Tuesday, November 02, 2010

  • Tuesday, November 02, 2010
  • Suzanne
The poor thing.

The Persian BBC writes that the coach, the weightlifter and the head of the weight lifting delegation are temporarily banned in Iran because the weightlifter stood next to the Israeli during the medal ceremony.

While the BBC mentions a temporarily ban, this Iranian source says that they have been banned from all sport activities for life.

“The fact that an Iranian weightlifting veteran has competed against an Israeli during the worldwide competitions and has stood beside him during the distribution of medal is unjustifiable,” Jalal Yahya-Zadeh, head of Physical Education Committee for Youth Committee "explained".
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
There is a bill that has been winding its way through the Knesset to ban the fur trade in Israel altogether - with the exception of fur used for religious purposes (many chassidim wear hats made of fur.)

Animal-rights groups are lobbying hard for the bill, making Israel the first nation in the world to have such a law and hoping for a cascade effect with other nations.

As a result, the bill has become politicized worldwide, with Canadian furriers banding together with some Israeli religious parties to defeat it. They say that a ban on fur would be the first step towards a worldwide ban on kosher slaughter - especially since the same animal-rights activists oppose both.

So the animal-rights movement is sending a spokesperson to Israel to help convince the religious parties to reconsider their stand.

And who are they sending?

Pamela Anderson.

Does the anti-fur group think that she will help? Do they think that any of the religious Knesset members even heard of her, let alone whether they'd be dazzled by a former TV star whose main assets are her breasts? Do they think that they even heard the word "Baywatch?"

Clueless.
  • Tuesday, November 02, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Palestinian Authority has added its own voice to the denunciations throughout the Arab world when outgoing UNRWA official Andrew Whitley revealed a bit of sanity.

From Ma'an:
The Palestinian Authority Cabinet on Sunday denounced the statement of UNRWA official Andrew Whitley, who said Palestinian refugees should give up their right to return and resettle in Arab countries.

Whitley, outgoing New York director of the UN refugee agency, said refugees should not live in the "cruel illusion" that they will return. He said UNRWA did not publicly advocate the issue, which was not "politically palatable."

At the weekly Cabinet meeting in Ramallah, ministers expressed surprise at the comments in light of UNRWA's mandate to assist refugees until they returned to their homes in accordance with UN resolution 194.
Does the UNRWA mandate say anything about UN 194?

Not at all.

From the UNRWA website:

UNRWA was originally mandated to:

"carry out direct relief and works programmes in collaboration with local governments"
"consult with the Near Eastern governments concerning measures to be taken preparatory to the time when international assistance for relief and works projects is no longer available", and
plan for the time when relief was no longer needed.


UNRWA’s contemporary mandate is to provide relief, human development and protection services to Palestine refugees and persons displaced by the 1967 hostilities in its fields of operation: Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and the Gaza Strip. UNRWA’s mandate has been repeatedly renewed by the UN General Assembly. The current mandate runs till 30 June 2011.
There is nothing in UNRWA's mandate that is at all dependent on the outdated and irrelevant UNGA Resolution 194. The PA cabinet is lying.

While we are at it, UNRWA's Chris Gunness wrote a letter to Hudson-NY in response to an article by Khaled Abu Toameh that we linked to asking why everyone is lying to PalArab "refugees."

He writes:
The facts speak for themselves. The proportion of refugees living in camps has steadily declined from about one hundred per cent at the time of our creation over sixty years ago, to just one third today.

And in real numbers? The number of "refugees" in camps has roughly doubled since 1949, to 1,396,368 registered refugees as of January 2010. That number is not decreasing, and it never will. One big reason is that UNRWA has no mechanism to remove "refugees" from its calculations outside of death, as opposed to UNHCR which has a detailed definition of how refugees lose their status.

Gunness further writes

As with refugees assisted by UNHCR, the refugee status of UNRWA refugees is transferred through the generations pending a just and lasting solution.
While UNHCR extends refugee benefits to family members (Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees page 12), it does not give them the status of refugees in perpetuity.

