Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

The PalArab reverence for funerals

Looking at Palestinian Arab news reports I came across this little nugget:

Meanwhile a group of unknown gunmen open fired at residents while taking part in a funeral in Gaza city, Monday morning, inuring several residents.

Remember, it is only bad when non-Muslims do something like that.

Meanwhile, over at the offical Palestinian Arab "News" agency Wafa, not a single word about Arab on Arab violence in the territories. The entire site is dedicated to demonizing Israel - because, after all, that's the only "news" they are interested in telling the world about.

Civil war - complete with civilian deaths

Since my last PalArab self-death count post, four more dead have been added to the list, making the grand total 96 since I started trying to keep track.

Some details on these mature people who the world believes deserve a state of their very own:

In scenes reminiscent of the Lebanese civil war in the 70's and 80's, the confrontation quickly turned into street gun battles, with both sides using automatic rifles, pistols and hand-propelled grenades. At least three of the casualties were identified as innocent passersby, including 15-year-old Hassan Abu al-Hatel.

This is shaping up to be another week where more PalArabs are violently killed by their fellow moderate countrymen than by the "genocidal Zionist occupiers." But don't forget - they are a democracy, and their infighting is the same as in any other democratic country.

Just with RPGs.

UPDATE: 97, 12 dead in the past two days.

G'mar chatima tovah - 5767 edition

My most popular posting today is one I wrote two years ago, saying simply "G'mar chatima tovah." Many people are Googling the phrase today and ending up at this blog.

Someone should tell Answers.com that their translation is not quite accurate; this one is. (Hat tip: Balashon)

It is also very worthwhile to check out the poignant post by Ocean Guy.

So I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a g'mar chatima tovah (and a g'mar chasima tovah as well :) ) . I hope that anyone who I may have wronged during the year forgives me, and I forgive everyone for anything they may have done to me.

May we all be sealed for a great year, and may we all have an easy fast!

The great PalArab self-death whitewash - now at 92

As my readers know, I have been trying to keep a count of how many Palestinian Arabs have been killed by other PalArabs since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in late June. At the moment, I have identified 85 (one I missed from August who was executed by the "Executive Force" and an infant girl killed by her brother who found his father's assault rifle, in addition to my running count.)

As far as I can tell, there is no Palestinian Arab source who keeps an official count of dead Palestinian Arabs from infighting, "work accidents" and executions. I know that I am undercounting, because the closest thing to an authoritative source I have has missed some from other sources. For example, today's five injured by a hand grenade thrown by a Hamas member into a Fatah rally is not being reported by any PalArab English source I can find. Also, PCHR never reports on people who have died days after their injuries.

I just spent some time at the Palestinian Red Crescent site, thinking that an ambulance service would surely report on any injuries and deaths that they were aware of, no matter what the source.

But of course this "humanitarian" organization only cares about Palestinian Arabs killed and injured by Israel. For example, their detailed statistics from September show no one killed on September 8, when I know that one was that I reported on. Also September 13 - the PRCS mentions no deaths or injuries, I reported on one death from someone who blew himself up building a bomb and four lawyers injured from some clan clash.

The site is filled with pictures of death and injury from the early days of the intifada, lots of statistics and highlighting of Israeli actions, and not a single word that I could find about Palestinian Arab terrorists blowing themselves up, or children handling bomb belts, or people shot and killed by gunfire during wedding celebrations, or even the three "honor killings" I have mentioned.

It is almost as if even the Palestinian Red Crescent Society doesn't give a damn about Palestinian Arabs killed, unless they can use the deaths to score political points against Israel.

Also, since the PCHR started keeping track, at least 90 more PalArabs were killed between February and late June. One would think that some 180 deaths woudl rate a mention.

Here are links to my articles on Palestinian Arabs killing each other. You won't find these stories anywhere else.

