Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 09, 2006

How to deal with adversity

A lesson for Palestinian Arabs:

Gush Katif Lettuce being exported en masse to North American communities for Passover

For the coming Passover the “HaSalad” Company is flying out over 250,000 heads of lettuce to some thirty destinations all over the world.

The “HaSalad” Company is one of the leading producers and marketers of chilled fresh leafy worm-free vegetables in Israel. It is currently engaged in exporting by air 250,000 worm-free kosher for Passover lettuce heads to about thirty Jewish communities abroad. The lettuce heads are being taken to five centers in the United States (Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Miami and Las Vegas) and to other countries including England, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Russia.

Mr. Roni Ephraim, export manager at the “HaSalad” Company, reports that his firm will export 100 tons of lettuce, with a value of 1.5 million dollars.

The “HaSalad – Alei Katif” company was founded in Kfar Darom, Gush Katif sixteen years ago. It was the first business in Israel which specialized in growing insect-free leafy vegetables.

During the expulsion the plant, the largest in Gush Katif, was transferred temporarily to the industrial zone of Sha’ar HaNegev. In a short time it succeeded in growing lettuce and other vegetables on an area of hundreds of dunams in the western Negev area.

Formerly about 450 dunams in Gush Katif were covered with greenhouses that grew vegetables for HaSalad. In a mere six months the firm has again reached 100% of its former production. Dozens of new workers from Sderot and Netivot have replaced many of the workers formerly employed in Gush Katif.

Yes, Jews were forcibly kicked out of their homes, 16 years of their work and livelihoods destroyed, and six months later they are completely back up to speed - without the EU or the UN giving them a dime, without whining constantly to the world about how bad their lot is, without insisting on handouts and resolutions.

How many decades will it take Arabs to learn the same lesson?

Looks like we need a scorecard

Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad are re-arranging their roles. Somehow, I think their goal remains the same.

This is particularly hilarious:

Some Fatah-affiliated militias are behind the latest wave of Kassam rocket attacks, in the hope of prompting a massive IDF operation in the Gaza Strip that would eventually bring down the new Hamas cabinet, Hamas officials claimed on Sunday.
The officials told The Jerusalem Post that the timing of the recent increase in attacks - almost immediately after the Hamas cabinet was sworn in - was not coincidental. They also accused some elements in the rival Islamic Jihad of working together with Fatah militias.
"Their main goal is to drag Israel into a major confrontation in order to bring down the Hamas administration," a Hamas minister said. He pointed out that Hamas was not involved in firing rockets and that the movement would continue to honor the unofficial truce with Israel.
He said he did not rule out the possibility that some of the Palestinian Authority's security forces were also involved in the "conspiracy" to topple the Hamas cabinet.
"The situation is very dangerous," he said. "I don't rule out the possibility that some of the security forces and their commanders are behind the rocket attacks. They want to plunge the area into anarchy so that they can say that Hamas has failed."
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas cabinet, said the latest wave of violence was clearly aimed at confusing the new cabinet. He expressed regret that the international community was more interested in finding ways to isolate Hamas than in forcing Israel to halt its "state terror."
Another Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, accused Israel of trying to bring down the new cabinet. "The latest Israeli military escalation is aimed at forcing the Palestinians to succumb and bringing down the new cabinet, which was elected in democratic elections," he said. "The Zionist crimes won't break the will of the Palestinian people and the occupation will pay a heavy price for its crimes."
Both Hamad and Zuhri refrained from openly blaming Fatah or any of the PA security forces.
Meanwhile, a row has erupted between Islamic Jihad's political and military wings over whether to stop Kassam attacks. Sources close to the military wing, al-Kuds Brigades, announced on Sunday morning that the group had decided to halt its attacks for at least one week because of the IDF strikes over the past few days.
"The decision was taken to prove to the world that Israel is initiating attacks on the Palestinians and that we are only responding," it said in a leaflet distributed in Gaza City. "We want to show the world that we are only defending ourselves and that we don't love bloodshed."
Hours later, Khaled al-Batsh and Khader Habib, the top political leaders of Islamic Jihad, denied that the group had agreed to suspend its rocket attacks.
PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh chaired an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Sunday to discuss the latest cycle of violence. The cabinet decided to request an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians were entitled to "resist the occupation."
The cabinet also decided to dispatch Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar to a number of Arab and Islamic countries to seek financial and political backing for the PA.
Information Minister Yusef Rizkah told reporters that Israel was trying to "blackmail" the new cabinet and send a message to Palestinian voters that they had made the wrong choice by electing Hamas. "Israel's message is also directed to the Arab world," he said. "Israel is warning the Arab leaders against supporting the Hamas cabinet."

