PLO "Political" head: Keep on terrorizin'!

Remember how the PLO used to pretend that it had a separate "military" and "political" wing?

Remember how many times Abbas pretends that he cannot stop his Al Aqsa Brigades?

Remember how the world considers the PLO and its main faction of Fatah as the "moderates" while Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the "extremists"?

Remember how the PLO once upon a time pretended to accept Israel's existence and pledged to stop all terror, and incitement to terror?

Just think about these as you read this from the PA's Maan News:

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The head of the political department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Farouq Al-Qaddoumi, has stressed the need to continue the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.

In media statements after his meeting with the Syrian vice president, Faruoq Al-Shar', on Thursday in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Al-Qaddoumi said, "Any government without resistance will not be able to strengthen its 'cards' in the negotiations".

This last paragraph is the dictionary definition of terrorism:

ter·ror·ism (tĕr'ə-rĭz'əm) n.

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

Terrorism remains the PLO's (and, by extension, the PA's) major raison d'être. You cannot get a more explicit proof of this than this quote.

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Telegraphing bias

London's Daily Telegraph has a couple of examples of anti-Israel and anti-American bias in an article on the defection of Iranian general Ali Reza Azkari.

Starting with the headline:

Mossad implicated in missing defector mystery

The word "implicated" is usually used in a news context as being involved in something criminal or unsavory; which means that the Telegraph seems a little upset over the idea of an Iranian official switching sides. It also implies that this was not a voluntary defection on his part, but that Israel somehow forced him against his will.

It was also suggested Mossad paid Azkari a large sum of money to defect.

Who suggested this? Iran? An anonymous source in the West? Is this meant to play towards the Jew/money nexus that anti-semites are so fond of?

Hizbollah surprised experts with the vast number of rockets in its arsenal across southern Lebanon and the quality of other weapons, notably its anti-tank missiles which caused significant damage to Israel's tank units.

Besides the tone making Hizbollah seem almost heroic, this is just false. I quoted London-based Arab newspaper Asharq Alsawat in April, 2006 saying:

As for the Lebanese Hezbollah, several loads of arms have been sent to; they include rockets, explosives, and guided missiles. Hezbollah's arsenal includes more than 10 thousand rockets short-range rockets and missiles including Fajr, Nour, Arash, Hadid.

So either the "experts" don't know the first thing about their subjects, or the Telegraph doesn't know who a real expert is, or the Telegraph is just channeling how surprised they themselves were.

He could provide crucial information about a Hizbollah attack on the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983 which still festers in the collective memories of the CIA.

Eight of the CIA's top regional specialists, including the CIA's Near East director Robert Ames, were among those who died, something that explains America's continued reluctance to downgrade its listing of Hizbollah as anything but a terrorist group.

You see, in the Telegraph's universe, attacking Israel with thousands of rockets and training and supporting Palestinian Arabs to kill Jewish women and children are not terror attacks and not indicative of Hezbollah being a terror organization. Killing hundreds of Marines and others with truck bombs is also A-OK and should not affect how much the world respects Hezbollah. Only because the US is still sensitive over the largest loss of life in a single attack before 9/11 does the US refuse to do the intellectual and enlightened move of treating Hezbollah as a respected political party.

Clearly it can't be because of attacks on Jews! Jews are supposed to be blown up - it is the normal scheme of things and it is no reason to penalize the humanitarian Hezbollah organization with its being listed as "terrorist."

Inane and borderline bigoted articles like this is the exact reason the world feels that Israel is a threat to world peace and that Hezbollah is respectable. The Telegraph's choice of language makes it clear not only what its biases are, but also how it communicates its bias to its readers - these points are not explicit but implicit, as if everyone knows that Hezbollah is not terrorist and only extra-sensitive people like the US and Israel are so out of touch as to think otherwise. To point it out explicitly would open the Telegraph up to attack, but if it can slide things like this by as background information in an article, readers are not as alert to the fact that they are being made into puppets of far-left propaganda.

