Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Peres says Shebaa Farms not the issue; Hezbollah agrees

YNet reports:

In an interview set to be published Sunday, Peres said that Shiite group Hezbollah serves nothing but its own narrow interests, and that he believes it will continue to fight Israel even if the latter withdraws from the disputed Shebaa Farms and the border village of Ghajar.

This is not just a guess. Hezbollah has said the same thing. As I quoted a Lebanese newspaper last year (original no longer available):

The Shiite movement Hezbollah said on Thursday that Lebanon would still need its armed presence even if Israel finally quit the disputed Shebaa Farms district in the south.

"Any Zionist retreat from the Shebaa Farms would be a big achievement for the 'resistance' for this would be the result of its role and its pressure," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah was quoted as saying by the state-run National News Agency.

But any retreat "will not change the fact that Lebanon needs the resistance," he said.

Remember, Hezbollah is not composed of Palestinian Arabs. They have no valid territorial claims against Israel. A full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon has not made them go away or become any less threatening, despite the wishful thinking of Western diplomats.

Hezbollah's insistence to maintain its own terrorist army proves that it is still an Arab-Israeli conflict, not a Palestinian conflict.

Photo of evil Jews

Palestine Today marks today as the 40th anniversary of the arson attack against the Al Aqsa Mosque by a deranged Australian Christian named Michael Dennis Rohan. Palestine Today has an article about it, calling Rohan "Jewish" (as Arabs have done for 40 years.)

Perhaps more interesting is how PalToday chose to illustrate the article:

They've used this exact image at least twice before. (It was originally part of a series of pictures showing the placement of a model of the Second Temple.)

Clearly this family is part of a plot to destroy Al Aqsa and replace it with a Joooish Temple. The father is photographing the Holy Sanctuary to figure out where to place the bombs, and the kids are holding extra sensitive Mossad-built lasers to pinpoint the weak points.

By the way, exactly six years ago Hamas attacked a bus leaving the Western Wall. The suicide bomber killed 18 people including 5 children.

In other words, a far more heinous attack occurred on this same date in history, but no one talks about that one.

Starving Gazans (2009 edition)

Heartbreaking pictures from Palestine Today.

Many more can be seen here.

Clan clash!

From Ma'an:

A clan clash in Tubas caused the death of a young man and incineration of five houses Thursday night.

Palestinian Authority police arrested five in connection with the death of the 23-year-old Husny Ziad Abed Sawafta. An additional 38 were injured. Sawafta was shot point blank with a 9mm.

The police said Sawafta’s family set fire to the homes to avenge the death of their son, and the fires lead to street-side brawls.

There was another clan clash in Bethlehem this week. More than 30 were hospitalized.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 168.

How bad are things in Gaza?

The Free Gaza movement just released a Ramadan message begging for funds.

Dear Friends of Palestine,

Inshallah, this appeal finds you and your families in the very best of circumstances. Sadly, not all of our brothers and sisters in the world share this good fortune. The Palestinian people continue to live under a cruel occupation regime, subjected to merciless Israeli policies designed to ethnically cleanse Palestine of her people. The situation is especially dire in Gaza, where Israel has imposed a brutal siege that is denying 1.5 million Palestinians basic food, medicine, and the freedoms that we take for granted.

So how has Gaza been doing while under this brutal siege designed to mercilessly ethnically cleanse all of Palestine?

The current blockade began in June 2007, although the military blockade started at the outset of the intifada. One would expect that things must have gotten progressively worse for Gazans over the years from reading propaganda from Free Gaza as well as the media.

The data show differently.

The most obvious metric is life expectancy. After two years of supposedly restricting food and medicine into Gaza, one would think that it must be effecting the demographics of Gaza by now.

The truth may surprise you (all figures from CIA World Factbook, historical data from IndexMundi)

Year	Life expectancy at birth	Rank	Percent Change	Date of Information
2003	71.4	106		2003 est.
2004	71.79	111	0.55 %	2004 est.
2005	71.79	113	0.00 %	2005 est.
2006	71.97	116	0.25 %	2006 est.
2007	72.16	114	0.26 %	2007 est.
2008	73.16	105	1.39 %	2008 est.
2009	73.42	107	0.36 %	2009 est.

During the blockade, the life expectancy increased at a faster rate than beforehand!

Not only that, but Gaza's life expectancy ranks solidly in the middle compared to all world countries and areas, higher than many Arab countries like Egypt and Morocco (as well as Syria), and nearly seven years above the world average.

How about infant mortality? With the lack of medicines, Gaza must have been doing very badly in that area under this horrendous siege, right?

