Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Israel offers quake aid to Pakistan; AP clueless about why

In yet another example of the writers for the mainstream media being utterly clueless, we have this:

Israel has offered Pakistan assistance in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, Israeli officials said Sunday, in the latest sign that relations between the countries are warming.

Now, relations between Israel and Pakistan may or may not be warming, but Israel's offer has nothing to do with that. Remember in 2004 when Iran was hit by a major quake, Israel offered assistance and Iran refused?

And even after this refusal, Jewish and Israeli groups still went out of their way to help the victims anyway?

I suppose that the mainstream media cannot even fathom that Israel could possibly want to help disaster victims without a selfish angle.

That legendary Palestinian respect for law

A neat little tidbit from the AP:

A previously unknown group on Friday said it had kidnapped three Hamas officials in the West Bank, accusing the Islamic terror group of putting itself above the law.

Palestinian security officials confirmed the kidnappings of Bassem Abeido, in Hebron, Hassan Safi in Bethlehem and Riad Abdel Karim al-Raz in Tulkarem. The three men, all local leaders of the Islamic militant group, were abducted by gunmen late Thursday, though Karim was released early Friday.

A group calling itself the Omar bin al-Khatab Brigades claimed responsibility for the abductions. 'Hamas doesn't care about the Palestinian law,' the group said in a leaflet."

That'll teach 'em!

Israel considering more rewards to Abbas in exchange for nothing

How do you treat a terror-supporting, ineffective "leader" with an insatiable laundry list of "demands" and no desire for peace?

Why, give him weapons!

And release terrorists from jail! (Probably to join the "police!")

It is almost unfair to complain when Europe or the US treats bloodthirsty and unrepentant Palestinian Arab terrorists as people worthy of respect - when Israel does the same thing.

One would think that Israel would have learned from past mistakes how stupid and dangerous it is to arm Palestinian "security forces" and to release prisoners. Every previous time this was done, terrorists killed Israelis.

The differences between the PA and Hamas are cosmetic. Both are committed to the destruction of Israel; both have no interest in an independent state for Palestinian Arabs. The more "moderate" party is the one that habitually lies more and is more corrupt.

Amazing.

EU meets with Hizballah

Europe, where "fighting terror" is not just a slogan, but a meaningless slogan.

Israel expects consistency in the EU's stand on terrorism if the it wants to increase its involvement here, Foreign Ministry director-general Ron Prosor told troika representatives Thursday in protest against a meeting of EU ambassadors with a Hizbullah minister in Lebanon.

Prosor called representatives of troika in Israel – Janet Rogan from the British embassy; Norbert Hack from the Austrian embassy; and Ramiro Cibrian, head of the European Commissions delegation to Israel – to the foreign Ministry to express 'grave concern' over a meeting the EU, Italian and French ambassadors to Lebanon had there recently with Lebanon's Water and Energy Minister Mohammad Fneich, who is the Hizbullah representative in Lebanon's cabinet.

Prosor said that these types of meetings send the 'wrong message' regarding the war on terror. Prosor, who repeated Israel's call – as yet unheeded – that the EU place Hizbullah on its list of terror organizations, said that the organization is involved in terrorist activities in the territories.

Karen Kaufman, spokesman for the British embassy, said that the European representatives took note of Israel's position and said that they would pass the information on.

Apparently, meeting with the guys that did this is a fine example of diplomacy, according to the Eurabians.

UPDATE: For half-wits who think that Hizballah is not a terror organization, here's a short list of Hizballah Greatest Hits according to terror experts (Hizballah denies all of them!)

a series of kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon, including several Americans, in the 1980s;
the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, which featured the famous footage of the plane’s pilot leaning out of the cockpit with a gun to his head;
and two major 1990s attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina—the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy (killing 29) and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center (killing 95);
The 1984 truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 24.
On July 19, 1994 a Panamanian flight was bombed in the (Alas Chiricanas bombing) leaving 21 people dead, incluing 12 Jews. The bombing was claimed by an unknown group called Ansar Allah.
On July 26, 1994 eight days after the AMIA Bombing in Argentina, a car bomb exploded outside the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14 people. Thirteen hours later a similar car bomb exploded outside a Jewish charity in North London.

