Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Exploiting Israel's humanity for terror

The terror group Popular Resistance Committees recruited a man from Gaza who was undergoing medical treatment in Israel to build terror cells in the West Bank:

It has been cleared for publication that the Shin Bet and the IDF arrested Gaza City resident Jabar Derabiya, 43, at Erez Crossing two months ago for being suspected of planning to carry out terror attacks against Israeli targets.

Derabiya, active in the Popular Resistance Committees, received an entry permit into Israel in order to get treatment for a medical condition of his, and allegedly planned to exploit the entry permit in order to establish terror cells in the West Bank. He was arrested on September 28 while trying to enter Israel.

During his investigation, Derabiya admitted being recruited to the mission by then commander of the Popular Resistance Committees Jamal Abu Samhadana earlier in the year. Abu Samhadana wanted to exploit of Derabiya's condition that required medical attention in Israel in order to bring him into the West Bank.

Derabiya's plan to enter the West Bank was derailed when Abu Samhadana was killed by Israel in an aerial attack on his organization's training camp next to Rafah on June 8.

It emerged from the investigation that a few weeks after Samhadana was killed, his heir, whose identity has not yet been revealed, renewed the plan to transfer Derabiya into the West Bank. However, this plan was stymied when Derabiya was arrested at Erez Crossing.

The defense establishment responded to Derabiya's arrest, saying, "This is another attempt of the terror organization, operating by exploiting Palestinian civilians entering Israel for medical treatment on a humanitarian background, for carrying out terror attacks against the State of Israel."

This is a recurring theme. Now Israel will have to slow down accepting people for medical treatment and more PalArabs will die - and the world will blame Israel for their hardships.

Now here's a thought experiment: Can you imagine a single Muslim or PalArab leader, spokesperson or columnist ever publicly condemning the actions of the PRC in this case? Is there any Arab who would stand up and say "the PRC has hurt the cause of the Palestinian people with their shortsighted attempts to export terror?"

Or are the majority of the peaceful PalArabs more upset that the terror plot was stopped?

One problem with Arabic auto-translation

The auto-translate programs for Arabic often cannot distinguish between proper names and regular words, so people's names get translated - with interesting results.

This story about a young lawyer who fell off a balcony to his death is a good example:

The authors were "George overstuffed" and "Said infection", and the dead man is "lying Hossam."

Proof of Ahmadinejad's role in 1979 hostage crisis?

Daniel Pipes just wrote an article about the long-discussed possibility that Iran's current president was directly involved in the 1979 Iranian attack on the US Embassy and subsequent hostage crisis.

Earlier pictures of someone resembling Ahmadinejad weren't conclusive.

He points to a picture from that time recently discovered by a Russian newspaper: (link to autotranslation)

The likelihood seems to be increasing that Iran's president is a terrorist himself.

Hezbollah no longer exists, according to UNIFIL

Something very interesting can be discerned when looking at the many UNIFIL press releases since the war in the summer.

As soon as the war was over, they never mention Hezbollah.

There are a couple of oblique references to "the parties" in the weeks after the ceasefire, but the rest of the press releases talk about humanitarian aid, Israeli flyovers and withdrawals from various areas, clearing cluster munitions, helping the Lebanese economy, increased UN troop strength and many patrols to ensure no Israeli presence.

But not a single reference to the people who are taking Lebanon hostage and who shot thousands of rockets towards Israeli civilians. Not a single reference to observing Hezbollah movements, actions, statements, or weapons smuggling.

Meanwhile, Nasrallah brags that he has already more than replenished his rocket arsenal and Israeli intelligence confirms it. Under the noses of UNIFIL which doesn't even admit Hezbollah presence in Southern Lebanon.

Remember that part of UN resolution 1701 calls for UNIFIL to assist the Lebanese army in providing:

security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorised in paragraph 11, deployed in this area;

UNIFIL has miraculously declared Hezbollah to have disappeared and to be completely outside the scope of its activities in Lebanon, as it threatens to shoot down any Israeli aircraft trying to do UNIFIL's job in monitoring for weapons smuggling.

The extent of UNIFIL's complete forced ignorance of any Hezbollah activities at all in southern Lebanon is highlighted:

Fears also remain that despite Unifil's beefed-up presence, it will not be able to prevent renewed hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. On Friday, Maj Gen Alain Pellegrini, Unifil's French commander, warned that conflict in the south remained a possibility. He cited the worsening Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and political tension in Beirut, where a failure to find agreement between Lebanon's pro- and anti-Syrian factions threatens to end in street violence.

So in Pellegrini's mind, Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanese political tension can contribute to hostilities - but Hezbollah openly shipping tons of weapons illegally under his watch is not something he knows or cares about, and clearly that doesn't make the situation worse at all.

The absence of any mention of Hezbollah since mid-August in UN press releases shows that UNIFIL never had any intention to stop smuggling or disarm Hezbollah, and that UN 1701 will never be implemented by the UN as it was drafted and intended. If they can wish away Hezbollah's existence then they don't have to deal with them.

Arabs lifting blockade on PA? What blockade?

Over the weekend a number of stories circulated like this one:

(AP) Arab countries decided to lift the financial blockade on Palestinians on Sunday in response to a U.S. veto on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution condemning Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"There will no longer be an international siege," Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said.

As usual, reporters act as mouthpieces and have no memories past last week.

The Arab League never accepted a blockade against the PA, in fact their members were in the forefront to give cash to the Hamas terrorists in power, in spite of the blockade, last April at the Arab Summit.

But the obedient press is happy to report without context and use stories like these to add pressure on Europeans and others to resume aid to the terrorist Hamas organization.

More news from the terrortories

A rich Palestinian Arab is donating a half a million dollars to rebuild the terror fortress that masqueraded as a mosque during Israel's reent incursion in Beit Hanoun. This religious center was where PalArabs shot at Israeli soldiers with impunity, knowing that Israel's response would be muted. It seems that while PalArabs are supposedly starving, the rebuilding of the military mosque takes priority over medicine and food.
A six year old PalArab child from Khan Younis, Mahmoud Adel Mohammad Abu Taha, was shot and killed by a bullet to the head on Sunday from an "unknown source" (which means from some Arab.) If one looks online for news from Khan Younis over the weekend, though, the only story is a PalArab adult allegedly injured by Israeli gunfire. As usual, PalArab self-deaths are hushed up. This week's PA news was so heavily weighted between crying over Beith Hanoun and celebrating the anniversary of Arafat's death that no other story could get traction, so who knows how many self-deaths I missed.)

Also, a 29-year old man from Ramallah was murdered but the circumstances aren't so clear.
The self-death count is now at 156.
That supposed "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas gave a lengthy speech extolling Yasir Arafat, including his terror attacks of the 1970s, and his disastrous attempted takeover of Lebanon in the 80s. He also obliquely blames Israel in referring to Arafat's death as being worthy of investigation. He reiterates that the PalArabs will not compromise on a single inch of land and Jerusalem as being their capital. The celebrated moderate also extensively quoted the Koran.

UN organization openly sympathetic with terror families

The UN's bloated budget includes a news service of sorts called IRIN whose purpose is to "provide news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for the humanitarian community."

Evidently, the humanitarian community is very interested in the poor wives of PalArab terrorists and how hard their lives become after their murderous husbands get killed while trying to genocidally destroy all Jews in the Middle East. Even though all IRIN articles start with a disclaimer "This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations" this is disingenuous as they are paid by the UN to make these stories. One has to see the entire story in context, with photos and call-out boxes, to believe it. So here it is.

© Tom Spender/IRIN
Widowed Palestinian women often find themselves in a desperate situation.
GAZA CITY, 9 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - Palestinian mother-of-11 Aneesa Afana was married to a fighter from the militant Islamic Jihad group until two years ago – when an Israeli missile blew him to bits.

The violence deprived their children of a father and left 40-year-old Aneesa from Tal Zaatar in the northern Gaza Strip facing the task of bringing them all up on her own.

Like many women widowed by the ongoing violence in the Palestinian territories, she faces not just grave financial difficulties but also a battle to stop her children going astray.

“We have problems in my family because I am fighting to control my nine sons. In society here, men control the families much more than women,” she said.