Dizzying, isn't it? In a nutshell: Hamas says Fatah is using violence against Israel to topple Hamas so Fatah can get back in charge with world backing because Fatah is so much more peaceful than Hamas. Islamic Jihad wants to stop its hundreds of rocket attacks to prove that Israel is the aggressor, but in the end it denies wanting to stop any sort of terror. Hamas says Islamic Jihad is in cahoots with Fatah to bring down Hamas even though IJ never had any political ambitions.

Makes perfect sense!

Haveil Havalim Home-Run!

The Ignoble Experiment hosts this week's Haveil Havalim, in a dizzyingly comprehensive look at the Jewish/Israeli blogosphere.

I am honored to be mentioned no less than 4 times in this roundup:

My picture of April snow,
a wire-news picture of a dilemma,
my article on how Iran perceives Western fears,
and my article on where "humanitarian aid" goes.

Thanks, Irina, for the mentions!

Seraphic Secret has an excellent and heartbreaking post about going through the notebooks of the son he lost.

Elie's Expositions has three articles also about the pain of losing his son last year, and his latest is both saddening and uplifting.

May both Elie and Robert take comfort in the fact that they and their wives raised incredible young men who continue to touch and inspire all of us.

In this Pesach season may we only have שמחות, happiness, and may we go מעבדות לחירות , from slavery to freedom, in every sense of those words.

Today's GoozNews

As I mentioned before, Gooz is a Farsi word for flatulence, so GoozNews is a compendium of Iranian news stories:

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), itself, is fomenting insecurity and injustice instead of establishing security, substitute Friday prayers leader Ahmad Khatami here said.

It is always funny to see crazed Muslims turn against the institutions that have been on their side for decades.

European Union High Representative for common foreign and security policy Javier Solana is expected to present a paper on Iran at the regular EU foreign ministers meeting to be held in Luxembourg on Monday.
The paper contains an analysis of the latest developments in EU- Iran ties and a clear sense of EU position which includes that EU wants good relations with Iran, to establish a sound partnership, etc., EU sources told IRNA in Brussels Friday.

Solana is nothing if not inconsistent in his love of terror-supporting entities.

Speaking of useful idiots:

The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero here Thursday stressed Iran's right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Addressing a joint press conference, Annan and Zapatero said negotiation is the best solution to Iran's nuclear case.
It is quite right that Iran reminds the world of its right to access to peaceful nuclear energy, said Annan adding Tehran should fulfill its commitments within the regulations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He praised efforts made by Iran and the European states to resume talks and settle Tehran's nuclear case, encouraging the sides to boost the move.

Here's a recurring theme at IRNA's GoozNews division:

The United States is the worst enemy of Islam, said a Pakistani member of the parliament on Friday.
Talking to "IRNA", Sabir Hussain Awan, who is member of the lower house of Parliament, described the US as the most cunning enemy of the Islamic world.

Pretty much every day they will quote an obscure Pakistani or Lebanese politician or professor who says that the US is evil, or that Israel is evil, or that Iran is a beacon of light to all nations.

