Thursday, September 02, 2010

  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian Media Watch has been finding new examples of PA incitement and honoring terror just about every day. Here's the latest:

"The Palestinian mother is a central partner in the struggle...
It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves
that we bow to her in salute and in honor."

Those were the words of the Palestinian Authority's Minister for Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, when he honored a Palestinian woman by awarding her "the Shield of Resoluteness and Giving."



The Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Karake, honors mother of 4 terrorists with PA Shield. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 28, 2010]
She received this honor because she is the mother of four sons who are serving a total of 18 life sentences in Israeli prisons. They all killed Israeli civilians in terror attacks.

The Minister also "praised the Abu Hamid family as a model of willpower and of the struggle for the independence of Palestine" when he visited the family with a ministry delegation, human rights organizations and released prisoners, the official PA daily newspaper reported.

The four sons are serving life sentences for the following crimes: 
Nasser Abu Hamid - 7 life sentences + 50 years - commander in Fatah's military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Ramallah. Convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders.
Nasr Abu Hamid - 5 life sentences - Member of terror faction of Fatah, Tanzim, and convicted of involvement in two terror attacks and arms dealing.
Sharif Abu Hamid- 4 life sentences - a member in one of the brothers' units carrying out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. Accompanied a suicide bomber to his attack in March 2002.
Muhammad Abu Hamid - 2 life sentences + 30 years - involvement in terror attacks.
 
Minister Karake also chose this week to visit the home of the suicide terrorist Ayyat Al-Akhras who in 2002 entered a Jerusalem supermarket and detonated a bomb murdering two Israelis and killing herself. The minister's visit took place on the occasion of the Palestinian "National Day for Returning the Bodies of Palestinian and Arab Shahids and MIA's."

The mother who received the award for having four terrorist sons was described as "Khansa of Palestine," which is a reference to Al-Khansa, a woman from the earliest period of Islam who sent her four sons to battle and rejoiced when they all died as Martyrs. Calling the Palestinian mother by this name reinforces the message that seeking death as a Martyr is a worthy and honorable goal and that parents should proudly sacrifice their children.
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
This one might not make the news, because it wasn't a gun. And this sort of thing happened often before the current round of negotiations.

From JPost:
A 12-year- old girl was injured in moderate to serious condition after being hit in the head by a rock thrown at her vehicle near Tapuach junction in Samaria Thursday night.

Magen David Adom Yarkon crews evacuated the girl to Belinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.

IDF soldiers are scouring the area for the perpetrators.
Aren't terrorists so macho? They try as hard as they can to kill women and children - and then they celebrate, hand out candy, create heroic posters, and give military-style names to these operations when they succeed.

I guess they are frustrated since they had so little luck in battling against "Zionist boars."
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Philosemitism blog:

Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, one of the highest ranking officials at the EU, warned this morning on Belgian (Flemish) radio that the Jewish lobby (not pro-Israel lobby) had a grip on US politics. Belgium holds at the present the presidency of the EU. The belief that the US is controlled by Jews is widespread in Europe ...

Source: Luc Van Braekel (Karel De Gucht over de Joden)

"One should not underestimate, for instance, the [power] of the Jewish lobby, at Capitol Hill, the American parliament. It is the best organised pressure group there. In other words, one should not underestimate the grip the Jewish lobby has on US politics. Be it with the Democrats or the Republicans, there is little difference.

"One should not underestimate the opinion - outside the lobby - of the average Jew who does not live in Israel. There is indeed among most Jews a faith [geloof] - I cannot think of a better way to put it - that they are right. And faith is something difficult to disprove with rational argumentation. It doesn't depend on them being religious or not. Even secular Jews [vrijzinnige] share the same faith of being right. It is therefore not easy, even for a moderate Jew, to talk about what's happening in the Middle East. It's a very emotional issue [for them]."
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
We have noted that Arab Christians in Palestine are often more anti-semitic than the Muslims, and in fact traditional Palestinian Christian anti-semitism seems to have influenced the more general anti-Semitism of Palestinian Muslims in the 20th century.

