Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

A single sentence

Little Green Footballs pointed out this editorial at The Guardian, from a British Muslim leader arguing for the re-establishment of the caliphate and a unified Muslim world.

I will leave it to others to dissect this example of pseudo-scholarship, but one sentence jumped out to me:

The lack of legitimate leadership, coupled with a sense of humiliation, has led to widespread political instability in the Muslim world with its consequences for the wider world.

It is an interesting sentence in a few ways:

* It implicitly blames the West for Islamic terror - if only the West hadn't sliced up the Islamic world then there would be no need for terror! The ease with which Muslims can escape any sense of personal responsibility is amazing - murders and terror are never their fault, rather they are inevitable consequences of outside factors.

* It says explicitly that if the Muslim world would not have a sense of humiliation, it would not be a security threat. Of course, what is unsaid is that the sense of humiliation is directly because Islam has lost to the West in every sphere of influence - militarily, scientifically, culturally. Which of course means that for that "sense of humiliation" to disappear, the West must surrender and let the Muslims take over the world - all for security.

* The division of Arab states by the West happened some 90 years ago. Arab states have been independent for some 50 years. Yet for some reason, they have never coalesced into a single Arab or Muslim state - even though nothing is stopping them from doing exactly that! And who does the writer (Osama Saeed) blame for this lack of Muslim unity? The evil West, of course!

Amazing how a single sentence can accidentally betray so much truth about the mindset in Islam today.

Left's sense of humor seems gone

Is it only me, or has the Left lost their sense of humor?

Outside of Jon Stewart, all other liberal-leaning "humorists" that I run across on the blogosphere or on TV just seem bitter rather than funny. (Stewart is simply brilliant.)

It is sad to see that someone like Garry Trudeau has turned from a major political humorist into just a shell of his former self.

(I usually don't watch SNL; the times I've caught Weekend Update in recent years it wasn't bad but I didn't detect much of an obvious ideological slant.)

A string of Israeli diplomatic successes - will they last?

1. Magen David Adom to join Red Cross in December

2.

Israel introduced a watershed resolution in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday that designates January 27 as an annual commemoration day for the 6 million Jews and other victims murdered in the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two.

The measure, expected to be approved on Tuesday by consensus, rejects any denial that the Holocaust took place. It also urges members to "inculcate" future generations with the lessons on the genocide so it would not be repeated in the future.

3. The world condemnation of Iran's president would simply not have happened a year ago.

4. Neither would the UN and EU demanding Syria shut down Islamic Jihad.

5. Israel has had major diplomatic successes in establishing relations with many Muslim states since the Gaza pullout. It appears that the Iranian remarks were a direct reflection of the fear Iran has about this.

It appears that there are a number of reasons for the current thaw between Israel and the world:

First and most obviously is the Gaza pullout. While it may have been foolhardy for many other reasons, there is no doubt that a wave of goodwill came as a result. The constant refrain from the Arab world of an expansionist Israel was shown once again to be a lie.

A second, related reason is the fatigue that the world has with the Palestinian cause. As time goes on it becomes clearer that the Palestinian leaders are far less interested in the well-being of their people and far more interested in scoring political and military points against Israel. As their corruption and record of lies increases, world sympathy goes down.

Another reason is the desire that nations and organizations have for power and influence. The UN, the EU, Russia, Egypt and the US want to constantly prove that they are relevant, and solving an intractable problem is about as relevant as it gets. The only way they can solve the problem is by appearing to be even-handed, by being honest brokers in actions if not in intent. Israel will not be moved to make concessions from those that are openly hostile, so at least the pretense of fairness is needed to exert influence. Hence, cosmetic changes such as a world Holocaust day or admitting Israel to international organizations are easy gestures to acheive that goal.

A fourth, related reason is the pressure that Israel and Jewish groups has put on organizations, newspapers and governments pointing out the egregious anti-Israel bias that was allowed to fester for the past decades. One cannot discount the importance of CAMERA, Honest Reporting, MEMRI, and Anne Bayefsky. People are sensitive to pressure.

So how important are these successes, and more critically, will they last?

After Camp David and Oslo, Israel enjoyed similar surges of popularity with the world community, only to see the goodwill disappear during later events (the Lebanon war and the Intifada, respectively.) It would be a fair guess to say that this pattern will be repeated, as the Arab world keeps trying to find a way to pressure Israel that resonates with the world (which is the entire reason they pretend to support the Palestinian cause but don't actually help the Palestinian people - they want the problem to exist, not to be solved.) Sooner or later, they will succeed, and latent global anti-semitism will trump the temporary goodwill Israel is receiving.

