Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, May 07, 2006

More hypocrisy from Dhimmi Carter, Terror Apologist

Jimmah is at it again, showing his clear preference for murderous Palestinian Arab thugs to Israeli Jews.

In his latest execrable piece written for the International Herald Tribune, he writes an insane series of idiotic ramblings to the effect that by not paying Hamas all the money it wants, the world is punishing innocent Palestinian Arabs who only want peace. It "deprives them of their basic human rights" - apparently, paying terrorists is a basic human right according to Carter. He bends over backwards and sideways and inside-out to portray Hamas as a misunderstood group of people who are honorably holding up their end of a cease-fire.

His astonishing ability to ignore explicit Hamas statements praising terror and reading deeply into side comments that could be construed as possibly being less-than-terroristic is perhaps the worst case of wishful thinking trumping reality ever witnessed:

With all their faults, Hamas leaders have continued to honor a temporary cease-fire [really?] , or hudna, during the past 18 months, and their spokesman told me that this "can be extended for two, 10 or even 50 years if the Israelis will reciprocate." Although Hamas leaders have refused to recognize the state of Israel while their territory is being occupied, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has expressed approval for peace talks between Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel. He added that if these negotiations result in an agreement that can be accepted by Palestinians, then the Hamas position regarding Israel would be changed.

The upshot of the article is that exerting economic pressure on Hamas is immoral.

Interestingly, Carter has in the past argued that exerting economic pressure on Israel is desirable:

There are two existing factors that offer success to American efforts at persuasion.
One is the legal requirement that American weapons are to be used by Israel only for defensive purposes...
The other persuasive factor is approximately $10 million daily in American aid to Israel.

So here we have it in black and white - Jimmy Carter prefers Hamas terrorists to Israeli Jews.

Could it because the Nobel Prize recipient is also the recipient of millions of Arab dollars?

Crocs vs. Zeeba

In the brilliant (and twisted) Pearls Before Swine comic strip by Stephan Pastis, it seems that the artist has a little symbolism going on with his series of a bunch of crocodiles trying to kill their neighbor, the zebra.

The main themes are that Zebra is very smart, the crocodiles are usually dumb, and often the crocs end up either killing themselves or otherwise failing spectacularly.

The comics can be appreciated more when you realize that almost certainly (but perhaps subconsciously on the artist's part), Zebra represents Israel and the crocodiles are Palestinian Arab terrorists.

Here is a recent series that demonstrates this (notice the punchline at the end):

The idea that the artist is passionately pro-Israel and anti-terror is apparent from this uncharacteristically somber strip from December of 2003:

Stephan Pastis, for his part, does not divulge any symbolic meaning to the crocs. But to my mind at least, the battle is remarkably consistent the Palestinian Arab war against Jews. Today's strip even includes the religious dimension of the terrorists:

Even if I'm wrong (and I don't think I am), it adds a bit to my enjoyment of the strip.

The precarious state of Iranian Jews

From the Scotsman:

FOR the dwindling Jewish community in Iran, a sacred ritual is observed at 6.30 every evening as shortwave radios are switched on to listen to the daily Farsi broadcast from Israel.

Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power last June, life for Iran's 25,000 Jews has become even more precarious as the president defiantly pursues a nuclear policy while declaring Israel should be "wiped off the world map".

Israel has long identified Iran as its biggest threat, and these concerns have grown amid repeated calls by its hard-line president for Israel's destruction.

Last Thursday, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert issued a strongly worded warning that the Jewish state took seriously Iranian threats to wipe out Israel and would defend itself against a country the West suspects of seeking nuclear weapons.

His remarks also came as Western powers sought action by the United Nations to curb Iranian uranium enrichment and other key nuclear processes. "It is becoming a serious matter of concern for Iranian Jews should there be any military action between Iran and Israel," said Israeli broadcaster Menashe Amir.

"The Iranian regime says it does distinguish between Judaism and Zionism, but the local Jewish community knows that is a lie since it has been frequently written by extremists in religious circles that 'every Jew is a Zionist'."

While it is still the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel, a vast number of the population have fled Iran.

The first major movement came in 1948 when the state of Israel was established and the number of Jews in Iran stood at about 150,000. The Islamic revolution in 1979 prompted another movement.

