Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

PA attacks non-violent Muslim sect

From Makor Rishon (Hebrew), via Daily Alert:

The Ahmadi Muslim sect, founded in 1889 in India, now numbers tens of millions of believers, mostly living outside the Arab world. “We believe in a tolerant, friendly and rational Islam,” says Muhammad Sharif, head of the Ahmadis in Israel. Former Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna notes that among this community there is “no incitement, violence, or feeling the need to conquer the whole world.”

Yet members of the sect who live in the Palestinian Authority have been suffering from incessant persecution, confiscation of property, and physical violence during the past year. Muhammad Jaabri, 46, of Hebron, a married father of four, explains: “They have repeatedly written threats and curses on the walls of my house. They’ve burned my car twice, thrown rocks at my windows.” A month ago Jaabri was attacked by a group of radical religious youth near his home. “They beat me with clubs, and I was in the hospital for days.” After his release, “I went to the police to file a complaint and they sent me to PA security service investigators, where I was beaten again and jailed.”

Muhammad Alawi, 34, from Tulkarm, was summoned to a PA Sharia court with his wife, who is not from an Ahmadi family, where she was ordered to leave her husband and return with her three children to her own family, who had initiated the legal proceedings.

The Ahmadiyyahs are an interesting Muslim sect. Supposedly, they are the ones to have translated the Koran into Yiddish - a very surreal sight (click to enlarge):

Gaza hospital, owed millions by the PA, closes maternity ward

From Ma'an:

A hospital in the northern Gaza Strip warned Wednesday that it was forced to shut down its maternity ward over an insurance dispute with the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, a statement read.

The Al-Awda Hospital in the Jabaliya area north of Gaza City said the move placed approximately 7,000 pregnant women with insurance at risk. The hospital said the women all currently receive treatment at the hospital on a yearly basis.

The statement said the closure was the result of "the PA Ministry of Health's ignorance toward accumulating debt, which has reached $2 million. This money is considered a significant part of the operational budget of the hospital, representing 40 percent of its monthly income."

With the millions owning the hospital in claimed public health insurance dollars, the hospital said it would no longer be able to operate if they were not reimbursed.

Notice that the infrastructure of Gaza is still largely financed by the PA, although they have zero political influence there. Hamas is free to pour all its Iranian and Syrian money into weapons and building a terror infrastructure, without any concern about actually taking responsibility for the citizens of the strip.

Meanwhile, some 60% of the PA budget is going to indirectly propping up Hamas' terror statelet. The hospital in this case doesn't even consider going to Hamas for the money to keep it going.

The PA and the Western world that funds it are somehow hoping that by continuing to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza, it will maintain some sort of influence and the ability to dictate terms of a conciliation. This is a fantasy. The break between Fatah and Hamas is all but complete.

The only chance that the PA would have of gaining control of Gaza would be to cut off the funds that are helping Hamas rule. (This would also help solve the PA's own monetary woes.)

They won't dare do it because it would cause short-term harm to Gazans, yet that is the only way to get Hamas to even think about compromise. No Western politician would publicly advocate or endorse such a move and HRW and Amnesty would go nuts. However, if anyone wants to actually solve the problem of Hamastan, that is the only way (short of pressuring Egypt to annex the territory and naturalize the citizens, which would be ideal.)

Journalism ethics, PalArab style

From Ma'an:

Extremists desecrated a Quran in West Jerusalem on Monday, a Palestinian from Bethlehem said Tuesday.

Bethlehem University student Muhammad Munir claims a group of Israeli Jews tore pages out of the Muslim holy book on Jaffa street.

Munir said he saw the incident while walking from work to his home in Wadi Al-Joz.

"I found papers on the ground. At the beginning I thought they were ordinary papers, but when I looked at them I saw that they included text from the holy Quran and pedestrians were stepping on them," he said.

Munir said he spent 10 minutes collecting the papers while bystanders insulted him and one kicked him.