The open question is whether the temporary gains offset the losses. The cold peace with Egypt has, on balance, probably been worth Israel's giving up the Sinai (even as the US continues to pay off Egypt's detente and as Egypt shows zero interest in normalizing relations), but at this time it is far from clear that the Gaza withdrawal will pay similar dividends.

Jewish holy books desecrated by Muslims. No deadly riots.

From Jerusalem Newswire, pictures from Hebron News:

The Taliban's 2001 destruction of ancient Buddhas and this year's alleged desecration of numerous Korans by American soldiers at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba made international headlines and became incidents of global impact.

Friday's spiteful desecration of bibles and Jewish prayer books by “Palestinian” Muslims visiting the biblical Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, however, went virtually unnoticed.

Photographs taken by outraged members of Hebron's Jewish community and posted online showed the torn pages unceremoniously dumped behind the Gutnick Center, which stands in front of the compound built by King Herod over the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The official website of the Jewish Community of Hebron noted the desecration occurred on a day the site was closed to Jews to allow Muslim worshippers to mark the impending conclusion of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Hebron News adds:

A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement:

It seems that military and political leaders are more concerned with "Arab sensitivity" as opposed to desecration of Jewish holy books. One can only imagine the response had Arabs discovered 'desecrated Korans' in the vicinity of Ma'arat HaMachpela. It should be remembered that an Israeli woman, Tatiana Soskin, was jailed for two years for 'desecrating' a Koran. It is unheard of that such a desecration should be left unpunished. We demand that Ma'arat HaMachpela be closed to Muslim worship until the culprits responsible for this crime are apprehended, tried and punished.

Hat tip to Israpundit.

Youths, immigrants, the poor riot in France, - but don't mention they're Muslim

There are now hundreds of articles from news sources on the Web talking about the fourth straight day of riots in France, and almost all of them bend over backwards to avoid mentioning that the rioters are Muslim. (There are a couple of elliptical references to "unease over tear gas in a mosque" or "meeting with the president of the Muslim community" without exactly explaining why.)

Can you imagine a similar situation involving the Amish or Mormons or Chassidim or Hindus that would not mention the religion of the rioters when they all have a religion in common?

Truth or fiction? Times (UK) article on Islamic Jihad rockets

Something is not adding up....

Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
IRAN has promised a reward of $10,000 (�5,600) to Islamic Jihad if the militant group launches rockets from the West Bank towards Tel Aviv, a senior Palestinian intelligence official said last week.

Speaking in his Ramallah office, the official produced a fat wad of $100 notes which he said had been confiscated from a pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad activist.

The money was said to have gone from Iran to Damascus, the Syrian capital, from where Ibrahim Shehadeh, Islamic Jihad’s head of overseas operations, transferred it to the West Bank.

So far, so good, although seeing anything pro-active from the PA in fighting rocket attacks is pretty rare. Then the article strays into things that are much harder to believe...

According to the intelligence official, the Palestinian Authority has located workshops where “Al-Quds” (Jerusalem) rockets are being made and has given their co-ordinates to the Israelis. “We understand they destroyed some of them,” he said.

So the PA knows where some of these "workshops" are and rather than go and blow them up themselves, they tell Israel to do it? In territory they consider theirs? This is stretching credibility quite a bit now.

Especially since the PA never hesitates to condemn Israel every time there is an airstrike against rockets and terrorists.

Israeli intelligence officials said that Iran was threatening the country on three fronts: through long-range missiles based in Lebanon; through terrorist networks around the world; and through the new arsenals of the West Bank.

Islamic Jihad is the only Palestinian group that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. Based in Damascus, it has an annual budget of several million dollars — provided by Iran. Ramadan Shalah, its leader, has a PhD in economics from Durham University. The organisation’s military arm is the “Al-Quds Brigades”.

OK, now we are in lefty fantasy land. Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah Al Aqsa, and the many splinter groups all of a sudden no longer call for the destruction of Israel?

Fact checking at the Times seems to be nonexistent.

Imbeciles for genocide

If the subject matter wasn't so serious, this stuff would be hilarious.

A morning daily said that harsh international reaction to remarks of the Iranian president against the 'Zionist regime' was a pre-staged scenario to put further pressures on Iran.

Commenting on the reactions of the world leaders to the speech of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about the Israeli regime, 'Iran News' said, "Some analysts believe this episode to have been a pre-coordinated move by Western media and governments to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic".

It added that the said analysts described the international community's reaction "as impolite and unprofessional".

