Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 21, 2008

Megillah trivia question of the day

How many parties are mentioned in the Megillah?

Egypt likes Israeli "occupation" of Gaza

Palestinian and Israeli sources said yesterday Israeli and Egyptian representatives agreed in principle to a deal that would replace Israel with Egypt as the Gaza Strip’s sole electricity provider.
Under the deal, Egypt would set up a new power line from the Sinai Peninsula town of Arish to the nearby Gaza Strip. The 150-megawatt line would cost $35 million and be operational within two years.
Egypt currently provides the Gaza Strip with only 7 megawatts of power, while Israel provides 124 megawatts through 10 different lines. A local power station produces the remainder.
Omar Kittaneh, chairman of Palestinian Energy Committee, who is in charge of the project on the Palestinian side, said the Egyptian plan would be funded by the Islamic Development Bank. According to Kittaneh, tenders will be floated in the next few days.

But, as Palestinian Press Agency reported later, Egypt denied any such deal (autotranslated):

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry denied news media reports today that Egypt accepted assumed responsibility to provide electricity to the Gaza Strip.

Why would Egypt prefer that the poor, cold, starving Palestinian Arabs in Gaza remain in a situation where they do not have a reliable electricity supply?

It must be that, even though Israel is not legally occupying Gaza, Egypt prefers that fiction - and its resultant consequences to Gaza residents - to actually helping their fellow Arab "brethren."

See also:
Gaza and International Law
PalArabs try to have it both ways in Gaza
Egypt's violent reaction to idea of expanding Gaza into Sinai

Work accident of the day

From AFP:

A Hamas activist was killed and two other members of the Islamist movement were wounded in an accidental explosion at a training camp in Gaza, the second such incident in as many days, medics said.
Wael Hammudeh, 30, was killed in the explosion in a camp of the armed wing of Hamas in southern Gaza, medics and witnesses said.

Isn't it amazing that the number of Gazans who are known to be killed in such a manner increase dramatically when Israel isn't bombing Gaza?

Just more evidence that Hamas was moving the bodies of those that died by other means in places that Israel was attacking so as to inflate the "martyr" count.

Ma'an is still reporting yesterday's work-accident as an Israeli air raid, after even Hamas backtracked, showing that "Palestinian Arab journalism" is an oxymoron.

Meanwhile, a Hebron man was murdered as well at his gas station, bringing the 2008 PalArab self-death count to 43.

IBD notices the terror poll

From Investor's Business Daily:

Hate That Dares Not Speak Its Name

The Mideast: When a poll reveals all but a fraction of Palestinians support the murder of eight innocent Jewish seminarians, it shows a people wedded to evil. It's a short trip from this hate to the kind Hitler espoused.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a professional and independent polling agency that surveys Palestinians four times a year, has found that no less than 84% of 1,270 Palestinians questioned by the center in personal interviews said they supported the March 6 shooting inside Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav yeshiva.

The slaughter was carried out by East Jerusalem resident Alaa Abu Dheim, who was himself eventually killed during his attack. All but one of the eight he killed were teens, two of them only 15 years old. Another 11 were wounded.

Pollster Khalil Shikaki was understandably shocked at the results, which also found 75% support for scrapping Israeli-Palestinian talks and 64% support for the Hamas terrorist group's thousands of recent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli towns.

Asked for their preferences for president of the Palestinian Authority, 47% chose Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas while 46% chose their current "moderate" president, Mahmoud Abbas.

But the chilling significance of the poll numbers goes beyond media commentaries about them reflecting "increased tensions." Imagine if more than 80% of some sector of the American public supported an Oklahoma City-like terrorist attack carried out on our soil. It would be viewed as a breakdown of civilization.

And consider the fact that such a large proportion of Palestinians approve of slaughtering of victims who not only were civilians and religious students, but minors. A true slaughtering of the innocents.

The message we get from this is very clear: The vast majority of Palestinians advocate such acts of terrorism against young innocents because the victims were Jews.

Their version of the Final Solution may not entail gas chambers and concentration camps, as Germany's National Socialists did in the last century. But it does apparently include murdering, at random, Jews because they are Jews.

Read it all.

The classic of the Purim Torah genre

One of the best recent additions to the ever-growing canon of Purim Torah - far better than my original contribution this year - was written in 2000 by Immanuel Burton. It is a hilarious piece of scholarship.

The author writes:

In each and every year on the twenty-fifth day of December the Nazarine world celebrates Choggoh, which is the festival of the birth [Christmas], and many people who are not Nazarines also celebrate then. And there are many customs which people follow during Choggoh. Even though Choggoh is not a Jewish festival, the author wondered in his heart to work out and to know how the Mishnah would appear were this the case, and so the author therefore gathered the customs and other matters which celebrants of Choggoh are accustomed to in this pamphlet. The student has to realise that this pamphlet is presented in the style of "Purim Torah". However, the author has left it as an exercise to the student to find in the writings of the true Torah the sources of phrases and conjectures found in the pamphlet, and by this the student will be amused on Purim and will merit to study Torah at the same time. Anyone who does not consider a matter of jesting such as this an amusing matter - it is appropriate that he stop immediately.

