Vos iz Neias, a Brooklyn-based Orthodox Jewish website, reports:
VIN News has learned from high-ranking Iranian officials that a New York meeting between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and members of the radical anti-Zionist Neturei Karta group was canceled at-the behest of Ahmadinejad himself.
Neturei Karta members reportedly were scrambling to secure a meeting with Ahmadinejad himself during his recent visit to New York for the U.N. meeting. Hope seemed "lost" until the group actually succeeded in arranging for a face-to-face with the firebrand head of state-only to have that meeting suddenly canceled, by no less than Ahmadinejad himself.
According to VIN's sources, it is said that the Iranian president has lost total interest in the Neturai Karta, and views them as zealots with no serious following within the Jewish community.
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta confirmed to VIN News that their group did not meet last week with Ahmadinejad, but declined to provide a reason.
Two years ago, members of the group scored international headlines, and a fierce firestorm to match, when they appeared at a Holocaust-denial conference in Teheran to publicly and literally embrace Ahmadinejad. The group has also met Ahmadinejad in 2007 while visiting New York.
Meanwhile nowadays, famous Austrian Rabbi Moishe Arye Friedman, the formerly high-ranking official who facilitated that infamous event, has done teshuvah [repentance ]. As described in an exclusive interview with VIN, the activist no longer agrees with the NK's philosophy, and believes what most said about it for decades: that it is a dangerously foolhardy calculation for a handful of extremists to claim international Torah Jewish representation, especially on such a critical issue as the safety and security of fellow Jews-not to mention a humiliating chilul Hashem [desecration of God's name.]
Rabbi Friedman is reputedly using his connections and influence in high ranks of the International Community places to now thwart, not facilitate, publicity-heavy meetings between members of the group.
I have no idea if it is true but it sounds semi-plausible. The reason given is a little strange; what does Ahmadinejad care if NK is considered fringe or not? They serve his purposes either way as Jewish cover for his desire to destroy Israel.
Anyway, this story does show that religious Jews can't stand the anti-Israel NK as a whole and that they represent essentially no one in the Orthodox Jewish community.
I am reminded of an old posting of mine, where an avowed "anti-Zionist" idiot wrote an article against Neturei Karta because they were just too Jewy for him.
PTWatch, after much exhausting work, has put together a database-driven website that shows all the results of our team's research into PCHR's casualty list from Operation Cast Lead.
Much better than the posting I've been updating, the site lists alternate names of the militants, points to the URLs that prove their terrorist ties and even includes screenshots of the sites.
This is now the definitive reference site for Cast Lead casualties. I hope that the other researchers that have been doing similar work can help update it with their own raw results.
Thanks again to PTWatch, t34zakat and Suzanne for the many, many hours of research that resulted in this!
Palestinian Arabs love to romanticize their worst decisions.
During the 1936-39 riots and strikes they ended up killing far more of their own people than anyone else. Their leadership was forced out of the area and they were left a disorganized mess, which historians blame for their poor performance in 1948. Yet they nostalgically refer to that time period as "The Great Revolt," mostly because they did manage to scare the British into severely limiting Jewish immigration and therefore many tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of Jews ended up in ovens instead of Palestine. Apparently, to the Palestinian Arabs, this made it all worthwhile.
The same logic is happening now. The second intifada, by any sane measure, was a terrible setback for supposed Palestinian Arab hopes for an independent homeland. Thousands were killed, their economy was ruined, and the possibility of nationhood became more remote. Just as in the 1930s, they ended up fighting each other, killing hundreds more. Yet they regard it today with nostalgia - because they were successful in killing over a thousand Jews and the wave of suicide bombings made them feel important and relevant as they enjoyed being on the world stage - even if it was for terrorism.
Today, Palestinian Arab leaders across the spectrum are calling for a new intifada, and leveraging the threat of one to gain the prestige that they associate with terror.
Several political figures from across the Palestinian spectrum have suggested this week that a new uprising is on its way in the wake of the violent clashes with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday.
The Hamas movement urged Palestinians throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel to take to the streets and begin a new uprising against Israel in reaction to clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Muhammad Dahlan, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, warned on Sunday a third intifada could arise in light of "Israel's contempt for the feelings of Muslims."
Other officials, like Saeb Erekat and others from the PLO, are more indirect in their calls to violence by characterizing peaceful Jewish visits to the Temple Mount as "attack[s] on ordinary civilians and worshippers at Al-Aqsa." These lies are simply incitement to terror.
These threats of violence are perceived as something that gives them relevance, and relevance is synonymous with honor. This perceived "honor," in turn, is more important than compromise, peace and normal lives for PalArabs.
If anyone is provoking violence, it is the Palestinian Arab side. But this is not surprising because these are the people who name public squares and children's camps after the most vile terrorists, who almost universally support attacks on Israeli civilians, and who celebrate when Jews are murdered.
Is it any wonder that Palestinian Arabs are calling to relaunch a new terrorism campaign? The prestige that it gives them in the Arab world is worth far more to them than the lives that are disrupted and lost when they choose war.
Israel plans to allow Jewish worshipers to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on a regular basis, dividing prayer time between Muslims and Jews, officials at the Islamic Christian Society in Support of Jerusalem said Monday.
Currently Israeli citizens are not permitted to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Haram Ash-Sharif. On Sunday, however, clashes broke out inside the sanctuary when extremist Jews - reports dispute whether or not the culprits were Israeli citizens - entered the area along with Israeli soldiers. The compound was locked down during the clashes and 13 were injured. Israeli forces also raided Palestinian Jerusalem and detained dozens military sources say were involved in the clashes.
According to the society, there will be 50 Jewish holidays on which Jews will have exclusive access to the compound for worship. The religious calendars of the Muslim and Jewish faith often overlap, with the Jewish Rosh Hashana holiday coinciding with the final Friday of the Muslim Ramadan. The society calls the decision “unacceptable.”
Officials, including Sheikh Taisir At-Tamimi, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Dr. Hasan Khater, Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour and Father Manuel Musallam from the society spoke at a news conference Monday in Ramallah. They warned that such a policy was dangerous, and “went beyond the red line.”
The religious leaders then appealed to Palestinian leaders to seek a national agreement so they could prevent Israel from taking over the site, which Jews believe is the place where the Second Temple stood. Plans from extremist and even moderate right wing groups to raze Al-Aqsa and build a Third Temple have been repeatedly uncovered.
The leaders called the plan a war crime, noting there were attacks on Al-Aqsa from “above and below,” referring to the contentious excavation work Israel is carrying out on tunnels beneath the compound.
The officials called all the Muslims to fast on Thursday and all the Christians to pray on Sunday as an expression of solidarity with Jerusalem and all the holy places in the city.
Sheikh Taisir At-Tamimi urged Palestinians to attend worship ceremonies in the Old City of Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in particular, in order to stave off encroaching Israeli presence in the area.
