Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 15, 2010

Two US congressmen in Gaza. Or at least one.

Two American congressmen Brian Bird and Nick Bilono, both Democrats, arrived in Gaza Strip on Sunday, the crossings and border authority said in a statement.

It added that a delegation of the UN in Gaza received the congressmen at the Rafah border terminal.

Bird said in a terse statement that his visit to Gaza is the third of its kind, noting that on the two previous occasions he entered through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in northern Gaza.

He added that the visit's itinerary includes touring hospitals, schools and other areas destroyed in the Zionist war on Gaza in a bid to have a close look on conditions of the Palestinian people in the Strip.

What's funny about this story is that the Hamas press release was copied worldwide in other news outlets - without even checking the names.

There is a congressman named Brian Baird who appears to be the first person referred to. Nick Bilono doesn't exist, however.

If a second member of Congress is in Gaza, it may be Nick Rahall, a congressman of Lebanese descent who is the top recipient of money from CAIR. There is no mention of either of them currently visiting Gaza on either of their websites, but at least Baird is in Gaza now.

Speaking to Gaza students, Baird called on the US to break the blockade of Gaza, saying, "We ought to bring roll-on, roll-off ships and roll them right to the beach and bring the relief supplies in, in our version of the Berlin airlift."

Is it not strange that Hamas press releases get reprinted without a minimal set of checks?

UPDATE: Both Baird and Rahall are darlings of J-Street.

What did Hillary Clinton say in Qatar?

According to Palestine Press Agency, Hillary Clinton yesterday said that the US is committed to a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha.

Not quite:

We support a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians co-existing peacefully and with mutual security. We believe that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements.

She said a couple of things that are problematic, but she did not announce any change in US policy.

PA official says he was framed in sex scandal

Too funny:

Rafiq Al-Husseini, the former chief of staff to President Mahmoud Abbas, said Sunday he is innocent of allegations broadcast on Israeli TV days earlier.

Flanked by relatives, Al-Husseini told reporters that a videotape apparently showing him propositioning a job applicant for sex was a fabrication. He refused to answer questions.

In brief remarks, Al-Husseini read aloud a statement alleging that conspirators, who he did not name, dubbed his voice on the videotape for the purposes of blackmail, both political and financial. He described the videotape as manipulated, noted it was more than a year and a half old, and insisted he informed Abbas at the time. [that he was in a dubbed videotape? - EoZ]

...He also said he would not submit to supposed blackmail, which he suggested was intended to compel him to resign and "leave the homeland." Al-Husseini said he would "continue to fight corruption and confront the occupation in Jerusalem, my city, my battle, and my destiny, like all other Jerusalemites."

Al-Husseini termed the broadcast, which appeared Wednesday evening on Israel's Channel 10, "a meeting between corruption and collaboration with the occupation."

Ah, he was targeted because he is such a patriot!

The Mamilla Cemetery: Arab hypocrisy at its worst

The Arabs have a new alleged war crime that they are making waves about: the supposed desecration of the Mamilla Cemetery in order to build a new Museum of Tolerance for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

They are claiming that the museum is being built on ancient graves, while the Simon Wiesenthal Center says that they are only building on top of the site of an existing parking lot and not touching the remaining part of the cemetery.

So, let's see how much respect Muslims themselves had for their own sacred cemetery 65 years ago. From the Palestine Post, November 22, 1945:

An area of over 450 dunams in the heart of Jerusalem, now forming the Mamilla Cemetery, is to be converted into a business centre. The townplan is being completed under the supervision of the Supreme Moslem Council in conjunction with the Government Town Planning Adviser. A six-storeyed building to house the Supreme Moslem Council and other offices, a four-storeyed hotel, a bank and other buildings suitable for it, a college, a club and a factory are to be the main structures. There will also be a park to be called the Salah ed Din Park, after the Moslem warrior of Crusader times.

...In an interview with "Al-Wihda." the Jerusalem weekly, a member of the Supreme Moslem Council stated that the use of Moslem cemeteries in the public interest had many precedents both in Palestine and elsewhere....

So, when Muslims build on top of a Muslim cemetery it is fine, but when Jews do the exact same thing (even when they are not!) it is a major crime.

Any questions?

(If you want to see how the Times-UK bought the Palestinian Arab narrative hook line and sinker, see here. The Wiesenthal Center response is here.)

A potential export market for PalArabs shut down

From Ma'an:

alestinian Authority Preventative Security Services in Hebron confiscated 1 million pills advertised as sexual stimulants, worth an estimated 20 million Shekels, from a warehouse in the city. According to the Ministry of Health, the pills originated from China and entered the West Bank without a required permit from the ministry.

Khaled Seder, Ministry of Health manager in Hebron, said the pills confiscated were unusual, a variety he has not encountered before during his 28-year career as a doctor, he said.

"We estimate the real value of these stimulants, of which 15 varieties were discovered, if sold on the black market could obtain about 20 million shekels" he added.