Yes, the Iranians who rallied by the millions chanting "Death to Israel! Death to America!" are the arbiters of professionalism and politeness.

Meanwhile, Iran's Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel

declared that Zionism is synonymous with aggression, occupation, crime and injustice.

Let's do a quick reality check:

Number of Arabs killed by Israel since 1948: a generous guess would be 50,000, probably less
Number of Arabs killed by Iran during the Iran/Iraq war 1980-1988: 200,000-300,000

AP Sets Record for Most Bias Crammed into Smallest Space (IRIS Blog)

I've been very impressed with the IRIS Blog, which has become a one-stop shop for Israel news and commentary. Here is a typically excellent entry about media bias:

AP Sets Record for Most Bias Crammed into Smallest Space

Normally brevity is the rule for newspaper captions. There is a problem with this photo, however. A typical person would interpret this photo as "Iranian Children Raised on Diet of Violent Anti-Semitism." So the caption writer needed a little less than 1,000 words to attempt to undo it:

Iranian school boys shoot with their toy guns at an Israeli flag as it burns during an anti-Israeli rally marking 'Al-Quds Day' (Jerusalem Day), to support the Palestinian cause, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Oct. 28, 2005. Tens of thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country Friday and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president who repeated the words of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, by saying: 'Israel must be wiped off the map.'
"Toy guns"
Here are hundreds of examples of Muslim children brandishing what caption writers have implausibly labeled "toys." In one particularly humorous example, the caption writer claims that the obviously real gun is "unloaded."

"To Support the Palestinian Cause"
Lest you think they were motivated by the extermination of Jews or Israel as Iran's president explicitly declared yesterday, the caption claims they are actually simply in favor of a Palestinian state.

"Ultraconservative"
Calling for the extermination of an entire nation needs to be linked to campaigning for tax cuts, as this post documents.

"Who Repeated the Words of Khomeini"
This is the spin of the Iranian Foreign Minister, who dealt with the outrage against the president's call for Israel's extermination by claiming "that Ahmadinejad had merely quoted what the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said more than 26 years ago." A large number of news stories immediately followed suit and posted those words as fact without mentioning that it was Iranian spin. Here is a small sample.

The Palestinian Muslim War against Christians

Another story that the mainstream media will not touch.

"The Christians here are perceived as easy prey," complains a prominent Christian businessman. "In recent years there has been an upsurge in the number of attacks on Christians in Bethlehem."

Muslim and Christian political leaders in the city strongly deny the existence of an organized anti-Christian campaign, insisting that the violence is mostly the result of "personally motivated" disputes that are unrelated to religion.

Yet off the record, many Christians in Bethlehem who were interviewed during the past week expressed deep concern over increased attacks by Muslims on members of their community. Moreover, most of them said that they were seriously considering moving to the US, Canada and Latin America, where many of their relatives already live.

Jihad, a Christian merchant from the nearby town of Beit Jala, who has been dealing in antique furniture for over 30 years, says he is planning to leave for good to Chile, where at least 80,000 of his townsfolk now live.
His friend, George, who used to own a souvenir shop, says he's planning to move next week to Peru, where his brothers and sisters have been living for the past 15 years. The two, who asked to be identified only by their first names, are extremely cautious when the issue of Muslim-Christian relations is raised. "It's true that there have been a number of cases of violence against Christians, but generally speaking the situation is not that bad," George stresses.

Other Christians in Beit Jala disagree. According to a local physician, the plight of the Christians has been aggravated over the past decade in general and since the outbreak of the intifada in particular. "After the Palestinian Authority arrived here in 1995, many Muslim families from Hebron and other parts of the West Bank have moved to Beit Jala," he says. "What's worrying is that some of them have illegally seized privately-owned lands. When one of the Christian owners refused to sell his land to a senior Palestinian security official, he was arrested for a number of days."

In another case, a 60-year-old Christian man was briefly detained by one of the Palestinian security forces because he had forbidden his daughter to date a Muslim security officer. Other Christians who tried to stop Fatah gunmen in Beit Jala from firing into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo in the first years of the intifada later reported that they had been beaten or threatened by the gunmen.

The same gunmen are also responsible for the rape and murder of two Christian teenage sisters from the Amr family. The assailants then claimed that the sisters had been murdered because they were "prostitutes" and had been "collaborating" with Israeli security forces - a claim that has been strongly denied by the victims' relatives and many residents of the town. "The gangsters murdered the two sisters so that they would not tell anyone about the rape," says a family member. "Some of the murderers were later killed by the Israeli army, but others are now living in Europe after they had sought refuge in the Church of Nativity. It's absurd that Muslim men who rape and murder Christian girls are given political asylum in Christian countries like Ireland, Spain and Italy."

