Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 24, 2008

Fisk: Bush responsible for suicide bombers in Iraq

In an otherwise interesting article about suicide bombers, Robert Fisk throws in - twice - who he blames for Muslims blowing up thousand of innocent Muslims in Iraq: George Bush.

..But a month-long investigation by The Independent, culling four Arabic-language newspapers, official Iraqi statistics, two Beirut news agencies and Western reports, shows that an incredible 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq. This is a very conservative figure and - given the propensity of the authorities (and of journalists) to report only those suicide bombings that kill dozens of people - the true estimate may be double this number. On several days, six - even nine - suicide bombers have exploded themselves in Iraq in a display of almost Wal-Mart availability. If life in Iraq is cheap, death is cheaper.This is perhaps the most frightening and ghoulish legacy of George Bush's invasion of Iraq five years ago. Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed at least 13,000 men, women and children - our most conservative estimate gives a total figure of 13,132 - and wounded a minimum of 16,112 people.

...One of George Bush's most insidious legacies in Iraq thus remains its most mysterious; the marriage of nationalism and spiritual ferocity, the birth of an unprecedentedly huge army of Muslims inspired by the idea of death.

While Fisk is suitably horrified at the phenomenon of suicide terror, it never occurs to him to blame the culture that glorifies death and martyrdom for the phenomenon. No, like all the other evils of the world, it must be because of George Bush.

Sderot still getting attacked. Just so you know.

An interesting pattern emerges as one looks at the daily Qassam totals.

Israel drastically reduced its operations in Gaza around March 6 and a tacit agreement seemed to take hold where both sides would observe a "calm." But Islamic Jihad, in the beginning, religiously fired 1 rocket per day at Israel, as well as the usual round of mortars at the crossings where humanitarian aid crosses into Gaza.

This pattern remained until Israel killed four terrorists in Bethlehem, which the Gazans considered a violation of the nonexistent truce and they shot dozens of rockets over a couple of days. Israel stuck by its calm.

Now, the number of rockets being shot is slowly being ramped up again - today there were 4.

This is almost exactly what happened during the "calm" announced in November 2006. Israel stopped all attacks in Gaza, but the rockets kept coming, a couple a day, slowly increasing over time until Israel finally resumed its policy of attacking rocket launching cells - after four months of constantly rising attacks.

Meanwhile, residents of Sderot are learning once again that their lives are worthless according to the current government of Israel. When Ashkelon gets attacked with a couple of Grads, Israel goes on the offensive; but the daily Qassams to Sderot are considered, now as then, to be a price Israel is willing to pay.

All while Hamas continues to smuggle in more rocket components and explosives.

Just like before.

US laser system flunks anti-Qassam test

From Strategy Page:

Despite legal, political and media pressure, Israel has rejected the use of lasers to protect its citizens from Palestinian missiles. This is mainly because of a test of the Skyguard system in the United States (at the White Sands Missile Range), which resulted in only 22 percent of the 36 rockets fired being detected and shot down.
The laser defense system in question has been around for over a decade, and was initially called THEL (Tactical High Energy Laser). Israel dropped out of the THEL project because of the expense of developing the system to the point where it would be ready for regular service. The American partner in THEL development is now offering a smaller version of THEL, called Skyguard, for protecting commercial aircraft from portable anti-aircraft missiles. The manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, originally developed THEL for combat situations. Tests two years ago showed THEL was able to knock down barrages of incoming mortar shells.

On paper, THEL (or SkyGuard, or the new name, Nautilus), looks good. The THEL laser and radar system was designed to track up to sixty targets (mortar and artillery shells, rockets) at a time and fire on and destroy these projectiles at a range of up to five kilometers. THEL can destroy about a dozen targets a minute, at a cost of some $3,000 per shot. Each THEL system (radar and laser) could thus cover about ten kilometers of border. The Skyguard version has a range of up to eight kilometers, uses improved software and can more easily link to other radar systems to obtain targeting information. Skyguard is designed mainly for knocking down portable anti-aircraft missiles fired near airports, at aircraft that are landing or taking off.

Last year, Northrop Grumman said that it could have a laser anti-rocket system ready in 18 months, at a development cost of $400 million. Each anti-rocket system would cost about $50 million, and one or two could protect against missiles from Gaza. Thus the total bill for just developing, building and installing the systems is about a billion dollars.