That's why the number of world refugees has been generally decreasing and those of Palestinian Arabs inexorably increasing. That's why in 2009 there were some 10.4 million refugees worldwide under UNHCR's responsibility and 4.8 million UNRWA "refugees" just from one tiny sliver of land from 62 years ago.

One of UNRWA's biggest problems is the utter inability to tell the truth - not to the people they are pretending to help, not to the world as they beg for more and more money, and not even to themselves, except behind closed doors (as Whitley showed.)

Monday, November 01, 2010

  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Al Arabiya:

A recent case in which a judge claimed stealing 100 million while under a spell stirred controversy among lawyers and jurists over the possibility of accepting magic as a legal defense argument and the means to verify the involvement of a jinni in a crime.

A heated debate over committing crimes while under magical influence ensued during the proceedings of a corruption trial that involved several employees in the Medina Court including one of the judges.

I Dream of ...
A statement by a man who claimed to have performed a roqia (Islamic exorcism) on the suspected judge ignited the controversy. The ‘exorcist’ told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that the judge was possessed by a jinni and was under his influence while taking bribes to cover up for illegal possession of land and real estate.

For legal advisor Saleh al-Khedr, being possessed by a jinni or an evil spirit does not absolve the culprit of blame....

Meanwhile, several jurists argue that it is possible that an evil spirits makes people unable to control their actions, yet it is hard to prove.

Dr. Ibrahim al-Balawi, a lawyer, stated that the judge should consider this possibility if the culprit admitted to being under a spell while committing the crime.

“However, it is very hard to prove that and the court only acknowledges clear and tangible evidence,” he told AlArabiya.net. “But the judge should not ignore it and further investigations have to be carried out.”

Balawi added that there are specialists who are capable of detecting if a person is possessed and they can be consulted in these cases to verify the defendant’s allegations.

Lawyer Badr al-Basees agreed with Balawi and stressed that magic and its effect on people are mentioned in the Quran.

There is no doubt that magic exists,” he told AlArabiya.net. “It is only proving it that is a challenge.”
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here's a picture you won't see often: the national flag of Iran next to (and on a lower level than) Israel's flag.

From Payvand Iran News:
During the World Masters Weightlifting Championships in Poland in an unprecedented move, an Iranian athlete took his place on the medal podium beside an Isreali athlete drawing criticism from Iranian authorities.

Iran's Student News Agency (ISNA) reported that Hossein Khodadadi, Iranian representative in the Masters Weightlifting Championships stood beside his Israeli peer in the medals ceremony.

The event which took place in early October was in the 105 Kg category for the ages of 35 to 39.

Sergio Britva, Israeli weightlifter took the first place lifting 300 kg in total and Hossein Khodadadi, the Iranian weightlifter took the silver medal lifting 296 kg.

Khodadadi appeared on the podium to receive his medal beside the Israeli athlete and this move led to serious criticism from Iran.

This is the first time since the 1979 Revolution in Iran that an Iranian athlete has appeared beside an Israeli athlete in an official championship.

Head of Iran's weightlifting committee at the Masters Weightlifting Championships, MirRasouli Raisi, said that everything had been done in coordination with the Iranian embassy in Poland.

Khodadadi claimed that they were not able to remove their flag from the hall and all he could do was to appear in unofficial attire so that their presence would not be deemed official.

He added that if they had not attended the ceremony, they would have had to return all the medals they had received on the previous days and disqualified Iran from participating in further competitions.

Iranian athletes have often run into difficulty refusing to confront Israeli opponents in other world championships.

In the competitions in Poland, all of the Iranian participants received medals.

Head of Iran's National Athletic Organization had earlier written a letter to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to receive instructions on how to handle situations where Iranian athletes have to confront Israeli athletes.

Iranian athletic community has become more and more concerned about political restrictions costing them medals in competitions.
CrethiPlethi adds:

The [Iranian] reformist daily Mardom Salari dedicated its editorial to the incident, wondering why it took a whole month to uncover and deal with the affair. The editorial said that all those responsible for the issue—from the Foreign Ministry and the Physical Education Organization to the team coach—must provide answers. The daily strongly criticized the head of Iran’s Weightlifting Association for taking no action about the issue until it was exposed on the media (Mardom Salari, October 23).
Here's the video, where you can see the Iranian refuse to shake hands with the Israeli. For good reason - it would have ended his career, and maybe his life.