Finally, we see that the Jew-hating and terror-supporting nutcases continue to attack Caterpillar on the basis of "morality":

The Interfaith Group for Morally Responsible Investment (IMRI) is accusing the Church of England of being guilty in supporting Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians by continuing to invest in US manufacturers, Caterpillar.
"People are dying, HR abuses are being committed, and the Church of England is currently profiting from that. At best the Church of England is condoning these abuses and at worst is complicit," IMRI told the church's Ethical Investments Advisory Group (EIAG).

Here's a chart of Caterpillar's stock price over the past year, since the calls for divestment really started gaining steam:

EU decides to prop up Hamas. They're only after Jews, after all.

The stupidity and immorality of the EU is breathtaking.

European Union diplomats have rejected a proposal to suspend direct aid to the Palestinian Authority because some EU countries consider the measure “too brutal”.
Representatives of the 25 EU member states refused to endorse a European Commission proposal that would have suspended co-operation with the PA, led by Hamas, the militant Islamist group.
Countries such as France and the UK said it would send a wrong and even “brutal” signal if the EU halted aid to the PA without first developing ideas on alternative ways of delivering assistance.
Some EU officials argue that eventually Europe will have to engage with Hamas, which, together with its parent group the Muslim Brotherhood, is becoming one of the Arab world’s most popular and electorally formidable organisations.
The debate indicates Europe’s more gradual approach to demands agreed with the US on the Hamas-led PA. While Washington insists the PA must renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by past agreements, some European diplomats see such calls more as broad principles.
The draft text for Monday’s meeting also calls on Israel to resume transfers of $50m a month in Palestinian tax and customs revenue that it is withholding.

So we have Hamas saying, explicitly, that it will never recognize Israel, that it dreams of Israel's destruction, that it regards its police force as an army to fight Israel, that terrorists will not be jailed and in fact will be rewarded, that those who blow up Jewish civilians are heroes - all things that Hamas leaders have said in only the past couple of weeks.

And the immoral EU says, sure, we must fund these monsters, because only by giving them money so they can continue to send rockets into kibbutzim and bombers into Tel Aviv can there ever be peace.

The bitter irony of the fact that they cloak their collusion with terrorists in the guise of "humanitarian aid" cannot be emphasized enough. Under the pretense of morality do they tell Israel: Sorry, but Jewish lives are not worth as much to us as the possibility of a Palestinian Arab terrorist not getting paid.

The unimaginable nerve of saying that calling for Hamas to renounce terror is more of a "broad principle" than a hard demand is nothing less than saying that, when they have a choice between Western civilization and the demands of terrorists, they are happy to choose the terrorists. And then they go beyond that, and demand that Israel pay those who are sworn to destroy her!

The EU leaders, starting with Javier Solana, are gutless pawns of dhimmitude at best, and accessories to mass murder at worst. They have no claim to morality as they congratulate themselves on managing to find a way to funnel millions of Western dollars to those who want to destroy us.

(ANSA) - Cagliari, April 6 - Terrorists planned to stage attacks on the Milan subway and in a Bologna church but were thwarted by Italian secret services, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said on Thursday .

One of the targets was the San Petronio church, which had been threatened before by Muslims. This article (I believe from the Times of London) is from June, 2001:

Muslim leaders in Italy are demanding the removal or destruction of a priceless 15th century fresco in Bologna that they say offends Islam by showing the Prophet Muhammad being cast into the flames of Hell.

The row over The Last Judgment by Giovanni da Modena, in Bologna Cathedral, could threaten the already strained relations between the Roman Catholic Church and members of Italy’s Muslim community.

The recently established Union of Italian Muslims has written to the Pope and Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the outspoken conservative Archbishop of Bologna, complaining that the fresco shows clearly Muhammad, the founder of Islam, among those condemned to burn in eternal flames.

The protesters said that Giovanni da Modena had shown Muhammad being “thrown into hell, completely naked, with a snake wrapped around his body and a demon next to him about to torture him”. They said that Muslims had never depicted Jesus or the Virgin Mary on the walls of a mosque.