This book shows that this hatred goes way back.

From "Customs and traditions of Palestine: illustrating the manners of the ancient Hebrews", by Ermete Pierotti.
In Palestine, as in the whole of Syria, especially among the ignorant Christian population, a most unfortunate prejudice is current, that the Jews, just before their Passover, try to get hold of Christians, especially of children, in order to mix their blood with unleavened bread; since, without this condiment, it would not be prepared according to the directions in the law of Moses. Unhappily this absurd fancy is not scouted as it ought to be by too many of the priests and monks of the Eastern Churches; so that sometimes the Jews are exposed to insults which give rise to serious disturbances, without having afforded by their conduct the slightest ground for such an imputation. If the Eastern clergy studied their Bibles, they would soon discredit these fables; but, as few of them know anything about that book, they are not the persons to abolish prejudices, which they foster by their preaching to the faithful from morning to night; certainly they cannot know that it was the blood of a lamb, not of a man, which was to be sprinkled on the door-posts and lintel1, and they even seem to believe that heathen leeches prescribed baths of children's blood as a cure for leprosyz; perhaps too they have heard of some Rabbinical books' in which it is said that Pharaoh bathed in the blood of children to cure his leprosy, and that his magicians ordered the same remedy for another disease, and have transformed Pharaoh into a Jew, and the children into Christians.

This is no exaggerated accusation, for I have heard greater absurdities from the lips of the Greek and Armenian monks in Jerusalem: for example, they have shewn me the place where Melchizedek planted the first olive after the Deluge, and where he first made bread, and a thousand similar absurdities.

However I will give an instance of the popular belief in this falsehood, which fell under my own notice. One day in 1858, on going out of my house in Jerusalem, I saw a very respectable Jew running at full speed, pursued by some Arabs, who as soon as he reached me claimed my protection against his assailants. These tried to drag him away from me; I asked what was the matter; but had only yells and incoherent exclamations in reply; so I determined to place the Jew inside my own doors for security. The Arabs, however, resisted, and though I was close to home I should not have been able to defend him had not my European servants arrived upon the scene; this reinforcement turned the tide of battle, and the enemy quickly fled, not without torn beards and conspicuous bruises from our cudgels, as a warning for the future.

When I got the Jew safe within, he told me the reason of the disturbance. As he was walking through the town he found a little boy crying, and stopped to ask what was the matter. He found that the child had lost his way, so he took him by the hand and went to help him to find his home. Some men, however, came up, and rudely snatched the child from him, saying, " You have taken him to kill him, and you shall smart for it!" Thereupon he took to flight, and happily met me.

After hearing this I returned to the street and found that the vanquished enemy had returned with reinforcements, and were waiting to demand the Jew from me. I shewed them very plainly, more by actions than words, that they were not going to have him; and to pacify them suggested that I would take him to the governor to be imprisoned. This proposal was joyfully accepted. I took the frightened man, and, accompanied by the Arabs, went to the governor's house; where I placed them all in the custody of the police, and then went to see Surraya pasha. I informed him what had happened, and after a short examination the Jew was released and the Arabs sent to prison.