It is still fun to know that he had to stand respectfully during the entire playing of Hatikva.


(h/t Gabriel, who points out an Iranian athlete who is quite a bit friendlier to Israelis.)
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The fair news, from September:
JEDDAH: The phenomenon of employing women cashiers in supermarkets is catching on with Centrepoint shopping store now joining the growing list of employers.

Panda and then Marhaba supermarkets were the first to employ women cashiers, but Centrepoint has gone one step ahead by placing women cashiers at check outs for T-shirts, pants and accessories for women.

The Centrepoint store on Prince Sultan Street, visited by Arab News, has women cashiers in a separate section. The women were busy checking out and packing the goods from the women customers.

The mahrams (male guardians) of women shoppers were seen standing outside area waiting for their spouses. A store official said that men who come with their families can come inside the area but the majority of the men preferred to wait outside.

Keeping a strict watch was a security personnel, whose task was to prevent men without families entering this area. It also fell on them to call out on the microphone the names of family members if the mahrams were not waiting outside the area.

A woman cashier, who revealed that some of the women working here are also studying and taking care of their families, lauded the stores for giving them this independence. “Women are now taking care of things. It is not like the old days when daddy would do everything,” she added.
Severe restrictions and rules, but at least a step in a positive direction for women in Saudi Arabia.

For a while.

The bad news:
Saudi Arabia's top clerics have challenged the government's policy to expand jobs for women with a fatwa ruling that they should not work as cashiers in supermarkets, a report said on Monday.

The official fatwa issuing body said that "it is not permissible for a woman to work in a place where they mix with men," the news website Sabq.org said.

"It is necessary to keep away from places where men congregate. Women should look for decent work that does not make it possible for them to attract men or be attracted by men," it said.
The ruling came from the Committee on Scholarly Work and Ifta, the official issuer of fatwas, or religious rulings, under the Council of Senior Scholars, the top authority for Islamic issues in the kingdom.

The fatwa was in response to a question -- published with the ruling -- asking specifically if women should work as cashiers in supermarkets, Sabq reported.

The ruling was unambiguous, and signed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, the head of the Senior Scholars Council, and six other members of the fatwa committee.

Again this is a government-sanctioned religious rulings board. It sounds like their problem goes beyond the existing restrictions on the women cashiers. (What I don't understand is why women - with their guardians, of course - are allowed to go to stores altogether, where they see male cashiers.) It is unclear whether this will make those cashiers illegal, or if the government can ignore this fatwa.

The worse news:

A Saudi journalist is to be lashed in public after he was convicted of instigating protests against a government electricity company because of continuous power cuts in a central town, Ajel online newspaper said on Monday.

The court in Qubba in the central province of Qaseem sentenced Fahd Al Jukhaidib, a journalist in the Saudi Arabic language daily Aljazierah, to two months in prison and 50 lashes with the whip, including 25 lashes in public in front of the electricity department, the paper said.

Al Jukaidib was accused of leading residents of Qubba to the department two years ago to demand action to resolve continuous power cuts in the town.

A few days later, the company yielded to their demands and sent seven additional power generators to the town.

“The problem was over but I was later summoned by police, who charged me of instigating protests. I was then referred to court, which has just sentenced me to two months in prison and 50 lashes, including 25 lashes in front of the electricity department,” the paper quoted Al Jukhaidib as saying.
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Technorati ranks blogs according to something called "authority." They define it this way:
Technorati Authority measures a site's standing and influence in the blogosphere.
Authority is calculated based on a site’s linking behavior, categorization and other associated data over a short, finite period of time. A site’s authority may rapidly rise and fall depending on what the blogosphere is discussing at the moment, and how often a site produces content being referenced by other sites.

Topical Authority measures a blog’s influence within its subject category. Blogs will appear ranked by topical authority within Technorati’s blog directory. Factors include linking behavior from blogs and posts in the same category, how well a blog's overall content matches the category in question, and other associated data. It’s possible for a blog to have authority in several different categories. The authority in each category may be different.

