Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

In recent weeks I've mentioned Elder's First Rule of Arab/Muslim Projection a number of times.

It it time to unveil a new rule:

Arabs/Muslims hate the West more than they hate each other - especially Israel.

There has been much wishful thinking on the part of analysts recently about how there is the possibility of a coalition of "moderate" Arabs and Muslims, presumably Sunnis, that would be willing to go against Iran's growing Shiite influence.

We've been down this road before. We've propped up one Arab/Muslim group against another only to find that the winners were worse than the losers.

Now, it is certainly possible to construct a scenario where, for purely selfish and short-term gains, some Arabs/Muslims may toe the Western line and help us out. But for each time that happens - for each time the A/Ms are perceived by their proud subjects as kowtowing to the hated West - they become weaker and more susceptible to popular, religious-based uprisings.

This is a corollary to the A/M sense of honor and pride (much more pronounced on the Arab side than the Muslim side, but potent in either case.) The perception that any A/M nation's leader is a puppet of the West means that it is just a matter of time before that leadership is gone. It may take decades but it is still going to happen.

Unfortunately, Westerners tend to think in terms of the short-term (effectively, the election cycle.) Propping up a government like Egypt to the tune of billions a year makes short term sense but there needs to be a longer-term policy where common interests have the chance of influencing behavior more than dollars.

Publicly siding with America is a death sentence in the Arab world and the leaders who do it lose all credibility. And while Saudi Arabia may be very scared by Iran and beholden to Western petrodollars, their seeming to side with the West is a short-term expediency. The average Saudi identifies more with a madman who stands up to America than with a prince who meekly cooperates.

Is there any long-term appreciation of the US in Kuwait for saving it? On the contrary - they hate the fact that they were so weak that they needed US help, an affront to their own pride.

Sunnis might hate Shias who might hate Salafists but they all agree that Islam must rule the world and the details can be worked out later. And in a region where chaos favors fundamentalism, the unintended results from any Western moves will often offset the intended results.

UPDATE: Once again, Shrinkwrapped wraps a marvelous analysis around this matter.

Druze beauty contestant drops out after death threats

Angelina Fares, the Druze contestant in the Miss Israel pageant, has dropped out of the competition after last week's attempted honor killing.

Accompanied by her mother, Dalia, Sheikh Tarif and a pageant administrator, Angelina held a press conference at a Druze center in the village of Julis and announced her withdrawal from the pageant.

Tarif spoke first: "The Druze have a red line too, we are for progress and advancement and technology alongside maintaining chastity and honor. There are many ways to integrate into society while keeping to tradition and values. If we do not preserve ourselves, the values will crumble and what will we be left with? Angelina prevented the defilement of the community's honor."

Angelina explained mournfully that she feels whole with the decision made by the community leaders. "I didn't want to or mean to offend anyone, certainly not the Druze community and its values," she said," life is more important to me."

"It's a very difficult feeling, I innocently wanted to fulfill a dream; I had a dream of being a beauty queen and representing Israel and women with honor. I was shocked when I heard about the plan to kill me. I've been severally traumatized, I didn't know anything (of it) and was surprised," she said.

While there are plenty of ways to honor Israel and women besides beauty contests, it is a shame that she dropped out because of threats to her life rather than her own reasons, and that no one in her community supported her.

Once again, terror wins.

UPDATE: It was unusually hard for me to find a picture of Angelina, but here is one that seems to be from the press conference, from Al Watan:

Yemenite Jews update

As we mentioned in January, the Jews of Sa'ada, Yemen were forced out of their homes when they were threatened by Shi'ite rebels there.

Since then, the government of Yemen has provided them with shelter in Tourist City where they celebrated Purim. It appears that the government is going out of its way to make them as comfortable as possible, providing them with new clothes and food.