Once again, Ma'an publishes a story based on a single "witness" without the slightest shred of proof. Do we have photos of the torn pages, or of Munir's injuries?

Of course not. This story fits in with Ma'an's tradition of publishing even the most absurd claims (like Jews raising wild boars and setting them loose to antagonize Arab farmers) as fact.

In this case, the story is already picked up by Hamas' AlQassam website and it will spread from there into, possibly, violent riots. People might even get killed because of this irresponsible "journalism."

But when the point of your journalism has little to do with the truth, it all makes sense.

The mythical Arab village of "Tel ar-Rabi"

Ma'an News has an article about the violent fantasy video of Palestinian Arabs ethnically cleansing Tel Aviv of Jews. It includes this curious part:

Gaza native Muhammad Al-Amrity says he and his friend Ayman Hijazi made the film. It was inspired by a dream he had of his family that originates in Tel Ar-Rabi, which became Tel Aviv. "I tried to go back to my city in the dream."

Was there ever an Arab village named "Tel ar-Rabi" that the Jews Judaized with the imperialist name of Tel Aviv?

Here is a map of the area of Jaffa from a guidebook published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker three years before Tel Aviv was founded. (The original edition of the guidebook was published in the late 1800s, but I do not know in which edition this map was first published. The identical map can be found in the 1912 edition.)

To the northeast of Jaffa, where Tel Aviv is now, the map shows a large section of sand dunes ("sandhills") by the coast, with a section called simply "vineyards" a bit inland. And, in fact, Jews purchased that land from the al-Jabali family - the area was known as "Karm al-Jabali," which literally means the al-Jabali vineyards (in Hebrew, Kerem Jabali) in 1905.

Needless to say, there is no mention of "Tel ar-Rabi" in this map nor in the fairly exhaustive Baedeker guidebook itself. Neither is it mentioned in an entire book written by rabid anti-Zionist Mark LeVine who tries, unsuccessfully, to prove that Tel Aviv was built on top of Arab-owned land.

The entire idea of an Arab town or village that was obliterated by Tel Aviv fits in nicely with the Arab narrative of violent Jewish colonialism, but it is simply another lie that gets promulgated in the Arab media and, from there, excites the imaginations of the anti-Israel crowd in the West.

And notice the very name of the fictional village is chosen to make it sound like Jews humiliated Arabs by naming their town Tel Aviv, a name that in fact came from the original Hebrew translation of Herzl's Altneuland, taken from Ezekiel 3:15.

Krazy Ken O'Keefe gets closer to revealing his kike-hatred

Ken O'Keefe, the lunatic who is trying to extend his fifteen minutes of fame from the Mavi Marmara, is interviewed in the ultra-left Baltimore Chronicle, where he gets a little closer to revealing his true feelings about the Elders who rule the world (thank you, thank you.)

Some excerpts:

The world is full of illusions that are used by the rich and powerful to manipulate and control the people. Those who really control the governments are those powerful few who control the banking systems, the major multi-national corporations and, of course, the mass media.

These powerful people and entities have key strategic needs in order to maintain power:

They must keep the people ignorant and disempowered.

They must keep the people divided. They conquer by dividing the people, never giving people the chance to unite; constantly fostering war by pitting the masses against each other

This system has been controlled by the same families for millennia, and people have been manipulated into a collective state of insanity throughout. Over the course of this tragic situation, empires have come and gone, each one giving way to the next. America is simply the latest in that repeating pattern, and it will fall like all empires do. However, the powers behind it, those controlling the banking, the governments and the propaganda, they will remain in place and prop up the next empire and the pattern will repeat.

The powers themselves remain hidden, with many layers of separation between themselves and the people, and an intricate and complex legal system to protect and hide them.

The Zionist project has been invested in heavily, and the powers that be will not relinquish it lightly.

