Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

"Destitute" PalArabs lose millions to con man

This story has a little of everything. From YNet:

Gun-battles ravaged Nablus on Tuesday as Palestinian security forces attempted to prevent members of the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades from seizing property belonging to a local con man who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from dozens of Palestinian families.

The man is reportedly being held in a Palestinian Intelligence facility in Jericho where he is being questioned about his involvement in the alleged crimes.

A senior al-Aqsa source told Ynet that the man, who owns several exclusive auto-dealerships among other businesses, offered his victims lucrative investment deals. The man promised the potential investors they would receive over 10 percent in interest every month in return.

Many Palestinians – including families of members of al-Aqsa – bought into the scheme and gave the man large sums of money. The source told Ynet that his family gave the con man $97,000 and indeed, the next month they received a check for over $107,000.

Word spread quickly throughout Nablus and beyond the city limits, the businessman was heralded as an 'investment genius' and dozens of families rushed to offer him millions upon millions of dollars.

However for over a fortnight no one could locate the man, who had stopped answering phone calls and was nowhere to be found. In response members of Al-Aqsa seized control of homes and businesses owned by the con man, evicted the tenants and assumed ownership of them.

According to the source he himself took control of an auto-dealership, a house and three additional stores. "I don't know if this will compensate us," he said, "my family and the families of three other members gave him almost $500,000, but the dog vanished. We will bring him in and deal with him."

Palestinian security forces tried to prevent the takeover and exchanges of fire broke out between them and the Al-Aqsa gunmen.

When asked how their families were able to recruit such large sums of money at a time when most Palestinians are destitute, the al-Aqsa source said that the families sold their jewelry.

"My brother sold his Mercedes, the women sold their gold and the families spent every last cent they had. Now everything is gone. We are left with real estate we don't know the value of or who it will compensate."

Those poor, starving Palestinian Arabs who are forced to become Al Aqsa terrorists because of their extreme poverty and Israel's oppression were forced to liquidate their luxury cars and huge amounts of jewelry chasing a classic con.

The con man himself owned a luxury car dealership. In the poverty-stricken PA territories.

And now the families lost their gold although they seized his property. They must be really hungry by now as they are forced to drive their old, beat up BMWs to get their UN food handouts.

Here's an idea - sell the real estate to those Jews who are happy to pay double the going rate. A win-win! The only downside is that selling land to Jews is a crime that gets the death penalty. Very progressive, these PalArabs!

"Boy" electrocutes himself hanging Hamas flag

Sometimes, the autotranslated Arabic cannot be improved upon:

Boy died Sameh Mahmoud Khalilih Raja (17 years) after exposure to electric shock while trying to raise the banner of the Hamas movement, one of the pillars of electricity in the town of Deir al Ghusun north of Tulkarm.

The correspondent quoted security sources as saying that the Boy Khalilih one of the Hamas activists, died instantly when exposed to a high-pressure electric waves on an electric pole in the town of Deir al Ghusun, where the public hospital in the city of Tulkarem lifeless corpse.

This brings the count of PalArabs violently killed by each other (in this case, by their own stupidity) to 163 for this year.

UPDATE: Clan clash! 3 dead. 166. (One more died Tuesday from the Clan Clash - 167.)

UPDATE 2:

Palestinian Preventive Security officer Tahsin Ghalban, 33, has died hours after he was shot by unknown gunmen in east Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources have reported.

168.

UPDATE 3: Clan clash! 2 more dead. 170.

HEBRON, West Bank: A Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded two Israeli police officers Sunday at a checkpoint outside a Hebron shrine that has been a flashpoint for violence in the past, the Israeli army said.

Israeli forces responded by shooting the attacker in the leg, the army said.

The attack — during the weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover — occurred at a checkpoint outside the shrine, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.

In the early afternoon, a Palestinian, who appeared to be about 17 years old, pulled out a knife and stabbed two policemen at the checkpoint, the army said. One was lightly wounded and the other was more seriously injured, the army said.

The news media doesn't refer to this teenager as a "child," and for good reason - he was acting as an adult and tried to murder two people. It would be silly to call him a child. The word "child" evokes a pre-teen, not a 17-year old.

Yet "human rights" organizations routinely use the word "child" to refer to any Palestinian Arab victim who is under 18 years old. This is consistent across B'Tselem, the UN, PCHR, DCI and all others. The age 18 is a convenient though arbitrary benchmark.

As far as I can tell, not a single one of these "human rights" organizations records the circumstances of what exactly the "child" was doing at the time of death. The only attempt that I have seen by anyone was by the ICT in 2002, so its data is quite out of date.

When looking even at Palestinian Arab statistics on "child fatalities" one can see that only 30% of them are under 13, hardly a random distribution. Couple this with the fact that over 50% of PalArabs are under 18 and it would appear that the number of both teenage and preteen victims is relatively small considering that the terrorists work in urban areas.

In other words, it is remarkable that the IDF has kept the number of noncombatant child victims as low as it has, and the percentage of teenage victims that are also combatants is simply never measured.

But somewhere in the air-conditioned offices of so-called human rights organizations today, a spreadsheet is being updated with another "child victim." And next month or next year, when "human rights" organizations issue press releases of "child victims of the intifada," the would-be murderer in Hebron will be counted as another "child injured by the IDF."

