Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 30, 2006

That Hamas "truce"

The Arab media has been mentioning a number of times that Hamas now has a "truce" with Israel, since at least February 2005. For example, the WRMEA quotes the editor of Lebanon's Daily Star:

Describing Hamas as a grandchild of Sharon and Israel’s policies, Khouri reminded the audience that Hamas nevertheless has kept a year-long truce with Israel.

An American editorialist at Al-Jazeerah.info goes one better:

Israel has violated the truce that the so-called terrorist organization Hamas has upheld for 15 months..."

Even the mainstream media has picked up on this, led by the resident Palestinian apologist at Reuters, Nidal al-Mughrabi:

While it has largely abided by a year-old truce, the government defended a suicide bombing carried out by the Islamic Jihad militant group in Tel Aviv on April 17 that killed nine people...

So, has Hamas really been staying away from terror since February 2005?

It turns out that the US National Counterterrorism Center keeps a database of worldwide terror attacks over the past couple of years. And while Hamas seems to have "officially" kept relatively quiet since the elections, the database shows quite a few attacks that came way after the supposed "truce" (stats through the end of 2005):

04/10/2005 Gaza Strip Residence damaged in mortar attack by HAMAS in Nezer Hazzani, Gaza Strip

05/19/2005 Israel Israeli settlement and military post targeted in mortar attacks by HAMAS in Nahal Oz, HaDarom, Israel

05/19/2005 Gaza Strip Checkpoint point targeted in rocket and mortar attacks by HAMAS in Bayt Hanun, Gaza Strip 05/19/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement damaged in mortar attacks by HAMAS in Morag, Gaza Strip

05/19/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Morag, Gaza Strip

05/19/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attacks by HAMAS in Atzmona, Gaza Strip

05/19/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in rocket attack by HAMAS in Nisanit, Gaza Strip

06/18/2005 Israel Israeli community damaged in rocket attacks by HAMAS in Sederot, HaDarom, Israel

07/16/2005 Israel 7 children, 9 civilians injured in rocket attacks by HAMAS in Sederot, HaDarom, Israel

07/16/2005 Israel Israeli settlement targeted in rocket attack by HAMAS in Nahal Oz, Gaza Strip

06/29/2005 Gaza Strip 1 civilian wounded in rocket attack targeting Israeli settlement by HAMAS in Gadid, Gaza Strip

06/29/2005 Gaza Strip 1 civilian wounded, 1 residence, Israeli settlement damaged in rocket attack by HAMAS in Newe Deqalim, Gaza Strip

07/14/2005 Gaza Strip 2 police officers wounded in armed attack by suspected HAMAS in Gaza, Gaza Strip

07/15/2005 Gaza Strip 1 child, 1 civilian wounded in mortar attack on Israeli settlement by HAMAS in Newe Deqalim,

07/15/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement damaged in rocket and mortar attack by HAMAS in Nezer Hazzani, Gaza Strip

07/15/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in rocket attacks by suspected HAMAS in Atzmona, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Gaza Strip 20 civilians, 7 children wounded in mortar attack on Israeli settlement by HAMAS in Nisanit, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Gaza Strip Crossing Point targeted in rocket attack by HAMAS at Sufa Crossing, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Gaza Strip Crossing point targeted in rocket and mortar attack by HAMAS at the Erez Crossing Point, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar and rocket attacks by HAMAS in Nezarim, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Kfar Darom, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in rocket attack by HAMAS in Newe Deqalim, Gaza Strip

07/16/2005 Israel 7 children, 9 civilians injured in rocket attacks by HAMAS in Sederot, HaDarom, Israel

07/16/2005 Israel Israeli settlement targeted in rocket attack by HAMAS in Nahal Oz, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Several civilians wounded in armed attack by HAMAS in Kfar Darom, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Several civilians wounded in mortar and rocket attacks by HAMAS on Nezarim, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar and rocket attacks by HAMAS in Newe Deqalim, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Atzmona, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Gadid, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Nisanit, Gaza Strip