Here's the first page of his Mishnah Choggoh - the Halachos of Christmas:

A rough translation of the part of the first two lines, with the commentary in parentheses:

The tree (Christmas tree) that is taller than twenty cubits: in the house, it is invalid (because people don't look up higher than twenty cubits and therefore the decoration at the top of the tree isn't visible) but in the marketplace it is permitted (it does not say it is kosher because [the outdoor tree] is not part of the day's obligations, but is only used to publicize [the holiday]. From here on the mishnah will only refer to the house-tree.) If [the tree] is not three hands-breadths high it is invalid (for it lacks importance.) Rabbi Noel allows a bonsai tree (even if it is less than three hands-breadths [high] because this is the way that it grows and it has importance...) but the Sages (there are three Sages) forbid it (for the tree must be able to be decorated and have presents [fitting] underneath.)

It is well worth the download.

UPDATE: For those who don't understand Hebrew, a similar project in English is shown here.
There are many contradictions between the two, which will need to be resolved by someone greater than I.

Some "fast" links

Conspiracy theories and victimization at Shrinkwrapped

Russian blood libel: Jews use children's blood for matzot at YNet

Half shekel found in Jerusalem at JPost

"Meet the world's most incompetent ethnic cleansers" by Evelyn Gordon

Laugh with Firas!

Here are what I believe are four autotranslated jokes from the Arabic Firas website.

Humor doesn't translate well:

in one jar was pregnant and gas guy on the stairs Chavth his words: Just

She said if: God opened Man ...

-

-- Unit once said to her husband? You what Coltli word Zlzaaaaaaaaaaal concern about me ...
-

3 pupils once they were late on the first portion, and when he arrived the school said they tagged you Kintua Fein?
I said I lost my seal my blog, and the second said I play him, asked third and you go?
I Daes concern about it !!...

-- Entered a doctor in a hospital psychiatric patients in the room and told them anything Kalfshar jumping all patients except one.

Asking the doctor: Why did you jump

He answered saying: I am stuck at the bottom Tngerh
-
-- One mother was killed in the section Zabott Pisalh name any?

.... Told him: Write the best actor ....
I do not like pride

However, they did have one joke I recognized, that would be considered Islamophobic if any non-Muslim would say it (I'm paraphrasing):

George Bush and Tony Blair go out to eat lunch and then they hold a press conference.

One journalist asked them, "What did you speak about during your meeting?"

Bush replied, "We decided to kill 20 million Muslims and one surgeon."

The journalists were perplexed, and finally one asked, "Why do you want to kill one surgeon?"

Bush laughed and turned to Blair: "See, I told you no one would be interested if we killed 20 million Muslims!"

-----------
Many of the commenters didn't seem to get it.

Orgy of anti-semitic cartoons in Arab media lately

The ADL has compiled a list of blatant anti-semitic cartoons from the Arab world in the wake of Reuters' mistranslating Matan Vilnai as threatening a "holocaust."

While the "Zionism=Nazi" imagery is nothing new in the Arab press, they have turned it way up recently, as the ADL report shows.

Of course, Palestinian Arabs don't have to look far for their own, very real, historic connections to Nazis. Nazis wooed Islamists to get them on their side, Nazis armed Arab terrorists in Palestine before World War II, Nazis tried, semi-successfully, to work with them during WWII, the biggest Palestinian Arab leader helped in the genocide of Jews, Arabs drafted Nazis to help fight Jews after WWII, today's Palestinian "moderates" consciously imitate Nazi symbolism, and even today neo-Nazis explicitly support Islamic terror against Israel.

My First Rule of Arab Projection is alive and well.

(h/t Suzanne)

Work accident!

YNet reports:

Palestinian security officials reported Thursday of an explosion at a beachfront facility of the militant Hamas organization. According to an initial report, two people were killed in the incident and one was injured.
Palestinians claimed that the facility was attacked by the IDF, but the Israeli army denied striking in the area.

Palestine Today (Arabic) describes it as a "mysterious explosion" which, ironically, leaves no doubt as to its source.

Ma'an Arabic, which used to be a reasonable source of accurate news, continued its slide towards Hamas propaganda by claiming it was an Israeli airstrike and declaring the dead terrorists "martyrs." Palestine Press Agency reported it more accurately.

The known 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 40.

UPDATE: Tunnel collapse!

A young Palestinian man was killed on Thursday when a tunnel collapsed on top of him in the As-Salam neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.

According to the sources, 23-year-old Ashraf Ataya was dead on arrival at Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Medical checks revealed the man suffocated under the debris when the tunnel collapsed.

41.

The very latest Purim costume in Sderot

You gotta hand it to the kids to be mentally stable enough to joke about the daily threats to their lives.