"Every Iranian Jew who had the financial possibility or courage has already left, but there's still a small but flourishing community," said Amir, who moved to Israel from Iran at the age of 20 in 1959. He has been broadcasting for 46 years in Farsi for Israeli state radio.

He is all too familiar with the precarious position of Iranian Jews who are called on by the government to declare their public support for the country's nuclear policy.

"Not to mention, every time Iran publicly condemns Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, the Jewish community is expected to issue a statement of support," he said.

Even though the regime officially recognises Judaism as an official religious minority and the Jewish community is even allocated a seat in the Iranian parliament, the reality on the ground is different.

Jewish leaders are reluctant to draw attention to incidences of mistreatment of their community, due to fear of government reprisal, along with fear of being arrested or accused of being spies. In 1999, 13 Jews were arrested in the city of Shiraz and charged with spying for Israel. While eventually all were pardoned, it exposed the fragile position of the country's Jewish community.

"While there are Jewish schools, the principals and most of the teachers are Muslim, the Bible is taught in Farsi, not in Hebrew, and the schools are forced to open on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath," Amir said, as he played Hebrew music for his listeners.

"So while the regime declares that there is freedom of religion, it is all just for the sake of appearances."

Any resemblance is purely coincidental

Gaza City rally for Hamas:

Nuremburg rally for Nazism:

Let's see:
They both want to pretend to be oppressed by powerful Others.
They both want to replace democracy with a totalitarian state.
They both want to place the entire world under their control.
They both glamorize death.
They both like that cool salute.
They both spend a lot of time on organized rallies to brainwash their populations.
They both rely on repeating lies over and over again.
They both regard the free world as their enemy, while they want to get as much money as they can from that same capitalistic society.
They both want to slaughter every Jew alive.

All just a coincidence, I'm sure.

6M African Muslims convert to Xtianity annually

A fascinating translation of an interview at Al-Jazeerah in 2003 (original Arabic no longer on the site.) (Hat tip American Thinker via Iris.)

It looks like the "fastest growing religion" may have been overstating the case, and there is panic in the Muslim world as to the huge number of African Muslims converting to Christianity.

Maher Abdallah:
Dear viewers, peace of Allah be upon you, greetings and welcome to a new episode of the program Islamic Law and Life.

Our topic this evening will be Christianization in the Dark Continent ... Africa. For after Islam was the religion of the majority, the great majority of that continent, the number of Muslims now is no greater than a third of the population. This is taking into consideration, of course, that a large portion of this group are Arab Muslims. No doubt that the missions of evangelization and Christianization played a great role in this demographic shift of Muslims in the continent.

To discuss this topic, it is my pleasure to introduce today a man who is an expert on the issue of evangelization and Christianization in Africa, even though he will concentrate on the issue of Christianization first and foremost…. Sheikh Ahmad Al Katani; the president of The Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, which is an institution specializing in graduating imams and Islamic preachers.

Sheikh Ahmad, welcome to you on the program.

Ahmad Al Katani:
Greeting to you.

Maher Abdallah:
If we start by inquiring about your strict stance against the Christian missions in Africa, don’t the followers of every religion have the right to seek new converts, exactly as you train and graduate young Muslims to propagate Islam?

Ahmad Al Katani:
I seek refuge in Allah the Seer, the Knower, from the stoned devil. In the name of Allah the Merciful the Beneficent. Thanks to Allah the One, the Only, the Permanent One, who did not give birth nor was born, to whom no one was equal. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah who has no partners, and I bear witness that our master Muhammed – Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him - is his messenger and seal of prophets; Allah prayers be upon him and his brothers the prophets and messengers and their families.

The question that you pose is a result of not comprehending the difference between the concept of Christianization and the concept of evangelism.

The concept of evangelism: is inviting the non-Christians to the Christian or Nazarene religion, and this is the right of every Christian and the right of every believer to call others to his faith. However, we are talking about a different matter; which is Christianization. Christianization means the following: preparing plans, and executing these plans and evolving these plans to change Muslims into Christians by taking advantage of the ignorance and poverty (of the people) and whatever necessitates from similar circumstances.

So, we are faced with the issue of taking advantage of circumstances, taking advantage of humanitarian needs, taking advantage of the lack of education for example, that these people (missionaries) use to take Muslims out of their religion.