The Archbishop Atallah Hanna asked all Christians to join their fellow Muslims in prayer on Sunday to be in solidarity with Al-Aqsa mosque. He stressed that targeting Al-Aqsa is only the beginning of targeting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
50 Jewish holidays every year? Jews coveting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? Rosh Hashanah always coinciding with Eid?
What is really happening is that these extremist religious leaders saw that their rioting on Sunday was, from their twisted perspective, a complete success. People like Tamimi come out with Jewish conspiracy theories every week, all published in the Arabic media, about how Jews are digging tunnels underneath the Temple Mount or planning to destroy it or whatever. But last week, he got "lucky" by predicting that Jews would go to the Temple Mount on Sunday (even though Jews, and even Israeli Jews, go there often) and he had riled up his acolytes to riot.
The riots resulted in the Jews leaving their holiest area, so once again Arabs proved that the threat of violence is far more effective than anything else in getting their agendas done.
So now they need to extend their good luck. They make up crazy rumors. Major clerics announce these so-called Jewish plans without the tiniest shred of evidence, but that doesn't matter - as long as they can credibly get their idiot followers to believe them, they are golden. Their goal is to ensure that Jews are never allowed to set foot on the Temple Mount, and the way to do that is to repeat the circumstances of the 2000 intifada - something they consider a wonderful victory. For years, the holiest Jewish shrine was Judenrein, and these sheikhs and clerics were happy even as their people were getting killed and their economy went down the tubes.
How sweet would it be, though, if the Jewish state would actually take over the Temple Mount from the corrupt Waqf and give permanent access to Jews?
Malformed Babies Resulting From Israeli Banned Weapons
Since the end of criminal Israeli operation "Cast Lead" in Gaza Strip last January, more than five cases of birth have been registered which show babies who have a deformed and not fully formed heart. These births came as an effect of the use of internationally banned weapons of phosphor and uranium by the Israeli occupation in the middle of populated areas.
I did see these accusations in Arabic as well.
So, at least five Gaza children were born with birth defects in the past nine months? Let's do some math.
According to CIA World Factbook figures, we can estimate some 43,000 children were born in Gaza since January. It appears that in general, 2% of all babies born in Western nations have severe birth defects.
Let's pretend that the normal rate of severe birth defects in Gaza is much lower, say 0.5%. That means that in a normal 9 month period, one could expect 215 babies in Gaza to have severe birth defects. (The real number is probably around 900.)
Since only 6 or 7 babies born in Gaza are claimed to have had these ill-effects, this means that the illegal Israeli chemical and radiological weapons that were unleashed on Gaza ended up reducing the number of deformed babies by an astonishing 97%!
Clearly, the IDF has come up with some miracle weapons that eliminate nearly all severe birth defects!
The UN Human Rights Council continues its farcical actions as today it considered the Goldstone Report.
In the synopsis of the morning session, two people used the report to accuse Israel of genocide. One was Israel's erstwhile "peace partner." (Notice how the UNHRC already regards "Palestine" as a country:)
Palestine, speaking as a concerned country, said that the report was a professional, unbiased report, and related to facts that could not be denied. This was not a political instrument that supported Palestine or Israel. This report was important because, for the first time, there was monitoring and documentation of the massacres the Palestinian peoples had suffered, indeed were suffering from genocide.
The other was Venezuela:
GERMAN MUNDARAIN HERNANDEZ (Venezuela) thanked the Fact-Finding Mission for the presentation of their report and for the work they had carried out. At the ninth Special Session, Venezuela had already stated its profound indignation over the violations of international humanitarian law that had been carried out by the Israeli army against the civilian population in Gaza. Venezuela believed that the report was a document with scientific rigour and that it was historic. The Mission had shown, once again, the Israeli crimes over the years using Palestinian civilians as military targets. This was genocide.
By the way, if Israel killed 50,000 Gazans a year, their population would still be increasing. Perhaps these esteemed diplomats have no idea of what "genocide" means or, more likely, they just take great pleasure in hurling such accusations at Israel.
Christians are tempted to flee Lebanon as the country becomes increasingly “Islamized,” according to the founder of the Center for Arab Christian Research and Documentation (CEDRAC). One-third of the nation’s Christian population has left since the beginning of the 1975-90 Civil War, and a recent surge in emigration means Christians now make up just 34 percent of Lebanon’s population, Father Samir Khalil, a Jesuit teacher at Beirut’s St. Joseph University’s CEDRAC department, told Vatican Radio last week.
“Christians used to make up 50 percent of the nation’s population; now experts think the Christians are probably not exceeding 34 percent, which is worrying,” Khalil said in the radio interview during a visit to The Holy See.
The Beirut-based researcher expressed concern that Christians in the Arab world are moving abroad to places with higher Christian populations, such as America, Europe and Australia, which is increasing the Muslim majority in countries like Lebanon.
“The same is happening [all over] the Middle East, and this is certainly a very tragic situation, and it will have great consequences in the future,” Father Khalil warned last week on the Vatican Radio station, adding that Christians must stay in the Middle East to keep numbers up.
Large numbers of Lebanese Christians are leaving as they feel their traditional influence in their country is weakening, while an increasing number of crucial political positions are going to Muslims.
In reference to Islamic extremism, Khalil claimed the power of the influential Christian minority to counterbalance it was waning, saying: “Lebanon has always been a bastion of religious tolerance, but now it is moving toward the model of Islamization seen in Iraq and Egypt.”
Something to keep in mind as Muslims keep pointing to the Arab Christians as proof of their "tolerance."
Three Jordanian men were charged on Tuesday with premeditated murder after allegedly stabbing to death their divorced sister as well as burning her body and house over her "bad reputation," police said.
"The three brothers all under 30, agreed to kill their 40-year-old sister on Sunday because she allegedly had a bad reputation," in Abu Alanda, in southeast Amman, a police spokesman told AFP.
"She was stabbed 15 times. One of the three told police that the mother of five had a love affair with a man and that he found pictures of the woman sitting with her alleged lover."
The spokesperson said the suspects "burned the victim's body and set ablaze her house to cover the crime."
Murder is punishable by the death penalty in Jordan but in the case of so-called "honour killings" a court usually commutes or reduces sentences, particularly if the victim's family urges leniency.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved Tuesday the importation of lulavs (date palm fronds) from Gaza, after Minister of Religious Services Yakov Mergi asked him to do so. The lulavs are one of the four species used in the morning prayer services during the upcoming Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
The request comes as a result of a shortage in lulavs and concern over a possible cartel by dealers, resulting in a price hike.
I don't understand why palm branches aren't available from anywhere else. If anything, importing them from PA-controlled areas of the West Bank would be preferable.
I've mentioned a number of times about how some women in the Arab world are forced to go through hymen-restoration surgery before marriage in order to ensure that they won't get murdered by their new loving husbands upon the discovery that their hymens are not intact. Most recently, a Saudi fatwa seemed to allow such surgery, although hundreds of Jordanian women are forced to have their "virginity" examined before marriage by prospective in-laws.