07/17/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in rocket attack by HAMAS in Dugit, Gaza Strip

07/19/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Atzmona, Gaza Strip

07/19/2005 Gaza Strip Israeli settlement targeted in mortar attack by HAMAS in Morag, Gaza Strip

09/21/2005 West Bank 1 civilian kidnapped and killed by HAMAS in Jerusalem, West Bank

09/24/2005 Israel 11 civilians wounded in rocket attack by HAMAS on Sederot, HaDarom, Israel

There are also literally dozens of rocket attacks that no group claimed responsibility for. And, of course, the fact that so many historical terror attacks have been claimed jointly by supposedly "competing" Palestinian Arab terror groups makes it pretty clear that Hamas is still involved in terror attacks even if they are no longer taking credit.

But even the official statistics show that those who claim that Hamas has been quiet for over a year are purposefully misstating the facts.

UPDATE: Keren Malki's list of terror attacks includes a failed Hamas attack from December:
2005-12-19

Intercepted: Israeli security personnel catch 2 armed Palestinian Arab men near the neighborhood of Har Homa, en route to doing a terror attack in Jerusalem. They have two firebombs, two knives, a Hamas flag and material for two pipe bombs. This is so insignificant that it goes unreported except for some Israelis newspapers.

Iran's nuclear "transparency"

Over the past week, a number of Iranian leaders said curiously similar statements:

Ahmadenijad: "Iran is the sole country whose nuclear activities are completely transparent. We are ready to hold talks to prove there has been no diversion in our peaceful nuclear activities," he added.

Chairman of Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: "Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has adopted transparency on nuclear program and met all requirements of NPT.
"We decided not to hide anything and proved our goodwill to UN nuclear agency," Rafsanjani said.

Deputy Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) for international affairs Javad Vaeedi: He said that Iranian nuclear program is transparent and Iran has observed Additional Protocol to NPT for the past three years.

Apparently, the IAEA disagrees about Iran's transparency. In the report released today, they write:

After more than three years of Agency efforts to seek clarity about all aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme, the existing gaps in knowledge continue to be a matter of concern. Any progress in that regard requires full transparency and active cooperation by Iran — transparency that goes beyond the measures prescribed in the Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol — if the Agency is to be able to understand fully the twenty years of undeclared nuclear activities by Iran. Iran continues to facilitate the implementation of the Safeguards Agreement and had, until February 2006, acted on a voluntary basis as if the Additional Protocol were in force. Until February 2006, Iran had also agreed to some transparency measures requested by the Agency, including access to certain military sites. Additional transparency measures, including access to documentation, dual use equipment and
relevant individuals, are, however, still needed for the Agency to be able to verify the scope and nature of Iran’s enrichment programme, the purpose and use of the dual use equipment and materials purchased by the PHRC, and the alleged studies which could have a military nuclear dimension.

Regrettably, these transparency measures are not yet forthcoming.

But, not to worry: Helmut Schmidt says that Iran's nuclear program is just hunky-dory, and he brings as proof a supposed fatwa (unpublished, of course) that was supposedly made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei forbidding the creation of nuclear weapons. Everything's great! We can trust Iran's statements - why would they lie?

Unfortunately, Schmidt seems to ignore another little fatwa from this past February:

Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies.
One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.

The pronouncement is particularly worrying because it has come from Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

It's official. I'm an infidel.

I am happy to say that I have joined the Infidel Bloggers Alliance . I'll be posting some of my articles there as well as here.

Thanks to Pastorius of Cuanas and Someguy at Mystery Achievement (whose blog seems to have been hijacked) for inviting me.

(Ahmadinejad) said Iran is the center of peace and tranquility, stressing, "We call for peace and tranquility for all states. We have not attacked any country and are not regarded as a threat to the world. The Iranian nation is independent."
He stated that all Iranians are duty-bound to take steps towards development of Iran, adding, "Iran should become the most advanced and powerful country in the world."