Maher Abdallah:
Fine. This is a big and dangerous phrase. Taking advantage of poverty, of ignorance, of lack of education, of some need is something that a Muslim can also be accused of. So if you don’t back up what you say with examples, with references, your words remain in the air without much weight to them.

Ahmad Al Katani:
The reality is that these words say a lot less than they should. As we said in the beginning, everyone has the right to invite others to his religion; this is what is known as evangelism (or proselytizing). As for Christianization, no one has the right to take Muslims out of their religion, and you asked for references and the references are too numerous.

Islam used to represent, as you previously mentioned, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century. On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.

As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed …..

It is a long transcript including questions from callers. One Christian caller was lectured as to how Christianity is more bloodthirsty than Islam.

The problem with the BBC

The BBC just completed a third-party study on how impartial its coverage is of the Israeli/Palestinian Arab conflict.

There seems some disagreement as to what the conclusions are (the Times claimed the study concluded that BBC coverage favored Israel, which does not seem to be quite true.) There was one welcome recommendation that the BBC use the word "terrorism" when appropriate.

From reading the report itself, it is obvious that the authors tried very hard to ensure that the BBC's coverage was "balanced." In fact, that was one of the purposes of the report:

...[T]he BBC [is] committed, as our terms of reference make clear, to fairness, impartiality and balance. (While fairness and impartiality are legal requirements, balance is a concept adopted by the BBC in seeking to give effect to them.)

And much of the report details suggestions on how exactly to get balanced reporting out of an asymmetrical conflict.

The problem is that the premise is wrong.

Israel's legitimacy is not a valid topic for a balanced debate any more than that of Great Britain. Terrorism's legitimacy is similarly not a valid topic for debate. Any sensible person makes reasonable assumptions that the fundamental moral basis of the reporter is somewhat similar to the reader. These moral absolutes make "impartiality" in itself immoral.

To give a specific example, the report mentions that BBC coverage favors multiple Israeli deaths in terror attacks compared to multiple Palestinian Arabs killed in Israeli attacks (in terms of time given and percentage of incidents reported). The point is that this imbalance needs to be addressed.

That is absurd. There is a huge difference in motive for the killings, and that difference is the difference between morality and immorality. If motive is not important, one would expect the BBC to cover every auto accident in England with as much airtime as an assassination of a Prime Minister. Nobody but the far Left and Arab terror apologists claim that Israel targets civilians, while the Arabs themselves celebrate the murder of Israeli and Western civilians. The very idea that the coverage of both events deserve the same sympathy is in itself immoral.

Nobody is saying that the BBC should not provide in-depth analysis of the conflict, nor that it shouldn't cover anything from the Palestinian Arab viewpoint. But "balance" is immoral.

A more basic premise that is wrong in this report is that the conflict is between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. If the conflict is framed in such terms, it is easy to make Israel look like the big bully with the huge advantage in strength. This idea is so ingrained in the world psyche that even the BBC, striving for impartiality (and it truly appears to be trying) cannot see the forest for the trees.

It is not a conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Israel. It is a conflict between the entire Arab world and Israel. (One can plausibly argue that it is a single battle in the conflict between Islam and the West as well.)

The Palestinian Arab people are not in great shape, but the idea that they have been pawns in the geopolitical and military power play between the entire Arab world and Israel is not addressed by most news outlets. The basic question of whether the Arabs want independence for their Palestinian brethren, or the destruction of Israel, is not addressed. When framed this way, the "conflict" can be seen in an entirely new, and more accurate, light.

But the world has been brainwashed into accepting the idea of a Palestine-centric conflict, and this fundamentally affects how the news is reported. If the BBC and other news outlets truly want to be fair, accurate and balanced, they need to look beyond the incorrect framing that is implicit in the BBC report itself.

If you cannot define the issues correctly to begin with, you cannot dream to cover them accurately.

Humanitarian crisis, part 6

Buried in an article about the brewing civil war between Hamas and Fatah comes this small item:

Hamas recently bought a black market shipment of 100,000 bullets after outbidding Fatah, according to one official involved in the negotiations.

According to this article, last fall after the Israeli abandonment of Gaza black-market AK-47 bullets there were going for a little less than a dollar apiece.

