Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Elder of Ziyon
Qassam calendar
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Elder of Ziyonself-deathLocal Palestinian sources said today that "a citizen of the Maghazi camp central Gaza Strip died in an Israeli hospital as a result of serious wounds he had sustained a month ago after the tortured and thrown from the roof of one of the security buildings of the Hamas militia in the central region."Our 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 7.
The sources added that Mustafa Ezz El-Shafei, 24, "died from wounds he suffered after being tortured by the militias of Hamas and thrown from the top of one of the security purpose of the killers and after his confession to one of the leaders of the Qassam Brigades, a charge of theft and looting of the property of citizens center of the Gaza Strip."
Sources confirmed that Shafei had nothing to do with the theft.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Elder of ZiyonTeresa Malof knew she wasn't in Kentucky anymore when a cleric issued a fatwa against her secret Santa gift exchange.UPDATE: In the comments, Soccer Dad reminds us of a similar tragic case where the US was complicit in the behavior of the Saudis.
Malof proposed the idea at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital, where she has worked for more than a decade. It was supposed to be discreet, but rumors were whispered amid veils and hijabs that the lithe, blond nurse, raised on farmland at the edge of Appalachia, was planning to celebrate a Christian tradition in an Islamic kingdom that forbids the practicing of other religions.
"Even though I'm a Muslim too, I like to celebrate the holidays and have gift exchanges," said Malof, a convert to Islam who is married to the son of a former Saudi ambassador. "But word got out, and the religious people came with a fatwa (or edict) against the Santa party. My husband was having a heart attack. He was worried I'd be in a lot of trouble."
For American women married to Saudi men, such is life in this exotic, repressive and often beguiling society where tribal customs and religious fervor rub against oil wealth and the tinted-glass skyscrapers that rise Oz-like in the blurry desert heat. This is not a land of the First Amendment and voting rights; it is a kingdom run by the strict interpretation of Wahhabi Islam, where abayas hang in foyers, servants linger like ghosts, minarets glow in green neon and, as a recent court case showed, a woman who is raped can also be sentenced to 200 lashes for un-Islamic behavior.
"Haram, haram" (forbidden, forbidden). American wives know the phrase well. It is learned over years of peeking through veils at supermarkets or sitting in the back of SUVs while Filipinos behind the wheel glide through traffic. Their adopted Arab home is a traditionally close American ally. But like much of the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia's relations with Washington have been strained since the rise of global jihad. Terrorist bombings, which have killed nearly 150 people here in recent years, have kept many American families in gated communities that have the aura of golf courses protected by small armies.
Most non-Muslim women convert to Islam as a prerequisite for marrying a Saudi and living in the kingdom. Many American women, including those who converted before they arrived, have embraced the Quran; for others, the adoption of Islam is a pantomime act, the disguise of a second self to hold them over until they peel off their head scarves and travel to the U.S. for summer vacations.
For both kinds of women, it is a life of sacrifices and measured victories: Women can't drive or vote in Saudi Arabia, but their children are largely safe from street crime and drugs; a wife can't leave the country without her husband's written permission, but tribal and religious codes instill a strong sense of family.
Freedom lies behind courtyard walls, where private swimming pools glimmer and the eyes of the religious police, known as the mutaween, do not venture. Rock 'n' roll (haram) is played, smuggled whiskey (haram) is sipped, and Christianity (haram) sometimes is practiced. This sequestered, contradictory experience, a number of American wives noted, can turn an expat into an alcoholic or a born-again Christian, and sometimes both.
"American women get together and we talk," said Lori Baker, a mother of two who met her Saudi husband at Ohio State University in 1982. "We ask one another, 'Where are you on your curve now? Have you hit bottom yet?' We all go through the highs and lows when it comes to moods and tolerance. . . . When I first got here, I felt naked without my head scarf.
"Then after the terrorist bombings in 2003, I even covered my face. Foreigners were a target then. I became very comfortable with my face covered. I felt safe. Nobody knows me. They can't see me, and if you're covered, they respect you. Sometimes without a covered face it's like walking down Main Street wearing a bikini."
