Tuesday, May 10, 2005

  • Tuesday, May 10, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Courtesy of the Palestine Chronicle:
VIENNA - The third Palestinians in Europe Convention has strongly defended the inalienable right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.

The final statement urged all Palestinian organizations championing the right of return to act in unison to make the dream of millions of Palestinians come true.

“The right of return is sacrosanct. It is the core of the just Palestinian cause and a bedrock of the Palestinian sovereignty,” Palestinian Chief Justice Taysir Al-Tamimi told the conference, which wrapped up on Saturday, May 7.

This right derives its legitimacy from UN Security Council resolution 194, which becomes irrelevant if this right is downtrodden,” he added, warning of US and Jewish schemes to settle Palestinian refugees in Arab and European countries.

The participants signed up to symbolic documents, pledging not to give up their right to return home.

Millions of Palestinians were driven out of their homes in the 1948 and 1967 wars and constitute today up to eight million people, according to the Palestinian Statistics Agency.

Most of whom are living in destitution in refugee camps inside the occupied territories, and in bordering Arab states, particularly Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The rest are scattered across the Arab world, the US and Europe.

In what has been termed as the Bushfour declaration, US President George W. Bush in April last year said the refugees should be settled in a future Palestinian state rather than what is now Israel.

The first Palestinian atlas was launched in March to document for the generations to come territories usurped and occupied by Israeli troops.

Up to 50,000 maps charting Palestinian sites that date back to 1799 are found in the English-language geographical encyclopedia.

The final communiqué further expressed deep concern at the increasing threats to occupied East Jerusalemthe capital of Palestine and attempts to Judaize the holy city to obliterate its Arab identity whether through annexation or suspicious deals.”

The statement was referring to the sale of Palestinian land to ideologically-motivated Jewish investors by Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church Irineos I.

The patriarch was officially fired Friday, May 6, over his involvement in the deal, which was confirmed by his financial aide Nikos Papadimas.

Archimandrite Attallah Hanna, the spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Church, said the conference helps keep the issue of Jerusalem vivid.

“The serious threats to Al-Aqsa Mosque and Christian waqfs in the holy city have sounded the alarm and made us cautious about peace blueprints imposed by the other,” he told the conference over the phone from Jerusalem.

Palestinian experts warned last month that threats by Jewish extremists to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, had a more serious religious undertone as they believed that 2005 was the year for the construction of the so-called third temple.

Archeologists further warned that ongoing Israeli excavations weakened the foundations of the mosque, cautioning it would not stand a powerful earthquake.

The controversial West Bank separation wall was also high on the agenda of the conference with calls for an immediate stop to the continued construction of “this distasteful Zionist project.”

The conference also featured Palestinian nationalist songs by the gifted Al-Itesam group, which allocates its yields to the Palestinian cause.

The first Palestinians in Europe conference was held on March 19, 2003 in the British capital London. The German capital Berlin hosted the second conference in May 2004.


I probably missed a bunch, too.
  • Tuesday, May 10, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hosni Abu Ghreib figures he has a good deal. The militant, who spent four years on the run from Israeli forces, says he’s hung up his mask in exchange for a Palestinian police uniform and a steady paycheck - and he still has his gun.

The jobs-for-fugitives program is the Palestinian answer to charges that they have failed to crack down on militants, as Israel and the United States demand. The Palestinians reply that they are succeeding in getting the militants off the streets without confrontations.

About 200 gunmen have joined the Palestinian security forces in the towns of Tulkarem and Jericho since they were handed over to Palestinian control in March, said Palestinian legislator Abdel Fattah Hemayel, who is in charge of finding work for the West Bank fugitives - claiming that all the fugitives are off the streets now.


