Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Olmert to Sderot: Stop whining

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the situation in Sderot at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, saying that "there is no doubt that we all share the pain and the anger is understandable and natural, but the anger is not an action plan."

Perhaps it is time to remind everyone of my Olmert Qassam statement history, last published in September:
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In late November 2006, Olmert said "we are a little disappointed" that Qassam attacks continued even during a "cease fire" that Israel held to unilaterally.

The Qassams continued.

In December 2006, Olmert wrote a letter to the UN, saying "this restraint cannot continue for much longer."

The Qassams continued.

In February 2007, Olmert said, "We are not going to restrain ourselves forever. The continued attacks challenge Israel's patience. In the end, if the attacks continue, we will respond."

The Qassams continued.

In April, Olmert said "[Israel] cannot continue to ignore the Qassam lunching [sic] and infiltration attempts of terrorist cells."

The Qassams continued.

Finally, in May, Israel gave up on the fictional "cease fire" and started targeting Qassam launchers.

Even so, the Qassams continued.

Month after month after month. Every single rocket causing celebrations and congratulatory articles in Palestinian Arab newspapers and websites.

Now, the Sderot schools are open and the number of Qassams is increasing.

And what does Olmert say in September?

"We will not come to terms with it and we will not let it go by."

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So Olmert has had plenty of time to devise a plan and the best he can do it reducing Gaza's electricity by 5%? And then he has the chutzpah to ask the victims of the daily attacks to not protest but to provide him with an "action plan" - isn't that his job?

Rather than reducing Qassams, they have increased greatly over the past couple of months.

Forget Winograd. The inability of Olmert to do anything to defend Israel against Qassams is enough reason on its own to demand his resignation.

Followup on the Beatles and Israel

Judeopundit noticed a hilarious article in the Ramattan "news" agency where "Over 40 Human Rights organizations from around the world called on the 'Beatles' to boycott Israeli 60th anniversary."

One can only imagine what the names of these "human rights" organizations are, how they spend their time and money, and whether they are writing to, say, the surviving members of The Dave Clark Five.

Followup on AP's discovery of Hamas war crimes

Soccer Dad noticed that the Washington Post managed to report on the Israeli airstrike on rocket launchers hidden in a school without mentioning that the rocket launchers were hidden in the school.

Being the astute and responsible blogger he is, he wrote to the Washington Post ombudsman to ask about what must certainly have been an oversight on the part of the esteemed newspaper that also happens to publish unfiltered Hamas propaganda on occasion.

Followup on Irish woman in Gaza

In the latest on the Irish woman who was stuck in Gaza, the BBC writes:

Treasa Ni Cheannabhain, her daughter and an Egyptian niece were allowed back into Egypt on Thursday.

However, Ms Ni Cheannabhain was immediately taken in for questioning.

On Saturday, she said she was given a choice by the Egyptian authorities - to come before a military court, or to return to Gaza indefinitely.

I guess this woman who spends her life preaching her solidarity with poor Palestinian Arabs has decided that Egyptian military court provides better odds for a good life than her Hamas buddies.

Adar 4

Egypt is starting to control the crowds of Palestinians pouring in from Gaza.

Everyone is being put into a line, given a special plastic bracelet, and there is a limit of three bombs per person.

-Jake Novak

Gazans celebrate an 8-year old's injury

A tiny throwaway paragraph in YNet's coverage of Saturday's Qassam rocket attack that injured two brothers, with an 8-year old severely injured in his legs:

Within Gaza, terrorists celebrated their "success", as gunmen from the Al-Quds Brigades fired in the air and broadcasted victory messages from mosque loudspeakers.

From this single sentence we can learn three things:

1. Palestinian Arab terrorists remain depraved as ever, celebrating the pain of innocent civilians.
2. Islamic Jihad's morale must be amazingly low, as they continue to lower the bar of what they consider "victory" just so they can have something to celebrate and not feel like total losers.
3. Mosques in Gaza are used, today, to promote terrorism.

Adar 3

Since I won't be posting on Shabbos, he is the joke for the third of Adar...