Last August I was stunned to see that Technorati ranked EoZ as #56 in Technorati Top Political Blogs and #15 in Technorati Top World Political Blogs.

So when I saw the most recent rankings...I was blown away.

Top Politics/World Blogs

#1 Jihad Watch
#2 Danger Room
#3 American Thinker
#4 Commentary
#5 TPMMuckraker
#6 The Daily Beast
#7 Gates of Vienna (tie)
#7 Elder of Ziyon (tie)
#9 The Huffington Post
#10 Babylon & Beyond

Just for comparison, Atlas Shrugs is at #12, Michelle Malkin is #24, and Power Line is #25.

In the more general Politics rankings, EoZ also went up; it is now at #50.

There are over 10,000 blogs that get ranked in those two categories.

For all blogs, period - over 1.2 million of them - they rank EoZ #426.

Rankings do change often, but still....cool!
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
A commenter noted that Al Awda, an extremist organization that is dedicated to destroying Israel by falsely claiming that descendants of Palestinian Arabs who fled in 1948 have a "right of return," has started a letter writing campaign to the UN to fire Andrew Whitley for making the sane comment that most Palestinian Arabs will never "return."

They nicely gave a list of email addresses to send their letter to.

So, I used their list and sent a letter to the same UN officials, saying my opinion. You might want to modify my letter and do the same.



To: inquiries@un.org
CC: f.grandi@unrwa.org; c.gunness@unrwa.org; s.mshasha@unrwa.org; j.ging@unrwa.org; r.cook@unrwa.org; r.hearn@unrwa.org; b.shenstone@unrwa.org; a.whitley@unrwa.org; l.takkenberg@unrwa.org; maher.nasser@unvienna.org


His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon
The Secretary General of the United Nations

Your Excellency,

I was gratified to read the words of Andrew Whitley, where he spoke - for once - a basic truth: that the vast majority of the descendants of Arabs who fled Palestine will never return.

It is not a kindness to keep millions of people in misery, living under the false hope of "returning" to a country that most have never seen. Yet that is what UNRWA is doing by perpetuating their status as "refugees" - the only people in the world to be defined as such when it is only their ancestors who truly had that legal status.

It was disheartening that UNRWA immediately distanced itself from Whitley's comments, thus ensuring the lengthening of the misery and stateless status of millions of people.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child says that every child has the right to a nationality, and that "States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights." Yet the UNRWA's unique definition of the descendants of refugees as having refugee status themselves has given the green light for Arab nations to purposefully keep Palestinian Arabs in perpetual limbo. They argue that this is done to ensure the Palestinian Arabs' "unity" - disingenuously claiming that they are doing it for their own good.

Yet when are human rights so cavalierly dismissed on such scale? Why can't individual Arabs of Palestinian descent be given the choice to become citizens of their host countries, a right given by to any other Arab?

The only way to truly solve the problem of the Palestinian Arabs is to resettle the vast majority of them in their host Arab countries. This simple truth has been known for generations, and even UNRWA did some work in the 1950s to solve the problem in that way. Yet Arab intransigence, and the UN's weakness, did not force Arab nations to accept their so-called "guests" as millions of other refugees from the 1940s integrated into their respective host countries.

UNRWA's position, rather than helping the Arabs of Palestinian descent, is designed to keep the problem festering for generations to come. The Palestinian Authority has shown no interest in naturalizing millions of additional Arabs in any potential state. And most Arab states fight tooth and nail to keep the "refugee" issue alive.

Andrew Whitley made a small contribution to sanity by speaking the truth. His words should not be distanced; they should be embraced - if the UN really wants to solve this so-called "refugee" problem. Otherwise, by pretending that these millions of humans will one day go to homes that no longer exist, the UN is simply part of the problem - one that is growing daily.

Sincerely,

[name]
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Naharnet:
Hizbullah has reportedly unleashed a simulation of the zero hour aimed at holding both a security and military grip on Lebanon and corner Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
A report published Monday by al-Akhbar newspaper said that prior to Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's Oct. 28 speech a "main Opposition group was carrying out an electronic, field simulation for the assumed zero hour."