One Yemen newspaper, Al-Ray al-Aam, quotes a Kuwaiti newspaper in the theory that the Shi'ite rebels are proxies of Iran and that the Jews were targeted specifically as representing Israel:

Concerning this issue, the news of last week referred to an investigation conducted by the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Syasah in which it claimed that Yemen has changed into an arena for the dispute between the state of Israel that is formed of sons of dogs that came from the European, Russian and American whorehouses and between the ruling Shiite Mullahs of Iran that are highly ambitious to reform the map of the Arab peninsula and the gulf through what are known to be Shiite groups in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain as well as from the changes that happened following the invasion of Iraq that brought sectarian Shiite rule to the fore. This Shiite minority has become the tool of a destructive war against the legitimate regime at the internal level and represents a regional war through the fatwas (legal advices) made by this minority against the regime and its president and against Yemen in general. They also have been conducting political meetings for serving the Jafari oratory through the Iranian satellite channels directed to the Arab region and through the Shiite satellite channels that have emerged in Iraq following the Shiite groups that seek to strike at the Arab situations and have captured the authority in Iraq.

According to the Kuwaiti al-Syasah newspaper the Israeli-Iranian intelligence war resulted in threatening the Jewish community in Sa’ada by al-Houthi insurgents who threatened to kill them under the pretense of being a source of depravity as was published. They have been threatened to be killed unless they leave the country. This means that the threats against the Jews were a message between the Israelis and the Iranians that are using Yemen as the battlefield for this conflict, the tools of which are the Yemeni Jewish minority and the Yemeni Shiite minority in Sa’ada. If what was published in Al-Syasah is true, it indicates a dangerous default by the concerned Yemeni security authorities.

Notice how Israel is offhandedly referred to in the Kuwait paper as "formed of sons of dogs that came from the European, Russian and American whorehouses." Kuwait is of course one of the more "moderate" regimes, and the nationthat was saved from Saddam Hussein by the US.

But either way, the president of Yemen is to be cheered for how he is handling the persecution of his nation's few remaining Jews.

Another example of PalArab news objectivity

I stumbled onto another English-language Palestinian Arab news site today whose self-description encapsulates the Arab idea of what "news" means:

PalToday (Palestine Today) is a Palestinian local news network, based in Gaza city, Palestine, it was established in Feb 2003,

Mission: aimed at bringing you the latest news up to date and breaking news,

Our Network is your gate to Palestine, history and memory which is impossible to erase, we are your window to Palestineæ Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa, and Holy sites .

Goal: to introduce Palestine to Arab & Islamic nation and to the world and provide information, knowledge and focus on the Israeli terrorism against Palestinian people

Object : unveil the ugly face of the Israeli occupation

We stand with our people in facing the Israeli crimes, occupation actions, collective punishment, killing, assassination, policy of detention & Imprisonment, demolishing homes, annexing lands,Separation wall around the west bank, siege, travel restriction.

credibility and neutrality are our principles in conveying news.

The neutrality is so obvious!

As far as credibility goes, its top story today claims that 4 Israelis were injured in Qassam attacks this morning, according to "Zionist sources." While two rockets did land, every Israeli news outlet I can find says explicitly that there were no injuries.

Well, they never said that they actually lived up to their "principles."

UPDATE: The Israeli media now does confirm four slight injuries.

Book burning by PalArab Education Ministry

Once again, basic human standards of conduct are ignored by the enlightened Palestinian Authority, where a well-regarded book of Palestinian Arab folktales from 1989 is being burned because of some oblique references to sex.

Professor of sociology and anthropology at Bir Zeit University, Ashraf Kana'nah, has commented on the decision of the Palestinian ministry of education to burn copies of the book he collated with his colleague, Dr Ibrahim Mhawi. The book, collated from Palestinian oral narratives, is entitled "Speak bird, speak again". Dr Kana'nah described the ministry's decision as "cultural terrorism"; while the ministry claims that stories in the book contain "immoral expression".

Kana'nah told Ma'an's correspondent in Ramallah that "those who conducted such measures are not related to academia", since he found no more than three references to sexual activity in a 400 page book.

