Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, July 07, 2006

Go to shale

With oil prices hovering around $70 a barrel, Israel is looking for ways to reduce its near-total dependence on energy imports. It's pondering the use of the nation's huge reserves of oil shale - a dark, crumbly rock loaded with hydrocarbonslocated in the central and southern parts of the country. Thanks to a technical breakthrough, it should be possible to extract fuel oil from the shale for less than $20 a barrel. That could allow Israel eventually to cut its crude imports by up to one-third.
Shale is already used as a fuel for power plants in Israel and Estonia, where the rock is burned like coal to drive steam turbines. Israel's small shale-fired power plant was built nearly 20 years ago. But past attempts to extract liquid oil from shale weren't economically feasible: The process cost upwards of $50 per barrel at a time when oil was selling for less than half that.
Now, the tables have turned. A Russian-born Israeli immigrant named Moshe Gvirtz developed a technique in the 1990s to squeeze oil from shale by mixing the rock with a residue from conventional oil refining and putting it through a catalytic process. The dramatically improved results, coupled with soaring crude prices, have inverted the economics of oil shale. That could help not just Israel but dozens of other countries, including the U.S., that are rich in shale reserves.

And the best part is the byproduct: less money going to Arab terrorists laundered through Saudi Arabia, Iran and other oil-rich terror-supporting countries.

Ha'aretz-
Unknown assailants shot dead Dr. Hussein Abu Ajwa, 44, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, as he got out of his car outside his home on Wednesday night.
Sources in Gaza described Abu Ajwa as a leading promoter of religious and political reform in Hamas.

Palestinian Center for Human Rights -
Two members of the armed wing of Hamas were killed in a mysterious explosion in a house in the densely-populated Zaitun quarter of Gaza City.
It is believed they were preparing an explosive device that detonated by mistake.

Palestinian Center for Human Rights -
A 12-year old girl was killed Thursday in an armed clash within the Abu M'hadi clan in Nuseirat in Gaza.
An armed clash between the Foujo and El-Arja clan in Rafah on July 1 resulted in the injury of four people.

In fact, since the Israeli operation began, at least 15 Palestinian Arabs have been killed by work accidents, clan fighting, honor killings and the occasional bullet fired in the air that hits someone during a wedding.

Somehow, the 90,000 "security forces" haven't been able to make things safer for the ordinary Palestinian Arab.

Good luck finding this reported in the mainstream press.

I love my human shield

BEIT LAHIYA, -: A Palestinian masked and armed militant stands near graffiti art sprayed on a wall during fire fighting with Israeli soldiers in a part of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, 06 July 2006.

What are the odds that he wants the kid to run away to a safe place?

"Security forces"

Was it only a couple of months ago that the Palestinian Arabs demanded that the Western world pay their salaries?

Of course, most of the people who work for the welfare state of the PA work in the "security forces."

Now, what are the security forces, created and funded with Western tax dollars, doing today?

Interior Minister Said Siyyam of the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party issued the regime's first call to arms since Israel invaded last week, urging Gaza security forces to fulfill their "religious and moral duty to stand up to this aggression and cowardly Zionist invasion."

As everyone and their grandmother knew (besides the EU), the Palestinian Arabs were building an army, not a police force. But good luck finding any news sources that refer to them that way.

Ferris wheels in Paradise

Since 70 virgins don't hold any appeal for the pre-pubescent potential shaheed, the disgusting Palestinian Arab Islamic leaders need to find another angle to convince kids to blow themselves up.

Hence, the PA showed a video recently showing Mohammed al-Dura in Heaven, flying kites and going to an amusement park.

Palestinian Media Watch has the whole video.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, our friends and allies there also have a children's show where they encourage martyrdom and applaud kids who say that Jews are "the people of treachery, betrayal, and vileness." As MEMRI translates:

"Ruqaya, what did you learn from today's show?"
Voice of Ruqaya: "I learned that the Jews are the people of treachery and betrayal..."
Muhammad Sharaf Al-Din: "Allah Akbar! Say Allah Akbar! What did Ruqaya say? The Jews are the people of treachery and betrayal. May Allah give you success. We want mothers who teach their sons jihad, the love of Allah and His Messenger, sacrifice for the sake of Islam, and love for the countries of the Muslims. Loving the country of the Muslims. May Allah bless you, Ruqaya. That is the most beautiful thing I have heard - that the Jews are the people of treachery, betrayal, and vileness."