"Yussuf" Goebbels told sheikhs that Nazis converted to Islam

An astounding article from the Palestine Post in 1939, claiming that the Nazis told a delegation of gullible sheikhs in Nuremburg in late 1938 that the Germans (and the Italians) had converted to Islam and were ready to wage Jihad.

I have been unable to corroborate this claim, although it is known that the Nazis actively pursued the Arab leadership as allies, and did not hesitate to use promises to support Arab claims on Palestine against Jews to get their support. There is also evidence that Nazis actively encouraged anti-Semitism in Arab countries (and funded the nascent Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt) that had previously been much less antagonistic towards Jews.

Even so, it is a fascinating and somewhat plausible historical footnote to the body of literature about Nazi/Arab ties before WWII. The details in this letter, such as the Nazis promising to "return" India to Islamic rule and sharing war plans with the Arabs, are not far-fetched.

EU wants to double aid to Palestinian Arabs

Giving money to thieves, terror supporters and murderers is always a good idea, especially when it is accompanied with more pressure on Israel.

The European Union, the biggest donor to the Palestinians, is set to ramp up its aid in the wake of the Israeli pullout from the Gaza strip, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

The Brussels body said it was contemplating doubling its aid to the West Bank and Gaza by up to €300m (£203m, $358m) a year. This year the Commission has provided about €280m.

“We want to do more,” said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external relations Commissioner. “For the first time in years I think it's plausible to talk about the relaunch of the Palestinian economy.“

However, the Commission said the increase in aid, the details of which will be announced early next year, would depend on progress on the stalled “road map” to Middle East peace and contributions by other donors.

In particular, it wants to see reforms to the Palestinian Authority's security services, as well as Israeli guarantees about border crossings that could end the Palestinians' economic isolation. The Commission's plans also sound a self-critical note, reflecting internal pressures from EU officials who have called for the Union to do more to revive the road map, which sets out a path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“The EU must increase the effectiveness of its messages rejecting the recent upsurge in settlement activity and efforts to establish new ‘facts on the ground',” the Commission acknowledged in a formal “communication” to national governments and the European parliament yesterday."

As long as the "road map" has a Palestinian state as its goal, Palestinians can continue to do outrageous crimes with impunity because they know that the EU is going to ultimately back them anyway.

Palestinian Arabs go to help Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq

Hebrew article, translated by Daily Alert:

Tens of Palestinian activists from the Isbat al-Ansar Islamist terror group have recently left the Ein el-Hilwe camp in Lebanon, crossed into Iraq via Syria, and joined up with al-Qaeda forces led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
While individual activists had made the journey previously, this time the group's leadership made a decision to join the jihad against the U.S. in response to a formal request by al-Qaeda.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam reported that the group's leader, Ahmed Abdel-Karim al-Saadi, accompanied his men to Iraq.
An al-Qaeda website reported Tuesday that an Isbat al-Ansar member was killed in battle with U.S. forces.

And yet the world does not want to accept that Israel's fight against terror is the same as the West's fight against terror.

Shana Tova!

Thanks to all of my readers.

May we all be written for a good year, and may this coming year be a year of life, peace, and only happiness!

The Sufa crossing point into southern Gaza opened for business today as IDF troops transferred tons of food to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for distribution among the Arabs of Gaza.

Twenty trucks carrying milk, beef, fruits, entered the Gaza district, after the food transfer was coordinated between the PA and an IDF unit responsible for coordinating government activities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

The head of that unit, Col. Nir Press, said that the food transfer was approved as “an exception” to Israeli policy, by Gen. Dan Harel, head of the Southern Command of the IDF.