Of course, AP shows its deep knowledge of the Middle East conflict in its caption:

Israeli children, one dressed as a rocket, participate in Purim celebrations at their school in the town of Sderot, southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Rockets are fired almost daily towards southern Israel by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Israel declared a heightened security alert on Wednesday and barred Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering the country, fearing Hezbollah guerrillas may try to carry out a major attack during Purim celebrations this week. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Hezbollah? I gues it is easier to make a mistake like that than to say:

...fearing Fatah (Tanzim /Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades), Hamas (Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Jerusalem Battalions), The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (The Martyr Abu ‘Ali Mustafa Battalions), The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, or The Popular Resistance Committees (The Salah al-Din Brigades) guerrillas...

Their caption can only be so long, after all.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad sends me a similar picture - of a kid dressed up as a terrorist.

UPDATE 2: Beer7 , an Israeli who lives in Be'er Sheva and blogs in German, links here but adds a psychological definition from Dr. Sanity:

Level 4 Defense Mechanisms are common among most “healthy” adults and are considered the most “mature”. Many of them have their origins in the “immature” level, but have been honed by the individual to optimize his/her success in life and relationships. Use of these defenses gives the user pleasure and feelings of mastery. For the user, these defenses help them to integrate many conflicting emotions and thoughts and still be effective; and for the beholder their use by someone is viewed as a virtue. They include:

(…)

Humor - overt expression of ideas and feelings (especially those that are unpleasant to focus on or too terrible to talk about) that gives pleasure to others; (humor lets you call a spade a spade, while “wit” is actually a form of displacement)

Pity the poor keffiyeh manufacturers

Even though the keffiyeh has been part of Middle Eastern dress for a while, it is mostly associated with Yasir Arafat who claimed to fold his headgear into a makeshift map of "Palestine." Possibly as a result, the keffiyeh has not been very popular worldwide during the heyday of PLO terror.

One of the consequences of the Palestinian Arabs turning in world public opinion from terrorist to trendy is that the Che-worshipping crowd started to wear keffiyehs as a sort of fashion statement, showing how uber-cool they are to embrace a terrorist symbol.

This increased the keffiyeh market quite a bit, as a number of mail-order houses started marketing them to rich, left-wing defenders of the oppressed to wear in dance clubs and the like.

Naturally, the demand for keffiyehs went up as people jumped on the "oppressed rocket-shooter" bandwagon, and then the hated free-market took over.

Chinese manufacturers started making keffiyehs - cheap.

al-AP goes on from there:

Yasser Herbawi once supplied much of the West Bank and Gaza with black-and-white checkered scarves, the proud emblem of Palestinian identity made famous by the late Yasser Arafat.
But most of his looms now stand idle, his product edged out by cheap imports from the world's newest keffiyeh capital: China.
After a decade of being flooded with Chinese goods, from scarves to toys and bags, the West Bank's largest city is struggling to compete — yet another obstacle to economic independence for Palestinians as they strive for a state of their own.
Two-thirds of Hebron's textile workshops have closed and 6,000 shoe factory workers have lost their jobs in the last eight years, pushing unemployment to 30.5 percent, the highest in the West Bank, according to Hebron's chamber of commerce.
Cheap imports have hit manufacturing towns across the world, but the economic decline of this city of 230,000 is particularly ironic. Hebron long adhered to what is now China's recipe for success: work hard and sell cheap. And Chinese goods are imported to the West Bank by traders from Hebron, the city suffering most.
It's hard to find an upside to globalization here.
The door to China opened for Palestinians in the mid-1990s, after Israel and China forged diplomatic ties. The response among Palestinian business people was especially enthusiastic in Hebron.
Flights from the Middle East to China were soon packed with Hebronites, especially to big trade fairs. China operated a visa office in Hebron for several years, and even street vendors began pooling their cash to send representatives there to shop.
By 2005, Palestinians imported $111 million worth of goods from China annually, compared to $1.8 billion from Israel and $120 million from Turkey, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The value of Chinese imports was up 20 percent from the previous year, compared to 3 percent higher from Turkey and a 7 percent hike from Israel.
Local industry quickly felt the pain.
Herbawi, unable to compete, closed his keffiyeh workshop in 2000 after four decades in operation, switching off 15 looms that used to make about 350 scarves a day. With the support of a dozen loyal customers, he said he reopened last year and rehired one worker who now arrives every day to run four looms for a few hours.
Herbawi wants import restrictions, but these seem unlikely: His son, Izzat, noted that even Arafat's Fatah movement, once a large customer, now buys some keffiyehs from China.

Not only does this show the unintended consequences of these trendy terror-supporting morons ending up making their idols lose jobs, but it also shows, yet again, how little regard Fatah has for actual working Palestinian Arabs.

(h/t jusa)

Today's Gaza edition of "biting the hand that feeds you"

Ma'an (Arabic) mentions that, today, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the PFLP has shot mortars both at the Sufa crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza.

Of course, these crossings are the major ways for humanitarian aid and food to enter Gaza, and even Egypt has been sending aid recently (sent from Algeria) through Kerem Shalom.

The world media consistently ignores the almost-daily rocket and mortar attacks on the very crossings that are the lifeline for Gazans.

Once again, the Palestinian Arabs are not expected to take any responsibility for their actions.