The utter depravity of a culture that brainwashes their children to hate and murder and blow themselves up is beyond description. The assumption made in the West that everybody is basically the same is soundly refuted here - there are entire large groups of people on this planet who do not share normal human values and dreams. We want our children to grow up and be successful, they incite their children to murder and die before they grow up. To even entertain the thought of celebrating this culture as somehow being equivalent to Western culture is sickening.

The $2 billion we spend annually in Egypt and the hundreds of millions that the world has sent Palestinian Arabs are paying dividends - we are bankrolling the next generation of jihadists and murderers.

Fireworks...

My family's Independence Day was exhausting and we had no plans to go a couple of miles away to see fireworks.

As we sat outside on our deck we saw what looked like, at first, to be a couple of not-bad fireworks that we assumed some kids were setting off at a school a block away from us.

They kept getting better.

I still don't know who sponsored this fireworks show, and it is hardly Macy's, but from the comfort of your own home sitting outside with an iced tea, this was pretty good.

Enjoy the snippet!

Two Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in an explosion in a house in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City, Palestinian eyewitnesses said.

The explosion ripped through the house of the Dahdouh family whose sons are members of the Islamic Jihad. Two family members were killed in an Israeli air strike. The IDF has denied involvement while Palestinian sources said the explosion was caused by a work accident. Three people were critically injured in the explosion.

The sources added the two brothers were probably preparing an explosive device which prematurely detonated.

As the number of Palestinian Arabs who accidentally kill themselves while planning to murder Jews increases, I have one question:

How come the wire services have photos of the aftermath of every Israeli rocket attack, but hardly ever show the blown-up buildings and cars from "work accidents?" There are clearly plenty of photographers covering every square inch of Gaza. So where are the photos that document Palestinian Arab depravity and recklessness towards their fellow Arabs?

Is it because the story doesn't fit into the MSM playbook of the conflict?

News and op-ed links

The Daily Mail has an op-ed by Melanie Phillips that hits the nail on the head. Quote:

Just as crucial is to address the hatred and lies that are driving this violence. In particular, what must be combated with the utmost vigour is the Muslim culture of grievance, the belief that the West is engaged in a conspiracy to attack and destroy the Islamic world.
This delusion has meant that many Muslims misrepresent Islamist aggression as self-defence, and the West's attempt to defend itself as aggression. This double-think means that Britain is itself blamed for the attacks mounted upon it.

David Gilmour is bemused by Roger Waters' graffiti.

Khilafah.com trots out yet another article saying that Muslims aren't anti-semitic, only anti-Zionist. Then they try to prove that Zionists have always been anti-Islam, using mostly fabricated and out-of-context quotes from Israel's founders. Yet all the pseudo-quotes talk about Arabs, not Muslims!

“The western mind and the Muslim mind are two different psychologies”

A must-read article about a reporter going undercover to a Jihad-infested suburb of Leeds, England.

But his kindness to me was coupled with a darker outlook on the wider world. I was shocked when one day at the Hamara centre he began explaining how the London bombers could be seen as martyrs.
“The western mind and the Muslim mind are two different psychologies,” he said. “The Muslim mind will see that this life means nothing unless I sacrifice myself for Allah.”
Inside I flinched, but outwardly I nodded with a look of sympathy. I did not want him to close up as much of the community had done after last summer’s attacks. I wanted him to speak honestly.
“My life means nothing, you know,” he continued. “I would give up this evil, two-seconds of a life.” Earthly experience, I think he meant, was but a moment compared with paradise to come.
Later he went on to eulogise Abdullah Faisal, a firebrand Islamic cleric who was imprisoned in 2003 for inciting the murder of Jews. Faisal, said to have been a strong influence on the 7/7 bombers, has advocated the spreading of Islam “by the Kalashnikov” and declared that one aim of jihad is to “lessen the population of unbelievers”.
To Ghani, the cleric was “one of the good ones” and he advised me where I might obtain recordings of his sermons.