Since the August pullout from Gaza, crossing points from Israel into the Gaza district have been closed, because Israel and the PA have failed to reach agreement on how to operate them.

Today’s food transfer was made pursuant to a PA request prior to the Islamic holiday of Ramadan.

It all seems so admirable that Israel is willing to provide aid to the poor Palestinian Arabs who get more money per capita in aid than any other people on Earth.

However, one in three Israeli children live below the poverty line. Over 100,000 Israelis are considered poor.

And it just so happens that today is the eve of a Jewish holiday as well.

Here is an organization that should be receiving "tons of food" from the IDF.

It’s crowded around here (YNet op-ed)

Excerpts from a good article:

Israel is one of the most crowded countries in the world.

This fact wasn’t a military secret before, but until now it wasn’t politically correct to talk about Jewish population density, because the most common and baseless cliché that accompanies the disengagement’s public relations campaign was that “the Gaza Strip is the most crowded place in the world.”

Whoever knows the Gaza Strip knows that up until a decade ago there were almost no high-rises there. Today, there are hundreds of such buildings in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah, and still, their number is slim compared to any western city.

Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Gaza residents lives in houses, which regardless of being small and located in narrow alleys, clearly cannot create the world’s highest population density.

Yet this cliché was important in order to make us sick and tired of Gaza. But now, after the destruction of Jewish settlements there, we are allowed to find out that not the Gaza Strip, but rather, central Israel is one of the most densely population areas in the world. In fact, it is four or five times more crowded than the Gaza Strip, and by the way, it’s not a bad place to live in.

But even now that we’re allowed to say that it’s very crowded around here, it’s still not nice to seriously consider the implication of this figure, and we certainly mustn’t mention the primitive conclusion that stems from it: The Jews don’t have enough land.

Their country is so small, that in most world maps Israel’s name is written on the sea, because it’s not big enough to accommodate six letters.

In fact, it’s truly despicable to demand that the land-poor Jewish people to forego a large part of its land, its single prized possession. And in favor of who? In favor of the Arab nation, which has so much land, and extends across 22 countries, from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean.

But it is not considered politically correct to say so, because the word ‘land’ has been removed from the enlightened Hebrew vocabulary. It’s a primitive word, associated with land and warfare. Whoever dares to bring it up is stigmatized as a worshipper of idols, one who bows down rocks and graves. Unless, of course, we are talking about Arabs, whose view of land as sacred is completely legitimate, and even worthy of respect.

Jews are allowed to speak of ‘border adjustments,’ because we have security needs, water issues, transportation grids, and plane routes. But under no circumstances must we have, God forbid, respect for the land.

But the truth is primitive and all penetrating, like the sound of the shofar heralding in the new year: We don’t have enough land. We can’t allow ourselves to generously give up on territory, because Israel is one of the most crowded countries in the world. In terms of territory, the Jewish nation is one of the poorest in the world.

If Abraham were to come and say, “Yitzhak and Ishmael my sons, you are brothers, stop fighting one another, and divide the land among yourselves fairly, and in proportion to the population size,” the Arab nation would have to give us back lands about ten times the size of the State of Israel.

If justice is our guiding principle, most of this should remain in the hands of the poor Jewish nation. And if our image in the world matters to us, we better start talking about our precious and holy land, and not about interests and theories with which cause us to sound like we are taking the land of someone else. The world understands what land is. Only the Jews think they can’t talk about it.

Ah, law and order and stern warnings.

More than three dozen Palestinian police officers broke into the parliament building in Gaza City on Monday, firing in the air to protest a lack of bullets and equipment in what they said was a humiliating confrontation with Hamas.

The protest came a day after the worst internal fighting in Gaza in nearly a decade and underscored Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' difficulties in taking control of the unruly coastal strip.

On Sunday, Hamas gunmen attacked a local police station with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The deputy police chief of the Shati refugee camp was killed in the fighting, along with two civilians, and at least 50 people were wounded.