Dr Kana'nah expressed his disturbance over the burning of his book, saying that "every book one writes is continuity of his own ideology, as much as the son is the biological continuity of his father." He added that it was the ministry of culture who decided to distribute the book at the schools, and they also funded the printing of 3000 copies.

I found the book online in English, and while some may seem inappropriate for children, apparently these folktales were meant for children to listen to.

I looked a bit to see if there was anything particularly "Palestinian" about these stories, and could not find much except for some place names.

The folktales themselves are interesting if only because they reflect the traditional male/female roles in Arab society, although the women are somewhat empowered as they are the tellers of most of the tales. Even so, this empowerment is strictly in private.

Also interesting is some of the scatological material.

Here is one of the stories, complete with a section where a woman's brothers try unsuccessfully to kill her because of a perceived slight to family honor:

The Woman Who Fell into the Well

Once there were some men who had been out selling, you might say, charcoal and were on their way home.[1] As they were traveling, one of them said, "God forsake you![2] By Allah, we're hungry!"

"O So-and-So!" they said. "Stop by and ask for something for us."

Stopping by a house to ask for something, he found a woman at home.[3]

"I entreat you in Allah's name, sister," he said, "if you have a couple of loaves of bread, let me have them for these cameleers. We're on the road from faraway places, and we're hungry."

"Of course," she said, and reached for the bread, giving him what Allah put within her means to give—a loaf, maybe two.

And, by Allah, on his way out of the house, he stumbled over a dog tied to a tree. Startled,[4] the man fell backwards, and behold! he ended up in a well that happened to be there. It was a dry well and held no water at all.[5]

"There is no power and no strength except in Allah!" exclaimed the woman.[6]

"O sister," the man cried out, "lower the rope and pull me out!"

Throwing him the rope, the woman started to pull him out but when he almost reached the mouth of the well her strength failed her. His weight grew too heavy for her, and she fell into the well with him.

"There is no power and no strength except in Allah!" exclaimed the man. "But don't worry, sister. By Allah's book, you're my sister!"[7] And they sat together for a while.

Now, her brothers were seven, and with their plowman they were eight, and they were all out plowing the fields.[8] In a while the plowman showed up.

"Hey, So-and-So!" he called out. "Hey, So-and-So!" But she did not answer.

After a while, she called out from the well, "Pull me out!"

When he had pulled her and the man out, she said, "Such and such is the story, and please protect my reputation. By Allah, this man is like my brother. Protect me, and don't tell my brothers. They'll kill me. And come harvest time, when my brothers pay your wages, I'll add two measures to your share. Just don't tell on me!"

"Fine," said the plowman.

A day went and a day came, and they harvested the grain and threshed it. He took his wages, and the sister gave him extra.

"What did you do this year," asked his wife, "that So-and-So's household gave you extra?"

"By Allah," replied the man, "he who protects another's reputation, Allah will protect his reputation in turn."

"Impossible!" she insisted. "You must tell me what happened, or else you'll worship one God and I another!"

"By Allah," he said, "there was a girl who had fallen into a well with a man, and I pulled her out."

Now the wife, when she sat together with the other women, used to say, "Did you know? So-and-So—my husband pulled her out of the well, and she had a man with her!"

This woman told that one, and so on, until her brothers got hold of the news.

"We must kill her," they said.[9]

The girl, catching on to their intentions, ran away at night. Eventually she came to a tent, and lo! there was a young man in this tent, living together with his mother. They let her stay with them, and the mother would bring food in to her.[10]

Now, the man was a bachelor, and his mother said, "Son, by Allah, this girl has filled my eye. She's very nice, and I'd like to approach her for you."[11]

"Yes, mother," he said. "If you want me to marry her, speak with her."

"O So-and-So!" said the mother. "What do you think? My son—I have no one but him. What do you say to my marrying you to him?"

"I'll marry him," the girl replied.