On Good Friday the Jews cannot quit their own quarters, as the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians would insult and otherwise illtreat them. On some occasions the pasha has been obliged to guard the entrances of their streets with bodies of soldiers and police to protect them from the fanatical Christians, who would have made an attack upon them. No Jew, who lives at Jerusalem, dares to pass in front of the court of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, for he well knows how great a risk he runs of suffering for his curiosity. If, on an occasion like this, he were murdered, the malefactors would not be severely punished; for all the native population unfortunately hold the opinion that to injure a Jew is a work well pleasing in the sight of God. This is due to the fact that the Jews, although numerous, do not know how to make themselves respected; and to the sermons constantly delivered by the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, in which the most opprobrious and unseemly epithets are heaped upon them, even in the churches themselves, and of course still more in less sacred places. These are all believed by the faithful, who are thus excited by their priests to insult all whom they meet. Again, the poorer Jews when going or returning from pilgrimages between Jerusalem and Hebron, avoid passing through Bethlehem to escape the insults which the "good Christians" of that place, excited by their monks, always inflict upon them. The rich, however, are free from all these inconveniences, for the bakhshish which they liberally distribute soothes down all party spirit; so that they are not only tolerated, but even honourably entertained in the convents of these Christians, their liberality making them welcome guests to both monks and people. They can visit the Tomb of Christ, the mosques and churches in Jerusalem itself, and be received everywhere with respect, paid not to their personal excellencies, but to their gold. Some of the wealthier members of the Jews now in England know full well that this is true.
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JPost, somewhat shortened:

As a sitting member of a democratic government, it might appear strange to declare that I am a refugee. However, my father, his parents and family were just a few of the almost one million Jews who were expelled or forced out of Arab lands. My father and his family were Algerian, from a Jewish community thousands of years old that predated the Arab conquest of North Africa and even Islam. Upon receiving independence, Algeria allowed only Muslims to become citizens and drove the indigenous Jewish community and the rest of my family out.

While those Arabs who fled or left Mandatory Palestine and Israel numbered roughly 750,000, there were roughly 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands. ...

An important distinction between the two groups is the fact that many Palestinian Arabs were actively involved in the conflict initiated by the surrounding Arab nations, while Jews from Arab lands were living peacefully, even in a subservient dhimmi status, in their countries of origin for many centuries if not millennia.

Financial economists have estimated that, in today’s figures, the total amount of assets lost by the Jewish refugees from Arab lands, including communal property such as schools, synagogues and hospitals, is almost twice that of the assets lost by the Palestinian refugees. Furthermore, one must remember that Israel returned over 90 percent of blocked bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other items belonging to Palestinian refugees during the 1950s.

EVEN THOUGH the number of Jewish refugees and their assets are larger than that of the Palestinians, the international community only appears to be aware of the latter’s plight.

There are numerous major international organizations devoted to the Palestinian refugees. There is an annual conference held at the United Nations and a refugee agency was created just for the Palestinian refugees. While all the world’s refugees have one agency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Palestinians fall under the auspices of another agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

UNWRA’s budget for 2010 is almost half of UNHCR’s budget.

Equally impressive is the fact that UNHCR prides itself on having found “durable solutions” for “tens of millions” of refugees since 1951, the year of its establishment. However, UNRWA does not even claim to have found “durable solutions” for anyone.

If that is not distorted enough, let’s look at the definitions and how they are applied: normally the definition of a refugee only applies to the person that fled and sought refuge, while a Palestinian refugee is the person that fled and all of their descendants for all time.
WITH DIRECT negotiations about to resume between Israel and the Palestinians, the spotlight will be returned to this issue. The so-called Palestinian ‘right of return’ is legal fiction. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, the supposed source for this ‘right’ does not mention this term, is not legally binding and, like all other relevant United Nations resolutions uses the intentionally ambiguous term ‘refugees’ with no appellation.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, still seen as the primary legal framework for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict asserts that a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement should necessarily include “a just settlement of the refugee problem.”

No distinction is made between Arab refugees and Jewish refugees.

In fact, one of the leading drafters of the resolution, Justice Arthur Goldberg, the United States’ Chief Delegate to the United Nations, said: “The resolution addresses the objective of ‘achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem.’ This language presumably refers both to Arab and Jewish refugees.”

In addition, every peace conference and accord attended or signed between Israel and its Arab neighbors uses the term “refugees” without qualification.

