Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 20, 2006

"Every Muslim has the potential to turn into a bomb against the west."

If any Westerner would say such a statement, he would be decried as a bigot.

But what if an Iranian group dedicated to suicide bombings says it?

...A Tehran-based group claimed yesterday it was trying to recruit Iranians and other Muslims in Britain to carry out suicide bombings against Israel.
The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, which claims to be independent but has the backing of the regime, said it is targeting potential recruits in Britain because of the relative ease with which UK passport-holders can enter Israel.
Mohammad Samadi, a spokesman for the group, told the Guardian that striking at Israel was the priority of his recruitment drive. "The first target is Israel. For us, that is the battlefield," he said. "All the Jews are targets, whether military or civilian. It's our land and they are in the wrong place. It's their duty to pay attention to safety of their own families and move them away from the battlefield," he said.
Mr Samadi's group was participating in a recruitment fair for "martyrdom seekers" being held in the grounds of the former US embassy in Tehran. Several hundred volunteers have signed up for missions in the past few days.
Volunteers attracted to his group were asked to complete forms specifying whether they prefer to carry out operations against "the Quds occupiers" [Israel], the British author Salman Rushdie - subject of a death sentence passed by Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, over The Satanic Verses - or "the occupiers of Islamic lands", the US and Britain.
...Western diplomats played down the significance of the group's threat, saying it was primarily a campaign to gather signatures of protest against Israel rather than recruiting bombers.
While the committee claims to be independent it has previously been linked with the Revolutionary Guards. It claims it has gathered 52,000 recruits - of whom 30% are women - since forming two years ago. According to the group, recruits are instructed in target planning and military discipline before progressing to intensive urban guerrilla warfare training, involving the use of bomb belts.
When asked how Iranian volunteers would get into Israel, Mr Samadi cited the precedent of Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Sharif, two British Muslims who attacked a bar in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis, in 2003 after entering Israel as tourists and then posing as peace activists. Hanif blew himself up at the scene while Sharif fled, but was found drowned in the Mediterranean.
"That shows that it has not been difficult getting into Israel," he said. "Do you think getting hold of a British passport for an Iranian citizen is hard? Tens of passports are issued for Iranian asylum seekers in Britain every day. There are hundreds of other ways available to us, such as illegal entry [into Britain], fake passports, etc.
"Britain and other European countries have a lot of disaffected Muslims who are ready. We understand the suspicion with which Britain, America and other western countries regard their Muslim populations. We don't condemn them for this because we believe every Muslim has the potential to turn into a bomb against the west."

Humanitarian crisis, part 4

They may have no money for salaries, they may claim that they will have to live on olives and salt, but somehow they always find the cash to make hundreds of posters celebrating murderers:

Once again, the priorities of the Palestinian Arabs are crystal clear.

(Part 3 here)

The victims and the heroes

From the Jerusalem Post:

Victor Erez, 60, a resident of Givatayim, died while expecting his sixth grandchild. As a soldier in the Six Day War, Erez lost his leg while serving within the Golani Brigade.
He was laid to rest at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday in the Yarkon Funeral Home.
Holon resident David Shaulov, 29, was expecting his third son when he was killed. His wife Varda, who was in her ninth month of pregnancy, arrived on Monday at Lis Hospital in Tel Aviv after the couple felt that she was due.
Just as she entered the obstetric department she received a message that her husband had been killed while going out for lunch.
He was laid to rest at 11:00 a.m. in a funeral home in Holon.
He had 2 daughters in addition to a large family. His friend Zach said he saw him make aliyah to Israel and that he never complained about the hardship.
Lod resident Binyamin Hafuta, 47, was the security guard on duty at the time of the attack. He requested to check the terrorist's bag and as his metal detector sounded off, the explosives in the bag detonated.
He prevented an even larger tragedy from occurring by absorbing the explosion with his body.
Hafuta began working as a security guard at the Falafel Rosh Ha'ir three months ago, just after the previous terror attack at the falafel stand. Those close to him said he thought the chances of a terror attack occurring at the same place twice were impossible.
His sister-in-law, Suzi, said that after hearing that Hafuta protected others from the blast with his body, she understood that "even in his death he cared for everyone."
She added that he was eagerly anticipating the post-Passover ritual of Mimuna.
A friend of his described Biyamin as trustworthy, happy and full of life, and added that he will be sorely missed.
He was laid to rest in the new funeral home in Lod at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Army Radio reported.
Ashdod resident Phillip Belachson, 45, had taken a day off from work and was on an excursion with his two children to purchase gifts for Passover when the blast occurred. As he felt the explosion, Phillip took his children into his arms and protected his children with his body.
His daughter Lital said, "He was the best person in the world."
"As he fell on the floor he told my brothers not to worry, I am in pain but don't worry," she continued.
"I had the best father in the world - he was pure, and had never done anything bad to anyone," she said. "Even in his death he protected his children by absorbing the shrapnel."
Phillip Belachson was laid to rest at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a funeral home in Ashdod.
A resident of the Oranit community, 43 year-old Lily Yunis arrived in Tel Aviv from her home in order to purchase goods for the store that she and two of her daughters were opening.
As she drove into Tel Aviv with her husband and children, her son Tzach said he was hungry and the family decided to stop and find a place to eat. Lily stepped out of the family car with her son just as the bomb exploded.
Her husband Menachem looked for her for hours, but only found out she was dead much later in Abu Kabir.
A friend of Lily's said, "Words cannot describe the kind of mother she was - she was a jewel."
"She never asked for anything and put everybody before her," she continued.
Lily Yunis was laid to rest at the Yarkon funeral home on Tuesday.
Bat Yam resident Ariel Darchi, 31, was laid to rest on Tuesday.
Buda Pirushka, 50, and Rosalia Basnia, 48, were foreign workers from Romania. The details of their funerals were not released.
The name of the ninth victim was not available for publish.