Wrong:

Year	Infant mortality rate	Rank	Percent Change	Date of Information
2003	24.15	109		2003 est.
2004	22.93	107	-5.05 %	2004 est.
2005	22.93	107	0.00 %	2005 est.
2006	22.4	107	-2.31 %	2006 est.
2007	21.88	105	-2.32 %	2007 est.
2008	19	113	-13.16 %	2008 est.
2009	18.35	114	-3.54 %	2009 est.

Those numbers have also gotten much better since the "siege." And the world average is 40.85, more than double Gaza's rate. Gaza has better numbers than Mexico and the Philippines, not to mention Egypt and Turkey.

Comparing Gaza with sub-Saharan nations is even more striking. The infant mortality rates in Angola are nearly ten times worse than in Gaza, and the life expectancy in most African nations ranges from 31 to 60.

Zakat money would be better spent in other parts of the world.

Egypt restoring historic synagogue to appear tolerant

From the Daily News Egypt:

The Supreme Council of Antiquities is working on renovating the Moses Bin Maimon’s Synagogue in El-Gamaliya, Zahi Hawass, head of the SCA announced in a press conference Thursday.
The restoration of the synagogue is part of a key plan by the SCA to restore all the major religious sites in Egypt including 10 Jewish temples.
The council is expected to spend LE 700 million every year on the renovations.
Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue’s expenses alone amounted to approximately LE 8.5 million, restoring about 60 percent so far.
Renovations started in June 15, 2008 and are expected to be completed by March 30, 2010, coinciding with the birthday of its founder.
“The Jewish temples belong to the Egyptian people,” said Hawass, “that’s why the Supreme Council of Antiquities strives to reestablish this Egyptian heritage. There are 10 other Jewish temples across Egypt in the restoration plan.”
The synagogue, which was declared an antiquity in 1986, dates back to the 19th century.

It is good to hear, even if the synagogue itself will hardly be used. Egypt has less than a hundred Jews left, down from 75,000 in 1948. Many were forcibly expelled (or what would be called "ethnically cleansed" nowadays.)

Somehow, I imagine that Muslims would find it very upsetting if they heard someone say "Israel's mosques belong to the Zionist people."

To paraphrase something I wrote last year, about the news that Kuwait was going to build a synagogue that would be unusable by any Jews: It is easy to show respect for a religion after you make sure that most of its adherents aren't polluting your country.

The pro-terror Arab European League

The Arab European League is a group that says it wants to work for the rights of Arabs in Europe. But when you look at their website, you see that they go a bit beyond that.

Their front page has a photo of a pro-Hamas poster.

Their English section has a rotating banner that includes this quote from Nasser: "What was taken by force will be liberated by force."

They support Nasserite Arab nationalism, along with members of the Arab National Congress Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Above all, they hate Israel and advocate for it to be destroyed.

In their Dutch section, you can see this cartoon implying that Jews exaggerated the number killed in the Holocaust:

They published this cartoon, as well as a much more offensive one showing Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler (with Hitler saying "you can put this in your diary") as a protest to the Danish cartoons of Mohammed a couple of years ago.

On Tuesday the public prosecutor’s office ruled that AEL was liable to prosecution for publishing the cartoon, but no charges would be brought if the campaign group permanently removed the image from its website. Initially AEL appeared to have complied with this demand.
However, at the same time the public prosecutor’s office also ruled that there was nothing illegal about the publication of the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad on the website of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders in 2006. Likewise, it decided that the TV programme Nova, which also showed the cartoons, had not broken the law.

The public prosecutor’s office concluded that the Danish drawings were not offensive to Muslims as a group and were not an incitement to discrimination or violence against them. However, it said the cartoon on the AEL website was indeed offensive to Jews as a group.
In response to this ruling, AEL decided to republish the cartoon.

There was a debate about the cartoons on Dutch TV, where a representative of the Arab European League and a Dutch Zionist leader argued about it.

At the end of the debate, the AEL representative refused to shake the hand of the Zionist, shocking the hosts. On his website he justified his insult, saying that he would refuse to shake hands with Arabs who support the existence of Israel as well.

This is the mainstream of Arab opinion in Europe.
(h/t Suzanne)

Today's "peace" dividend

From Ma'an:

The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem drew criticism on Thursday with an announcement that he will personally fire the traditional Ramadan cannon early in the Muslim holy month.

Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting and prayer, is expected to begin at sundown on Friday, pending a declaration from Islamic officials. The firing of the cannon on Sunday will mark the end of the day's fast.

Ekrima Sabri, the orator of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the chief of the Islamic Supreme Committee, said Mayor Nir Barkat is attempting to provide political cover for his administration’s evictions of Palestinian residents and destruction of Palestinian houses.

Mayor Barkat heads the Jerusalem Municipality, an institution not recognized by Palestinians as legitimate because it administers areas east of the Green Line, which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. The international community also does not recognize Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem.