She married him. After that, she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy whom she called Maktub. Then she became pregnant again and delivered, giving birth to a girl whom she called Kutbe. Again she became pregnant and delivered, giving birth to a boy whom she cared Mqaddar.[12]

Meanwhile, her brothers were roaming the countryside looking for her. One day, coming by where she was, they said, "By Allah, it's getting late, and we'd like to take shelter with you for the night." (See how destiny works!) After they came in and sat down, their host prepared them the dinner which Allah placed within his means, and they ate. The father kept saying, "Come here, Maktub! Go over there, Kutbe!" The whole time it was like that, "Kutbe this, Maktub that, and Mqaddar this!"[13]

As they were sitting after dinner, they said, "Let us tell of our adventures."[14] Then they said, "The first tale's on the host."

"All right," he said. "I'd like to tell you about what happened to me in my time. Where are you folks from?"

"By Allah," they answered, "you might say we're from the hills around Hebron."

"By Allah," he said, "I had an adventure when I was a young man of twenty."

"Please proceed!" they said.[15]

"By Allah," he began his tale, "we were salesmen, traveling in your part of the country. One day we were hungry. 'So-and-So!' said my companions, 'Stop off and beg a few loaves for us.' By Allah, I stopped by this girl—May Allah protect her reputation! 'For the sake of Allah, sister,' I begged, 'if you can spare us a couple of loaves of bread! We're camel drivers, and we're traveling.' By Allah, reaching for some loaves of bread, that noble woman[16] handed them to me and said, 'Brother, make sure to sidestep the trunk of that tree. There's a dog tied to it, and it might charge you. Take care not to fall into the well.' And by Allah, folks, she hadn't even finished her words of warning, when the dog rushed at me. And he no sooner attacked than I was startled and fell into the well."

Now the plowman, who was traveling with them, said, "I must go out. I have to pee!"

"No!" her brothers responded. "Don't go out until the host finishes his tale."

"By Allah," continued their host, "when I fell into the well, a girl looked in and said, 'There is no power and no strength except in Allah. There's no one here who can pull you out.' Her brothers were seven and with the plowman they were eight, and they were all out in the fields. 'For the sake of Allah, sister,' I begged her, 'lower the rope and pull me up!' And, by Allah, that decent woman—May Allah protect her honor!—dangled a rope down and started to pull me up, but when I was almost to the mouth of the well my weight was too much for her and she fell into the well with me."

The plowman again said, "I want to go pee," but her brothers answered, "Sit!"

"By Allah," the host went on, "who should show up but the plowman? 'Here I am!' she said, after he had called to her. Lowering a rope, he pulled her out. 'Brother,' she pleaded with him, 'such and such is the story.' "

Now she herself was listening. Where? In the tent she sat, listening to her husband's tale.

"I have to go take a shit!" said the plowman.

"Sit!" the brothers said. "Wait till the host tells his tale!"

"By Allah, friends," continued the host, "the man pulled us out, and I came this way."

No sooner had he said that than she burst out with a ululation[17] from behind the divider in the tent, and then came in to where they were sitting and said, "You're my brother, and you're my brother."

"You," exclaimed the brothers, "are here!"

"Here I am," she answered, "and I've called my children Maktub, Kutbe, and Mqaddar." (All those names are related to fate - EoZ)

The bird has flown, and a good night to all!

I didn't read all of the stories, and the most objectionable part I could find was where a wife was upset that her husband was castrated.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Not as many deaths as you might expect, but plenty of shootings, bombings and kidnappings. From PCHR:

In the past 3 days, a person was killed and two others, including two children, were wounded in the Gaza Strip in the context of the state of lawlessness and proliferation of weapon prevailing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR:

At approximately 19:30 on Thursday, 1 March 2007, Yasser Fathi Zannoun, 17, from al-Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah, was wounded by a bullet to the left foot when he was checking a gun inside his house.

At approximately 21:00 on the same day, Zuhair Sa’id al-Hilu, 14, from Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, was wounded by shrapnel from a bullet he had played with.