Once again, the poor Palestinian Arabs are forced to forgo food and medicine just to be able to afford the real necessity of life - ammunition. Human rights organizations and NGOs must go in immediately and make sure that they can get food, medicine and bullets.

(Part 5 here.)

Another Fatah training pic

Recruits for Fatah drill how to act when they are caught by IDF soldiers.

Reuters' fawning coverage of Hamas

Today, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal gave a speech at Damascus University.

Reuters made it look like he was considering peace with Israel, as long as certain conditions are met, with Israel's response seeming irrational and hardline:

DAMASCUS (Reuters) By Khaled Yacoub Oweis - Hamas could reciprocate Israeli moves toward peace if the Jewish state agrees to withdraw from all lands occupied in 1967 and acknowledges Palestinian rights, the group's political leader Khaled Meshaal said on Wednesday.

But Israel's president reiterated that talks with the Hamas-led Palestinian government could not commence unless it renounced violence, recognized the Jewish state and interim Palestinian peace deals with it.

"If Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem, acknowledges the right of return, lifts its siege, dismantles the settlements and the wall and releases the prisoners, then it is possible for us as Palestinians and Arabs to make a serious step to match the Zionist step," he said.

Meshaal, who is in exile in Syria, told a packed auditorium at Damascus University that there was "no chance for a compromise" unless Israel fulfilled such conditions and because it was unlikely to do so in the near future, the Palestinians had no option but to resist occupation.

The further you read the article, the more that Reuters' grudgingly admits that Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction and was behind many terror attacks. But in newspapers, the first couple of paragraphs are the important ones, and Reuters chooses to whitewash Hamas in the lead.

Reuters' duplicity does not end there. Meshaal made another couple of interesting statements during the same speech at the university, but apparently Reuters did not consider these other topics newsworthy.

AFP highlighted part of the speech that escaped the Reuters' reporter's attention:

Hamas supremo [sic] Khaled Meshaal has defended Palestinian suicide bombings as a "natural right" while denouncing what he called Washington's ambitions to dominate the Middle East.

"Our enemies ... don't understand that a suicide operation ... is a natural right," the exiled leader told students in Damascus, adding that Palestinians live "under Israeli occupation and have the right to fight and defend themselves".

Philosophers in the 17th and 18th centuries defined a number of natural rights, like life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness. Meshaal the supremo's addition to that list seems worth mentioning.

UPI also attended the same speech, and found another item to put in the lead of the story:

DAMASCUS, Syria, May 3 (UPI) -- Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Meshaal deplored the financial blockade averting payment of salaries to Palestinian Authority employees as a "real holocaust."

The Damascus-based Meshaal told a gathering at Damascus University Wednesday that "the Arab League and the Palestinian government are trying to coordinate the transfer of the salaries of some 164,000 employees through private accounts without success."

He said he had told a foreign diplomat in the Syrian capital that what is happening to the Palestinians in the occupied territories "is the real holocaust and a crime taking place in broad daylight."

So we have three news agencies attending the same speech. Two of them clearly imply that the speaker's opinions are off-the-wall insane, while one of them makes him look like a risk-taker for peace - and ignores any part of his speech that would give one the opposite impression.

Proud to be a Zionist (5766 edition)

I wrote an essay a few years ago that I posted here last year called "Proud to be a Zionist." For this Yom Ha'Atzmaut, I thought it is time to update it.

In prayers every morning Jews say a phrase praising G-d, describing Him as המחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית - He who continually renews the act of Creation. In other words, the Jewish concept of G-d has him in an active role keeping the universe running, and as such it is appropriate to praise Him.

It is a little hard to conceptualize this idea, that the very laws of physics, of the world turning and revolving around the sun is not automatic, but only occurs due to the constant will of G-d. But perhaps it is easier to understand this phrase if we apply it to the modern state of Israel.

Every single day that the Jewish state continues to exist cannot be explained adequately with historical or social or military reasons. Which means that we are witnessing a miracle every day.

This was a hard year for Zionists. It was an especially hard year for religious Zionists. Yet when we step back and look at the big picture, Israel remains something to be very proud of.

Yes, I am a Zionist and I am proud of it.

I know that Israel has the absolute right to exist in peace and security, just like any other country.

