Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Exploiting Israel's humanity for terror

The terror group Popular Resistance Committees recruited a man from Gaza who was undergoing medical treatment in Israel to build terror cells in the West Bank:

It has been cleared for publication that the Shin Bet and the IDF arrested Gaza City resident Jabar Derabiya, 43, at Erez Crossing two months ago for being suspected of planning to carry out terror attacks against Israeli targets.

Derabiya, active in the Popular Resistance Committees, received an entry permit into Israel in order to get treatment for a medical condition of his, and allegedly planned to exploit the entry permit in order to establish terror cells in the West Bank. He was arrested on September 28 while trying to enter Israel.

During his investigation, Derabiya admitted being recruited to the mission by then commander of the Popular Resistance Committees Jamal Abu Samhadana earlier in the year. Abu Samhadana wanted to exploit of Derabiya's condition that required medical attention in Israel in order to bring him into the West Bank.

Derabiya's plan to enter the West Bank was derailed when Abu Samhadana was killed by Israel in an aerial attack on his organization's training camp next to Rafah on June 8.

It emerged from the investigation that a few weeks after Samhadana was killed, his heir, whose identity has not yet been revealed, renewed the plan to transfer Derabiya into the West Bank. However, this plan was stymied when Derabiya was arrested at Erez Crossing.

The defense establishment responded to Derabiya's arrest, saying, "This is another attempt of the terror organization, operating by exploiting Palestinian civilians entering Israel for medical treatment on a humanitarian background, for carrying out terror attacks against the State of Israel."

This is a recurring theme. Now Israel will have to slow down accepting people for medical treatment and more PalArabs will die - and the world will blame Israel for their hardships.

Now here's a thought experiment: Can you imagine a single Muslim or PalArab leader, spokesperson or columnist ever publicly condemning the actions of the PRC in this case? Is there any Arab who would stand up and say "the PRC has hurt the cause of the Palestinian people with their shortsighted attempts to export terror?"

Or are the majority of the peaceful PalArabs more upset that the terror plot was stopped?

One problem with Arabic auto-translation

The auto-translate programs for Arabic often cannot distinguish between proper names and regular words, so people's names get translated - with interesting results.

This story about a young lawyer who fell off a balcony to his death is a good example:

The authors were "George overstuffed" and "Said infection", and the dead man is "lying Hossam."

Proof of Ahmadinejad's role in 1979 hostage crisis?

Daniel Pipes just wrote an article about the long-discussed possibility that Iran's current president was directly involved in the 1979 Iranian attack on the US Embassy and subsequent hostage crisis.

Earlier pictures of someone resembling Ahmadinejad weren't conclusive.

He points to a picture from that time recently discovered by a Russian newspaper: (link to autotranslation)

The likelihood seems to be increasing that Iran's president is a terrorist himself.

Hezbollah no longer exists, according to UNIFIL

Something very interesting can be discerned when looking at the many UNIFIL press releases since the war in the summer.

As soon as the war was over, they never mention Hezbollah.

There are a couple of oblique references to "the parties" in the weeks after the ceasefire, but the rest of the press releases talk about humanitarian aid, Israeli flyovers and withdrawals from various areas, clearing cluster munitions, helping the Lebanese economy, increased UN troop strength and many patrols to ensure no Israeli presence.

But not a single reference to the people who are taking Lebanon hostage and who shot thousands of rockets towards Israeli civilians. Not a single reference to observing Hezbollah movements, actions, statements, or weapons smuggling.

Meanwhile, Nasrallah brags that he has already more than replenished his rocket arsenal and Israeli intelligence confirms it. Under the noses of UNIFIL which doesn't even admit Hezbollah presence in Southern Lebanon.

Remember that part of UN resolution 1701 calls for UNIFIL to assist the Lebanese army in providing:

security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorised in paragraph 11, deployed in this area;

UNIFIL has miraculously declared Hezbollah to have disappeared and to be completely outside the scope of its activities in Lebanon, as it threatens to shoot down any Israeli aircraft trying to do UNIFIL's job in monitoring for weapons smuggling.