And thanks to an Arab newspaper in London, we can see exactly how peaceful Iran is:

Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.
The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed forces' joint chief of staff headed by the veterinary doctor Hassan Firouzabadi,
The source added that the forces of the Revolutionary Guards’ al Quds Brigades, under Brigadier General Qassim Suleimani is responsible for coordinating and providing logistical support for the groups taking part in the execution of the plan, codenamed al Qiyamah the Islamic word for "Judgment Day".
The plan includes three steps, which Asharq al Awsat has examined in earlier reports. The source gave more details about how the plan will be implemented. He said, “Most of Iran’s visitors in the last four months, including the leaders of revolutionary groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf and Europe and North America were asked, when they met with the Iranian intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei and his aides: are you ready to defend the Islamic revolution and vilayat e faqih? If you agree to take part in the great jihad, what would you need to be ready for the great fight?
Amongst the leaders who visited were the head of one of the Iraqi armed group who was very clear and honest. He said his men would transform Iraq into a hell for the Americans if Iran were attacked.
The source also said that the military training camps of the Guards were opened for the fighters of the Mehdi army in Iran to receive the necessary training. Iran had also increased its financial assistance to Moqtada al Sadr to more than 20 million dollars.
The same applied to Islamic Jihad in Palestine which has received large sums of money, large quantities of arms and military training for its cadres in Isfahan, including street fighting methods.
As for the Lebanese Hezbollah, several loads of arms have been sent to; they include rockets, explosives, and guided missiles. Hezbollah's arsenal includes more than 10 thousand rockets short-range rockets and missiles including Fajr, Nour, Arash, Hadid.

An estimated 80 members underwent private training last year on how to carry out suicide operations from the air (through the use of kite planes) and undersea operations using submarines.
While denying that Hamas had joined the list of organizations ready to help Iran in its likely war with the U.S, the source indicated that the external success of the movement, which enjoys considerable Iranian support both financial and military, was strengthened following the latest visit by its leaders to Tehran. This was translated in the Palestinian masses’ support for Iran, against Israel and the United States .
According to Iran, the latest military plan includes:
1- A missile strike directly targeting the US bases in the Persian Gulf and Iraq , as soon as nuclear installations are hit.
2- Suicide operations in a number of Arab and Muslim countries against US embassies and missions and US military bases and economic and oil installations related to US and British companies. The campaign might also target the economic and military installations of countries allied with the United States .
3- Launch attacks by the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards and Iraqi fighters loyal to Iran against US and British forces in Iraq , from border regions in central and southern Iraq .
4- Hezbollah to launch hundreds of rockets against military and economic targets in Israel .
According to the source, in case the US military attacks continue, more than 50 Shehab-3 missiles will be targeted against Israel and the al Quads Brigades will give the go-ahead for more than 50 terrorists cells in Canada, the US and Europe to attack civil and industrial targets in these countries.
What about the last stage in the plan?
Here, the Iranian source hesitated before saying with worry; this stage might represent the beginning of a world war, given that extremists will seek to maximize civilian casualties by exploding germ and chemical bombs as well as dirty nuclear bombs across western and Arab cities.

Here is a textbook case where waiting for the inevitable conflict will end up increasing the number of dead.

Sometimes war is moral, and Iran is turning into a textbook case. The longer we wait the more it will hurt us. Time is squarely on Iran's side, unless its president should happen to have an unfortunate accident.

Gaza institutions of higher learning

H/T: OpinionJournal's Best of the Web Today

Several people have been hurt in Gaza City in clashes between rival groups of students supporting ruling Palestinian party Hamas or their opponents, Fatah.
The two sides fought around their campuses, throwing stones and homemade explosives and exchanging gunfire.
At least 15 people were wounded in the fighting in Gaza City, which involved students from two of the city's universities.
Al-Azhar University is dominated by Fatah and the Islamic University - by Hamas.