“After I lost my husband I had to take on his responsibility and behave as a man as well as behave as a woman. But my sons are growing up fast. They feel they are already the men of the family and want to take charge of everything.”

Aneesa told IRIN she did not want her sons following in the footsteps of their father and meeting an early and brutal death in battle with Israeli troops.

“I really do not want them to copy their father. The society sees him as a hero. But as a mother I refuse to encourage my sons to die and I will do everything I can to stop it. But I have 11 children – how can I control them all at the same time?”

More than 2,000 women widowed

More than 2,000 women have been widowed during the second intifada [Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation], which began in 2000 and has claimed more than 4,300 Palestinian lives since, according to Nama al-Jidian of the Social Welfare Institution for Martyred Families.

ROBBED OF THEIR HUSBANDS
More than 2,000 women widowed
Half remarry one of husband's relatives
Some face having kids taken from them
Many forced to work to survive
Israel: This is the price of martyrdom
The Israeli government said it was not responsible for the plight of widows whose husbands have been killed fighting Israeli troops. “Israel is not responsible for those who miss their husbands. Everything has a price and anyone wanting to be a martyr must accept the consequences,” said Ameera Arout, director of Arab Press in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Facing grave hardship, about half of these women remarry within the family of their dead husband, usually to the brother, al-Jidian said. “In many cases the family of the husband puts pressure on the widow to give them her children or to marry another man in the family,” she added.

“This leads to many problems, especially if the man is already married and the first wife refuses. Or perhaps the widow does not want to remarry but the family says they are going to take her children from her, so in the end she gives in.”

In the West Bank, a widow can find herself at the centre of a dispute over land, according to Sihan al-Kirim, a colleague of Nama’s.

“In the West Bank many families have land and the family of the dead man gets worried that they may lose their land if the widow remarries outside the family. So they put a lot of pressure on her [not to marry outside the family],” she said.

Nihad, a 24-year-old mother-of-three from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, married her husband’s 19-year-old brother after losing her husband two years ago when an Israeli shell landed on his house.

"Thank God my new husband is a good man and works hard to take care of his brother's children as well as of his own,” said Nihad, who has since had two more children.

But Aneesa has remained single, living in a flat in a building occupied by members of her dead husband’s family. “I have not remarried – who wants to take on 11 children? As an unmarried woman, all eyes are on me and my behaviour,” said Aneesa, who was accompanied by a relative from her dead husband’s family when interviewed.

The lack of a breadwinner in her family means she has been forced to go out and find a job in a kindergarten in Jabalia refugee camp, earning about US $100 a month.

Some financial support

However, some financial support is available to Palestinian widows.

Some widows receive money from international donors. Dr Ramadan Tanboura of the Al-Falah Charitable Foundation told IRIN he had distributed about $4,500 to each of 170 families in donations from the United Arab Emirates in August this year.

Those whose husbands were loyal to groups that are members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) get payments of between US $300 and US $400 a month, depending on how many children they have, said al-Jidian.

The PLO is an umbrella organisation, made up of a number of organisations who all share the same goal of an independent Palestinian state.

Many widows also get payments of about US $150 a month from the governing Palestinian National Authority (PNA), al-Jidian added.

If the dead man was loyal to a militant faction that is not a member of the PLO, then these groups may make a one-off payment of up to about US $5,000 to the bereaved family, widows say.

“People do not really talk about this because in our society it is seen as shameful to give money to the relatives of a dead man. We have a saying that you cannot buy blood with money,” said one Palestinian woman, who insisted on remaining nameless.

The bias, especially in the clearly-staged photograph and the sidebar bullet box, is incredible. (Why is this apparent widow sitting next to a bombed out wall rather than being with her many kids?)

According to this UN organization, the families of PalArabs who try to murder Jews are more needy and more deserving of international money than average Palestinian Arabs are. And notice how they make Israel seem so coldblooded in not wanting to reward the widows of would-be murderers of Israelis.

If a Palestinian woman is a widow of, say, a suspected collarborator with Israel who was blown away by the PA, would any articles be written about her situation in a UN organ? Or even if her husband who was a farmer who gets killed in a clan clash - is there any international money to help her? Of course not. This UN organization is interested in humanizing the terrorist families at the expense of the supposed "vast majority" of peaceful Palestinian Arabs that we are always hearing about.

And even though the UN is a joke, its press has impact - the exact story was reprinted by Reuters as well.

PA: "Israel killed Arafat"

I remember plenty of bizarre accusations from the deluded PalArabs about Arafat being killed by evil Joo-rays and poison or the like, but I do not recall the PA ofiicially going over the edge and accusing Israel of murder before:

On the second anniversary of the death of the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority headed by Hamas has affirmed that it is determined to solve the mystery of Arafat's death and “unmask the identity of his killers”,

The Palestinian government issued a statement on Saturday commemorating the second anniversary of Arafat, and said that he lost his life while defending the Palestinian people in their national interests.

The statement stressed that the Palestinian people will not abandon their national and legal rights, including the establishment of a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital.

The statement also stressed that the Palestinian will not abandon the Right of Return of all Palestinian refugees and the rights of the detainees to be freed from all Israeli prisons.

“Arafat had gone far in the peace process with Israel, he signed several deals with it, but Israel killed him”, the statement reads, “this is one of the proofs that Israel does not want peace, and always seeks to divide the Palestinians”.

Hamas's statements regarding national unity and the case of Yasser Arafat were welcomed by Fateh leadership.

Now, how can people demand Israel to negotiate with people who cannot even demonstrate a passing acquaintance with reality? It's like negotiating with inmates at an insane asylum. Anything they say is meaningless but you are responsible for everything you say, because normal human beings are expected to keep their promises - and insane people are not.

GoozNews: "Perfect model of an Islamic system"

Today's GoozNews: (definition here.)

TEHRAN, Nov. 11 (MNA) -- The Iranian nation should present the world a perfect model of an Islamic system by creating an exemplary Islamic society, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Saturday in Shahrud, Semnan Province.

The Leader stated that Iranians should build a society in which scientific, spiritual, and moral development would all be at a high level.

“Attaining such a goal is possible, but it requires devoted, faithful, and brave people as well as an ever-strengthening bond between the government and the people,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in an address to well-wishers.

In an exemplary Islamic society, talent and social justice can blossom, he added.

Just a small pertinent fact about Khameini's definition of "moral":

His predecessor, the famed Ayatollah Khomeini who was leader of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, married a 10-year old girl when he was 28. He also called marriage to a girl before her first menstrual period "a divine blessing." (Source: Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad.)

Khomeini is of course venerated throughout the Shiite world and his picture is prominently shown during rallies, even in America.

So when the Iranian leadership talks constantly about morality, you have an inkling of what they mean.

Omri's on a tear

Omri at Mere Rhetoric is posting a great series of articles this morning detailing the incredible bias that the mainstream media is exhibiting against Israel, especially in the wake of the Beit Hanoun accident.

Israelis saving the world. As usual.

Great news, as an Israeli company has devised an extremely efficient way to extract fuel from oil shale - at a cost of $17 a barrel.

HAIFA, Israel, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The Israeli process for producing energy from oil shale will cut its oil imports by one-third, and will serve as a guide for other countries with oil shale deposits, according to one company.

A.F.S.K. Hom Tov presented its oil shale processing method on Tuesday, outside Haifa and just down the street from one of the country's two oil refinery facilities.

"Because the patents for this process belong to (the company), Israel is the most advanced in the world in the effort to create energy from oil shale," Moshe Shahal, a Hom Tov legal representative and a former Israeli energy minister, told United Press International.

Shahal estimated that the company's Negev Desert facility would begin full-scale production in three to four years, while other countries with oil shale deposits will need five to six years to reach production.

Oil shale is limestone rock that contains hydrocarbons, or fossil fuels -- about 20 percent of the amount of energy found in coal. Using the rock as a raw material and coating it with bitumen, a residue of the crude oil refining process, the company can produce natural gas, fuel, electricity, or a combination of the three.

Older technologies squeezed the hydrocarbon material out of the rock, with extremely high pressure and at high temperatures.

According to Professor Ze'ev Aizenshtat, an oil shale expert, the Hom Tov process is more environmentally friendly than other methods of converting oil shale into energy. It also allows for more flexibility in the kind of fuel produced, produces less waste and operates at lower temperatures than other methods.