The extent of UNIFIL's complete forced ignorance of any Hezbollah activities at all in southern Lebanon is highlighted:

Fears also remain that despite Unifil's beefed-up presence, it will not be able to prevent renewed hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. On Friday, Maj Gen Alain Pellegrini, Unifil's French commander, warned that conflict in the south remained a possibility. He cited the worsening Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and political tension in Beirut, where a failure to find agreement between Lebanon's pro- and anti-Syrian factions threatens to end in street violence.

So in Pellegrini's mind, Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanese political tension can contribute to hostilities - but Hezbollah openly shipping tons of weapons illegally under his watch is not something he knows or cares about, and clearly that doesn't make the situation worse at all.

The absence of any mention of Hezbollah since mid-August in UN press releases shows that UNIFIL never had any intention to stop smuggling or disarm Hezbollah, and that UN 1701 will never be implemented by the UN as it was drafted and intended. If they can wish away Hezbollah's existence then they don't have to deal with them.

Arabs lifting blockade on PA? What blockade?

Over the weekend a number of stories circulated like this one:

(AP) Arab countries decided to lift the financial blockade on Palestinians on Sunday in response to a U.S. veto on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution condemning Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"There will no longer be an international siege," Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said.

As usual, reporters act as mouthpieces and have no memories past last week.

The Arab League never accepted a blockade against the PA, in fact their members were in the forefront to give cash to the Hamas terrorists in power, in spite of the blockade, last April at the Arab Summit.

But the obedient press is happy to report without context and use stories like these to add pressure on Europeans and others to resume aid to the terrorist Hamas organization.

More news from the terrortories

A rich Palestinian Arab is donating a half a million dollars to rebuild the terror fortress that masqueraded as a mosque during Israel's reent incursion in Beit Hanoun. This religious center was where PalArabs shot at Israeli soldiers with impunity, knowing that Israel's response would be muted. It seems that while PalArabs are supposedly starving, the rebuilding of the military mosque takes priority over medicine and food.
A six year old PalArab child from Khan Younis, Mahmoud Adel Mohammad Abu Taha, was shot and killed by a bullet to the head on Sunday from an "unknown source" (which means from some Arab.) If one looks online for news from Khan Younis over the weekend, though, the only story is a PalArab adult allegedly injured by Israeli gunfire. As usual, PalArab self-deaths are hushed up. This week's PA news was so heavily weighted between crying over Beith Hanoun and celebrating the anniversary of Arafat's death that no other story could get traction, so who knows how many self-deaths I missed.)

Also, a 29-year old man from Ramallah was murdered but the circumstances aren't so clear.
The self-death count is now at 156.
That supposed "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas gave a lengthy speech extolling Yasir Arafat, including his terror attacks of the 1970s, and his disastrous attempted takeover of Lebanon in the 80s. He also obliquely blames Israel in referring to Arafat's death as being worthy of investigation. He reiterates that the PalArabs will not compromise on a single inch of land and Jerusalem as being their capital. The celebrated moderate also extensively quoted the Koran.

UN organization openly sympathetic with terror families

The UN's bloated budget includes a news service of sorts called IRIN whose purpose is to "provide news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for the humanitarian community."

Evidently, the humanitarian community is very interested in the poor wives of PalArab terrorists and how hard their lives become after their murderous husbands get killed while trying to genocidally destroy all Jews in the Middle East. Even though all IRIN articles start with a disclaimer "This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations" this is disingenuous as they are paid by the UN to make these stories. One has to see the entire story in context, with photos and call-out boxes, to believe it. So here it is.

© Tom Spender/IRIN
Widowed Palestinian women often find themselves in a desperate situation.
GAZA CITY, 9 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - Palestinian mother-of-11 Aneesa Afana was married to a fighter from the militant Islamic Jihad group until two years ago – when an Israeli missile blew him to bits.

The violence deprived their children of a father and left 40-year-old Aneesa from Tal Zaatar in the northern Gaza Strip facing the task of bringing them all up on her own.

Like many women widowed by the ongoing violence in the Palestinian territories, she faces not just grave financial difficulties but also a battle to stop her children going astray.