It is nice to see the best and the brightest young minds in the nascent Palestinian state take such interest in political matters. The leaders of tomorrow somehow manage to find time between their sociology classes and their bio midterms to build explosives and shoot each other.

It must take enormous maturity to balance their rich social lives, their backbreaking workloads and their responsibilities to acquire scarce ammunition. But these students know that they are the leaders of tomorrow, ready to guide the great Palestinian nation as it continues to transform itself from a backwards third-world group of ignorant bigots into an even more backwards group of well-educated murderers, terrorists, thieves and thugs.

Iran freaks over Israeli visit

A few days ago, Yediot Aharonot reported that a group of Israeli geological experts visited Iran to give technical advice and had been greeted warmly:

In recent weeks the Muslim republic has been enjoying the skills of Israeli experts recruited to help with rehabilitating the country after recent earthquakes have caused massive damages and devastation.

Three Israeli infrastructure consultants who returned to Israel at the end of the week from a secret visit in Iran on the invitation of a Tehran official, told Israel's leading daily Yedioth Ahronoth they were stunned by their stay in the country.

"We were amazed to discover the gap between Israel's public conflict with Iran, and the depth of the commercial cooperation between the countries, estimated at dozens of millions of dollars a year. We were greeted warmly and felt no hostility on the part of our hosts," one of the Israeli experts said.

The Israeli consultants were sent to Iran on behalf of a Dutch company that is partly owned by an Israeli. The company recruited the Israeli engineers and advisors, who specialize in infrastructure rehabilitation works, and flew them to Iran with special travel passes, after leaving their Israeli passports behind in Holland.

The head of the mission, a 47-year-old Israeli who visited Iran five times in the last 15 years, recounted the visit. "Upon arriving at the airport in Tehran we were greeted by a government employee… from there we were taken to a luxurious hotel located near the Jewish district. We were escorted by a security guard during our entire stay."

"In recent years trade relations between Israel and Iran have blossomed in certain fields, mainly agriculture. The Iranians indirectly buy from Israel spare parts for machines, vegetable seeds, and water filtering systems," he stated.

Well, this is too much for Iran. The Iranian press agency, IRNA, reported that Iranian diplomats hotly denied any such event ever took place:

Iranian Embassy in Syria in a statement issued on Thursday denied the claim made by the Zionist daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, about the visit of Israeli experts to Iran describing the report as baseless.

The document, a copy of which was faxed to IRNA representative office in Damascus, quoting an Iranian diplomat said that the report has been released while the degree of hostility of the Zionist regime with Iran, on account of Iran's will to seek justice, is clear to everyone and the Zionist politicians admit giving priority to measures against Iran.

The Iranian diplomat pointed to Iran's constant stance in not recognizing Israel and severing complete relations with his regime in all fields including economical, agricultural and technical since the victory of the Islamic Revolution and said, "The Zionist regime tries to mislead public opinion through hypocrisy and propaganda, while pretending that its ties with Islamic countries are normal." He referred to Iran's announced material and spiritual support for the Palestinian government-elect as the reason for Israel's failed blockade of this government and said that in retaliation, Israel disseminated false news to disrupt brotherly ties between the governments of Iran and Palestine.

According to him, the world public opinion, in particular that of the world of Islam, are well aware of Iran's stance and its principled and enduring policies towards the Palestinian issue as well as the Zionists' attempt to create discord among the Islamic Umma, adding that such false and instigating news have no impact on them.

Well, it sounds like it made an impact on them to me!

You can now add "hypocrites" and "liars" to the ever growing list of words to accurately describe the Iranian leadership.

Peaceful Arab press conferences and rallies

Every day, it seems, some Palestinian Arab terror organization holds a "news conference." Since Gaza and the West Bank have the ratios of reporters to citizens, invariably Reuters and AP and AFP show up and take pictures. Rarely are the subjects of these "press conferences" revealed in any reporting, or even the names of the speakers. It appears to be just another strange fiction that pops up when you mix a population that supports terror and reporters anxious to report anything.