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Islam's anti-women positions - against the Koran?

One of the most frustrating things about hearing about "moderate Islam" is that it always seems to appear, from an outsider's perspective, that "moderate Islam" in the Western sense does not adhere to the Koran. Which means that moderate Muslims cannot have a serious influence on radical Islam, because the beginning and end of all arguments about Islam must be Koranic.

I do not claim to be an Islamic scholar so I have no idea how correct this Arab News article is in regards to Shari'a. But if it is accurate (and it is sufficiently harsh towards how today's Muslims act towards women to indicate it might be) it is a welcome development, and it could show a way for a small revolution in mainstream Islamic thought on the correct way to act towards women.

It seems very appropriate on International Women's Day.

Islam Without Muslims; Muslims Without Islam
Lubna Hussein, forlubna@hotmail.com


“What happens if a woman goes to court here?” asked my father.

“What do you mean?” I counterquestioned.

“What I mean is that if a woman goes to court is she treated as an individual or are her rights based on her gender?”

“Depends on the case, I guess,” I said.

“Come on,” he interjected sarcastically. “Don’t start telling me that women are treated in the manner that has been commanded by God. According to His Law they should be treated as equals. You know that that’s not the case here.”

“You just have to look around at the horrific miscarriages of justice to know that that’s definitely not the case,” he emphasized. “My point is that as much as we try to find fault with the West, one thing is for sure: I would feel far more secure with their system of justice if I were a woman than I would with the one we have here.”

“Yes, in a way you’re right,” I began, “but Islam did give women rights over 1,400 years ago that the so-called civilized world has only started to recognize recently.”

“You’re intelligent enough to know that having rights and not being entitled to them is just as good as not having them at all. In the Qur’an, when a man decides to divorce his wife, God Orders him to leave his wife on an equitable basis and is required to support her. Am I right?” he asked, quoting the verse and chapter.

“Of course,” I agreed.

“So if we are really honest with ourselves, does the law here enforce that or even recognize it in part?”

“Not that I know of,” I admitted.

“Alright. This means that a woman can quite literally be booted out of her house on to the street with nowhere to go; and if she tries to extract any right or entitlement from her husband, will the court support her in this? Have you ever heard of a Saudi man who is scared of the consequences of not paying his wife alimony or stealing her dowry because he might be taken to court?”

“No,” I conceded thinking of all the women I knew who had had this scenario forced upon them without any hope of recourse.

“Exactly,” he said, having won the argument. “It’s disgusting to think that the courts can overlook the word of God when it comes to preserving and upholding the whole concept of male domination. Judges relish sentences that chastise women for petty matters. You see the way the outwardly pious love to stop women in the street to point out strands of hair that may have escaped their veils or question the identity of the men around them; but when it comes to guaranteeing them their God-given rights they miraculously disappear!”

“Yes,” I said, reflecting upon what he said. “You’re right.”

“A woman cannot even gain custody of her children in a court of law. What sort of a mandate gives the automatic guardianship of little girls over to the hands of a father and stepmother even when a mother is perfectly capable of looking after them? You of all people should know what that feels like. What’s more, the status and importance of a mother in Islam is such that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself said that paradise lies beneath the feet of one’s mother and that a mother’s value is three times greater than that of any other individual.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

It was this very conversation that played in my head when I read two articles printed side by side in the paper this week. One of them highlighted the fact that there are many single mothers and divorcees in society who are denied welfare due to trivial bureaucratic matters and thus forced to live below the poverty line. Imagine that. In Saudi Arabia, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, women are reduced to begging on the streets because the law does not recognize their needs. What kind of an interpretation of Islam is that when our faith is based on a spirit of egalitarianism? When verses upon verses of the Qur’an command us to look after the wretched of our society?