Once again, I felt as if I had entered a strange bubble, a world where the reality I had known before had been suspended. Bham then asked me if I would ever blow myself up for Islam. I replied that the Koran says you should not harm innocent people.
“What Koran was that?” he countered. “Don’t fool yourself by saying jihad is a struggle within, to get on with life, to motivate myself to get up for prayers and that sort of thing,” he said. “That’s not jihad. Who told you that?”

Even after these experiences, the reporter looks atthis as merely a social problem. He doesn't seem to make the leap that the next 9/11 bomber is likely to come from a place like this, the middle of a Western town.

Indonesia pulls out of tennis match in Israel

From The Jakarta Post:

JAKARTA (AP): Indonesia has pulled out of a planned Fed Cup tennis match in Israel to protest against Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip, an Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

"We are witnessing a military invasion by Israel and the arrest of scores of Palestinian officials," spokesman Desra Percaya said. "It is now impossible to play there," he said.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, earlier asked that the venue be changed to another country, because Jakarta has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

But in May, the Indonesian government said it would allow the team to travel to Israel to contest the tennis playoff, scheduled for July 15-16.

Indonesia strongly supports Palestine freedom from the Israel's occupation. The Zionist regime is supported unconditionally by the United States. The U.S. is Israel's main source of weapons being used to terrorize the Palestinians. (***)

I am fascinated by the last paragraph. While AP is credited for the story, clearly they didn't write the last paragraph. (Perhaps the three asterisks symbolizes that.) And if you look elsewhere for the story, lo and behold, we see much more information that the Jakarta Post did not bother to copy from the original AP article:

Indonesia has long supported Palestinian independence and suggestions that ties with the Jewish state be restored are routinely met by large street protests and criticism from religious leaders.

Israel and Indonesia have matched up in the women's Fed Cup twice -- in 1974 in Italy and in Japan in 1981. Israel defeated Indonesia both times.

Indonesia must win July's playoff to stay in World Group II.

An Indonesian tennis official said earlier this year that if the team did not play the match then it would be fined and banned from the competition for one year.

In London at Wimbledon, the International Tennis Federation said that it had not been officially informed of the Indonesian decision and would make no comment.

In 1997, Morocco refused to go to Israel to compete in a European-African zone Davis Cup match. Morocco was allowed to compete in the Davis Cup the following year after an ITF management committee said it took into account unrest in Israel at the time, which it said affected the Muslim community.

As a result of its withdrawal, Morocco had to forfeit its match against Israel and was relegated to a lower group in the zone.

Perhaps what was really bothering the Indonesians was this quote from Haaretz last month:

"The event is one of political importance, as a means of improving the relations between the two countries," Hefetz said.

Bizarre Reuters caption of the week

First, the picture:

Imagine how you would describe what is happening here.

Now here's what Reuters saw:

An Iranian student holds a piece of stone to show solidarity with the Palestinian uprising during the demonstration in front of Palestinian embassy in Tehran July 4, 2006. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi (IRAN)

Well, if it wasn't for Reuters, I would have missed the stone.

Usually, wire service captions include at least one more sentence of clarifying or background material. You know, something like "The student is wearing the colors of the Hamas terror group."Or "Iranians often compare Zionism to Nazism at the same time that they deny any Nazi atrocities against Jews."

Or "The sign that takes up half of this photograph is irrelevant to the Reuters editors."

Some of those female prisoners

New update at the end.

Ahlam Tamimi, who drove the suicide bomber to the Sbarro's restaurant attack killing 15, including 11 children.

Amana Muna, who lured a 16-year old Israeli boy over the Internet to Ramallah where he was ambushed and killed.

Yusra Abdu, convicted of planning a suicide attack.

