October 2009 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, October 30, 2009

An independent audit of the IDF procedures

The Goldstone report recommends that Israel set up an independent commission of inquiry into Operation Cast Lead. Israel is reluctant to do so for a number of reasons: the IDF already has an investigation procedure that is similar to those of all Western nations; if it caves on this demand then it will look like an admittance of errors, and others.In my opinion, what is needed is not so much a commission about Cast Lead. Instead, there should be...

UNRWA doesn't acknowledge a murder

On Thursday morning, there was a double murder in Ramallah. Two Palestinian Arabs were found stabbed to death.One of the was reported to have been a UNRWA teacher in Gaza.Usually, when UN workers are killed, there are press releases by the appropriate agencies to announce the news. For some reason, UNRWA has not yet acknowledged the murder of one of their employees.Last night I emailed UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness, who has been busy lately making...

The Goldstone Report has a section about the booby-trapping of Palestinian Arab houses by Hamas.If Hamas booby-trapped houses in civilian neighborhoods, that would violate the principle of distinction, which is a major claim that Goldstone accuses Israel of routinely violating during the operation. It would mean that Hamas disregarded the lives of its own people to at least...

Islamic Jihad today is holding a festival to commemorate both the 14th anniversary of Israel's assassination of its founder, Fathi Shikaki, as well as the 9th anniversary of the beginning of the second intifada.In other words, it is celebrating two major defeats.And while most of the photos it is publishing seem to show lots of people attending these celebrations, one of the...

Those wily Israelis and their Katyushas

On Tuesday, a Katyusha rocket was launched from Lebanon into Israel.Who could have shot it? Hezbollah? A different terror group?According to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman, of course not:Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Thursday put the blame on Israel regarding the Katyusha attack on northern Israel on Tuesday night. According to him, an "Israeli agent" was responsible for the action. "This work is a pretext for Israel to continue to violate...

Rachel's Tomb and the making of an Arab lie

Today was the traditional anniversary of the death of the matriarch Rachel, and thousands of Jews went to Rachel's Tomb to pray. Ma'an reported it this way:Thousands of Israelis, most of them ultra-Orthodox Jews, descended on the tomb of the Biblical matriarch Rachel in a militarized compound in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday.Right-wing religious groups petitioned...

Work accident!

Hamas' Al Qassam website reports that Suleiman Abu Hassanein was killed this morning in a "special Jihad mission" in Rafah."Special Jihad mission" almost always translates to "accidentally blew himself up," although I suspect that on a couple of occasions it has meant "got killed by a co-terrorist."Either way, time for another round of sweets!The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 20...

Two shot at LA synagogue

From AP:LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles police have detained a man near the North Hollywood synagogue where two people were shot in the legs. Officer Rosario Herrera says she was unsure if the arrest was connected with the shooting Thursday at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue. Police say a black man with a handgun entered the building at about 6:20 a.m. and shot two Jewish people. Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime. The victims...

The October 27, 1949 Palestine Post has this intriguing article:It appears that there is something to it. From Sports Illustrated in 2003:Peter Piccione translates hieroglyphs for his history students the way a horror-movie archaeologist deciphers ancient curses from sarcophagi -- slowly and portentously. During slide presentations at the College of Charleston, he'll run through...

Today's PalArab news (10/29)

Two Gazans were found stabbed to death in Ramallah. One of them was a UNRWA teacher. So far the UN has been silent on the issue.PA president Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that he is seeking conciliation with Hamas. At the same time he blames Israel for trying to trying to start a religious war over Jerusalem. He's so...so...moderate!Hamas in Gaza sentenced an alleged "collaborator" to death by firing squad.Hamas is again considering the creation of an...

If I wrote this I would be called an Islamophobe - part 2

The Daily News Egypt has an op-ed about how freedom of thought is nonexistent in Egypt. While it starts off saying that Western societies suffer from the same malady of self-imposed thought censorship, auther Nael M. Shama ends off his piece with a bang:In Egypt, the space for thought and expression has been tightening at alarming rates, with the mind of Egyptian society tilting towards the right. The heated discussion over whether niqab is religiously...

