Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 30, 2007

Major Microsoft vulnerability

Sorry for being off-topic, but Microsoft yesterday announced a "zero-day" vulnerability (animated cursor files, .ANI) for Windows that is very, very nasty. I expect that this weekend there will be many attacks, and Microsoft does not yet have a patch available.

It affects Windows Internet Explorer, including Vista. Even worse, it affects email, and just viewing an email message can allow someone to do anything they want to your machine.

Every major computer security organization is listing this as a critical flaw. Updated anti-virus software will help with known variants but if someone comes out with something new, you're still in trouble. Details can be read at the Internet Storm Center.

I would not interrupt my blog about this if I didn't think this was a biggie.

There is an unofficial patch from eEye. I recommend installing it until Microsoft gets its act together.

Get it at http://research.eeye.com/html/alerts/zeroday/20070328.html .

Otherwise, have a Shabbat Shalom!

Times-UK editor needs to learn English

Gerard Baker, US editor for the Times of London, writes about Barack Obama:

Of much more interest is the flak that the Democratic senator is taking for some remarks he made about the Middle East. Hillary Clinton, his main opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination in next year’s election, has seized upon them as proof that the senator cannot be trusted with US national security nor as a true friend of Israel.

What exactly, was the young senator’s offence? Did he, in an unguarded moment of adolescent radicalism, say something nice about Yassir Arafat? Did he call on Israel to give back the occupied territories?

Here, for the record, is precisely what he said, in a speech in Iowa a few weeks ago: “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.”

The response to this little aside, the shower of invective heaped on Mr Obama from all sides of the political arena, is instructive and depressing. In American political debate, saying something sympathetic about the Palestinians is evidently now deemed unsayable. Even as mild and neutral an observation as noting that Palestinians are “suffering” is considered a gaffe somewhat akin to expressing a kindly word for KGB pensioners.

The potential political penalties for such dangerous talk are well demonstrated by Mr Obama’s own rather pitiful response to the incident. Under pressure for his remarks, his spokesman “clarified” them, saying that what Mr Obama meant was that Palestinians were suffering because of the cruelties of their own, Hamas-dominated leadership. Phew! Thank goodness he cleared that one up. We thought for a horrible moment he might have been offering just the minutest criticism of Israeli policy.

One would expect a British editor to have a slightly better command of the English language than is demonstrated here. One would also expect the United States editor of a major newspaper to understand the US a bit better.

Somehow, he interprets the statement "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people" as "The Palestinian Arab people are suffering." Of course, the first statement is an absurd lie and the second statement is 100% accurate. Yet this paragon of the editorial page cannot seem to distinguish between the two.

For a presidential candidate to say something so stupid is, of course, noteworthy. Perhaps it was disproportionately criticized, especially by Hillary, but somehow I think that Mr. Baker would have been somewhat upset if a major presidential candidate had in decades past declared that "Nobody is suffering more than the Irish people" or "Nobody is suffering more than the Falkland Islanders." In fact, I think that Mr. Baker would be a bit upset if Obama had said that no one is suffering more than Israelis, and he would not have misinterpreted that statement as being just an expression of sympathy for terror victims.

Mr. Baker might be amazed to see that people do criticize Israel every day in the US. He may be astonished that the current Secretary of State is heavily pushing for a Palestinian Arab state and pressuring Israel towards final-status negotiations even with an entity that wants to see Israel destroyed.

But this is nothing that a little remedial English and history cannot solve for the esteemed editor.

PalArab self-death count methodology

Since late June, 2006, I have been keeping track of how many Palestinian Arabs have been violently killed in the territories by each other.

For the purposes of this count, I include:

Deaths in internal fighting
Deaths in clan clashes
"Honor killings"
Accidental or negligent deaths from playing with weapons or explosives
Deaths during terror or criminal activities, such as while digging smuggling tunnels
Deaths from gunshots during weddings and funerals
Extrajudicial killings for "collaborators" or various Koranic crimes

I am not counting suicides, true accidents like car crashes that have nothing to do with terror, or indirect negligence like the sewage "tsunami" deaths.

There is no shortage of "human rights" organizations that obsessively count PalArab casualties from Israeli sources, but essentially no one else seems to count internal Palestinian Arab killings. If they are truly concerned about Palestinian Arab lives, they would show the same attention to detail and accuracy that they do for deaths at the hands of Israel (and even then, they never show context for Israeli actions.)

There are some organizations that partially count some of these deaths. For example, B'Tselem only counts deaths directly related to the intifada, including Hamas/Fatah clashes. Yet their numbers get quoted as authoritative.