At approximately 22:30 also on Thursday, unknown gunmen opened fire from a traveling car that had no registration plate at Hussein Mustafa Abu Karsh, 18, when he was neat his house in al-Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza City. He was wounded by a number of bullets to the left foot.

At approximately 02:00 on Friday, 2 March 2007, unknown gunmen fired at a house belonging to Ashraf Mohammed al-Ghaffari, 37, a member of Fatah movement, in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 16:30 also on Friday, chaos prevailed during a football match in Khan Yunis and sounds of shooting were head in the area. The Palestinian police intervened to end the chaos. As a result of the indiscriminate shooting in the area, Fayed ‘Ali ‘Ashour, 42, was seriously wounded by 3 bullets to the right leg. He was evacuated to the hospital, but he died from his wound at approximately 22:30.

At the same time, unknown gunmen traveling in a civilian car kidnapped Shadi Mohammed Hmaid, 30, when he was near his house in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. Later, the kidnappers dumped him into the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis after having wounded him with several bullets to the feet.

At approximately 22:40 also on Friday, Tariq Shaheen Shaheen, 27, a member of the Palestinian National Security Forces, from Nusiarat refugee camp, was brought into Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as he sustained bruises throughout the body. Shaheen was kidnapped by unknown gunmen from al-Jalaa’ Street. The gunmen violently beat him and then dumped him into al-Nafaq Street in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.

At approximately 09:00 on Sunday, 4 March 2007, 4 persons were wounded during an exchange of fire between members of Hamas and Fatah movements:

1) ‘Abdul Rahman Mohammed Msabbeh, 18, wounded by a bullet to the abdomen;

2) Jamal Husni Abu Yousef, 35, wounded by a bullet to the right foot;

3) Maher Ahmed Msabbeh, 20, wounded by shrapnel to the buttocks; and

4) Nidal Jamal Msabbeh, 25, wounded by shrapnel to the hands.

In addition,

Gaza - Ma'an - Palestinian security sources have announced that two Palestinian citizens were abducted by unidentified armed assailants on Monday morning in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

The sources added that Yasser Basiouni and Mohammad Wishah were kidnapped at 1.40 am and taken to unknown destination.

Also in the Gaza Strip, at about 4am, an explosion was heard in the area of Khan Younis. The explosion resulted from an explosive device planted at the entrance of a video shop. The shop was destroyed but no casualties were reported.

This is all very surprising for two reasons.

One is that now that there is a "unity government" that everyone is so excited about that will make sure that Hamas/Fatah clashes are a thing of the past.

The other is that both Hamas and Fatah keep on adding more and more and more "security forces" to their bankrolls. With all those armed policemen, all those RPGs and machine guns, all those people dedicated to the noble Palestinian Arab cause - wouldn't you think that the streets would be safe?

It's a real puzzle, I tell ya.

(My counts of how many Palestinian Arabs have been violently killed by other Palestinian Arabs are now at 336 since Summer Rains and 131 since January 1.)

UPDATE: A 24-year old killed while he was trying to build a bomb near a house in southern Nuseirat, Gaza. 337 and 132.

Conditions improve slightly in Syrian prison camps for PalArabs

For reasons only known to Syria and the UNRWA, there are still tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs living in so-called "refugee camps" in Syria, in very poor conditions. Every once in a while a token gesture is made to make it appear that Syria actually cares about its resident Palestinian Arabs, and today was one of those days:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East, (UNRWA) has appealed for US$26 million to improve the living conditions of some 18,000 Palestinian refugees living in Neirab camp near Aleppo, Syria.

Launching the appeal in Amman on Sunday morning at a regular meeting of UNRWA’s Advisory Commission, Commissioner-General, Karen Koning Abu Zayd, said: “The Neirab project represents a prototype that will empower Palestinians to secure their livelihoods, meet their needs and address their concerns”.