“We have problems in my family because I am fighting to control my nine sons. In society here, men control the families much more than women,” she said.

“After I lost my husband I had to take on his responsibility and behave as a man as well as behave as a woman. But my sons are growing up fast. They feel they are already the men of the family and want to take charge of everything.”

Aneesa told IRIN she did not want her sons following in the footsteps of their father and meeting an early and brutal death in battle with Israeli troops.

“I really do not want them to copy their father. The society sees him as a hero. But as a mother I refuse to encourage my sons to die and I will do everything I can to stop it. But I have 11 children – how can I control them all at the same time?”

More than 2,000 women widowed

More than 2,000 women have been widowed during the second intifada [Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation], which began in 2000 and has claimed more than 4,300 Palestinian lives since, according to Nama al-Jidian of the Social Welfare Institution for Martyred Families.

ROBBED OF THEIR HUSBANDS
More than 2,000 women widowed
Half remarry one of husband's relatives
Some face having kids taken from them
Many forced to work to survive
Israel: This is the price of martyrdom
The Israeli government said it was not responsible for the plight of widows whose husbands have been killed fighting Israeli troops. “Israel is not responsible for those who miss their husbands. Everything has a price and anyone wanting to be a martyr must accept the consequences,” said Ameera Arout, director of Arab Press in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Facing grave hardship, about half of these women remarry within the family of their dead husband, usually to the brother, al-Jidian said. “In many cases the family of the husband puts pressure on the widow to give them her children or to marry another man in the family,” she added.

“This leads to many problems, especially if the man is already married and the first wife refuses. Or perhaps the widow does not want to remarry but the family says they are going to take her children from her, so in the end she gives in.”

In the West Bank, a widow can find herself at the centre of a dispute over land, according to Sihan al-Kirim, a colleague of Nama’s.

“In the West Bank many families have land and the family of the dead man gets worried that they may lose their land if the widow remarries outside the family. So they put a lot of pressure on her [not to marry outside the family],” she said.

Nihad, a 24-year-old mother-of-three from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, married her husband’s 19-year-old brother after losing her husband two years ago when an Israeli shell landed on his house.

"Thank God my new husband is a good man and works hard to take care of his brother's children as well as of his own,” said Nihad, who has since had two more children.

But Aneesa has remained single, living in a flat in a building occupied by members of her dead husband’s family. “I have not remarried – who wants to take on 11 children? As an unmarried woman, all eyes are on me and my behaviour,” said Aneesa, who was accompanied by a relative from her dead husband’s family when interviewed.

The lack of a breadwinner in her family means she has been forced to go out and find a job in a kindergarten in Jabalia refugee camp, earning about US $100 a month.

Some financial support

However, some financial support is available to Palestinian widows.

Some widows receive money from international donors. Dr Ramadan Tanboura of the Al-Falah Charitable Foundation told IRIN he had distributed about $4,500 to each of 170 families in donations from the United Arab Emirates in August this year.

Those whose husbands were loyal to groups that are members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) get payments of between US $300 and US $400 a month, depending on how many children they have, said al-Jidian.

The PLO is an umbrella organisation, made up of a number of organisations who all share the same goal of an independent Palestinian state.

Many widows also get payments of about US $150 a month from the governing Palestinian National Authority (PNA), al-Jidian added.

If the dead man was loyal to a militant faction that is not a member of the PLO, then these groups may make a one-off payment of up to about US $5,000 to the bereaved family, widows say.

“People do not really talk about this because in our society it is seen as shameful to give money to the relatives of a dead man. We have a saying that you cannot buy blood with money,” said one Palestinian woman, who insisted on remaining nameless.

The bias, especially in the clearly-staged photograph and the sidebar bullet box, is incredible. (Why is this apparent widow sitting next to a bombed out wall rather than being with her many kids?)

According to this UN organization, the families of PalArabs who try to murder Jews are more needy and more deserving of international money than average Palestinian Arabs are. And notice how they make Israel seem so coldblooded in not wanting to reward the widows of would-be murderers of Israelis.