Then at the end of the article....

Past Israeli mayors have also fired the cannon. Former Mayor Uri Lupolianski fired the cannon in 2007 and 2008.

So why the stink this year?

One answer is because this year the US administration has changed the status of Jerusalem from a final status issue to a presumed Palestinian Arab capital. Palestinian Arabs, instead of doing what all good liberals expect them to do (thankfully accepting this gift and reciprocating with confidence building measures,) instead act as any sane observer of them knew they would - by becoming more intransigent.

"Siege" includes giving Gazans swimming pools

Israel's Foreign Ministry website continues to document how much aid Israel sends to Gazans. Here are some of the goods shipped at the beginning of the summer:

Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 7-13 June 2009
- 431 truckloads (10,756 tons) of food, medicines, hygiene products, tools and raw materials for essential infrastructures, blankets and mattresses, and grains - wheat, barley, corn, chickpeas, soy beans, carob, sesame seeds, and animal feed - were transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom cargo terminal and the Karni conveyor belt.

- The Kerem Shalom terminal was closed June 9-11 for construction work on the new fuel pipeline from Israel to the Gaza Strip.
- 1.699 million liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 475 tons of gas for domestic use were delivered via Nahal Oz fuel depot.
- 305 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical and humanitarian reasons via Erez Crossing.

Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 14-19 June 2009
- 674 truckloads (16,323 tons) of humanitarian aid were transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom cargo terminal and the Karni conveyor belt. In addition to food, medicine and hygiene products, the following were delivered under the auspices of international organizations such as UNRWA: games, basketballs and balloons, trampolines and swimming pools, generators, air-conditioning accessories, clothing, shoes and hats, chairs, mattresses and styrofoam cups; and raw materials for paper production.

- 1.780 million liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 680 tons of gas for domestic use were delivered via Nahal Oz fuel depot.
- 226 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical and humanitarian reasons via Erez Crossing.

Meanwhile, it looks like Gazans have figured out how to construct buildings without cement that goes towards weapons bunkers: they are making bricks out of clay. The results are admirable.

Of course, this is a Hamas police station being built, which means that Hamas is also using these bricks to build their bunkers. It is unclear whether regular people who lost their homes have easy access to these materials.

Blood libel accusation spreads to Lebanon

Now that a Swedish newspaper has made naked Jew-hatred respectable, the Arabs are gleefully coming out of the woodwork, even in English.

As I mentioned, today's Arab News headlined an article reporting the lie that Israel steals Palestinian Arabs' organs as fact, although it mentioned far down in the article that people were upset at the accusation. Now Lebanon's Tayyar.org reports the story as entirely factual, along with self-righteous indignation like this:

A Horrible, revolting crime done by the Zionist against the Palestinians... I call upon the entire word and specifically the Arabs organizations that work to preserve "human rights", to read the article and call for an inquiry...
Maybe will they be able to save those young Palestinians who deserve to live... As if it is not bad enough for them to be living in their own land, humiliated by the occupation, no it is not enough… They should also die and get their organs ripped away from their bodies for the Zionist to make money and live..what a bad irony!!

This is "news" according to Google News.

Al Qaeda accuses Hamas of being stooges of the Jews

Too funny:

Media sources linked to Al-Qaeda criticized Hamas’ operation against the Salafi group Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers for God) in Rafah on Friday, accusing the de facto government of “abdicating from Islam,” CNN Arabic reported Wednesday night.

The statement called Moussa a “martyr,” saying he was killed by “the bullets and the rockets of Hamas government.”

The statement linked the Hamas action, termed a “massacre” against Jund Ansar Allah, with clashes that took place last summer between Hamas police and Army of Islam affiliates in the Ash-Shyjayyiah area of Gaza City.

Hamas was further accused of working against Islamic groups and “Serving the Jews who occupy Palestine, and the Christians who fight against Iraq, Afghanistan Somalia and Chechnya.”

This is not the first time Al Qaeda insulted Hamas. Last year we saw the strange phenomenon of Al Qaeda scolding Hamas for attacking women and children, and Hamas answering back that they really don't.

Arab News reports blood libel as fact

Headline in Saudi Arabia's Arab News:

Israelis killed Palestinians for organs

No qualifications whatsoever until you read well into the article that Israel disputes the claims.

Another interesting part about the story, noticed by commenter Suzanne, is that the "stone thrower" Bilal Ghanem mentioned in the story actually was a suspected kidnapper and a fugitive when he was shot while the IDF was trying to arrest him in 1992:

Soldiers yesterday shot and killed Bilal Ghanem, 20, a fugitive since July 1991, after cornering him in the village of Imatin, near Nablus. Ghanem had been suspected of kidnapping and violently interrogating alleged informers, the IDF announcement said.