This was an indirect reference to Hizbullah.

The simulation, according to the daily, preceded an electronic Israeli simulation for a future war with Hizbullah that could reach Tel Aviv.

It said the Hizbullah mockup was based on a scenario of the issuance of the International Tribunal indictment accusing Hizbullah of ex-PM Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Just a few hours before issuance of the indictment, Hizbullah plans to deploy security and political forces en masse, without bloodshed and without targeting citizens or residential areas, the report said.

The quick implementation on the ground, which was carried out in less than two hours, was "designed to hold a security and military grip on large areas of Lebanon," Al-Akhbar wrote.

It said among the targets, were also centers and sites as well as political, military and security figures. The plan also aims at looking for (simultaneously and during a two-hour period) the officials Syria had issued arrest warrants against or those who tried to stir sectarian strife.

The report said Hizbullah's plan includes pinning down those officials' whereabouts and arresting them "in order to curtail their movement and get hold of major cities in Lebanon."

The report said Hizbullah's plan includes pinning down those officials' whereabouts and arresting them "in order to curtail their movement and hold a grip on major cities in Lebanon from the capital and the suburbs to the Kesrouan highlands and north Lebanon and well as holding a grip on seaports and border crossings to prevent the escape of personalities."

Al-Akhbar said news may not have reached Prime Minister Saad Hariri that his mansion in downtown Beirut, better known as Center House, and the Grand Serail have been toppled and that they are in the hands of Hizbullah security forces and that Hariri had been isolated.
Al Akhbar is a reasonably well-regarded newspaper.

Nasrallah's speech on Thursday was another threat against Lebanon, where he said that anyone who cooperates with the international tribunal on Hariri's assassination is an enemy of the Resistance.

The world has allowed Hezbollah's power to grow so much that it can now envision a bloodless coup due to its sheer strength. And, incidentally, the Wikileaks incident shows that Hezbollah is also deeply involved in training and supporting Iraqi terrorists.

It is not Hezbollah that would be taking over Lebanon - it is Iran. Hezbollah is just a brigade of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

For some reason, the world does not seem unduly alarmed at the prospect of an Iranian satellite state on the Mediterranean, where Iranian missiles would be within range of all of Europe and even much of Africa.

(h/t Islamo-nazism blog)
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Suzanne
There is a new documentary coming out describing the life of the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world Alice Herz-Sommer. See the official trailer of "Alice Dancing Under the Gallows" and how inspiring this lady is:



UPDATE [EoZ]: The Facebook page for the upcoming movie is here.
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon


From the AJWS website.
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Day 12. 

And still no mention about the strike on UNRWA's webpage, making one wonder whether they are interested more in burnishing their image than with the truth.

Because why water down their message of Israelis somehow being responsible for Palestinian Arabs' misery in the camps by admitting that their own people are letting the garbage pile up?
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
L'Express reports that 49 graves were toppled at a 200-year old Jewish cemetery in the Bar-le-Duc cemetery in Lorraine, France.

The entire cemetery has 129 gravestones.

A passerby noticed that the usually locked gate was opened, and he notified police.

Members of the Jewish community said that this was the first time that the cemetery has been desecrated.

Photos from Est Republicain.fr show that the attackers probably used sledgehammers to break some of the old, thick tombstones.


(h/t Clark)
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Cambridge Union Society held a debate on the motion that "Israel is a rogue state" on October 21st.

The Balfour Street blog describes what happened:
In the end, the proposition was defeated, but the event didn't proceed without an unusual twist. It seems one of the members of the side in favor of the proposition, a student who was apparently selected at random (or not at random), decided to argue the point from a decidedly pro-Israel perspective.

The debater, Gabriel Latner, gave a copy of his speech to Mondoweiss with the request that it not be edited. I am reproducing it here, only by adding paragraph spacing and slight grammatical corrections where it seemed appropriate. The square bracket comments were his, written afterwards.

This is a war of ideals, and the other speakers here tonight are rightfully, idealists. I'm not. I'm a realist. I'm here to win. I have a single goal this evening – to have at least a plurality of you walk out of the 'Aye' door. I face a singular challenge – most, if not all, of you have already made up your minds.