Though the production process may be more environmentally friendly, the end product is still a fossil fuel, similar in quality to a high-grade diesel when in liquid form.

...Because fewer refining processes are necessary with oil shale than with crude oil, the final product is a higher quality fuel at a lower price, Aizenshtat said.

The company estimates it will consume 6 million tons of oil shale and 2 million tons of refinery waste each year, for an annual production of 3 million tons of product.

It would cost about $17 to produce a barrel of synthetic oil at the Hom Tov facility, meaning giant profit margins in a world of $45 to $60 per barrel crude. Yearly earnings are forecasted to be between $159 million and $350 million, Shahal said.

Israel has 15 billion tons of oil shale reserves. Jordan, on the other hand, has about 25 billion tons, and the oil shale in Jordan is of higher quality. Shahal met with Jordanian Energy Minister Azmi Khreisat earlier this year, to discuss setting up a plant there.

The United States also has a giant reserve, mostly in Colorado, and Hom Tov sees potential for its patented process there.

The unfortunate equation is that petrodollars equals terror, and anything we can do to make Middle Eastern oil irrelevant is a huge win for the security of the free world.

Iranian threats and "open-mindedness"

Iran's "supreme leader" Khamenei blamed the world's problems on Zionist and capitalist control of the world:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said here Thursday that changes in human communities are unavoidable adding that control of world developments by the Zionists and global capitalism is a serious threat.

"The international bullying gangs, which developed the military apparatus of NATO to have hegemony over nations, are now determined to make NATO's cultural apparatus annihilate the national identity of human communities and achieve their goals.
"They intend to control the major political, economic, social and cultural developments in the world by using their extensive media facilities," said Ayatollah Khamenei, while urging the need for vigilance.

Ayatollah Khamenei called for renovation, open-mindedness and proper management as a way to advancement.

This is of course nothing new, but it needs to be stressed that while he is using Zionism as a rallying cry and relying on age-old anti-semitic stereotypes, the US is being threatened repeatedly just as much by Iran. Recall that the year before the Iranian "World Without Zionism" conference they had a similar "World Without America" conference.

The call for "open-mindedness" is especially interesting, as Reporters Without Borders just named Iran as one of the 13 nations that censor the Internet. Also, in 2004, an Iranian blogger was imprisoned for 21 months on the charge of "insulting the Supreme Leader" - and if he would have been convicted of insulting the "Prophet" he would have been executed.

I guess when Khamenei says he wants open-mindedness, it only means open-mindedness to think whatever Khamenei says is allowed to be thought.

PalArabs need more weapons - to shoot themselves in the foot

More proof that Israel cares more about Palestinian Arab lives than Arabs do:

Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah called for weapons and money to be sent to Palestinians following an attack by the Israeli military that killed 18 people in Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip. He said on Wednesday that it is necessary for Palestinians to defend themselves.

"Arms, money and medicine must be delivered to this nation of resistant fighters and the blockade imposed on them must be broken," Nasrallah said in a statement.

Now, as we've demonstrated, who gets hurt most when Palestinian Arabs escalate their "resistance"? It is always the PalArabs themselves. But their leaders keep feeding their people the fiction that they can destroy Israel if they just would try a little harder.

Notice Nasrallah's priorities - weapons above all must be delivered to a population where unemployment is at about 70%. This shows how much he loves the "Palestinian" people.

If there was ever a "golden age" of the fictional Palestine, it was during the years between 1993-2000. Israel did all it could to adhere to the disastrous Oslo accords, even though Arab suicide bombings continued sporadically throughout that time. But relatively speaking there was peace, Palestinian Arabs had jobs, the economy was booming and even Jordanian Palestinian Arabs were illegally immigrating to the West Bank by the tens of thousands to share in the bonanza of world investment and charity.

Whose fault is it that this nascent nation descended into chaos and poverty?

It is squarely the fault of people like Nasrallah, Arafat and the gangs of "leaders" who have consistently led the PalArab people to ruin. And the reason is as obvious as it is distressing for Western minds to accept: their leaders do not want to create a state but to destroy one. And even in the face of the unlikelihood of them hurting Israel, just the fact that they can occasionally kill some Jews in terror attacks or rocket attacks makes them happy and feeling "victorious."

The only people who get hurt in the end are their own. Yet even so, their own people keep supporting them. Nasrallah, instead of being told to go to hell by the PalArabs who do not need his advice, judge him as a hero.

It is hard to remain sympathetic with people who seem to always choose what is worst for them.

India's Bene Menashe making aliyah - but not publicly

218 members of the Bnei Menashe community in India are moving to Israel starting next week, but apparently the major media event that was to accompany them was quashed by India.

According to "Arab Monitor" (note the spin):

Three days before it was to be implemented, the government of India, acting through the Indian aviation authorities, revoked permission for a spectacular Israeli Zionist public relations action to take place. On 12th November an Israir charter flight, hired by the Jewish Agency and funded by US Evangelical Christians, was to airlift a group of 812 [sic] Indians who had converted to judaism, to Tel Aviv within the frame of the Zionist "return to Israel" paradigm. The Indian converts had undergone their judaization process about a year ago under the supervision of emissaries of the Chief Rabbinate, who had heceforth recognized them as members of the biblical lost tribe of Bnei Menashem. Having been officially recognized as Jews, the Indians automatically were eligible to become citizens of Israel under the Zionist "Right-of-Return"-law and the Jewish Agency in Israel had already prepared for the settlement of the new immigrants in Carmiel and Nazareth, where they were destined to boost the Jewish presence in an Arab Palestinian environment. The US-based Friendship Fund of the Evangelical Christians, who funded the project of mass immigration of allegedly Indian Jews to Israel, had prepared for a spectacular mass-media covering of the organized departure of the group from India on 12th November and of the celebrations planned to greet their arrival in Israel. Concerned about the negative repercussions that an action designed to appear as a "rescue campaign for Jews" would have, India took steps to prevent the Zionist scoop by forcefully grounding the Israir machine and requesting that converts willing to emigrate to Israel should do so on an individual basis and booking regular El-Al flights.

Of course this article is a bit inaccurate: the Bnei Menashe identify themselves as being Jews for millenia, and the Israeli rabbis only formally converted them to erase any Jewish legal problems.

In fact, a genetic study did find evidence of commonalities between these Indian Jews and those of Uzbekistan:

Bhaswar Maity, a research scholar at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, had begun the DNA typing of samples (100 male and 80 female) taken from the Mizos in March 2002. "Studies on the Y chromosome [male] did not return the Cohen modal haplotype, which is present in most Jewish males around the world," says Dr V.K. Kashyap, director of the laboratory. (Tracing the male chromosome is difficult because most Mizo men, who migrated from elsewhere, wed women along the way and the Y chromosome is lost every time a female child is created.) "But of the mitochondria DNA [female samples], a few Kuki samples returned the unique haplotype [genetic sequence code] found in the Jewish community in Uzbekistan."
This is a clear indication that there was a Jewish female founder effect in the Kuki community. "It is scientifically impossible to have the same genetic sequence in two populations living so far apart if they did not originate from a common stock who historically inhabited a common space," says Maity. He also found a specific mutation in some Lusei and Kuki samples that is also present in Indian Jews.

If these Indian Jews indeed descended from the biblical Menashe, none of the males would have the Cohen haplotype - because that would be reserved for those descended from Levi.

The article from 2004 continues with some fascinating background:

There are also historical pointers to this claim. Zaithanchhungi, a scholar who has been studying the Mizo claim to Israeli ancestry for over 20 years, is convinced that all Mizos are descendants of the Menashe. "The Menashe were enslaved by the Assyrians and taken there [Assyria] when Jerusalem fell," she says. "From there they migrated to the Afghanistan region. During Alexander’s invasion they were driven further on to Mongolia through the Kashmir region and Tibet plateau, and they settled in the Chhinlung region of China. They entered Mizoram about 300 years ago from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma."

