Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

More Arab terrorists kill each other. Yawn.

Between Thursday night and Friday night, 21 more have been killed, including a 7 year old boy and a 38 year old woman. This is of course of no concern to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or the UN (although the UN did come out with a statement against the violence, noting that its own workers were in danger, but no condemnation.)

I'm doing the best I can not to double-count anyone, but as of now, my counts are at 305 Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other since Summer Rains, and 100 killed this year.

UPDATE: It looks like two more were added to the count (Maan said yesterday that 25 were killed over the weekend, now it says 27) so the counts are now at 307 and 102.

UPDATE 2: PCHR counts 29.
Maan News Arabic mentions Hamas killing a Fatah member Tuesday.
The counts are now at 310 and 105.

UPDATE 3:The PCHR numbers were as of Sunday, and on Monday it was announced that three more died from wounds received on Friday.
The counts are now 313 and 108.

UPDATE 4: An 8-year old succumbed to wounds from last Thursday. 314 and 109.

UPDATE 5:I mistranslated a Tuesday article as saying a Fatah member was killed, it was in fact a Hamas member, and one of those injured died as well. 315 and 110.

UPDATE 6:A 20-year old man was found dead in Ramallah on Thursday. 316 and 111.

Christiane Amanpour, Zionist Spy

Ya gotta love Iran's "news" agency:

Member of Parliament from Tehran, Mehdi Kouchekzadeh, Sunday criticized authorization of CNN correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, for her activities in Iran.

"Authorizing those representing the countries which are obviously hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran to enter Iran has no justification from viewpoint of the Iranian nation," he added.

The MP said that Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as well as Foreign Ministry should be answerable to the nation about allowing an agent acting under the guise of the sacred profession of journalism to enter the country to release conspiratorial reports aiming to sow seeds of discord.

"We have all witnessed that over the past years, she released the worst reports to the people of the world, which contradicted the facts about Iranian society," he added.

Kouchekzadeh criticized the officials for inviting the Zionist media and their affiliates to the country to prove their support for democracy and freedom of speech.

"In addition to government organizations, people from all walks of life are bound to protect their environment from impurities," said the MP.

He said that reporters in Iran should have reacted to the presence of Amanpour in Iran.

Hmmm...how should they have reacted? Is Amanpour due for an "honor killing"?

Mossad killing Iranian nuke scientists?

Interesting article at Haaretz, quoting the Stratfor.com site:

A senior nuclear physicist involved in Iran's nuclear program who died under mysterious circumstances two weeks ago was killed by the Mossad, according to a report released in a U.S. website this weekend.

The website - Stratfor.com - features intelligence and security analysis by former U.S. intelligence agents.

Professor Ardashir Hosseinpour, a world authority on electromagnetism, was until recently working on uranium enrichment at the facility in Isfahan, one of the central processing sites in Iran's nuclear program.

The physicist died January 18, but news of his death only emerged six days later in two Iranian media outlets.

A report released this weekend in Stratfor.com stated that the Mossad was behind Hosseinpour's death.

The report said the physicist died from "radioactive poisoning" as part of a Mossad effort to halt the Iranian nuclear program through "secret operations."

The site indicates that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Mossad was involved in the deaths of scientists involved with the Iraqi nuclear program. At least three scientists were killed in those operations.

A website of expatriate Iranian communists said that several other scientists were killed or injured in the operation to kill Hosseinpour at Isfahan, and given treatment at nearby hospitals.

The site says Iranian physicians are trying to determine the circumstances of the deaths, and believe they may have to deal with similar incidents in the future.

News of Hosseinpour's death appeared in the Al-Quds daily, published in Tehran, and in a release by the Iranian Students' News Agency.

Both news items said Hosseinpour died from "poison gas."

Radio Farda - a Persian-language station operated by the U.S. government - said several days ago that the scientist died of "smoke inhalation."

The Radio Farda report said Hosseinpour, 45, was considered an expert in the field of electromagnetism and formerly taught in the physics department at Shiraz University. He also published widely in international publications.

