Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Rich Arab countries refuse to increase funding to Hamas

A small fact buried in an AFP news story (that falsely implies that Hamas is ready to recognize Israel:)

Last week's summit in Sudan of the Arab League -- which counts some of the world's richest countries among its members -- did not accede to Palestinian requests for a funding boost.

More details from this Lebanese newspaper:

Arab leaders also rejected any attempt by the government of Israeli Premier-elect Ehud Olmert to fix the Jewish state’s borders if it is unable to negotiate for peace with the Palestinians.
They also expressed support for the nearly bankrupt Palestinian Authority as it comes under the control of Hamas, but turned a deaf ear to the radical Islamist group’s pleas for more money to avert a humanitarian crisis.
In a declaration at the conclusion of the summit, Arab League members said they rejected “Israeli measures including... fixing Israel’s borders unilaterally in a way that fulfills its expansionist greed”.

So as usual, the Arabs are quick to pretend to support their Palestinian brethren but they will not lift a finger.

Iran's perception of Western fears

The Iranian strategy for getting nuclear weapons makes certain assumptions about the Western psyche. It is pretty a pretty accurate picture of how the Left thinks, at least.

It plays on liberal fears:

Fear 1: Fear of unilateralism
Fear 2: Fear of confrontation
Fear 3: Fear of death

Fear 1 is that the Western nations do not want to do anything without a support team. So as long as Iran can divide us, for example by playing to some other Western European fears, it will slow down any real possibility of a united diplomatic front against Iran. It will also water down any UN resolutions that end up passing. The knowledge that the West has lost its ability to act quickly and decisively is a significant point in Iran's attempts at ascendancy.

The fear of unilateralism is what allows Iran to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction as fast as possible.

Fear 2 is the natural outgrowth of trying to "understand" evil, of relative morality, of everything being acceptable under certain circumstances. Never make a judgment unless it is against the fascist Nazi Bush neo-cons. But terrorists and Islamists? No, those who actually threaten you are those who must be avoided or compromised with at all costs.

This fear of confrontation is what Iran plays against when it makes its daily threats against the US. Belligerence is rewarded with tough words and no action, buying time.

Fear 3 is the biggest one that Iran is banking on. As we value life, we are less willing to find causes that are worth dying for. There are an unlimited number of Islamists who are more than willing to die for a cause, but precious few Westerners (goes the Iranian thinking.). As a result, it is easier for fearful Westerners to explain away anything Iran does and pretend that everything is fine than to face up to the facts that there will be a war one day, and that war will mean some will die.

Europeans, especially, are jittery about another world war and will try to avoid it at all costs.

Iran takes full advantage of Western morality and the natural desire for peace - and it regards these traits as fatal weaknesses which will ultimately lead to a Muslim world.

The irony is that the longer we wait to act because of our morality, the more will end up dying.

Logic doesn't enter into it

The world is coming up with ways to accept Hamas, notwithstanding Hamas making no claims whatsoever to have any interest in peace unless it includes the destruction of Israel.

To make matters worse, the Israeli elections appeared to be a testament to exhaustion.

If even Israelis are sick and tired of defending their land, how can we expect the world to care?

The cult of the "peace process" continues and the twin myths of the roadmap and Oslo show no signs of disappearing. How much of it is due to left-wing stupidity and how much to deep-rooted Jew-hatred, I do not know.

But what is clear is that facts and logic and strategy are in woefully short supply in how the world (and even Israel) is dealing with the threat to Israel and the West from Islamism. And this is the scariest part of all.

The prayer mat or the submachine gun

Which one should he bow to?

Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck

The new Palestinian Authority Prime Minister is getting ready for a meeting.

But check out the logo:

Look familiar?

Arab journalism at its finest

It is good to know that Arab journalists are willing to ask the tough questions from the newsmakers.

Just check out this hard-hitting interview by Al-Arab to noted "historian", "Dr." David Duke.