Israel's primary function is to maintain perpetual conflict in the Middle East. Soon enough, Israel will be spreading this conflict on a global level. I have no doubt that the pending attack on Iran is intended to take us straight into World War III, with a regional nuclear war very likely. This is quite obviously a disaster to any sane human being. However, to those who see their power threatened by the spreading of truth, 9-11, Zionism, the banking system, etc, this is a very necessary act to help them maintain their grip of control over peoples of the world. This 'divide and conquer' strategy has served them well for millennia.

So who are these mysterious powers that rule the world, control banking, control the media, use prime ministers and presidents as puppets for their bidding, and who happen to be heavily invested in the "Zionist project"?

Hmmm. That's a toughie.

Zvi on Jewish refugees, the West Bank and the PA's games

Zvi commented:

Jewish Refugees

The Jews who "left by choice" were motivated by pogroms, riots, theft and violence, together with a rising tide of demonization of Jews and a series of murders in various Arab countries, together with the knowledge that Arab nationalist movements used Nazi propaganda and had Nazi advisors. Jews in the region had every reason to fear what was coming. Given the subsequent history of many of the Arab governments, it is crystal clear that only the flight of most of the Jews from the Arab world prevented even more extreme repression or annihilation.

The claim that the Jews "left by choice" neglects to point out the nature of the choice. The evidence of the Shoah - then very recent - showed that it was smarter to get out before they had to watch their kids' blood running in the streets.

This year, in 2010, the last Jews of Yemen have not been expelled from Yemen either. But only a particularly cruel sort of madman would insist that they remain there as Islamist threats and violence against them grow more and more terrifying.

The claim that Jews from the Arab countries would be granted any kind of mass right of return - to anything other than a temporary "stay of genocide" - is simply not credible at this point in history. The heavily funded and promoted Anti-Semitism industry in the Arab world has worked for decades to indelibly poison those populations. For at least the next 100 years, and probably much longer, the toxin will be far too dangerous for any significant Jewish presence to exist in those lands. Hatred, demonization and conspiracy theories take a long time to wipe out, even with wisely designed democratic systems and general goodwill toward Jews, all of which are lacking in Arab countries.

In addition, society abhors a vacuum as much as nature does. Non-Jews have replaced the Jews of Iraq, Libya, etc., and there are too many Arabs with incentives to commit acts of violence against any Jewish returnees - whom they would see as a direct competitive threat. Arab Muslims in Iraq, who continue to slaughter each other in a bloody power game and in a bloody campaign of massacres, would unite to slaughter returning Jews.

No person has a right to require that an Israeli Jew whose parents helped to build the democratic State of Israel that he must go back to be obliterated in Iraq or Algeria. No person has a right, based on idealistic notions that ignore the facts on the ground, to pretend that it is possible to roll anything back to 1948 or 1967.

Sanity

The only reasonable approach is to adopt the same model used by most nations throughout most of history: accept that wars happened, and that an exchange of populations happened, get over it and live in the present rather than trying to inhabit an imaginary past or an ideal world. There will be no "right of return" for Arabs who left Israel in 1948 - not to Israel, at any rate. If someone else wants to grant Arabs a "right of return" to its own sovereign territory, then they have every right to do so.

The sovereign state of Israel took up the challenge of relieving and mainstreaming the Jewish refugees from the Arab world, a challenge that no other country was willing to meet. It continues to do so to this day, providing the only reliable haven in a world that sees Jews fleeing from places like Yemen. Mizrahi Jewish refugees and their descendents were granted Israeli citizenship decades ago, have contributed to the construction of the State of Israel and have an absolute right to remain in Israel and in territories that Israel annexed during a decades-long defensive war in which its neighbors tried repeatedly to annihilate it.

The grandchildren of the Arabs who left what is now Israel back in 1948 - however brief or long their stay in "Palestine" and whatever their reason for leaving - have rights too. They have an absolute right to be sworn in as citizens in the Arab countries in which they and their parents were born. If a Palestinian leadership, with sovereignty established through a final peace agreement, decides to grant these people a "right of return" to territories that the Palestinians hold as a sovereign state, then that is a Palestinian prerogative. But the "Palestinian" Arabs abroad nevertheless have a right to stay exactly where they are if they wish to do so.