Wafa al-Bis, who tried to blow up the Israeli hospital that was treating her. Details here:

UPDATE: As of March 2004, Israeli security forces have arrested 24 women intent on perpetrating suicide bombing attacks.

From mid-2004 to mid-2005, over 59 women have attempted attacks against Israelis.

From the IDF website:

Kahira Sa'adi, a mother of four children, and Sanaa Shachada, 27 bought flowers in order to disguise themselves as civilians on Mother's Day when a terrorist blew himself up on King George Street in Jerusalem on 21.3.02 killing three Israeli civilians and wounding tens of others.

Kahira Sa'adi, 26 married and mother of four, resident of Al-Ram confessed in her investigation that she brought to Jerusalem the suicide bomber who executed the terrorist attack. Kahira mentioned in her investigation that Abad Al Karim Avis, one of the senior terrorists of the Fatah terrorist organization who was arrested in the Jenin refugee camp became acquainted with Kahira, and requested from her to exploit her western looks and smuggle a suicide bomber into Jerusalem.

She also confessed that after the terrorist attack on King George Street, she agreed to transfer another suicide bomber into Jerusalem with a larger explosive belt.

Sana Shachada, 27 from the Kalandia refugee camp confessed in her investigation that together with Kahira Sa'adi she was involved in the smuggling of a suicide bomber.

Sana also said in her investigation that she was a friend and supporter of Neazar Shavish, a senior terrorist of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Jenin. Shavish was arrested by security forces and was contacted in order to help in the smuggling of a terrorist into Jerusalem.

She also confessed that at a checkpoint to the entrance of the city she bought flowers, holding them in order to be assimilated better among those crossing, as it was Mother's Day the day of the attack. She also said in her investigation that before she entered the city with Shavish, Shavish stepped back at a distance of 50 meters from Kahira Saidi and the suicide bomber because she wore an Arab traditional garment and did not want to stir any suspicion.

Daah Jeyosi, a 21 year old student who smuggled a suicide bomber into the city of Netanya checked other possibilities of carrying out a terrorist attack in the area of the boardwalk and the mall, but finally selected the local market. The result was the murder of three Israeli civilians and wounding fifty nine civilians on 19.5.02:

Daah Jeyosi, a 21 year old student from Tulkarem, confessed in her investigation that she was asked by terrorists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine from Shechem to smuggle the terrorist who executed the suicide bombing. Daah mentioned that she was asked by a terrorist if she is ready to carry out a suicide bombing of her own. Daah refused to sacrifice herself but she did express readiness to participate in the implementation of a terrorist attack.

She also said to the terrorist that she is familiar with the city of Netanya and in particular the coastline.(She would drive there many times before the Intifada). Daah was asked to be escorted to the suicide bomber and tell him to appear as innocent as possible.

On day of the attack, Daah entered the city wearing a white tight shirt and tight pants, with sunglasses, carrying a brown purse and a ribbon tied to her hair. When arriving at the entrance to the market, Daah left the taxi and examined the place. Later in which, she requested from the driver that he wait at the entrance of the market. Daah requested from the taxi driver to wait about 5 minutes in order that she will be able to flee with the taxi and only after operating the explosive device that she carried in her purse. Daah returned to the taxi, and after a few minutes there was the explosion.

Arin Achmad, a 20 year old student wore tight pants and a stomach bearing shirt in an attempt to disguise her Palestinian Arab origin in order to help the suicide bomber, aged 17 execute a suicide bombing in Rishon Lezion on 22.5.02. In the terrorist attack, many civilians were murdered and many were wounded:

Arin Achmad, a 20 year old student from Beit Sahour, was supposed to take part in a suicide bombing that was carried out in Rishon Lezion. Together with Isa Badir, a 17 year old terrorist who in the end executed the attack, Arin brought to the area of the planned terrorist attack Ibrahim Sarachana and his wife Irana. The original plan was that Issa would blow himself up adjacent to the tables of backgammon where people sat around.