As if that was not bad enough, the adjacent piece highlighted the obstacles that Saudi women married to foreigners have to endure. Whereas a Saudi man may obtain citizenship for his wife and his children, a Saudi woman is not entitled to the same privilege if she marries a non-Saudi. Upon what spurious logic this decision is based upon I do not profess to know, but what I do know for sure is that it has nothing to do with religion.

The great Islamic scholar of the 19th century, Muhammad Abdo wrote that when he visited the West he found Islam but no Muslims and upon his return to the Arab world he countenanced many Muslims but no Islam.

I am beginning to see his point.

Thinking like this will not help Israel or the West or anyone worried about Islamic fundamentalism. But it just might help hundreds of thousands of Muslim women.

If this article is true. they are not subjugated because of Islamic law. they are subjugated because of the sick psychosis that Muslim men seem to share. They feel powerless in the face of Western progress and military might, but they cannot admit this because of the overwhelming feeling of shame (the flip-side of honor.) So sinc ethey feel irrelevant, their mistreating women is a sick way to feel important. They might hide behind the Koran as they beat their wives (and, perhaps, the Koran does suggest that) but the real reasons aren't Koranic - they are psychological.

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Guest post: Humor and Islam

In comments to my post on the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, Goon (not Snoopy) wrote an interesting analysis that deserves to be more widely read:
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It is unfortunate that the Muslims have not embraced humor in the way that Jews have but it is not very surprising. Humor is a humanizing defense mechanism for those considered to be lower status. It helps them to deal with that situation and it helps them to get past it. Humor is an equalizer. It brings those of (perceived) higher status down to the level of the others, not by vilification but by humanization.

Humor also requires introspection by those to whom it is directed. Rather than demonize, the humorist simply exploits weaknesses, foibles and idiosyncrasies of those objectified, be they from within the community or those outside of it. The mirror of introspection is held for all to see. It requires a degree of strength to survive looking at the mirror.

Humor always seems to work best when carried out from the bottom upwards; that is, the "lower" pokes fun at the "upper". To do this there has to be an acceptance of "lower" status.

Hope is also at the base of humor but is a hope for ultimate reconciliation rather than retribution. The inferior one does not want to gain superiority, but, rather, attain equality with those objectified and move on together.

Jews have a clear advantage in humor. Introspection is an important facet of being a Jew. It is the foundation of teshuvah. It is also the mother lode of material. We also have few thousand years' experience in being considered a lesser form of life by just about everyone. Yet, despite that we do not vilify or demonize those who persecute and abuse us. Humor allows us to move on and when the abuse and persecution stop we must get along with those who previously did these things to us. Our hope is for reconciliation, not domination.

The true test of any culture is its ability to withstand domination. Humor is the one proven successful method for dealing with this. The best humor comes from those who have been subjected to lower social status. The Irish and Scots have been dominated by the English for centuries but their humor (which is fantastic) keeps them vibrant. The Blacks have been slaves but have many of the best comedians anywhere. Some of the funniest comics around now are new entrants into western society like Hispanics, South Asians and Orientals. These cultures have the strength to look into the mirror of introspection and emerge relatively unscathed.

Perhaps Islamic communities lack this strength. The vilification and demonization that they constantly engage in are the tools of the weak. No society that has resorted to them has ever survived more than a few generations. Hamas and Hezbollah et. al. are certainly irritations but they only manifestations of ridiculous weakness. The development of Arab humor, however, would indicate the beginnings of strengthening. This is, perhaps, more worrisome. We are comfortable with Arabs as terrorists. Can we be as comfortable with them as humans?
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Israel builds killer robot

I know it sounds like a hysterical Arab headline, but it is true:

An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades.

The Viper, roughly the size of a small television, was invented as part of Israel's efforts to develop weaponry that could reduce the risks to its forces from hand-to-hand fighting against Palestinian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

The manufacturer, Elbit Systems, said that the Viper's small size and dual treads enable it to move "undeterred by stairs, rubble, dark alleys, caves or narrow tunnels."