The West Bank

Over the almost two decades since Oslo I, it has become quite clear that the settlements are simply one of many (invalid) excuses for Arab violence and intransigence - no more, no less. The western press has piled on, as have pontificating demagogues and talking heads, but this does not make the excuse any more meaningful.

The West Bank is not Occupied; it is formally Disputed. There is a difference. A disputed territory is one to which multiple parties may have a claim, and there is no law that forbids a government from allowing populations to move into disputed territories. Were there such a law, would the Palestinians entering the West Bank with Arafat in the 1990s not have been in violation? After all, if there were such a law, then neither side should have been bringing populations into a Disputed territory.

Regarding Disputed territories, here is a list of disputed territories around the world (there are an awful lot of them). You have heard of Korea, Kosovo, Taiwan, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and South Ossetia, but there are many more. And guess what? Virtually every government that holds any substantial disputed territory either allows or actively encourages "settlement" of that territory.

Can you imagine telling South Korea (or North Korea, for that matter - the whole peninsula is Disputed) that it can't establish a town, or expand an existing one?
How about telling India that it can't build anything in Jammu and Kashmir because that will change the facts on the ground in a way that could prejudice future negotiations?
How about telling the British that they can't build anything in the Falklands, or Gibraltar? Hint: the UK is now exploring for oil off the Falklands.
How about telling Taiwan that it can't build anything?
What about telling Russia that nothing can be built in South Ossetia and Abkhazia?
Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh?

Why is it only Israelis who are not allowed to exist normally?

Let's please stop repeating the "conventional wisdom" that the West Bank is "Occupied." Conventional wisdom is wrong.

Is the PA Serious?

Settlement blocs like Maale Adumim are expected to be part of a trade. Everyone involved knows this; various proposals exist. Lieberman, for instance, proposed turning over some of the largely-Arab areas of Israel to the PA in exchange, together with their populations - who don't accept a Zionist country anyway - if those people want to remain on their land. Again, the Arab leadership needs to get over it and stop pretending that the last 40 years never happened. Israel is pretty much expecting to have to trade some territory for these settlement blocs. There has been little expansion of anything outside of these blocs recently.

The Palestinians need to stop playing image/power/revenge games and start trying to close a deal. The thing that will end the expansion of settlements forever is a real, meaningful, implemented and permanent peace agreement, one that defines a national border.

Anyone who is serious about ending the expansion of settlements would push hard to conclude a treaty that would define a workable national border. Any person who claims to want an end to the growth of settlements should be hammering on the PA's door, demanding that they stop playing games and start pursuing a real agreement. The fact that Abbas would rather play stupid PR games about settlements rather than hastening that day shows that he simply is not serious.

So, using this metric to measure the how serious Abbas and his cronies are about resolving the disputed status of the West Bank and Gaza, we find that they are not serious at all. What is more, they have never been serious. They have run away from every single opportunity to negotiate a peace that would end the growth of settlements.

Every single opportunity.

Guardian excises Jews from Bible story

A great pickup by Omri from Mere Rhetoric (via email), quoting The Guardian:

Religious tourists in Europe already have the Vatican, Lourdes and Fatima. But the developers behind an amusement park proposed for Mallorca believe they need the attraction of the Holy Land – the continent's very first Christian theme park.

The €10m development is to be built on seven hectares (17 acres) that include the former municipal rubbish dump at Capdepera, in the north of the island, if the plans presented to the town hall come to fruition.

The park will offer visitors everything from the last supper to "live resurrections" in a rolling programme of shows repeated through the day.

...With a cast of extras in the costumes of Romans and early Palestinians, the park advertises itself as "a place where everyone can learn about the origins of spirituality".