If a Palestinian woman is a widow of, say, a suspected collarborator with Israel who was blown away by the PA, would any articles be written about her situation in a UN organ? Or even if her husband who was a farmer who gets killed in a clan clash - is there any international money to help her? Of course not. This UN organization is interested in humanizing the terrorist families at the expense of the supposed "vast majority" of peaceful Palestinian Arabs that we are always hearing about.

And even though the UN is a joke, its press has impact - the exact story was reprinted by Reuters as well.

PA: "Israel killed Arafat"

I remember plenty of bizarre accusations from the deluded PalArabs about Arafat being killed by evil Joo-rays and poison or the like, but I do not recall the PA ofiicially going over the edge and accusing Israel of murder before:

On the second anniversary of the death of the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority headed by Hamas has affirmed that it is determined to solve the mystery of Arafat's death and “unmask the identity of his killers”,

The Palestinian government issued a statement on Saturday commemorating the second anniversary of Arafat, and said that he lost his life while defending the Palestinian people in their national interests.

The statement stressed that the Palestinian people will not abandon their national and legal rights, including the establishment of a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital.

The statement also stressed that the Palestinian will not abandon the Right of Return of all Palestinian refugees and the rights of the detainees to be freed from all Israeli prisons.

“Arafat had gone far in the peace process with Israel, he signed several deals with it, but Israel killed him”, the statement reads, “this is one of the proofs that Israel does not want peace, and always seeks to divide the Palestinians”.

Hamas's statements regarding national unity and the case of Yasser Arafat were welcomed by Fateh leadership.

Now, how can people demand Israel to negotiate with people who cannot even demonstrate a passing acquaintance with reality? It's like negotiating with inmates at an insane asylum. Anything they say is meaningless but you are responsible for everything you say, because normal human beings are expected to keep their promises - and insane people are not.

GoozNews: "Perfect model of an Islamic system"

Today's GoozNews: (definition here.)

TEHRAN, Nov. 11 (MNA) -- The Iranian nation should present the world a perfect model of an Islamic system by creating an exemplary Islamic society, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Saturday in Shahrud, Semnan Province.

The Leader stated that Iranians should build a society in which scientific, spiritual, and moral development would all be at a high level.

“Attaining such a goal is possible, but it requires devoted, faithful, and brave people as well as an ever-strengthening bond between the government and the people,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in an address to well-wishers.

In an exemplary Islamic society, talent and social justice can blossom, he added.

Just a small pertinent fact about Khameini's definition of "moral":

His predecessor, the famed Ayatollah Khomeini who was leader of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, married a 10-year old girl when he was 28. He also called marriage to a girl before her first menstrual period "a divine blessing." (Source: Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad.)

Khomeini is of course venerated throughout the Shiite world and his picture is prominently shown during rallies, even in America.

So when the Iranian leadership talks constantly about morality, you have an inkling of what they mean.

Omri's on a tear

Omri at Mere Rhetoric is posting a great series of articles this morning detailing the incredible bias that the mainstream media is exhibiting against Israel, especially in the wake of the Beit Hanoun accident.

Israelis saving the world. As usual.

Great news, as an Israeli company has devised an extremely efficient way to extract fuel from oil shale - at a cost of $17 a barrel.

HAIFA, Israel, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The Israeli process for producing energy from oil shale will cut its oil imports by one-third, and will serve as a guide for other countries with oil shale deposits, according to one company.

A.F.S.K. Hom Tov presented its oil shale processing method on Tuesday, outside Haifa and just down the street from one of the country's two oil refinery facilities.

"Because the patents for this process belong to (the company), Israel is the most advanced in the world in the effort to create energy from oil shale," Moshe Shahal, a Hom Tov legal representative and a former Israeli energy minister, told United Press International.

Shahal estimated that the company's Negev Desert facility would begin full-scale production in three to four years, while other countries with oil shale deposits will need five to six years to reach production.

Oil shale is limestone rock that contains hydrocarbons, or fossil fuels -- about 20 percent of the amount of energy found in coal. Using the rock as a raw material and coating it with bitumen, a residue of the crude oil refining process, the company can produce natural gas, fuel, electricity, or a combination of the three.