This issue is too polarizing for the vast majority of you not to already have a set opinion. I'd be willing to bet that half of you strongly support the motion, and half of you strongly oppose it. I want to win, and we're destined for a tie. I'm tempted to do what my fellow speakers are going to do – simply rehash every bad thing the Israeli government has ever done in an attempt to satisfy those of you who agree with them. And perhaps they'll even guilt one of you rare undecided into voting for the proposition, or more accurately, against Israel. It would be so easy to twist the meaning and significance of international 'laws' to make Israel look like a criminal state. But that's been done to death. It would be easier still to play to your sympathy, with personalised stories of Palestinian suffering. And they can give very eloquent speeches on those issues. But the truth is, that treating people badly, whether they're your citizens or an occupied nation, does not make a state' rogue'. If it did, Canada, the US, and Australia would all be rogue states based on how they treat their indigenous populations. Britain's treatment of the Irish would easily qualify them to wear this sobriquet. These arguments, while emotionally satisfying, lack intellectual rigour.

More importantly, I just don't think we can win with those arguments. It won't change the numbers. Half of you will agree with them, half of you won't. So I'm going to try something different, something a little unorthodox. I'm going to try and convince the die-hard Zionists and Israel supporters here tonight, to vote for the proposition. By the end of my speech – I will have presented 5 pro-Israel arguments that show Israel is, if not a 'rogue state' than at least 'rogueish'.

Let me be clear. I will not be arguing that Israel is 'bad'. I will not be arguing that it doesn't deserve to exist. I won't be arguing that it behaves worse than every other country. I will only be arguing that Israel is 'rogue'.

The word 'rogue' has come to have exceptionally damning connotations. But the word itself is value-neutral. The OED defines rogue as 'Aberrant, anomalous; misplaced, occurring (esp. in isolation) at an unexpected place or time ', while a dictionary from a far greater institution gives this definition 'behaving in ways that are not expected or not normal, often in a destructive way '. These definitions, and others, centre on the idea of anomaly – the unexpected or uncommon. Using this definition, a rogue state is one that acts in an unexpected, uncommon or aberrant manner. A state that behaves exactly like Israel.

The first argument is statistical. The fact that Israel is a Jewish state alone makes it anomalous enough to be dubbed a rogue state: There are 195 countries in the world. Some are Christian, some Muslim, some are secular. Israel is the only country in the world that is Jewish. Or, to speak mathmo for a moment, the chance of any randomly chosen state being Jewish is 0.0051% . In comparison the chance of a UK lotto ticket winning at least £10 is 0.017% - more than twice as likely. Israel's Jewishness is a statistical abberation.

The second argument concerns Israel's humanitarianism, in particular,Israel's response to a refugee crisis. Not the Palestinian refugee crisis – for I am sure that the other speakers will cover that – but the issue of Darfurian refugees. Everyone knows that what happened, and is still happening in Darfur, is genocide, whether or not the UN and the Arab League will call it such. [I actually hoped that Mr Massih would be able speak about this - he's actually somewhat of an expert on the Crisis in Darfur, in fact it's his expertise that has called him away to represent the former Dictator of Sudan while he is being investigated by the ICC.] There has been a mass exodus from Darfur as the oppressed seek safety. They have not had much luck. Many have gone north to Egypt – where they are treated despicably. The brave make a run through the desert in a bid to make it to Israel. Not only do they face the natural threats of the Sinai, they are also used for target practice by the Egyptian soldiers patrolling the border. Why would they take the risk? Because in Israel they are treated with compassion – they are treated as the refugees that they are – and perhaps Israel's cultural memory of genocide is to blame. The Israeli government has even gone so far as to grant several hundred Darfurian refugees Citizenship. This alone sets Israel apart from the rest of the world.

But the real point of distinction is this: The IDF sends out soldiers and medics to patrol the Egyptian border. They are sent looking for refugees attempting to cross into Israel. Not to send them back into Egypt, but to save them from dehydration, heat exhaustion, and Egyptian bullets. Compare that to the US's reaction to illegal immigration across their border with Mexico. The American government has arrested private individuals for giving water to border crossers who were dying of thirst – and here the Israeli government is sending out its soldiers to save illegal immigrants. To call that sort of behavior anomalous is an understatement.