Those peace-loving Palestinian Arabs

There was a recent poll of Palestinian Arabs by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Results include the small item that a majority of Palestinian Arabs support terror attacks like yesterday's massacre in Tel Aviv, and a majority do not want Hamas to recognize Israel.

Of course, 80% of those polled also believe that people sometimes or always lie to the pollsters!

Here are some of the latest that the peace-loving Palestinian Arab people believe:

11) The Western donor community provides the PA economic and financial assistance reaching about one billion dollars every year. Do you think the PA can or can not do without this assistance?
1) it certainly can do without it	7.5	6.2	9.7
2) it can do without it	23.0	23.7	21.7
3) it can not do without it	40.1	42.1	36.6
4) it certainly can not do without it	27.8	26.3	30.4
5) DK/NA	1.7	1.7	1.6
	Total	West Bank	Gaza Strip
12) For the assistance to continue, the donor community demand that Hamas must recognize the state of Israel. Do you think Hamas should accept this demand and recognize Israel?
1) Certainly yes	11.6	11.4	12.1
2) yes	25.5	24.8	26.6
3) no	42.0	44.0	38.5
4) certainly no	17.2	16.0	19.5
5) DK/NA	3.7	3.8	3.4

	Total	West Bank	Gaza Strip
38) Concerning armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel, I….
1) Strongly support	14.2	10.0	21.4
2) Support	38.2	35.7	42.5
3) Oppose	40.2	45.1	31.6
4) Strongly oppose	5.0	6.1	3.1
5) DK/NA	2.5	3.1	1.4

39) Do you believe that armed confrontations so far has helped achieved Palestinian national and political rights in ways that negotiations could not achieve?
1) Definitely yes	24.0	14.8	40.0
2) Yes	42.9	44.6	40.1
3) No	25.4	30.7	16.1
4) Definitely no	5.7	7.2	3.2
5) DK/NA	2.0	2.8	0.7

47) Generally, do you see yourself as:
1) Religious	47.9	43.2	56.1
2) somewhat religious	47.7	51.8	40.7
3) not religious	3.8	4.3	3.0
4) DK/NA	0.5	0.7	0.2

49) Which of the following political parties do you support?
1) PPP	0.5	0.5	0.5
2) PFLP	3.3	3.2	3.4
3) Fateh	34.4	34.0	35.0
4) Hamas	36.7	34.2	41.0
5) DFLP	0.6	0.7	0.4
6) Islamic Jihad	2.0	2.5	1.1
7) National initiative (almubadara)	0.9	0.9	0.7
8) Independent Islamists	4.6	4.6	4.6
9) Independent Nationalists	2.4	2.9	1.6
10) None of the above	14.4	16.2	11.4
11) Other, specify	0.3	0.4	0.2

Hamas aid watch

OK, Iran finally publicly announced that it would give $50 million to Hamas, apparently wanting to wait for their terror conference to make the announcement. But keep in mind that this cover roughly ten days to two weeks of the PA budget, so for such a bigmouthed powerhouse it is a surprisingly small number. Compare to the half a billion or so that the PA got for years from both the EU and the US.

The Arab Summit pledged $55 million monthly to Hamas, although I will bet that this will last only a month or two.

Russia pledged an unspecified amount. Clearly, their motivation is to be a power-broker in the Middle East, because the idea that Russia's economy has millions to spare is laughable. Chances are it was a relatiively small amount and meant more as a political move to show relevance to the one-time superpower.