One American wife, who asked not to be named, said the country's repression of women led her to counseling sessions with a psychiatrist. When she was contacted for an interview, she said she was worried that her husband would object; she struggled with the decision for an hour before finally agreeing. "I told my husband I'm coming to this interview. I'm trying to be respectful, but I'm going to go. Is that haram?" she said, sitting in a black abaya. "It's only women who have to be perfect here. A woman. A woman. A woman. They're always making an issue of it. It's a sick pastime. I feel like I'm being bullied. This is not Islam. Where in Islam does it say this? This is tribal."
She paused and sipped a cappuccino. She grew up in Pittsburgh, the latchkey daughter of a working mother and a laid-off steelworker who abandoned his family and ended up homeless. She was 16 when she met a 27-year-old Saudi who was studying English at the University of Pittsburgh. He offered her stability and religion. They married two years later, first in a mosque and then before a justice of the peace. She said she hasn't spoken to her husband's family in six years.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Elder of ZiyonThe United States has agreed in principle to provide Israel with better "smart bombs" than those it plans to sell Saudi Arabia under a regional defense package, senior Israeli security sources said on Sunday.This is idiotic on a number of levels.Keen to bolster Middle East allies against an ascendant Iran, the Bush administration last year proposed supplying Gulf Arab states with some $20 billion in new weapons, including Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb kits for the Saudis.
The plan has angered Israel's backers in Washington, who say the JDAMs, which give satellite guidance for bombs, may one day be used against the Jewish state or at least blunt its power to deter potential foes. Israel has had JDAMs since 1990 and has used them extensively in a 2006 offensive in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government dropped its objections to the proposed Saudi deal in July after securing U.S. military aid grants worth $30 billion over the next decade.
Two Israeli security sources said the United States further mollified the Olmert government with an "understanding in principle" that future JDAM sales to Israel would include advanced technologies not on offer to Saudi Arabia.
"We are checking which of the top-of-the-line JDAMs will become available to us. The agreement is that Israel's qualitative edge will be preserved," one source said.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Elder of ZiyonA MUSLIM store worker refused to serve a customer buying a children’s book on Christianity because she said it was “unclean”.How could she have felt humiliated? That emotion only applies to one set of people.
Shopper Sally Friday felt publicly humiliated at a branch of Marks & Spencer when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.
When she put the book on the check-out counter, the young assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean and summoned another member of staff to serve instead.
Mrs Friday said her trip to the sales in Reading, Berks, with her daughter had been ruined.
“I went to the till and heard the girl say it was unclean and then she got someone else to serve me,” said Mrs Friday.
“At first I wasn’t sure what was going on and then I realised she was wearing a headdress and I clicked that the title of the book had Bible in it. I felt very humiliated and immediately left the store.”
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Elder of Ziyon
Monday, January 14, 2008Elder of ZiyonMecca: 1st - 6th century ADMecca was a holy city for idolators, and Mohammed used its status - and its pre-existing customs - to help grow his new religion.
The town of Mecca, in a rocky valley with no agricultural resources, develops into a place of considerable prosperity. There are two good reasons. It is a trading post on the caravan route from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. And it is Arabia's most important place of pilgrimage.
During the centuries before Islam, large numbers of pilgrims arrive in Mecca to perform a ritual act of walking seven times round a small square building known as the Kaaba (Arabic for 'cube'). The building is full of idols, which are the objects of worship. It also includes a sacred black stone, possibly in origin a meteorite.
The Muslims and Mecca: AD 624-630
Relations with Mecca deteriorate to the point of pitched battles between the two sides, with Muhammad leading his troops in the field. But in the end it is his diplomacy which wins the day.
He persuades the Meccans to allow his followers back into the city, in 629, to make a pilgrimage to the Kaaba and the Black Stone.
On this first Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Muhammad's followers impress the local citizens both by their show of strength and by their self-control, departing peacefully after the agreed three days. But the following year the Meccans break a truce, provoking the Muslims to march on the city.