Two Gaza girls on their way to school hit by rocket
Diary of the week's violence
Count keeps rising
Hot time in Palestine
Extrajudicial killing
Don't foozle
Another "honor killing"
Killing each other and blaming Israel
2 honor killings for the price of 1
Grim milestone
Oops!
They keep killing each other
Wedding, funeral, and a couple of clan clashes
Woman and child in a clan clash
A few more
No one cares

UPDATE: 7 more killed since last night, bringing the total now to at least 92.

At least 75 Palestinians – including security officers, passersby, and members of Hamas’ special security force – were hurt in violent confrontations and gun battles that erupted in Khan Younis Sunday morning.
A Palestinian was killed near the parliament building in Gaza, and another four were wounded. Shortly afterwards it was reported that a teenagers who was injured in the clashes died of his wounded. A member of the Palestinian presidential guard was also killed in exchanges of fire in Gaza City. Another four people were killed in other incidents, two of them Palestinian security personnel.

Ball in Siniora's court - if the game was fair

A whopping three days ago:

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Wednesday called the ongoing Israeli military presence in Lebanese territory the "mother of all ills" and said it must be brought to an end.

"There won't be any valid argument then for the continuation of weapons in the hands of Hezbollah," he told a news briefing when asked about Hezbollah's claim last week to have more than 20,000 rockets after a month of war with Israel.

This of course begs the question of what the valid argument was for Hezbollah to amass such an arsenal to begin with over the past six years.

Luckily, we have the Syrian puppet Lebanese president ready to give an answer:

Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud said on Saturday that if Hezbollah didn't resist aginst the Zionist regime's aggression, a Zionist-affiliated President would now be in office in Lebanon.

In an exclusive interview with channel 3 of Italian state television, Lahoud asserted that Hezbollah was the only force which defended the country against Zionists' aggression and Lebanon can't demand them to be disarmed, adding that Lebanese army only can grant domestic securing and lacks the power to encounter Zionist army which is backed by America.

Makes perfect sense! The Zionist infidel dogs have always been wanting to sink their fangs into juicy Lebanese territory, and only the heroism of the Hezbollah heroes have stopped them.

The President, a Syrian crony, further announced that Lebanese army too ruled out Hezbollah's disarmment and so the UN peacekeeping forces have not the right to do so as there is no reference to this matter in UN's resolution.

Uh-oh, we have a slight contradiction here. Siniora is implying that the Lebanese government will not allow Hezbollah to hold arms as long as Israel withdraws from Lebanon, and Lahoud is saying that it is not an option.

Nasrallah, for his part, has added a new condition before he disarms. Besides Israel leaving the Sheba Farms and some northern Israeli villages, he also wants to make sure that Lebanon has an army that can repel Israel. He also threw in a threat that if Lebanon doesn't turn itself into a more pro-Syrian government, Hezbollah might just have to take over.

Meanwhile, Israel removed its last troops from Lebanon this morning, so Siniora's "mother of all ills" has made his words from last Wednesday become suddenly relevant.

Not that we are expecting him to actually follow through.

Ahmadinejad acknowledges the Elders

Ina fascinating New York Observer article written by Ahmadinejad's interpreter while he was in New York comes this tidbit, during a speech by the Iranian president to an enthusiastic room of Iranian-Americans - who gave him a standing ovation:

“Two thousand Zionists want to rule the world. You can do it elsewhere,” he said, as if speaking directly to the mysterious 2,000, “but not in Iran. It’s impossible—it’s not doable.”

I am privileged to be one of the infamous, mythical Two Thousand.

And, Mr. Ahmadinejad will be frightened to know, our power does not stop at the borders of Iran.

How to get a guaranteed job in the PA

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs prints its reservations on the EU resuming funding the PA. Most of the things they bring up are familiar but some details were new to me. In the aggregate, it is hard to conclude anything other than the fact that the "moderate" Fatah party actively supports fighting and terrorizing Israel. (Translation by Daily Alert:)

Is Financial Aid from the West Supporting Palestinian Terrorists? - Jonathan D. Halevi

EU members have been expressing great interest in renewing financial support to the Palestinian Authority. On September 21, 2006, the office of the Palestinian president signed an agreement with the World Bank for the transfer of $46.6 million to maintain basic services in the Palestinian Authority. In order to encourage donating countries to transfer as much money as possible to finance its budget, the PA is striving to magnify the image of a "humanitarian crisis" in the territories. However, without proper supervision, the West's financial aid might directly or indirectly find its way to funding Palestinian terror.