My Third argument is that the Israeli government engages in an activity which the rest of the world shuns -- it negotiates with terrorists. Forget the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, a man who died with blood all over his hands – they're in the process of negotiating with terrorists as we speak. Yasser Abed Rabbo is one of the lead PLO negotiators that has been sent to the peace talks with Israel. Abed Rabbo also used to be a leader of the PFLP- an organisation of 'freedom fighters' that, under Abed Rabbo's leadership, engaged in such freedom promoting activities as killing 22 Israeli high school students. And the Israeli government is sending delegates to sit at a table with this man, and talk about peace. And the world applauds. You would never see the Spanish government in peace talks with the leaders of the ETA – the British government would never negotiate with Thomas Murphy. And if President Obama were to sit down and talk about peace with Osama Bin Laden, the world would view this as insanity. But Israel can do the exact same thing – and earn international praise in the process. That is the dictionary definition of rogue – behaving in a way that is unexpected, or not normal.

Another part of dictionary definition is behaviour or activity 'occuring at an unexpected place or time'. When you compare Israel to its regional neighbours, it becomes clear just how roguish Israel is. And here is the fourth argument: Israel has a better human rights record than any of its neighbours. At no point in history, has there ever been a liberal democratic state in the Middle East- except for Israel. Of all the countries in the Middle East, Israel is the only one where the LGBT community enjoys even a small measure of equality. In Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and Syria, homosexual conduct is punishable by flogging, imprisonment, or both. But homosexuals there get off pretty lightly compared to their counterparts in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, who are put to death. Israeli homosexuals can adopt, openly serve in the army, enter civil unions, and are protected by exceptionally strongly worded ant-discrimination legislation. Beats a death sentence. In fact, it beats America.

Israel's protection of its citizens' civil liberties has earned international recognition. Freedom House is an NGO that releases an annual report on democracy and civil liberties in each of the 195 countries in the world. It ranks each country as 'Free' 'Partly Free' or 'Not Free'. In the Middle East, Israel is the only country that has earned designation as a 'free' country. Not surprising given the level of freedom afforded to citizens in say, Lebanon- a country designated 'partly free', where there are laws against reporters criticizing not only the Lebanese government, but the Syrian regime as well. [I'm hoping Ms Booth will speak about this, given her experience working as a 'journalist' for Iran,] Iran is a country given the rating of 'not free', putting it alongside China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Myanmar. In Iran, [as Ms Booth I hoped would have said in her speech], there is a special 'Press Court' which prosecutes journalists for such heinous offences as criticizing the ayatollah, reporting on stories damaging the 'foundations of the Islamic republic' , using 'suspicious (i.e. western) sources', or insulting islam. Iran is the world leader in terms of jailed journalists, with 39 reporters (that we know of) in prison as of 2009. They also kicked out almost every Western journalist during the 2009 election. [I don't know if Ms Booth was affected by that] I guess we can't really expect more from a theocracy. Which is what most countries in the Middle East are. Theocracies and Autocracies. But Israel is the sole, the only, the rogue, democracy. Out of every country in the Middle East, only in Israel do anti-government protests and reporting go unquashed and uncensored.

I have one final argument – the last nail in the opposition's coffin- and its sitting right across the aisle. Mr Ran Gidor's presence here is the all evidence any of us should need to confidently call Israel a rogue state. For those of you who have never heard of him, Mr Gidor is a political counsellor attached to Israel's embassy in London. He's the guy the Israeli government sent to represent them to the UN. He knows what he's doing. And he's here tonight. And it's incredible. Consider, for a moment, what his presence here means. The Israeli government has signed off,to allow one of their senior diplomatic representatives to participate in a debate on their very legitimacy. That's remarkable. Do you think for a minute, that any other country would do the same? If the Yale University Debating Society were to have a debate where the motion was 'This house believes Britain is a racist, totalitarian state that has done irrevocable harm to the peoples of the world', that Britain would allow any of its officials to participate? No. Would China participate in a debate about the status of Taiwan? Never. And there is no chance in hell that an American government official would ever be permitted to argue in a debate concerning its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. But Israel has sent Mr Ran Gidor to argue tonight against [a 'journalist' come reality TV star, and myself,] a 19 year old law student who is entirely unqualified to speak on the issue at hand.

