January 2009 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Saturday, January 31, 2009

January Rocket Calendar

Q=Qassam (may include Katyusha-style rockets)QS=Qassam landing short in GazaM=MortarF=Fatality (F=Gazan, F=Israeli)(G)=Grad (included in Qassam count, not consistent yet)M*- Apparently upgraded 120mm mortarsMS=Mortar landing shortP - unnamed "projectiles"(Paren) indicates unconfirmed Palestinian claims* - Fatal non-rocket attackK=Katyushas from LebanonMortars are severely undercounted since they simply don't make the news any more.Yellow=day Israel...

PalArab news roundup 1-31-09

Al Ahram is reporting increasing tensions between Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus.Egypt arrested some armed Palestinian Arabs emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, who told them that there were at least seven others that the Egyptians missed.The PalArab press latches onto another American Israel-basher, this time Ramsey Clark, who is calling the Gaza op a "genocide."Hamas denied that it had anything to do with the murder of a Fatah teacher in Gaza...

The BBC's Gaza appeal debacle

The BBC last week made a strange decision not to broadcast an appeal to help Gazans. In their words, "We decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal because we wished to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of covering a continuing news story where issues of responsibility for civilian suffering and distress are intrinsic to the story and remain highly contentious."Anyone who ever watches...

What is the worst thing you can call a Hamas supporter?

As I reported yesterday, in a story that has been completely ignored by practically all the media, Hamas is planning to create its own alternative to the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian Arabs, not only in the area once known as Palestine but in other countries.As can be expected, the PLO is not keen on the idea. The head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, Azzam Al-Ahmed, has slammed Hamas and the Arab...

Thank you and a question (open thread)

With one day left in the month, I have more than doubled my previous record for pageviews and visitors. I should hit 80,000 pageviews for January sometime tonight or tomorrow, and well over 60,000 visitors, numbers which blow my mind.I have also posted more this month than any other, with at least 184 postings.Thanks to all my readers, old and new.Out of curiosity, if I would put together and expand on my best original posts in a (self-published)...

According to Palestine Today, News photographer Abdul Rahman Al-Khatib received medium-degree burns after he caught fire during coverage of the burning of Israeli and American flags in a march organized by Hamas in Gaza City this afternoon.Witnesses said the cameraman was covering the demonstration when a masked man poured gasoline on burning Israeli flags. The resulting explosion...

Another NGO denial

I emailed to the ICRC, asking about aid trucks being hijacked in Gaza:I am a news blogger trying to confirm stories about Hamas hijacking aid trucks in Gaza and distributing the aid to their own members. The UNRWA has denied that this has happened to their aid convoys, despite press reports to the contrary. However, there have been more reports of aid meant for the Palestinian Red Crescent being forcibly taken by Hamas over the past year (links upon...

Another case of Hamas using human shields

From Palestinian Media Watch (I couldn't find the original article in Al Hayat:)Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a "fortress" by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. They told the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper that for years Hamas has used their property and homes for military installations from which to launch rockets into Israel, dig tunnels and...

PalArab news roundup 1-30-09

The Fatah-linked Palestine Press Agency details some $400 million of fraud, money laundering and illegally redirecting government contracts to private companies run by Hamas members in Gaza. One example was that the late Siad Siam who apparently founded front companies in Turkey and Egypt to funnel goods to Gaza through tunnels he controlled.Hamas has been denying the house arrests, tortures, shootings and killings of Fatah members, although Ma'an...

US Academic Boycotters for Terror

Ha'aretz yesterday wrote that a new US group was formed to advocate an academic boycott of Israel.Ha'aretz had some fun at the expense of this group, called the "U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel", asking them if they would accept support from Hamas (they would) as well as this:Lloyd wrote that to the best of his knowledge, all supporters of the anti-Israel boycott were also opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Asked...

Life for our heroes at the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is not all fun and games. Sure, they will engage in high speed car chases to catch unmarried couples alone, or arrest people who allegedly cursed Mohammed, but sometimes they have very serious and complex cases as well.Here is the sad story of witchcraft and sorcery, as recounted...

Haniyeh to announce a competitor to the PLO

While the PA is the only recognized quasi-government in the territories, the PLO has been the only recognized representative of Palestinian Arabs worldwide. In fact, the PLO was enshrined in that position at Oslo, as the sole representative of the "Palestinian people." The PA is effectively but not officially a subsidiary of the PLO, and the president of the PA has so far also always been the head of the PLO.While Hamas broke with the PA and created...

Harry Potter and the Zionist Brainwashers

I missed this MEMRI clip from last week, but it is a beauty: Following are excerpts from an episode of an Iranian TV documentary series on Western Cinema featuring the Harry Potter films, which aired on IRINN, the Iranian News Channel on December 15, 2008: Narrator: The early 1990s brought a revolution in digital technology to the world of cinema, helping the propaganda machinery of the 2oth century "Samaritans" [Jews] adopt useful tools...

Another Hamas murder

From Reuters:A Palestinian man on Thursday accused Islamist Hamas militants in control of the Gaza Strip of torturing and killing his brother for publicly criticizing them. Osama Atallah, a teacher, was a supporter of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the sworn enemy of Hamas, whose gunmen drove Fatah militia out of Gaza in 2007 and fought Israel's army in a three-week war this month. His brother Bassam said masked...

