A real source for murder stats in the territories?

My never-ending quest for real statistics on the number of Palestinian Arabs killed by each other got a boost today as I saw that Al-Hayat, which hardly ever publishes stories about PalArabs being murdered, printed this (autotranslated):

Ramallah, Ibrahim Abu-Kamish statistics showed by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights , announced yesterday. a big increase in the proportion of homicides that occurred in the light of the growing phenomenon of insecurity in the Palestinian territories during the year 2006, compared with the previous years.

The body that 322 Palestinians had been killed citizens in the areas of the Palestinian National Authority until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006 236 citizens were killed in the Gaza Strip, 86 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank. , a rise of 90% for the full year 2005, which collapsed during which 176 citizens were 97 shells in the Gaza Strip and 79 shells in the West Bank. The equivalent proportion of those killed in the Gaza Strip until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006, three times those killed in the West Bank.

The statistics point to a rise in the monthly rate of murders during 2006 up to 26 cases per month, while the monthly rate through 2005, 15 cases, The monthly rate during 2004 amounted to 8 cases. as well as the Statistics of the documentation section in the body that during the 17 killed in 2005 against the background of what is known as honor killing, signed including seven cases in the Gaza Strip and 10 in the West Bank. while they recorded 14 cases of the killing of citizens against the background of what is known in the family's honor in 2006 until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006, 5 cases in the West and 9 cases in the Gaza Strip, the total number of bullets from the women, which was signed on various backgrounds including murder against the backdrop of honor of the family had arrived in 2005 to 26, while a woman Rtva number during the year 2006 until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006 for up to 27 women.

The deaths of children who have died due to security problems have reached during 2005, 28 children while until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006 killed 33 children in the same background.

The STA pointed out that 95% of the killings were a firearm or explosive materials.

Until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006 killings were classified as follows : 41 cases of murder committed on the political background of which 40 occurred in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank. 88 homicides occurred due to family quarrels signed 54 of them in the Gaza Strip, 24 of which occurred in the West Bank. 83 murder cases resulted from the chaos and the misuse of weapons, the case of 71 shells in Gaza, 12 of them fell in the West Bank. previous classifications and the total up to 222 murder cases by 59% of all cases, As for the rest of the cases, which reached 110 cases by 41% and has signed the background issues and revenge killings against the backdrop of the so-called family's honor.

At the level of other attacks that were committed during 2006 and until the date of 30 / 11 / 2006, it reported that its statistics in the attacks came as follows :

A 12 attack on academic freedoms, and 16 attack on the municipalities or workers or on their property, and a 12 assault on the symbols of the judiciary, as well as the 22 attack on press freedoms. There have also been 93 kidnappings individually and collectively, to the citizens and foreign visitors, , 344 incident falls under the pretext of security problems occurred injuries individually and collectively.

These numbers are much more in line with what I've been able to gather, but their report is not available on their website and last year's report is only there as an executive summary, so I can't compare specific cases and see if they are missing any.

Still, this list of deaths from 2006 so far seems to be more accurate than any others I've seen. As usual, it is being buried in the PalArab press (it was the very last story on the "local news" page of al-Hayat) . It verifies that there is nearly one murder a day in the territories, again which are hard tofind in the actual press. It shows that the rate of self-deaths is much worse in the West Bank than I thought, as almost all of the ones I've seen were in Gaza.

I'm also not sure if Hamas/Fatah battles are reflected here.

I'll keep an eye on the website of PICCR to see if the final report is published there. I'm not optimistic; the site is terrible and has very little information. Also, it is funded by the PA and while it pretends to be independent there may be entire classes of murders it turns a blind eye to.

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post has the same information in real English.

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The bubble-wrap protest

From YNet:

The plight of Sderot's residents struck a chord with students from the Jerusalem Visual Theater School who decided to opt for an ironic display of protest in their effort to convey frustration with the state's continuous foot-dragging over the residential fortification project.

The students decided to go ahead and fortify a home in Qassam-struck Sderot by themselves. With bubble wrap.

The students call it a social-art project, but Merav Svirsky, who used to live in nearby (and often Qassam target) kibbutz Be'eri said that the group has no political pretensions.

Wrapping the house in Sderot with bubble wrap (Photo: Amir Cohen)

"We aren't holding a political protest because we don't have political solutions," says Svirsky, "we're not pretending to save the day or come up with solutions. We came here to discuss the fortification problem and the absurdity that it has been dragged for so long. There is protest in our actions, but no political statement."

The house selected for the bubble treatment belongs to Moshe Nagar who lives in the heart of town. His house has been damaged by Qassam rockets more than once in the past.

"At first I thought that they were coming to fortify my house, so I was pleased," said Nagar, "but even after Svirsky told me it was only a display I agreed."