A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty.
Abdul Mouti Bayoumi said supplying the item was akin to spreading vice in society, a crime punishable by death in Islamic Sharia law.
The device is said to release liquid imitating blood, allowing a female to feign virginity on her wedding night.
There is a stigma about pre-marital sex in conservative Arab societies.
The contraption is seen as a cheap and simple alternative to hymen repair surgery, which is carried out in secret by some clinics in the Middle East.
It is produced in China and has already become available in other parts of the Arab world.
The device is reported to be on sale in Syria for $15.
Professor Bayoumi, a scholar at the prestigious al-Azhar University, said it undermined the moral deterrent of fornication, which he described as a crime and one of the cardinal sins in Islam.
Members of parliament in Egypt have also called for banning import of the item.
At Al Azhar, a women's virginity is apparently valued higher than their very lives.
The board of state-owned Al-Ahram Organization referred Al-Ahram’s Democracy Review editor-in-chief Hala Mustafa to the legal affairs department to be questioned over inviting Israeli ambassador Shalhom Cohen to her office.
This comes after the Journalists’ Syndicate also opened an investigation into the same incident, which is seen as violating the general assembly’s ban on any form of cooperation with Israel.
Nearly two weeks ago, Cohen paid a visit to Al-Ahram headquarters, leaving security officials confused since they were not given prior notice.
The ambassador allegedly wanted to discuss a proposal to hold lectures organized by Mustafa’s periodical.
Mustafa hosted him in her office, triggering controversy within the state-owned foundation, with calls to fire her from Al-Ahram and expel her from the syndicate.
Al-Ahram’s board issued four decrees during their last meeting; referring Mustafa to legal affairs, banning any Israeli from entering the organization’s premises, banning any joint studies, meetings and conferences with researchers with Zionist ideas, and distancing Abdel Moneim Saeed’s personal political views from his position as chairman of Al-Ahram’s board.
Saeed is known for being an advocate of normalization with Israel, meeting with officials and traveled to the country, according to Ahmed El-Naggar, member of Al-Ahram’s board of directors.
An Al-Quds article relates Al-Ahram's ban on Israelis as a direct reaction by Egypt blaming Zionists and Jews for Farouk Hosny's failure to become UNESCO's director.
Yesterday, Ma'an described the event on the Temple Mount like this (the story has since been radically changed online:)
Confrontations erupted after groups of Israelis broke into the compound, reportedly under the guard of Israeli police. Palestinians hurled stones, chairs, and shoes at the Israelis, while police tried to disperse the Palestinians by force, injuring nine people right away, and four more throughout the morning.
According to witnesses, clashes broke out after a group of about 150 Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa compound on Sunday morning, reportedly under the guard of local authorities who also escorted the group away from the area when worshipers began to protest.
By all accounts, the Jews (or perhaps French tourists) who toured the Mount did nothing provocative. They didn't interrupt prayers, they didn't shout, they didn't riot, they didn't cause any disruptions at all by their actions. And when the worshippers protested the fact that they were doing nothing, they even left without a fuss.
All they did was walk around, something tourists do every day.
Since they were presumably Jews, however, the Arabs freaked out and started doing what they do best - rioting. They threw rocks and chairs at the people they identified as being guilty of the crime of being Jewish.
Today, the PA - those moderate darlings of progressive peace-pushers worldwide - praised the rioters:
The Fatah-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has condemned Sunday’s Israeli infringement on the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem and hailed Palestinians who rushed to defend the holy site.
In a statement issued on Monday evening, the cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also urged Arab and Muslim countries to mobilize in defense of Al-Aqsa.
The government “congratulated the Palestinian masses when they rushed to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque and foiled the attempt of settlers and extremists to storm the Mosque.”
This isn't even Abbas - this is the uber-Western friendly prime minister Salim Fayyad praising rioters.
Of course, from their perspective, the "settlers" were being "provocative." Reacting to the provocation of "existing" with rocks and thrown chairs, as well as more rioting that carried over into today, is apparently a praiseworthy action according to the peaceful and moderate Palestinian Authority.
UPDATE: Here are some pictures of the poor provoked "worshippers," courtesy of Palestine Today: Praiseworthy!
397. While it appears that all the policemen killed in this location were taking part in a training course, there is conflicting information on the details. Most reports by NGOs are to the effect that these were police “cadets” in the midst of a graduation ceremony. The Gaza police spokesperson, however, told the Mission that they were serving policemen, who had been taking a three-week course and who were, at the time of the strike, doing “morning sport exercise”.255
400. A second police training course targeted was reportedly attended by around 50 policemen. Twenty-eight of them were killed in the strike. According to the police spokesperson, the training course was designed to instruct police officers on how to deal with police officers who abused their power as well as on cultural and economic issues relevant to police work.258
414. On 1 January 2009, during the Israeli military operations in Gaza, the police spokesperson, Mr. Islam Shahwan, informed the media that the police commanders had managed to hold three meetings at secret locations since the beginning of the armed operations. He added that “an action plan has been put forward, and we have conducted an assessment of the situation and a general alert has been declared by the police and among the security forces in case of any emergency or a ground invasion. Police officers received clear orders from the leadership to face the enemy, if the Gaza Strip were to be invaded.”278 Confirming to the Mission that he had been correctly quoted, Mr. Shahwan stated that the instructions given at that meeting were to the effect that in the event of a ground invasion, and particularly if the Israeli armed forces were to enter urban settlements in Gaza, the police was to continue its work of ensuring that basic food stuffs reached the population, of directing the population to safe places, and of upholding public order in the face of the invasion. Mr. Shahwan further stated that not a single policeman had been killed in combat during the armed operations, proving that the instructions had been strictly obeyed by the policemen.
All three paragraphs have something in common - they all rely on the testimony of Gaza police spokesman Islam Shahwan. There is no indication of any skepticism in Shahwan's testimony to the Goldstone Commission.
But this past summer, right around the same time that Shahwan was being listened to by the sober representatives of the United Nations Human Rights Council, he was making headlines for another reason: he was accusing Israel of distributing chewing gum that increases one's sex drive:
A Hamas police spokesman in the Gaza Strip Islam Shahwan claimed Monday that Israeli intelligence operatives are attempting to "destroy" the young generation by distributing such materials in the coastal enclave.
Shahwan said that the police got their hands on gum that increases sexual desire that, according to him, reaches merchants in the Strip by way of the border crossings. According to him, a Palestinian drug dealer admitted that he sold products that increase sex drive. The dealer said that he received the materials from Israeli sources by way of the Karni crossing.
A number of suspects have been arrested.
The affair was exposed when a Palestinian filed a complaint that his daughter chewed the aforementioned gum and experienced the dubious side effects.