During the famous Camp David discussions in 2000, president Clinton, the facilitator and host of the negotiations said: “There will have to be some sort of international fund set up for the refugees. There is, I think, some interest, interestingly enough, on both sides, in also having a fund which compensates the Israelis who were made refugees by the war, which occurred after the birth of the State of Israel. Israel is full of people, Jewish people, who lived in predominantly Arab countries who came to Israel because they were made refugees in their own land”.

In 2008, the US Congress passed House Resolution 185 granting, for the first time, equal recognition to Jewish refugees, while affirming that the US government will now recognize that all victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict must be treated equally.

Before 1948 there were nearly 900,000 Jews in Arab lands while only a few thousand remain. Where is the international outrage, the conferences, the proclamations for redress and compensation? While the Palestinian refugee issue has become a political weapon to beat Israel, the Arab League has ordered its member states not to provide their Palestinian population with citizenship; Israel absorbed all of its refugees, whether fleeing the Holocaust or persecution and expulsion from Arab lands.

People like my father, the hundreds of thousands who came to Israel and the millions of Israelis descended from these refugees are entitled to redress. It is vital that this issue return to the international agenda, so we don’t once again see an asymmetrical and distorted treatment of Arabs and Jews in the Israeli-Arab conflict.
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ami Isseroff has, pretty much single-handedly, written an encyclopedia of everything related to Israel and the Middle East conflict and put it on-line, along with news, a blog, and who knows what else. Although the sites are difficult to navigate, there is an enormous trove of information an reference material there.

Isseroff is a centrist. He wants a two-state solution. He desperately wants peace. He is in contact with the Palestinian Arab "peace camp."

Which is why his latest post is worth reading:
It hurts me to admit this. As a Zionist, I really wish that the much hoped-for peace was really just around the corner. I wish that Israel could give up a few square meters of real estate and obtain peace. I know it will not happen. I am compelled to admit that by every indication, the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that begin this week will be a farcical charade. They cannot be saved by any amount of Israeli concessions. ...

One certain indication that the peace talks must fail is the flood of mail that I have gotten of late from Palestinian peace and dialog groups, and from every Palestinian or other Arab who ever spoke out for peace or sanity. They beg me to remove this or that article or section from a Web site where they are quoted as advocating peace with Israel or coexistence. They say - not for publication - that they are subject to a reign of terror: Emails; Hints; Phone calls in the night; Officials of the '"clean-as-a-whistle" "moderate" "not-like-Arafat" Palestinian National Authority telling them they had better toe the line - or it will be bad for their organization or their personal health.

My Palestinian and Arab friends and others who have asked me to remove their Web pages and demanded that I be silent about it, can be thankful that I do not follow their wishes: Speaking out is the only way to expose state terror. My advice to all those who are threatened is to speak out, loud and clear. But it is their decision. I will not name names. I can only decide what is right for myself.

Everyone who is in any way active in peace and dialog has to have heard echoes of the whisper campaign. The Palestinian youth orchestra that was dismantled because it played for Israeli Holocaust survivors, the One Voice event that was canceled because of death threats, are public manifestations of the same terror. All this happened not in Hamas - ruled Gaza, but, embarrassingly, in the West Bank, ruled by the "moderate" Fatah and the Palestinian National Authority, Israel's "peace partners." The people who are terrorized into begging me to remove their names, their articles and their organizations from any Web site that has the remotest connection with Israel, all are from the West Bank, the land of the Palestinian National Authority, not Gaza. Think about what this means.
This is one of the most under-reported stories out there. The PA is not close to moderate by any objective measure - in fact, they are far more intransigent than any Israeli government in history. Yet the media chooses to highlight how "moderate" they are  in order to fulfill what they believe is a greater good of promoting a mythical "peace." The result is that stories like these are ignored or minimized, and the PA is presented as a moderate government in opposition to the right-wing, hard-line Likud.

Centrist Zionists know the facts, and they yearn for a two-state solution anyway. Yet they are not willing to give up anything close to what the PA is demanding, knowing that on the ground, such concessions would lead to disaster. These simple facts are not reported at all.