Arin Ahmed would wait on the other side of the road then explode herself with the explosive device on the people who will flee from panic alongside the other side of the street. The explosive devices were placed in the purses which Arin and Isa carried, each weighing about 35 kilograms. The explosive device was detonated by a switch where a stick in the purse was connected to strings.

Arin said that when she saw the place where she was to blow herself up, she changed her mind and requested to return back. Before she carried out the terrorist attack she wrote a departing letter to her family, purifying herself and prayed and was photographed by a video camera. In order to present herself as an Israeli in order not to stir any suspicion, she wore tight pants and a stomach bearing shirt.

Norah Anam, 16 attempted to stab an IDF soldier at the Taibeh checkpoint on 24.2.02:

Norah Anam,16, a resident of Tul Karem attempted to carry out a terrorist attack by attempting to stab an IDF soldier at the Taibeh checkpoint near Tulkarem. Norah Anam left her house during the evening hours of the night, without the knowledge of her children, and crossed the checkpoint in order carry out a terrorist attack and stab an IDF soldier.

The forces at the checkpoint opened fire in her direction in order to thwart the terrorist attack which ended in the death of the terrorist. The Fatah terrorist organization claimed responsibility of sending Norah to carry out the terrorist attack.

Imao Asah, 27, married and the mother of two children placed an explosive device in the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station on 3.8.01:

Iman Asah, 27 from Shechem, married and mother of two children placed an explosive device at the Tel Aviv central bus station on 3.8.01. The explosive device was discovered by security forces before it had the chance to explode. Iman consented to the request of her husband who was suspected of collaborating with Israel, to execute a terrorist attack of placing an explosive device in order to "clear his name", as well to improve his family relations.

Iman's brother, known as a Fatah terrorist was also behind the terrorist attack attempt. Iman and her husband were arrested by Israeli security forces after attempting to execute the attack.

Tahani Titi, 24 intended to commit suicide due to her disappointing life but was saved by terrorist organizations in order to carry out a terrorist attack against Israeli civilians in September of 2001:

Tahani Titi , 24 a graduate was detained by security forces after she attempted to execute a suicide bombing. In her investigation she said that in September 2001 she met Valid Tzabich, a wanted Tanzim terrorist from Bethlehem who was killed in an initiated activity by security forces.

The connection between Tahini and Valid was destined originally for the purpose of marriage but when she understood that he would run after women, Tahiti canceled the marriage proposal and maintained contact with him via telephone only. In June of 2002, Tahiti lost hope of her life at her father's home so she decided to put an end to her life.

Valid originally tried to motivate her not to act such and claimed that as long as she wishes to die, it would be preferable to do it for something good. Valid indicated to Tahiti to establish contact with two Tanzim terrorists in Ramallah who will help her execute a suicide bombing. After a number of days, it was discovered that the terrorists from Ramallah were arrested and so the suicide terrorist attack was postponed. At the end of June, Tahini tried to commit suicide by taking pills, but failed. She mentioned that she wanted to end her life not for nationalistic reasons, but on her father's account who repeatedly hit her and did not love her since she started university.

She also said that she did not hate Jews and her visits in Israel were all for the good and was impressed by how the Israelis lead free lives. The case of Tahini constitutes a classic example of the cynical abuse by terrorist groups of exploiting the young and innocent who have sensitive marital issues.

Teoraya Chamor, 26- her family refused her to marry and as a result she decided to execute a suicide bombing:

Teoraya Chamor, 26, from Jaba was arrested in Beit Dudata in Tulkarem while on her way to execute a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. In her investigation she said that four months before her arrest she knew Monir Chalava who asked her to marry him.

Teoraya's family had not allowed her to marry him and as a result she decided to commit suicide in a terrorist attack. Later she made contact with Tanzim terrorists from Jaba and Shechem who prepared her to carry out a terrorist attack. According to the plan she was to travel from Nablus to Tal from there to Kalandia and to east Jerusalem and eventually reach western Jerusalem and blow herself up in a crowded place. In the apartment in Shechem the explosive belt was measured which was used to dress the body and gave her a detailed briefing on how to activate the explosive belt and the explosive device that she would carry. Additionally, her operators decided to equip her with a purse full of nails which weighed 35 kilograms.