If I wrote this I would be called an Islamophobe

Elaph.com, a popular liberal pan-Arabic news site based out of London, has an article that you won't see in most Arab media:A recent report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in America, has estimated the number of Muslims around the world as being one billion and five hundred and seventy million people.Apart from the exaggerated number, something found in all the reports in which [Dalia] Mogahed is involved which are always clearly biased...

PA minister: Selling "settlement" goods is treason

From Ma'an:The Palestinian Authority’s new minister of national economy vowed on Wednesday to bring to justice anyone who deals in products produced in Israeli settlements as traitors.“Those who trade these products will bear the stigma of treason,” Hassan Abu Libdeh told private sector and civil society figures at the offices of the ministry in Ramallah.The minister said that the top priority of one of the ministry’s organs, the Palestinian National...

Fayyad's plan exposes real Palestinian Arab goals

If one assumes that the goal of Palestinian Arab nationalism is the establishment of an independent state, the Arabs of Palestine have consistently made wrong decisions time after time again. From rejecting the Peel Commission recommendations in 1937 (where the Jewish State would have been minuscule and unsustainable) to the UN Partition through Camp David and Barak's offer, the answer has always been a resounding "NO!" This would appear strange,...

Hamas website brags about "humiliating the Jews"

The Hamas al-Qassam Brigades website has a long article bragging about how successful they believe they have been in kidnapping Israeli soldiers over the decades.The headline is most instructive as to their goals in such operations:Al-Qassam Brigades ... a long history of abducting soldiers and humiliating the JewsOf course, this is another attribute of the psychological projection that most Arabs have; they are deeply humiliated every day by Israel's...

Here are the top 250 words in the Goldstone report's conclusions and recommendations section, in graphical format using Wordle. The size of the words indicates how often they were used.Can you find "Hamas"? (Click to see full size.)(h/t Daughter of Ziyo...

Work accident!

From Ma'an:A Gaza armed group said two of its members were killed while carrying out a “Jihad mission” on Tuesday.A spokesman for the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said in a phone call, “Ahmad Abu Darb and Ibrahim Qatasha died while they were implementing a jihadi mission” without explaining the nature of this mission.Meanwhile local sources said that two people were killed in an unexplained...

Morning links

Amnesty International came out with another report slamming Israel, this time about water rights. From looking at it briefly it appears to be a skillful piece of propaganda. While the amount of water that the PA receives was determined at Oslo and there is no indication that Israel is violating that agreement, Amnesty conflates issues of "equality" with needs. Amnesty also goes the Goldstone route of referring to international treaties that do not...

"Syria and Palestine are one nation"

Just found this old New York Times article from August 31, 1921:Isn't it funny that the Palestinian Arabs didn't want an independent state but wanted to be part of Greater Syri...

Eighth annversary of Qassam rocket

The Hamas al-Qassam Brigades website says that today is the 8th anniversary of the first Qassam rocket shot at Sderot. They reproduce their press release at the time:In the name of God the MercifulA military statement issued by the Brigades of the Martyr Izz el-Deen al-QassamQassam rockets at the so-called Zionist city of Sderot in response to the Zionist terrorist crimes against our people in the West Bank.Hey fans of the heroic Palestinian people...

J-Street stops publicly pretending to be pro-Israel

J-Street is the anti-"Israel lobby" lobby and real-life anti-Israel lobby. Other blogs get more into discussing them that I do but this story is just too funny: J Street's university arm has dropped the "pro-Israel" part of the left-wing US lobby's "pro-Israel, pro-peace" slogan to avoid alienating students.That decision was part of the message conveyed to young activists who attended a special weekend program for students ahead of J Street's first...

Israeli company developing super-vaccine for flu

From Arutz-7:Israel Radio reported Sunday morning that an Israeli company had developed a universal vaccine for all forms of flu – including bird and swine flu – and shares of Rehovot-based BiondVax trading on the Tel Aviv stock exchange went through the roof. But the ardor of investors was tempered somewhat when the company announced that it had not yet tested its vaccine on swine flu, nor had it conducted tests on pregnant women – one of the groups...