As well as bomb-sniffing and bomb disposal equipment, the Viper can carry an Uzi machine-pistol or plant a grenade. The weapons would be aimed using an onboard video camera.

According to Elbit, which has close links with the Defense Ministry, Israel plans to deploy the Viper among its infantry units after field tests. The robot could also be of interest to foreign police units or U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, why would Israel spend millions of dollars developing such a robot?

Because for Israelis, lives have infinite value. And they are battling people who have demonstrated that their own lives are of infinitesimal value.

And - as usual - the major beneficiaries of Israeli technology will end up being the US and its allies, who share Western ideas about the value of human life.

Israel-bashers like to talk about Israel's huge defense system and how unequal the battlefield is. What they fail to mention is that a significant part of Israel's defense budget goes towards weapons that minimize the loss of human lives, both Israel's and its enemies'. Can you imagine Hamas or Hezbollah being interested in smart weapons when the same amount of money would buy hundreds of dumb bombs? Can anyone even fathom an Arab fighter who cares in the least about whether he kills soldiers or civilians?

In the end, the effectiveness of this hugely expensive robot is roughly similar to that of a Jihadist intent on reaching Paradise - and he costs nothing, in the Islamist calculus. To Israel's sworn enemies, the thought of developing such a robot would be absurd when they have a near-infinite supply of indoctrinated Islamic human munitions. They don't want to minimize human losses - they want to maximize them. And that is a much, much cheaper way to wage war.

Which shows again, in a nutshell, the difference between Israel and those who try to destroy her.

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Palestinian Arabs and International Women's Day

On the Palestinian Arab "news" sites there are a number of articles about International Women's Day. Most of them try very hard to turn the entire concept of the day around into an Israel hatefest. Hamas' statement was especially funny (autotranslated):

"Hamas" today praised the role of Palestinian women and their struggle and the patience and persistence that struck the finest examples of all women the world is made of martyrs, prisoners and Ahtspthm, receipts generations on the love of the homeland and to praise the principles that preserve dignity and pride.

The movement said in a statement on International Women's Day : Palestinian women are the first example of women in the world of women distinguished in all aspects of political and social life and jihad and others.

The movement for the right of Palestinian women to live in dignity, and the lifting of all forms of injustice and oppression, and the need to open doors for them to participate players in all aspects of the political, social and economic, educational, and positive participation in the development of society.

The Movement warned women to be drawn behind the glitter of empty slogans and false pretext of freedom and liberation of women from the restrictions, in an attempt to portray women body is a good spirit and breath deserve humane care and attention, inviting women to pay attention to the substance of the emancipation of women, including not contrary to the teachings of our religion and values inherent.

In other words, we really support our women as long as they remain covered head-to-toe, don't drive or travel alone, and have lots of kids ready to blow themselves up.

But buried in the rhetoric one finds an interesting statistic that you will never find in the mainstream media:

From January 2006 to end of February 2007, according to the PCHR, 36 Palestinian Arab women died as a result of Israeli actions.

In the same time period, 58 women were killed by Palestinian Arabs themselves.

In other words, PalArabs are killing 60% more of their women than Israel has. (I suspect that even these numbers are wrong - if you assume that the Ghalia family beach tragedy was the result of a Palestinian Arab mine and not Israeli artillery, the numbers become 60-34.)

UPDATE: The UNRWA celebrates today in its own inimitable fashion. Here is part of a speech by its Commisioner General, Karen Koning Abu Zayd:

Today somewhere a young Palestinian university student will miss her classes, waiting hours for the gate to the barrier to be opened. Today somewhere a young Palestinian mother will be stopped at a checkpoint, unable to reach hospital with her sick baby. Today somewhere a Palestinian mother will not let her children play outside, for fear that a stray bullet could strike.

