Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Hints of corruption under Fayyad

Palestine Today reported last week that PA prime minister Salam Fayyad, who is supposed to be untouched by corruption, has arranged for the head of the Office of Financial Supervision and Management to be fired.

Dr. Mahmoud Abu Rub's job was to audit the financial dealings of other PA ministries and institutions. According to the article, he did his job too well, and was uncovering a little too much.

Quoting Al Quds al Arabi, the newspaper says that al-Rub "went past red lines in researching the financial files and expenses of the government."

A month ago, al-Rub decided to look at the files of the Ministry of Finance, a ministry that Fayyad had led. This investigation evidently upset Fayyad.

Fayyad does not have the authority to fire the head of that office, so he appealed to Mahmoud Abbas to sack him, and he did.

(h/t Ali for help with translation)

Khaled and Hala, ages 5 and 3, are engaged

From MSN:

Hala and her fiancee Khalid have exchanged rings and plan to marry in 10 years when she is 12 and he is 15.

Their story has become a national talking point in Syria after the girl's father relayed the story of their engagement to the Akes Alser website.

The families of both children have won plaudits over the union — although they insist the children are in love and want to marry.

Khalid's father, Juma, said the boy was his only child from a 25-year marriage.

"I vowed to have my child engaged at the age of five if he was a boy and to marry him to a woman of his choice at the age of 15," he told Gulf News.

Juma said Khalid, from the town of Horns, 180km north of Damascus, fell in love with Hala within days of meeting her during a family trip to the port city of Latakia.

He claimed Khalid was so love-sick after parting from his young girlfriend that he refused to go back to his nursery unless little Hala came too.

"We did not know what to do till my wife called Hala's mother and asked her opinion about the case," Juma was quoted saying.

"She said her daughter had developed similar symptoms of loneliness and the family would be happy to see them engaged."

Juma bought rings for the young ones and both families held a celebration in Latakia.

The father has even vowed to cover the education expenses of both children until they graduate from school.

"We know that Khalid or Hala might change their mind in the future, but what we do know at this stage is that they are very happy and talk to each other everyday," Juma told Gulf News.

Yet more outrageous statements from The Yentas

According to the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, Jimmy Carter not only supports the idea of "Palestine" unilaterally declaring itself to be a state, but he said that he would "work in the international arena" to gain traction for that idea.

Jordan's Addustour reports that Carter also told him that he supports international sanctions against Israel for its policy of allowing Jews to live in Judea and Samaria.

I guess if unilateral moves are OK for Jimmy, then maybe it is time for Israel to act unilaterally concerning the the disputed territories as well.

Might be time to change the name of Carter's group of old busybodies trying to remain relevant...

Spokesman defends Hamas from critics - hilariously

Ahmed Youssef, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs for Hamas in Gaza and widely regarded as one of Hamas' more moderate voices, was interviewed by Jordan's Addustour newspaper (reported in PalPress.) In the interview, he describes why Hamas has not been keen on suicide terror lately: "Martyrdom operations bring us problems with the international community, and are exploited by the Israeli media to distort our image, and accuse us of terrorism and incitement to violence."

That stupid international community, thinking that heroically blowing yourself up among women and children is a form of terrorism!

He also said that the current relative calm in Gaza was partially in order to take advantage of the negative political views of Israel worldwide, because a new barrage of rockets would cloud the impression from the Goldstone Report that only Israel was an aggressor. (His words were that the calm was "an investment for the international reaction, which criticized Israel following the Goldstone report.")

He claimed that the timing of the attack that killed four Jewish civilians in late August was not meant to derail the peace talks or embarrass Abbas, saying that it was "only a coincidence" that the attacks occurred right before the negotiations were to resume.

Perhaps the best part of the interview was his insistence that Hamas is not trying to turn Gaza into an Islamist statelet. Specifically dealing with the law that makes it illegal for women to smoke a hookah in public, he responded:

"There is no place in the world does not prohibit smoking in public places, and in Western countries there are strict laws (restricting smoking), while in Gaza, we have more freedom, and the law is limited to women to maintain public morality."

There you have it - Hamas is more liberal than Western states because it allows men to smoke in public!

(Not to mention...if it is immoral to have women seen smoking in public, using their mouths to inhale the fragrant tobacco from the long tube, wouldn't men smoking in public be....gay?)

More details of what happened on the Mavi Marmara

In his testimony before the Turkel committee, IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi revealed a few new details of the Mavi Marmara incident.

He said that one of the soldiers, who was being strangled by the peaceful protesters, used a stun grenade on his own body to save his life.

One soldier who was beaten on the ship still suffers memory loss.