They take Mecca almost without resistance. The inhabitants accept Islam. And Muhammad sweeps the idols out of the Kaaba, leaving only the sacred Black Stone.
An important element in Mecca's peaceful acceptance of the change has been Muhammad's promise that pilgrimage to the Kaaba will remain a central feature of the new religion.
So Mecca becomes, as it has remained ever since, the holy city of Islam.
Monday, January 14, 2008Elder of ZiyonThe southern leadership of the Israeli army revealed for the first time a new weapon said to be for use against rockets fired from Gaza strip.
A rough outline of what was said: At the beginning of the clip you hear a female soldier reporting in coded language what she is seeing. Then the missile is shot at the terrorist. Afterwards the narrator reports that the latest method to combat the kassam and other terrorists is by anti-tank units shooting anti-tank missiles which are much more efficient in hitting their targets. The terrorists are spotted by a combination of ground checkpoints, and balloons and drones operated by the IAF. Their findings are sent straight to a computerized intelligence centre who send out the anti-tank brigades with pinpoint information.
Channel two of the Israeli TV. broadcasted a video tape im which Israeli air and land units are using anti missile grenades against Palestinian activists in Gaza strip specially those who fire rockets at Israel.
The video tape shows a Palestinian activist trying to fire a rocket in direction of the Israeli towns, the activist was being monitored ever since he walked out , then an Israeli rocket targets him directly and when his friend approached to rescue him another Israeli rocket was being fired leaving both of them dead.
Monday, January 14, 2008Elder of ZiyonSecurity workers of the Israel Airport Authority uncovered 2 tons of material used for the manufacturing of Qassam rockets and explosives inside a truck attempting to enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing.Meanwhile, Egypt also found some of those much-needed explosives on their way to the starving people of Gaza:
This is the second time in the past week in which such materials are brought into Gaza under the disguise of humanitarian equipment.
Egyptian security forces have found a smuggling tunnel linking Egypt with the Gaza Strip and containing explosives, security sources said on Monday.But in the peaceful West Bank, in contrast:The sources said the tunnel, north of the Rafah crossing, contained four artillery shells and 20 bombs, as well as electrical circuits.
The Palestinian intelligence service said on Monday that they discovered a bag containing 16 kilograms of explosives and a homemade projectile ready to be launched in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.However, the PA has had a less than stellar record of reliability when they report finds like these. Pretty much anything they "discover" during serious negotiations with Israel can be regarded as either fabrications or gross exaggerations.
Director of Nablus intelligence, Abu Al-Abbas, told Ma'an that the bag was found inside a bigger bag with three detonators in the old city of Nablus.
Monday, January 14, 2008Elder of ZiyonA rift is emerging between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, suggesting that the president no longer enjoys the full backing of Khamenei, as he did in the years after his election in 2005.The rift between Khameni and Ahmadinejad has been obvious for months and the external threat was the major factor keeping it from becoming blatant. Bush couldn't backtrack on his approach to Iran without raising eyebrows, but the NIE was a neat way to get the US to back off on pressuring Iran - the press seized on the document, misinterpreting it to be far more damning to the Bush administration than it really is.
In the past, when Ahmadinejad was attacked by political opponents, the criticisms were usually silenced by Khamenei, who has the final word on state matters and who regularly endorsed the president in public speeches. But that public support has been conspicuously absent in recent months.
There are numerous possible reasons for Ahmadinejad's loss of support, but analysts here all point to one overriding factor: the U.S. National Intelligence Report last month, which said that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 in response to international pressure. The report sharply decreased the threat of a military strike against Iran, allowing the authorities to focus on domestic issues, with important parliamentary elections looming in March.
"Now that Iran is not under the threat of a military attack, all contradictions within the establishment are surfacing," said Saeed Leylaz, an economic and political analyst. "The biggest mistake that Americans have constantly made toward Iran was adopting radical approaches, which provided the ground for radicals in the country to take control."
While the pressure was on, the leadership was reluctant to let any internal disagreements show. Senior officials, including Khamenei, constantly called for unity and warned that the enemy, a common reference to the United States, could take advantage of such differences.