The PA allocates $48 million a year to security prisoners in Israeli jails and to released prisoners. Every Palestinian prisoner or Israeli-Arab in an Israeli prison is entitled to receive financial aid from the PA if he was imprisoned for the struggle against "the Israeli occupation." In addition, a released prisoner is entitled to a government position if he spent more than 5 years in prison. A prisoner who spent over 25 years in prison is entitled to the position of deputy minister and the rank of a brigadier-general in the security forces. The PA also transfers millions of dollars per month to organizations, run mostly by Hamas, that support the families of prisoners, dead terrorists, and the wounded.

This system of support, which aids murderous terrorists, suicide bombers who were caught, and those who launched them, conveys the message that the Palestinian Authority supports the armed struggle against Israel. The West's financial aid to the PA, if renewed without the proper precautions and supervision, might end up supporting thousands of former and current Palestinian terrorists. (JCPA-Hebrew, 27Sep06)

So the longer you are in prison for terror activities, the higher your rank in the peaceful PA.

In other words, the EU wants to give money to a people who explicitly and consistently idolize and support terrorists.

Yeshiva boys rejoice

And yeshiva parents, beware:

Tosfos.com is here.

Hat tip to Junior Elder.

Notable articles about Arabs

Enlightening articles on similar themes:

Observations on Arabs
Tribalism
which is itself a long commentary on this: Why We Will Never See Democracy in the Middle East

I do agree that the Arab psyche seems to predate Islam by quite a long period of time. I would venture to guess that Islam was heavily influenced by this Arab tribalist mindset overlaid with a religious motif.

As a trivial example, I once noted thatArab women covered their faces centuries before Mohammed. Islamic law apparently took the Jewish concepts of female modesty, applied it to justify the existing custom, and then used it to strengthen the laws of Islamic modesty beyond the original legal requirements. The Koranic laws may have been codifying and organizing existing Arab customs and mores.

A PalArab leader who really is a leader - and one who isn't

Palestinian Arabs themselves have historically always been far more pragmatic than their "leaders," who almost invariably are more interested in destroying the Zionist state than in building their own.

But once in a great while, you can find an exception:

LIKE every Palestinian town, Beita, a dusty home for 10,000 people spread across a hillside in the middle of the northern West Bank, has seen its fortunes dive since the start of the second intifada in 2000. Never prosperous, reliant on the wages of labourers who worked in Israel, it now has around 65% unemployment.

Yet since coming to office in December 2004, Arab Asharafa, the town's engaging and energetic mayor, has achieved something of a turnaround. He has widened the main road running through the town, is landscaping a new public park and opened a fruit and vegetable market that brings the council $100,000 a year in revenues (the market has gained at the expense of tightly-restricted Nablus, which used to be the main trading hub for the region). He has even started a project to bottle water from the town's spring and sell it, perhaps for export to Jordan.

What makes this remarkable is that the Beita council is dominated by Hamas, which ousted Fatah from the Palestinian Authority (PA) in elections this year. Well before the world's economic boycott of the PA began in March, foreign funding to local councils had begun drying up as Hamas took them over. Beita used to get 30-40% of its revenues from abroad, says Mr Asharafa; now it gets none.

Instead, Beita, under its Hamas mayor, provides an example of how Palestinians might start to wean themselves off donor-dependence. Its success comes partly because, while at the national level Fatah and Hamas are at loggerheads (talks on a national unity government, which seemed a done deal two weeks ago, are now stalled again), in Beita, as in many other mixed local councils, they co-operate.