Seder added that the Palestinian market would not be able to absorb the large quantity of pills discovered, and speculated that they were intended for export to neighboring countries like Jordan.

Butane wars in Egypt

From The Majlis:

Cooking gas riots -- or, as Al-Masry Al-Youm has dubbed them (عربي), "the butane war" -- have killed at least one person in Egypt and sent the mayor of Tanta to prison.

Cylinders of butane gas are ubiquitous in Egypt: they're used in homes, in restaurants, and by street vendors hawking fuul and roasted nuts. But the country is going through a severe butane shortage right now, brought on by last month's deadly flooding, which disrupted supply lines from major ports on the Mediterranean coast. (Government officials say illegal businesses are also contributing to the shortage by using large amounts of subsidized butane.)

The shortage has sent prices skyrocketing -- from LE10-15 (US$2-3) per cylinder, the official price, to as much as LE60 (US$11) on the burgeoning black market. Smugglers are getting their gas cylinders direct from the distributors: Al-Masry Al-Youm published some photos this week (not available online, sorry) of two trucks, owned by Dakahlia governorate, selling butane cylinders to black market vendors.
The suppliers are trying to turn a profit, too: Two butane factories in Damietta were caught underfilling the cylinders they ship to retailers.
Egyptians who can't afford the higher prices have been queuing up in long lines across the country. One of those lines, in Imbaba -- a neighborhood in Giza governorate -- turned into a riot yesterday. A group of men attacked each other with chains and knives; one of them was killed, and two more were injured. Al-Masry Al-Youm reports that elderly people have been fainting in lines in several cities.
The independent newspaper Al-Wafd reported yesterday that six men were injured in a gunfight over butane cylinders in Tanta. The town's mayor shot six people -- two of them, ironically, were his cousins -- after they accused him of hoarding cylinders. The mayor was arrested.

The Daily News Egypt's Al Khan cartoon savagely describes the violence over butane this way today:

And, of course, there is an anti-Israel angle. Israel already has an agreement with Egypt to receive natural gas supplies for a low price over the next 15 years, and Egyptians are complaining “We export natural gas at a low price [to Israel] and import butane gas for a high price."

No strawberries on cakes for Valentine's Day in Saudi Arabia

Another article about how the Saudi religious police crack down on red items on Valentine's Day:

It’s that time of the year again when the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) “sees red” at shopkeepers selling Valentine things — or even strawberries on cakes.
“Customers ask us for cakes with strawberries on them, which we sell throughout the year,” said Samir, a sales clerk at a well-known Riyadh patisserie. “Then we are ordered not to sell them (around Valentine’s Day).”
Marth Sanluis, a Philippine worker at a flower shop on Jeddah’s Rawdah Street said his shop is avoiding any possible conflict by keeping red stuff off the shelves.
“If they (the Haia) see one heart-shaped item or red rose they will take the stuff and close the shop,” he said.
Another flower shop also in Rawdah however had many red teddy bears, roses, cards and heart shaped items. The worker at the shop, Aamir Habib, said that the commission had not visited them yet but if they did they would confiscate all red items.
For those who do indulge in the annual cat-and-mouse game, some simply wear red fashion items or accessorize in red as a small gesture of defiance.
On Saturday in a posh Jeddah boutique, young men were seen snapping pictures of red fashion items and sending the pictures by SMS, presumably to their dear ones to ensure they’re buying the right gift.
One local newspaper lampooned the crackdown on red by questioning whether it was OK to wear the red-and-white Saudi man’s headdress, prompting the Haia to reply that the shemagh is allowed.

Why there will never be peace, reason #27

Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today quotes unnamed sources as claiming that Israeli police sprinkled urine on various sections of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

Making up lies is easy, and there are no consequences for the liars. Certainly no one in the Arab world would dare publicly disagree or repudiate these accusations for fear of looking like Israeli lackeys.

And absurd lies like these are not made intermittently - they are a constant torrent on Arabic websites, with accusations made literally daily about the latest supposed outrageous plan that Israel has for Al Aqsa (tunnels underneath, building a synagogue on top, engineering an earthquake to knock it down....) The major impetus is just pure incitement of hatred against Jews. (This is the picture accompanying the article.)

This cannot be overemphasized: the Palestinian Arabic media shows no interest in living together peacefully with Israel. There are no counterbalancing editorials that call for real peace (as opposed to tactical, short-term truces.) Even the "condemnation" that the most moderate of Palestinian Arab leaders, Salim Fayyad, made for the murder of an Israeli last week didn't even hint that it was morally wrong, merely that it was counterproductive for Palestinian Arab interests.

There are no Palestinian Arab counterparts to Gideon Levy or Amira Hass, people willing to insult their own government and identify fully and publicly with the other side. The hate is endemic, widespread and officially encouraged.