Abbott: Great news, Costello! The fugitives are off the streets now and we don't have to worry about them having guns!
Costello: That's great news! Are they in jail?
Abbott: No, they're off the streets.
Costello: So they are under house arrest then.
Abbott: No, they're off the streets.
Costello: OK, but where exactly are they?
Abbott: They got jobs!
Costello: The terrorists got jobs?
Abbott: Of course.
Costello: What are they doing?
Abbott: They are policemen!
Costello: And where are they working?
Abbott: On the streets!
Costello: And what do they need to do their jobs?
Abbott: Guns!
Costello: So the terrorists are off the streets.
Abbott: Absolutely.
Costello: And they are working in the streets.
Abbott: Naturally, where else?
Costello: And we don't have to worry about their guns.
Abbott: Not at all.
Costello: Because they have their guns.
Abbott: Naturally, what is a policeman without a gun?
Costello: And we are supposed to be happy about this?
Abbott: I'm very happy. The fugitives are gone!
Costello: Where did they go?
Abbott: They got jobs!
Costello: On the street, with guns.
Abbott: Naturally.
Costello: Where were they before?
Abbott: On the street.
Costello: With...?
Abbott: Guns.
Costello: So what is the difference between before and now?
Abbott: Before, they were fugitives from the law!
Costello: And now....?
Abbott: They are policemen!
Costello (dizzy): Sworn to uphold...
Abbott: The law!
Costello: So they switched sides?
Abbott: Naturally!
Costello: Did they sign anything saying they will uphold the law?
Abbott: Costello, I'm surprised at you! Of course not! That would be demeaning!
Costello: Demeaning?
Abbott: Demeaning!
Costello: That's what I want to find out, demeaning of all this!
Abbott: It is all for peace!
Costello: Come again?
Abbott: This is how the Palestinians are enforcing peace!
Costello: By hiring terrorists?
Abbott: Naturally!
Costello: And giving them guns?
Abbott: Naturally!
Costello: So why is it peaceful now and it wasn't before?
Abbott: Now, they are getting paid to have guns and stay on the streets!
Costello: So, if the fugitives are now peaceful policemen, who are the criminals?
Abbott: Militants!
Costello: Militants.
Abbott: Militants!
Costello: Weren't the fugitives militants too?
Abbott: Naturally.
Costello: And now they are...
Abbott: Policemen.
Costello: Fighting their old friends, the...
Abbott. Militants.
Costello: Say, I have an idea. Why not declare all criminals to be policemen and then there won't be any more crime!
Abbott: Don't be silly.
Costello: Silly?
Abbott: Of course. That can't happen until the EU gives enough money to pay all those extra policemen.
Costello: AAAAAAARGH!

Monday, May 09, 2005

  • Monday, May 09, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
The latest wonderful periodic summary of the best of the Jewish/Israeli blogs has been published here.

For reasons perhaps only known to this edition's editor, one of my recent postings is mentioned. So in the interests of fair play and good form, I recommend checking it out, as well as all back issues which are spread throughout the JBlogosphere.
  • Monday, May 09, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Notice how AP twists this story to make it look like Israel is raising tensions and that somehow the prisoner release decision threatens the "cease-fire":

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday that Israel will not release more Palestinian prisoners until the Palestinian Authority takes tougher action against militant groups - the latest sign of trouble for an already strained cease-fire.

Israeli and Palestinian officials discussed the prisoner issue Sunday, but their meeting ended in disagreement. Palestinians charged Israel is breaking a truce that has drastically reduced violence, endangering its continuation and weakening Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. (How this "breaks a truce" is not explained in the AP universe.)
[...]Later, AP decides to quote Palestinian spokesterrorists, and ignore any Israeli comments:
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of stonewalling.

"It seems to me that they will not release the prisoners, they will not hand over the areas, they will not end the question of the fugitives," Erekat said. Instead of imposing delays, he said, Israel should "expedite this process and give peace a chance," he said. (I believe that if you look up "chutzpah" in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of the exerable Erekat.)

Palestinian Cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib cautioned that Sharon's policies "would only lead to the collapse of the recent cease-fire."
  • Monday, May 09, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Sounds like a win-win.
Ministers from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority will today sign an agreement to pave the way for the construction of a canal that will link the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.

The canal will generate electricity, provide fresh water, and prevent the Dead Sea from drying up.