It is also due to Mr Asharafa's mixture of charisma and creative thinking. He cracked down on electricity theft and non-payment of utilities bills while giving amnesties to students and the unemployed. He saves money by buying bulldozers and reselling them at the end of a project, instead of hiring. He talks businessmen into investing in public projects and taking a cut of the proceeds; at one point, he offered to put his own house up as collateral.

Politically, too, Mr Asharafa can permit himself statements that Hamas's senior leaders cannot. “Hamas must make peace with Israel,” he says, claiming that 90% of Palestinians want a two-state solution, and that the main obstacle—and reason why Hamas will not take the step of recognising Israel outright first—is a lack of trust.

While I, and every poll I've seen, disagree about the 90% number, this mayor symbolizes what Gaza could have been after Israel's withdrawal. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and blame, he actually acts to make life for his people better. He thinks creatively and he solves problems.

He sounds Jewish!

Too bad, Mr. Asharafa is the exception that proves the rule. He is more likely to be murdered for his views of a two-state solution than to be promoted to a ministerial position in the PA.
On the other hand, we have "leaders" like the current chairman of Fatah, Faruq Qaddumi. He advocates overthrowing the PA government because he doesn't like the infighting between Hamas and Fatah. But one of his quotes is very telling:

Fatah secretary general and head of the PLO politburo, Faruq Qaddumi, sharply criticized the Hamas and Fatah movements, warning that "their stubbornness will lead to fighting between Palestinian factions," and accusing those of taking in part in negotiations of "not wanting to reach an agreement."
In an interview to the London-based Arabic-language al-Hayat newspaper, Qaddumi claimed that the lead negotiators between the movements "are not interested in reaching an agreement." He called on the Palestinians to overthrow their government "so that Israel will bear the responsibility for the lives of the Palestinians who still are under the fire of occupation."

In other words, this "leader" who still operates out of Tunis wants the Palestinian Arabs to remain in refugee camps forever. He realizes that if PalArabs take responsibility for their own nation, and try to improve it - try to make the lives of their people better, try to build an economy, try to fight the clan wars and infighting, try to bring real peace and security to the region - then the pressure will be off of Israel!

This has been the face of the PalArab "leadership" - ignore the people except for their usefulness as pawns to pressure Israel. Happy Palestinian Arabs are very counterproductive to people like Qaddumi (as well as Haniyeh), because they don't turn into terrorists. Happy citizens actually go to work, provide for their families, and build an economy. Unhappy citizens attend protest after protest and blame others for their problems. As long as their "leaders" can channel their hate towards Israel and not towards the leaders themselves, they remain secure in their destructive policies.

It is a bit ironic that in this case, the real leader is the member of the recognized terror group and the destructive "leader" is a member of the "moderate" Fatah. But it is not surprising: Fatah is no more enlightened than Hamas is; it just has better PR.

What "dialogue" means to Muslims

I've mentioned before how, whenever Muslims call for "dialogue" with Christians or the West, they really mean that they want the opportunity to recruit more Muslims and that they have no interest in actually, you know, listen.

In other words, when they say "dialogue" they mean "Muslim monologue."

And this has been as consistent across all streams of Islam that I've seen. The terrorist front group CAIR has always called for "dialogue" as the answer for every problem, but look how they define it (in the recent example of the Pope kerfuffle):

"The proper response to the Pope's inaccurate and divisive remarks is for Muslims and Catholics worldwide to increase dialogue and outreach efforts aimed at building better relations between Christianity and Islam. This unfortunate episode also offers an opportunity for Christians to learn more about Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic concept of jihad.

The rest of the press release is, of course, a lesson in whitewashed Islam, cherry-picking Koranic statements to make it sound moderate.

Further proof about what "dialogue" means to Muslims comes from a favorite Palestinian Arab sheikh, who explicitly rejects the idea of dialogue - when the person initiating the dialogue is a Christian. (The amount of projection in his description of Catholic "dialogue" is classic.):

Pope Benedict XVI's meeting this week with a delegation of Muslim leaders and his calls for interfaith dialogue following earlier remarks about Islam are really "Crusader conspiracies" to subjugate the Islamic faith and force "Christian-Zionist" worldviews upon Muslims, a prominent Gaza Strip preacher told WorldNetDaily in an interview.