Older technologies squeezed the hydrocarbon material out of the rock, with extremely high pressure and at high temperatures.

According to Professor Ze'ev Aizenshtat, an oil shale expert, the Hom Tov process is more environmentally friendly than other methods of converting oil shale into energy. It also allows for more flexibility in the kind of fuel produced, produces less waste and operates at lower temperatures than other methods.

Though the production process may be more environmentally friendly, the end product is still a fossil fuel, similar in quality to a high-grade diesel when in liquid form.

...Because fewer refining processes are necessary with oil shale than with crude oil, the final product is a higher quality fuel at a lower price, Aizenshtat said.

The company estimates it will consume 6 million tons of oil shale and 2 million tons of refinery waste each year, for an annual production of 3 million tons of product.

It would cost about $17 to produce a barrel of synthetic oil at the Hom Tov facility, meaning giant profit margins in a world of $45 to $60 per barrel crude. Yearly earnings are forecasted to be between $159 million and $350 million, Shahal said.

Israel has 15 billion tons of oil shale reserves. Jordan, on the other hand, has about 25 billion tons, and the oil shale in Jordan is of higher quality. Shahal met with Jordanian Energy Minister Azmi Khreisat earlier this year, to discuss setting up a plant there.

The United States also has a giant reserve, mostly in Colorado, and Hom Tov sees potential for its patented process there.

The unfortunate equation is that petrodollars equals terror, and anything we can do to make Middle Eastern oil irrelevant is a huge win for the security of the free world.

Iranian threats and "open-mindedness"

Iran's "supreme leader" Khamenei blamed the world's problems on Zionist and capitalist control of the world:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said here Thursday that changes in human communities are unavoidable adding that control of world developments by the Zionists and global capitalism is a serious threat.

"The international bullying gangs, which developed the military apparatus of NATO to have hegemony over nations, are now determined to make NATO's cultural apparatus annihilate the national identity of human communities and achieve their goals.
"They intend to control the major political, economic, social and cultural developments in the world by using their extensive media facilities," said Ayatollah Khamenei, while urging the need for vigilance.

Ayatollah Khamenei called for renovation, open-mindedness and proper management as a way to advancement.

This is of course nothing new, but it needs to be stressed that while he is using Zionism as a rallying cry and relying on age-old anti-semitic stereotypes, the US is being threatened repeatedly just as much by Iran. Recall that the year before the Iranian "World Without Zionism" conference they had a similar "World Without America" conference.

The call for "open-mindedness" is especially interesting, as Reporters Without Borders just named Iran as one of the 13 nations that censor the Internet. Also, in 2004, an Iranian blogger was imprisoned for 21 months on the charge of "insulting the Supreme Leader" - and if he would have been convicted of insulting the "Prophet" he would have been executed.

I guess when Khamenei says he wants open-mindedness, it only means open-mindedness to think whatever Khamenei says is allowed to be thought.

PalArabs need more weapons - to shoot themselves in the foot

More proof that Israel cares more about Palestinian Arab lives than Arabs do:

Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah called for weapons and money to be sent to Palestinians following an attack by the Israeli military that killed 18 people in Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip. He said on Wednesday that it is necessary for Palestinians to defend themselves.

"Arms, money and medicine must be delivered to this nation of resistant fighters and the blockade imposed on them must be broken," Nasrallah said in a statement.

Now, as we've demonstrated, who gets hurt most when Palestinian Arabs escalate their "resistance"? It is always the PalArabs themselves. But their leaders keep feeding their people the fiction that they can destroy Israel if they just would try a little harder.

Notice Nasrallah's priorities - weapons above all must be delivered to a population where unemployment is at about 70%. This shows how much he loves the "Palestinian" people.

If there was ever a "golden age" of the fictional Palestine, it was during the years between 1993-2000. Israel did all it could to adhere to the disastrous Oslo accords, even though Arab suicide bombings continued sporadically throughout that time. But relatively speaking there was peace, Palestinian Arabs had jobs, the economy was booming and even Jordanian Palestinian Arabs were illegally immigrating to the West Bank by the tens of thousands to share in the bonanza of world investment and charity.