And the second soldier to be shot was definitely hit with a gun that was not IDF-issue, meaning a gun that the Mavi Marmara militants had brought on board themselves.

(h/t Jed, Islamonazism blog who has an update from Haaretz)

Fatah newspaper op-ed complains about Hamas leader hugging Carter

The West generally regards Fatah as moderate political party, especially in comparison with Hamas. This meme permeates American and European coverage of the Middle East, as it is an easy shorthand way to explain things.

However, in Arabic, Fatah members and the pro-Fatah media often attack Hamas for being too accommodating with Israel!

We've documented this many times, with both Fatah leaders and others complaining about Hamas' supposed moderation.

Today we see another example, in the pages of the adamantly anti-Hamas and pro-Fatah news site Palestine Press Agency.

Op-ed writer Ahmad Dahglas is disgusted by Khaled Meshal hugging Jimmy Carter in Damascus last week, saying that it shows that Hamas supports the idea of a Jewish state.

He blames Carter, as architect of Camp David, of supporting a Jewish state in Palestine, something that is obviously unacceptable to any self-respecting Arab. He calls Carter "the head of the snake that has poisoned the region" and his desire to see Israel exist makes him as bad as Herzl.

For Hamas leader Meshal to embrace Carter is akin to him hugging Menachem Begin or Theodor Herzl, according to this op-ed.

How moderate Fatah is!

(h/t JSS for the more complete Carter picture, and a nod to Meshal's right hand)

Arabs prune olive trees, claim "settlers" cut them down

From Ma'an:

On Saturday morning, Salima Ewes, 73, and her family found 40 olive trees had been cut down in their field in the northern West Bank village of Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, southwest of Nablus city.

Akram Jamil Uweis said his family headed to their field to harvest olives, and found their trees destroyed. He said the family believed residents of the nearby illegal settlements of Eli and Ma’ale Levona were responsible for the attack.

As is often the case, the Arabs are claiming that religious Jews cut down their trees during the Jewish Sabbath - something very unlikely.

But beyond that, look at the pictures of the supposedly chopped down trees Ma'an show us:

Olive trees have much larger trunks than what is shown here. And for olives to grow best, trees have to be pruned relatively often - sometimes down to the trunk.

By any measure, these pictures show neither that the olive trees were "cut down" nor "destroyed." And in the past we have seen Palestinian Arabs claim that their normal prunings were actually "settlers" destroying the trees - or that they pay Arab kids to cut the trees - and they get compensation from Israel when they make those claims.

And while there may indeed be incidents where hotheaded West Bank Jews do damage trees, it is hardly a one-way street. Arabs have destroyed the trees belonging to Jews, something that gets next to no coverage in the media.

And Arabs have destroyed Jewish-owned trees and crops for a long, long time.

Lauren Booth converts to Islam

She's on spiritual morphine!

Tony Blair’s sister-in-law has converted to Islam after having a ‘holy experience’ in Iran.
Broadcaster and journalist Lauren Booth, 43 – Cherie Blair’s half-sister – said she now wears a hijab head covering whenever she leaves her home, prays five times a day and visits her local mosque ‘when I can’.

She decided to become a Muslim six weeks ago after visiting the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom.

‘It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy,’ she told The Mail on Sunday.

When she returned to Britain, she decided to convert immediately.

Ya gotta love someone who converts to Islam before reading the Koran.

Then again, Booth has never been someone who thinks much about anything before declaring her fantasies to be true.

How long before her already brainwashed children follow? From the end of this video, it looks like it's already started....

(h/t Jacoby, Silke. See also Israellycool.)

Hamas sprinkles Mavi Marmara dead's ashes on terrorist graves

From Ha'aretz:

Members of the Islamic Hamas movement Saturday scattered ashes from the nine Turkish activists killed by Israeli naval forces during the interception of their Gaza-bound flotilla on the graves of Hamas militants killed in Gaza.

The dust of the Turkish activists was brought to Gaza by campaigners form the aid convoy Lifeline 5 - which arrived in the coastal enclave on Thursday, Hamas officials said.

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader who scattered the ashes on Hamas militants' graves, told reporters that "this action reiterates the strong ties between the Turkish people and the Palestinians in confronting Israel."

He added "those campaigners of the freedom flotilla, had sacrificed themselves and their blood for breaking the siege imposed on Gaza. Today the dusts are mixed upon the request of the families of the Turkish victims."

But I thought it was a non-violent flotilla! Surely those people who were killed while wielding their metal bars and chains - people deeply committed to peaceful resistance - would be aghast at the idea of their remains being sprinkled on the graves of Hamas terrorists and fighters!