Sheikh Abu Saqer, leader of Gaza's Jihadia Salafiya Islamic outreach movement, which seeks to make secular Muslims more religious, called the pope a "puppet" for "that Crusader George Bush."

The Gaza imam said the only Christian-Muslim dialogue that is acceptable is one in which "all religions agree to convert to Islam."

"The call for so-called dialogue by this little racist pope is a Trojan horse with the main goal of reaching a new system in which the ideals (of Christianity) are a new ideology that will rule relations between nations and people. The dialogue he wants is dangerous," said Abu Saqer, speaking to WND from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

"The pope is the spiritual and religious wing of the Crusader ideology," Abu Saqer said. "He is totally coordinated with Bush. Through this dialogue he hopes to break the lines of unity between Muslims and polarize the Muslim world, which has some partisans who will accept this new dialogue. But true believers know Islam must rule all relations. The only dialogue we will accept is when all other religions agree to convert to Islam."

Will we be seeing the "moderate" CAIR, or any Muslim leader for that matter, disagree with these statements?

A suggestion for the Z-Blogosphere

I spend a fair amount of time browsing Google News for articles of interest that may have escaped the notice of the mainstream media. In many cases, the most virulently anti-semitic and absurdly pro-terrorist articles are concentrated in a relatively few set of "news" sources.

Some of them are predictable - loony left sites such as Indymedia, and English-language Arab or Iranian sites.

But the Internet has spawned a number of other Web "news sources" which claim to not have an ideological bias, and are in fact just collections of articles that can be written by pretty much anyone. Examples include:

Scoop
OpEdNews
The People's Voice
Axis of Logic

There is no shortage of borderline psychos who tirelessly submit articles to these sites to push their agenda to make the Middle East, and the world, Jew-free. The sites themselves seem more interested in providing content to attach advertising to rather than in pushing a real agenda.

My suggestion, which I haven't yet had time to do myself, is for the Zionist Blogosphere (Z-Blogosphere?) to submit articles to these outlets. We can even rework old blog posts of which we are particularly proud. For most of us, it would increase our readership and allow us to counter the vile filth that passes for journalism or reasoned opinion on these sites.

Any articles that get rejected would, if nothing else, show the bias that the "unbiased" editors really have.

Any interest?

Latest peaceful PalArab poll

Unfortunately, the raw data for this poll is not available online (as was the case in past polls,) and the Palestinian Arab press release for the poll completely ignores the inconvenient support for terror that was uncovered, so I am relying on this Jerusalem Post report about the poll:

63% of PalArabs support shooting rockets into Israeli cities.
57% support terror attacks against Israeli civilians inside the Green Line.
75% support kidnapping Israeli soldiers to trade them for PalArab prisoners.

Yet "77% of Palestinians support a cease-fire with Israel and 74% believe that Palestinians cannot rely solely on armed struggle and must reach a political settlement with Israel."

The only way to interpret these contradictory results is to realize that to the Palestinian Arabs, peace is not the goal - the eradication of Israel is the goal, and they believe that this can be accomplished by diplomatic as well as terroristic means.

Mickey Mouse and Jack Sparrow - ZIONIST INTERLOPERS

MEMRI does it again:

Following are excerpts from an Iranian TV report on Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean," which aired on the Iranian news Channel (IRINN) on July 27, 2006:
Anchor: Zionist ideology uses all means to impose its cultural control. Cinema, as an attractive and popular form of art, has always interested the Zionist circles.
Reporter: The hot news of cinema circles worldwide is: The "Pirates of the Caribbean" attack the silver screen. The example of "Pirates of the Caribbean" - Hollywood's latest effort to gain control - is all the more striking if we bear in mind the name of its producer: The Walt Disney company. Disney and its productions have been associated, more than anything, with the Zionist lobby in Hollywood. In 1995, when the pro-Zionist Jews were 2.5 percent of America's population, they made up 7.7 percent of Disney's board of directors. This clearly influences the content of this large company's productions, as well as its policies and guidelines. The Aladdin animated film series is one example of Disney creations that present Arabs in a negative light.