Peace - real peace - cannot be built on lies and obfuscation. The ugly reality of the so-called "moderates" of Fatah and the PA needs to be exposed. When the media doesn't do its job, it is not serving the cause of peace - it is instead endangering many, many lives.
Al Quds al Arabi reports that the Islamic Action Front in Jordan, which is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, has called on Jordanian schools to add more incitement in their textbooks against Jews and Israel.

In 2006/2007, Jordanian schools started teaching a little bit about Jewish history, and this is regarded as unacceptable.

The announcement calls for a return to the curriculum that Jordanian textbooks have had until then  (and that were used in Palestinian Arab schools as well) where the Jews were regarded as dishonest and corrupt. The IAF also calls for schools to teach about Israeli threats to Jordan, the true face of "world Zionism" (which means world Jewry) and alleged Jewish destruction of Muslim holy places.
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Last Sunday I noted that the "blockade busting ship" that the media said was headed for Gaza - and that I said was headed for El Arish - never seemed to make it. I had assumed that it had arrived without any fanfare.

Well, it turns out it was just delayed. The ship arrived yesterday afternoon - in El Arish, naturally.
Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, trying to publicly distance the Hamas Gaza leadership and the al-Qassam Brigades, bizarrely claimed that the two terror attacks this week in the West Bank were not related to the resumption of negotiations in Washington this week.

This despite the fact that the al Qassam Brigades made that exact link.

Zahar said that Hamas has no interest in stopping the negotiations, although it is skeptical about the results and will not accept any compromise with Israel.

He stopped short of saying that the attacks were a coincidence; just that the Al Qassam Brigades happened to take the opportunity to kill Jews when it presented itself. He also claimed that it was a reflection of the "pressure" that Palestinian Arabs suffer in the West Bank, as if things have not been improving steadily there for the past few years.

The article seems to imply that Zahar is trying to forestall any Israeli retaliation in Gaza itself. Or maybe he's just trying to make sure that he is not personally targeted by a drone missile.

Arab leaders have proven time and time again their ability to lie effortlessly. The question is, why does the media still take anything they say at face value?
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Tomorrow is the last Friday of Ramadan, and therefore it is time for the annual al Quds Day, a holiday declared by the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in 1979.

Officially, the holiday is meant to strengthen Islamic ties to Jerusalem and show solidarity with Palestinian Arabs.

In reality, it is just an excuse to bash Israel and the Western world.

There are lots of Iranian news articles about the day, and some of them reveal the festival's real theme.

The Head of Iran's Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Policy and National Security, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said "the key issue for Palestine is to revive the memories of the Zionists' atrocities." Not a state, not Jerusalem, but the key issue is to talk about "Zionists' atrocities." How's that for incitement?

Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, realizing that inter-Muslim unity is a myth, blames their discord on the West and "called for an epic turn-out on al-Quds day to foil world power's plot to sow discord among Muslims."

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said that Quds Day "appears to pave the way for the collapse of Israel and its allies, namely the US and Britain."

The Iranian foreign ministry said that they "hoped for high demo turnout in the demonstrations in a bid to disappoint the Zionist enemy."

Sorry, but nothing that they can do can disappoint us. One cannot be disappointed in people who are already beneath contempt.

But since the topic has come up, here is my annual Quds Day video:
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Recently, Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria publicly returned an award that he had received five years ago from the Anti-Defamation League called the Hubert Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. He was upset that the ADL had publicly urged the Muslim community in New York to consider moving the proposed mosque/Islamic community center near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center to another location where the sensitivity of families of the victims would be respected.

Zakaria's argument is that the people behind the proposed building are moderate Muslims whose views should be supported. He was unclear on how their views cannot be supported from a few blocks further away, or even how the entire controversy had already made it impossible for most Americans to be able to listen objectively to these supposedly moderate Muslims - something that would have been accomplished very well had they publicly acknowledged the pain that the chosen site was causing.