Israel would like the U.S. to help with the costs, for such a system could be useful in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Israel already gets over $2 billion a year in military aid, and the new Skyguard systems could come out of that. The Israeli artillery brass were making the argument that money spent on THEL would provide more benefit that billions spent on new jet fighters.

It took nine years, and over a half a billion dollars, for American and Israeli engineers to get as far as they did (one working prototype system) with THEL. Aside from the systems size and cost, there's also the problem of lasers being weakened by clouds, fog, mist or even artificial smoke. For that reason, there's not a lot of enthusiasm for proceeding right now on such a bulky and expensive system for use against small rockets. But by the end of the decade, a smaller, and cheaper, version will be more attractive, and more likely to be purchased. The Israeli lawsuit is all about getting THEL/SkyGuard/Natilus in service ASAP, no matter what.

The reality is that THEL is a bulky system, and not really mobile. Each system requires half a dozen or more large tractor trailer trucks to carry the radar, fuel supplies and laser. A proposed new version, the MTHEL (Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser) was designed (using three tractor-trailers) and tested. Engineers believe that MTHEL could be ready for battlefield use in about six years, at a cost of another billion dollars. In another few years, engineers believe they could create a MTHEL that could fit in a hummer.

But the development costs of THEL and MTHEL were so high, that both the American and Israeli governments pulled their support two years ago. The manufacturer put some of their own money into the project and came up with Skyguard. The pitch is that Skyguard would be cheaper than equipping thousands of aircraft with individual anti-missile systems. But first, THEL has to prove that it is reliable enough to stay on-line 24/7 (or nearly so), and act effectively if there is ever an attack. No one has yet tried using these missiles in the United States, but it has happened elsewhere, especially in Africa. There is not enough fear of such attacks in the U.S. to get SkyGuard funded, and purchased.

The first Skyguard system would cost about $150 million, with subsequent ones costing about 70 percent less. Skyguard will also be able to handle rockets, artillery projectiles, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles. In other words, if you had a billion dollars to spare, you might be able to get a Skyguard system to defend Israel from rockets fired from Lebanon or Gaza. Maybe. THEL is another example of technology that got out of the lab before it was ready to survive in the wild. What the Northrop engineers are saying is, "give us another billion bucks and a few years, and we'll have it working effectively." That is a pitch heard all too often in the Pentagon, and more often than not, the outcome is not good. Laser anti-aircraft systems are one of those weapons that can accurately be described as "the weapon of the future, and always will be."

Sixty years ago: Lovable loser

From Time, March 15, 1948 (and quoted in the March 24, 1948 Palestine Post):

In Damascus last week, two Chevrolet pickup trucks and two black sedans pulled up before a plaster and stone bungalow. Arab soldiers piled in bedrolls, crates, map rolls. Then a redhaired, blue-eyed man, who looked more German than Arab,* climbed into one of the sedans. The convoy filed out of Damascus, swung southward into Palestine. The Teutonic-looking man borrowed a phrase from General Douglas MacArthur. Said he: "I have returned." Ahead of Fawzi Bey Kawukji had come some 10,000 Arab volunteers. About one thousand more are entering each week. The Arab "rescue" of Palestine had begun.
Although Fawzi Bey, once an officer in the Turkish army, was born in Lebanon 53 years ago, he was no stranger to Palestine. There he got some of the 80-odd wounds which still sometimes make his popeyes water with pain. He had spent a lifetime fighting for Arab independence against the British and French. Now he was returning to Palestine to command the northern sector in the fight against Zionism.
Fawzi Bey had yet to prove that he could capably command a force of many thousands. So far his battles had ended in defeats: by the French in Syria, by the British in Palestine, and in Iraq (where he fought with Nazi help) during World War II. A British plane strafed, and almost killed him, in Iraq. He went to Germany to recuperate. There he helped stir up the Arab world against the British, married a German girl (his third wife), was held by the conquering Russians until February 1947.
Whatever the doubts of his military ability, there was no doubt about the magic of his name among Arabs. ...Every peasant and Bedouin knows his name. He likes to dress dramatically, to fit his dramatic legend. His favorite garments: a fleece-lined flying jacket, or long sheep-lined cape draped over his shoulders. After his escape from France last year (TIME, March 10, 1947), crowds often appeared before the Orient Palace Hotel in Damascus, and clamored to see him. He began every speech with the words: "I am not a man of words; I am a man of action." The crowd loved it.
Last week, after Fawzi Bey had moved to Palestine, one Syrian said: "Arab history is repeating itself. In the Crusades, Saladin had to free Jerusalem from the infidels. Today Fawzi Bey is our Saladin."
^{* Other blond Arab leaders: Haj Amin el Husseini, ex-Mufti of Jerusalem; Hussein Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee: Sheik Hassan Salameh, Arab commander in the Jaffa sector of Palestine.}