This puts the Indian government on a sticky wicket as the United Nations has said that a country cannot rule over people other than its own. The government has more reason to be worried because the Aizawl-based Chhinlung Israel People’s Convention, an organisation of 2.5 lakh members who believe they are descendants of the Menashe, has begun preparations for realising their dream of a "New Jerusalem". This correspondent even stumbled upon a new flag for the "country of the Menashe people" as Lalchhanhima Sailo, the chairman of the convention, put it.

The organisation had submitted a memorandum to the UN in 1998 to recognise the Chhinlung people as a lost tribe of Israel. "We are now awaiting Israeli recognition," says Sailo. "Once it comes through, we will have an independent country in the northeast of India." Sailo feels this is a very real possibility because there are Chhins in parts of Manipur, Burma, Bangladesh and Assam.

It is difficult to ignore the similarities that exist between the lives of the Jews in Israel and those of the Mizos. According to Zaithanchhungi, there are anthropological perspe-ctives. The Mizo burial ritual is similar to that of the Jews. Secondly, though the Mizos migrated to Mizoram through lands where Buddhism was the dominant faith, it left no influence on them. Even in the first half of the 20th century, they sacrificed animals to Pathian (Jehova). "They had the sacrificial altar on a hillock and a cross similar to that of David was drawn on the altar," she says. "Only men were allowed to witness the sacrifice. This is more than sheer resemblance."

Another resemblance is between the Mizo ritual of Cawngpuisial and the Jewish Sabbath. Sabbath starts when the stars appear on a Friday evening and ends with the same on a Saturday evening. In Mizoram, during the Cawngpuisial, villagers are restricted from going out of the village (and strangers from entering it) after the stars appear on a Friday. The curfew is lifted on Saturday after the stars appear.

Shaina, a student from Raanana near Tel-Aviv, who recently visited the Amishav Hebrew Center in Aizawl—an Israeli government agency tracing lost Jewish tribes—found the "similarities between the people of Israel and Mizoram simply too stark to be neglected".

Allenby Sela, principal of Amishav, was one of 900 Mizos who converted to Judaism to settle down in the Gaza Strip. He returned to Mizoram to make the people aware of their history. "We should know who we are, where we came from, what our roots are," he says. "Faith can’t be recognised by blood tests. It’s a spiritual thing. Our history is oral and there is no clinching evidence. But this is not enough for Israel to accept." Israel recognised the Black Jews of Ethiopia and the Fallasahs of South Africa as lost tribes without any tests.

A stroll down the roads of Aizawl—with signs Moses Snack Centre, Nazareth Medical, Israel Stores, Zion Street—is enough to understand its connection with the Promised Land. "The Torah [Jewish Bible] states that there shall be one Holy Land in the west and one in the east," says Sailo. "I’m convinced this is it. The Torah also mentions that the descendants of Abraham shall be as plenty as stars in the heaven and the sands of the earth. Though the population of Israel is only five million, if you include all the Chhinlung people, you will find the true meaning of the prophecy."

The Wikipedia article on the Bnei Menashe adds much more information.

Cleric: UNIFIL should give Lebanon missiles

I missed this one last week:

Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah sharply criticized Israel's violations of Lebanese airspace Thursday, calling on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to provide the Lebanese Army with defensive weapons.

"Israel is still violating our skies without taking UNIFIL's role into consideration," the country's senior Shiite cleric said during a meeting with Spanish Ambassador Miguel Benzo Perea. "UNIFIL should provide the army with surface-to-air missiles so it will be able to prevent any Israeli violation of Lebanon's airspace."

Fadlallah also expressed opposition to foreign interference into Lebanon's affairs, which he warned might create conflicts in the country and complicate relations among the Lebanese.

"We do not accept any international or regional tutelage," the cleric said.

In other words, give us lots of weapons but don't tell us what to do. Sounds about right.

Turns out that this Lebanese Shiite leader has a website. Thanks to him, we now know that women should never act as women in public.

For more info on him check this out.

What you didn't read about the Gaza incursion

This interview was before the shelling this morning that (apparently) tragically killed some 18 civilians. It shows a side of the Gaza incursion that you simply will never see outside the Israeli media.

Givate Brigade commander Col. Yoel Strick was pleased as his forces left the area of Beit Hanoun after a weeklong operation.

Col. Strick says that the forces also uncovered five weaponry manufacturing facilities. Buildings used as 'laboratories' where missiles and explosives were prepared...

Regarding the local Palestinian population Col. Strick admits that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is very difficult: "The situation is miserable and reminiscent of the familiar images from refugee camps. It's not easy to see the way they're trying to maintain their daily lives there. It was clear that an operation of this stripe would force us to operate from areas populated with civilians and that we would have to take every precaution not to harm them. There were only six civilian fatalities; I can say that I'm proud of the outcome considering the scope of the operation. I have no problem with our moral standing."

During the operation Col. Strick met in person with the director of the Beit Hanoun hospital. "I asked him what equipment he was missing and we made sure he got it," says Col. Strick, adding that "we didn't go in to holy sites or hospitals, the terrorists did however, often entering these places with arms."

Our favorite self-hating Jew dislikes Borat

Gilad Atzmon, that legendary jazz musician in his own mind, has decided that Borat's lampooning of anti-semitism is in fact a malicious way for him to shield Israel from legitimate criticism.

As best as I can tell from his latest rant, much of today's anti-semitism is really legitimate anti-Zionism, and therefore making fun of it serves to shield Israel from its crimes. Or something like that:

However, after last summer’s Israeli extravaganza of brutality in Lebanon and the seemingly endless and daily flood of Palestinian blood made to spill by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank, anti-Jewish feelings seem to be fuelled by Zionist crime. Moreover, nowadays, when the Jewish State’s influence within the American administration is academically and historically established (The Israel Lobby, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html), when the support for Neoconservatism that has lead to a genocide in Iraq is largely endorsed by the Zionist intellectual and ideological voice (The Euston Manifesto http://eustonmanifesto.org/joomla/), some forms of anger against the ‘Jew’ should be comprehended as a political criticism rather than merely a primitive irrational outburst. This is, of course, not justifying ‘throwing Jews down the well’ but rather trying to explain from where such anti-Jewish feelings are originating.

Borat is set to present anti-Semitism as a backward reactionary tendency. By doing so Baron Cohen and his team are there to block or even to shutter any form of criticism of global Zionism in general and of Israel in particular. This is indeed a non-violent legitimate political agenda, yet something to keep in the back of your mind while having an evening out at the cinema.

As usual, Atzmon looks at the world through his usual evil-Jews lens and everything he sees confirms his views. One hopes that his clarinet playing is somewhat more competent than his articles are. (Then again, his usual publishers in the indymedia and Arab worlds will print anything he has to say, as the token Jew-hating Israeli.)

Hamas helpfully issues terror press releases

From YNet:

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, have begun issuing a report which chronologically describes the resistance activities and the names of group members killed.

"We hereby announce the blessed operations we have carried out," the report states. "We shall continue to hit the enemy using all means. With the help of Allah, each of their bombardments will be answered with a bombardment, and each blood with blood."

The latest report punctiliously elaborates on the operations carried out on Sunday:

2 a.m. – Qassam launched

At night – Maadi Khaled al-Khamadin killed

7:10 a.m. – Qassam launched at Sderot

12:25 p.m. – Mortar shells fired at IDF forces in Beit Hanoun

1:30 p.m. – Two RPG rockets and Yassin antitank missile fired at Israeli armored forces in Beit Lahiya

2:10 p.m. – Qassam launched at Sderot

3 p.m. – Police officer Atef Kahlut killed in Beit Lahiya battle

5:10 p.m. – Snipers fire at IDF soldiers

6:35 p.m. – Qassam launched at Zikim

7:15 p.m. – antitank missile fired at IDF force

7:33 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. – Qassam launched at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai and Kibbutz Zikim

At night – Raid Abed al-Aal killed in Jabalya after being hit by a missile fired from a helicopter.

Notice that they don't even pretend to be targeting military targets - they say that they are shooting Kassams towards kibbutzim and towns.

Even though this was the terror report from Sunday, Hamas announced today that "the truce with Israel is over." As if it ever existed.

Oh, and by the way - Hamas also announced that they are calling on all Muslims to kill Americans.

Embrace your inner anti-semite

Mark Glenn, whom I've quoted before, has finally made his feelings explicit. He's sick and tired of everyone pretending that Zionism is the problem when it is, in fact, Judaism!