The Iranian presidency is a largely ceremonial post. But Ahmadinejad used the office as a bully pulpit, espousing an economic populism that built a strong following among the middle and lower classes and made him a political force to be reckoned with. That popularity won him the strong backing of the supreme leader.
But the relationship began to sour even before the National Intelligence Report was released. A source close to Khamenei, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said Khamenei had been especially disappointed by Ahmadinejad's economic performance, which had led to steep inflation in basic necessities, from food to property values.
"Mr. Khamenei supported Mr. Ahmadinejad because he believed in his slogans of helping the poor," the source said. "But his economic performance has been disastrous. Their honeymoon is certainly over."
Economists have long criticized Ahmadinejad's economic policies, warning that his reliance on oil revenues to finance loans to the poor and to buy cheap imports would lead to inflation and cripple local industries. Inflation has risen from 12 percent in October 2006 to 19 percent this year, according to figures released by the Iranian Central Bank.
It is somewhat possible, although I wouldn't judge it as likely, that the Bush administration was one step ahead of this analysis, using the NIE report as a backhanded way to cool things off. Bush will still be quoted as being intransigent and as disavowing the NIE memo, but all the while wheels are in motion that could hurt Iran economically far more and far faster than any sanctions can.Tehran seems unimpressed by administration war talk, perhaps because it has confidence in its navy. Lots of other people are scared, though. Take oil traders. Oil prices used to have a tight relationship with Saudi spare capacity. When capacity went up, prices went down. After two years of escalating threats between Tehran and Washington, however, new capacity no longer calms the market.
Under the old market rules, prices would be $50, not $100. So war talk sends an extra $20 billion a year to Tehran. The Bush administration's bellicose rhetoric thus makes a mockery of the president's pledge to "do everything in our power to defeat the terrorists."
If it wanted to honor this commitment, the administration would stop saying things that drive up oil prices. As it is, the long parade of threats just makes the mullahs richer.
Yet they spend their $90 a barrel windfall faster than ever, trying to buy legitimacy with pork. Deeply unpopular, the Iranian regime now relies on constantly rising oil prices for survival.
Its spending has quadrupled in the last six years, a remarkable rise that's evolved in lockstep with oil prices. Here, at last, is our adversary's weakness: An oil price decline would be a mortal threat.
If Bush wants to hit the regime where it hurts, conciliation should become his byword. In the price collapse that would follow, he'd find a brand new Iranian appetite for negotiation.
This is because, unlike sanctions that might take years bite, a peace initiative would threaten the mullahs tomorrow. Talking peace, which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will certainly scorn, would also help reformers in the approaching Iranian elections.
So before the president begins another war whose risks may be greater than he thinks, General Van Riper should be heard. And if the president really wants to regime change, he should talk peace, now.
He doesn't even have to mean it. At today's oil prices, just the threat of peace will do.
Monday, January 14, 2008Elder of ZiyonSINGER Britney Spears will be ordered to cover her face with a veil and wear a full-length Islamic dress when she weds her British boyfriend, it was revealed last night.Now, that would be a great reality show.
She is planning marriage No3 to Muslim Adnan Ghalib, 35, who she hopes will help keep her on the straight and narrow so she can win back custody of her two sons.
But the only way Brummie cameraman Adnan’s strictly religious family will accept her is if she converts to the Islamic faith.
Astonishingly, party girl Brit, 26, is keen to do it – even though it will mean ditching the booze. The singer, famed for stepping out without her knickers, has even told friends she plans to wear a burka, or even a naqib, which leaves only the eyes visible.
One of her pals said: “She is really keen to do it.
“It would be a mark of respect to Adnan and his family, and it would give her the anonymity she’s craving.
“Adnan’s Muslim beliefs could be Britney’s saviour.”
Friends believe the couple had planned to tie the knot on a trip to Mexico last week, but put it on hold.
Her relationship with Adnan has stunned his parents, too. His mum Saghar teaches the Koran at home, while his dad Hussain attends the mosque daily.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