I am proud of how the IDF is conducting itself during the current war on Palestinian terror. There is no other country on the planet, save the US, that would try to minimize civilian casualties in such a situation where innocent Israelis are being threatened and murdered in cold blood. We may argue whether the IDF's moral standards end up being counterproductive, but what other army could one even have this discussion about?

I am proud of how the IDF is performing doing the most difficult type of battle, that of looking house to house for terrorists, while maintaining amazing professionalism under fire and minimizing its own casualties. I defy anyone to find any other nation who has performed as well -- and as ethically -- as Israel has done during the current conflict.

I am proud that Israel remains a true democracy, with a free press and vigorous opposition parties, while in a constant war situation. Any other nation, again besides the US, would have imposed martial law to maintain peace.

I am proud of how Israeli citizens are going through their day to day lives, even while knowing that a despicable terrorist can still make it in to their hometowns.

I am proud of how many terror attacks have been thwarted by the Israeli police and citizens, and how many lives have been saved. For every "successful" attack (if you can use such a term) there have been many failed attempts, and these are truly miraculous.

I am proud that Israel will investigate any mistakes that happen on the battlefield and keep trying to improve its methods to maximize damage to the terrorists while minimizing damage to the Palestinian people. And over the years of the "intifada" we can see that the number of civilians killed accidentally by Israel has gone down dramatically. I challenge anyone to find an example of a country that was as restrained under these circumstances as Israel has been.

I am proud that Israel takes steps to stop vigilante actions from its own citizens living in impossible conditions.

And, of course, I am proud of Israel's many accomplishments in building up a desert wasteland into a thriving and vibrant modern country, with its many scientific achievements, world class universities and culture. In a short period of time Israel made itself into a strong yet open nation that its neighbors can only dream of becoming.

I am proud that the vast majority of Americans support Israel as I do, and that the rabid terror-lovers we see on the Internet are the aberration.

Right after the Jewish prayer phrase I quoted above is this one: מה רבו מעשיך ה , "How great are Your works, O G-d." It is easy to find faults but in the big picture, the accomplishments are remarkable and need to be highlighted.

There is a right and a wrong in this conflict, and I am proud that Israel is in the right.

Good news: Israeli breakthrough in solar power

More good news....

As the world continues to become more and more dependent on fossil fuels, with the US alone consuming 17 million barrels each day, the question of the future looms larger every day: What is the world going to do when oil runs out?

Solar power has usually been dismissed as a possible answer to the problem because of its high cost and relatively low efficiency. But a new type of solar power cell being developed in Israel by one of the world's foremost experts in the field promises to change that.

In Professor David Faiman's world of concentrator photovoltaic cells (CPV cells), solar power just might be the answer to the fuel dilemma.

"Traditional photovoltaic cells do two things: collect sunlight and generate electricity from it," said Faiman of Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Sde Boker. "What we've done is simply split those two functions, so that the sunlight is collected and concentrated by a dish-shaped mirror, and a small number of concentrator cells generate electricity from that highly concentrated sunlight. Photovoltaic material is far too expensive to waste on something that can be accomplished with cheap glass and steel."

Faiman's apparatus, which resembles an enormous satellite dish, rises high above his modest offices in the middle of the Negev desert. Each of the dish's mirrors can concentrate the sun's energy by a factor of about 20 before reflecting it up to the solar cells that hang suspended over the apex of the dish. When all 50 of the mirrors used for the project are uncovered (sometimes only one or two are used for testing purposes), the cells are on the receiving end of the light of a thousand suns.

The dish, which weighs about 10 tons, is wheel-mounted onto a rotating base so that it can turn around, following the sun over the course of a day. The dish's motors move it using a minute amount of the power that it generates.

A recent Faiman research paper analyzed the weather conditions in California and the southwestern United States, concluding that the economics of building concentrator solar power plants there were nothing short of phenomenal. The paper was published in a journal called Energy Policy instead of Faiman's usual Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells because he thought that "there's more of a chance Governor Schwarzenegger will pay attention to a journal with the name Energy Policy."

"This kind of power plant will cost a little less than $1,000 per kilowatt to build, which is exactly the same as the cost of current fossil fuel plants - except that you wouldn't have to buy any fuel," Faiman told ISRAEL21c. "If the electricity were sold at Israel's going rate of nine cents per kilowatt-hour, the profit margin would be such that the entire investment in solar energy infrastructure could be paid off within twenty years. And all that while, the country could be building more solar power plants using some of the profit from existing ones."