Zakaria's viewpoint, as flawed as it is, is legitimate. He is taking an absolutist position on freedom of religion and that can be considered an admirable position in the abstract.

Recently he said something interesting on CNN. At the end of a segment where he discussed the restoration of a synagogue in Beirut, Zakaria said (from Big Journalism:)
So why did this nation, often teetering on the brink of religious hostilities and hostilities with Israel, restore a Jewish house of worship? To show that Lebanon is an open and tolerant country.

And indeed, the project is said to have found support in many parts of the community, not just from the few remaining Jews there, but also Christians and Muslims and Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah — the one that the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Hezbollah’s view on the renovation goes like this. “We respect divine religions, including the Jewish religion. The problem is with Israel’s occupation of Arab lands … not with the Jews.” Food for thought.
To the uninitiated, this might sound consistent with his position on the Islamic center - freedom of religion for all.

Others have pointed out the incongruity of Hezbollah's calls to destroy the Jewish state with its supposed respect for Judaism as a "divine religion." Others have also pointed out the small fact that there is a reason why the Jewish community in Lebanon has almost disappeared, and that this reason is rather contradictory to the soothing words being said in English by a Hezbollah spokesman. One can also mention that the very idea that the Jewish people, alone among all nations, have no rights of self-determination is an inherently anti-semitic position.

Yet if Zakaria had done a tiny amount of homework he would have seen that Hezbollah and its leader really are pure anti-semites completely out of the context of Israel.

Remember the Buenos Aries bombing of a Jewish community center? 86 people were killed, and Hezbollah together with its Iranian allies was behind it.

Moreover, Nasrallah said "If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide". (Lebanon Daily Star, Oct. 23, 2002)

Also in 2002 he said
If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli.

And MEMRI quotes him as calling Jews "grandsons of apes and pigs" and "Allah's most cowardly and greedy creatures."

(Quotes are from CAMERA.)

Is Zakaria so naive as to think that Hezbollah's public support for a synagogue that will have no worshippers to serve a community that fled religious persecution is an example of religious tolerance? Doesn't all evidence seem to support the idea rather that Hezbollah holds  Jews must remain, at best, second-class citizens, dhimmis under Islamic rule?

For Zakaria to quote this Hezbollah official and ignore the massive amounts of evidence of clear anti-semitism on the part of Hezbollah's leadership indicates that Zakaria's position on religious intolerance is not quite as clear cut as his denunciation of the ADL would indicate.

(h/t Joel for the original Big Journalism link)
  • Thursday, September 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hamas paper Palestine Times has an article about "The Committee on the Affairs of Palestinian Refugees" and its problems with UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.

Among their problems:

- The creation of a UNRWA Women's Committee meant to foster equal rights between men and women is really meant to end chastity and purity.

- UNRWA sometimes sponsors trips for students where they are in danger of meeting Jews and Zionists.

- UNRWA schools were rumored to have taught about the Holocaust which teaches students to sympathize with Jews

- Some schools have more females than males, causing them to have more female teachers than male teachers

- UNRWA salaries are too high

- UNRWA's services have decreased as their budget gets stretched.

It seems that the more that Arabs complain about UNRWA, the more that UNRWA defends them.

(h/t Ali)

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Over the past few days, Israelis have been inundated with a slick advertising campaign, financed by the US and created by the left wing "Geneva Initiative," to convince them that the current government does not want peace and that Palestinian Arabs do.

Here is my take on one of the commercials, starring everyone's favorite liar, Saeb Erekat.

  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The front page of the Al Qassam Brigades website shows this new picture:

The words say "No running away from the 'Flood of Fire' " - which is what they named yesterday's attack near Hebron. The road sign shows the sign for "Bani Naim" which is the Arab village near that attack, and the question mark indicates that more such attacks are to come.