I still think that the cash will get through to the terrorists, mostly through the UNRWA, which employs many Hamas terrorists itself, as well as the "charities" and NGOs that are sure to sprout up as the money flow moves in that direction. But ultimately the PA budget is so bloated that there is no way that the world will make up the shortfall without Hamas firing half of the PA employees and risking a civil war.

UPDATE: Qatar added $50 million, but the article says that the other Arab pledges never materialized.

UPDATE 2: Qatar's $50 million is just part of the earlier pledge by the Arab summit, but Iran doubled its pledge to $100 million (the same number I predicted, by the way.)

Again, to keep it in context, the PA budget is somewhere between $1.5B and $2 billion a year. These pledges are Band-Aids. If the Arab world would truly commit to the entire shortfall from the loss of EU and American money, it appears that it will affect the Arab world's entire economy.

It is also notable that the two most important Arab countries, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, did not attend the Arab summit where the money was pledged, meaning they have not yet pledged anything.

UPDATE 3: Japan cut off its aid to Hamas, some $40 million a year.

The culture of terror

The mother of the scumbag who murdered at least 9 innocent people today in Tel Aviv said to AP that "there were no warning signs her son was getting involved with a militant group."

And here she is, with some family photos of her beloved murderous son:

But wait? What is her son holding in that photo?

Only in the Arab world can one go to a local photographer and pose a family member in front of his "Autumn in New England" backdrop with an automatic weapon, to see it become a cherished family memory.

And only Palestinian Arabs can say with a straight face that the children whom they raise to hate Jews, who they raise to love murderers, who they brainwash from birth into idolizing death and terror - that they are surprised when they actually do what they have been taught to do.

The mother is as guilty as the son, and it is time that the parents of these terrorists get treated the same way. She should be rotting in jail where she cannot raise and indoctrinate another set of would-be murderers.

GAZA, April 17 (Reuters) - Palestinian militants linked to President Mahmoud Abbas's increasingly fractured Fatah movement threatened on Monday to attack Jews overseas to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners from its jails.

"This is an open call to all our fighters in the homeland to focus on kidnapping Israeli soldiers and civilians inside our occupied land. And if the enemy does not release our prisoners, then Zionists outside Palestine will be an easy target for our fighters," the group said in a statement.

Remember, these are the moderates that the world is trying to strengthen to oppose Hamas.

Hitler made plans to destroy Palestinian Jewry

Hat tip Ruthy at A March of Folly:

It was the victory of the famed Desert Rats of Britain’s Eighth Army at El Alamein under the leadership of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery that saved the Jews in Palestine from annihilation. The turning point in the desert war signalled a reprieve from a planned German invasion of what was then the British Mandate of Palestine.

The Nazis stationed a unit of SS troops in Athens, tasked with following invading frontline troops in Palestine and then rounding up and murdering about 500,000 European Jews who had taken refuge there, according to historians at the University of Stuttgart.

But the unit, answerable to the Afrika Corps under Field Marshal Erwin “The Desert Fox” Rommel, never deployed.

It was designed to function like the Einsatzgruppen or “action squads” of the SS that followed the German army into Russia, shooting close to a million Jews and political enemies before the static killing centres such as Treblinka and Auschwitz were established in Poland.

Klaus-Michael Mallmann of the University’s Ludwigsburg research team and his assistant Martin Cüppers said they had spent three years studying German wartime archives, including those at the foreign office in Berlin which had hitherto remained sealed.

“The Allied defeat of Rommel at the end of 1942 had prevented the extension of the Holocaust to Palestine,” they said. If Rommel had beaten the Allies in the desert and invaded Egypt, a push into Palestine would have followed and the unit would have deployed there.

The researchers, whose findings appear in a new book entitled Germans, Jews, Genocide: The Holocaust as history and the present, said the Athens unit would follow the blueprint drawn by Nazi units that hunted for Jews in eastern Europe, massacring them on the spot or shipping them off to death camps. In Palestine, they say, it would have been more of the former than the latter due to the greater distances involved.

Mr Mallmann and Mr Cüppers said the Nazis had planned to exploit Arab friendship for their plans.

“The most important collaborator with the Nazis and an absolute Arab anti-Semite was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem,” they say in the book. He was a prime example of how Arabs and Nazis became friends out of a hatred of Jews.

Al-Husseini had met Adolf Eichmann, Adolf Hitler’s chief architect of the Holocaust, several times to settle details of the slaughter. In the academic work they draw on documents from the Reich Main Security Office showing “Einsatzgruppe Egypt” was standing by in Athens and was ready to disembark for Palestine in the summer of 1942.