Nagar says that one of the reasons he agreed to have his house bubble-wrapped was his desire to keep the fortification issue on the agenda.

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Who will be the next Sderot sacrifice?

Last week, the Israeli Government posted on its website:

As part of the cease-fire announced this morning (Sunday, 26 Nov 2006), Israel has begun withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip.

This decision was taken in an effort on Israel's part both to bring about a calming of the situation and as a signal of Israel's readiness to contribute to an improvement in the security and political condition of the region.

Israel is interested in maintaining a cease-fire as a means to end the violence and to enable progress in the political negotiations. In doing so, Israel is knowingly undertaking the risk that the terrorist organizations will exploit the cease-fire to rearm and to rebuild their infrastructure.

Despite the fact that the cease-fire came into effect at 06:00 this morning, five Kassam rockets were fired after that hour from the Gaza Strip at Sderot and communities in the Western Negev. It must be pointed out that if the Palestinians do not observe the cease-fire completely, Israel will have no choice but to respond.

It does not matter which organization carries out the firing -- the obligation to observe the cease-fire absolutely applies to the Palestinian Authority, which bears the responsibility to enforce it without exception.

It should also be recalled that Israel left the Gaza Strip last year with no intention of returning, but was forced to act there in order to prevent acts of terrorism. Accordingly, Israel will refrain from operating in the Gaza Strip as long as all acts of terrorism and rearming there cease. Israel will continue to monitor events in the Gaza Strip and will respond in accordance with developments.

Israel's ability to deter terror would be significantly enhanced if it would actually act on its tough words. As it is, Israel's promises of retaliation are regarded as a joke by the terrorists who have kept firing rockets since this was written.

The incompetent Olmert government is once again waiting for someone to get killed (or, in the case I linked to, to be kidnapped) before they act.

This is not how one defends one's country. It is as if Olmert feels he doesn't have the political chips to act until someone is dead, reducing Israeli citizens to game pieces.

Every other Israeli govenment had its priorities straight. Even if people disagreed, it was undeniable that the previous governments acted in ways that they passionately felt was the best for the security of their citizens. Olmert is doing the exact opposite.

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Israel's massive hasbara failure

An article in the Palestine-Israel Journal from yet another well-meaning and wrongheaded author on how to establish peace between Israel and the Arabs shows, in passing, where Israel has utterly failed in its PR.

The author bases his peace plan on the following premises:

The unspeakable tragedy that has unfolded in the sixth Israel-Arab war should force us to focus on what peace might look like. The building blocks are clear, but they are threatened particularly by those who stop thinking when it is most needed. The building blocks are:
(1) UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and UN Security Council Resolution 242 demanding the return of Palestinians who so wish and the withdrawal of Israel to the pre-June 1967 borders.
(2)The resolution by the Palestine National Council of November 15, 1988, thereby accepting a two-state solution.
(3)The proposal by Saudi Arabia in 2002 that Israel withdraw to the 1967 borders in exchange for recognition by all Arab states.

Putting the building blocks in place, we get two states side by side, with East Jerusalem and most of the West Bank reverting to Palestine (Israel has already withdrawn from Gaza), the Golan Heights to Syria, and some minor border problems solved, sometimes through creative adjustments. It is not a big revolution; it only takes common sense.
But there are also minimum and maximum demands on both sides. Palestine has three minimum, non-negotiable demands:Palestine has three minimum, non-negotiable demands:

* A Palestinian state in line with (1) and (2) above, with
* East Jerusalem as the capital, and
* The right of return — as a right, the numbers to be negotiated.

Israel has two minimum, non-negotiable demands:

* Recognition of the Jewish state, Israel,
* Within secure borders.

All five goals are legitimate and compatible.

Besides the fact that the author purposefully frames the minimum demands in such a way as to gloss over the differences, this list shows Israel's complete inability to define its red lines to the world as clearly as the Palestinian Arabs have.

Israel's red lines are - or should be - at a minimum:

• No return to the "Auschwitz" borders of pre-1967, even with "minor adjustments." An eight-mile wide Israel is not acceptable and was not a part of UN resolution 242, as most people choose to misinterpret it.
• Major settlements will remain intact and a part of Israel.
• No negotiations on East Jerusalem - it is a part of Israel forever.
  
• Not only recognition, but support for the idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
• Implied within that is the idea that all neighboring states that support Israel's right to exist will themselves act against any terror groups on their territory that act contrary to this idea.
• Implied also there is no real PalArab "right of return" to the Jewish state beyond a token number
• Recognition that the PalArab "refugee" problem is not Israel's problem. By any definition, the vast majority of PalArabs are not "refugees" and those in camps in neighboring states should have been absorbed decades ago. UNRWA should be dismantled.
  