In the article where they take credit for the Ramallah attack today, they say explicitly that "Flood of Fire" is meant to be a series of attacks, not a single operation.They also say that "this operation will not be the last." Moreover, they have choice words about the "wimps" of the PA and their attempts to capture them.

(h/t Ali for translation)
  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From YNet:

The Magen David Adom emergency services' spokesman said Wednesday that two people were injured, apparently after being shot, at the Rimonim junction in Binyamin.

MDA teams are on their way to the scene. No further details are currently available.

My Right Word:
New Shooting Incident Reported; 2 Injured

On the road between Kochav HaShachar and Rimonim.


UPDATE 23:42


One critical; one light.

The car went off the road into a deep ditch.

Helicopter transport to hospital.

23:49

The car was traveling between Rimonim Junction and Kochav Yaakov (which would be close to Route 60. The critical wounded is having emergency respiration applied.
Maariv also says one in critical condition.

See the usual Israeli blogs (Israellycool, My Right Word, The Muqata) for updates - I will not be near a computer.

UPDATE: One was moderately injured, the other lightly:
IDF Central Command Spokesman Peter Lerner, who arrived at the site of Wednesday's attack, said the shooting victims managed to get out of the vehicle and flee the scene.

"The wounded came out of the vehicle and ran away to the wadi, where they waited for fear that they would be killed," he said. "Later they climbed back and called for help…the army, Shin Bet, and police have launched an investigation into the incident, yet at this moment there are no leads."

The attackers apparently fired at the Israeli car from a passing vehicle, he said.
  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Back in 2007, I had a story about a Palestinian arab baby born with an ear that resembled the Arabic word Allah:

For reference:
At the time there was a spate of similar sightings - in fish, in British ice-cream cone logos, honeycombs, tsunami wave patterns, and clouds.

Well, according to PalTimes,we now have another PalArab kid with the Miracle-Ear:

  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
This little story seems to have slipped under the wire....

Libya freed 37 prisoners late on Tuesday, including at least one former detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, who had been jailed for links to radical Islamist groups but have since renounced violence.

The prisoners were kissed and hugged by waiting relatives when they walked out of the Abu Salim prison near Tripoli, in the latest in a series of releases designed to draw a line under radical Islamist violence in Libya.

"These releases come in the context of national reconciliation and social peace," said Mohamed al Allagi, chairman of the human rights committee of the Gaddafi Foundation, the charity which helped organise the release.

The charity is headed by Saif al-Islam, a reform-minded son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who some analysts say could eventually succeed his father.

Saif al-Islam has campaigned for reconciliation with Islamists who promise to lay down their arms.

More than 700 prisoners accused of having ties to Islamist militant groups have now been released under the reconciliation programme, but over 300 are still behind bars, according to figures given by Libyan officials.
  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press Agency quotes the Wafa PA agency interview with Salam Fayyad.

It the interview, he says that paying PA salaries should not be affected by their budget crisis, but he reveals that out of the $1.8 billion pledged by the international community to prop up the PA this year, only $605 million have been paid so far.

He reiterated that he intends to make the PA self-sufficient, and of course blames Israel for their financial problems.
  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Terrorism-Info:

1. The series "The Christ" (Al-sayid al-masih in Arabic) was broadcast at the beginning of August 2010 in Lebanon both by Al-Manar TV, Hezbollah's satellite channel, and the Shi’ite Lebanese channel NBN-TV, affiliated with the Amal movement and Nabih Berri. It was broadcast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time when the rate of television viewing is particularly high in the Muslim world. It was also broadcast by the Iranian Arabic-language channel Al-Kawthar TV.

2. The Christian community in Lebanon strongly protested the program, and after broadcasting the first few episodes Al-Manar TV and NBN TV were forced to announce they were taking the series off the air. Despite the storm raised by the broadcasts in Lebanon, the Iranian channel Al-Kawthar TV continued airing it.