Neirab camp originally housed World War II troops. Six decades later, Palestinian refugees still live in the original barracks and no renovations or rebuilding has been conducted to accommodate the refugee population that has expanded over the years. This has led to overcrowding and unsafe building structures that pose health and safety hazards.

In 2003, UNRWA started a project to relocate 300 families from Neirab to new houses constructed on a plot of land made available by the Syrian government in the nearby camp of Ein Al-Tal. This represented Phase I of the project, but it remains necessary to improve the conditions in Neirab camp.

Phase II will utilize the newly available space in Neirab to reconstruct the camp and develop housing units and community facilities.

The project reflects the co-operation between the Syrian Arab Republic, UNRWA and donor countries, to provide better services to Palestinian refugees. So far, the Syrian Government has been the biggest contributor to the project, donating US$6.5 million.

Hidden from this self-congratulatory claptrap are a few salient facts:

Palestinian Arabs who have been born and raised in Syrian territory over the past six decades are not allowed to become Syrian citizens - by law. The Syrian Citizenship Law #276 of 1969 states that any Arab who lives in Syria and demonstrates financial independence can become a citizen of Syria - with the exception of Palestinian Arabs. (This is true of almost all Arab countries who adopted the 1965 Casablanca Protocol.)
Palestinian Arab men must enter the "Palestine Liberation Army" under Syrian command.
Palestinian Arabs are not allowed to own farm land in Syria.

While there is freedom of movement, clearly Palestinian Arabs are treated in a discriminatory way in Syria and Syria is the major party responsible for the fact that so many still live in camps that have not been updated in decades. So while Syria tries to score political points by saying that they built a few hundred houses over the past four years, it is barely a ripple in the ocean of discrimination that PalArabs suffer in the lands of their supposed defenders and brethren.

The Casablanca Protocol explicitly says that the reason that Palestinian Arabs cannot become citizens of their host countries is to ensure that they "maintain their Palestinian nationality." Even though for centuries, Arabs did not have any national identity and freely moved between areas of the Middle East without any real hindrance, in this one special case the Arab nations got together and said to this one class of Arabs who might want to immigrate to their states - tough luck.

The value of keeping Palestinian Arabs languishing in these camps was unconsciously betrayed by a principal of a Palestinian Arab school in Lebanon, when talking about the need to balance the students' identities as "Palestinian" as well as Lebanese:

"The camps, although they are misery, they keep the identity of the Palestinians," he says.

The Arab states are telling the PalArabs: You, the Palestinian Arabs and their descendants, are more valuable to us as outsiders, as "refugees," as people that we can use as pawns in our war against the Jewish state. If you would become one of us, we have fewer propaganda points. If we allow you to become citizens - even though from all accounts, Palestinian Arabs are harder workers and better educated than most other Arabs - then it means that we may have to concede that we actually lost the war in 1948 and that we have to accept Israel as a reality.

Much better to keep you suffering. Forever.

Why is there sewage in Gaza streets? Because PalArabs build rockets with sewer pipes.

From The Christian Science Monitor lastweek(via Reliefweb):

The dispute over Gaza's crossings underscores the tradeoff between Israeli security needs and the Palestinian need for the passage of people and commercial goods. In an affidavit submitted to the court, the Palestinian water utility said Gaza's main north-south highway has been flooded by sewage because Israeli authorities haven't let through the needed pipes. An Israeli army official, said that the pipe infrastructure has been dug up by militants and used in Kassam rockets to fire into Israel.

Which story sounds more truthful?

From JPost:

A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, who worked as a metal merchant at the Karni Crossing, was arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) earlier this month for allegedly selling pipes, which he would buy in Israel, to terror groups who used them to manufacture Kassam rockets, it was released for publication on Sunday.

On February 9, the Shin Bet arrested Amar Zak, 37, at the Erez Crossing. During his interrogation, Zak confessed to purchasing metal pipes from Israeli companies and then selling them to Hamas and other terror groups for the manufacture of Kassam rockets, fired almost daily at Israel. In 2006, 1,700 rockets were fired at Israel.