In 2004, Disney supported the Bush administration's expansionist policies, and refrained from screening the film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which harshly criticized Bush's policy in attacking Iraq. This film, which won the Palme d'Or award in the Cannes film festival, became the bestselling documentary in the history of the film industry. Disney's move brought it nothing but disgrace.

In any event, Zionism is not restricted to the capitalistic weapons companies, such as Lockheed and the banks that support it. Cinema is considered another, subtle, weapon in the hands of those who support this corrupt ideology. In Hollywood, Disney is the manufacturer of this weapon, and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" is its newest ammunition.

Those Iranians have figured us out again!

Might as well come completely clean:

	Captain Jack Sparrow: ZIONIST JEW
	Mickey Mouse: ZIONIST JEW MOUSE
	Genie: GENOCIDAL JEW ZIONIST
	Doc: JEW RABBI INFIDEL
	Dopey: GENTILE
	Lilo and Stitch: NEOCON ZIONIST CHRISTIANS

(H/T Daughter of Ziyon for most of the pictures)

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Moderate Muslims

A very interesting article from the editor of American Muslim Perspective webzine, Abdus Sattar Ghazali, that pretty much makes the case that moderate Muslims do not exist - although that was not quite his point.

His central thesis is this one. Can you spot the gaping flaw in logic?

Gary Ratner, executive director of the Congress' Western region office in Los Angeles, says his group believes support for Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is central to the definition of a moderate. The definition Mr. Ranter implies that a moderate Muslim should support:

Israel's occupation of the Palestinian land.
Israel's occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel's killing of unarmed Palestinian men, women and children.
Israel's right to imprison some 10,000 Palestinians.
Israel's right to imprison elected government of the Palestinians and their members of Parliament.
Israel's attack on civilian targets in Lebanon killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children.
Israel's sole right to have nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
Israel's right to defy all the UN Security Council resolutions while Arab and Muslim states must comply under pain of sanctions.

Really? Accepting Israel's right to exist means accepting everything Israel does? Someone needs to tell Europe!

Mr. Ghazali goes on to describe how the Muslim reformers that were honored by the American Jewish Congress are eminently unqualified to be called Muslim. I can see how he has problems with Salman Rushdie, Wafa Sultan and Nonie Darwish, who have all renounced their faith. But look at his arguments against the other two honorees:

Pakistan-born Tashbih Sayyed is editor of Pakistan Today weekly that is supported by a number of Jewish groups because Muslims declined to give ads when he published pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian articles. Sayyed says it is debatable that Islam was spread by the sword and Prophet Muhammad's actions were divinely inspired.

India-born Salim Mansur is one of the leading members of Canadians Against Suicide Bombing (CASB). Mansur, a political science professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, argues that the Muslim world must stop blaming the West for all its own ailments, including poverty, illiteracy, injustice or extremism.

No, these cannot be called "moderate." To terror apologists like Ghalazi, a moderate is someone who wants the Middle East to either be Judenrein or have all Jews (and Christians) paying the jizya like good little dhimmis.

So he ends up proving his point quite well - any Muslim moderates are so far out of the mainstream of the Islamic world as to be considered lunatic fringe.

A notable correlation to his thesis is that Egyptian and Jordanian leaders who nominally recognize Israel, as well as Mahmoud Abbas, are also completely outside the pale of Islam. It would be interesting to hear how he would dig himself out of that hole - would he claim that they do not really recognize Israel and only said they did for political purposes, or would he say they are off-the-scales wackos whom most real Muslims regard as traitors?

I'd love to know his answer, because either way he ends up proving the point.