The problem is that Israel has had successive wishy-washy governments that weakened or violated these "red lines" repeatedly , usually under pressure from the West but sometimes out of the misguided idea that Israel was not under an existential threat. So we see, for example, that Israel allows Jerusalem Arabs to vote for the PA government, or that Barak has made the Old City of Jerusalem negotiable.

The tragedy is that this author is not making up these Israeli "red lines" - he is following what the Israeli government has been signalling themselves. The very retreat from Gaza did more to undermine Israel's long-standing position that the territories were "disputed" and not "occupied" than anything else. One resolves "disputes" with a give-and-take; one does not abandon your his position altogether.

So we have a Palestinian negotiating position that is based on very clear and oft-stated red-lines of their own - right of "return," East Jerusalem, free passage between Gaza and West Bank. And an increasingly fuzzy Israeli position on these same issues that makes the West think that Israel will willingly bend on them.

Who can blame the West for wanting to pressure Israel - Israel herself has signaled that these positions are all on the table and the Palestinian Arabs have made clear that their positions are non-negotiable!

The fact is that the two sides cannot agree unless the Palestinian Arabs show more flexibility. The idea that the sovereign state is the side that has to keep giving in indefinitely and the people who supposedly desire a state can keep making demand after demand is ludicrous. For better or for worse, Israel has already accepted the idea of a Palestinian state and it is up to the PalArabs to act as if they are willing to build one.

The very idea that a Palestinian Arab state cannot possibly exist without Jerusalem, for example, is absurd on the face of it. It is a purely emotional requirement that has no bearing on the viability of a state. Why is this considered a "red-line" for the Palestinian Arabs and not for the Palestinian Jews? Yet this is the sad situation Israel finds itself in because it has not been more adamant about Jerusalem than the Palestinian Arabs have been. And the blame rests squarely with the State of Israel wanting to appear "flexible" and "reasonable" to the West, sacrificing two thousand years of yearning for the vaporous hope of a short-term peace.

Similarly, the idea that the descendants of 1948 refugees have the "right" to "return" to Israel is a non-starter that has no bearing on the real viability of a Palestinian Arab state. Once a state is established, it can let in anyone it wants, but in no other case in world history has such a "right" been considered legitimate - otherwise every set of refugees' progeny can claim land all over the world with impunity.

Israel has failed miserably in putting forth consistent and logical positions and it is hurting Israel's negotiating position far worse than any terror attacks or threats.

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Another PalArab "human rights" org

I found another Palestinian Arab "human rights" organization based out of Gaza, Al-Mezan, that again downplays internal PalArab security issues and emphasizes any perceived Israeli issues. But digging deep in the website I saw that they do pretend to keep track of internal security incidents, although without giving details so I can see which they are missing.

It is still instructive to see how the number of internal PalArab incidents soared as Israel left Gaza, even if the numbers themselves seem underreported:

STATISTICS ON INCIDENTS OF SECURITY UNREST IN THE GAZA STRIP No. of the victims during the last four years. Year Incidents Injured killed Kidnapped No. minors No. minors foreign Pals 2002 3 2 0 2 0 0 0 2003 39 111 9 18 3 0 0 2004 121 178 6 57 6 6 10 2005 394 895 151 101 23 16 23 16/8/2006 453 636 77 107 15 14 40 Incidents of the state of insecurity and internal violence during the period 3/3/2002 to 24/8/2006 Type of incident No. of incidents family feud 199 Conflict between political factions 43 Conflict inside the PNA apparatuses 13 Clashes between political factions and security apparatuses 60 Clashes between families and security apparatuses 29 Clashes between families and political factions 16 Firing in Ceremonies 21 Firing in Marches 11 Misuse of weapons 90 Assassination of traitors 4 Kidnapping 83 Killing 70 Assault against employees, public characters and foreigners 101 Closure of road 57 Assault against Institution 163 Explosion 67 Other 73

I suppose "Other" includes honor killings.

The main site will occasionally mention some internal security chaos but will downplay it or ignore it most of the time. For example, the internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah in the beginning of October left about 12-15 dead, but Al-Mezan had a single article mentioning two deaths and no follow-up. Meanwhile, every minor Israeli incident is highlighted.

This biased, anti-Israel site (which, along with other Palarab "human rights" organizations, supports PalArab human shields that HRW condemned) is funded by:

Core Donors
• Netherlands Representative Office (NRO)
• Swiss Agnecy for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
• Global Ministries of Churches (Kerkinactie)
• International Commission of Jurists- Sweden
• Norwegian Representative office(NORAD)
• The Ford Foundation(FF)
Project Donors
• Mertz Gilmore Foundation
• The French Consulate (funded the library in 2002-2003)
• Swiss Agnecy for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
• The Ford Foundation
• Save the Children Sueden (SCS)

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HH XCVI

Soccer Dad hits another one out of the park.....um, scores another goal...in the latest Haveil Havalim, the 96th weekly compilation of the best of the Jewish Blogosphere.