The pipes that were sold to Zak were intended for civilian use, and specifically for the construction of a sewage system in the Gaza Strip.

The Shin Bet arrested Zak after it received numerous reports in 2006 according to which hollow pipes made in Israel were being used in Gaza to manufacture Kassam rockets as well as shoulder-launched missiles.

During its investigation, the Shin Bet revealed that most of the raw materials used to manufacture Kassams originated in Israel. The Israeli companies, the security service said, were used by the Palestinian terror groups without their knowledge.

Here is example number 1634 of how Palestinian Arabs hurt their own people in order to kill Jews - and then they blame the Jews for their suffering. And "humanitarian aid" organizations like ReliefWeb will readily agree with the Palestinian Arab narrative.

At what point will the world community tell the coddled, babied Palestinian Arabs that it is time for them to finally take responsibility for their own actions? At what point will the world realize that much of their money meant to help the PalArabs is being directly used to try to destroy Israel instead?

Those horrible Zionists

In yet another instance of Israeli neo-colonialism and imperialism, rabid extreme right-wing Zionists secretly arrived in Somalia today to extend their hegemony over the African continent:

An delegation of Israeli volunteers, masking their Jewish identities, arrived at a Somali refugee camp on the Kenyan border Sunday.

The volunteers arrived at the camp on behalf of the Jerusalem AIDS Project, an Israeli organization which promotes education for HIV/AIDS prevention, public health, training, and counseling.

The refugee camp is populated by an overwhelming majority of Muslims, and only camp administrators were aware of the fact that the envoy was Israeli.

The organization’s Executive Director Hanni Rozenberg joined the envoy, which aimed at assessing the urgent needs of the refugees, who were struggling to survive in the dire conditions.

“It was 45 degrees yesterday and the conditions are hard to bear. There are a large number of refugees here who have AIDS, malaria, polio, and various fevers, and they cannot leave here,” Rozenberg explained.

“There is terrible malnutrition here, its like landing on another planet. There is so much to be done,” she continued.

The organization began by distributing clothing for infants and toddlers, who spent their days in worn out rags before the envoy arrived. But the lack of clothing, and widespread malnutrition, were not the only problems at the camp.

Rozenberg, a nurse, was shocked at the local birthing rooms, which she says did not even have basic equipment. She also expressed concern over the fact that such a large part of the camp’s population was sick, and only five doctors were available to them, two per shift.

“We came here to see what basic equipment is needed, as well as medical training, health education, and medicine, in order to help the Muslims to reduce AIDS,” Rozenberg explained.

“Awareness here is very low, people don’t use condoms and the number of carriers rises. Girls aren’t allowed to leave the huts after sundown because there is fear of rape. We are hoping we can help, and get Israel involved. That’s why we are in contact with the foreign ministry and the local embassy,” she said.

Rozenberg said that after needs were evaluated, the organization would meet with IsraAID, an Israeli NGO focusing on AIDS awareness and prevention, in order to begin purchasing equipment.

Rozenberg also said that volunteers would be trained in cesarean-sections, infant operations, and health education.

“It’s a bottomless pit. Whatever they can bring is welcome. Only someone who is actually here can understand how horrible it really is,” Rozenberg concluded.

Once again, these Zionists (with names like "Rosenberg") are using the pretext of "humanitarian aid" to gain a foothold in a strong, free Muslim area that doesn't need or want their help with the aim of expansionism and colonialist adventures. By their own admission they are going in secretly and slyly, as only Zionists can.

It takes a special kind of evil to do something so sick and to try to pretend that it is a good and wholesome undertaking.

Write to your Congressman and ask him to stop this Israeli aggression against the good Muslims of Somalia.

(And for the inevitable tiny minority that thinks I'm serious - have a great Purim!)

New blog design

I am testing out a new blog design. Nothing major, just some font changes and other small adjustments.