Shahwan even claimed that Israeli intelligence operatives encourage dealers in Gaza to distribute the gum for free.
"The Israelis seek to destroy the Palestinians' social infrastructure with these products and to hurt the young generation by distributing drugs and sex stimulants," said Shahwan.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask forgiveness from anyone who I may have wronged this year; even if I use a pseudonym the feelings I may have hurt are no less real. I unconditionally forgive anyone who may have wronged me.
For those who read Hebrew, here's something I wasn't aware of - a comparison between the text of Avinu Malkeinu and the weekday Shmoneh Esrei, from here:
הקבלה לשמונה עשרה אבינו מלכנו מקביל לשמונה עשרה ברכות העמידה ביום חול: "אבינו מלכנו חננו ועננו" כנגד "חונן הדעת"; "אבינו מלכנו החזירנו בתשובה" כנגד "הרוצה בתשובה"; "אבינו מלכנו סלח ומחל" כנגד "סלח לנו"; "אבינו מלכנו כתבנו בספר גאולה" כנגד "גואל ישראל"; "אבינו מלכנו שלח רפואה" כנגד "רפאנו"; "אבינו מלכנו חודש עלינו שנה טובה" כנגד "ברך עלינו"; "אבינו מלכנו הרם קרן ישראל" כנגד "תקע בשופר"; "אבינו מלכנו בטל מעלינו" כנגד "השיבה שופטנו וכו' והסר ממנו יגון ואנחה": "אבינו מלכנו כלה כל צר" כנגד "ולמלשינים וכו' שובר אויבים"; "אבינו מלכנו מחוק ברחמיך הרבים" כנגד "על הצדיקים וכו' יהמו נא רחמיך"; "אבינו מלכנו הרם קרן משיחך" כנגד "את צמח דוד וכו' וקרנו תרים"; "אבינו מלכנו הצמח לנו ישועה" כנגד "מצמיח קרן ישועה"; "אבינו מלכנו שמע קולנו" כנגד "שמע קולנו וכו' "שומע תפילה"; (מנהגי מהר"י טירנא, ראש השנה; לבוש סי' תקפ"ד א).
I would like to wish my Jewish readers an easy fast, and may we all be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life. May this be a year of peace and prosperity.
Nassur the Bear, the latest mascot from the Hamas kiddie TV show "Pioneers of Tomorrow," here calls for the slaughter of all Jews in Israel:
Nassur: “There won't be any Jews or Zionists, if Allah wills. They'll be erased.” Saraa: “Chased away.” Nassur: “And just like we will visit the Qaaba [in Mecca]... everyone will visit Jerusalem.” [Seven-year old Palestinian child on phone tells how his father, a member of the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades, “died as a Shahid (Martyr).”] Nassur to child on phone: “What do you want to do to the Jews who shot your father?” Child on phone: “I want to kill them.” Saraa: “We don't want to do anything to them, just expel them from our land.” Nassur: “We want to slaughter (Nidbah-hom) them, so they will be expelled from our land, right?” Saraa: “Yes. That's right. We will expel them from our land using all means.” Nassur: “And if they don't want [to go] peacefully, by words or talking, we’ll have to [do it] by slaughter.
The Nassur death watch continues. Any new ideas on how he will kick the bucket? I'm thinking he'll get attacked by Zionist pigs.
Maher Smadi accused the FBI of “entrapping” his son, provoking him to follow through on actions he would not have taken without the encouragement of the undercover agents.
“Instead of encouraging my son to become a terrorist, the FBI should have focused on changing his thoughts and putting him on the right track again. All they did was to add a new name to the list of terrorists,” he said.
Let's read the younger Smadi's words that indicate how much the FBI made him want to kill innocent people (from Scribd, h/t Jihad Watch for the transcription)
"I truly say it that my dream is to be among God's soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama, may God give him long life. I don't know what is in me, but I love him as I love my father. I don't want to add to this.
Now, my brother, the point is that thousands of Muslims have been killed at the hand of Jews -- the dogs -- and the silent disloyal backsliders. Those are the Arab kings and, God willing, their end will be the hanging rope and hell.
Their silence and fight against the Sheik mean that they are backsiders along with the enemy in a world plan to destroy Islam, Muslims, and to seize their lands for the benefit of the Jews and for the love of infidelity.
By God who created me, there will not be a retreat at all, even if they take me to Guantanamo for the rest of my life. I will never forget Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, or any land where the call of, 'there is no God but God, Muhammad is God's Messenger' is raised.
Who will assist the brothers, the infants, the women who became widows and their orphan children? Who would return these lands before religion and blessing disappear? Who would cause these tyrants to fall?
In the name of God, the Gracious and Merciful, this is my vow to you, my brother, that I am ready. And if you were a lover of Jihad as I am, then, by God, I am ready for the Jihadi life. What you will see of me will please you and your commander.
The reign is only for the living and powerful God. I ask Him that he would be our Caliph and Ruler."
[...]
"My brother in God, God and His angels are with us. With the permission of the Almighty Lord of the Worlds, we will have victory and allies from God Almighty. He is the powerful and helpful. Victory is coming, is coming to defeat the Romans [i.e., Christians] and for the destruction of the Jews. God is Most Great. We shall attack them in their very homes. Brother, by God, we shall attack them in a manner that hurts, an attack that shakes the world. Oh Brother, let the backsliders know that the time for their destruction has come."
Four people were wounded in clashes between police and Palestinian protesters early Sunday at the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said some 150 Palestinians threw stones at a group of Jews visiting the site. Police dispersed the rioters using stun grenades, and two policemen were lightly wounded.
In other words, Palestinian Arabs decided to turn their "third holiest site" into a place for rioting and attacking peaceful Jews.
At least 13 Palestinians were injured as fierce clahes broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem on Sunday morning after Israeli police permitted settlers to break into the area, witnesses said.
Two of the injured Palestinians reportedly sustained serious injuries to the eye and head. Israeli police said two officers were also hurt.
On Thursday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation had warned of an impending incursion. Officials in Jerusalem said extremists were preparing to break into the holy Muslim area, and accurately predicted that the break-in would occur on Sunday under the pretext of celebrating a religious holiday.
Confrontations erupted after groups of Israelis broke into the compound, reportedly under the guard of Israeli police. Palestinians hurled stones, chairs, and shoes at the Israelis, while police tried to disperse the Palestinians by force, injuring nine people right away, and four more throughout the morning.
They have an interesting definition of "breaking in." Yet even the Arabs cannot find anything that the so-called "settlers" did to upset the sanctity of the holy site - besides the obvious crime of being Jewish.
Even the Arab press admits that the only people who started the rioting were Muslims and that there was no provocation, as Jews have been quietly and respectfully visiting the Temple Mount for years. (And the only reason the police needed to accompany them is because of Thursday's threats made by the peaceful Muslims against Jews visiting the area.)
