate of Jews and Christians.

As far as Hamas' aversion to all weapons, well...
  • Thursday, May 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Iowahawk brings us the celebrity roast to end all celebrity roasts.

This brilliant piece is the most biting, trenchant and witty criticism of the current administration imaginable.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

  • Wednesday, May 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
MEMRI does it again:
Following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on ANB TV on May 7, 2009:

Abbas Zaki: What is needed is a settlement, not a hudna [truce]. After 45 years of struggle, we have the right to reach a conclusion to this conflict, rather than extending the hudna, enabling Israel to expand on a daily basis.

My advice is: we should not give Israel a hudna, because whenever Israel is given a hudna, it consolidates its position and becomes more deeply rooted. What hudna? If they do not withdraw from the 1967 lands – what hudna? Israel will become a fact on the ground, and we will end up as small enclaves, and should be driven out with time.

Therefore, it is high time that we found a final, comprehensive solution. The Arabs talk about a comprehensive solution and present initiatives, and the world talks about a solution, yet we say: Let's stick to the hudna. No, my friend. I personally joined Fatah somewhat belatedly, in 1962. Work out how many years that is. Should I keep on extending the hudnas? Impossible. We want a solution now.

They talk about a two state solution, and when that is achieved...even Ahmadinejad, the leader of the rejectionists throughout the region, said he supports a two-state solution. Nobody fools anybody.

With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? what will become of all the sacrifices they made--just to be told to leave?

They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward.

And he is exactly right.

This is the real reason that Arabs insist on Jerusalem - not because of their love of the city that they ignored for a thousand years, but because they know that the Jewish connection to the city is so strong and so powerful.

As a result, the Arabs aren't scared of secular Israelis, socialist kibbutzim, Israeli robotic jeeps, drones or even the IDF altogether. They believe that all of those can be defeated by appealing to liberal sensibilities of the West and slowly chipping away at the resolve of the Zionists who desperately want peace more than anything else.

What they are scared of are Jews who are unapologetically proud of their Judaism and of their deep, emotional ties to the Land of Israel.

While they consider everyone else a pushover - they are patient, and will wait decades to wear them down - the Jews who have a pure, emotional, and especially religious connection to the Land are the ones that they know they cannot defeat. Because deep down they know that their own connection to the land is derivative, a mere shadow of the Jews' deep love of Israel.

They know that the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque were close to being ruins before the Jews started returning to the Land of Israel in large numbers. They know that they showed almost no interest in Palestine before the 20th century.

They know that if the Jews had not started moving back to Palestine, their own mythology would never have started.

This is why their goal is Jerusalem. This is why they raise a stink at every new building built or purchased by Jews, at every synagogue, at the slightest hint of Jewish permanence in the city that Jews have been praying towards and crying over for millenia.

And this is why Jews - even the ones who, for whatever tragic reason, don't feel the same connection that their ancestors did - cannot compromise on Jerusalem.

(h/t Vicious Babushka)

  • Wednesday, May 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
An interesting section of an op-ed by Cal Thomas:
Last week in London I spoke with Liam Fox, a conservative Member of Parliament and "shadow defense secretary." Fox told me, "There is a belief in some quarters that if only you can resolve the problems between Israel and Palestine, all the other problems in the Middle East, in a domino-like fashion, will fall into place. That is absolute nonsense."

Indeed, it is.

Fox said on a recent visit to Iran that Iranian politicians told him they realize they lack an air force to fight back if they are attacked by Israel, so they would use Hezbollah and Hamas. "They are part of our defense policy against Israel," Fox quoted them as saying, "Hamas is not part of the Palestinian problem. Hamas is the foreign-policy wing of Iran in Israel."
This simple fact is what Westerners fail to grasp: Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies for Iran - and they intend to surround Israel.

And if Iran is allowed by the West to develop a nuclear bomb, which it appears is already being treated as a fait accompli, it will not need to work that hard on its missile delivery system - because there are tens of thousands of human beings who would be more than willing to bring it themselves to Israel's borders.

Here are the reasons that the free world is letting this happen:

1. Israel is the obvious target, not Europe, Westerners don't feel personally invested or threatened.

2. Even though they work overtime to limit Israel's ability to defend itself, they figure that Israel will ignore them and defend itself anyway, so they don't feel they have to get involved.

3. The unwillingless to face the horrible - yet obvious - truth causes otherwise smart people to close their eyes and grab onto whatever justifications they can find, like the discredited NIE report.

4. Doing something means making hard decisions, something that democratic leaders are loathe to do when they have an eye on getting re-elected.

5. Everyone hates war and no one wants to start one without the other side doing something overtly aggressive. The only justification would be the existence of a huge crater where Tel Aviv was.
  • Wednesday, May 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Eurasianet:
Israel has announced it will open an embassy in Turkmenistan’s capital of Ashgabat, located just 32 kilometers from the Iranian border.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held a series of "secret talks" with officials in Ashgabat and a team of Israeli diplomats and security personnel will visit the Turkmen capital later in May to select a "suitable building" to house the Israeli diplomatic mission, Israel National News reported May 13.

Turkmenistan and Israel established formal diplomatic relations 17 years ago, but to date no Israeli ambassador has resided in the Central Asian state.

Ashgabat is situated in the foothills of the Kopet-Dag mountain range and is just a short drive from the Bajgiran border point. Turkmenistan and Iran share a 994-kilometer long border.

Even if Israel/Turkmenistan cooperation never reaches the point where this is strategically important, just knowing how much it ticks off Iran - that a neighboring Muslim state would open an embassy of the hated Zionists - makes it all worth it.

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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 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.

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