Yes, Jesus and his neighbors were all "early Palestinians" who gave the world the origins of spirituality. I guess that the Jewish imperialist dogs only invaded the area around 1948 to unfairly punish the innocent native Palestinian descendants of Jesus' disciples.

But, to be fair, I'm pretty sure that the Guardian would consider Judas to be a Jew.

UPDATE: Melanie Phillips comments on this as well.

Hilarious Photoshop in Al-Ahram

When President Obama met in the White House with Netanyahu, Abbas, King Abdullah and Mubarak, there were a number of pictures of them walking together like this one:

But when Egypt's al-Ahram published the picture, guess who they put in front?

(h/t The Arabist via Elliott)

PalArab TV: Praying Jews are "sin and filth"

From Palestinian Media Watch:

PA TV documentary shows visuals of Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:

PA TV narrator: "They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth [Jews praying at the Western Wall]."

Note: the program was broadcast on the Jewish New Year.

Credit where credit is due: Jordanian Muslims give flowers to church

Al Arabiya reports that a group of Jordanian Muslims, in response to the brouhaha over the threatened buring of the Koran in Florida, responded by giving a wreath of flowers to the Church of Annunciation in Amman to indicate that not all Muslims are filled with rage.

This is in severe contrast with the violent protests that we have seen in recent days in Iran, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Gaza.

RAND Corporation tries to make some money from peace talks

There's a relatively new web page called "Friends of the ARC" that tries to recruit people to support an expansive idea for a rail and highway link between cities in the West Bank and to Gaza to encourage economic and population growth. The site has videos and papers about the plan.

The website is even sponsoring an essay contest for college students to prepare a "policy brief" to President Obama as to why he should be pushing the concept of the "ARC" in the current round of negotiations.

The ARC concept was created by the RAND Corporation together with an urban design company. Its implementation is estimated by RAND to be some $9 billion. While the Friends of the ARC website doesn't explicitly say that they are associated with RAND, it hardly looks like a grassroots organization.

The ARC itself sounds really great for "Palestine." It has a small problem that it cuts an existing nation in half, but that is clearly not an obstacle to peace according to RAND.

Besides that, it was first proposed back in 2005. The initial recommendations of creating transit hubs within existing cities are relatively inexpensive and not dependent on a final peace agreement - yet the PA has done nothing over these years to implement any of these ideas.

On the flip aide, RAND is not pushing for rich Gulf states to finance this vision - it is lobbying the US.

It looks like some major players are smelling where Western money is going to be going, hell-bent on pushing a "peace process" whether it actually makes sense or not. So besides the known incentives of Israelis and Palestinian Arabs in supporting or changing the "peace process" agenda, we also have major corporations salivating over getting some of the inevitable Western money that will pour into trying to give incentive for Arabs not to wage more terror wars.

This additional factor in pushing the "peace" agenda forward might be worthwhile to watch.

UN General Assembly President's anti-Israel bias

From the UN News Centre:

General Assembly President Ali Treki expressed profound concern today at what he called the desecration of the ancient Muslim cemetery of Mamilla in Jerusalem.

In a note released by his spokesperson, Dr. Treki said he was “alarmed by the intent of erecting secular projects on the site of this holy sanctuary, which is the burial place of venerated religious figures for more than 14 centuries.”

The note added that the General Assembly President “believes that this would constitute a sacrilegious and provocative act against the spirit of peace as well as dialogue among civilizations and religions.”

We have discussed the Mamilla cemetery before: how the Arabs have been placing fake graves there, how a previous Arab leader treated this "venerated" cemetery as a cesspool, how the Supreme Muslim Council had planned to build an office park directly on top of the cemetery, and how the Israeli Supreme Court listened to the arguments of those opposed to the construction and ruled against them based on sound legal and historic reasoning.

Yet the UNGA president ignores all of this and flatly declares Israeli moves a "desecration."

The Libyan diplomat has shown yet again why the UN is a joke. Even so, this statement should be protested at the highest levels and the UN should be held accountable for supporting such a blatantly biased and misinformed statement.