Each of these experiences is a barrier to hope. Each time that access to education, to health, to safety – to basic human rights - is denied, hope is also denied. It is denied, but will not die. Hope lives in the strength of the women of Palestine.

I empathize with your struggle to realize what is best for yourselves and your families. UNRWA is your partner in this struggle, helping to guarantee education and health and other basic necessities for 4.3 million Palestine refugees. We will continue to work alongside you, ensuring the provision of these essential services.

"Struggle" is, of course, a keyword for PalArabs meaning "killing Jews."

Clearly the UN doesn't care much about the honor killings or subjugation of women in Palestinian Arab society - only about what Israel is doing, or presumed to be doing. And just as clearly the UN doesn't notice its own complicity in the fact that, under UNRWA, the number of "refugees" has grown exponentially since 1948.

One would think that UNRWA would want to try to reduce that number - if they truly cared about Palestinian Arabs and their women.

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The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour

When I was in Israel in January I saw a CNN piece about the "Israeli Palestinian Comedy Tour." There are four comedians, including a Palestinian Arab American, who are evidently doing a bang-up business telling jokes throughout Israel. (In fact, a couple of them were staying at my hotel in Jerusalem.)

I have no problem with this tour, and I wish them the best. But I can't help noticing that Arab countries do not seem to be on their itinerary.

On the contrary, one of the comedians mentions in his blog a letter received from a Lebanese comedian friend of his which says "there is good reason for the conflict between Palestinians and Israeli’s, it is not as if you can say that palestinians and israeli’s should live in peace and what is going on has no basis, the people of palestine have no country, they are constantly murdered on a daily basis by Israeli aggression, although Israeli media controlled outlets will have you believe otherwise."

Israeli audiences are loving their humor - and Arab audiences want no part of it. It speaks volumes about who truly wants to live in peace and who wants the other side to disappear forever.

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US professor in Lebanon freaking out over Jewish textbook

The Daily Star (Lebanon) has this account of a packed lecture hall at the American University in Beirut:

Jewish-American fourth and fifth graders reading from a popular textbook about Israel are treated to an "Alice in Wonderland" version of history, Marcy Newman argued in a lecture at the American University in Beirut on Tuesday.

Reading Chaya Burstein's "Our Land of Israel" - used in 40-45 percent of Jewish schools in the United States - creates "a sense of Alice down the rabbit hole, where everything is turned upside down," said the visiting assistant professor at the Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR).

Among other interpretations, the 1948 Arab-Israeli war is presented as a defensive campaign and there is no sign of the Occupied Palestinian Territories or Palestinian towns on a map of "Israel."

Ah yes, in May 1948 the Jews decided to start a war against every single Arab neighbor. Nothing defensive about it at all!

In what Newman says is an analogy between Palestinians and American Indians, the book informs its young readers that "In the old days, Palestine was like the Wild West." She went on to explain how many similar examples are intended to create a "shared identity between Israelis and US Jews."

And of course it is evil for US Jews to feel an affinity with Israeli Jews. I'm sure that Newman would be equally upset at Michigan textbooks that try to create a shared identity between Arab Americans and Palestinian Arabs.

What's even funnier is her cluelessness: mentioning the Wild West is a simple analogy, a teaching tool. Her reading so much into it to find a nefarious Jewish plot is typical of "anti-Zionists."

By the way, the textbook itself is not a history text: it is meant to teach about modern Israel through children's eyes, including Arabs.

The lecture, titled "Promised Land Propaganda: Jewish American Education and the Zionist Lobby in the US," was given to a full house in West Hall on the AUB campus and was sponsored by CASAR.

Newman is an assistant professor of English at Boise State University. CASAR Director Patrick McGreevy introduced Newman as "a teacher, a scholar, as well as an activist."

No kidding! Her blog indicates that her hatred for Israel is so all-encompassing that she moved to Beirut to show how committed she was to the cause (and yes, her T-shirt there says "end the occupation." And yes, her name is spelled there as " Dr. Marcy /مارسي Newman / نوما ن ".)