During the parliament session, about 40 police officers broke into the parliament building in Gaza City. 'Give us at least bullets to protect people and to protect our stations,' said one of the officers, a lieutenant, who declined to give his name because he is not authorized to talk to the press. 'Our commander died in front of us, and we were running out of bullets.'

The clashes raged for about six hours, and subsided only around midnight Sunday, after Egyptian mediators stepped in.

Abbas said Monday that his security forces would not gloss over the confrontations. 'We will not remain silent in the face of this,' he told reporters at his Gaza City office. 'This mob behavior, this chaos must end.'

The authority, he said, is 'ready to use all means to prevent the public display of arms,' which it banned several days ago."

Abbas: Arafat without the cult of personality.

Haveil Havalim #39 is out

This week's round-up of the best of the JBlogosphere is out at SerandEz. It is heavily oriented towards Rosh Hashanah musings. One of my articles is mentioned, too!

As usual, it is an excellent collection of links and commentary, so check it out.

Speaking of links, Pootergeek linked to my article "Best. Comment. Ever." and generated well over a hundred hits over the weekend, which is significant for this blog.

Chance to win a free apartment in Jerusalem

Raffle tickets are a little pricey at $360 each, but it goes to a good cause.

Jordanian prince speaks at William and Mary

It is an interesting speech. Although it seems that Hassan is certainly moderate compared to almost all other Arabs, this "moderation" still would be considered extreme if a mirror of these views were expressed by Israelis.

His interest in unity for Muslims happens to be shared by Hamas and Al Qaeda, although I'm sure his vision is more secular. He states offhandedly that he is for Palestinian "right of return" which means the destruction of Israel. He frankly speaks about Arab problems but his solutions do not include the possibility of Jews having their own land in a final Middle East solution. And he seems to have no problem ignoring Jordan's history of killing thousands of Palestinian Arabs.

But he's moderate enough to get an honorary doctorate!

WILLIAMSBURG -- With humor and urgency, former Jordanian Crown Prince El Hassan bin Talal pushed for unity in the world's Arab and Islamic regions Friday, in an address at the College of William and Mary's Commonwealth Auditorium.

He offered Mecca, Saudi Arabia, not only as a place of Islamic ritual and pilgrimage but as a place where Islamic nations could gather in an annual conference - "a conference on everything from stem cell research to opposition to terror," El Hassan said.

"I don't want to be told by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi how to think," he said, as a moderate or centrist who feels more like a radical these days. He referred to the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist organization.

"Real conversations have to develop between Arabs and Arabs, Arabs and Muslims, Sunni and Shia - 'Sunny Muslims' - but maybe I just belong to the Cloudy Muslims."

El Hassan was the brother and closest adviser to Jordan's late King Hussein. He's a veteran advocate for Middle East peace and cooperation among all faiths and cultures. He also helps lead humanitarian organizations like the World Conference on Religion and Peace and the International Crisis Group.

In the packed auditorium, the spirited prince fielded questions on the effects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on Jordan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We're good hosts to refugees," he said of Jordan. There are more than 250,000 Iraqis now in Jordan, he said, including the megarich, the middle class - academics and doctors who fled persecution by insurgents - and the unemployed. "The threat of the movement of extremism is not so far beneath the surface. We happen to be Iraq's neighbor."

He hoped for an Arab capital in part of a greater Jerusalem - an international city like Brussels, Belgium, was for the Flemish.

It's perhaps a pipe dream, he said, but he would extend a right of return to Palestinians. But he also wondered whether Jews might have the right to return to other Arab lands.

He said, "We're really all hypocrites in our part of the world - Israel and all the Arab communities included. It's about time to smell the coffee."

Old Dominion University will give El Hassan an honorary doctorate Monday.

Faux pas trifecta (Diana West, Washington Times Op-Ed)

Interesting article about the incredibly naive "listening tour" that President Bush sent Karen Hughes on.