The Onion explains it all.PointThe Israeli Conflict Is Far Too Nuanced And Complex To Sum Up In One Op-Ed By James Berillo For as long as I can remember, the Israelis and Palestinians have been in conflict. And for as long as I can remember, there have been myriad opinions about who is right and who is wrong....

Remember all the headlines claiming that Israel shelled a UNRWA school in Jabalya earlier this month? Remember how indignant the UNRWA was that Israel would strike at a school whose coordinates were clearly known to the IDF?Well, it turns out that the school was not hit at all:Physical evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was in the schoolyard...

A Russian news agency is quoted in Palestine Today as saying that Israel deployed its "VIPeR" robot in Gaza.The VIPeR is sweet. From Popular Mechanics, June 2007: The VIPeR can climb stairs (right) and open fire on targets with a submachine gun. At left, the 9-in.-tall drone is fitted with a bomb-disarming water gun. Very few...

The enablers

In relationships, an enabler is someone whose actions allow another to continue his or her self-destructive behavior. It is most often seen in families where one member suffers from alcoholism or some other addiction and the other members cover up for that person rather than forcing him to directly suffer the consequences. The maladaptive individual does not have to be an addict, though - an example would be a 26 year old son who refuses to look...

One more UNRWA email chain (updated)

After the UNRWA spokesman sent me his latest denial that Hamas diverts or steals aid, I sent him this:Thanks, but my original question and all followups were asking not only about UNRWA aid but also about aid meant for other NGOs, such as Red Crescent. In at least one case UNRWA was the alleged recipient of the diverted aid, as reported in the Arabic News last February:Hamas says it seized Jordan aid to keep it safe Palestine-Jordan, Politics,...

A fantastic find from Simply Jews, apparently the work of a Swiss cartoonist in 195...

A tacit UN admission of Hamas stealing aid? (updated)

While UNRWA adamantly denies that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza, contrary to reports from Israeli, PA and Jordanian officials, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes has just said something intriguing.In a report to the UN on the situation in Gaza, where he criticizes both Israel and Hamas, The Under-Secretary-General also emphasized that Hamas must refrain from any interference with the movement or distribution of humanitarian...

From The People's Cube, h/t Israellycoo...

PalArab news roundup 1-28-09

The rumors that have popped up in the past day that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might have some Jewish ancestors - probably cooked up by his political opponents - is resonating in the Fatah-linked Palestine Press Agency. Its readers are not surprised, as they consider all Shiites to be really Jewish.In PalArab self-death news, a Qalqiya resident was found shot to death in Hebron. A Gaza man was tortured to death by Hamas. And I had not yet counted yesterday's...

Meanwhile, the PA pays - and protects - terrorists

Hamas is being portrayed in the media as representing the "extremists" among Palestinian Arabs and Mahmoud Abbas' PA is consistently viewed as being "moderate." The Gaza operation has seemingly shown that the two sides are polar opposites, and has made many consider that it is now more important than ever to prop up the PA as Israel's only viable peace partner.A little research shows that the idea of the PA and Fatah being anti-terrorism is a gross...

Saudi Vice, episode 24: Wild college women

Al Yamamah College, a Saudi Arabian institution of advanced learning, hosted a British University Fair last Sunday. At this fair, representatives of 25 British universities could interact with potential students and tell them all about their programs, and the students could ask questions.The organizers of the fair might have had good educations, but they didn't think about...

All you need to know about UNRWA

A former UNRWA legal advisor, James Lindsay, just wrote a report detailing the problems with UNRWA with specific recommendations. His history and analysis of the organization look to be spot on. While he finds few specific examples of UNRWA employees engaging in terrorism, he details the political tilt that UNRWA has been showing towards Hamas based on their statements. For example:In 2008, UNRWA issued comparably fewer calls for engaging Hamas....

UNRWA denies stories

I just asked Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesman, two questions:I would like to follow up on my earlier inquiry about the Jordanian aid truck meant for UNRWA that had been reportedly been hijacked by Hamas. Did you ever confirm that this happened, or that any aid truck was hijacked by Hamas?Also, I just found a story from Palestine Press Agency from last April that quoted sources as saying that residents of a camp in Khan Younis were complaining about...

Completely useless trivia question

If you could have your choice of 100 pounds of dimes, quarters, half-dollars or old Eisenhower dollar coins, which one should you choose?And how much would they be worth?-----------------Joem figured out the answer. From his comment:Assuming face value, in purely mathematical terms, they would be equivalent, based on:100 lbs = 45359.237 gramsdime = 2.268 g = 199996.6358 coins = $1,999.66quarter = 5.670 g = 79998.65432 coins = $1,999.66half dollar...

"Martyr posters" suggest a high terrorist death toll

From AP:Some were killed when tank shells hit their homes. Others died when bombs erased their offices. Still others _ like Islamic Jihad fighter Mohammed Bedawi _ met their end battling Israeli troops."The drone hit him," said his cousin, Abed Bedawi, 21, referring to the unmanned surveillance planes often seen in Gaza's skies. "He was laying a bomb for a tank when the drone fired a missile at him."Now they are all memories, their faces rolling...