Hamas terror trial to start today - in Jordan

Some Arab countries realize the danger from Hamas much more than many Europeans. From Palestine Today (Arabic):

Scheduled by the Jordanian State Security Court on Monday, the trial of five members of the "Hamas" movement on charges of "obtaining confidential information needed to ensure the security of the state, and possession of a firearm without legal authorization."

Jordan accuses the five members of the "recruitment of many elements on the Jordanian arena to work for the movement, and monitoring and photographing sensitive sites and whose disclosure endangers the safety and security of the Kingdom, in addition to monitoring the Israeli embassy in Amman and warehouses of the American commercial interests (C Town)," according to the indictment.

The defendants are fixed Ahmed Abdallah Aboualhaj, Salim Salim Mahmoud Alihusani, Azzam Ahmed Jaber Helmi, Mohamed Hassan Khojah spring, and demanded Hassan Saleh Abdallah.

The indictment alleges that "all the accused members of the" Hamas "movement, received extensive training in neighboring States in security and detection tracking and resisting the investigation and the security of communications."

It added that the list was subsequently "mandated by the accused Hamas members residing in the State to work on the Jordanian arena and on the two axes, the first recruit elements on the Jordanian arena to work for the movement, and the second monitor and photograph sensitive sites whose disclosure endangers the safety and security of the Kingdom of danger by the video camera and other ordinary and by location (Google Earth) on the Internet and to monitor the Israeli Embassy in Amman and American commercial stores. "

MSM whitewashes Zawahiri Jew-hatred

The knee-jerk desire to not admit that there are Arabs who hate all Jews is almost comical.

From AP:

al-Qaida No. 2 Says Attack Israel, US

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri is calling on Muslims to strike Israeli and American interests to avenge Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to a new audiotape.
In the 4-minute tape, posted on a Web site Monday, al-Zawahri accuses Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of helping Israel in its offensive by sealing off the border between Egypt and Gaza.
He calls on Muslims to "strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all of those who participated in the attack on the Muslims," and says attacks should not be limited to areas in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

AFP's headline also emphasizes Israel but at least it gets it right in the first paragraph:

Al-Qaeda number two calls for strikes against US, Israel

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2008 (AFP) — The second-ranking leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, called for new strikes against Jewish and American interests in a new radio address monitored here.

"Muslims, today is your day. Strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all of those who participated in the attack on the Muslims," Zawahiri said in an audio speech issued by Al-Qaeda's As-Sahab information network on Sunday and monitored here by SITE Intelligence Group.

Zawahiri urged the faithful to "monitor the targets, collect the money, bring the equipment, plan accurately, and then -- while depending on Allah -- storm, seeking martyrdom and paradise."

..."Let us strike their interests everywhere, just like they gathered against us from everywhere," Zawahiri said. "Let it be known to them that they will get blood for every dollar they spend in the killing of the Muslims, and for every bullet they fire against us, a volcano will turn back on them."

He insisted that Israeli warplanes were bombing people in Gaza "based on the American decision, the Egyptian siege, and Arab collusion."

"They will never be able to insult and make a mockery out of our Prophet, peace and prayers of Allah upon him," Zawahiri went on to conclude. "They cannot expect to support Israel, then live in peace and enjoyment while the Jews are killing our fugitive and surrounded people."

Reuters' latest version also chooses to downplay his remarks about Jews:

Zawahri urges anti-Israel attacks over Gaza

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called for attacks on Israeli and Western targets to avenge Israel's raids on the Gaza Strip, in an audio tape posted on the Internet on Monday.
"O Muslims. Today is your day. Hit the interest of the Jews and the Americans and all those who participated in the aggression against Muslims," said the speaker on the tape who sounded like Zawahri.