It will draw water from the Red Sea at Aqaba in Jordan, raise it 170 metres above sea level and then let it fall to the Dead Sea which, at 400 metres below sea level, is the lowest place on earth.

The project will consist of 110 miles of canal, tunnel and piping, and the electricity provided by the water will provide for pumping the water in the initial stages and power a desalination plant.

There are also plans to construct holiday resorts and a water park along parts of the route.

The first stage will be a $20m (£10.15m) feasibility study partly funded by the World Bank with the estimated $3bn cost of the final project also being partly funded by the bank.

Canals linking the Red Sea, Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea have been discussed since the 19th century, initially for transport, then hydroelectricity and now with the main purpose of desalinating sea water.

As the population in the region has exploded over the past 100 years water has become more and more precious.

As a result the Dead Sea, a lake 10 times more salty than sea water, has fallen by 20 metres leaving wide areas of salt flats. The level of the sea continues to fall by about 80cm a year.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

  • Sunday, May 08, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
A breath of fresh air from Jeff Jacoby, asking the questions no one wants answered.
GADID, Gaza Strip
[...]
A visitor would have to be strangely obtuse not to sense the deep attachment of Gaza's Jews to the land they live on. In places like Gadid, streets and kindergartens are named for the Bible's seven species. ''Gadid" itself is an old Hebrew word meaning date harvest, and the names of other settlements, like Pe'at Sadeh (''edge of the field") or Netzarim (''sprouts"), similarly evoke the agricultural yearnings of their founders.

When those founders arrived, Jewish Gaza was all yearning and no agriculture: These settlements were mostly built on barren sand dunes where no one lived and nothing grew. Today it is a horticultural powerhouse, supplying two-thirds of the organic vegetables and cherry tomatoes Israel exports, and renowned for its bug-free lettuce and other leafy greens. Gaza's legal status may be complicated (it is technically an unallocated portion of the League of Nations' 1922 Palestine Mandate), but the moral status of this land is as clear as day: As a matter of justice and sweat equity, the Jewish homesteaders whose faith and hard work have made the sand dunes bloom surely have as much right to their homes in Gadid and Neveh Dekalim as the Arabs have to theirs in nearby Khan Yunis and Dir El Balah.

Yet in just 10 weeks, if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ''disengagement" program goes forward, the 8,000 Jews who live in Gaza -- men, women, and a great many children -- will be expelled. Their homes and property will be taken over by the Palestinian Authority. And the green revolution that has transformed Gaza's sandy wastes into a spectacular oasis of hothouses, nurseries, and gardens will almost certainly come to an end.

But Jews won't be the only victims of Sharon's plan.

At Tnuvot Katif, a large produce-packaging plant here, I watch for a while as about two dozen workers, most of them local Arabs, get heads of tall leaf lettuce ready for export. More than half of Tnuvot's 127 year-round employees are Arab; they in turn account for about 2 percent of the 3,500 Arabs employed by Gaza's Jewish firms.

During a break in the shift, I ask some of workers if they like their jobs. They shrug. But when I ask what they think of the plan for Israeli withdrawal, they grow animated. If the Israelis go, they tell me through an interpreter, they'll lose their jobs. If the plant shuts down, they'll be out of work, and if the Palestinian Authority takes it over, they'll still be out of work -- their jobs will go to workers with better connections to the PA's ruling thugs.

''If that's how you feel," I ask, ''why don't you oppose the disengagement publicly? Why don't you tell the PA that you want your Jewish neighbors to stay?"

When my question is translated, the men look at me as if I'm crazy.

''It's forbidden!" replies Randoor, the only one of the workers who would give even a first name. ''We're not allowed to say that!"

I press him: Why not? What would be so bad about saying that Jews and Arabs should be able to live together? But Randoor shakes his head and crosses his wrists, as if being handcuffed. ''They might put us in jail," he says. ''They might call us 'collaborators.' " In the jungle that is Palestinian society, being called a ''collaborator" can be a death sentence. Indeed, the PA's newly elevated security chief -- a cold-blooded killer named Rashid Abu Shabak -- is known in Gaza as the ''collaborator hunter."