Check it out!

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Another peaceful PalArab weekend - UPDATED

No deaths that I could find reported, but enough to show yet again how great it would be to have an independent Palestinian Arab state...

• A group calling itself "Just Swords" announced a new modesty campaign for Gaza. So far they take credit for bombing an Internet cafe, throwing acid in the face of a young woman who was not dressed in a hijab, and destroying a car that was playing it radio too loudly for them.
  
  
  More details from Al-Ayyam: they bombed 12 stores that sell music not to their liking, video shops and Internet cafes, with RPGs. They said that these stores were in the service of the "Jewish Zionists" and their "crusader masters."
  
  Hamas responded by saying they did not support these attacks, and if people wanted to outlaw Internet and force women to cover every inch of their bodies they should use the normal political process for this goal.
  
  
• The Arab Bank in Gaza was firebombed. It's main gate and customer lobby was destroyed. The bank will go on strike in response.
  
• Two bombs destroyed a car .
  
• A clan clash involving two families and some bystanders with explosives and other fun weapons. It looks like the families have started a two-month truce, though.
• An armed clash between "security forces" and a family in Gaza City, 11 injured.
• A man, Sulaiman Khamis Muammar (40 years old), was murdered in Khan Younis with two shots to the heart. The famous "unknown gunmen" killed him.
  
• Hebron "police" issued a statement about a dramatic increase in crime over the past month, including 2 murders and one "accident". No details are given but I do not recall any Hebron murders in my death count, so the number of PalArabs killed violently by each other since late June now stands at 168.
  
• UPDATE: 4 more dead since last week besides Muammar mentioned above:

Earlier on the same day, at approximately 07:00, the Palestinian police found the corpse of Hammad ‘Awad al-‘Arouqi, 40, from Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on a tract of land belonging to the Abu Meddain family in the east of al-Boreij refugee camp. According to medical crews, al-‘Arouqi was found handcuffed with his face to the ground. He was hit by 3 live bullets to the chest. The corpse was transferred to the forensic medicine department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

At approximately 13:00 on Friday, 1 December 2006, the corpse of ‘Alaa’ ‘Abdul Karim Matar, 21, was found inside a flat in Block 4 in Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. He was hit by a live bullet to the head. The corpse was transferred to the forensic medicine department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and the police initiated an investigation into Matar’s death.

At approximately 17:10 on Thursday, 30 November 2006, Salim Ashraf Salim al-Masri, 20, from Kahn Yunis, was killed by several live bullets throughout the body. He was shot for family revenge.

At approximately 13:30 on Wednesday, 29 November 2006, Mohammed ‘Araef Rashwan, 31, was killed by a live bullet to the chest, and his colleague, Ahmed Hamdan Abu Sha’ar, 24, was wounded by a live bullet to the thighs, when they were inside their security site in the east of Rafha. Live bullets were unleashed by mistake from the rifle of a security man guarding the site and hit Rashwan and Abu Sha’ar.

So now our count has hit 172.

UPDATE 2: PalArabs claimed the IDF killed a 15-year old boy in Nablus; the IDF denied it. Which means that he was killed by some other PalArab. We are now at 173.

(Monday morning update: it seems ambiguous enough for me to not count the last one. Still 172.)

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Arabs caught cutting down their own olive trees

Hat tip Joe Settler:

Are the settlers hurting the Palestinians or are the Palestinians hurting themselves?

Frequently Palestinians farmers complain that settlers cut their trees and hurt them and their livelihoods. At times even IDF soldiers and police had to protect the Palestinians farmers in the territories during the olive harvest season. But the police suspect now that in some cases the Palestinians themselves are those cutting the trees and then blamed the settlers and demanded compensation from the Civil Authority.

Foresters of the JNF patrolling the Shaar Efraim area today noticed to their surprise a number of Palestinians cutting olive trees in violation of the law as they were damaging scores of olive trees. The foresters hurried to call the police who arrived and held four of them for questioning.

The four were transferred to the police station in Kedumim and in their interrogation they said that the owner of the property invited them to cut the trees for firewood. A police spokesman for the Judea-Samaria District, Superintendent Pintzi Mor, told Maariv NRG that the owner of the area would be called in for questioning.

Sources in the police said that over the years the police have experienced a phenomenon of the filing of complaints to the Civil Authority regarding the destruction of olive trees, along with a claim for financial compensation. In the last year alone the Palestinians in the area of Judea and Samaria filed claims for 350 thousand shekels for the destruction of olive trees.