Hosseinpour was also recently employed by Isfahan's Malik Ashtar University of Technology. Several departments of that institution have been implicated as being involved in Iran's secret nuclear program, believed to be conducted in parallel with its official, disclosed program.

If so....bravo!

An interesting subtext

The Jerusalem Post has an article about how disappointed Palestinian Arabs are in the civil war:

Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA-funded daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, said he was concerned that the fighting would tarnish the image of the Palestinians. "Tens of millions of people now look at us as worthless gangsters with no values," he complained.

Addressing both Hamas and Fatah, he added: "Take Gaza and turn it into a state of the Muslim Brotherhood. Take the West Bank and establish a state of your own there with all the Abu's. Your people no longer want a state. We no longer like our killers and executioners."

Columnist Mahmoud Habbash also acknowledged that the fighting had caused grave damage to the Palestinians on the international arena. The internal fighting, he said, has distorted the image of the Palestinians in the eyes of the world.

"The world is watching how the Palestinians are destroying their institutions and achievements with their own hands. They see how we are mercilessly slaughtering innocent people. We are losing the sympathy of the world. I'm afraid the world will now view us differently."

Notice how according to these average, intelligent Palestinian Arabs, the recent infighting is making them all look bad.

But the implication is that the decades of terror that they have supported against Israel, as well as the world, did not do any damage to their reputations. They see terrorism against Jews as not only natural, but accepted by the world, and they perceive that that the world has no problem with them slaughtering Jews - the clear message is that they believe that terrorism against Israel is not counterproductive in the least for their pretense of wanting a Palestinian Arab state.

And the unfortunate thing is that they are right. No matter how much terror has been unleashed against Jews, the world is still supporting roadmaps and other silly initiatives as if every new act of war is somehow an opportunity for Israel to give up more and bring a PalArab state closer.

Unreal.

The insanity of negotiating the Golan

The news last week was that Israel has been secretly negotiating with Syria over the Golan Heights. Already the MSM is starting to push for such an agreement.

This is idiocy beyond imagination.

The strategic value of the Golan cannot be undersetimated. It is not just "high ground," it is a mountain range:

The Golan not only dominates the land below, but also Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee):

Between 1948 and 1967, the Jews who lived on the shores of the Kinneret were shelled constantly from Syria, forcing them to spend every night in bomb shelters. Look at the Ein Gev resort:

Beautiful yes, but also extremely vulnerable.

Not only were the villages shelled, but so were the fishermen on the lake.

Some may argue that the Syria of today is not the same Syria as then. This is crazy - Syria is the conduit for 100% of Hezbollah's rockets, last summer as well as today. Syria hosts Hamas ans other major terror groups.

To pin hope on Syria's antipathy towards Islamist extremism is naive beyond belief - when has any Arab country publicly sided with Israel over any Muslim extremists?

Furthermore, the Golan is as much a part of ancient Israel as any other part of Israel. The major town on the Golan today, Katzrin, was a seat of Torah learning during Talmudic times, with the remains of synagogues still visible. Here is one originally built during Hashmonean times and later rebuilt during Byzantine rule:

Look at the top of the columns: a stylized Torah and etrog:

And on one of the walls, a menorah:

Also, the Golan was the site of a major Jewish stronghold during the Jewish Revolt against Rome with a suicidal outcome that predated Masada by a few years, at Gamla.

There is no question that the Golan is strategically and historically of supreme importance to Israel. The entire reason that Israel does not have a direct threat from Syria is because Israel controls the Golan today. So which is better: an illusory "peace" like the one with Egypt where a single bullet can turn Sinai into a forward position against Israel again, or a time-tested detente against Syria where Israel controls the high ground and from where Syria doesn't dare make a move?

The thought of giving it up to a nation that still actively supports terror is utter insanity.

