Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, November 04, 2005

Liberal media at its worst

This morning, I picked up the free newspaper "Metro NY" that is given out at subway stops and train stations. Metro is part of a large network of free city newspapers worldwide, and they claim a total of 17 million readers. Its editorial policies are clearly and unflinchingly liberal.

I noticed an article on fringe mayoral candidate Jimmy McMillan, with generally straight coverage of his "Rent is Too Damn High" party, saying that he resembles Papa Smurf and talking about his wide smile (also pointing out that his city council candidate was endorsed by the New York Times in 2003.)

Through all 13 paragraphs of this page 2 article, talking about his platform of high rents and his army of volunteers, something seemed to be missing. Then it hit me - they forgot to mention that McMillan is a Jew-hating lunatic!

As of a week or so ago, his web site had some amazing anti-Semitic screeds (that have since been removed) and it is hard to believe that the reporter spent any time with him without hearing some of his hate - since in McMillan's opinion, the entire reason the rent is too high is because of Jews!

You can still see some of his rantings on pages that have not been deleted from his website, such as this one:

After I begging sending Faxes to the News Media in the New York City area in 1990 in attempt to blow the lid on what I’ve uncovered in the (Williamsburg Section of Brooklyn) Quote - Unquote the Jewish Community on what I called at the time the Jewish Mafia. Some how or another they got a hold to my Home Address, Phone Number and so much more all through the License Plates of my Car?

In a desperate attempt Because of the increase of personnel attacks against me I climb to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge (c1993) after someone tried to kill me. The way they came after me I knew I had stumble onto something I couldn’t handle so first I made every attempt to contact Law Enforcement at Federal, Local level, and then I tried to contact every Black person who you have seen on television that they proclaim to represent Black people – everyone, and I’m still waiting to hear from them. When I say everyone I mean everyone, so now there is know need to ask me about anybody.

The corruption in the State of New York in every City, Town, and County goes far deeper than one would imagine. When you the public learn the truth you have all the right to be Pissed-Off, Mad and Angry. Well you are about to learn what many don’t want you to know (I will explain that to you later if you don’t understand what I’m about to show you). I will give you a summary but the full story can be found in the Book I have written that will soon be release Title "The Road Less Traveled".

Remember this is the same group that was Cast Out by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in 1997 as the Top Leaders of the Jewish people stood together in a News Conference for the New York Times Newspapers who was using the Jewish People as a Shield, Cover to commit their crimes against New Yorkers that I later learn this same group were in fact tied to Al-Qa’Ida, Usama Bin Laden network?. My investigations reveal immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center the strong hole where they were operating out of in the Williamsberg section of Brooklyn were abandon and left to be operated by local Jewish Rabbis.

Now, why exactly would a "reporter" write such a fawning article on someone who is so disgusting? Either he is embarrassingly incompetent, or he didn't feel that it was an important enough part of the story to mention. Either way, it is unbelievable.

UPDATE: I emailed the reporter about this and he asked me for my number so he can call me and explain what happened. Unfortunately I'm busy until Monday, but from his tone it is possible that this was more the fault of the editor rather than the reporter. I am inviting him to write in the comments section here, though.

Today's Palestinian Police Phunnies

More than two months after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority seems to have failed in preventing many land thieves from laying their hands on the former area of Gush Katif.

PA officials here expressed fear over 'increased transgressions' on the lands that used to belong to the settlements and called for immediate action against the perpetrators. They pointed out that some of the thieves belong to various branches of the PA security forces.

Iranian news exclusive!

The crack reporting team at the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency have broken a major news story. They found a professor in India that agrees that Israel should be wiped off the map!

At this time, this is one of the major stories on their website.

It's worth reading:

India's Jamia Hamdard University professor of Islamic Studies, Dr. Eshtiyaq Danesh, in an exclusive interview with IRNA's New Delhi correspondent, expressed support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent remarks that "Israel should be wiped off the world map."
He said the stand taken by the Iranian president that "Israel should be wiped off the world map" is very correct and precise because Israel is an illegal and artificially made country.

Professor Danesh, an expert on Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, views Israel as a government which has been sponsoring state terrorism since its creation.

Zionist forces have illegally occupied the land of Palestine with the help of Western powers and are daily committing heinous crimes against innocent Palestinians, he said.

According to this Indian intellectual, Israel does not have any right to survive, and not only Muslims but all freedom and justice- loving people of the world as well would like to see Palestinians liberated in their homeland.