She learned how to press the button which operated the explosive device. Teoraya regretted carrying out the attack in the last moment and claimed that her operators gave her orders to dress in the modern provocative clothes similar to the Israeli woman among other things, such as scattered hair, heavy makeup and tight pants.

Shafa Alkadsi, a 26 year old and mother of a gilr planned to wear maternity clothing in order to conceal the explosive device she was to wear. She was arrested by security forces on 11.4.02:

Shafa Alkadsi, a 26 year old Tanzim terrorist from Tulkarem, a divorcee and mother was found on 11.4.02, a day after a withdrawal of IDF forces from Tulkarem (the end of the Defensive Shield Operation), by her parents' apartment when she was supposed to execute the next day a suicide bombing.

In her investigation, she confessed that she was supposed to execute a triple suicide bombing together with another young person. Shafa planned to wear on her body an explosive belt under the cover of a maternity dress in order not arouse any suspicion.

Together with her, another young person was supposed to wear an explosive belt and an explosive device which he was to conceal at the designated place before the attack. The plan was that Shafa would blow herself up first and later when there will be a cluster of people at the scene, the second bomber will then blow himself up subsequently detonating the explosive device.

Shafa even prepared a will and testament declaring her leaving her daughter and family. The arrest of Shafa by Israeli security forces thwarted her attempt to execute the suicide bombing and prevented fatalities and many injured people. Her brother was arrested in February of 2002 on his way to carry out a suicide bombing.

A 15 year old girl from Bethlehem turned to her uncle, manufacturer of explosive devices saying she was willing to execute a terrorist attack in Israel:

A 15 year old girl from Bethlehem, was arrested by IDF forces as they entered the city during the Defensive Shield Operation. She confessed that she was drafted to the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, an offshoot of the Fatah terrorist organization by her uncle, a senior Tanzim terrorist and manufacturer of explosive devices from Bethlehem.

Additionally, she said that she addressed her uncle and expressed her readiness to execute a suicide bombing in Israel. Her uncle promised her that he will take care of the explosive belt and requested from her to enlist additional girls for suicide bombings.

Her younger sister discovered her sister's plan and threatened to tell authorities. The two threatened the younger sister not to tell their father after she would leave school. The sister confessed and told the two that she made contact with Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists. After a number of days, again her plan to commit suicide was discovered by her uncle, but explained to her that in the aftermath of the United States' proclamation of Tanzim as a terrorist group they will not willingly allow them to involve women in suicide attacks.

Iman Abu Chutza, 21, crawled across an Israeli community in Rafiah in order to injure Israeli guests on 25.4.02:

Iman Abu- Chutza, 21, resident of Jabalya departed on 25.4.02 to the Rafiah area, where she hid in a building and began crawling into a nearby Israeli settlement in order to blow herself up there. IDF soldiers discovered her and arrested her immediately. Iman joined two other Fatah terrorists from the Gaza Strip to carry out a suicide bombing. These 2 terrorists trained her on how to operate a hand grenade and fire a Kalashnikov rifle. Before her mission, Iman wrote a will and testament requesting forgiveness from her parents.

Lila Bachari, 26, aided a terrorist who executed a suicide bombing at the Maccabim checkpoint and planned to execute a terrorist attack of her own:

Lila Bachari, 26, a resident of Shechem was arrested on 1.7.02 after she expressed in February her readiness to execute a suicide bombing. Lila donned the suicide bomber terrorist with an explosive belt around the body of Darin Abu-Isa who executed the suicide bombing at the Macccabim checkpoint on 27.2.02

UPDATE 7/4: Tom Gross points out that a fawning BBC profile doesn't mention a fact about a woman terrorist:

Following the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit last week, the BBC ran an article on their “award-winning” website focusing on a Palestinian man, Walid al-Houdaly, who claimed that his wife and 18-month old son are being held in an Israeli prison. Separately, BBC correspondents have said Israel is taking an “exceptionally hard line” in refusing to talk about releasing these Palestinian prisoners.