The Middle East death squad was to be led by the SS Obersturmbannführer Walther Rauff.

Dutch Dhimmi Dummies

An astounding "study" in Holland:

The Dutch authorities must work to establish good relations with the political aspects of Islam. That is the conclusion of a report by the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). The report, which was presented this week to Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, has been released at a time when the EU is also dealing with the problem of a Palestinian government led by Hamas.

In recent years, a climate of fear and suspicion between the Muslim world and the west has led to distorted mutual perceptions. In this atmosphere, Islamic politics are often equated with the views and behaviour of anti-democratic and violent fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden. The WRR report argues that this image is unfair. Within Islam there are many more and varied political views.

Of course there are fundamentalists such as the Taliban and the followers of al-Qaeda, who advocate a literal interpretation of the Qu'ran and reject democracy and human rights. But Islamic politics also includes progressive movements and thinkers who emphasise the spirit rather than the letter of the Qu'ran and who often seek to justify democracy and human rights on the basis of Islam.

The report also draws attention to the fact that, over the years, many Islamic activist movements have gone through a process of moderation. Movements like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt who - in the 1970s - were still calling for a radical overthrow of the secular state. Today they act as normal political parties willing to cooperate with others within the limits of a democratic system.

Pure Islam
This is not really new. But Dr Wendy Asbeek, one of the authors of the report, thinks that these facts need to be explained in the Netherlands today:
"In the Dutch media, we regularly hear opinion makers and experts claim that fundamentalist Islam is the only 'pure Islam'. This calls for a counter-discourse that shows the diversity and especially the dynamics of political Islam."What are the consequences of this analysis for Dutch government policies? The report calls for nothing less than a "paradigm shift". The Dutch authorities and also the EU must learn to view political aspects of Islam as a potential ally in their efforts to advance democracy and human rights in the Muslim world.

Hamas
The release of the report is timely because at the moment the Dutch government and the EU are wrestling with the question of how to deal with the Islamic movement Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in January. Wendy Asbeek:
"The report will surely contribute to making cooperation with Hamas debatable. It is important to approach such movements pragmatically and to judge them on their deeds. We should have the courage to enter into dialogue."

IslamOnline adds:

The WRR study urged an end for campaigns sullying the image of Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands.

It blamed right-wing politicians like MP Ayaan Hirsi for fanning the conflict with Islam.

The study maintained that those politicians, in attacking Islam, are after fame and voters.

The findings of the study drew immediate fire from right-wing and liberal parties, which asked the parliament to hold a special session to debate the conclusions.

Hirsi, who wrote the scripts of two documentaries on alleged oppression of women in Islam, said the study lacks professionalism and undermines free speech.

Yes, walking around with 24-hour protection from Islamic would-be murderers and imams who threaten your life and who murdered your friend is definitely just for fame.

And Hamas is just a democratic movement that doesn't take the Koran literally.

And the Muslim Brotherhood is not interested in terror, no, not in the least. They are fully within the democratic tradition.

And "political Islam" is just another political movement; no interest in establishing shari'a law for the world. No-sir-ee.

Such stupidity from Holland, the country that hosted the murder of Theo Van Gogh, is breathtaking.

UPDATE: I didn't realize Little Green Footballs had covered this, and an interview with one author is even worse, identifying Hezbollah as a moderate movement and saying that Shari'a is just like the Ten Commandments.

Humanitarian crisis, part 3

Palestinians stand in front of their shop at Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza strip April 16, 2006.

Yes, the Palestinian Arabs huddled in horrible, squalid conditions in their refugee camps, clearly starving, and if the EU doesn't pony up an automatic salary for every adult male in the territories, how will Palestinian women be able to afford to shop for their stylish clothing that are for sale at the Khan Younis Mall?

(Part 1 and part 2)

Today's Palestinian Police Phunnies XXVI

A masked Palestinian security man shouts after they stormed a government building at Khan Younis camp in the southern Gaza Strip April 15, 2006. Dozens of masked Palestinian security men stormed a government building in the Gaza Strip on Saturday demanding the Hamas-led administration, already under international financial pressure, pay overdue salaries. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Law and order once again is front and center for these dedicated public servants.

Already, we can see the dire effects that no salary is having on the average Palestinian Arab. They are already suffering a severe flag shortage!

Chag kosher v'sameach!

This blog is now officially free of all leavened products.

(from the Washington Haggadah, Joel ben Simeon, 1478, at the Library of Congress.)

Wishing all of you a wonderful Yom Tov, and L'Shana Haba'a B'Yerushalayim!