Yesterday was an Al Aqsa "press conference."

Masked members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah movement, attend a news conference in Gaza City.

Today was a "Popular Resistance Committee" press conference:

Palestinian militant members of the Popular Resistance Committee take part in a news conference in Gaza April 27, 2006. The Palestinian militant group's armed wing is preparing for its role in a new police force that has sparked tensions between the new Hamas-led government and President Mahmoud Abbas.

Yup, hand-grenades are standard police gear.

Meanwhile, the peacemakers of tomorrow are getting psyched, with their cute little toy Katyushas:

A Lebanese Muslim Shiite child carries an effigy of the Star of David with the head of the skeleton of an Israeli soldier where a Lebanese flag and a Hezbollah flag were inserted during a rally marking the 10th anniversary of what is known in Lebanon as the 'Qana massacre,' in front the United Nations' house, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 27, 2006.

Sweden, Israel and Nazi Germany

From an old Ha'aretz article (no longer there, this is from the Google cache:)

"From 1937, Swedes wanting to marry Germans of so-called Aryan blood had to give assurance that none of their grandparents belonged to the Jewish race," reads a study on Sweden's church by Anders Jarlert of Lund University.

Newspapers gagged criticism of Hitler, of the occupation of Norway or the murder of millions of Jews in concentration camps, while cultural links between the Nazis and Sweden flourished.

"The government and authorities did what they thought was necessary to keep peace but I think they did more than was necessary," Amark told Reuters in an interview.

"There was not much rationale for a German attack as Germany got what it wanted from Sweden," he said. It was easier to buy iron ore from Sweden than invade and risk it sabotaging iron mines.

Perhaps it is in this context that we can understand why this happened:

Sweden has withdrawn from European military exercises due to be held next month in Italy because of Israel’s participation, Swedish foreign ministry and military officials said on April 26.
The Spring Flag air exercises in Sardinia May 8-25 “have been organized for peacekeeping operations and we don’t want to take part because of Israel’s participation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Nina Ersman told AFP.
The nine countries due to participate — Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden — were to train together for a future collaboration in international peacekeeping operations.

But Israel would unlikely be able to be involved in any such peacekeeping operations, the foreign ministry said, calling into question the need for the exercises.

OK, quick thought exercise: Would Sweden have withdrawn if Egypt or Kuwait would have participated?

UPDATE: Sweden cozies up to Hamas.

What Liberals and Muslims have in common

I just read a bizarre article from looney left cartoonist Ted Rall, pretty much praising Hamas and ranting against the West, saying Israel should give Hamas lots of money and that Hamas has proven its peaceful intentions, plus some moonbat ravings at neocons for good measure. In his worldview, there is nothing good about the West and nothing bad about radical Islam. For example:

The Bushies might have lost Afghanistan and Iraq, but they got exactly what they wanted in Palestine: democratic elections, a peaceful transfer of power, a radical Islamist group ready to disavow terrorism and transform itself into a parliamentary political party, a majority party willing to work with Israel and her allies. It was a staggering victory for the neoconservative agenda, a golden opportunity to co-opt one of the most prominent organizations of militant Muslims in the world, and proof positive that democracy prevails over terrorism.

Of course we have the astonishing stupidity of his remarks, especially in the wake of the Tel Aviv terror attack that Rall's peaceful Hamas endorsed. It is way too easy to waste ones time pointing out Rall's willful ignoring of facts as he makes his case, yet again, that the right-wing is evil incarnate and that Islamic terrorists are just misunderstood freedom fighters.

But what struck me is that you hardly ever see mainstream, thinking liberals blast morons like Rall. Most Senate Democrats are not idiots, and many liberal commentators are quite bright as well. Occasionally, when a moonbat like Rall really crosses the line there may be a small show of outrage by the mainstream Left, but in general the liberals are loathe to publicly distance themselves from the lunatic, Daily Kos fringe.