Let’s face it–the only reason we are allowed (not to mention willing) to talk about it these days is because it begins with the letter ‘z’ and not the letter ‘j’. That is the single barrier demarcating the two items–a simple issue of letters and pronunciation, despite the fact that they are basically the same animal. Stay within that safe ‘z’ zone and all will be relatively fine. You will be championed as a friend of humanity and a warrior for the truth. Venture into that other area though and bring up that dreaded ‘j’ word and suddenly the same ‘open-minded’ people who a moment before were erecting a monument in your honor start to loosen their collars and clear their throats uncomfortably.

...Let’s just lay it all out on the table and let the chips fall where they may. What have we got to lose, after all? Are we worried about making them mad? They already are mad, and I don’t just mean in the commonly-used manner indicating ‘unhappy’. Are we concerned that with the amount of power they possess that somehow God’s chosen people might do something to make life uncomfortable for us? That they might start a war?

Wake up and smell the Knishes, my friends, Judaism has been at war with us for over 2,000 years, ever since this man named Jesus of Nazareth came and blew the lid open on what Judaism‘s real agenda was. Judaism is a declaration of war and manifested by thousands upon thousands of acts of intentional malice directed by Rabbinical generals against the rest within the non-Jewish world in matters involving money, business, politics, and culture....

While the other two Middle Eastern faiths that are Judaism’s organic enemies–meaning Christianity and Islam–elevate the virtues of humility, charity and righteousness, Judaism not only elevates, but institutionalizes and legislates the vices of haughtiness, supremacism and callous disregard for other human beings. It is the codified mindset of mankind’s first murderer, Cain, who slew his brother Abel over reasons of envy and economics. Gentiles exist to serve the Jews. Rape of gentile children, murder, lying, theft, usury, all these things that have been condemned in every other religion around the world are given full sanction in Judaism when it benefits the tribe....

Judaism is nobody’s friend, and the sooner that the rest of us–Jew and non-Jew alike–come to realize this, the better off we will be. Get rid of it. It is a cancer. Cut is out and throw it away, as Jesus instructed that we do. It has never and will never be of any benefit to mankind. We cannot live in any kind of ‘peaceful co-existence’ with it. It is a declaration of war, and as long as it exists out there, mankind will never have peace.

Of course, he has an entire website dedicated to eradicating the world of the evil Jews, but he has been a little reticent to go public with his views before. Glad to see that the pesky mental block is gone and he is proud for who he is. Shouting your ignorance and bigotry from the rooftops is so therapeutic - especially when you know that, deep down, all your anti-Zionist friends agree with you.

(And, as usual, this article was indexed as "news" by Google.)

Women's lib, PalArab style

Islamic Jihad has accused Israel of arresting charity workers. In this painful autotranslation from WAFA:

Islamic Jihad accuses the occupation authorities to arrest citizens working in the framework of charity work
Wafa accused the Islamic Jihad movement, today, the Israeli occupation authorities to arrest citizens working in the framework of charity work, among charities based movement founded to help the citizens.Khader Habib, denied the news reported by the Israeli media, the arrest of occupation cell belonging to the women's movement in the cities of Ramallah and Hebron in the West Bank.

The Sheikh Habib, All prisons in the occupation forces working in the field of philanthropy.

Now, let's see what is really going on:

The Shin Bet exposed during the months of August and September a network of women operating for the Islamic Jihad as part of the organization's terror infrastructure in the West Bank. This was cleared for publication Tuesday.

The network is split into two terror cells – one in Kfar Ayin and one in Kfar Na'ama – that have carried out shooting attacks and have laid roadside bombs around Ramallah. The network has even operated an explosives lab. The Shin Bet and the IDF have arrested a number of the network's members.

One of the senior women arrested is Wadha Faqhaa, 24, from Jilzon, dealt with transferring finances to one of the cells. Faqhaa, head of the Islamic Jihad office in Ramallah, was arrested on August 3. During her interrogation, she said that she received funds from the organization's command center in Syria. Some of the funds she allocated to finance terrorist cells by way of a number of women Islamic Jihad activists serving as money couriers.

Two of the couriers – Haba Hamidat, 21, and Falastin Tsoobah, 21, also residents Jilzon – worked in the Islamic Jihad office in Ramallah that takes care of the organization's prisoners. They were arrested on August 20 and confessed to the accusations against them.

In addition to the two couriers, Faqhaa was also aided by other Islamic Jihad activists who served as a conduit for transferring funds from the organization's central command in Syria to the terror cells.

Two of these activists – Afat Khalifa, 21, from Kfar Naama, and Zakia Guanma, 40, from Jilzon – were arrested as well. They said during their interrogations that they received commission of USD 100 for each money transfer they carried out. These funds then funded the terror attacks of the Islamic Jihad's terror cells.

The sixth member who was arrested is Rania Abu Khadir, 26, from Tzurif. She is the head of the Islamic Jihad's student union at Hebron University. Khadir is suspected of being active in charity organizations, which transferred funds to terrorist organizations and the families of suicide bombers.

Judging from the use of female human shields to allow wanted terrorists to escape, and yesterday's woman suicide bomber and this article, it seems that the PalArabs are hellbent to make their own lives even more miserable than they are now.

But it is no surprise that they have such low regard for their women's welfare. Domestic violence against women in the territories has increased in recent years, with rapes, honor killings and incest all rampant, according to a HRW report released yesterday. (Although the PA gets the brunt of the responsibility in the report, HRW manages to obliquely blame Israel for some of it - after all, if PalArab men don't have jobs, then what choice do they have but to take their frustrations out on their wives and daughters?)

The one article liberals need to read

For all those who excuse Islamic terror, for all those who navel-gaze to try to find out what we did to make them hate us, for all those who are convinced that colonialism and Western values and Zionism are what motivate the jihadists - read this.

Hot for martyrdom

Michael Coren
National Post

Friday, November 03, 2006

Dr. Tawfik Hamid doesn't tell people where he lives. Not the street, not the city, not even the country. It's safer that way. It's only the letters of testimony from some of the highest intelligence officers in the Western world that enable him to move freely. This medical doctor, author and activist once was a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic for "the Islamic Group"), a banned terrorist organization. He was trained under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the bearded jihadi who appears in Bin Laden's videos, telling the world that Islamic violence will stop only once we all become Muslims.

He's a disarmingly gentle and courteous man. But he's determined to tell a complacent North America what he knows about fundamentalist Muslim imperialism.

"Yes, 'imperialism,' " he tells me. "The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology. Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe."

Hamid drank in the message of Jihadism while at medical school in Cairo, and devoted himself to the cause. His group began meeting in a small room. Then a larger one. Then a Mosque reserved for followers of al-Zawahiri. By the time Hamid left the movement, its members were intimidating other students who were unsympathetic.

He is now 45 years old, and has had many years to reflect on why he was willing to die and kill for his religion. "The first thing you have to understand is that it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with poverty or lack of education," he says. "I was from a middle-class family and my parents were not religious. Hardly anyone in the movement at university came from a background that was different from mine.

"I've heard this poverty nonsense time and time again from Western apologists for Islam, most of them not Muslim by the way. There are millions of passive supporters of terror who may be poor and needy but most of those who do the killing are wealthy, privileged, educated and free. If it were about poverty, ask yourself why it is middle-class Muslims -- and never poor Christians -- who become suicide bombers in Palestine."

His analysis is fascinating. Muslim fundamentalists believe, he insists, that Saudi Arabia's petroleum-based wealth is a divine gift, and that Saudi influence is sanctioned by Allah. Thus the extreme brand of Sunni Islam that spread from the Kingdom to the rest of the Islamic world is regarded not merely as one interpretation of the religion but the only genuine interpretation. The expansion of violent and regressive Islam, he continues, began in the late 1970s, and can be traced precisely to the growing financial clout of Saudi Arabia.

"We're not talking about a fringe cult here," he tells me. "Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world. It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys."