Every government in the world should be laughing at Israel right now- because it forgot rule number one. You never add credence to crackpots by engaging with them. It's the same reason you won't see Stephen Hawking or Richard Dawkins debate David Icke. But Israel is doing precisely that. Once again, behaving in a way that is unexpected, or not normal. Behaving like a rogue state.

That's five arguments that have been directed at the supporters of Israel. But I have a minute or two left. And here's an argument for all of you – Israel willfully and forcefully disregards international law. In 1981 Israel destroyed OSIRAK – Sadam Hussein's nuclear bomb lab. Every government in the world knew that Hussein was building a bomb. And they did nothing. Except for Israel. Yes, in doing so they broke international law and custom. But they also saved us all from a nuclear Iraq. That rogue action should earn Israel a place of respect in the eyes of all freedom loving peoples. But it hasn't. But tonight, while you listen to us prattle on, I want you to remember something; while you're here, Khomeini's Iran is working towards the Bomb. And if you're honest with yourself, you know that Israel is the only country that can, and will, do something about it. Israel will, out of necessity act in a way that is the not the norm, and you'd better hope that they do it in a destructive manner. Any sane person would rather a rogue Israel than a Nuclear Iran. [Except Ms Booth]

This kid is going places.

UPDATE: Here's what happened after the debate.
  • Monday, November 01, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ha'aretz:
Hamas confirmed for the first time on Monday that between 200 and 300 members of the organization's military wing were killed during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip at the end of 2008, Israel Radio reported.

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 in efforts to curb missile fire from the Palestinian territory into Israel's southern communities. Immediately following the operation, Hamas reported that less than 50 of its men had been killed.

Hamas' Interior Minister Fathi Hamad, who was confirmed the figures in an interview with the London-based Arabic language daily Al-Hayat, said that the so-called "police officers" who were killed during the first day of the operation were actually 250 Hamas fighters, and that 150 additional "security personnel" were also killed.

Israel Radio indicated that these figures were consistent with the numbers initially reported by the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit immediately following the operation, which Hamas denied.
Ha'aretz' headline is slightly misleading, because Hamas is admitting that 250 of its members were killed on the initial day of Cast Lead (Israel's response to Hamas' own Operation Oil Stain) - but the total number of Hamas militants killed during the war was much higher.

Hamas' al-Qassam website has been steadily listing these hundreds of "policemen" as Qassam Brigades "martyrs" and we have been documented that since April, 2009.

The intriguing part is that we have only documented 210 policemen (defined by the PCHR) as terrorists - so we may have undercounted. As it is, we already have proven that 75% of the "policemen" killed during the fighting were, in fact, Hamas militants and that there Hamas never distinguished between the al-Qassam Brigades and its police force.

If indeed some 250 of the policemen that were killed in only the initial day were al Qassam members, that would indicate that far more than 75% of the policemen were terrorists - because PCHR only documented 282 total policemen killed during the entire operation, plus two policewomen.

Now would be a good time to re-visit the Goldstone Report, which said:

417. Except for the statements of the police spokesperson, the Israel Government has presented no other basis on which a presumption can be made against the overall civilian nature of the police in Gaza. It is true that the police and the security forces created by Hamas in Gaza may have their origins in the Executive Force. However, while the Mission would not rule out the possibility that there might be individuals in the police force who retain their links to the armed groups, it believes that the assertion on the part of the Government of Israel that “an overwhelming majority of the police forces were also members of the Hamas military wing or activists of Hamas or other terrorist organizations” appears to be an overstatement that has led to prejudicial presumptions against the nature of the police force that may not be justified.
Israel was right. Goldstone was wrong. And Goldstone believed Hamas' lies about the police without reservation while being skeptical of the accurate Israeli side.

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