Carter to Saudis: I'm the antidote to the Jewish Lobby

From the Arab News:Former US President Jimmy Carter visited Jeddah on Saturday to share his vision of the future of cross cultural and interfaith relations and peace in the Middle East with an invited audience.Carter said that his return to Saudi Arabia reminded him that the Kingdom represented the common aspirations of many human beings.“Peace, cooperation, forgiveness and ability to work together for common goals that are also common to all the...

Fatah prisoners to give their "salaries" to de-Judaize Jerusalem

Firas Press reports that some Fatah prisoners are asking PA prime minister Fayyad to redirect their salaries to "defend" Jerusalem. In English, this means to do whatever they can to destroy any Jewish connection to the city.Now, why do Fatah prisoners get a "salary" to begin with? These salaries are paid by the PA with funds that they beg and get from the rest of the world (just like they pay Gaza Fatah members not to work.) In other words, this...

Arab paper calls Jews on Temple Mount "rapists"

YNet reports:The Jerusalem Police is gearing to reopen the Temple Mount compound for visitors and Muslim worshipers Monday. The compound was sealed off at noon following riots.Palestine Today reports the story this way:Israeli occupation authorities decided Monday to allow "visitors to enter the congregation of the holy Aqsa Mosque", that is, the entry of rapists and provocateurs.This is after violent clashes on Sunday between the Palestinians stationed...

Report: Hamas nervous about the future

Palestine Press News Agency reports that it has obtained the results of an internal Hamas survey discussing the group's predictions and options for the future.According to the story, this survey was initiated because of pressure on Hamas in Gaza, as well as fear that a political solution will arise that would exclude Hamas.One paragraph of the story is telling: The survey results suggest that the current situation is difficult and harsh, particularly...

Egypt captures more weapons meant for Gaza

From Ma'an:Egyptian security forces said on Sunday that they discovered and seized a major weapons cache and arrested a suspected smuggler in near the border with the Gaza Strip.Egyptian security officials said police stopped the suspect when he was driving in the area. The suspect, Ahmad Abu Maleeh, 30, from the Egyptian side of the city of Rafah, told interrogators that he had just driven another smuggler to tunnel in the area.Security forces also...

Daily Goldstone 10/25b

"Trevor Norwitz has written an impressive and extensive response to the Goldstone report. According to information received from reliable sources Trevor grew up in Cape Town where he attended SACS and UCT before going on to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He is now a successful attorney in a leading corporate practice in New York."Here is part of the lengthy letter, which can be read as a PDF file here.Your Selection of Incidents to InvestigateA closely...

From Al Arabiya:A college in the United Kingdom has banned a Muslim student from enrolling because she refused to take off her burka, or face veil, press reports said Saturday.Shawana Bilqes, 18, was turned away from enrollment after she refused a staff member's request to remove her burka for identity fraud purposes, Britain's the Sun tabloid reported.Bilqes said she tried...

Arabs keep trying to light the spark of a new intifada

The pattern of incitement to violence continues, and the world media ignores it.Yesterday, in a clear move to start more riots today, Sheikh Tayseer al-Tamimi called on all Arab to go to the Al Aqsa mosque today and defend it against an alleged "storming" by Zionists.As we've seen in the past, this "storming" means only one thing: visiting the Temple Mount respectfully, and at most meditating there.Tamimi pre-emptively said that Israeli police would...

Daily Goldstone 10/25

Israel Matzav shows a Bill Moyers interview with Richard Goldstone, and then quotes an Israeli legal expert demolishing his claims. For example:1. The Goldstone report draws its conclusions on the basis of 36 incidents it says it investigated. The report says that incidents are illustrative and therefore justify the broader conclusions made by the report. But Goldstone admits that the report lied in saying that the incidents are “illustrative” and...

Israelis barred from Komen cancer event in Egypt

The news over the past few days about this have been muddled, but the upshot is that Israelis have been banned from attending events sponsored by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization in Egypt this week.A couple of days ago, Egyptian authorities announced that they will not allow Israeli doctors to attend, and the Komen people said that they would do everything they could to ensure that the Israelis would be able to attend in a press release...