He leans back, takes a deep breath and moves to another area, one that he says is far too seldom discussed: "North Americans are too squeamish about discussing the obvious sexual dynamic behind suicide bombings. If they understood contemporary Islamic society, they would understand the sheer sexual tension of Sunni Muslim men. Look at the figures for suicide bombings and see how few are from the Shiite world. Terrorism and violence yes, but not suicide. The overwhelming majority are from Sunnis. Now within the Shiite world there are what is known as temporary marriages, lasting anywhere from an hour to 95 years. It enables men to release their sexual frustrations.

"Islam condemns extra-marital sex as well as masturbation, which is also taught in the Christian tradition. But Islam also tells of unlimited sexual ecstasy in paradise with beautiful virgins for the martyr who gives his life for the faith. Don't for a moment underestimate this blinding passion or its influence on those who accept fundamentalism."

A pause. "I know. I was one who accepted it."

This partial explanation is shocking more for its banality than its horror. Mass murder provoked partly by simple lust. But it cannot be denied that letters written by suicide bombers frequently dwell on waiting virgins and sexual gratification.

"The sexual aspect is, of course, just one part of this. But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses. Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?"

He's exasperated now, visibly angry at what he sees as a willful Western foolishness. "Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."

Then he leaves -- for where, he cannot say. A voice that is silenced in its homeland and too often ignored by those who prefer convenient revision to disturbing truth. The tragedy is that Tawfik Hamid is almost used to it.

Congratulations, Hamas

In the beginning of the current intifada, the PalArab terrorists used suicide bombers to kill any Jews they could reach. At first, Israel reacted defensively, adding many checkpoints and stopping many attacks. The Palestinian Arab people suffered because of the checkpoints but continued to support the terrorists.

The terrorists started recruiting Arabs who worked in Israel to blow up their workplaces. After a couple of bombings, most PalArabs lost their jobs as their Jewish employers did not want to be put at risk. The Palestinian Arabs suffered, the their economy went in the toilet, but they continued to support the terrorists.

The terror continued, though, and after a long period of no active military response, Israel took the offensive in the West Bank to pro-actively go after the terror cells and managed to reduce the threat a great deal. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Arab people's lives got much harder because of the fighting that had moved from Israel's cities to those of the territories. Still, they supported the terrorists.

The terrorists started recruiting women suicide bombers. After a couple of "successes," Israel cracked down on the Arab women as hard as they had on Arab men. The Palestinian Arab women suffered, but still they supported the terrorists.

The lowlife terrorist scum then started to smuggle explosives into Israel using ambulances. As a result, Israel has to stop and inspect every ambulance going through checkpoints, slowing down medical help to many. Palestinian Arabs suffered, but still they continued to support the murderers.

Finally, to stop the threats, Israel started building a fence to separate the Jews from those who wanted to kill them. PalArab farmers suffered from losing easy access to some of their crops but it essentially stopped the attacks. Yet still the Palestinian Arabs supported the terrorists.

Then the terrorists started shooting rockets into Israel. This caused Israel to invade Gaza, killing some innocent civilians along with many terrorists. Life deteriorated yet again for the Palestinian Arabs but still they supported the terrorists - so much so that they elected Hamas to lead them.

This caused the world to place an economic boycott on the territories, and the PalArabs suffered even more. But they continued to support the terrorists.

Now, the PalArabs are elated that Hamas called on their women to rescue their terrorist heroes who were shooting from a mosque. The women, knowing that Israel would not treat them as military targets, managed to dress the terrorists in their clothing and allowed them to escape. The PalArabs are crying with happiness and a new legend has been born.

As a result, the next time they try to do that, the Israelis will treat the women as a military target and shoot them - as they should treat anyone who is aiding terror. Many women will die. Life will get even worse for the PalArabs.

And they will continue to support the people who have made their lives hell because they believe that killing Jews is more important than building a state.

So, congratulations, Hamas, for your brave call to your puppet women to place their lives at risk to save your murderers. Because of your decision, many more of your sisters and mothers will die and your people will suffer more and more.

But they will continue to support you, so it must be worth it.

Newest AFP buzzword: "Ultra-radical"

AFP has addressed a major problem of nomenclature.

We know they describe the Fatah terrorists who want to destroy Israel while they pretend to negotiate as "moderates," and the describe the Hamas terrorists who want to destroy Israel while they get elected and become respectable as "radicals:"

A Palestinian minister has said the ruling Hamas party had reached agreement with president Mahmud Abbas's moderate Fatah on a national unity government, but a spokesman for the radical Islamist group would only say "important progress" had been made.

But then what does AFP call Islamic Jihad, who wants to destroy Israel but it not in the government?

Why, they must be "ultra-radical!"

An Israeli unit, which rolled into the town -- the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ -- took up position around the family home of Thaer Hassan, a member of the ultra-radical Islamic Jihad group, wanted for several years.

The ultra-radical Islamic Jihad, which has been behind all of the most recent bomb attacks against Israeli targets, immediately claimed the attack in which Massud was killed.

Yes, somewhere in the AFP network a style book has just been updated.

Thank heavens we have AFP to create distinctions between terror organizations that share the same goals and methods.

A little something to keep you up at night

Today I got a call from my credit card company asking about a possible fraudulent charge. Sure enough, someone must have gotten a hold of my number and tried to buy thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

From CopQuest.com.

So while it is possible that ordinary criminals are interested in things like police knives, insignia, uniforms and the like, it sure sounds a lot more like some local terrorists are preparing themselves.

I only hope that CopQuest keeps track of the delivery information in cases like these and shares them with local and national law enforcement.

Another grim milestone: over 150 PalArabs killed by each other

YNet reports that Islamic Jihad kidnapped and murdered four supposed "collaborators" with Israel, who they claim were caught doing the heinous crime of disabling rockets meant to kill Jews.

Meanwhile, the Khan Younis clan clashes continue with two more killed.

This means that the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by their own people since Operation Summer Rains (that I know of) is now at 154.

It also means that there were at least 11 murders this weekend in Gaza that the mainstream media, and indeed even most of the Palestinian Arab media, completely ignored.

In fact, I do not recall seeing any articles in the PalArabic media referring to any arrests or trials for any of the criminals - surprising indeed, considering how many policemen they have!

It sounds like these people deserve a state of their own. Because then we can have peace in the region.

Iran offers to give missiles to Israel's neighbors

And Reuters is even handed between a megalomaniacal regime and the leader of the free world.

TEHRAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Iran is ready to share its missile systems with friends and neighbours, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said, after he showed off missiles including some he said had cluster warheads.

Guards commander-in-chief Yahya Rahim Safavi also told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam TV late on Sunday the Guards had thousands of troops trained for suicide missions in case Iran was threatened although he said any U.S. attack was unlikely.

The United States has said it wants to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear programme by diplomatic means but has not ruled out the use of force. Washington believes Tehran is seeking to make atomic bombs, despite Iranian denials.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, was quoted by Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency on Sunday as saying the Islamic Republic was ready to supply air defence systems -- without giving specifics -- to the Lebanese military.

"Tehran also considers this as its duty to help friendly countries which are exposed to invasion of the Zionist regime (Israel)," Sheibani was quoted saying, in response to what he said was a request by Lebanon's army commander, General Michel Suleiman, for help from friendly states.

Iran funded and supplied Lebanon's Hizbollah militia in the 1980s, but now says its support is political and moral. The group used Iranian-made missiles fighting Israel this summer.

"The Revolutionary Guards does not only depend on its technological might because it has thousands of martyrdom seekers and they are ready for martyrdom-seeking operations on a large scale," Safavi said, calling them trained professionals.

An organisation has previously said Iranians have signed up for suicide raids in case Iran was attacked, but officials have in the past said the group was independent of the government and not part of the Guards, the ideological wing of Iran's military.

No Iranians are thought to have directly executed suicide bombings in recent years. But the United States accuses Iran of being a state sponsor of terrorism, a charge Tehran denies.

When a country can be proven to have lied, repeatedly, Reuters ignores it in favor of "reporting" its claims and ignoring the context. Because to Reuters, terrorists and their supporters are just politicians.

Reuters doesn't even bother to mention the many threats that Iran has made against Israel in a story that talks about how Iran wants to arm Israel's Arab neighbors. Somehow, that is not considered relevant. But Iranian denials of terror and its nuclear bomb program are front and center.