The article, which reads like a propaganda statement for Islamic Jihad, is guilty of omitting some very important facts.

It states that al-Houdaly’s wife “headed a women’s organisation dedicated to providing health services for poor Palestinians.”

In fact, according to Palestinian media reports and pro-Palestinian campaigners for prisoner releases, Walid al-Houdaly’s wife is a member of Islamic Jihad, and was jailed for 10 years for attempting to detonate a car bomb in Jerusalem. These facts are simply omitted from the BBC’s report.

July 4th, Jew-hating moonbat style

A thoroughly disgusting piece of fiction disguising itself as an editorial in the American Al-Jazeerah site (indexed as news, of course, by Google News.). Written by Mark Glenn, who runs a site called "Crescent and Cross" whose purpose is to say that Christianity and Islam are quite compatible - and only those Jews are the problem.

Here is only a small part of the article, entitled "American Independence Day":

“I have to get home to my mother, she will be so worried if I am not back soon.”

9 year-old Mona clutched at the gaping hole in her stomach, blood pouring out of her as if someone had turned on a faucet. There was something so terribly and indescribably out of place in her frail words, the colliding of two disparate worlds, that of a mother’s child, and that of a little girl facing down the ugliest of what life and humanity had to offer.

The man who was kneeling at her side however knew better. He was a trained medical professional, and in a war zone known as Gaza of all places. He had seen this scenario a thousand times before, and a thousand times too many as far as he was concerned. This child would not be going home, at least not her earthly home, given the fact that she had just been shot in the stomach at close range by a soldier wielding a machine gun, the bullets from which produced exit wounds on her tiny body that were as large as golf balls. Had she known that her insides had just been turned to mush, it is highly unlikely that she would have been as composed as she was at this moment.

Her gesture in worrying about her mother, about not wanting to cause a beloved parent any grief was partly genuine, and partly an attempt to distract herself from the fact that she knew something terrible had just happened to her. Indeed a child’s sweetness knows no bounds, irrespective of where such a child can be found in the world. As she lie in a bath of her own warm blood that increased with each passing second, while frantic adults attempt to effect that which they know is futile, all she can think is that her mother must be worried, and how she wishes she could be home with her now, if only for enough time to give her one final embrace, tell her of a daughter’s love, and to say goodbye.

In the end, it all came down to sweets, an indispensable part of any child’s life, even in places that have been torn apart by warfare for the last century such as this. Today, little Mona, despite having grown up in a world of bullets and mortars, allowed the carelessness of her childhood to overpower her reason just enough to persuade her towards venturing forth into that deadly world of never ending violence to buy some cookies at the corner store. The fact that Israeli soldiers were busy with their latest masterpiece in butchery nearby did not seem to arouse her concern. After all, when all things were considered, this was just another day in the life of someone who knew she had been born under a sentence of death and who had developed an intimacy of sorts with this fact as if it had been her own skin.

On her way back, humming something sweet and armed with nothing more dangerous than the cookies in her hand, she was indiscriminately shot by an Israeli soldier, who, like all the rest of his ilk, had been told by both political and spiritual leaders that it is the religious duty of all good Zionists, a mitzvah, to cleanse the promised land of any impurities that may be infecting it, a process of sterilization which included, if it can be imagined, slaughtering helpless Arab children. And so, this courageous and obedient soldier from among a group of people who fancy themselves as being a light among nations, without the slightest hesitation pulled the trigger, simultaneously swatting away at the shred of what remained of his conscience as if it were some species of annoying insect.
For little Mona, it merely felt like a lit match touching her insides momentarily, and it was not until she began to feel the sensation of warm wetness on her dress that she began to panic. Her first instinct was that she might get into trouble for having gotten her new dress dirty, since the last thing her mother told her before leaving the house was to make sure not to get it messy. Thus is the mind of a child, even when facing the awfulness of eternity that their thoughts are always to be found firmly rooted in something trivial and sweet. Perhaps it was the panic stricken appearances on the faces of those around her who were trying to help that caused her to realize the seriousness of what it was that she was facing, or perhaps it was the unseen whisper into her soul from some divine messenger telling her to hurry up, since time was running out. Either way, no one really knows.