According to Newman's research, through the educational system in Jewish schools in America, "Jewish children are indoctrinated with the simplistic dogma of Zionism." Above all, the founding of Israel is "mythicized and romanticized." Such biases, according to the activist, "render the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians invisible."

Yes, fourth graders should not be taught simple concepts.

And the ridiculous assertion that there was "ethnic cleansing" in 1948 is not a "simplistic dogma."

Another far-left looney "academic" who lives in her own bubble, not afraid to say absurd things in public because she has an adoring audience who cannot get enough of it and no one who would ever point out how hypocritical she is.

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PalArabs like to kill their women - but it's Israel's fault

Another unbelievable article, this time from the UN's IRIN, about "femicide" in the PalArab territories. As usual, it all boils down to "occupation:"

RAMALLAH, 7 March 2007 (IRIN) - Three Palestinian women were shot dead in the northern Gaza Strip last month – rumours say it had to do with ‘honour’.

The corpses of the women – Ibtisam Mohammad Musallam Abu Qeinas, 31; Samira Tahani Debeiky, 45; and Amani Khamis Hosari, 40 – were found within a 24-hour period in Beit Lahiya and Gaza City, leaving residents shocked.

“People are saying it was an honour killing, that the women were of loose morals. They were not related to one another – but they were all killed in the same way. It’s really shocking,” said Mona Shawa, director of the women’s unit at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza.

So-called honour crimes are the murders of women who are thought to have brought shame on their families by, for example, having sex before marriage or even for having been the victim of rape or incest.

In 2006, 17 Palestinian women were reported killed in so-called honour crimes – 12 in the Gaza Strip and five in the West Bank.

“The general atmosphere here in Gaza is encouraging this – there is no respect for law, no punishment of criminals and everyone has a gun,” Shawa added.

So far so good - the article is describing the problem and mentioning that the lawlessness in Hamastan makes it more likely that men will do what they want and will get away with it, just like the rise in other murders in the territories.

But then it goes into "everything is Israel's fault" meme:

Soraida Abed Hussein, a researcher at the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) in Ramallah, uses the word ‘femicide’ to describe honour killings.

She says Palestinian society is undergoing radical change as a result of the daily violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and women are suffering as a result.

“Being under oppressive occupation gives you a feeling of low self-esteem, of being less intelligent, less powerful, less of everything,” she said.

“That hits the masculine identity – and women pay the price. Men internalise the values of violence. They replicate the roles of occupier and victim. It will become part of the culture – part of how you see people and they see you. We are now at the stage where it is radically changing our society and structures.”

Hussein told IRIN that the numbers of ‘femicide’ cases had increased from pre-intifada (Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation) levels and that the true number of killings is not known because they are not reported.

“We can’t rely on the police. And if you look in the court registry of deaths, there are sometimes women whose cause of death is entered as ‘Qada wa Qader’ [literally ‘fate’] – death by natural causes. But the women are young,” she said.

Article 340 of Jordanian Penal Law, in force in the West Bank, rules that a man who kills or attacks his wife or a female relative while she is committing adultery is exempt from punishment. In Gaza, the Egyptian penal code also provides reductions in sentence.

But ‘femicide’ in Palestinian society is a sensitive issue to campaign on, Hussein said, because criticising the society plays into the hands of those who say Arab culture is primitive and violent.

“We leave ourselves vulnerable to those who want to say our society is bad and we are also condemned by those inside our society who say such things should not be brought into the open,” she said.

“At the same time, we are under occupation – so should we be fighting against the occupiers or our husbands? Even if we want to campaign, we are so busy reacting to the new crises in our daily lives that it is hard to get organised.”