Reuters is apparently so enamored of its "even-handed" status that it cannot be bothered to even juxtapose Iran's denial of terror with its claim of training thousands of suicide bombers. To put those facts together would be prejudicial, I suppose.

UPDATE:Reuters also misses the small fact that Iranian missiles in Syria or Lebanon increase the percentage of Europe within range significantly. But as long as Tehran "claims" to only being concerned with defending its Arab friends from Israel, this is nothing to worry about.

Nuttiest Arab news site yet - with a twist

So far in my travels through the Arab news sites with Google translation, I've seen distortions and some bizarre op-eds as well as some very telling omissions, but nothing that was off-the-wall loony.

Until tonight.

Introducing Al-Watan. It's opening cartoon is helpfully translated into English:

We also have this lovely caricature:

One main article goes off into Bizarroland with the claim that the US casualties in Iraq are now between 20,000 and 35,000, with most of them being hushed up very effectively.

Of course, Al-Watan has a very favorable article about the Iranian Holocaust Cartoon competition, throwing in the Jewish lies about death camps, the Western Wall and the kitchen sink, for that matter.

And these are the news articles!

So, which Arab government is behind this twisted "news" site? Syria? Bahrain? Egypt?

Nope - it is based out of Anaheim, CA.

The Yasir Arafat Soccer Championship

This Friday, in Gaza, will be the Yasir Arafat Football Championship. Teams are urged to register today.

I don't know about you, but I get a mental image of a soccer ball morphing into Arafat's kafiyehed head and his mass-murdering skull getting kicked all over the dusty fields of Gaza.

And I smile.

HH XCII

Yehuda from Jerusalem Games has masterfully written and edited this week's edition of Haveil Havalim, the roundup of the best of the JBlogosphere.

As is usual, I did not self-nominate so I am very gratified to have had two of my postings from this week chosen: Gaza: the most secure place on the planet and Anti-semites can't stomach Neturei Karta. This latter article was also recommended by Omri as "sheer brilliance" which I appreciate as well, although he still can't seem to spell my name right.

Speaking of, Muslihoon also wrote a nice recommendation of this blog, although he gives me too much credit for the reason I spell it the way I do. The reason is a bit more boring - back in pre-blog times, when I was spending time on Yahoo message boards, I saw that someone else had already chosen "elder_of_zion" so I had to spell it differently.

Anyway, HH includes some gems from Elie's Expositions, WestBankMama, Israel at Level Ground, Judeosphere and others.

Check it out!

6 PalArabs killed, 7 injured, not a Jew in sight

The Palestinian Arab press has not been reporting any violent internal killings lately. It is unclear whether it is because the headlines are so filled with anti-Israel rhetoric (the preferred way to refer to terrorists killed by the IDF is the civilian-sounding "residents") that the inevitable Arab on Arab violence is not considered news, or if they are in a self-denial phase. The PCHR "human rights" organization did not mention a single killing between October 19th and today while I counted twelve.

But either way, sometimes a massacre occurs that even the PalArabs cannot ignore, and the PCHR today reports on a huge clan clash that you will not see reported in the wire services:

On Saturday, 4 November 2006, five Palestinians were killed, including one woman, and seven others were injured, including a woman and a child, in renewed clashes between El-Masri and Abu Taha clans in Khan Yunis.

PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 9:40 on Saturday, armed clashes erupted between El-Masri and Abu Taha clans in Jamal Abdel Naser Street at the intersections with Jala' and Bahar Streets in the city of Khan Yunis. The clashes erupted after Adnan Yousef Hosni Abu Taha (49) was beaten with a sharp object on the head by members of El-Masri clan. The clashes between both clans resulted in the death of 5 people:

- Abdel Aziz Ahmad Shaker Abu Taha (18), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;

- Bilal Ahmad Shaker Abu Taha (25), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;

- Ashraf Abdel Sami' Shaker Abu Taha (30), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;

- Salim Mohammad Odeh El-Masri (21), killed by two bullets to the pelvis; and

- Maha Nathmi Abdel Hafith Abu Shammala-Abdel Hadi (33), a bystander and a mother of 8 killed by a bullet to the chest.

The tiny McClatchy service mentions a different Khan Younis death briefly but doesn't mention the name.

One also has to wonder how many of the more recent deaths attributed to Israel were just internal fighting that is being spun. Were the two women "human shields" killed last week shot by Israel or by the terrorists in the mosque? The only sources are the PalArab doctors and "health ministry" who are known to be liars.

In any case, my PalArab violent self-death count since late June is now at 148.

Robert Spencer's "The Truth About Muhammad"

Being on the Internet as long as I have, I am always a little skeptical when someone reveals "truths" about a religion that is not theirs. Enough people have taken Judaism and Jewish teachings out of context and I try to resist doing the same to other belief systems.

On the other hand, I admire Robert Spencer immensely, and his Jihad Watch website is invaluable. I have not yet seen him blow anything out of proportion, and if anything he seems to understate the dangers of Islam.

Nevertheless, I approached his latest book, The Truth About Muhammad, with some reservations. Spencer is clearly a scholar of Islam but he appears to be relying on Islamic translations of primary sources, not the original Arabic. And there is no way for an outsider to know whether he is quoting anything out of context, or if he is cherry-picking the worst possible stories to prove his point, either consciously or subconsciously.

To his credit, he relies almost exclusively on (translations of) Islamic primary sources, notably two early Muslim biographies by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd, that are considered reliable by most Muslims. It is important to realize that Spencer is not attempting a biography of the historical Mohammed as much as he is trying to reconstruct his life and legend as Muslims understand him, without the apologetics that usually make their way into the Islamic teachings meant for Western ears.

His point is, that since Mohammed is considered a model to be emulated by all Muslims, it is critical to look at how he is said to have lived his life.

And it isn't pretty.

Many episodes that may be excused in the context of 7th century Arabia cannot be ignored if Mohammed is indeed meant to be a model for human behavior for all time. His many marriages, including to his beautiful daughter-in-law; his start of his military career as a thief; and the consistent "prophecies" that ended up benefitting Islam and himself personally all point to a very problematic model of human behavior. (One such prophecy said not to bother Mohammed or his wives without permission - a very strange thing for Allah to care about.)

A major distinction can be seen between the Jewish prophets and Mohammed: when Jewish prophets sinned, it was recorded as an object lesson for future generations; when Mohammed did something immoral, the very definition of morality was changed to accomodate his whims.

One theme that comes from the book is that in Mohammed's mind (or the angel Gabriel's, if you prefer,) whatever is best for Islam is the correct path. Murdering a parent who is against Islam is good. Agreeing to temporary treaties that give Muslims breathing room is good, even if they have to compromise their principles - and then breaking the same treaty is also good if it comes at a time and place that is advantegeous to the religion.

One of the parts that resonated with me most was an agreement (later superceded) between Mohammed and the Jews of Medina, sharply distinguishing between "believers" and "unbelievers." (p. 91.) It affirmed the unity of all Muslims as a single united community, and it described the responsibilities they have for one another. To my mind, it goes a long way towards describing the "us vs. them" mentality that permeates Islam, and why the most moderate Muslims are so reluctant to act against the radicals and terrorists. When push comes to shove, almost all Muslims would support a bin Laden over any non-Muslim nation, and very possibly this mentality can be traced to this document and similar messages in the Quran and hadiths.

I like to look at groups of people from a psychological perspective, to understand how they think from their own points of view. This book is invaluable in understanding current Muslim thinking and, to an extent, why Islam has not evolved the way the other Abrahamic religions have.

Even if the stories are taken out of context, and even if Spencer is not reporting a large amount of progressive and peaceful statements of the "prophet," this book needs to be taken seriously by Muslims worldwide. I would love to see a critique of this book from a Muslim that relies on the same sources or can meaningfully describe why Spencer's sources are not to be believed, but as Spencer himself shows, many prominent Muslims quote the same sources liberally.

Spencer's hope is that the Muslims who read the truth about Mohammed would use it as a springboard to adapt the religion to modern times. This hardly seems likely, as introspection is not a very Islamic trait - and it is one that can get one killed.

It is also somewhat depressing to realize that Spencer is not describing the interpretations of "Islamists," but of mainstream Islam. The distinction that the media (and this blog) makes between the two seems to be artificial, and this is a difficult lesson to learn.