Ethel, a little old lady with a lovely smile, makes a living selling roses on the corner of Middlesex Street for £1 a rose. Maurice, on the other hand, works for a bank in Middlesex Street and is doing very well for himself.

Maurice has always felt sorry for Ethel and whenever he leaves his office for lunch and passes Ethel, he always gives her £1. But Maurice never takes a rose from her and although this has been going on for 2 years, the two of them have never spoken to each other.

One day, as Maurice passes Ethel and leaves his usual £1, Ethel speaks to him for the first time. "I appreciate your business, sir. You really are my best customer, but I must point out to you that the price of a rose has now gone up to £1.50."

Adar 2

From last night's Tonight Show:

A minister, a priest and a rabbi go into a bar. After a couple of drinks they get somewhat philosophical. The bartender asks them, "What would you want people to say at your funeral?"

The minister says, "I would hope that they would say that I was a good family man and that I always found the time for my congregants."

The priest says, "I would hope that they would say that I was kind, charitable and always thoughtful."

The rabbi says, "I would want them to say, 'Look! He's moving!'"

Church being built in Qatar

From Radio Netherlands:

The Arab emirate of Qatar witnesses the building of the first church since the coming of Islam. Conservative Muslims are furious, but the reform-minded emir of Qatar thinks it is time to show that Islam is a tolerant religion.

"If all goes well, we will celebrate Easter in our new church", says father Yashun of the almost completed church of the Virgin in the Qatari capital Doha. The Catholic church, which will open next month, is the first church to be built in Qatar since the coming of Islam 14 centuries ago.

Like other countries in the Arabian peninsula, Qatar does not have an indigenous non-Muslim minority, but among the guest-workers that have come there in the past decades are many Christians. The new church will serve no less than a hundred thousand Catholics residing in the tiny emirate, most of whom are from the Philippines, India and Lebanon. A Protestant church is also under construction.

"A few years ago, opening a church in Qatar was sort of impossible", the Italian ambassador in Doha, Ignatio Di Pashi, recently told a local Qatari newspaper. "But Qatar has changed since the coming of the new emir."

Prince Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is a reform-minded man who, when he came to power in 1995, decided it was time to show the tolerant face of Islam and to accommodate the new Christian minority in his country.

Since 2001, a yearly 'Conference of the 3 Religions" is held in Qatar during which representatives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam engage in dialogue. Dialogue between Muslims and Christians is rather common in the Arab world, but a religious dialogue including Jews is revolutionary.

And in 2005, the emir announced that churches would be built for the Christians in Qatar, who until today have to conduct their religious services in private homes or schools.

The building of the church has shocked conservative Muslims of Qatar and has led to heated debates in the local media. Most Qatari Muslims belong to the Wahhabi sect, one of the most conservative currents in Islam and the state-doctrine in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Opponents of the church quote a Tradition attributed to the prophet Mohammed which reads: "There shall be no two religions in the Arabian peninsula." Alluding to this Tradition, articles have appeared in the local press bearing titles such as "No cross shall be raised under the sky of Qatar and no church-bell shall ring!"

But advocates of the church, too, support their views with religious arguments. One of them is Dr Abdelhamid al-Ansari, former dean of the Qatari shari'a college. "Establishing places of worship for different religions", he writes in one of his articles in favour of the building of churches in his country, "is a basic right guaranteed to all human beings by the Koran and the Tradition of the prophet." Dr Ansari also recognizes the prophetic Tradition quoted by his opponents, but says it only applies to the Hijaz, the province of the two holy cities of Islam Macca and Medina.

Another Qatari shaykh, Ali al-Qardaghi, went even further by assuring a French reporter that Islam does not prohibit the building of churches "nor any other places of worship." His statement is significant because traditional Islam indeed explicitly grants all kinds of rights to Christians and Jews - the so-called 'people of the Book' - but has great difficulty in recognizing the beliefs of Hindus and Buddhists as 'religious.' And after all a large section of the guest workers in Qatar are not Christians but Hindus from India.