Time for good news for a change...

It was the largest, most impressive port in the Roman Empire when it was inaugurated in 10 BCE. And some 2,016 years later, the ancient port of Caesarea - along the Mediterranean coast of Israel - was inaugurated again last week, this time as the world's first underwater museum.

Divers can now don their wet suits and tour the sign-posted remains of the magnificent harbor built by King Herod to honor his Roman patron, Caesar Augustus. The site has been excavated over the last three decades by a team led by the late Prof. Avner Raban of the University of Haifa's Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies.

It's not your ordinary museum tour. Visitors float from one 'exhibit' to the next, marveling in silence at the untouched remains of a once-glorious harbor: a Roman shipwreck, a ruined lighthouse, an ancient breakwater, the port's original foundations, anchors, pedestals.

"It's a truly unique site," said Sarah Arenson, a University of Haifa maritime historian and participant in the project. "This port was built as the state-of-the-art port of the Roman Empire, and made the other ports of the time, including those of Rome, Alexandria and Piraeus, look small and out-of-date by comparison."

Arenson notes that the port is also unique today: "There are no other ancient ports in the world that are accessible to ordinary divers," she told ISRAEL21c. Some such ports are restricted to authorized scientists. Others may be open to any diver, but would be meaningless to such visitors "because," explains Arenson ,"all you would see is a bunch of stones."

At Caesarea, divers view some 36 different sign-posted sites along four marked trails in the sunken harbor covering an area of 87,000 sq. yards They are given a water-proof map which describes in detail each of the numbered sites along the way (currently maps are in English and Hebrew; within a few months they will be available in six additional languages.) One trail is also accessible to snorkelers. The others, ranging from 7 to 29 feet below the surface, close to the beach, are appropriate for any beginner diver.

And what does the visitor see?

In a sense, an abrogated history of this once prominent port town - from its entrance at sea (about 350 feet from the current shoreline) to the Roman shipwreck that signaled the demise of the port, probably due to an earthquake, about a century after its construction, researchers believe. And, in between, divers can view the remnants of the original foundations that made this harbor one of the wonders of the Roman Empire.

Time for a new look

I think it needs some tweaking but I was getting sick of the old layout.

Any feedback is appreciated.

UPDATE: Back to the drawing board! It looks like I had optimized it for something like 1280x1024 :) So I went back to the old layout, changed to a sans-serif font, and put up a different masthead for now.

The poor, starving and cash-strapped Palestinian Arabs know where their priorities are.

You can almost hear their conversations....

"Do we buy food for our people? Do we pay their 'salaries'? Do we put money into venture capital, or our universities, or R&D?

"No, in a time of severely limited budget problems, we need to buy telescopic sights with infrared markers for our M-16s first."

Hundreds of combat support items were found Tuesday morning in a shipping container sent from China to the Gaza Strip. Customs officers at the Ashdod Port made the discovery while scanning the container.

The container's importers said their shipment includes sewing notions, hats and clocks. Customs officers however confiscated 300 telescopes, some of which have sights and infrared markers for long-range targets.

"We are speaking of a quantity that could upgrade the fighting capability of a whole brigade in the Palestinian Authority security forces. A telescope of this kind, fitted on an M-16 rifle, for example, improves the death ability of the weapon," customs officials said.

(Previous "Humanitarian Crisis" articles here, here and here.)

The Iranian earthquake threat

This is one hell of a scary picture.

This picture shows where and when earthquakes have hit various parts of iran. At the web page it comes from, you can zoom in and see more detail.

Iranian nuclear activities are worrisome not only for their military dimension, but also because of a simple fact: Iran sits on one of the most geologically active places on the planet. Deadly earthquakes happen quite often there, and 97% of Iran has been hit by earthquakes historically.

Even if Iran's nuclear program was entirely peaceful, the idea of building nuclear plants in such a seismically unstable area is just stupid. A single Chernobyl in Iran, triggered by an earthquake, could contaminate the entire Persian Gulf and then we won't have to worry about Gulf oil - there won't be any.

A quick glance at Iran's IRNA news shows minor earthquakes hitting various parts of Iran last Friday.
And Saturday.
And Sunday.
And Monday.

