May 2005 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Israel joins NATO parliamentary assembly

Israel was voted in a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday, after previously only enjoying monitor status. The decision was made during the spring session of the organization being held this week in Ljubjana, Slovenia.The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary organization of legislators from 14 member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, and is a forum for international parliamentary dialogue.This is an important...

Elephants in the room

When you see pundits talking about the Arab-Israeli conflict or terror at large, there are very often a few elephants in the room that for some reason they pretend to ignore. Occasionally it is useful to point some of these elephants out. "Disengagement" will be followed by increased terror. Every single military and intelligence analysis comes to this conclusion. Israel will need to retain troops in Gaza after "disengagement" to try to stop...

Sharansky on Amnesty and disengagement (Time)

Once again, Natan Sharansky shows clarity and consistency. Too bad these attributes are in such short supply. AS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS A THING OR TWO ABOUT GULAGS, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S ACCUSATION THAT GUANTANAMO IS THE GULAG OF OUR TIMES? The violation of human rights at Abu Ghraib was very serious, but it was only a few people. In Guantánamo, the human-rights violations were much more serious because they were part of the...

Another example of our moronic academia: Israel to blame for Palestinian men killing their wives

Thanks to Mark at Auterrific for uncovering this beaut:Within a period of a month, five women, Shadia Jidawi from Tulkarem, Yusra Al ‘Azamy from Gaza, Faten Habash from Ramallah, Rudaina Shukirat (pregnant 8 months), and her sister, Amany Shukirat from Jabal Mukaber, were killed for challenging patriarchal norms.Challenges to patriarchal norms, within the context of conflict and militarization, are often answered with threats of violence and in worst...

I'm so vain

Yours truly gets mentioned twice in the latest roundup of the Jewish blogosphere, this week called Havale Havawlim #22, hosted by Mystical Paths.The first question is, which will end up with more spelling variants - Chanukah/Hanuka/Xannucah or H[a|e|o|ah]v[a|ai|ay|ei|eigh][l|ll][e] H[a|ah|o]v[aw|a|e|ah|o][l|ll][i|y][m|mm]?And the second question is, will my streak of consecutive mentions ever threaten Joe Dimaggio's consecutive game hit record?Anyway,...

It's easy to lie when you're wearing a tie

The era of suicide bombing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be over and the culture of violence is changing in the region, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview aired on Sunday. Abbas, who was in Washington last week to meet U.S. President George W. Bush, said Palestinian-Israeli violence was down 90 percent in the past four months and he was optimistic for the future. Asked in an interview with ABC's 'This Week'...

Clueless Muslim letter-writer says we nothing to fear

I just ran across this from, presumably, a Muslim intellectual printed in a Boston newspaper:To the editor: About abusing the Qur'an. Very disturbing to any Muslim (which I am), Christian or Jew (Hindu or Buddhist).But Christians and Jews, labeled in the Qur'an as the 'People of the Book,' don't have to fear the worst - that the Muslims will flush their holy book, the Bible or the Torah, down the toilet just to be mean. Muslims, not even the most...

Daughter of Ziyon updates her blog

The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon has finally updated her blog with the provocative entry: "Stupid oblivious girls...

Israeli unemployment at 5-year low

Very good news, showing better than anything that the intifada didn't do the damage that the Arabs hoped. Unemployment in Israel in the first quarter of 2005 has fallen to its lowest level in five years, before the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000. The unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 9.1% in the first quarter, down from 9.8% in the preceding quarter and 10.9% in the first quarter of 2004, the Central Bureau of Statistics...

Cancer treatment in Israel saves Arkansas boy

A Cabot family is back home tonight after more than three months in Jerusalem. 14-year-old Dakota Hawkins and his family went there so he could be treated for a rare blood cancer. After hospitals in the U.S. exhausted treatment options, the Hawkins found out about a procedure in the Middle East not approved by the FDA. Two weeks ago we told you Dakota was suffering complications, but doctors finally decided he was strong enough to make the trip...

Barry Rubin: Peace is hopeless if the aim of the Palestinians is total victory

It is interesting that this was published in the Lebanon Daily Star. (hat tip to JihadWatch)Although he is not too explicit about this, the broad implication is that Palestinian leaders would prefer that their people remain pawns and weapons against Israel than for them to live in peace alongside Israel. Which is not much of a "leadership," is it?The central question of the Arab-Israeli - or at least the Israeli-Palestinian - conflict is whether...