Politicians and pundits are applauding Sharon's planned retreat, yet a simple lettuce-packer like Randoor seems to grasp what they cannot: The lives of Gaza's Arabs will not be improved by expelling Gaza's Jews.
  • Sunday, May 08, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian officials are calling a US House of Representatives offer of $200 million in tentative aid for the Palestinians passed on Thursday a 'huge slap in the face,' due to restrictions placed on the spending of that money.

The measure restricts the money from going to the Palestinian Authority or its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and instead calls for the money to be channeled through American aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) and philanthropic groups.
Amazing how people who are so "desperate that they need to resort to suicide bombings" are so picky on how they can get money to help them.
  • Sunday, May 08, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Arutz Sheva - Israel National News

Many Jewish blogs are jumping on this story as some sort of "proof" that religious Jews are corrupt. Besides the fact that the only people who clearly broke the law are a secular Jew and two Arabs, it is very disturbing to see that Jews who will bend over backwards (generally accurately) to portray IDF actions favorably have no hesitation to bash the religious.

No one knows yet what happened. Police in Israel and the US have been known to make arrests that in the end were wrong. If a criminal act was done by the religious, it should be treated exactly the same way that any other criminal act must be treated, but the Jewish world can stand a little more tolerance and to give others the benefit of the doubt.

Friday, May 06, 2005

  • Friday, May 06, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestinians on Friday morning fired an anti-tank rocket on Friday morning at school bus carrying children outside the southern Gaza Strip settlement of Kfar Darom, shaking the fragile lull in violence. The rocket failed to hit the bus.

A mortar shell also hit a Gush Katif settlement. No damage or casualties were reported in either case.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four Qassam rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot predawn Friday. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said that several people had been treated for shock.
Ha'aretz editorializes:

As long as the Qassam rockets and mortar shells fired intermittently from the Gaza Strip to Jewish settlements do not take a toll in lives, it is unlikely that Israel will respond with force. However, if there are casualties, Israel will not be able to stay its hand.

This is also the case if the Palestinians open fire during the disengagement itself. In the history of the Israel Defense Forces, it has never restrained itself, as it has recently, in the face of violence. In any case, the Palestinian firing of Qassams and mortars indicates just how fragile the cease-fire is.

Um, how about "how non-existent the cease-fire is"?

At any rate, what sense does it make to wait until Jews are killed before responding? If the enemy intends to kill Jews, why wait until tthey succeed before trying to stop them? The only reason the Kassams haven't killed anyone isn't because Hamas has decided to purposefully aim at open fields. The intent is clear, and the idea of a "cease-fire" is fiction.

It is distressing, at the time of Yom HaShoah, to see Jews with a strong army waiting for casualties before defending themselves. Who would have thought that Jews in Israel would end up with a Galut mentality?
  • Friday, May 06, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yoel Ben-Avraham has set up a blog with this stated purpose:

It is my firm personal belief that the manner in which the "debate" is being managed is potentially more damaging to the future of Israeli's society than any other aspect of this inner conflict! The polarization and acrimoniousness is reaching new levels never before experienced. Whether the "Disengagement" takes place or not, we all have to continue living together in the same country the day after.

I'm realistic to recognize that reading articles or ewxchanging emails is unlikely to change people's log held opinions, but possibly it might open participants up, if not to agreement, as least a better understanding of the other side, where they are coming from and why! In a real way I would have prefered to call the site "Engagement". I challenge all sides of the "Disengagement" debate to "engage" their oponents in words and with reason.


I invite you to join others and myself in what appears to be a unique initiative in an atmosphere of growing divisiveness. Join me in encouraging all sides to this debate to contribute their views to one central forum where we hope to encourage:
  • every opinion to be represented
  • everyone with an opinion to be represented
  • honest and open dialog between all sides
I strongly agree with the stated purposes of the blog. I only had a chance to glance at it as of yet; it appears to be more heavily weighted against disengagement rather than for, at this point. But it is indeed true that the biggest danger is not the actual decision to stay/leave Gaza but the divisions that are occurring in Israel as a result of the debate (and actions to stifle debate.)