"Poison balloons" redux

Like a bizarre game of telephone, the Iranian FARS "news" agency has picked up on the "poison balloon" story, added a few more lies, and presents the following:

FNA dispatches from Beirut said that the Israeli planes have so far dropped thousands of these balloons all across the woods and coastal areas in southern Lebanon.

The balloons which come in bright and child attractive colors have been observed specially in Nabatieh, Sour and the surrounding villages and, of course, in Beirut.

The balloons read such phrases as 'Happy Birthday' or 'Happy Night' in English and Hebrew.

Anyone touching or inhaling the gas escaping from the balloons will be poisoned immediately. So far a number of 9 citizens have been poisoned, some of whom are in critical conditions.

The Lebanese army has started wide investigations in this regard, while the international peace-keeping troops deployed in southern Lebanon have also voiced preparedness to examine the poisonous gas and materials contained in and on the surface of the balloons.

Delusions are but one symptom of psychosis.

Another death count update

Six more killed today in the Fatah/Hamas clashes.

Also, I had missed a few earlier murders from January:

A woman was killed in a family dispute January 22.
A woman from Gaza City was killed from a gunshot January 21, not sure who did it.
A 33-year old man from Rafah was shot and killed by those famous "unknown assailants" on the 23rd.

So our updated counts are:
284 Palestinian Arabs killed by each other since Operation Summer Rains,
73 killed in January 2007, and
79 killed so far this year.

Even Maan News, in English no less, noticed that PalArab self-deaths vastly outnumbered those claimed to be killed by Israel in January (they count 50 dead from internal fighting and ignore other murders.)

Watch out for those lethal balloons!

In the latest case of mass Arab hysteria, an Israeli newspaper's promotion involving releasing many balloons into the air has been interpreted by Arab sources as an attempt to poison the Lebanese.

Here are what the balloons look like:

Here is how Hezbollah reports on them:

In Beirut's southern suburbs, poisonous balloons with Hebrew markings, similar to the ones found in the south, have been discovered. Security forces are currently investigating the issue.

Here is what Al-Jazeera said:

Media reports and security sources revealed on Sunday that Israeli planes dumped 10 suspicious green balloons over the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Saturday.

Sources also said that at least eight people, who attempted to touch the “suspicious green balloons,” are suffering from nausea and dizziness and were taken to the hospital.

The coast of Tyre had been sealed off to prevent people from touching the 'suspicious balloons', believed so far to be poisonous.

The Lebanese National News Agency reported that among those who were rushed to hospital were a Lebanese staff sergeant, a recruit and An Nahar reporter Rana Jouni.

Officials at a hospital in Nabatiyeh confirmed that similar green balloons were dropped over the market-town of Nabatiyeh, 54 kilometres south of the capital.

In the original Hezbollah story, they said that one of the people hurt by these balloons was a reporter from a Lebanese newspaper!

Which goes to show the veracity and gullibility of the Arab press.

Self-death count update

PCHR counts a total of 33 killed in the Fatah/Hamas clashes since last Thursday, and one more today, so our count of Palestinian Arabs killed by each other increases to 275 killed since Summer Rains started and 70 killed so far in 2007.

Jewish shrine vandalized by Arabs. Does anyone care?

Today I visited the burial place of Shmuel HaNavi (Samuel) outside Jerusalem. The site was recognized by the Byzantines also as a holy site, with ruins outside showing where Samuel himself walked as well as a massive Byzantine church that once covered the area.

Last Friday night, the Jewish synagogue that houses the actual tomb-area was vandalized by Arabs, with much damage to both property and to holy books, and at least one Torah was apparently stolen.

The only place I saw mention of this incident was here.

Here is a picture of the damage:

The men who were there today described it to me as a "pogrom."

So we have an amazing situation where an unquestionably Jewish holy site and holy objects were desecrated and the incident barely made even the Israeli newspapers.

A single Koran can be torn and it becomes worldwide news, but a major Jewish site being vandalized is literally not worth mentioning.