The Goldstone Report pretends to investigate whether Hamas used Gazans as human shields. As it does so, it bends over backwards to give the impression that Hamas is innocent even as the evidence it brings shows the opposite.
Goldstone starts off with the issue with allegations that Hamas forced civilians to act as human shields. Paragraph 473 states, not surprisingly, that none of the Gaza witnesses they called to testify claimed that Hamas forced them to stay in areas from where Hamas was attacking. Para. 474 mentions a 2007 incident where Hamas calls on civilians to voluntarily protect an area that israel was planning to bomb, but notes that this didn't occur during the war. Para. 475 mentions a video on YouTube where Hamas brags that Gazan women, children and the elderly act to protect areas from Israeli attack.
The report calls this "morally repugnant" but says it does not show that Hamas forced civilians to act as shields. (Interestingly, even though the video is crystal clear, Goldstone writes that "Mr. Hammad reportedly stated that...", the qualifier an indication of how the Goldstone report consistently valued evidence against Israel more than evidence against Hamas.)
At this point the impression that one gets from Goldstone is that the definition of human shields is where a group of civilians are forced to act to protect a military objective, and the report writes (accurately) that based on what they had seen, there was no evidence that this occurred. Of course, there is at least one video that indicates that Hamas did try to force civilians to act as human shields, but it is not clear that Goldstone was aware of it:
In addition, there are the published reports in Arab media from January that Goldstone should have been aware of, saying that Hamas did force the Abd Rabbo family to stay where they were so that rockets could be fired from their neighborhood:
The Abd Rabbo family kept quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza strip into a fortress. Right now they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after Israel bombed the farm and turned it into ruins...
The hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks the Israeli town Sderot, a fact that turned it into an ideal military position for the Palestinian fighters, from which they have launched hundreds of rockets into southern Israel during the last few years. Several of the Abd Rabbo family members described how the fighters dug tunnels under their houses, stored arms in the fields and launched rockets from the yard of their farm during the nights.
The Abd Rabbo family members emphasize that they are not [Hamas] activists and that they are still loyal to the Fatah movement, but that they were unable to prevent the armed squads from entering their neighborhood at night. One family member, Hadi (age 22) said: "You can't say anything to the resistance [fighters], or they will accuse you of collaborating [with Israel] and shoot you in the legs." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 27, 2009]
The next section of Goldstone talks about militants mingling with the civilian population in order to shield them from attack. Incredibly, Goldstone writes (para. 477) that "only one of the incidents it investigated clearly involved the presence of Palestinian combatants" - because that was the only incident where the Palestinian Arab combatants were wearing fatigues! Goldstone goes on to admit that there are reports that militants did abandon wearing military uniforms, but goes on to quote an NGO that "there is no evidence that they did so with the intent of shielding themselves" (para. 478.)
What other explanation could there be? Goldstone doesn't even hazard a guess.
Goldstone continues in his attempt to find ways to explain clear Hamas actions in ways that exonerate the group:
480. On the basis of the information it gathered, the Mission finds that there are indications that Palestinian armed groups launched rockets from urban areas. The Mission has not been able to obtain any direct evidence that this was done with the specific intent of shielding the rocket launchers from counterstrokes by the Israeli armed forces. The Mission also notes, however, that Palestinian armed groups do not appear to have given Gaza residents sufficient warning of their intention to launch rockets from their neighbourhoods to allow them to leave and protect themselves against Israeli strikes at the rocket launching sites. The Mission notes that, in any event, given the densely populated character of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, once Israeli forces gained control of the more open or outlying areas during the first days of the ground invasion, most -- if not all -- locations still accessible to Palestinian armed groups were in urban areas.
The bar that Goldstone creates of determining "specific intent" is much higher for Hamas than for the IDF, which it declares multiple times "deliberately" targeted civilians.
And notice how Goldstone excuses Hamas' using civilian neighborhoods, claiming that Hamas had no choice - as if there were no rocket attacks from civilian neighborhoods before the Israeli ground invasion. Again, Goldstone is doing everything possible to exonerate Hamas from war crimes.
The same logic continues on in para. 481:
While reports reviewed by the Mission credibly indicate that members of Palestinian armed groups were not always dressed in a way that distinguished them from civilians, the Mission found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack.
Finally, ten paragraphs later, Goldstone talks about the legal definition of human shields:
491. The Mission finds it useful to clarify what is meant, from a legal perspective, by using civilians or a civilian population as a human shield. Parties to a conflict are not permitted to use a civilian population or individual civilians in order to render certain points or areas immune from military operations. It is not in dispute that both Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces were fighting within an area populated by civilians. Fighting within civilian areas is not, by itself, sufficient for a finding that a party is using the civilian population living in the area of the fighting as a human shield. As the words of article 57 (1) show (“shall not be used to render”, “in order to attempt to shield”), an intention to use the civilian population in order to shield an area from military attack is required.
Even though Goldstone started off the discussion as to whether Hamas forced civilians to stay in areas of fighting, at this point - 18 paragraphs later - he mentions that the legal requirement has nothing to do with someone being forced to act that way. The video of Hamas' "Mr. Hammad" that says explicitly that Gaza civilians were used to shield militants from attack is very relevant now, but Goldstone dismissed it above in context of whether civilians were forced to act that way - which is irrelevant for the purposes of this law.
In fact, there is video evidence that backs up Hammad's claims:
In other words, Goldstone organized the report structure itself in a way to make Hamas look as innocent as possible. Had he started off with the legal definition of human shield and then referred to the video above, the evidence is overwhelming that Hamas encourages this blatantly illegal action.
Yet in the very next paragraph, Goldstone goes back to his implied initial definition: 492. From the information available to it, the Mission found no evidence to suggest that Palestinian armed groups either directed civilians to areas where attacks were being launched or forced civilians to remain within the vicinity of the attacks.But there is abundant evidence that they located their rockets in civilian areas to shield themselves from retaliation, which is the legal standard!
As to the bigger question of whether Goldstone had material available to it which would have indicated that Hamas purposefully located rockets and mortars from residential neighborhoods, this video from ITN shown on CNN makes that very clear:
On this topic, where the truth is as clear as can be based on hard evidence, Goldstone twists the facts to try to make Hamas seem as innocent as he can. The difference between what he considers compelling evidence to accuse Hamas of war crimes and what he accepts vis a vis Israel's alleged war crimes could not be starker.
(UPDATE: Made some things a little clearer and added links to the Abed Rabbo human shield story.)
Student Jessica Taylor was shocked to see her late-night gefilte fish snack light up the kitchen of her north London family home by glowing bright green and yellow. Her mother had bought the Hoffman’s product the previous day at Moshe’s Deli in Temple Fortune.
Joff Taylor, Jessica’s father, said: “My daughter came home at two or three in the morning and was starving. She did not put on the kitchen light, took out the fish and closed the fridge.