INTERVIEWER: How would you advise independent journalists or editors to resist the strong influence of the Pro-Israel lobby? If people could get in trouble just talking about it, how do you propose they fight it? Also, there are many out there who are genuinely ignorant of the power of such lobbies, how could you go about enlightening them without sounding like a 'false prophet' of some sort? You know that mainstream media plays a 'labeling game' with all those who dare to point out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

DR.DUKE: It's as Benjamin Franklin once said, “We must hang together or we will hang separately.” If most of the journalists, academics and politicians who know about the Jewish lobby would add their voice, the Jewish powerbrokers couldn't single out anyone for their dirty work. Most of the intelligentsia knows about the Jewish supremacy in the American political and media realm, but it’s the proverbial gorilla in the room that no one dares to speak about, pretending not to see it so as not to raise its ire.

Still many need to learn the truth. As for being a false prophet, anyone who exposes this Gorilla will be labeled such. The original label of "false prophet" was used by similar Jewish extremists against Jesus Christ. They have the power to say what they will. All we can do is have the courage to speak the truth.

INTERVIEWER: Where do you stand politically or otherwise? We have heard of what is said about you by those who wish to discredit you because of your beliefs, but how would you 'label' yourself? Do you have a specific opinion on races or religions?

DR.DUKE: Of course, they slander me unjustly, for I am no supremacist or anti-Semite. I want to preserve the independence, and heritage and freedom of the European American people and I support all peoples in the struggle for those basic human rights. I am no supremacist, I don't believe in suppression of people, globalism, or lording supreme over other nations, religions or peoples. I have been telling the truth about Zionism for many years, so I have earned the hatred of these extremist Jews who are themselves supremacists who seek supremacy not over simply Palestine and the Mideast, but over the political and media apparatus of the United States. Also, I am not an anti-Semite, it is the extremist Jews I oppose, not every Jew, and I respect greatly those Jews who themselves oppose the Jewish extremist elements. My latest book, Jewish Supremacism, is dedicated to a courageous Jew, the late Dr. Israel Shahak. Unfortunately the extremists control the organized Jewish community and through their power influence us powerfully as well....

We must not retreat. Those of us who know the truth must stand together and know that those whom the Jewish extremists hate the most are our best friends.

INTERVIEWER: We are much grateful that you have accepted to answer our questions. We thank you for your time and effort.

The KKK and the Arabs...a match made in jihad heaven.

Today Show ignores terror

The Today Show this morning, in its opening news roundup, didn't think that a Palestinian Arab terrorist pretending to be a religious Jewish hitchhiker and blowing himself up in the car of the grandparents who picked him up was worth mentioning as a major story.

Nor did they think that the approval of the new Palestinian government towards the terror attack was newsworthy.

Or the fact that the bomber had just been released from a Palestinian jail by the new PA government.

This suicide bombing was the cruelest and most cold-blooded in months but it isn't worth mentioning. At least according to the Today Show.

The "Humanitarian Aid" dodge

The Quartet has spoken:

International peace mediators said on Thursday the new Hamas-led Palestinian government had failed to commit itself to peace and warned that aid would inevitably be affected.
The Quartet of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations "noted with grave concern that the new government has not committed to the principles spelled out on Jan. 30," a joint statement said, referring to demands that it recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace deals.
"There inevitably will be an effect on direct assistance to that government and its ministries," the statement said.
It added that humanitarian assistance to meet the basic needs of the Palestinian people should continue.

OK, are the Palestinian Arabs starving? Do they live in thatched huts? Is there a comparison in "humanitarian aid" needed between these two groups of people?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development divides countries up by per-capita Gross National Income. It puts the Palestinian territories in the "Lower Middle Income" category of countries and territories. Lower on the list are:

Afghanistan
Angola
Bangladesh
Benin
Bhutan
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Central African Rep.
Chad
Comoros
Congo, Dem. Rep.
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Haiti
Kiribati
Laos
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Mauritania
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nepal
Niger
Rwanda
Samoa
Sao Tome & Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Sudan
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tuvalu
Uganda
Vanuatu
Yemen
Zambia
Cameroon
Congo, Rep.
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
India
Kenya
Korea, Dem.Rep.
Kyrgyz Rep.
Moldova
Mongolia
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Zimbabwe

Not to mention the dozens of other countries at the same rough level economically as the Palestinian territories.