One must start to wonder why this is. Is it because it is a "dog-bites-man" story? Is it because admitting that Jews have an historic claim to all of Israel is unfashionable or considered impolite?

Swastikas in American synagogues done by teenagers on a lark get much more press than than the systematic destruction of Jewish holy sites by Muslims in Israel. And I'm not only blaming the liberal press, but even Arutz Sheva barely considered this a story.

There is something very seriously wrong with this picture.

Ha-Kotel Ha-Katan (updated)

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Kotel Katan, a small part of the Western Wall that can be reached only by walking through the labyrith of streets in the Muslim Quarter. At no point did I feel unsafe walking there with my family.

There were two bored Israeli guards watching the area, and absolutely no one else was there. Since it appears that the Kotel Katan is even closer to the Kodesh K'dashim (Holy of Holies) than the main Kotel, this was surprising and puzzling to me.

Here are two shots of the Kotel Ha-Katan:

Right nearby is a small gate that leads to the Temple Mount itself, also guarded by the same guards to not allow Jews to enter. I did manage to snap a shot through the open door:

Civil war isn't what bothers PalArabs.

A very revealing insight in an op-ed in Arabic Maan News (autotranslated):

The words of the need Umm Khalil are identical to the words of journalist Ashraf the Marsh, Group in the newspaper "Jerusalem Arabi", which emphasized that what is happening now is a real tragedy and a national disaster, "not because there is internecine killings, between brothers, but because that constitutes a real threat to the Palestinian issue, whilst Israel is free to persists in the Judaization of the city of Jerusalem and building synagogues and driving local Arab citizens and is now building settlements, and exercise all forms of hooliganism and of assassination operations, and the incursions into Palestinian cities, in the time that the factions of which he of committing massacres and to engage in combat against innocent civilians who do not misdeed them in all that is happening."

There is an amazing psyche at work that regards civil war as only a secondary concern, but because Jews still manage to want to live in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria where they have lived almost continuously for millenia - that is the real problem!

Normal people would call this idea barbaric and bigoted. Normal people would be aghast at how unconcerned Palestinian Arab intelligentsia is at the fact that their own people are murdering each others by the dozens in the streets. A normal nation or tribe would place solving a civil war at the very top of their priority lists because of the value of human life.

But the world remains blind.

I'm sure it's all the Joooooz fault

I haven't been able to blog much, but as the headlines show, the PalArabs are back to their normal state of killing each other.

Given the JPost's numbers of 25 killed since Thursday, plus one killed Sunday in Beit Hanoun, our counts of PalArabs violently killed by each other has soared to 267 since Summer Rains and an astonishing 62 since the beginning of this year.

One of my dumber commenters accused me of celebrating whenever PalArabs are killed in this way. While this is categorically false, and I am not the least bit happy when innocents get killed in the crossfire or by false accusations or by gunshots at weddings and the like, I do admit to being quite satisfied when people who belong to terror groups are killing each other. So on the whole, with the exception of people like the 2-year old Bader Abu Qaraya who was killed by the bloodthirsty savages of Hamas (and is therefore called a "martyr" by Fatah), this has been a good weekend.

Hamas/Fatah resume killing each other

After a couple of weeks of barely controlled violence between them, Hamas and Fatah have gone back to their normal ways of killing each other.

Gaza - Ma'an - Renewed clashes between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements broke out in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning. In the last 24 hours, three Palestinians have been killed in internal fighting (one from Fatah and two from Hamas), seven injured - including two children - and fourteen Palestinians have been abducted (nine from Hamas and five from Fatah) in tit-for-tat kidnappings.

Fatah has accused the Hamas movement and its Executive Force of besieging the house of Nabil Al Jarir, an Al-Aqsa Brigades member, which is the main military wing of Fatah, in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza. Fatah say that Executive Force members shot at him, killing him, and in addition, they abducted his aide.

This came after an explosion targeted the car of an Executive Force member last night, killing one member, Husam Abu Mteir, and injuring another five force members in the car.