According to the professor, the Zionist regime of Israel has never fullfilled its international obligations since its creation and has not respected and much less implemented any resolution passed by the Security Council or any other international body.

The most important of those resolutions is Resolution No. 242 of the United Nations Security Council which asks Israel to vacate all occupied land, he said.

Further in his talk with IRNA, Dr. Danesh expressed his anguish over Israel's demand that the UN expel Iran from its membership.

He asked: "How can the zionist regime of Israel, which has always defied UN resolutions, now ask this body for removal of some country from its membership?"
"As a humble scholar of Islamic and West Asian studies, I strongly believe that a world without Zionism would be a peaceful and stable world," Danesh concluded.

I just love "intellectuals."

Excellent work again by the IAF:

Two major Arab terrorists were killed Tuesday afternoon when Israeli Air Force planes fired a missile at on a car in the town of Jebalia in Gaza.

One of the terrorists, Hassan Al Madhun, was active in the Al Aksa Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

Another terrorist killed in the vehicle, Fuazi Abu Kara, was a member of the military wing of the Hamas, the Al Kassam Brigades.

The two men were killed in a vehicle bearing a license plate belonging to the PA’s official security apparatus.

An army spokesman said that Al Madhun was responsible for twin attacks in Ashdod’s harbor in 2004, killing ten people, and for bombing the Karni crossing between the Gaza district and the Negev, an attack that left six dead.

Al Madhun is also suspected of attempting to send a female suicide bomber to blow up Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva.

While doing all this for Fatah’s military wing, Al Madhun held an official position in the Palestinian Authority, working for the PA’s Preventative Security Agency in Gaza. Ironically, the PA set up this agency to thwart terrorist attacks against Israel.

Israel repeatedly demanded that the Palestinian Authority arrest Al Madhun, though the requests were ignored.

Al Madhun, who headed an Islamic faction in the Al Aksa Brigades, closely coordinated his activity with the Hamas.

Al Madhun’s Fatah faction was also responsible for firing Kassam rockets on the eastern Negev town of Sderot, including the rockets fired over the past few days.

So do we have this straight? The US government is paying the PA to hire terrorists as "policemen" to fight Hamas, and these same terror-"police" are working together with Hamas.

It is also amusing to see Palestinian Arab reaction to Israeli defensive actions:
- If Israel asks the PA to arrest a terrorist, they are meddling in internal Palestinian affairs;
- If Israel arrests the terrorists themselves, the PA demands that their "freedom fighters" get released;
- If Israel kills them outright, the Palestinians complain about "extrajudicial killings;"
- If Israel builds a barrier to stop terrorists, the PA calls it an "apartheid wall" and gets gullible Westerners to stage protests.

What do these things have in common?

Only that according to Palestinian Arab "moderates," and with the agreement of a significant number of Westerners, Israel has no right to do any actions whatsoever to protect her citizens.

Your tax dollars at work - US pays for "police" jobs for terrorists

Disgusting, outrageous, insane.

RAMALLAH [MENL] -- The United States has provided more than $4 million for the absorption of hundreds of insurgents into Palestinian Authority security forces.

Palestinian sources said the Bush administration relayed 20 million shekels, or $4.4 million, for the transfer of Fatah insurgents to the PA security forces. The sources said the U.S. aid, allocated via the PA, was meant to facilitate the elimination of the Fatah-dominated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a leading insurgency force in the war against Israel.

'The U.S. money was meant to pay salaries for Al Aqsa people who join the PA,' a senior Palestinian source involved in the effort said.

Al Aqsa has a force of between 500 and 700 fighters, and the sources said they would receive at least 1,750 shekels, or nearly $400, per month. The sources said most of the fighters have agreed to join the PA security forces, but said at least 100 would continue attacks against Israel in operations financed by Iran and Hizbullah.

Why exactly does anyone think that the Al Aqsa Palestinian Arab "policemen" aren't also terrorists at the same time - just with a little more money?

Recommended: The Dry Bones Blog

Read it!

July, 1948 - The Gap in Jihad

In light of the recent talk about "truces" from various terror groups, which usually don't last beyond the next news cycle, the following article is instructive - especially the last paragraph.

The words could have been written today by the vast majority of Arabs - even the most "moderate" will say frankly that Israel's existence is just a temporary blip on the road to Muslim domination. Only the "hardliners" will speak these words where Western ears can hear them, however. (This is one of the reasons why the whole Iranian president kerfuffle was so funny - most "moderate" Arab leaders agree with him; his crime was just saying his thoughts out loud.)

Crossposted to Palestine Post-ings.

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.