“The fish was glowing very brightly so she took it out of the pack and held it in her hands. When she put it down, her hands were glowing.”
Suspicious of Jessica’s claim, Mr Taylor and his wife asked her to recreate the scene the following evening. “We turned off the lights and she brought the fish out. We all stood there amazed. It was brighter than a glow-stick.”
The Taylors opted not to eat the fluorescent fish, which was not beyond its use-by date, and threw it away.
A Moshe’s spokesman said: “Sometimes the fish eat some phosphorus and it glows. It’s good for you. We’re not the manufacturer, we just sell it.” Geeta Cohli, a consultant to Hoffman’s Foods, said the company had received no complaints from customers. “The family should have kept the fish as evidence. We would have done some tests. I’m a qualified micro-biologist and I have never heard of this. I think it was an act of God.”
A Food Standards Agency spokeswoman attributed the glowing fish to luminescent bacteria which occur naturally in sea water. “Most luminescent bacteria are harmless but their presence may indicate that other, harmful bacteria are also present through cross-contamination with other uncooked products. We would advise that the fish should not be consumed.”
This of course helps fulfill the Biblical verse in Esther 8:16:
The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation has put out this week's warnings about Jewish plans to "storm" the Temple Mount, saying that Israeli explosives experts visited the site on Thursday, that Jews are planning to "storm" the Mount on Sunday ahead of Yom Kippur, that 130 have "stormed" it this week, that Jews are having lectures about the Third Temple, and that Jews are praying for the destruction of the "Al-Aqsa" mosque. They claim that this is all on the website of the Temple Mount Faithful movement, although it hasn't been updated in months.
Al Quds reports about a book written last year by Nina Burleigh about people who fake biblical archaeological artifacts in Israel. Al Quds is claiming that this proves that every archaeological find that indicates that there was ever a Temple in Israel is fake. (I wonder who faked the Kotel?)
86 PalArab kids were injured, some 24 seriously, during 'Eid celebrations by firecrackers and BB guns they received for the holiday.
A conspiracy theorist called Jane Burgermeister has a bunch of theories about how the world's bankers have concocted swine flu in order to get everyone under their control. Although she doesn't say it explicitly, Arab media (starting in Algeria) is interpreting this as proof that Jews are behind the flu pandemic.
In the "well, this was inevitable" department, every birth defect in Gaza over the past nine months is being blamed on Israeli weaponry during Operation Cast Lead.
No current world refugee crisis has gone unresolved longer than the Palestinian exodus, said the UN Relief and Works Agency's commissioner-general, Karen Abu Zayd, in New York on Thursday.
"The Palestinians make up the world's largest refugee group, and their plight has gone on longer than any other," the AP quoted Abu Zayd as saying during an event marking 60 years since UNRWA was established.
The UN's relief agency for Palestine refugees was founded in 1949, although its original mandate was temporary. Now deeply interwoven within Palestinian society itself, it still provides essential services to millions of refugees in camps throughout the Middle East.
"The protracted exile of Palestine refugees and the dire conditions they endure, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territory, cannot be reconciled with state obligations under the UN charter," Abu Zayd added at the UN General Assembly meeting.
What Abu Zayd didn't bother mentioning is some other salient facts about Palestinian Arab "refugees" that make them so unique.
Like, for example, they are the only "refugees" in the history of the planet whose children and grandchildren are also considered refugees, in perpetuity.
They are the only "refugee" group whose numbers continue to go up year after year.
They are the only "refugee" group that is guaranteed to continue to grow forever.
And they are the only "refugee" group to have a UN agency dedicated only to them. All the other world refugees have to share a different UN agency.
All of these facts, ensuring that Palestinian Arab "refugees" remain stateless until Israel is destroyed, have their source in the very agency that is now crying about their endless plight. It is UNRWA which uniquely defines all descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees as being refugees themselves. All other children of refugees become citizens of the countries they are born in, but not so for Palestinian arab refugees. No, they remain stateless, in a limbo enforced by law in the Arab world where every Arab can become a naturalized citizen of any other Arab country - except for Palestinian Arabs.
UNRWA doesn't try to fix this problem, of course. As the article states, UNRWA is now a part of Palestinian Arab culture, providing them with free schools and housing that surpass those of other Arab states. And generations of Arabs whose ancestors happened to live in Palestine in 1947 now feel that these benefits are rightfully theirs. UNRWA has raised generations ofwhining welfare cases, who grow up to hate not the Arabs who leave them in misery, not UNRWA which perpetuates it, but...Israel.
Notice also how Abu Zayd says that Palestinian Arab "refugees" in the territories somehow have worse lives than those who live in Arab nations. This is an absolute lie. The ones in Lebanon are in much worse shape, both because of governmental discrimination that limits their ability to take certain jobs and own land, as well as because of the fact that these UNRWA camps have turned into terrorist training camps (witness the mini-war that happened last year at Nahr el-Bared, displacing 27,000 people.) Even UNRWA says on their website that "The Lebanon Field has the highest percentage of Palestine refugees who are living in abject poverty and who are registered with the Agency's 'special hardship' programme" ...but you will never hear Karen Abu Zayd say that to the press!
There is another important fact about UNRWA camps that Abu Zayd will never tell the media. In the aftermath of the 1948 war, Israel ended up with some 48,000 refugees, of whom 31,000 were Arab. UNRWA helped the young state with its Arab refugees, but by 1952, Israel informed UNRWA that their services would no longer be needed, and that Israel considered the idea taking handouts for its Jewish and Arab citizens to be "repugnant," as the UN described it.
Today, those 31,000 refugees would have been considered hundreds of thousands of "refugees" by UNRWA's definition. Instead, they are citizens of Israel. Their "brethren," in contrast, are not citizens of any country, because the Arab nations refused to naturalize them (with the exception of Jordan and a very small amount in Lebanon.) The stark contrast between how Arabs treat their refugees and how the Jews treat theirs in more recent times can be seen here.
These facts are not things that UNRWA proudly mentions in their history. Neither does UNRWA mention what happened back in the 1950s, when it actually tried to resettle PalArabs in Arab lands and was rebuffed by the Arab League. UNRWA doesn't mention when Israel tried to build permanent housing for Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to get them out of the miserable camps - and the UN castigated Israel for such a horrendous act: No, these facts are not being mentioned in UNRWA's celebrations of 60 years of prolonging the misery of millions of people. Only the ones that they claim make Israel look bad.
A fantastic article that I reproduced about UNRWA in the early days of the blog, by Arlene Kushner, can be seen here.
Egypt's culture minister on Wednesday blamed a conspiracy "cooked up in New York" by the world's Jews for keeping him from becoming the next head of the U.N.'s agency for culture and education.
Farouk Hosny was defeated on Tuesday by Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova in a tight race for the position of UNESCO chair.