Faux pas trifecta

By Diana West
September 30, 2005

The president's confidante has been on a "listening tour" to "start a conversation with the rest of the world"—namely, the Muslim world, beginning with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — but there were too many times when she just didn't know what to say.
A Washington Post anecdote from Day One captures the disconnect. Asked in Egypt whether she was going to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Mubarak-banned opposition party with deep roots in terrorism and the catchy motto — "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope" — Mrs. Hughes "turned uncertainly to an aide and indicated she was wasn't quite sure of the answer. The aide whisperedbackand Hughes replied,'We arerespectfulof Egypt's laws.' "
I guess that means no, but the non-denial denial is open to interpretation. Maybe she wanted to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood, but couldn't? Or maybe she didn't want to say something as harshly non-conversational as "no" because the popular MB might be elected one of these days. (This which would chalk one up for sharia-to-the-people — the Arab democracy doctrine of the Bush administration.) Or maybe she just didn't know.
But worse than not knowing what to say is saying too much. Or saying the wrong thing. Or even saying anything at all. Mrs. Hughes committed all of the above, a faux pas trifecta, after meeting with Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, the academic center of Sunni Islam. It was a "wonderful meeting," she explained, because the two of them were able to talk "about the common language of the heart."
Oh, brother. Is this an Undersecretary of State or a sorority sister? Mrs. Hughes burbled on about the leadership of Al-Azhar "in speaking out against extremism, against terrorism, [which] is not in keeping with the tenets of Islam" — natch. The sheikh "made the point that all divine religions are built on a spirit of love," she said, "and [that] it is important that all of us work together to fight extremism, to fight terrorism." What a guy. Hearing Mrs. Hughes talk about him, you could almost forget what he said in 2002, as translated from a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), when he called on Palestinian Muslims to "intensify the martyrdom operations [suicide attacks] against the Zionist enemy" — men, women, and children — and described the barbarous slaughter as "the highest form of Jihad operations," and "a legitimate act according to [Islamic] law." Maybe that's the "spirit of love" Mrs. Hughes was gushing about.
Then there was what Sheikh Tantawi said in 2003, also reported by MEMRI, when he called for jihad against U.S. forces in Iraq. "Jihad is an obligation for every Muslim when Muslim countries are subject to aggression," he explained. "The gates of Jihad are open until the Day of Judgment, and he who denies this is an infidel or one who abandons his religion." This he said during a sermon at — where else? — Al-Azhar. (Speaking of Al-Azhar, MEMRI reports that Sharia faculty chief Abd Al-Sabour Shahin just last month denied that "a single Arab or Muslim" had anything to do with destroying the Empire State Building [sic] on September 11. He blamed "dirty Zionists.")
I juxtapose Mrs. Hughes' hearts-and-flowers assessment with the hate-and-fanaticism reality for a reason. Obviously, the resources available to me — the invaluable MEMRI Web site — are available to the State Department. I find it difficult to believe that Mrs. Hughes or her advisors were unaware of the jihadist incitement Sheikh Tantawi is prone to, even though he's also on record with contradictory statements. Why did the Bush administration determine that this meeting was in the best interests of our nation? If the war on terror — always a PC-punch-pulling moniker — is turning into the accommodation of terror, maybe it makes sense to make nice. There is, actually, a long tradition of such accommodation between the non-Muslim world and the Muslim world, and it is contained within the blighted history of "dhimmitude." This is the term coined by historian Bat Ye'or to describe the institutionalized inferiority of non-Muslims (dhimmi) under Muslim rule. Mrs. Hughes' paying tribute to the likes of Sheikh Tantawi is dhimmi behavior. As is, frankly, the whole "listening tour" — an ill-conceived campaign to improve Uncle Sam's "image" with a Muslim world whose opposition to a viable Israel and a free Iraq is hardly skin-deep.
Me, I'd like to see a "like it or lump it tour." But that, of course, would mean keeping up the fight.