AUT reverses boycott; Palestinian teachers show how "peaceful" they are

Rare good sense from British academics....and more of the usual idiocy from Palestinian academics. British Lecturers overturned their decision to boycott Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities in a vote on Thursday. Britain's 40,000-member Association of University Teachers voted last month to boycott the academic institutions for actions that it said undermined Palestinian rights and academic freedom. It also referred a motion to its executive committee...

Israeli researchers: Empathetic people understand sarcasm. Yeah, right.

Israeli scientists locate sarcasm in the brain Don't you just hate it when you delivery a zinging putdown line to some annoying person, and it goes right past them? Well, it turns out that they're not necessarily dense, or ignoring you. Israeli researcher have discovered that the ability to comprehend sarcasm depends upon a carefully orchestrated sequence of complex cognitive skills based in specific parts of the brain. The research details an...

52 Palestinian child terrorists caught this year so far

A 15-year-old Palestinian was arrested at the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus on Tuesday afternoon after he was discovered carrying two pipe bombs inside a black bag.On Sunday, a 14-year-old Palestinian wearing a belt with two pipe bombs strapped to it was arrested, also at the Hawara checkpoint.Security officials noted that since the beginning of the year, 52 Palestinian minors were caught wearing explosives belts or attempting to smuggle weapons...

The missing Hawranites

South of Damascus, in what is now southwest Syria, is the area known as Hawran. (It is a Biblical name.) Although there is not much that can be found about them nowadays, it seems that the people who lived there had been there for many centuries, at least since the Crusades. They had interesting architecture (buildings made out of lava) and a very fertile, although treeless,...

My email to Condoleeza Rice

Subject: Democracy versus FreedomDear Madame Secretary:I read with interest your comments about the importance of democratic institutions to be developed in Palestinian areas before true peace can occur.I am afraid that I've been seeing too many people in the administration substitute "democracy" for "freedom." Democracy is not a panacea; after all, Hitler was elected democratically. What needs to be stressed, as Natan Sharansky has been saying and...

Note the "peaceful" protests of the Arabs to the existence of Jews owning land in Palestine. Notice how even then, the Jews stress how they want to live in peace.Another point mentioned is that Arabs at the time were moving to Palestine "in the thousands" as a result of Jewish hard work in making the land a paradise. And they were specifically moving to the most Jewish areas....

Today's Hamas "Death to America" chant

Some 2,500 Palestinian Hamas members, unmollified by a now-retracted magazine allegation that US soldiers desecrated a copy of the Koran, streamed out of mosques in the West Bank city of Nablus Friday chanting, 'Death to America, death to Israel.' They sound like reasonable people who can be trusted if they are elected in the democratic proces...

Orange Alert!

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was forced to issue an official apology to the Indian Embassy, after Knesset security personnel prevented Indian legislators clad in orange from entering the Knesset. The incident occurred yesterday, when members of India's largest opposition faction, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), visited the Knesset while wearing orange scarves. Orange is their party's official color - but the Knesset guards...

January 22, 1939 - The more things change... (updated)

I have long held that there is a common denominator in the Arab side of the Israel-Arab conflict: the fact that Arabs do not want Jews to own land in the Middle East.It is not that they don't want any Jews there, because historically there have been Jews in Arab lands. It is simply that they cannot abide Jews owning land in the area, no matter how legally it is acquired. I...

Fanatic factoids

A Google News search on the term "Jewish fanatics" brings up:3 stories from Al-Jazeera.info;1 story from AlJazeera.com;1 story from a Cuban website;1 story from the Times of London (Headline: "Jewish fanatics flood into Gaza to resist withdrawal");and one quote of an Israeli general saying "I do not rule out the possibility that some Jewish fanatics might open fire on other Jews during the evacuation...

Judaism's holiest shrine is not the Western Wall

"Earlier Sunday, Mrs. Bush placed a note in the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine..." (Guardian) " The stamp depicts the pontiff's stop at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site..." (CBC) "Laura Bush placed a note in the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine..." (ABC News/AP)"Laura Bush spent a few moments of silence in the women's section at Judaism's holiest shrine..."(Times of India) Mrs Bush headed to the Western Wall,...

Has the Elder reached the big time?

This blog has been mentioned (in passing) yet again in this weeks Hevel Havelim and it is getting to my head so much that I'm starting to refer to myself in third person. What can I say...all is vanity.As it is, the article referenced has already become by far the most read and discussed thing I have written, with links from Israellycool, a Little Green Footballs message, and Zibbiboisgood. (Of course, while getting 85 unique visitors in one day...