All in all, this is a very important book, and one worth reading.

A refresher Geneva lesson

In international conflicts, civilians may not be used to protect areas from military operations. (Convention IV, Art. 28 and Protocol I, Art. 51, Sec. 7)

1. Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 2.

2. Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.

3. In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used. ( (Protocol I, Art. 52, Sec. 3)

So the PA violated the Geneva Conventions by using women as human shields as well as by using a mosque as a military base. Israel was justified in fighting back against the terrorists in the mosque as there was no doubt that they were shooting from the mosque.

Not to mention the terrorists who disguised themselves as women, violating international law that says that combatants be in uniform.

Another look at the Hamas charter - by a Fatah supporter

At the PalArabic newspaper Al-Ayyam, a Fatah sympathizer named Mohammad Yaghi asks the question: Why can Hamas not accept the principle of two states?

Yaghi says that a unity government between Fatah and Hamas is impossible because Hamas cannot under any circumstances accept a two-state solution.

He points out that Hamas has rejected the Arab "peace" initiative, in which Israel gets recognized in exchange for full withdrawal to '67 borders, establishment of a Palestinian Arab state with Jerusalem as the capital, and allowing all PalArab "refugees" to return - even this maximal plan does not meet the minimum Hamas requirement.

Hamas' charter is equally dismissive of any "peace" conferences or similar international diplomatic initiatives to solve the conflict. Article 13 says

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.

The critical part of the article is this one (my fixing of the autotranslation):

But most important of all is that the thirty-six articles of the Charter are free of any text that defines the goal of "Hamas" seeking to establish an independent Palestinian state on the land of historical Palestine. The only article which contained the word "state" - notice the word "state", and not "an independent Palestinian state" - is the ninth article which defines the goal of the "Hamas" to "fight against the false, defeating it and vanquishing it so that justice could prevail, homelands be retrieved and from its mosques would the voice of the mu'azen emerge declaring the establishment of the state of Islam..."

The conflict in this context, the goal of the movement is to make the State of Islam. This explains the Movement's readiness to accept a long-term truce in return for the implementation of Israel's withdrawal from the territories occupied by year 67 and the return of refugees without recognition or bargaining for the remainder of the rights of the Palestinian people or of Muslims in the land of Palestine.

In other words, Hamas is not a nationalist movement with the goal of creating an Arab Palestine - it is wholly a religious movement with the explicit goal of creating a single Muslim 'ummah!

Yaghi also mentions the Muslim Brotherhood, and in the Hamas charter Hamas is described as one of the wings of the Brotherhood. This is mildly interesting in light of the MB's more recent PR campaign (including on this very blog) that they are against all forms of terror.

Hamas has many vocal supporters on the far Left. Do any of them realize that they are supporting a movement that would replace all Arab and Muslim-majority countries with a single Islamist terror nation that would be dedicated to the destruction of the West?

Hamas' actions from its inception until today are consistent - they do not want an independent Palestine, but they do want to get rid of any Jews in positions of power in "Muslim lands." And as the following quote from the charter shows, the meaning of Jihad is wholly military according to Hamas.

The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

Cluster headache

Iran's IRIB news agency has an article decrying the use of cluster munitions worldwide, making a point of specifying Israel's use of cluster bombs in Lebanon. It skillfully implies that since 98% of the victims of cluster bombs are civilians, then the same percentage must hold for Israeli use.

Civilians, a quarter of them children, make up almost all the victims of cluster bombs over the last three decades, a humanitarian agency said on Thursday.

In a study of 24 countries and regions, handicap international said the controversial weapons, which scatter munitions over a wide area, had killed, wounded or maimed 11,044 people of whom 98 percent were civilians.

Cluster bombs were recently used by the Zionist regime in its month-long incursion into lebanon.

But on the same website, posted on the same day, one sees this:

The Islamic Republic of Iran started the second stage of a wargames named after the Noblest Messenger of Allah Hazrat Muhammad (A.S.) in the central Qom province by test launching of an array of indigenously manufactured missiles.

The missiles are capable of carrying cluster warheads.

So if Iran considers Israel's use of cluster munitions to be immoral, why are they developing and testing the same weapons? (IRNA confirms that missiles that actually held cluster munitions were fired.)

And since they are on the record as saying that nuclear weapons are forbidden, would the same logic apply?

And if Islam is a religion of peace, why would Muslims name a war game exercise after their prophet?

PalArabs flooded, blame the Jews!

There have been some heavy rains in Israel and surrounding areas over the past couple of weeks, causing some flooding.

In PalArab areas, flooding is especially dangerous because they often have open sewage ditches (the PalArabs haven't figured out how to build sewers, although they are excellent at building arms-smuggling tunnels.) So there is a higher possibility for disease when it floods.

But, the question remains - if something bad happens to PalArabs, somehow it must be the Jews' fault. How can they blame the floods on the Jews?

Luckily, our friends at the Palestine News Network (Arabic site, autotranslated) have found a way!

Qalqiliya / -A rubber boat in the western neighborhood in the city of Qalqilya north of the West Bank brings to mind the winter of 2005 when the racist wall detained in the western region and the rain water had risen to three meters and flooded homes, farms, livestock barns and forced the owners of boats used to transport Almahasseri n in the nearby houses of the apartheid wall.

Children in the neighborhood of al-Naqqar advantage of the opportunity to combine a depth of the water and brought high rubber boats and started swimming, exercising a hobby of them said : the occupation has prevented us from the sea and swim in it, Because praise in rainwater mixed waste water.

Mayor of Qalqilya, Wajeeh said Quas of the Palestine news : the municipality in the region setting up a giant project funded by the International Red Cross Society value of 200 thousand dollars. the drainage and waste water. It has been agreed with the Red Cross to begin soon in this vital project.

He added : Quas there was apprehension of the Israeli authorities prevented the project because it is close to the apartheid wall, There will accelerate the completion of the project in anticipation of the occurrence of disasters consequences in the event of heavy rains in the coming days.

So let's count the ways that we can blame Israel for the flooding:

The separation wall can act as a dam, stopping floodwaters from damaging the Zionist side and flooding residents who live nearby. At least that's what happened last year so it might happen again.
Children can't stop themselves from swimming in the contaminated water because the Zionists don't let them frolic in the Mediterranean.
The Red Cross will build a sewage system, but hasn't yet because of Israeli reservations, but they will, somehow. It doesn't make sense but the upshot is that the Israelis prevented them from building the sewers that they will be building.

It seems that the word "responsibility" is not in the Palestinian Arab vocabulary (they are not responsible for building their own sewers and drainage systems, for building their own swimming pools, or for keeping their children away from sewer water.)

Oh - my bad. They do know how to take responsibility for terror attacks.

Gaza: the most secure place on the planet

I've mentioned before that the PA has a higher ratio of security personnel to the general population than anywhere else. My last count had 90,000 "policemen" plus 3000 from Hamas being added.

Well, the IMF just released a report on how badly the PA mismanages its money, and the results are hardly surprising:

About 80 percent of the US$500 million (€394 million) in income in the past six months was spent on the ever-expanding government payroll and on fuel imports, leaving little for other budget items, such as welfare payments, the report said.

The report said the number of civil servants grew by 5,400 this year, to more than 142,000 in mid-June. Most of the hiring took place in the security services, and some 20,000 new recruits are currently being trained and could be added to the payroll in the future, the report said.

It now costs about US$100 million (€79 million) a month to cover salaries for government workers, compared to about US$80 million (€63 million) a month on mid-2005. The increase is also due to a generous across-the-board pay increase in late 2005.

"The government wage bill had already become unaffordable at the end of 2005," the report said. "Underlying the current fiscal difficulties is an increasingly unsustainable fiscal situation."

Hleileh warned that the current system of payments is setting back years of financial reform, carried out by former Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, who had set up a single Treasury account to clean up rampant mismanagement and corruption.

So if this is true, that means that there are now about 96,000 "security personnel" and they are planning to add another 20,000.

The grand total will then be 116,000 security people to protect 3.5 million people, or one policeman for every 30 PalArabs.

I am just completely mystified how in such a secure place, things like a soccer riot or the destruction of a radio station could possibly take place (just to take two examples - from yesterday.)