The police now intend to check the complaints in detail. A senior source in the police told Maariv NRG that "most of the complaints for damage to olive trees were filed in recent years at the end of the harvest season or towards the end, something that increase the suspicion that this is a cooked deal."

Joe Settler has been all over these stories for months, but there is no shortage of Israel-bashers that believe anything bad said about "settlers." We've touched on the PalArab historic love of olive groves here. UPDATE: Soccer Dad has been skeptical for much, much longer.

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Abbas leads prayers in Ramallah

Liberals who are aghast at the thought of any Christian influence in American society seem to have no similar problems with the Muslim influence in Arab society.

The concept of "separation of mosque and state" is not only foreign to Arab leaders, it is laughable. And for those who consider Abbas a moderate because he does not quite pepper his talks in English with references to the Koran as much as Hamas leaders do (although he does do it in Arabic!), here is a small story from today's Arabic WAFA:

Mr. President Mahmoud Abbas, today, led Friday prayers in the presidential headquarters in the town of Ramallah in the West Bank.

Preacher Sheikh Syeda Abida Hussain on Friday condemned Israeli attempts to Judaize the complicated Aqsa Mosque compound, and preventing worshipers from praying in Al Aqsa Mosque.

The President's prayers [were] accompanied by a number of civilian and military officials.

This would be practically a capital crime if President Bush regularly led a public Christian prayer session in the White House for some people. Why does no one blink when it happens elsewhere?

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Quote of the day

"It seems the harder Israel and the rest of the world try to give the Palestinians their own country, the harder they try to prove that they don't deserve one." - Editorial, National Post, Canada

It is a breath of fresh air to see a mainstream newspaper even mention the possibility that the Palestinian Arabs don't deserve a state.

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Cyber-jihad?

Today's newspapers are talking about a threat by Islamic hackers to attack US financial institutions, the stock market and so on, during December ("until the infidel New Year.")

I saw the original notice from the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (interestingly, usually the R in CERT stands for "Response") and it seemed somewhat nebulous then. Last night I went to the website where the threat originated (again, thanks to Google auto-translate) and it was a normal pseudo-hacking site where Muslim kids trade serial number cracking software and other utilties, much like many of the similar English-language sites I've seen.

With the exception of the occasional spontaneous "Allahu akbar" thread.

The specific thread that contained the threat was not credible - one person said that he would like to see everyone attack the US financial markets during this month, a couple of others responded "yep, we should" and then the conversation died. Something like a real attack, especially against multiple targets, would require a lot more coordination and focus (he was talking about using viruses as well as denial-of-service attacks.)

Nevertheless, the idea of cyber-jihad is an important one. The jihadist site, while not breaking any new hacking ground, was not a backwards site where they were learning the basics either. It shows that the expertise in hacking among Islamists is growing, and given that the Internet is a complicated machine, there are untold numbers of vulnerabilities out there waiting to be discovered that can cause problems.

More troubling than that specific site is this Jihadist hacking magazine that was just published:

The first issue of what is indicated to be a periodic magazine, “Technical Mujahid” [Al-Mujahid al-Teqany], published by al-Fajr Information Center, was electronically distributed to password-protected jihadist forums today, Tuesday, November 28, 2006. This edition, 64-pages in length, contains articles that primarily deal with computer and Internet security, in addition to other pieces explaining Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and video types, editing, and encoding into different formats. The editors of the publication state that it was written to heed the directives of the Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, and his call for technical support. Material such as this, regarding anonymity on the Internet, concealing of personal files locally on a computer, and utilizing all schemes of encryption, is to serve as electronic jihad, and a virtual means of supporting the Mujahideen.

Like individual postings made by jihadist forum members concerning Internet security and protection of incriminating files, or manuals that were provided by the Global Islamic Media Front for the same, the “Technical Mujahid” demonstrates the technical acumen of the jihadists. Articles like, “The Technique of Concealing Files from View” and “How to Protect Your Files, Even if Your Device was Penetrated,” were written for the intermediate to advanced user, and describe a variety of methods and software that provide security. Links to download referenced software, such as the VMware virtual machine, and key generators to unlock features are also given by the editors. Another writer discusses PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software and determines that its encryption is not adequate for the needs of the Mujahideen.

Another article, The Last Card: We Need it in their Homeland, written by a member of the information office of the Islamic Army in Iraq, like the editorial contained in the magazine and an introductory message, emphasizes the great purpose of jihad in the information sector. This front is determined by the author to be “a main pillar in the battle of Islam against the Crusaders and the polytheist belief”. To this end, advertisements for the most recent Juba sniper video from the Islamic Army in Iraq and a news caption about its release on DVDs in Iraq, is used as an example.