Try it out and see how much you like it.

...And have a wonderful, freilechen Purim.

The appeasers of Shushan

We all know, in the story of Purim, that Mordechai refused to bow down to Haman. We can also infer from this that the other Jews did indeed bow down to Haman.

How did the Jews who violated Jewish law and bow to Haman treat Mordechai? The answer is not surprising - according to the Gemara, they castigated him, telling him that he was going to get them all in trouble.

After the evil decree to murder all the Jews of the Persian Empire came down, one can imagine how the other Jews felt. They blamed Mordechai for their troubles. If only he wouldn't have been so stubborn, the Jews could have gone on to live happy lives as minorities in Persia where no one would bother them. He single-handedly gave the Jews a death sentence.

We all know who was right in the end. And we can also deduce what would have happened to those intellectual and practical Jews of Persia had Mordechai not done what he did - the second Temple would never have been built and the Jews would have disappeared as a people. Whether it would have been another Haman doing it with genocide or simple assimilation, the outcome would have been the same.

It remains to us to ask ourselves, honestly - whose side would we have been on had we lived in Shushan?

The Jews today who want to abandon Judea and Samaria have the same compelling argument that the Jews of Shushan had - a tiny number of "extremists" are rocking the boat and endangering everyone. Self-interest almost always drives how people act, and it is very easy to find logical arguments to support one's conception of self-interest.

Mordechai did not have a logical argument for acting as he did. In most moral systems, he would be considered to be in error. It is easy today to say that he was right and that he was a hero, but at the time it seemed obvious that he was dead wrong.

Do we have the conviction today to be like Mordechai?

Purim - time for tzedaka

PizzaIDF - will deliver Mishloach Manot to IDF soldiers
Yad Ezra VeShulamit - delivers food to the poor in Israel; has Matanot Le'Evyonim program
Yad Eliezer - also delivers food baskets in Israel; last year gave out $220,000 on Purim day
Ezras Yisroel - gives to the needy in the US
Carmel Ha'ir - soup kitchen in Jerusalem
Ezrat Avot - provides support for the elderly poor in Jerusalem
Hazon Yeshaya - provides soup kitchens in Eilat and (soon) Ashkelon
Lema'an Achai - Comprehensive solutions for poor people in Israel
Eizer L'Shabbos - help for Jews of Tzfat; recommended by A Simple Jew

If you have any other charities that have specific Purim programs, let me know and I will add the information.

Purim will be celebrated this coming Sunday (Monday in Jerusalem.)

12 weeks in a row and counting

The "Palestine Center for Human Rights" has a weekly, exhaustive report of how terrible Israel is, listing deaths, injuries, arrests and so on, with no context, all for the singular purpose of demonizing Israel to the world. Certainly human rights is not their aim because while they will mention some of the PalArabs killed by each other, it is far from their focus.

I just checked their numbers against my counts of how many Palestinian Arabs were violently killed by each other for the durations of each of their weekly reports.

For each of the past 12 weeks in a row, more Palestinian Arabs have been killed by other PalArabs than by Israel. (This week, Israel killed four - 3 on purpose and one accidentally - and the PalArabs themselves killed 10 of their own.)

Over that time period, the ratio of Palestinian Arabs killed by each other to those killed by Israel is over 4-1 (about 170 to 40.)

There are many organizations, both Arab and Western, who claim to care about Palestinian Arab civilians, but for some reason none of them are publicizing these numbers. It certainly appears that they don't love Palestinian Arabs as much as they just hate Israel.

More honor killings, plus an attempt at one

In another Arab honor killing in Israel, a 25-year old woman was murdered, apparently by both parents whose clothes were bloodstained.

This comes in the wake of a family in Ramle that has killed 8 of its women, for the same reason.

Meanwhile, the first Druze beauty pageant contestant in Israel was also the target in a murder plot, according to police. Two cousins were arrested.

One wonders what kind of a society "honors" women so much that they want to murder them.