The church, which costs 18 million dollars, will contain a conference hall, a library, accommodation for clerics and a café. But it will have no cross on the outside and the catholic cardinal heading it had to promise the authorities that he will not engage in missionary activities.

A miniscule step in the right direction, but one that gives an indication of how long the journey will be.

Clan clash in Gaza City

Palestine Today reports on the death of Muhammad al-Badawi, 25, for reasons of "family revenge."

How honorable!

The 2008 self-death count is now at 16.

Ian O'Doherty on stupid pro-PalArab activists

The Irish Independent has a somewhat snarky column that mentions the Irish woman stuck in Gaza:

Really, if anything proves the utter credulousness and stupidity displayed by many of the members of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, it has to be case of Galway woman -- quelle surprise she's from Galway -- Treasa Ni Cheannabhain and her daughter.
The pair smuggled themselves illegally into Gaza and are now complaining that they are not being allowed to get back into Egypt.

The pair were refused entry into Gaza but entered illegally by wearing those charming full length niquabs (the charming black dress that makes women look like a walking letter box) and met up with some ministers from the charming Hamas government -- which caused the humanitarian crisis in the first place -- and then went around distributing money to local charities.

And how have indymedia.ie responded to the Egyptian authorities not allowing these people back into Egypt?

Well, according to them: "Treasa Ni Cheannabhain, from the Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign, on a humanitarian mission to besieged Gaza with daughter, Naisrin, is now trapped there by the Israelis."

Um, sorry guys. It's the Egyptians. Still, facts are only a Zionist conspiracy, eh?

Although the quote from Ni Cheannabhain on the situation in Gaza was interesting in its insight and political understanding: "We hadn't expected this -- it's very scary."

The phrase dumb and dumber springs to mind.

MSM keeps ignoring Hamas war crimes

AP released a dispatch yesterday:

Hamas policemen seized a convoy of humanitarian aid bound for the Palestinian Red Crescent on Thursday evening, the second convoy it has taken from the aid agency, aid employees said.

Policemen from Hamas halted 14 trucks filled with food and medicine at a checkpoint after it crossed an Israeli checkpoint into Gaza on Thursday, said employees of the Palestinian Red Crescent, who declined to be named, fearing reprisals from ruling group Hamas. A Hamas official said the aid was seized because the organization was distributing aid to former Fatah fighters and not to impoverished Palestinians.

Employees from the Red Crescent said they were meant to distribute the aid to some 8,000 needy Gaza residents from lists of people the organization keeps. The aid came from the organization's regional headquarters in Jordan, an employee said.

...The food aid was unloaded in the warehouses of the Hamas Ministry of Social Affairs, and two trucks of medicine were taken to a nearby Hamas-run hospital, he said.

The employee said that it was the second time Hamas policemen seized aid meant for the Red Crescent. Last month the group seized the aid from warehouses.

This article was essentially ignored by newspapers and other Web news outlets outside of Israel, and only a handful mentioned it buried in other articles about Gaza. And absolutely no one goes slightly beyond the article to ask the basic question of how much of Gaza's "humanitarian crisis" is being engineered by Hamas itself.

On a similar note, the number of Qassam rockets fired at Israel has increased dramatically in the past few days compared to a relative lull for a couple of weeks. This issue is also being all but ignored by news outlets, mentioning them in passing in other articles about the Egypt/Gaza border, for example. The fact that there are as few casualties in Sderot as there are is nothing short of a miracle.

Finally, yesterday's AP story of Hamas hiding rockets in a school was also picked up by only a dozen or so newspapers worldwide according to Google News counts.

Each of these stories show that Hamas and its partners are engaging in daily war crimes according to the Geneva Conventions. Shooting indiscriminately at civilians, using civilian areas to hide legitimate military targets and confiscating humanitarian aid are all explicitly illegal in international law as well as humanitarian law.

While Israel is constantly being accused of war crimes, either explicitly in the media or by their quoting handpicked "experts" to confirm the bias of the reporters, Palestinian Arab terror actions - all of these three in the past 24 hours - get a free pass, either ignored completely or reported in a passive manner.

The media is a big part of the problem, and a large reason why Hamas feels that it can act with impunity.