"It was clear by the end of the competition that there was a conspiracy against me," Hosny told reporters at the airport upon his return from Paris.
"There are a group of the world's Jews who had a major influence in the elections who were a serious threat to Egypt taking this position," he said.
Hosny's candidacy raised an outcry because of a threat he made in the Egyptian parliament last year to personally burn any Israeli book he found in Egypt's famed Library of Alexandria. While he later apologized and Israel said it had withdrawn its opposition to his candidacy, several prominent Jewish activists spoke out against him in the runup to the vote.
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann wrote a protest letter listing comments they took issue with, including Hosni's 2001 description of Israeli culture as "inhumane" and "racist."
Opposition came from other quarters as well. International human rights activists, as well as some Egyptian artists and intellectuals, expressed concerns over his role in the Egyptian government's restrictions on freedom of expression.
The tight UNESCO race was closely watched, with a flurry of secretive diplomatic efforts between each round.
While Hosni was cited as a favorite for months before the election, Bokova gained ground at the last minute as other candidates dropped out, partly amid attempts to consolidate support for a strong challenger to the Egyptian candidate.
Sounds like he would have been an appropriate representative of the UN!
The Egyptian press also all agreed that the evil Jews pulled the strings:
In a long rant in the state-run Al-Gomhuria, Mohamed Abu Kraisha begins by describing the Jewish love of “bargaining” and the fact that “they want everything brought to them, like ‘home delivery.’”
Abu Kraisha then goes on to say that “Israel, ruled by the Jewish nature since the time of Moussa [Moses], is never patient for one meal, even if it is a strategic choice. It wants more meals, and more Arab concessions, and more negotiations to amuse itself with, and more dancing of Arab monkeys on tables.”
“Israel will never give up it’s strategy, which is war and aggression towards Arabs…It is for this reason that they waged war against the Arabs in UNESCO, and fought viciously in order to bring down the Arabs’ candidate, Farouk Hosni.”
Writing in Al-Ahram Ahmed Moussa laments the fact that “some people in Egypt stood against Hosni and attacked and criticized him. In so doing they lent support to the Israeli and American positions.”
The US, Moussa says, rallied “all its forces” against Hosni “with the support of the Jewish lobby.”
Moussa also criticizes Egyptians who did not support Hosni’s UNESCO bid.
He asks, “why is there a group of people living side by side with us in our nation who have no sense of loyalty to the country and its people, and who are in alliance with the Americans and the Jews? Are these people really Egyptian?”
It's nice to see that Abu Kraisha agrees that Israel has been a Jewish nation since Biblical times.
Iran police have banned the display of women's underwear in shop windows across the Islamic republic, Tehran dailies said on Wednesday.
There have been reports of the use of inappropriate and shocking mannequins in shop windows in a bid to draw in customers, which has been the source of public dissatisfaction," the Arman newspaper quoted a police statement as saying.
The statement said it was an offence to "display women's underwear in shop windows".
The police also took issue with displays of "Western brands of clothing, immoral photographs or ties and bow-ties, and the use of manneqins with a revealing body shape or with the head and face on show without a headscarf".
The statement also barred male shop assistants from selling women's lingerie.
One can imagine the kinds of art in Iranian museums (from Iran Politics Club)
Part of Ahmadinejad's rambling speech at the UN contained this gem, aimed squarely at yours truly:
It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the U.S., to attain its racist ambitions.
Of course, 'Mad-e-jad knew about me a couple of years ago. But since then I have graduated from merely trying to stop him from attending soccer games to enslaving the entire world through my complicated networks.
TEHRAN - Iran's sole Simorgh AWACS aircraft was lost during a military parade Sept. 22, one of two Iranian military aircraft that crashed in Tehran while participating in a display to mark the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force operated a single Simorgh, a former Iraqi Air Force Adnan. The Adnan AWACS was in turn a modification of a Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-76 transport.
The Simorgh collided with one of the Air Force's Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighters over the area of the Imam Khomeyni Shrine, southern Tehran. According to eyewitnesses, the crash occurred immediately after the parade. Apparently, no mayday call was issued.
Both aircraft crashed in flames. Initial reports indicate that seven crewmembers were killed in the crash.
In total, Iraq built three AWACS aircraft, one Baghdad, and two Baghdad-2s, the latter later renamed Adnans. One Adnan and the Baghdad were evacuated to Iran during the 1991 Gulf War, while the second Adnan was destroyed on the ground by a coalition air strike in January 1991.
The exact status of the Iranian Simorgh and its onboard systems was long uncertain. However, photographs suggest that the aircraft was equipped with a newly fitted functioning radar suite.
I like how it gets destroyed on top of Ayatollah Khomeini's shrine. Nice poetic touch. Kudos to whoever - or Whoever - is responsible.
One of the most-exaggerated events of the Gaza war was the accusation that Israel had bombed an UNRWA school, killing some 46 people according to some reports.
As time went on, it became clear that the school itself was not hit except from shrapnel, and that the numbers claimed to have been killed were vastly exaggerated.
The Goldstone report, however, claims that 24 were killed near the school - in multiple paragraphs:
41. The Mission examined the mortar shelling of al-Fakhura junction in Jabalya next to a UNRWA school which at the time was used as a shelter housing more than 1,300 people (Chapter X). The Israeli forces launched at least four mortar shells. One landed in the courtyard of a family home, killing eleven people assembled there. Three other shells landed on al-FakhuraStreet, killing at least a further 24 people and injuring as many as 40.
687. Three other shells landed on al-Fakhura Street, which was busy at the time, killing at least a further 24 people and injuring as many as 40.
In a few other paragraphs it refers to at least 35 people killed both near the Fakhoura school and the al-Deeb family (which indeed appears to have been a tragic accident.)
The question is, how did Goldstone get the idea that 24 were killed on al-Fakhoura Street?
The answer is here:
661. The three other shells that the Mission could identify as having landed at different places on al-Fakhura Street killed at least 24 people. The witnesses estimate that up to another 40 were injured by the blasts. The Mission has not been able to verify those figures, but having inspected the site and viewed the footage, it does not consider these numbers to be exaggerated.
In other words, the Goldstone Commission did not even attempt to enumerate the people allegedly killed on al-Fakhoura street, taking Palestinian Arab witnesses at their word!
How could the esteemed Commission have verified these numbers? Well, for one thing, they could have simply looked at the PCHR report of those killed in Gaza and counted the number of people said to have been killed near the al-Fakoura school.
PCHR uses two different characterizations of those killed in the area. The al-Deeb family is invariably described as living "Opposite to al-Fakhoura School/ Jabalia Refugee Camp/ Northern Gaza" and of being killed simply in "Jabalia Refugee Camp/ Northern Gaza." The others seem to always be described as either having lived or having been killed "Near al-Fakhoura School/ Jabalia Refugee Camp/Northern Gaza."
There are only 12 people who are described that way.