...5. Produced in Iran in 2008, the series tells the story of the life of Jesus. The plot of the story shows the Muslim point of view that he was a prophet, but not the most important one (that distinction is reserved for Muhammad). In addition, according to Islam, there is no foundation for the Holy Trinity.

...7. In addition to the offensive treatment of Jesus, in the first two episodes there are clear examples of anti-Semitism. The Jews are depicted as conspirators, liars, traitors, cowards, evil, ugly greedy and Satanic. The Jewish residents of Jerusalem are represented as crooked merchants.


Jews in the series: A Jew informs on plotters againt the Roman authorities
Jews in the series: A Jew informs on plotters againt the Roman authorities
Jews in the series: Jews counterfeit coins to build the next Temple.
Jews in the series: Jews counterfeit coins to build the next Temple.

Jesus calls the Jewish priests ”sons of snakes“
Jesus calls the Jewish priests "sons of snakes" several times (the snake is a familiar anti-Semitic motif).
A priest says the Israelites have sunk to the depths.
A priest says the Israelites have sunk to the depths.

The Jews are worried by Jesus' success
The Jews are worried by Jesus' success, and one says, "This may destroy our profits."
Jesus again calls the Jews ”sons of snakes.“
Jesus again calls the Jews "sons of snakes."

Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee
Jesus to his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee:
"Among the Israelites are many devils who stir up terrible civil wars."

Read the whole thing.

(h/t Joel)
  • Wednesday, September 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
This is the reason I don't read the Western media - because when I do, I can't stop myself from fisking it, and that takes time.

Boker Tov Boulder pointed to an NYT article on Monday:

As preparations intensify for a Palestinian-Israeli summit meeting in Washington on Thursday, the crude outlines of a Palestinian state are emerging in the West Bank, with increasingly reliable security forces, a more disciplined government and a growing sense among ordinary citizens that they can count on basic services.

Personal checks, long shunned as being unredeemable, are now widely accepted. Traffic tickets are issued and paid, movie theaters are opening and public parks are packed with families late into the summer nights. Economic growth in the first quarter of this year was 11 percent over the same period in 2009, the International Monetary Fund says.

“I’ve never seen Nablus so alive,” Caesar Darwazeh, who owns a photography studio, said on Sunday night as throngs of people enjoyed balloons and popcorn, a four-wagon train taking merrymakers through the streets.
Sounds pretty good, right? Netanyahu's plan to create an "economic peace" is paying dividends and Palestinian Arabs are doing well.

Then comes the "but...."

Of course, the West Bank remains occupied by Israel. It is filled with scores of Israeli settlements, some 10,000 Israeli troops and numerous roadblocks and checkpoints that render true ordinary life impossible for the area’s 2.5 million Palestinians.
Hold on - weren't we just reading about "true ordinary life"? Isn't "true ordinary life" the ability to go to the park, to the movies, write checks, have businesses, raise families?

Some 96% of Palestinian Arabs were living in Areas A and B, under PA administrative control. Most are under PA security control as well. How exactly is Israel making their lives impossible?

Is it because of checkpoints, of which many have been dismantled? Does this mean that the thousands of commuters who are stuck for 45 minute delays every day at the bridges and tunnels of New York are not living "true ordinary lives?"

The Times does not say. It is simply a fact: even though their lives are pretty darn good, they are not good enough. They are not indistinguishable from people living in Long Island, which appears to be the reference point.

(Even though a large number of Arab towns visible from the highway actually do look pretty good. Some of their mansions would put those Long Island towns to shame.)


And if they are going to mention the 10,000 Israeli troops stationed in the West bank, why don't they mention how many PA security forces are there? The number was about 15,000 in 2004, far more than what was agreed upon during Oslo. No, context is not exactly what the NYT is going for. 


Here we see the NYT describe in detail why things are good, then declare that things are really bad without giving any examples of how this "occupation" is hurting them - especially for the majority living in Area A, which by any real definition cannot be considered "occupied."

Seems a wee bit biased.

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