Almost no one is talking about this threat besides Amir Taheri, the excellent Iranian columnist and writer. Here is one of his recent articles on the matter:

IRAN'S NUKE SITES SIT ON FAULT LINE
by Amir Taheri
Gulf News
April 5, 2006

Where will the "Next Big One" strike? This is the question that seismologists across the globe have always on their mind. The latest issue of National Geographic Magazine poses it in its cover story and tries to provide answers with the help of a map depicting earthquake prone zones.

Possibly the most active of these zones is the arc of uplands spanning from Southern Asia to the Middle East. At the centre of that arc is located the Iranian Plateau which, over the past century or so, has experienced more earthquakes than any other part of the globe. Last week's earthquake in the south-central province of Luristan is the latest reminder of that fact.

Since Iran started properly recording earthquakes in the late 1940s it has suffered at least one "big one" every decade. According to official estimates these earthquakes claimed the lives of 126,000 people, injured a further 800,000 and made 1.8 million people homeless. Seen against such a background, it is surprising the safety aspect of Iran's nuclear programme has received little attention inside and outside the country.

As far as I am aware the safety issue has not been seriously raised either at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or at the United Nations Security Council where the Iranian programme was debated last month. As for Iran's neighbours the only expression of concern has come from the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah.

The problem, however, is that while the security risks that the Iranian nuclear programme might entail cannot be conclusively demonstrated, the threat that it poses for the safety of the region is readily manifest.

Even supposing Iran's nuclear programme has no military dimensions, it would still be prudent to demand that it be put under a moratorium until the whole issue is publicly debated inside and outside the country.

There was no public enquiry on how and why the Bushehr Peninsula, one of the most dangerous areas of Iran as far as earthquake frequencies are concerned, was chosen as the location of the first nuclear power station.

The spot chosen for the nuclear power station is known as Hellieh and was once the site of half a dozen villages. It was abandoned in the 1940s when the villages were wiped off the map in a major earthquake. The place is not far from the remains of Siraf, which had been the region's most important port until it was destroyed in an earthquake in 978 AD.

An official Iranian government report presented to an international conference in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005, puts the area where the nuclear power station is located at the centre of the country's most active earthquake zone.

The safety issue becomes even more pressing when a number of other facts are considered. The first is that no proper assessment was ever made of the damage done to the half-built plant before building was resumed in the year 2000.

The second fact is that there is, as yet, no agreement on how and where to treat the waste water produced by the Hellieh plant. The initial idea was to just let it flow into the waters of the Gulf. But that could pose a major ecological threat and wipe out the region's fishing industry. It could also threaten the desalination plants used by many Gulf states to produce up to 80 per cent of the water they use.

No agreement

There is also the fact that there is, as yet, no agreement on what to do with the nuclear waste produced by the plant. The German consortium had proposed burying the waste under the great Iranian desert of Kavir Lut. But that idea had to be abandoned because the desert in question is itself on an active earthquake zone.

Both under the Shah and during the reign of the mullahs, Iranian decision-makers have been fully aware of the risks involved in building nuclear power stations. This is why they decided to locate them in sparsely populated areas. None of the 22 nuclear power plants that the Shah wanted to build was to be close to major population centres in Iran itself.

That strategy, however, did not take into account Iran's neighbours in the western coast of the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. There, between 40 and 100 per cent of the total population live close to the perimeter of danger.

The Islamic republic has decided to build seven of those nuclear stations. The second will be located at Dar-Khwain, on the River Karun which flows into the Gulf via the Shatt Al Arab. The third will be built in the Jas Peninsula almost opposite the Mussandam Peninsula in the Sultanate of Oman.

The world needs to give at least as much importance to the safety aspect of the Iranian nuclear programme, which is readily manifest, than to its security aspect which the IAEA is yet to reveal in clear terms.

Building nuclear power stations, especially when designed by Russians and Chinese firms that are subject to no international scrutiny, on the world's most active earthquake zone might not be the best of ideas either for Iran or its neighbours.

While I admit to fantasizing about chances for "the mother of all work accidents", the practical upshot is that here is a topic all can agree on - from tree-hugging liberals to hawkish conservatives. Nuclear power plants in Iran pose an extreme environmental threat beyond the obvious military threat, and even the most dhimmified dove in Europe can understand this.