For future issues, the editors urge members of the jihadist Internet community to submit articles in the field of technology for publishing. They write: “My kind, technical Mujahid brother, the magnitude of responsibility which is placed upon you is equal to what you know in the regard of information. Do not underestimate anything that you know; perhaps a small article that you write and publish can benefit one Mujahid in the Cause of Allah or can protect a brother of yours in Allah. This way you will gain the great reward with the permission of Allah”.

Based on its format and content, this looks like a Jihadist version of the famous hacking e-zine, Phrack. The technical expertise doesn't approach the Phrack authors' but the desire is plainly there.

Whoever leaked this US-CERT doc to the media behaved somewhat irresponsibly, because the jihadists can just put up threats with impunity knowing that they will be taken seriously and they are getting their jollies from seeing how a teenage Mujahid can get worldwide headlines with a single message in an obscure bulletin board. Nevertheless, it is likely that we will be seeing real cyber-attacks that parallel real world terror attacks, as well as those that may be coordinated with major attacks (to interfere with police or medical response.)

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Blast from the past

Thanks to a nice article by Mindy Jacobs in the Edmonton Sun, I found this wildly optimistic dispatch from AP during the Gaza pullout about PalArab hopes and plans for their new statelet:

By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, September 2, 2005 02 15 PM

Palestinians are preparing to take over abandoned Jewish settlements in Gaza — drawing up plans for high-rise apartments and debating whether to name evacuated towns after deceased leaders or historical events.

...The Palestinians are fast at work figuring out what do with the land they call "liberated," and dreams of a better future abound.

In the evacuated areas, the Palestinians envision parks, industrial zones, a new seaport, a nature reserve, tourism facilities and new housing to ease overcrowding in the fenced-in coastal strip that is home to 1.4 million mostly impoverished Palestinians.

Palestinian security forces will enter the settlement areas as soon as Israeli troops leave, most likely on Sept. 15, to "clear the area of any possible explosive objects or land mines," said Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfek Abu Khoussa. In the meantime, officials have been handing out fliers declaring "The Future is Ours" and admonishing Gazans to stay out of the settlements.

Palestinians already have begun discussing what to name the evacuated areas. Top suggestions include "Yasser Arafat" and "Sheikh Ahmed Yassin," the slain founder of Hamas.

Palestinians also are racing to take over Israeli greenhouses in time to plant a winter crop.

"We will do our homework and we will do it top notch," said Basil Jaber, a Palestinian businessman leading the greenhouse takeover. "We would like to show Israel and the international community that we're capable."

Both Israel and the Palestinians have an interest in making Gaza less isolated and destitute: Israel because it hopes a brighter future will prevent terror and the Palestinians because they hope a successful pullout could lead to more withdrawals.

Anytime someone paints a rosy picture of how PalArabs will take advantage of Israeli withdrawals....

Anytime someone says that Israel is the source of all the PalArabs' troubles....

Anytime anyone blames Israel for PalArab poverty and unemployment...

Show them this article. And if they are a bit more obtuse, show them the links.

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An Arab Muslim to respect - Israeli consul in SF

A great article, originally printed in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Israel's new consul in San Francisco is a Bedouin named Ishmael Khaldi. This article does not paper over the very real problems that Israeli Arabs suffer but it shows how a mature person can handle such problems.

All Arabs and Muslims can learn a lot from Khaldi. Of course, they would call him a traitor and consider him a target for terror.

Ishmael Khaldi lived in a Bedouin tent until he was eight years old, walked four miles round trip to school each day and still goes home on weekends to what he calls the "Middle Ages" to tend to flocks of sheep.

But next week, Khaldi will leave his tiny village of Khawalid - population 450 - in the northern Galilee region and fly to San Francisco to become Israel's first Bedouin diplomat and the nation's first Muslim to rise through the ranks of the Israeli foreign service.

Of the more than one million Israeli Arabs, only 170,000 are Bedouins, many of whom were once nomadic desert dwellers. In recent years, Arab radicals in the Israeli parliament and Islamic movements who deplore the existence of the Jewish state have dominated Israeli-Arab relations, and the six-year-long Palestinian intifada has stretched their allegiance to Israel to a breaking point.

But Khaldi, while conceding that the situation of Arabs in Israel "is not perfect," is an unrepentant Israeli who says he is not betraying his Arab "brothers" by becoming the new Israeli consul to San Francisco.

"Many of us are proud to describe ourselves as Israelis. Everyone who lives here is an Israeli," Khaldi said in an exclusive interview on the eve of his departure for San Francisco. "Israel is in a clash with the Arab world, with our fellow Muslim brothers, with the Palestinians. It's a big challenge. But I am sure that Israels enemies are not Arab culture, nor Arab heritage, nor the Muslim religion. It's a political situation."