PA promised to stop incitement in February

This Jerusalem Post article, published in March, says:The Palestinian Authority has decided to impose restrictions on preachers who deliver Friday sermons in West Bank and Gaza Strip mosques, a senior PA security official told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday. Under the new restrictions, preachers would not be able to deliver sermons that have not been authorized by the PA, he said. This will be the first time that since the establishment of the PA that...

Barbara Sofer: 57 reasons I love Israel

1. At Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo the loudspeaker announces "Afternoon prayers (minha) are now being held near the lions." 2. The Biblical Zoo is kosher for Pessah. The primates eat matza, but the parrots get rice. 3. The nation mourns when a distinguished songwriter dies. 4. The prime minister invites not only survivors, but their soldier grandchildren to the March of the Living at Auschwitz 5. Thousands of free loan societies flourish. You can...

Analysis: Al-Qaeda in Gaza

I'm a little cynical....A new Muslim terrorist group linked to al-Qaida has started operating in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority security officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.Jundallah, or 'Allah's Brigades,' consists mostly of scores of former Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, the officials disclosed. They said Jundallah gunmen launched their first attack on IDF soldiers near Rafah earlier this week.The IDF said four soldiers were...

Council on Foreign Relations: Muslim focus group shows Jews own America!

The CFR conducted focus groups to find out about the Muslim world's attitude towards America to see if it could be improved. Among the findings - no surprise here - are the ridiculous ideas that the focus group members had about Jews in America.By the way, these findings were consistent even among those considered well- educated.Conspiracy Thinking and Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Feed Anti-AmericanismUnfamiliarity with American politics, combined with...

AP spins PA anti-semitism

I find this AP story very interesting. When the PA TV station broadcast its anti-semitic vitriol, the AP didn't think it was worth reporting. When the PA promises to stop such broadcasts, only then is this newsworthy. In other words, AP only wants to emphasize the PA making "positive" (if hollow) steps towards "peace", but it only emphasizes Israel's actions as "adding to tensions" and "straining the cease-fire." I have yet to see a story about...

Suicide attacks declared un-Islamic. (Well, only those against Muslims.)

I'm very glad that they cleared this up once and for all. Fatwa declares suicide attacks un-Islamic58 Ulema’s decree does not apply to Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq; minister hails edictLAHORE: A group of 58 religious scholars representing all schools of thought have issued a Fatwa (edict) stating that Islam strictly forbids suicide attacks on Muslims and those committing such acts at places of worship and public congregations cease to be Muslims.However,...

There is nothing surprising about this. But once again one marvels at the sickness of these creatures who engage in lying and bigotry as a daily pastime, yet they whine loudly at any perceived "affront" to their people or "history". This is apparently from the PA website. The book shown is a Jewish prayerbook, which means that it appears that the official PA...

The Uzbek Dilemma (Tech Central Station)

This guy is good. He spells out the fundamental tension between wanting democratic states and wanting states that aren't Islamist, and how the US needs to choose one way or the other. As I've said before, democracy isn't the magic formula that makes nations behave in a civilized manner - freedom is. Having elections in a society that doesn't accept Western-style freedoms means that the elections are not truly free. Sharansky gets it, but it is not...

Another Fatwa question for the Imam

Q: Salaam aleikum. When a Muslim soldier on a mission to kill the hated Jewish virus gets killed by his own bomb going off prematurely, does he still get his 70 virgins in Heaven?A: Of course. Allah Ta'ala Knows Best.GAZA - A Hamas terrorist who was killed overnight in the southern Gaza town of Rafah died from bomb shrapnel and not from gunfire, Palestinian sources said, contradicting earlier reports that said soldiers had shot the man.According...

My email to mainstream media

I just emailed this to MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the NYT, Reuters, AP and the Washington Post:To the editor:I am astonished that the story that can be found in http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP90805 has not been picked up by a single mainstream media outlet. Here we have the TV station run by the Palestinian Authority, whose head was appointed by Mahmoud Abbas himself,...

Three thoughts on the Koran Kerfuffle

How much should religion be respected?As a hopefully religious person myself, I can sympathize with those who are offended by the desecration of their religious symbols. I would not purposefully do anything to disrespect any religion, and I think it is reasonable to expect others to do the same.But three things strike me about the discredited Newsweek story saying that US soldiers flushed the Koran down the toilet, causing deadly riots in Afghanistan.One...

The historical Palestinians: A very simple test

I don't think that anyone can seriously doubt that today there are a people who could accurately be described as "Palestinian."But there is an incredible hue and cry whenever people say, accurately, that there were no such people that could be distinguished from the rest of the Arab world until relatively recently.There is a very simple test that can prove which claim is more...