Let's recap. Honor killings are increasing in the places where there are no Israelis, namely Gaza. Honor killings increased when Palestinian Arabs started using violence as their major means of expression in 2000. When Israel truly was involved in the day-to-day lives of PalArabs, there were far fewer honor killings.

So the fact that they are increasing now must be Israel's fault!

The interesting wrinkle is that they admit the very people who are most concerned with honor crimes are reluctant to publicize them - because the publicity will damage Arab honor! The idea of "honor" is so pervasive, and so destructive, that even those who want to change the facts of "honor killings" are not willing to confront the underlying cause, which is the honor/shame society that they all live under!

And to top it off comes this quote from Hamas on this problem:

Dr Miriam Salih, the Hamas Minister of Women’s Affairs, said Palestinians themselves could decide on a change to the law on honour crimes.

"Our main priority is to face occupation. When we have an independent state, we will put the law before the people to decide,” Salih said.

Apparently, Hamas cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. Improving society, building an economy, enforcing existing laws and augmenting them to protect women, creating a judicial system - all of them cannot be accomplished until Israel is destroyed first.

After all, there are some priorities in Palestinian Arab society.

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Reuters' concept of a "cease-fire"

In an egregious display of redefining a phrase, turning facts around and supporting terror, Reuters reports that those peaceful Palestinian Arabs are considering "extending" their "cease-fire" to include the West Bank:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas are to sound out militant groups on extending a ceasefire with Israel from Gaza to the West Bank, officials said on Wednesday.

Seven paragraphs later:

Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin brushed aside the proposal for a wider ceasefire. "We need to see that you can actually implement the ceasefire (in Gaza) before we can consider an extension," she said.

She said Israel has not responded to rocket fire since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect. "It's about time Palestinians deliver on a promise instead of just Israel delivering on ours."

Even if a ceasefire were extended, Eisin said Israel would not back away from its demands that the new Palestinian government recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals.

"Those principles are not for negotiation," she said.

Abbas wants to widen the ceasefire to include a cessation of Israel's West Bank raids and Palestinian attacks from the territory as part of a deal that would free a captive Israeli soldier and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Four paragraphs later:

The November ceasefire largely halted confrontations with Israel in Gaza, although some factions have continued firing rockets into the Jewish state sporadically.

Let's analyze this article, shall we?

Reuters' Nidal al-Mughrabi starts off with the assumption that there has been a cease fire in Gaza since November. A few paragraphs later (not quoted here), he admits that Islamic Jihad never accepted the cease fire. A bit later he quotes an Israeli spokeswoman saying that there was never a cease fire although Israel has refrained from reacting to rocket attacks. And finally in the last paragraph he says that the ceasefire "largely halted" confrontations, although there have been "sporadic" rocket attacks.

As is usual in the wire services, the author is twisting facts and positioning them in such a way as to make it appear that Palestinian Arabs are acting peacefully and that Israel and the PA are equally aggressive and/or restrained. This is the "even-handed" analysis that must shine through in all of AP's and Reuters' articles because their pro-Arab propaganda must outshine the facts, lightly sprinkled within their rhetoric.

There is no cease fire. There never was a cease fire. Palestinian Arab rocket attacks on Israel INCREASED since November compared to earlier months in 2006. Not only Islamic Jihad but Fatah as well have been shooting rockets, almost daily, into Israel. Israel has largely not responded to these attacks but that has not affected their frequency. There were almost-daily rockets throughout December and almost-daily rockets throughout February (I didn't keep a calendar for January.)

There is functionally no distinction between suicide bombings that target innocent civilians and rocket attacks that target innocent civilians - both are terror attacks. The fact that Mughrabi downplays hundreds of rockets and pretends that they are part and parcel of a "cease fire" shows how twisted his facts truly are.

Reuters and Nidal al-Mughrabi are deliberate apologists for terror and they feed hundreds of daily newspapers regular reports that are as skewed and dishonest as this one.

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Truthers meet Star Wars

Brilliant.

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Elder's Second Rule

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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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