Whose fault is it that this nascent nation descended into chaos and poverty?

It is squarely the fault of people like Nasrallah, Arafat and the gangs of "leaders" who have consistently led the PalArab people to ruin. And the reason is as obvious as it is distressing for Western minds to accept: their leaders do not want to create a state but to destroy one. And even in the face of the unlikelihood of them hurting Israel, just the fact that they can occasionally kill some Jews in terror attacks or rocket attacks makes them happy and feeling "victorious."

The only people who get hurt in the end are their own. Yet even so, their own people keep supporting them. Nasrallah, instead of being told to go to hell by the PalArabs who do not need his advice, judge him as a hero.

It is hard to remain sympathetic with people who seem to always choose what is worst for them.

India's Bene Menashe making aliyah - but not publicly

218 members of the Bnei Menashe community in India are moving to Israel starting next week, but apparently the major media event that was to accompany them was quashed by India.

According to "Arab Monitor" (note the spin):

Three days before it was to be implemented, the government of India, acting through the Indian aviation authorities, revoked permission for a spectacular Israeli Zionist public relations action to take place. On 12th November an Israir charter flight, hired by the Jewish Agency and funded by US Evangelical Christians, was to airlift a group of 812 [sic] Indians who had converted to judaism, to Tel Aviv within the frame of the Zionist "return to Israel" paradigm. The Indian converts had undergone their judaization process about a year ago under the supervision of emissaries of the Chief Rabbinate, who had heceforth recognized them as members of the biblical lost tribe of Bnei Menashem. Having been officially recognized as Jews, the Indians automatically were eligible to become citizens of Israel under the Zionist "Right-of-Return"-law and the Jewish Agency in Israel had already prepared for the settlement of the new immigrants in Carmiel and Nazareth, where they were destined to boost the Jewish presence in an Arab Palestinian environment. The US-based Friendship Fund of the Evangelical Christians, who funded the project of mass immigration of allegedly Indian Jews to Israel, had prepared for a spectacular mass-media covering of the organized departure of the group from India on 12th November and of the celebrations planned to greet their arrival in Israel. Concerned about the negative repercussions that an action designed to appear as a "rescue campaign for Jews" would have, India took steps to prevent the Zionist scoop by forcefully grounding the Israir machine and requesting that converts willing to emigrate to Israel should do so on an individual basis and booking regular El-Al flights.

Of course this article is a bit inaccurate: the Bnei Menashe identify themselves as being Jews for millenia, and the Israeli rabbis only formally converted them to erase any Jewish legal problems.

In fact, a genetic study did find evidence of commonalities between these Indian Jews and those of Uzbekistan:

Bhaswar Maity, a research scholar at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, had begun the DNA typing of samples (100 male and 80 female) taken from the Mizos in March 2002. "Studies on the Y chromosome [male] did not return the Cohen modal haplotype, which is present in most Jewish males around the world," says Dr V.K. Kashyap, director of the laboratory. (Tracing the male chromosome is difficult because most Mizo men, who migrated from elsewhere, wed women along the way and the Y chromosome is lost every time a female child is created.) "But of the mitochondria DNA [female samples], a few Kuki samples returned the unique haplotype [genetic sequence code] found in the Jewish community in Uzbekistan."
This is a clear indication that there was a Jewish female founder effect in the Kuki community. "It is scientifically impossible to have the same genetic sequence in two populations living so far apart if they did not originate from a common stock who historically inhabited a common space," says Maity. He also found a specific mutation in some Lusei and Kuki samples that is also present in Indian Jews.

If these Indian Jews indeed descended from the biblical Menashe, none of the males would have the Cohen haplotype - because that would be reserved for those descended from Levi.

The article from 2004 continues with some fascinating background:

There are also historical pointers to this claim. Zaithanchhungi, a scholar who has been studying the Mizo claim to Israeli ancestry for over 20 years, is convinced that all Mizos are descendants of the Menashe. "The Menashe were enslaved by the Assyrians and taken there [Assyria] when Jerusalem fell," she says. "From there they migrated to the Afghanistan region. During Alexander’s invasion they were driven further on to Mongolia through the Kashmir region and Tibet plateau, and they settled in the Chhinlung region of China. They entered Mizoram about 300 years ago from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma."