Last week Beit Jala was once again the scene of religious tensions after a Christian woman complained that she had been harassed by Muslim men from the village of Beit Awwa in the Hebron area. "Such incidents have become a daily phenomenon," says Mary, who runs a small grocery in the town. "Many Christian families have sent their daughters abroad for fear they would come under attack by Muslim men."

Earlier this year tensions between Muslims and Christians in Bethlehem reached a peak after a Christian family complained that their 16-year-old daughter had been kidnapped by a Muslim man. Following the intervention of senior Palestinian officials and Muslim leaders, the girl was reunited with her family after spending a few days in a village near Hebron. With the help of American diplomats, the girl was flown immediately to the US to begin a new life with relatives and friends.

Some Christians point a finger at the foreign media and diplomatic missions in Israel, accusing them of ignoring their predicament for "political" reasons. "Although most of the foreign journalists and diplomats are Christians, they don't seem to pay enough attention to what's happening to the Christians in Bethlehem," says Bishara, a Christian tourist guide. "They're obviously afraid of damaging their relations with the Palestinian Authority."

While it's almost impossible to find a Christian who's prepared to go public in airing such grievances, Samir Qumsiyeh, a journalist from Beit Sahur, is a notable exception. Last month he was quoted by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera as saying that Christians were being subjected to rape, kidnapping, extortion and expropriation of land and property.

Qumsiyeh, who was not available this week for an interview because he was out of the country, heads a local TV station called Al-Mahd [Nativity]. In a daring step, Qumsiyeh drew up a list of 93 cases of anti-Christian violence between 2000 and 2004.

"This file is incomplete and it's not up-to-date," he told the Italian newspaper. "Look at the case of Rawan William Mansour, a 17-year-old girl from Bet Sahur. She was raped two years ago by four members of Fatah. Even though the family protested, none of the four was ever arrested. Because of the shame her family was forced to move to Jordan.

"Almost all 140 cases of expropriation of land in the last three years were committed by militant Islamic groups and members of the Palestinian police." Qumsiyeh said he was now preparing a book on the conditions of the Christian minority. "I will call it 'Racism in Action,'" he says. "The racism against us is gaining pace in staggering ways. In 1950 the Christian population in Bethlehem was 75%. Today we have hardly more than 12% Christians. If the situation continues, we won't be here any more in 20 years."

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Kabatiya, south of Jenin, Wednesday night to celebrate the suicide bombing in Hadera, which was carried out by local resident Hassan Abu Zeid.

Chanting Allahu Akbar (God is great), some 3,000 people, including Fatah and Islamic Jihad gunmen, converged on Abu Zeid's home to "congratulate" his family on the success of the attack, which killed five people and wounded more than 30.

They also called for more suicide attacks in Israel.

"With blood, with soul, we redeem Hassan," the crowd chanted. "Oh Jihad, Jihad, give us more [suicide] bombings. Oh [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, prepare more coffins."

Shortly after the attack, Islamic Jihad activists shouted through loudspeakers in the town that the suicide bomber was Abu Zeid, 26, a member of the organization's armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades. They said the attack was carried out to avenge the killing earlier this week of top Islamic Jihad operative Luai Sa'adi in Tulkarm.

Abu Zeid's mother, Um Hassan, said she was proud of her son for what he did. Her husband, Ahmed, a blacksmith who was later arrested by the IDF, greeted the well-wishers with tears in his eyes.

"I'm proud of my son and hope that he will enter heaven," the mother declared.

"We're all your sons," shouted one of the men as several women ululated in an expression of joy.

I'm sure that the counter-rally expressing hope of peace with Israel and an end to bombing Jews will attract at least that many people in every small Arab West Bank town, since the Palestinian Arabs are known for being so peaceful at heart - and "peace" protesters identify so strongly with the Palestinian cause.

Ahmadinejad's inspiration to wipe out all Jews

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seems to have interesting company in his desire to wipe Israel off the map, as this article from the March, 29, 1939 Palestine Post explains.

People at the time didn't take the Nazi pronouncements seriously, either.

Iran - clear and present danger

By now most people have read of the comments from the Iranian president saying that Israel should be wiped off the map, along with the lukewarm reactions from Germany and France.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been busy with other comments lately as well. He ridiculed the West's response to Iran's nuclear ambitions, saying "At first, they made a lot of noise about it, but gradually they were made to sit down quietly” and insisting Iran:

...will resume work on the full nuclear fuel cycle, which includes uranium enrichment, adding that his government “seriously supported” the resumption of nuclear activities at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan “and will stand by this decision”.