Khaldi, 35, is no newcomer to the United States or the Bay Area. He arrived in the United States after the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000 and was soon in demand as a speaker at college campuses.

"I'm a Bedouin and we are nomads, so I felt at home traveling coast to coast on a Greyhound bus. Twice," he said.

During his stay in the United States, Khaldi said he was shocked to discover that American students were unaware of Israel's large Arab minority and the fact they have the right to vote, elect members to parliament, and become judges, professors and senior army officers.

Khaldi said his family's ties with its Jewish neighbors go back to the days of the early Zionist pioneers from Eastern Europe who settled in the Galilee region in the 1920s.

"From the late 1920s until 1948 when the state was established, the first pioneers came and lived mainly in the north, building kibbutzim," or collective farms, Khaldi said. "The people who came were very sophisticated. They were mainly Yiddish speakers... Local Bedouins established very close relations with them, even though they were two different cultures and two different worlds with almost nothing in common. It's something that not many people know.

"My grandmother, who passed away only last year, spoke Yiddish. She was a shepherdess, she never went to school, but she had human contact almost every day with the people from (the next-door kibbutz) Kfar Hamaccabi. She worked with them while they were planting orchards."

...
"Of course, there is a lot of frustration, and we are facing a lot of problems. But to make it into hatred and a grudge? We must go one step forward."

Khaldi said there is still a long way to go before the Bedouin minority achieves full equality in Israeli society, but he noted that more Bedouins are graduating from high school, entering universities and getting better jobs than ever before.

"You can look at the differences and say: The government treats us as second- or third-class citizens, or it can be a challenge. It's our challenge to use the differences and try to understand and combine the best of both worlds. The way is long. It's not easy," he said.

Khaldi first encountered anti-Zionist radicalism in high school, he said, and didn't like it. Once during a memorial day for Israels fallen soldiers, Khaldi and two classmates stood at attention to mark two minutes of silent tribute. The gesture provoked derision and insults from fellow Arab students.

"There was a clash with the rest of the Arab kids. They were not respectful," he said.

In following years, Khaldi was turned down twice for an Israeli Foreign Ministry training course before finally being accepted. Meanwhile, he acquired a bachelors degree in political science from Haifa University and a masters degree in international relations from Tel Aviv University. He has served as a border police officer in Jerusalem and as an official in the Israeli Defense Ministry.

Khaldi also has begun a project called "Hike and Learn with Bedouins in the Galilee" that has brought thousands of young Jews to Khawalid to learn about Bedouin culture and history. He said these encounters inspired him to become a diplomat.

But even after an intensive six-month Foreign Ministry diplomatic training course, he says he still looks to village traditions for guidance.

"I come from a culture where negotiations are the best way to understanding," he said. "The tribes used to live and compete with each other and fight and kill each other, but at the end of the day they would have to make sulha (a peace pact). This is the way... At the end of the road, you need to find a common ground, you need to find a solution. Something that will satisfy both sides."

Khaldi is well aware that he will be treated with suspicion by Israeli critics but believes his story presents a true picture of modern Israel.

"I am always torn," he said. "I am torn between modernity and tradition. I am torn between two totally different worlds. I am Israeli above everything."

It is a brilliant idea to send this honest, patriotic man to San Francisco to counter the daily slanders of Israeli racism that the left coast offers.

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Moroccan Imam recruited suicide bombers

From AP, but hardly published anywhere (only three mentions in Google News):

Moroccan police have arrested a Muslim prayer leader who is suspected of recruiting young men to be suicide bombers in the insurgency in Iraq, a newspaper reported.

The imam, identified by police simply as Abdelilah according to Aujourd'hui Le Maroc newspaper, was arrested Monday in Tetouan, a city in northern Morocco near the Strait of Gibraltar.

Abdelilah preached at a mosque in Mezouak, a vast slum on the city's outskirts, exhorting Moroccans to "fight the American-Zionist occupation in Iraq," the newspaper quoted police as saying.

Two young men who attended the mosque carried out suicide bombings in Baquba, Iraq, last month, and a further five Moroccans linked to the mosque are believed to have joined the Iraq insurgency, the daily said.

Last night on O'Reilly a representative from CAIR was disputing whether most terrorism comes from Muslims. It is instructive to see that a story where a religious leader is recruiting young men to blow up themselves and as many others as possible is completely buried. I suspect that it is not because of political correctness but simply because this is not newsworthy.

A priest who fondles boys, or a rabbi who embezzles money, deservedly get headlines exactly because they are behaving in a way that is utterly foreign and disgusting and hypocritical. This is what makes a story interesting and therefore newsworthy.