My reasons for maintaining this count is to show the hypocrisy of those who pretend to care about Palestinian Arab lives. In fact, my thesis is that they only care about Israeli actions that they can call criminal, and the victims are only important in how they can implicate Israel, not as tragedies in themselves. The fact that Palestinian Arabs have less regard for their own lives than Israel has for PalArab lives is rarely reported.

The sources for these statistics are many Palestinian Arab newspapers (both English and Arabic, using Google auto-translation) and human rights organizations, as well as Israeli papers and other sources. All my postings about this topic include links to the original articles. I far prefer to only count deaths for people that are named, although during particularly violent periods of time this can prove almost impossible so I may rely on reported aggregate figures.

I do try for accuracy, so for example I did not count all of the honor killings mentioned in this article for the reasons I wrote there. On the other hand, when there is a dispute as to who is responsible for some PalArab deaths I will make a decision and I will tend to believe the Israeli accounts more, if only because they have historically proven to be far more accurate (a good example is the killings of the Ghalia family on the Gaza beach last year, which I counted as PalArab self-deaths based on the evidence I saw.)

I have no doubt that these numbers are undercounted. There seem to be many deaths that are never reported, particularly inter-family killings, although things have improved since last year. Ma'an News, in particular, has been fairly honest about reporting internal Palestinian Arab killings.

Terrorists killed in former Gaza settlement

At least one Hamas terrorist was killed and several more injured this morning in a large explosion. According to Ma'an English, it was in a Khan Younis "military post."

Wafa (Arabic) adds that it was in a Hamas "training camp" in the former settlement of Netzar Hazani, and the early reports make it sound like the number of casualties may increase.

This brings the number of PalArabs violently killed by each other in 2007 so far, by my count, up to 157.

UPDATE: Ynet reports one dead, seven injured, some critically. Ma'an now reports eight injured, including a child.

UPDATE 2: A Salafi sheikh was murdered in Gaza City by four gunmen, a relative was injured and an Internet cafe was blown up. 158.

16 weeks in a row

Israel was more aggressive this week against terrorists, and the IDF killed three of them. PalArab sources blame settlers for another death, although I have seen no evidence of that.

Even so, more PalArabs were killed this week by PalArabs than by Jews, for the 16th week in a row. (There were about 10 killed from Thursday to Wednesday, the time period that PCHR uses in calculating their weekly stats.)

PA and Jordan arrest Arabs who sold Hebron building to Jews

Last week we mentioned the story about a building in Hebron that Jews moved into, where Arabs disputed that it was ever sold to Jews.

Today, the PA arrested one man and Jordan arrested another man for selling that very building to Jews.

The Palestinian Authority and Jordan earlier this week arrested two Palestinians suspected of selling a house in Hebron to settlers who have been occupying it since March 19.

One of the suspects is being held in Jordan, and the other in Jericho. PA laws call for a death sentence for anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews.

Hebron's Jewish Committee condemned the arrest, saying, "The arrest exposes once again the anti-Semitic nature of the PA. We call upon the government to accept the racial hatred prevalent in the PA."

MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) called on the government to act for the release of the arrested Palestinians. Orit Struk of the committee said the arrest is proof the house legally belongs to the Jewish community.

Committee members told Haaretz that police and army officials said off the record the house purchase was legitimate, adding: "Despite this, Defense Minister Amir Peretz has instructed the Military Advocate General to come up with a pretext for our eviction."

Meanwhile, several well-known leftist academics have called on Peretz to issue an order to evict the settlers from the building. "The decision not to evict the settlers is not only asinine and wrong, but also a violation of international law and public order," they wrote.

The academics warned that the presence of the settlers could disrupt security in Hebron and in the entire area. They said: "The settlers' presence is a violation of basic morals, requiring security forces to allot resources to protecting the Palestinians from the settlers."

Of course, the presence of Jews in Israel seems to disrupt security as well, so I guess these "academics" will be moving away very soon.

Beyond that, the fact that Arabs are arresting people for selling this building to Jews sure makes it look like Jews legally own the building.

Now, what human rights activists will protest these arrests?

How crowded is Gaza City?

In 2005, I posted an article that debunked the idea that Gaza was ridiculously overpopulated, comparing the population density of Gaza with Macau, Monaco, Singapore and other countries.

In honor of "Land Day," the Palestinian Arab Central Bureau of Statistics came out with new statistics that showed that Gaza City itself is the most densely populated part of the PA.

Let's see how badly overcrowded Gaza City is compared to a representative sampling of major world cities:

City	Population/km²
Cairo	35,420
Dhaka	30,403
Mumbai	29,042
Seoul	17,008
New York City	10,439
Moscow	9,644
São Paulo	7,247
Gaza City	6,834
London	4,697
Los Angeles	2,980

"One of the most crowded places on the planet?" Not quite.