In the letter they called for the “barbarous” fresco to be removed from the wall of the Bolognini chapel, inside the 14th-century cathedral of San Petronio.

In 2002, Al-Qaeda tried to blow up the church:

An Islamist terror group linked to al-Qaida is suspected of plotting to blow up Bologna's most important church to erase the offence of a 15th-century Gothic fresco showing Mohammed being tormented by devils in hell.
A key alleged figure known as "Amsa the Libyan", who was arrested in Britain three weeks ago for possessing false papers, is suspected of having passed orders from al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Iran to terrorist cells in Europe.
The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported that in a telephone call intercepted by police in February, one of the suspect's alleged associates discussed plans for an attack on the Church of San Petronio, which has a large fresco by Giovanni da Modena showing the founder of the Islamic religion in hell.
The painter was inspired by Dante, who consigned Mohammed to the ninth circle of hell - reserved for religious schismatics - in his Divine Comedy. The fresco, held in a side-chapel, is seen by many Muslims as a symbol of Christian intransigence.
Amsa was monitored as he allegedly passed instructions to al-Qaida cells in Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. In one intercepted telephone call he apparently discussed an attack on the US embassy in Amsterdam.

Of course, the mainstream media will never get around to publishing a reproduction of a priceless 15th century work of art, so here it is:

And the detail with Mohammed:

That "Humanitarian Crisis" again

I mentioned here last November that there were 52,000 Palestinian Arab "policemen" and "security personnel" employed by the PA, making the ratio of police to the general population 1 in 67. For comparison, in Canada it is 1 per 533.

Well, in the days that Fatah's terror leadership of the PA was giving way to Hamas' terror leadership, Fatah offered to hire tens of thousands more - 18,000 right beforehand and 14,000 in the months before that, according to this article - because if Hamas approves the newest recruits the Palestinians will never have to worry about violence again.

The new number of Palestinian security personnel would be 90,000, making the ratio one policeman for every 39 men, women and children in the territories!

Imagine the security of knowing that on every block there lives a few policemen, ready to preserve the peace!

So here are the origins of the Palestinian "humanitarian crisis" - the world funded a welfare state that promoted terror explicitly all while paying every able-bodied man not to work. Sometimes they would kill people for fun. If police weren't paid enough, they would riot. And they were involved in terror attacks.

Now, the world is scared that if they stop paying Palestinian Arabs for their fake jobs - they will riot, kill people and commit terror attacks.

Or, as the UNRWA warned, " "Half of the payroll is for security people who have arms ... there could be more breakdown of law and order."

Makes perfect sense!

Noam Chomsky, Zionist?

Over the past week no fewer than three separate articles were published by terror-supporters all who criticize Noam Chomsky for being too pro-Israel.

You can't make this stuff up.

Palestinians hold posters of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with his two sons Qusai and Uday, and with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, during a march, to support Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people, in the West Bank town of Jenin Wednesday April 5, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

Yes, here are the starving, homeless people who deserve millions of dollars from the world community because they are such upstanding and peace-loving citizens.

9/11 memorial sculpture, Jersey City, April 5, 2006

Hamas: "US Churches are secretly run by Jews"

Hamas gets more respectable all the time, don't they?

United States churches are secretly run by Jews who converted to Christianity with the intention of controlling religious Americans including President Bush, a top Hamas official claims.

'Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jewish who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling the Americans,' Mohammad Abu Tir, the number two Hamas terrorist in the newly formed Palestinian Authority government said during an exclusive interview from his home yesterday with top radio host Rusty Humphries and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

'I made a study and I know very well that all this radicalism in some parts of the Christianity, [including] the Anglicans who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of Zionists,' said Abu Tir.

The Hamas official, famous for his orange-dyed beard, went on to accuse 'Zionists' of controlling Western media organizations and 'leading terrorism inside the mass communications media.'"

But I'm sure that Kofi Annan will find a way to funnel more money to these bozos. (And in Abu Tir's case, I mean that literally:)

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.