Objectively speaking, the fact that two suicide bombers in Iraq came from the same small mosque from thousands of miles away in Morocco, and three other members are suspected of being in Iraq right now, is noteworthy. But it is not considered unusual by the media, because we know there are many imams exhorting their flocks to jihad. It is the old dog-bites-man standard of news. (In fact, one of the three news outlets that mentions this story only prints it as an afterthought with a story about a German man jailed in Morocco for converting Muslims.)

While the media's stance is understandable - they are in the business of selling their product and they choose news stories based on that fact - it is still irresponsible. Treating Muslim clerics with a different standard than others plays right into the hands of those who try to sell the world on a wholesome Islam that doesn't support terror. Stories like these should not be shunted aside by newspaper editors.

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An American love letter to Ahmadinejad

Sure enough, Ahmadinejad's letter to the wacky liberal moonbats has been embraced and amplified by his target audience. Here is a letter back by a nutty minister:

Dear President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

This is an open letter in reply to your "open letter to the American People," as published in the USA by CNN on November 29, 2006.

May the One God, Who created all things, and Who gives whatever He wants to whomever He chooses, give His blessing to these words written for the benefit of all His people in this world -- believers and non-believer alike. As the Prophet wrote, "There is no compulsion in religion," (Qur'an 2.256 - Shakir translation), which teaches us that God desires people to come to Him by their own free choice, not by force or threats of violence.

The link to your letter at CNN is http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/29/ahmadinejad.letter/ with a backup copy located at http://www.patriot.net/users/bmcgin/ahmadinejadletter112906-text.txt

Although I have no authority to speak for anyone other than myself, I do believe that my comments here will represent the views of many other patriotic Americans who are also seeking truth and justice. And I believe that you can benefit by hearing some ideas here, which you may not have heard before from your normal sources of information.

First, you wrote: "O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers." As a Christian, I of course believe that God has already bestowed upon humanity that perfect human being He promised, namely Jesus. And I invite you to join with me as one of Jesus' followers. As Jesus said, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:32 RSV)

Next, you wrote many excellent, admirable statements, such as: "We are all inclined towards the good, and towards extending a helping hand to one another, particularly to those in need;" and "We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings;" and "We all detest darkness, deceit, lies and distortion, and seek and admire salvation, enlightenment, sincerity and honesty." I agree completely with these ideas, and I hope we can all do a better job of putting them into action.

...
You refer to the state of Israel and its supporters as "the Zionist regime," and "the Zionists." And you charge them with many crimes, particularly against the Palestinians. In particular, you write: "In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief." You criticize the United States for its "blind and blanket support to the Zionist regime," which has "emboldened it to continue its crimes, and has prevented the UN Security Council from condemning it." And you point out that these actions, and others, have helped to cause "global resentment and hatred of America," thereby spreading terrorism, not reducing it.

Without debating these charges, please let me point out two political realities within the United States which make it impossible for anyone to seriously oppose the best interests of the state of Israel, as determined by the "Israel Lobby." (The "Israel Lobby" can be defined as "the interconnected group of individuals and organizations who actively seek to promote the political interests of the state of Israel, and who react defensively and decisively to any criticism of Israel or its policies, justified or unjustified.") Source: http://israel-lobby.info

Reality #1: Supporters of Israel have an emotional love for Israel similar to a mother's emotional love for her child: they can see no fault in the child, no matter what the child may do. This love does not respond to reason or to objective facts. Her delinquent child may rob a bank, rape five women, and burn down the schoolhouse, but the mother sees no evil in him. So it is with the supporters of Israel. This is a fact of life in the United States. We all must accept it and live with it, because we cannot change it. This emotional love for Israel is reinforced by the Old-Testament Bible verse where God says, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." The supporters of Israel believe that this verse applies to modern-day Israel. (Genesis 12:3 RSV)

Reality #2: Supporters of Israel have enormous influence -- far greater than their numbers would suggest -- in all of the instruments of power in the USA. In the media, in the culture, in banking, in corporate leadership, in both political parties, in all branches and agencies of government, in the Christian churches, in the universities and other schools: everywhere! This influence, coupled with their emotional love for Israel, guarantees that absolutely nothing ever happens in the USA which seriously criticizes or opposes the state of Israel. This, too, is a fact of life in the United States. We all must accept it and live with it, because we cannot change it.

These two realities mean that neither you nor anybody else can change U.S. policy toward Israel by criticizing Israel. It simply will not work, no matter how true or justified the criticism may be. If you speak in favor of the Palestinians, the supporters of Israel call you a terrorist. And if you speak against Israel in any way, they call you an anti-Semite. So if you want the United States to change its policies toward Israel, you must convince the supporters of Israel that it is in Israel's best interest for these policies to be changed. That is the only way.

Blessings to you and to all people. May God help us all.

Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director
http://LoveAllPeople.org
http://InternetChurchOfChrist.org

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