US aid to Abbas earmarked for attacking Israel

Reuters reports that the US is trying hard not to make past mistakes with the new round of funding Abbas' Fatah terrorists:

Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard eligible for U.S.-funded training and equipment will be screened in advance for militant ties, U.S. documents showed on Wednesday.

The Bush administration is trying to allay concerns raised by some U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials that a portion of the $59.4 million program for the presidential guard could inadvertently benefit militants from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Abbas's Fatah faction, or Hamas.

The groups are considered "terrorist organizations" by the United States and Israel.

Under the program, the United States will provide $14.5 million for "basic and advanced training" for the presidential guard and $23 million for non-lethal equipment.

Another $2.9 million in U.S. funds will be used to upgrade the presidential guard's training facilities, including a sprawling new base being build in Jericho, in the occupied West Bank.

A U.S. government document, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, said members of the presidential guard will undergo a series of local background checks before receiving any U.S.-funded training.

Their names also will be run through terrorism databases maintained by the FBI and the State Department.

In addition, Israel will be able to screen individual trainees before they are allowed to travel to Jordan for U.S.-funded training.

A Western diplomat close to the U.S. program said the screening process would create a "firewall against any terrorists becoming part of this program".

But it was unclear whether the safeguards would satisfy U.S. lawmakers and Israelis.

Presidential guard recruits already undergo screenings by local commanders. Some recruits have been dropped or moved to other branches, either because they are affiliated with non-Fatah groups or their family members are, Palestinian sources say.

Notice how recruits are allowed to be associated with Fatah terror groups like Al Aqsa, and would only be dropped if they are from non-Fatah groups.

Fatah has other ideas. From WND's incomparable Aaron Klein, who seems to be the only journalist who actually interviews terrorists (hat tip EBoZ):

The declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party took credit for two of seven rockets fired into Israel on Tuesday, vowed to break a Gaza ceasefire and told WND that US financial aid pledged for Fatah security forces will be used to "attack the Zionists."

"Even if the American money and weapons reach only members of Fatah who are not involved in the resistance, it will find its way to the Palestinian resistance and be utilized for attacks against the Zionists," said Abu Ahmed, the northern Gaza commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.

Abu Ahmed was referring to $59 million the Bush administration announced Tuesday it will send to strengthen Fatah security forces.

Of course, this would not be the first time that US weapons are used by Fatah against Israel.

Kids die because of Arab pride (updated)

A cryptic article was posted to the Ma'an News website:

Ramallah - Ma'an - A young Palestinian child has died in vague circumstances in a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The doctors of the hospital refused to speak to Ma'an about the case.

However, Ma'an has learnt that a forensic doctor arrived at the hospital and took samples from the baby girl and another child who was also suffering from the same condition. The doctor will take the samples to Amman, Jordan for further examinations and checks.

It sounds like a child died from some sort of disease, that may be contagious, and it is scary enough that the hospital places a news embargo.

Now, let's pretend that Palestinian Arabs truly wanted to live in peace with Israel. Wouldn't they want Israel's doctors to look at this case?

Israel's doctors are better, by any measure, than Jordan's.
If it is a contagious disease, Israel has great incentive to determine the cause and contain it.
Israeli hospitals do not discriminate between Jew and Arab, and they have treated thousands of Palestinian Arabs who are not citizens.
This could be a perfect opportunity to build bridges of peace between Israel and the PalArabs.

The only conceivable reason for not asking for help from Israel is because PalArabs do not want to look as if they can't handle the problem themselves. Admitting that Israel is better equipped to find a solution is yet another blow to Arab pride, and it is better to endanger the second kid and whoever else may have this problem than to appear weak and ineffective.

For Palestinian Arab leaders, 1984 lives: War Is Peace, Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.

UPDATE: Ma'an was wrong; the Palestinian Arabs did call Israel for help and for the first time since the Intifada, and Israeli ambulance went to Ramallah and picked up the sick (possibly poisoned) child. YNet has all the details.

Explosion in Hamas official's house; 5-year old killed

The unity government continues to show real results.

A 5-year old boy, Amir Killab (which gets auto-translated as "Amer struggle dogs") was killed and his 6-year old sister Fatima and 3-year old brother Ahmed were injured in their house in Khan Younis from an explosion there.

There were a couple of other kidnappings and shootings this morning in that sewage-filled paradise known as Gaza.

Things really improved there since those hated settlers left, didn't it?

Our count of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by their own actions is now at 156 for this year.