So check it out!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

  • Thursday, May 05, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Congress is making clear what everyone knows but no one wants to say: Like most pre-teens, the Palestinians are not mature enough to handle their own money.

Yet for some reason everyone is convinced that they are mature enough to have their own state.

Congress imposed the tight restrictions on aid to the Palestinians that President Bush had announced with fanfare in his State of the Union address, possibly dealing a blow to U.S. efforts to support new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the emergency spending bill that lawmakers completed late Tuesday, the White House had sought $200 million 'to support Palestinian political, economic, and security reforms,' as the president said in his February State of the Union address. But the fine print of the document gives $50 million of that money directly to Israel to build terminals for people and goods at checkpoints surrounding Palestinian areas. Another $2 million for Palestinian health care will be provided to Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, while the allocation of the rest of the money is tightly prescribed.

The bill appears to make it difficult for the White House to give any of the aid directly to the Palestinian Authority, as Palestinians had hoped. Instead, the assistance must be funneled through nongovernmental organizations.

While in theory the White House could seek some sort of waiver on the restrictions to direct aid, a congressional official said the State Department had assured lawmakers that Bush would not seek that authority.
  • Thursday, May 05, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon


Flags and pictures of Palestinian candidates from the extreme Islamic group Hamas fly in the sky during a rally two days before the Palestinian local election at Rafah camp in Gaza Strip.
  • Thursday, May 05, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
Who exactly is the enemy that the UAE is defending itself against with F-16s that are better than any in Israel's - and the U.S.' - air force?
Just one year after Israel, the United Arab Emirates this week took delivery of the most advanced F-16 ever produced.

The first batch of US-built 80 F-16 "Block 60" fighters landed at an official, but quiet ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

Neither the US nor the UAE announced the delivery. But reports from AFP as well as the UAE's Khaleej Times said the event took place on Tuesday and was attended by Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan. They did not specify the number of planes received.

The UAE is paying $6.4 billion for the 80 jets, produced by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin at its plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

These F-16s are more advanced than the newest Israeli F-16 I "Block 50+" and even any US F-16 model. It is one of the few weapon systems in the hands of an Arab state qualitatively superior to that in the Israeli arsenal.

The new F-16's major difference is the Northrop Grumman APG-80 multimode radar, for improved tracking of multiple targets. The Block 60 configuration is the most extensive change in the history of the F-16 program. Its unique features include new cockpit displays and a new mission computer.

The UAE F-16 will be called Desert Falcons. The delivery to the UAE marks the first time the US allowed its sale outside of NATO countries.

The UAE F-16 can just barely reach Israel without mid-air refueling. But should it ever be deployed closer in another Arab country, it would be a formidable foe for the IAF since it is technically an aircraft superior to the IAF's best.
  • Thursday, May 05, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
How long before the world pressures Israel to continue making concessions despite the PA's explicit announcement that terrorists will remain heroes?

Oh, sorry, it has already been happening for decades.

The Palestinian Authority reiterated Wednesday it had no intention of disarming militants despite constant Israeli calls for such a move and a recent pledge to crack down on unlicensed weapons.

The announcement came amid growing friction between armed factions and security forces following the arrest of two Hamas men after a gunfight Monday night. The militants were accused of planning to attack Israel in defiance of a cease-fire.

'We have no intention of withdrawing arms of resistance,' Rashid Abu Shbak, the head of the internal Preventive Security Service, told a news conference in Gaza.

Abu Shbak specifically rejected Israel's request for a start to disarmament before it hands over the last three of five West Bank cities it was to return to Palestinian security control under a February truce agreement.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

  • Tuesday, May 03, 2005
  • Elder of Ziyon
You don't have to know Arabic to see that there is nothing "anti-Zionist" about a cartoon of a hook-nosed, side-curled stereotypical Jew blowing a Shofar. And this is published on the website of the Palestinian National Authority Press Center.

(The cartoon has either been removed or the website is screwed up; here is a copy:)

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