Just like ordinary Muslims are mostly silent when their "tiny minority" of terrorists attack Westerners.

The reasons may be different, but the results are the same - both Islam and the Left have become hijacked by the nutcases, because there is no sense of palpable outrage from the mainstream.

And in the cases of both the Ralls and the Islamic Jihads of the world, what is needed is not an occasional op-ed here and there saying "well, they went a little too far, but I can understand their anger." What is needed is a wholesale purging of the offensive elements and a reclaiming of the middle.

(It is not surprising that many of the "9/11 Republicans" still embrace traditionally liberal viewpoints on subjects like abortion and women's rights. They are not rebelling against the Joe Liebermans or Alan Dershowitzes of the world, but they are disgusted at the Ted Ralls. )

Just a little hand waving, mein Führer

I'm not sure which is more disturbing - the fact that Fatah students like to imitate Nazi salutes, or the fact that the AP caption is so clueless?

Palestinian supporters of the Fatah movement wave their hands as they shout slogans during a campaign rally for the students' council elections at the Open Jerusalem university in the West Bank city of Hebron Wednesday April 26, 2006. The elections are scheduled for Saturday April 29. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Abu Mazen sinking in the quicksand of irrelevance

The latest quote from our favorite moderate Holocaust denier as he travels throughout Europe:

"It is important for me to clarify that the Palestinian legislative elections, which brought Hamas to power, is not an obstacle in front of negotiations. "

I think Israel should counter-offer that they would be happy to negotiate with his prime minister's soccer ball,

as that would increase the chances of a breakthrough.

Occupation doesn't cause terror - it impedes it

When Israel left Southern Lebanon, terror increased in Southern Lebanon.

When Israel left Gaza, terror increased in Gaza.

When Israel turned day-to-day security for the West Bank to Arabs, terror increased in the West Bank.

And now we see annual major terror attacks in the Sinai. Al Qaeda is apprently happily ensconsed in what was once Israeli-controlled land.

People say that terror is a result of "occupation", but, objectively speaking, there is a much stronger correlation between Israel ceding territory and more terror.

Now, why do most people think that this trend will reverse itself if Israel gives up more territory?

"If I wear this camouflage and close my eyes real tight, I'll be invisible!"

More pictures of Palestinian "Preventive Security Forces" training at Soccer Da d, AbbaGav, and LGF.

Egyptian editor: Israel definitely to blame for Dahab bombings

In most civilized societies, delusions get you medicated or committed.

In Egypt, they get you positions of power.

The editor of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Osbua, Mustafa Bekhari, blamed Israel for the series of bombing attacks in Dahab Monday night, which killed 24 people. “There is no doubt a link between yesterday’s blasts and the earlier bomb attacks in Egypt, and we should point an accusing finger at Israel,” Bekhari said during an interview with Israeli-Palestinian radio station Kol Hashalom.

“Israel has an interest in carrying out such attacks because it refuses to recognize Sinai as part of Egypt because its tourism industry is so profitable,” Bekhari said. (Roee Nahmias)

That reasoning is even more of a stretch than the usual insane mutterings that emanate from Egypt. But when you blame the Jews for everything, do you really need a logical sounding reason? Your readers will believe it anyway.

Egyptian analyst: Can't rule out Mossad in Egyptian blasts

Retired General Salah al-Din Salim, an Egyptian researcher at the Strategic Studies Institute in Cairo, said that it could not be ruled out that the Israeli Mossad was involved in the terror attack in Dahab.

'The Mossad's ability to penetrate the Bedouins in Sinai is known,' Salim said in an interview with al-Jazeera.

I suppose he can't rule out Martians, Quakers and three separate two-year-olds who spontaneously combusted simultaneously.

I wonder if this general was involved in any of the many Egyptian "victories" over Israel in previous wars.