So, when the Quartet "talks tough" to Hamas and still allows "humanitarian aid" into the terrortories, how much of it is really meant to be humanitarian and how much is just to get around the pesky fact that Hamas refuses to accept Israel and renounce terror? How much concern does the Quartet show for the humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa compared to the well-dressed rock-throwing Palestinian youths?

The Palestinian Arabs are well-educated and healthy. They have electricity and clean water courtesy of Israel. They have a monetary and psychological support system of Arabs and Muslims worldwide. There is no humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Arab territories.

They have taken in hundreds of millions in aid and have zero to show for it. Their major industries remain olives and building bombs. They've had sixty years to build themselves an economy and a future and they have consistently chosen to whine and seethe instead.

At some point, one has to wonder why exactly the West, in the triage of humanitarian aid dollars, decides that Palestinian Arabs are one of their top priorities.

Insane Muslim Protester of the Day 3/29 part 2

This didn't look that insane until I read the caption:

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards beat themselves with chains during a religious gathering against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, that were published in European newspapers, in Tehran, Iran March 29, 2006.

Maybe if we publish more cartoons they'll start shooting themselves.

70 Years Ago - Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

I thought that this series of three contiguous articles in the Palestine Post from March 30, 1936 was interesting.

A Muslim sheikh spreading incitement against Jews?
Preventing Jews from visiting holy places purely because they are Jews?
An Arab found with explosives?

Good thing we have advanced since 1936, right?

Insane Muslim Protester of the Day 3/29

You would think that the people who claim to have created algebra would know how to add 1+1.

Jersey City, 8:20 AM

The Yahoo MB refugee bloggers

I've mentioned before that I used to spend inordinate amounts of time on the Yahoo! news message boards, arguing about Israel with Jew-hating morons, before I switched addictions and now spend inordinate amounts of time blogging.

I just wanted to point out a few blogs from fellow Yahoo! refugees that are updated regularly:

A March of Folly
The Atheist Jew
Eye on the World

And updated a little less regularly:
Callie is Chatty
Carl's Blog

One of these things is not like the other

Our friends the Saudis have been playing interesting games again.

(Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington Turki al-Faisal) called on Israel to disarm to create a nuclear-free Middle East. “We all know that Israel has atomic weapons and that’s why removing these threats from the Middle East on a uniform basis would serve Israel’s purpose as well as the rest of the countries in the area,” he said.

In Seattle, he said

The development of nuclear weapons by any Middle Eastern country is "totally unacceptable."

And finally:

BERLIN (AFP) - Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, a German magazine reports in its latest edition, citing Western security sources.

The German magazine Cicero says that during the Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca in 2003 through 2005, Pakistani scientists posed as pilgrims to come to Saudi Arabia in aircraft laid on by the oil-rich kingdom.

Between October 2004 and January 2005, some of them took the opportunity to "disappear" from their hotel rooms, sometimes for up to three weeks, it quoted German security expert Udo Ulfkotte as saying.

According to Western security services, the magazine added, Saudi scientists have been working since the mid-1990s in Pakistan, a nuclear power since 1998 thanks to the work of the now-disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Cicero, which will appear on newstands on Thursday, also quoted a US military analyst, John Pike, as saying that Saudi bar codes can be found on half of Pakistan's nuclear weapons "because it is Saudi Arabia which ultimately co-financed the Pakistani atomic nuclear programme".

The magazine also said satellite images prove that Saudi Arabia has set up in Al-Sulaiyil, south of Riyadh, a secret underground city and dozens of underground silos for missiles.