Qassam Rocket calendar - March

As with the February calendar, the numbers for each date represent the number of Qassams fired on that day. The numbers in parentheses are those I saw reported by Palestinian Arab media, outside of parentheses are those reported in Israeli media.

March

Pride, Iran and the British prisoners

To understand what is going on in Iran, one needs to understand the psyche of Iran's leaders.

A year ago, Iran was riding high - it was working hard at becoming the de facto leader of the Muslim world, and it seemed quite close to becoming a superpower, taking aim squarely at the United States.

Since then, relations have cooled significantly between Iran and most Arab countries, internal criticism has increased, Ahmadinejad's list lost in an election and US pressure has had an effect on the shrinking Iranian economy. Clearly, the leaders have lost momentum, although they are still quite dangerous.

Islam is wedded to the notion of honor. This deceleration of Iranian influence was a challenge to Iran's Muslim sense of pride. And in today's Islamic world, the opposite of honor is not disgrace - it is irrelevance.

Iran simply had to show that it can affect world politics the way it did a year ago.

There is little doubt that this abduction was planned and staged. Great Britain has already proven that the ship was in Iraqi territorial waters. Either Iran also claims the same waters as its own, or Iran is lying.

But notice what Iran is demanding now - just Britain's admission of making a mistake. Notice what the video of the female prisoner was focused on - her admission that it was a mistake.

Iran is trying desperately to make itself look like the wronged party, but more than that - it wants to humiliate Great Britain. Because in the Iranian psyche, honor is a zero-sum game, and if England is humbled, Iran is glorified.

Iran assures the world that all England has to do is say a couple of words and then the great Islamic Republic will magnanimously release the prisoners. To the West, saying a statement like that is not a big deal, although the West certainly has pride as well. Iran was calculating that Great Britain's Western values putting human life above all else will force it to submissively take the blame for this snafu. This will then make Iran's stock zoom in the estimation of the other Islamic nations that share the same values and help restore Iranian honor and leadership.

What Iran did not seem to realize is that Western nations are almost as averse to dishonesty as Muslim nations are to dishonor. England is simply not going to say "oops" when it is in the right.

England should make it very clear to Iran that it has miscalculated, badly.

What's Hamas up to this morning?

I like to check the Arabic version of the Al Qassam (Hamas "military wing") website to see how much this group has moderated in recent months.

Highlights from today's edition:

Readers were asked if they thought the "unity government" would support the terrorists ("resistance option "): 67% said yes.
They condemned an assassination attempt of one of their officials, presumably by Fatah.
They denounced an Abbas advisor who implied that the unity government might crack down on "resistance."
A report on Israeli building activities around Jerusalem and another on Hebron consistently refers to them as "rape" and Israelis as "rapists."
A report on Israeli actions in Nablus against terrorists refers to Israel consistently as "Nazis."
The logo of the page shows a picture missing from the English website:

They sound like peace partners to me!

Gazans stealing sand led to sewage tragedy

From The Age:

However, construction of a new plant did not appear to have been affected by year-old international sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. The Gaza City mayor blamed the collapse on local people digging dirt from an earthen embankment around the structure and selling it to building contractors.

One can imagine that they were not selling shovelfuls of stolen dirt to these contractors. Almost certainly, since it is easier to get dirt that is above ground than to dig it, one can imagine trucks backing up to the embankment shoving in the dirt.

This is so negligent, these victims should almost be added to my list of PalArab self-deaths.

Saudi FM: Take our plan or face war

In an astonishing display of chutzpah, the Saudi Foreign Minister is telling Israel that the absurd "peace plan" that the Kingdom has been pushing is the only hope for peace and if Israel doesn't accept it, it has no interest in peace.

Mahmoud Abbas said something similar.

Remember, this plan says that the Arab world will accept Israel if Israel capitulates on every single issue (descendants of refugees, Jerusalem, 100% of territories.) And even if Israel does agree to commit national suicide by accepting these terms, there is no guarantee that Hamas or Islamic Jihad would.

So it seems to be a good time for Israel to make a counter-offer. Call it the Elder peace plan:

Allow Jews to return to Mecca and Medina, where they lived before the Islamic conquest.
Compensate all Jews from Arab lands for the possessions they lost when they were forced out after 1948.
Give control of the Temple Mount back to the Jews.
Rebuild or pay for all synagogues destroyed in Arab territory since 1800.
Change the laws in Arab countries to allow Palestinian Arabs to become citizens if they choose.
Allow Israeli TV to broadcast in Arab countries.
In return, Israel will establish diplomatic relations with every Arab country. They'll fully normalize relations, send sports teams and orchestras and dance troupes to perform in Arab countries.

And if they reject these terms, then clearly the Arabs are not interested in peace.