A-Z Meme (gee, thanks AbbaGav)

I am always torn about these things. On the one hand, they are pretty much identical to computer viruses (and chain letters) and I don't like to help propagate them. On the other hand, someone actually wants to know how I would answer the questions.

So, here are my answers to the A-Z meme, but I will not pass it on to others, especially right before Pesach!

Accent: None that I'm aware of. I like to think I speak in the same way a national anchorman speaks.
Booze: I never understood why people like drinking things that taste like ashtrays. When I must drink for some social reason, I can stomach a gin and tonic. That is very rare.
Chore I Hate: Pretty much all of them. That's why they are called "chores."
Dogs/Cats: We have a Lhasa Apso, perhaps the dumbest dog in the world. In fact, that's how I call him: "Here, you stupid dog!" And he always comes to me.
Essential Electronics: PC, Casio Exilim camera, Blackberry. And my old Treo which has Bejeweled and a siddur. And a USB memory stick. And a USB WiFi adapter. And a Panasonic camcorder. And....
Favorite Perfume/Cologne: Some twenty years ago, when I taught Hebrew school, I got two colognes for Chanukah. One was English Leather. It took me years before I could bring myself to throw them out.
Gold & Silver: Sorry, I didn't read how others answered this, so I don't know what it means. I don't have any, at any rate.
Hometown: Born in Philadelphia, now in central NJ.
Insomnia: Only when thinking about blogging. Which is often.
Job Title: Guru.
Kids: 2, known as Daughter of Ziyon and Junior Elder.
Living Arrangements: I share my bedroom with my wife. Shocking, I know.
Most Admired Trait: How would I know? The readers need to answer that one.
Number of Sexual Partners: More than zero and less than two, unless I'm really forgetful.
Overnight Hospital Stays: Bli ayin hora, never for myself. DoZ was born on a Friday night so I did stay in the hospital that night.
Phobia: Memes.
Quote: "You deserve the best, but nobody owes you anything." -E. of Z.
Religion: The Jewish part is easy, but I have no idea which subdivision of Orthodoxy I might fit in.
Siblings: 2.
Time I Usually Wake Up: 6.
Unusual Talent: The ability to make faces in a crowded room to a teenage daughter, making her laugh despite herself, without anyone else noticing.
Vegetable I Refuse To Eat: Plenty I dislike but haven't yet seen any I couldn't force down.
Worst Habit: Apparently, responding to memes.
X-Rays: Well, my teeth have been X-rayed a few tmes.
Yummy Foods I Make: My rule is never to spend more time making a food than it takes to eat it. I used to doctor up pre-made foods when I was single, for example putting honey on pre-made breaded chicken before baking, or putting chopped onions in pre-made chopped liver, and those shortcuts made ordinary pre-packaged stuff much more interesting.
When my kids were little I would ask them to take out 3 random (non-dairy)ingredients from the refrigerator or cupboard and then I would mix them up and put it on chicken pieces. Practically everything works (mustard, marmalade, OJ, onions....)
Why I spent more time answering about how little time I spend on food preparation, I do not know.
Zodiac Sign: Virgo, both in my Hebrew and English birthdays.

The Palestinian Arab welfare state stats

Some more statistics and information about how utterly dependent the Palestinian Arabs are on free money:

This article says that the PA pays $118M every month just for salaries. Since the PA employs some 140,000 people, that means that each "worker" gets over $10,000 a year on the average. This may not be high by Western standards, but compare this to Egypt, whose average annual income is $1530 (in 2001) and Jordan's is $1750. (I am assuming that "average annual income" is per worker; I couldn't find a definition.)

I also found this article from 2000 showing how thousands of Palestinian Arabs are employed by NGOs and getting paid far more than civil service workers, and seem to have plenty of corruption that goes along with the extra money and perks, with little accountability. As we see international funding shift from directly funding the PA to the "humanitarian aid" organizations, watch as the NGOs become more and more corrupt and infiltrated with terror supporters themselves.

Unless the international community starts overseeing the NGO budgets, the problem is just moving terror dollars from one pocket to another.

Who is working to give the Palestinian Arabs financial independence?

GAZA: Israel suspended formal security ties to the Palestinian government yesterday in what Hamas said amounted to "a declaration of war".

Meanwhile...

Israel must not be recognized and the Palestinian Foreign Ministry should aim to establish a Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, in place of the Jewish State, PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said according to Palestinian media reports.

So Israel refusing to cooperate with those who want to destroy it is "declaring war", but Hamas saying they want Israel to be replaced by another Arab state is just evidence of its desire to live in peace with its (Islamic) neighbors.