This puts the Indian government on a sticky wicket as the United Nations has said that a country cannot rule over people other than its own. The government has more reason to be worried because the Aizawl-based Chhinlung Israel People’s Convention, an organisation of 2.5 lakh members who believe they are descendants of the Menashe, has begun preparations for realising their dream of a "New Jerusalem". This correspondent even stumbled upon a new flag for the "country of the Menashe people" as Lalchhanhima Sailo, the chairman of the convention, put it.

The organisation had submitted a memorandum to the UN in 1998 to recognise the Chhinlung people as a lost tribe of Israel. "We are now awaiting Israeli recognition," says Sailo. "Once it comes through, we will have an independent country in the northeast of India." Sailo feels this is a very real possibility because there are Chhins in parts of Manipur, Burma, Bangladesh and Assam.

It is difficult to ignore the similarities that exist between the lives of the Jews in Israel and those of the Mizos. According to Zaithanchhungi, there are anthropological perspe-ctives. The Mizo burial ritual is similar to that of the Jews. Secondly, though the Mizos migrated to Mizoram through lands where Buddhism was the dominant faith, it left no influence on them. Even in the first half of the 20th century, they sacrificed animals to Pathian (Jehova). "They had the sacrificial altar on a hillock and a cross similar to that of David was drawn on the altar," she says. "Only men were allowed to witness the sacrifice. This is more than sheer resemblance."

Another resemblance is between the Mizo ritual of Cawngpuisial and the Jewish Sabbath. Sabbath starts when the stars appear on a Friday evening and ends with the same on a Saturday evening. In Mizoram, during the Cawngpuisial, villagers are restricted from going out of the village (and strangers from entering it) after the stars appear on a Friday. The curfew is lifted on Saturday after the stars appear.

Shaina, a student from Raanana near Tel-Aviv, who recently visited the Amishav Hebrew Center in Aizawl—an Israeli government agency tracing lost Jewish tribes—found the "similarities between the people of Israel and Mizoram simply too stark to be neglected".

Allenby Sela, principal of Amishav, was one of 900 Mizos who converted to Judaism to settle down in the Gaza Strip. He returned to Mizoram to make the people aware of their history. "We should know who we are, where we came from, what our roots are," he says. "Faith can’t be recognised by blood tests. It’s a spiritual thing. Our history is oral and there is no clinching evidence. But this is not enough for Israel to accept." Israel recognised the Black Jews of Ethiopia and the Fallasahs of South Africa as lost tribes without any tests.

A stroll down the roads of Aizawl—with signs Moses Snack Centre, Nazareth Medical, Israel Stores, Zion Street—is enough to understand its connection with the Promised Land. "The Torah [Jewish Bible] states that there shall be one Holy Land in the west and one in the east," says Sailo. "I’m convinced this is it. The Torah also mentions that the descendants of Abraham shall be as plenty as stars in the heaven and the sands of the earth. Though the population of Israel is only five million, if you include all the Chhinlung people, you will find the true meaning of the prophecy."

The Wikipedia article on the Bnei Menashe adds much more information.

Cleric: UNIFIL should give Lebanon missiles

I missed this one last week:

Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah sharply criticized Israel's violations of Lebanese airspace Thursday, calling on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to provide the Lebanese Army with defensive weapons.

"Israel is still violating our skies without taking UNIFIL's role into consideration," the country's senior Shiite cleric said during a meeting with Spanish Ambassador Miguel Benzo Perea. "UNIFIL should provide the army with surface-to-air missiles so it will be able to prevent any Israeli violation of Lebanon's airspace."

Fadlallah also expressed opposition to foreign interference into Lebanon's affairs, which he warned might create conflicts in the country and complicate relations among the Lebanese.

"We do not accept any international or regional tutelage," the cleric said.

In other words, give us lots of weapons but don't tell us what to do. Sounds about right.

Turns out that this Lebanese Shiite leader has a website. Thanks to him, we now know that women should never act as women in public.

For more info on him check this out.