“The Islamic Republic reached the conclusion that continuing the status quo was harmful to our national security”, he said.

“The more we retreated, the more they stepped forward, to the extent that Mohammad ElBaradei, the secretary general of the [International Atomic Energy] Agency [IAEA] recently told us, ‘They don’t want you to have nuclear technology’.”, Ahmadinejad said, referring to the now suspended negotiations between Iran and the European trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

“Why should we give in?” the ultra-Islamist president asked. “Where does it say in our laws that we have to beg the Europeans for our rights?”

Ahmadinejad expressed confidence that the West will be forced to retreat in the face of the Iranian regime’s uncompromising stance, and he indicated that his government was emboldened by what it perceived as the West’s “feeble” reaction.

“God willing, the West will accept our position since Iran’s political power in the world is very great and in certain regions unrivalled. We need the world but we have shown that we can achieve development without them”.

“The British asked us in New York not to bring up this matter. This shows the West is very susceptible to blows and more feeble than it pretends”, the hard-line President said, referring to meetings he had with British officials at the United Nations in September.

The hard-line president dismissed speculations of a military strike on Iran.

“If the West was capable of striking a blow at us, it would not inform us in advance. If you see that they are not hitting us, be sure that they are not capable of doing it, and will never be capable of doing it”.

The hard-line president added that the West was “very angry” at Iran, but “that doesn’t bother us. We say that they can take this anger with them to their graves”.

Ahmadinejad said the West was opposed to the very existence of the Islamic Republic. “If this [nuclear] problem is resolved, then they will bring up the issue of human rights. If the human rights issue is resolved, then they will probably bring up the issue of animal rights”.

“We told them that everything has now changed”, he said.

“As time goes by, we will continue to move up step by step and we will not back down. When we start the fuel cycle, no doubt, everything will become different”.

Also, note that his remarks calling for the genocide of Jews in Israel were spoken at a conference called "World Without Zionism." Guess what last year's conference was called?

Yup: “World without America”.

Your tax dollars at work

That Palestinian economy must be doing great in order to be able to undertake such a project.

The Palestinian Authority, which in recent years has been facing a severe financial crisis, has decided to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in build a large and magnificent mausoleum for former PA chairman Yasser Arafat.

The new stately structure will replace the current burial site, which is located in the Mukata "presidential" compound in Ramallah. The project is financed by the PA Ministry of Finance, which has refused to reveal the costs. However, sources here estimated the cost of the project at over one million dollars.

Latest Palestinian Newspeak: Jailed Terrorists are "Prisoners of Freedom"

The official Palestinian transcript of Mahmoud Abbas' Rose Garden photo-op with President Bush includes this howler of a quote from the Holocaust denier:

"In addition to withdrawal of the Israeli forces to positions prior to September 28, 2000, with the removal of the roadblocks, which unfortunately turned the lives of Palestinians into hardship, suffering, humiliation and also, there is a very important sensitive issue, which is the release of prisoners of freedom from Israeli jails."

Oh yes, people who managed to kill Jewish babies are heroes who should be released. A woman who tried to blow up the Israeli hospital that treated her as a humanitarian gesture is a "prisoner of freedom." The most depraved, sickening and racist people on the planet are those who are admired by the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs, led by Mahmoud Abbas.

And President Bush replied:

"I strongly support your rejection of terror and your commitment to what you have called one authority, one law and one gun."

Someone buy this man a clue. He may understand Islamic terror better than almost all Democrats but he seems to have bought into the Palestinian narrative rather than realize that they are indistinguishable from every other Islamic terrorist who threatens every other country on the planet.

Much more in this excellent article by Bret Stephens.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Rather than fight them, Palestinian officials have been negotiating deals with those behind a wave of kidnappings, and the lenience is worsening the chaos left behind after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, according to a senior Palestinian security official.

Citing the example set by Iraqi insurgents, gunmen are increasingly resorting to kidnappings to get jobs, break relatives out of jail or settle personal scores. Gaza and the West Bank suffered 31 abductions in August and 44 in September, according to official statistics.
...
The security official requested anonymity, saying he was afraid to go public in the dangerously charged atmosphere in Gaza. He complained that the readiness to negotiate with kidnappers was encouraging crime. In a further twist, many of those involved in kidnappings have ties to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Abbas' ruling Fatah movement.

Other hostage-takers even serve in the security forces.