This is the real problem. When one side doesn't really want peace but only complete capitulation, and when that same side spends all its time and efforts in demonizing the other side, there will never be any real peace.

Jenny Tonge fired as health spokeswoman

From The Guardian:

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has sacked his health spokeswoman in the Lords after she called for an inquiry into allegations that Israeli soldiers were involved in organ trafficking in Haiti.
Clegg described Baroness Jenny Tonge's remarks about Israeli troops sent to the earthquake-stricken country as "wrong, distasteful and provocative".
It is the second time Tonge has been fired as a Liberal Democrat frontbencher for making controversial comments about Israel.
The latest row followed accusations in the online Palestine Telegraph – of which she is a patron – that members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had been harvesting body parts in Haiti.
She subsequently told the Jewish Chronicle: "To prevent allegations such as these – which have already been posted on YouTube – going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti."
Fellow Liberal Democrats were said to have complained to Clegg about her comments.
In a statement last night, the leader said the peer "apologises unreservedly".
"Following discussions with the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, I have decided that Jenny Tonge will stand down as Liberal Democrat health spokesperson in the Lords following her unacceptable comments suggesting an inquiry into highly offensive allegations against the IDF humanitarian operation in Haiti," Clegg said.
"The comments were wrong, distasteful and provocative and I recognise the deep and understandable distress they have caused to the Jewish community.
"While I do not believe that Jenny Tonge is antisemitic or racist, I regard her comments as wholly unacceptable. Jenny Tonge apologises unreservedly for the offence she has caused."

Is it weird that someone is quoting her as apologizing but she isn't doing it herself?

Meanwhile, the spoof TongeLashing website I may or may not have set up in response to her comments is doing well, with some 2000 hits and dozens of comments. It is also getting hits from the Liberal Democrat Voice website as well.

Interestingly, the article in the Palestine Chronicle that Tonge was referring to seems to have disappeared from that site. Were they embarrassed? A copy can be seen here.

PA minister accuses Israel of "silently massacring" prisoners

Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe has been busy lately spreading blood libels about Israeli prisons.

Palestine Press Agency quotes him as saying that there are 18 prisoners now who are suffering from incurable diseases like cancer, and says that these diseases are being injected by Israelis. He is also quoted as saying that 60 prisoners have died from serious illnesses in Israel prisons - since 1958!

That sounds like a pretty good record to me!

In addition, he calls this supposed policy a "silent massacre."

A different spokesman for the ministry last year accused Israel of "deliberately injecting sick Palestinian prisoners with infected needles, and of giving them poisonous medicines."

As usual, they have no real evidence for these accusations, but they call on the WHO and others to open up investigations. Because they know that they'll always find a Jenny Tonge to back them up.

Saudi religious police ban red items ahead of Valentine's Day

From AP:

The Saudi religious police are cracking down on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to banned celebrations of Valentine's Day.
A Saudi official says policemen are inspecting shops for red roses, heart-shaped products or gifts wrapped in red, and ordering storeowners to get rid of them.

Such items are legal at other times of the year, but as February 14 nears they become contraband.

Saudi Arabia bans celebration of Western holidays such as Valentine's Day, named after a Christian saint said to have been martyred by the Romans in the 3rd Century.

Most shops in Riyadh's upscale neighborhoods have removed all red items from their shelves.

Red wrapping paper is also forbidden.

The many Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia were warned not to do anything valentine-y in public on February 14th, including blowing kisses.

AP is watering down the reasons that the Saudis are against Valentine's Day. It is not strictly because it is a Christian holiday, but because (as I mentioned in a Saudi Vice episode two years ago)

As Muslims we shouldn't celebrate a non-Muslim celebration especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women.

Here's the perfect gift for Saudi Valentine's Day!

PalArab press and politics personified

Mahmoud Abbas did everything he could to stop Israel's Channel 10 broadcast of various sex and financial scandals in his quasi-government, including writing a letter to Binyamin Netanyahu threatening to resign if the show was broadcast. He is also threatening a lawsuit against the channel.

He asked Hamas not to rebroadcast the show on their TV station, and Hamas agreed. Fatah official Hatem Abdel Qader praised Hamas for their "wise decision of personal responsibility," saying that censoring these programs "is in the best interest of the Palestinian people, and reflects the high sense of responsibility."

But Islamic Jihad is not trying to reconcile with Fatah, and their Palestine Today website just published what amounts to a transcript of the Channel 10 broadcast.

With one notable exception: the whistleblower, Fathi Shabaneh, also said that Hamas was corrupt as well, and Islamic Jihad didn't bother to publish that little detail, so as not to upset their Hamas hosts.

In this way, Hamas allows Fatah to be embarrassed but doesn't do it directly, and Islamic Jihad plays its role as the "extremist" group who doesn't follow the rules - but also doesn't embarrass Hamas.

All this goes to show that while there is more freedom of the Palestinian Arab press than in the past, the media is just another propaganda tool.