"Monitor the targets, collect the money, prepare the hardware, plan accurately and then attack," he added, without specifically naming any targets. "No one can say today that we should fight the Jews in Palestine only."

The cognitive dissonance that much of the media has is amazing. Even when the terrorists say explicitly that they want to attack Jews worldwide - and even when they do! - the MSM often wants to place it in purely political terms.

To too many journalists, political opposition makes sense, while pure bigotry does not. Since bigotry is so abhorrent, so is the accusation of bigotry. So even when we have Al-Qaeda, responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, saying purely bigoted statements - the "enlightened" reporters just cannot believe their ears, and cognitive dissonance creeps in to replace straight facts.

Most Palestinian Arab supporters play this game according to MSM rules and are careful in English to ensure that they do not say anything anti-Jewish - they relegate that talk to the madrassas and mosques. And the reporters are more than happy to go along with that charade. But here, we see that even when Arabs publicly announce their bigotry, the natural reaction of at least some in the media is to whitewash it.

Apple detente

Palestine Today mentioned that on Sunday, Israel allowed the export of 700 tons of apples grown by Golani Druze - to Syria.

A little further research brought a fascinating recent Ya Libnan (Lebanon) article that says that the annual trade in apples between Israel and Syria is much higher than that:

The economic position of Golan Druse is far better than that of their coreligionists and relations in neighboring Syrian-controlled villages. Druse horticulturalists have been permitted to export 11,000 tons of apples to Syria per annum since 2005 - the only existing economic relationship between the two countries.

The entire Ya Libnan article is worth reading as it goes into the complexity of the issues facing the mostly Druze residents of the Golan who have divided loyalties between Syria and Israel.

But the apple trade was news to me.

Gallup spinning numbers of radical Muslims

Gallup polled some 50,000 Muslims over a six year period to see how Muslims think, and they will be releasing their results in a book. Ahead of publication they are putting out weekly press releases with some statistics. But based on the press releases, we can already see that they will be spinning the numbers to minimize Islamic radicalism.

Look how deceptive this release is:

Understanding extremists and the nature of extremism requires a global perspective that extends beyond conflicting opinions of experts or anecdotes from the "Arab street." What do Muslims polled across the world have to say? How many Muslims hold extremist views? What are their hopes and fears? What are their priorities? What do they admire, and what do they resent?
According to the Gallup Poll, 7% of respondents think that the 9/11 attacks were "completely" justified and view the United States unfavorably. Among those who believe that the 9/11 attacks were not justified, whom we'll call "moderates," 40% are pro-United States, but 60% view the United States unfavorably.

Analyzing and comparing the answers of the 7% with the moderate majority produced some surprising results. By focusing on the 7%, whom we'll call "the politically radicalized" because of their radical political orientation, we are not saying that all in this group commit acts of violence. However, those with extremist views are a potential source for recruitment or support for terrorist groups. This group is also so committed to changing political conditions that they are more likely to view other civilian attacks as justifiable: 13% of the politically radicalized versus 1% of moderates say that attacks on civilians are "completely justified."

Firstly, notice that they only give numbers for those who call 9/11 "completely justified" and they do not let us know the numbers who consider it "partially justified". They say that the "moderates" are a majority but is this a significant majority, a tiny majority or a plurality? By only giving the 7% number they are trying hard to imply a large difference which may not exist.

Notice also their choice of nomenclature: those who are pro-terror are merely "politically radicalized" while those who were against it - but perhaps support blowing up Jews - are "moderates." The word choice indicates that moderation is normal and expected, but extremism doesn't exist - it is just a learned behavior. This is a huge bias.

The press release also doesn't bother to explain the glaring contradiction that only 13% of those who already declared support for 9/11 claim that all civilian attacks are justifiable. Perhaps the question was stated in a way where Muslim civilians were implied?

Finally, as they try hard to make it appear that "only" 7% of Muslims worldwide support terror and hiding numbers that may indicate otherwise, they don't bother to run the calculation: assuming a conservative number of 1.2 billion Muslims, this means that "only" 84 million are extremist terror supporters that want to see, say, all Americans dead.