I'm sure that Free Gaza and Viva Palestina and the ISM, all deeply committed to peace and peaceful resistance, will protest the symbolism shown here immediately and loudly.

Any hour now.

"Elders" attend anti-Israel protest

I could not find this story in any Western media:

Former American President Jimmy Carter was among a group that attended an East Jerusalem demonstration protesting the removal of Palestinians from their homes in the area. Carter praised the work of the Palestinian and left-wing Israeli activists present, who hold weekly demonstrations, and emphasized the importance of peaceful protest in their struggle.

Al Masry al-Youm says that Mary Robinson attended the rally as well, and that Carter addressed the crowd.

It should be emphasized that the Arabs who were evicted from the neighborhood hadn't paid their rent to the Jewish owners of the homes, and that the evictions have been upheld by Israel's Supreme Court. Which means that Carter and Robinson are effectively accusing Israel's legal system of being corrupt.

What honest brokers they are!

Latest Latma (10/22/10)

"It's the occupation, stupid" - Robert Pape's stupid argument

Robert Pape, writing in Foreign Policy, says:

New research provides strong evidence that suicide terrorism such as that of 9/11 is particularly sensitive to foreign military occupation, and not Islamic fundamentalism or any ideology independent of this crucial circumstance. Although this pattern began to emerge in the 1980s and 1990s, a wealth of new data presents a powerful picture.

More than 95 percent of all suicide attacks are in response to foreign occupation, according to extensive research that we conducted at the University of Chicago's Project on Security and Terrorism, where we examined every one of the over 2,200 suicide attacks across the world from 1980 to the present day. As the United States has occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, which have a combined population of about 60 million, total suicide attacks worldwide have risen dramatically -- from about 300 from 1980 to 2003, to 1,800 from 2004 to 2009. Further, over 90 percent of suicide attacks worldwide are now anti-American.

He then goes on to his recommendation - stop "occupying" other countries and the problem goes away!

Pape then makes up some very subjective criteria to explain why most occupations do not result in suicide bombings -one that there is a "social distance" between "occupier and occupied," and the other is "prior rebellion."

There is a lot that is absurd about this obviously biased research meant to reach a foregone conclusion. Joshuapundit covered a few.

I looked up the raw data for his research supposedly showing no correlation between Islamic fundamentalism and suicide bombing, the Suicide Attack Database at the University of Chicago. It allows you to search for all attacks by country, year, group claiming responsibility and other factors.

Here is the full list of all groups that engaged in suicide attacks since 1981, according to the research that Pape relied on for his conclusion:

1920 Revolution Brigade
Abu-Dajanah al-Ansari Martyrdom Brigade
Aden-Abyan Army
Al Madina Regiment
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Al-Fatah
Al-haramayn Brigades
Al-Jaysh al-Islami li Tahrir al Amaken al Muqaddasa
Al-Mourabito un Group
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa
Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia
Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb
Al-Shabaab
AMAL
Amjad Farooqi group
Ansar al-Islam
Arab Egyptian League
Arab Resistance Movement - Al-Rashid Brigades
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Armed Islamic Group
Assirat al-Moustaqim
Babbar Khalsa International
Chechen Separatists
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Fatah al-Islam
Great Eastern Raiders Front
HAMAS
Harakat ul-Mujahidin
Hezbollah
Hizb-I Islami
Hizbul Mujahedin
Islamic Holy War
Islamic Jihad
Islamic Resistance
Islamic Revolutionary Movement
Islamic State of Iraq
Jaish Ansar al-Sunnah
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Jama'at Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad
Jemaah Islamiya
Jund al-Sham
Kurdistan Workers Party
Lashkar-e-Islam
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lebanese Ba'ath Party
Lebanese Communist Party
Lebanese National Resistance Front
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq
Mujahideen Youth Movement
Mujahidin Shura Council
Mujahidin Shura Council
Partisans of the Sunni
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Resistance Committees
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front
Riyadus Salikhiin
Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions Group
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Taliban
Tanzim
Tehrik Taliban-e-Pakistan
Unknown Group
Vanguard of Arab Christians

Now, when you look at this list, do you see a pattern?

Now, it is true. many of these groups are not Islamist - some are secular and some are Christian - but practically all are Arab or Muslim, pointing to a much clearer correlation between suicide bombings and Arab/Muslim culture than a strained theory of "occupation."

Also, his biased research is apparent when he defines Pakistani suicide bombings against Pakistan - over 2000 deaths that do not fit any of his "occupation" criteria - as an example of US occupation, since Pakistan is a US ally!