The Executive Force spokesman, Islam Shahwan, told Ma'an that the explosion targeted an Executive Force patrol. He told Ma'an on Thursday night, "the explosive device was planned to target an Executive Force patrol and resulted in the serious injury of two members. At the same time, a number of bystanders including two children were also injured."

In another development, fire was shot at a car belonging to 'Ad Dawa' radio station, which is affiliated to Hamas, and two people were injured. One of the injured, Ra'ed Subuh, 22, later died.

So while I haven't been able to research all the deaths as much as normal the past few days, my PalArab violent self-death counts are now at 244 since Operation Summer Rains and 39 since the beginning of the year.

Guess who's stealing land?

Palestinian Arabs have so far been guilty, as far as I can tell, of 100% of the crimes that they routinely falsely accuse Jews of committing. This is what is known as "projection" and it happens a lot.

The latest example is that the Palestinian Muslims are stealing Palestinian Christians' land. (Sorry, Jonathan Cook, you have been proven a moron yet again.)

A number of Christian families have finally decided to break their silence and talk openly about what they describe as Muslim persecution of the Christian minority in this city.
The move comes as a result of increased attacks on Christians by Muslims over the past few months. The families said they wrote letters to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Vatican, Church leaders and European governments complaining about the attacks, but their appeals have fallen on deaf ears.
According to the families, many Christians have long been afraid to complain in public about the campaign of "intimidation" for fear of retaliation by their Muslim neighbors and being branded "collaborators" with Israel.
But following an increase in attacks on Christian-owned property in the city over the past few months, some Christians are no longer afraid to talk about the ultra-sensitive issue. And they are talking openly about leaving the city.
"The situation is very dangerous," said Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the Beit Sahur-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station. "I believe that 15 years from now there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. Then you will need a torch to find a Christian here. This is a very sad situation."
Qumsiyeh, one of the few Christians willing to speak about the harsh conditions of their community, has been the subject of numerous death threats. His house was recently attacked with fire-bombs, but no one was hurt.
Qumsiyeh said he has documented more than 160 incidents of attacks on Christians in the area in recent years.
He said a monk was recently roughed up for trying to prevent a group of Muslim men from seizing lands owned by Christians in Beit Sahur. Thieves have targeted the homes of many Christian families and a "land mafia" has succeeded in laying its hands on vast areas of land belonging to Christians, he added.
Fuad and Georgette Lama woke up one morning last September to discover that Muslims from a nearby village had fenced off their family's six-dunam plot in the Karkafa suburb south of Bethlehem. "A lawyer and an official with the Palestinian Authority just came and took our land," said 69-year-old Georgette Lama.
The couple was later approached by senior PA security officers who offered to help them kick out the intruders from the land. "We paid them $1,000 so they could help us regain our land," she said, almost in tears. "Instead of giving us back our land, they simply decided to keep it for themselves. They even destroyed all the olive trees and divided the land into small plots, apparently so that they could offer each for sale." When her 72-year-old husband, Fuad, went to the land to ask the intruders to leave, he was severely beaten and threatened with guns.
"My husband is after heart surgery and they still beat him," Georgette Lama said. "These people have no heart. We're afraid to go to our land because they will shoot at us. Ever since the beating, my husband is in a state of trauma and has difficulties talking."
The Lamas have since knocked on the doors of scores of PA officials in Bethlehem seeking their intervention, but to no avail. At one stage, they sent a letter to Abbas, who promised to launch an investigation.
"We heard that President Mahmoud Abbas is taking our case very seriously," said Georgette Lama. "But until now he hasn't done anything to help us get our land back. We are very concerned because we're not the only ones suffering from this phenomenon. Most Christians are afraid to speak, but I don't care because we have nothing more to lose."
A Christian businessman who asked not to be identified said the conditions of Christians in Bethlehem and its surroundings had deteriorated ever since the area was handed over to the PA in 1995.
"Every day we hear of another Christian family that has immigrated to the US, Canada or Latin America," he said.