One can only imagine how the book will try to bury the real numbers that are so inconvenient to mention in the press release.

British jihadist preacher caught on tape

From News of the World (UK):

A FANATICAL preacher of hate has been recorded urging impressionable young British Muslims to go to WAR against our troops.

Watch hate preacher on video

Yet, sickeningly, crazed cleric Anjem Choudary and his wife rake in more than £25,000 a year in welfare BENEFITS—while he plots to destroy British society.
Now Choudary —who once called for the Pope to be executed and described the September 11 hijackers as "magnificent martyrs" — could face arrest under anti-terror laws for his evil ranting on the tape, which was passed to the News of the World.
After hearing his latest inflammatory remarks, terror experts asked: "What more does this man need to do before he is locked up?"

Choudary, 41, was taped lecturing a secret meeting in west London earlier this month. On it he urges his Islamic followers to persuade would-be terrorists to sign up for killing campaigns.
The bearded mullah describes non-Muslims as "the enemy" and tells his sympathisers they should brainwash at least TEN Britons a month into becoming al-Qaeda supporters.
He also urges his clan to preach that:
FIGHTING jihad against Western society is an obligation.
BRITISH Muslims should travel abroad to fight our troops.
TERRORIST wannabes should "put fear into the hearts" of non-Muslims in the UK and spread al-Qaeda messages.
Choudray's lecture tour was launched with the aim of teaching Islamic extremist recruiting teams how to win new members and brainwash them into backing the mass-murdering terror group.
His speech was made days before Osama bin Laden's new video message warning Britain will soon be hit by new attacks.
Choudary says: "Even in the jihad you can see people carrying the dawah \ and inviting to Islam. The latest video from Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri \ was dawah, at the end of the day.
"Dawah and, obviously, putting fear into their hearts to say, look, no matter how many people you send in your army, it will not make a difference. We have enough land to bury the whole lot of them."
Choudary then claims that, by sheer weight of numbers, radicalised Muslims can make anti-terror laws obsolete. He brags: "So, your job is to create propaganda, our role here in Britain is vital.
"We undermine them, we undermine their ideology, we break their back." He adds: "If we carry on en masse, commanding good and forbidding evil, we say you and your laws can go to hell."
Choudary reminds his fanatical followers: "Remember, our ultimate objective, apart from pleasing Allah, is domination of the sharia \ all over the world."
When we spoke to Choudary he refused to discuss our recording but admitted he WAS on a recruitment drive.
He ranted: "I would like to recruit enough to turn the whole country into an Islamic state within a month...by tomorrow.
"You can put that down. I'm trying to recruit 5,000 a week."

Tunnel collapse!

Another dead Palestinian Arab terrorist, this one from a tunnel collapse on the Egypt/Gaza border:

The body of a 29-year Palestinian was pulled out from a collapsed smuggling tunnel between Gaza and Egypt on Saturday, hospital officials said.
Trapping Under the Rubble

Five diggers were in the tunnel when it collapsed Friday. Four were rescued with serious injuries, and the body of the fifth, a 29-year-old man, was retrieved Saturday, hospital officials said.

The tunnel had been shut down several days earlier by Egyptian security officials, and the diggers had returned to try to reopen it.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 45.

In other Peaceful PalArab news, a rocket that was meant to kill Jews landed in Beit Hanoun, Gaza causing a "powerful explosion."

And PA police officers got into a gunfight with "gunmen" yet somehow 4 civilians were injured, one seriously.

Recent keywords - how people find me

It is always fun to see what people type into search engines to find this blog. Today, predictably, there are a lot of Purim-related searches, but as always there are some that are funny and some that are slightly scary:

purim torah
isaac newton jew
arab death video
arabs news paper
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iran's sahar 1 tv is currently airing a weekly series that premiered on december 13 called zahra's blue ey
arabs porn (always a popular search term)
flowers shaped like stars (an oldie but a goodie)
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A PalArab death I missed from February

PHRMG's list of Palestinian Arabs killed by internal gunfire, while far from complete, adds one murder I missed in early Febraury:

Jaser Hussein Abu Jarghoun, 28, Khan Yunis, Feb 1, Killed by shooting from unknown gunmen.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 44.