And so in that fifteen seconds before her spirit was liberated from the hellish existence that had been imposed upon her and upon the rest of the inhabitants of the Holy Land by the self-described ‘chosen people’, the little Palestinian child of 9 years forgot all about her cookies, as well as about every other item of what encompasses a child’s existence, grew up quickly, remembered everything she had been taught during the religion classes she had taken throughout her life, and made her last statement of faith. In her last words, there was no malice, no pulsa de nura--the infamous curses that rabbis and Orthodox Jews hurl daily at passing Christians or Muslims in Israel, no condemnations, no vows of revenge. Her composure, as she lie there in a pool of her own blood, was as graceful and as dignified as was that of any patriot or saint who has secured a rightly earned place in mankind’s memory as a result of having had his or her life cut short by the actions of men hell-bent upon doing evil to others. For Mona, it would be one simple statement, without any fanfare or drama, final words that will probably be remembered by few, short of those who loved her more than they loved themselves.
The little girl whose life had been snuffed out like a candle, the last fragrance of this little Palestinian flower who had been cut down by the hatchet of Jewish supremacism had nothing more spiteful in her final curtain call other than “God is great.”

From a bird’s eye view, this was but one of several tragic scenes taking place on that day. A few miles away, a family of seven had just barely made it out of their home when the bulldozer crashed through where the living room was. There were no warnings that this demolition process was about to take place, and had it not been for the fact that 14 year-old Ismail went to the window to see what the noise was that was coming from outside, the entire family would most likely have been buried beneath the rubble. This was a common occurrence these days, of not ordering the evacuation of a home to be demolished, since the Israelis cared nothing about the lives of the filthy Arabs who were polluting their sacred land, and thus preferred that the entire mess be hauled away, home and dwellers included.

It gets worse, as the author trashes America and Israel and Jews with impunity.

There are no last names in this article, no dates - because all of the anecdotes he writes about are entirely made up.

But, as moonbats are quick to point out, it reflects a higher truth - the fact that it is a lie is of no consequence, as long as people "know" it is true.

Not surprisingly, this poor excuse for a human links to Holocaust revisionism sites as well as other anti-semitic sites like Jewish Tribal Review in his website. For all the whining of the far left about how they are not anti-semitic, you never hear a peep from them denouncing scum like this.

29% of British Muslims agree with 7/7 terrorist goals

From the Times of London:

A SIGNIFICANT minority of British Muslims believe they are at war with the rest of society, the largest poll of Muslims in this country suggests.
The Populus survey for The Times and ITV News has found that more than one in ten thinks that the men who carried out the London bombings of 7/7 should be regarded as “martyrs”. Sixteen per cent of British Muslims, equivalent to more than 150,000 adults, believe that while the attacks were wrong, the cause was right.

The politically correct Times tries very hard in the rest of the article to play up the majority of British Muslims who seems to be against terror. But they fail to add up the numbers of those who aren't.

16% believe that the cause was right but the attacks were wrong.
13% say the attacks were right.

So that adds up to 29% of British Muslims who openly support jihad for a worldwide Muslim 'ummah.

This is hardly a "tiny minority" - but Great Britain is still acting as if it is.

Clueless breach of netiquette

I noticed tonight, thanks to a nudge from Smooth Stone, that my blogroll was horrifically incomplete. Blogs that I visit often were missing while blogs that haven't had any postings in months were listed.

So I apologize to those I had overlooked. By way of weak excuse, I generally do my own surfing from either Technorati favorites or from one of the JBlog aggregators, hardly ever from my own blogroll. What I didn't realize is that my not keeping it up-to-date had the potential of giving the wrong impression to people.

I have now updated my blogroll, and I apologize to those I had inadvertently snubbed. Iam probably still missing some but I'll try to be more aware in the future.