The IDF and the JCPA list different victims for the school than PCHR does, and it is possible that there were more victims. However, it seems to be unlikely to be too many more. The Goldstone Commission claims that there were three mortars in the area, and generally mortars do not kill that many people.
JCPA says that other terrorist victims include:
Khaled Mohammed Fuoad Abu Askar (Abu al-‘Izz), an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative, was born on December 12, 1989, in Jabaliya. At the age of 15 he joined the Muslim Brotherhood and was active in the Hamas student organization, which serves as a recruiting agency for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In 2006 he was accepted into fighting groups posted in front-line positions. He underwent an advanced military training course and was posted to a special unit of the north Gaza battalion where he participated in dozens of ambushes and fought against IDF forces. He served as a military instructor in the Imad Aqel battalion and supervised the ambush and suicide unit.
Raafat Abu Askar, a military-terrorist operative in the security services with the rank of warrant officer, killed in the attack near the Al-Fakhura school.
Osama Jemal Obeid, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative, killed in the attack near the Al-Fakhura school.17
Iyad Jaber Aman, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative, killed in the attack near the Al-Fakhura school.18
Abd Muhammad Abd Qudas, a Fatah operative active in Palestinian Military Intelligence, killed in the attack near the Al-Fakhura school.19
Atia Hassan al-Madhoun and his son, Ziyad al-Madhoun, operatives in the Brigades of National Resistance, the military-terrorist wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Atia was regional commander for Jabaliya. The two were the father and brother of Hassan al-Madhoun, one of the senior commanders of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who was lynched by Hamas in the summer of 2006. The two were killed in the attack near the Al-Fakhura school.20
If we accept the PCHR placement of victims, then 3 out of 12 victims were terrorists. If we accept JCPA's list, then some 10 terrorists out of (let's use Goldstone's) 24 people were killed. Either way, the number of terrorists killed is not consistent with the characterization that Goldstone gives; in fact Goldstone does not admit that any terrorists were killed in the incident at all.
Goldstone admits that there were some reports that there was mortar firing from Gaza militants, bringing two news reports from AP and British Channel 4 in footnotes (391), and also mentions that nine witnesses deny any firing from the area (para. 672.) Goldstone does not use this inconsistency to indicate that witnesses may be unreliable; instead the report says "the Mission accepts, for the purposes of this report, that some firing may have occurred that gave rise to the Israeli armed forces’ response."
Godlstone spends a bit of time pointing out inconsistencies between the initial Israeli reaction to the attack and subsequent reports. In fact, Goldstone uses these inconsistencies as proof that the Israeli version of events is not reliable. There indeed were inconsistencies between israel's initial reaction to the flawed reports of up to 50 victims in the school and the final report issued months later. However, there were also inconsistencies between how the UN initially characterized the attacks (saying over 40 were killed and that the school itself was attacked) and how it changed its tune afterwards, yet Goldstone does not question the UN witnesses' veracity in the face of these inconsistencies.
Even worse, one of the witnesses that Goldstone relies on heavily is Muhammed Fouad Abu Askar, whom it admits is a Hamas member in the footnotes (para 652) and whose son was a member of the al-Qassam Brigades (PCHR #782.)
Another relevant fact that Goldstone ignores was mentioned in the IDF report, footnote 263:
The IDF internal investigation provided important context for this incident. It revealed that Hamas often used 120mm mortars to attack Israeli towns and villages near the border of Gaza. Hamas terrorists had acquired significant expertise with these weapons and improved the accuracy of their technique; this tactic was central to Hamas‘ method of fighting the IDF in urban areas. Hamas‘ use of 120mm mortars posed a serious threat to IDF ground forces. Only a day before the incident in question, Hamas mortar fire had injured 30 IDF soldiers.
Goldstone describes the legal issues this way:
42. In drawing its legal conclusions on the attack against al-Fakhura junction, the Mission recognizes that for all armies proportionality decisions, weighing the military advantage to be gained against the risk of killing civilians, will present very genuine dilemmas in certain cases. The Mission does not consider this to be such a case. The firing of at least four mortar shells to attempt to kill a small number of specified individuals in a setting where large numbers of civilians were going about their daily business and 1,368 people were sheltering nearby cannot meet the test of what a reasonable commander would have determined to be an acceptable loss of civilian life for the military advantage sought. The Mission considers thus the attack to have been indiscriminate in violation of international law, and to have violated the right to life of the Palestinian civilians killed in these incidents.
In either of the two possible scenarios I mention, where either 3 out of 12 or 10 out of 24 killed were terrorists, it is far from clear that Goldstone's analysis holds water.
Given the facts that al-Qassam and DFLP terrorists were in the area, that mortar fire was coming from that area (according to reporters who interviewed witnesses), that the IDF responded without hitting the school itself, and that IDF return fire did indeed kill a number of terrorists far out of proportion to the report's characterization of a busy street with 150 civilians randomly scattered about (para. 698, using the Hamas witness again as their primary source,) it seems that Goldstone's legal analysis as to the military advantage of IDF returning fire is incorrect.
This item by Jeff Gates has been winding its way around the far left "news" sites:
Online reports of a study by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency cast doubt over the survival of Israel beyond the next two decades. Regardless of the validity of the report, with what is now known about the costs in blood and treasure that the U.S.-Israeli relationship has imposed on the U.S., its key ally, Israel could fall within five years.
Gates, a rabid Israel basher, hangs his latest article on this bizarre "report" that he admits he doesn't know the validity of.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has targeted and downed an unidentified shining object after sighting it over Persian Gulf waters.
"Glowing objects were sighted over the Persian Gulf. IRGC air defense targeted one of the objects successfully, forcing it to plummet and sink in the seas off Boushehr (Province)," said top regional commander, Brigadier Ali Razmjou.
"The three bright objects were detected by our radars when flying over the Persian Gulf Islands of Khark and Khargou," he added, according to a Monday report posted on IRNA.
Brig. Razmjou explained that when the radars indicated that they were not Iranian aircrafts, the IRGC fired at the three objects. He also added that the fallen objects' remains have not been found yet.
The exact time and location of the sighting and downing of the weird aircraft has not been announced.
Which brings up the question: are Martians also part of the arrogant Big Satan/Little Satan Zionist alliance?
They must be! Iran says that they would negotiate with anyone except the Zionist entity, and clearly Iran didn't negotiate with the UFO, so logic dictates that ET is a Zionist!
The newspapers claim that Hamas has new confidence in its negotiating position, seeing that Germany, Norway, the US and France are involved in talks.
The absurd new demands include the right to have a port in Gaza where Hamas can import all the weapons they want without restrictions, to have Israel release all prisoners with Israeli identity cards as well as a pledge from Israel to never attack Gaza in any way.
I don't know how accurate the anonymous sources that they quote are. However, this report does seem to be consistent with Hamas thinking.
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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Elder of Ziyon
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