UPDATE: The always disgusting IMEMC reported the story this way:

Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron shot and wounded Sunday a Palestinian boy after two soldiers were stabbed near the Haram Alibrahimi mosque “Cave of Patriarch”.

In paragraph 3 does the story allow that it is possible that the "boy" is the one who stabbed the soldiers.

Some Muslim Brotherhood facts

In the wake of the Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood head in Egypt, it makes sense to look back at the Brotherhood itself and what it stands for.

First, here is an article about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism from the October 19, 1948 Palestine Post that gives an excellent background of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian fundamentalist movements at that time:

Since then, the MB became the ideological godfather to Hamas and Al Qaeda, although as it has risen in power politically it has officially distanced itself from terror.

Which doesn't mean that it no longer advocates terror - it is just a bit more circumspect. Its current web page is slick and seems downright mainstream.

However, the truth comes out a bit clearer in this other webpage that spells out more explicitly the movement's goals:

A huge tree of "sub-goals" branches from these main objectives which are derived from the Quran and the tradition of the prophet (pbuh) [3,4]:
1- Building the Muslim individual: brother or sister with a strong body, high manners, cultured thought, ability to earn, strong faith, correct worship, conscious of time, of benefit to others, organized, and self-struggling character [3].
2- Building the Muslim family: choosing a good wife (husband), educating children Islamicaly, and inviting other families.
3- Building the Muslim society (thru building individuals and families) and addressing the problems of the society realistically.
4- Building the Muslim state.
5- Building the Khilafa (basically a shape of unity between the Islamic states).
6- Mastering the world with Islam.
Only world domination - no big deal, right?

Here's their theme:

Allah is our objective.
The messenger is our leader.
Quran is our law.
Jihad is our way.
Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

So while they are all smiles (the current website features an article showing their smiling leader with a baby!) and have effectively hijacked the language of liberalism (democracy, free speech, freedoms) they are aiming at nothing less than a world-wide Islamic caliphate where non-Muslims are second-class citizens, at best.

This may not be the best people for Democratic leaders to meet with.

New PalArab "military group"

It is hard enough to keep track of the al-Aqsa Martyrs, Al-Qassam Brigades, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, DFLP, Popular Resistance Committee, Abu Raish Brigades, Force 17, Tanzim, Abu Nidal group and the Swords of Truth.

Now there's a new group with the catchy title of "The Committee for Recruiting and Guiding:"

A new Palestinian military group announced responsibility for stealing two intelligence cars in the central Gaza Strip.

The group is called 'the Committee for Recruiting and Guiding'.

The group issued a statement claiming that they released all the men who were in the two cars but they have kept the two cars, the incident was confirmed by the intelligence department.

No deaths yet can be claimed by the CRG, so we'll have to see if they can make it to the big leagues.

No doubt the tens of thousands of "security forces" will quash that group immediately. Any...minute...now.

Meanwhile, we had the usual shootings and bombings and kidnappings this weekend, but no PalArab self-deaths so far.

Venezuelan Jew-haters didn't get the memo

From JTA, in a larger article about Venezuelan Jewry under Chavez:

Chavez repeatedly compared Israel's behavior to that of the Nazis, a stance that locals say encouraged a wave of similar slanders. Sammy Eppel, a Jewish journalist in Caracas, catalogued a host of violently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic writing and cartoons in the local government and pro-government media.

In one article, which appeared last September in Diario de Caracas, a pro-government newspaper, journalist Tarek Muci Nasir wrote of the "Jewish race" that "the only resource they have left to stay united is to cause wars and genocide."

A cartoon that ran last year in Diario VEA, a state-owned newspaper, depicted Hitler saying, "How they've learned from me, these Israelis!"

One worrying trend is the extent to which these sentiments appear to be approved and encouraged by the government. The Ministry of Information last year organized a demonstration outside the main Sephardi synagogue in Caracas.

After the demonstration, the wall outside the synagogue was daubed with "Jews, killers – leave" and "Zionist baby-killers." At other times, graffitti has appeared there with slogans such as "Jews go home" and "Here are the murderers of the Palestinians."

Apparently the Venezuelan anti-semites didn't get the memo telling them to try to appear to only dislike Israel, not Jews. Too bad...versions of the memo are all over the place.

Thinking Bloggers Meme

The Thinking Blog started a meme called The Thinking Blogger Awards. They are not really awards, even though they have a neat graphic:

But since it is a meme, and all "winners" are requested to list 5 additional blogs that make them think, the value of the award goes down exponentially with every generation. And since the meme started in February, chances are that the entire blogosphere has been already named at least once.

Nevertheless, I am honored that Garbanzo Toons chose to nominate me on his iteration, and keeping with the rules of the meme, I'll be happy to mention five other blogs that make me think:

On the Main Line (plus its sister blogs)
Vital Perspective
ShrinkWrapped
Mere Rhetoric
Gates of Vienna

If any of these want to participate in this meme/social virus, the participation rules are:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to the original Thinking Blog post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

Dallas Muslim women, just acting naturally

Here's a classic case where two women, acting suspiciously under any circumstances, yell "Islamophobia" when confronted: (H/T: Jihad Watch)

Dallas police and federal terrorism officials are investigating two women, both dressed in camouflage pants under their traditional Muslim robes and scarves, who were seen conducting what appeared to be surveillance and acting suspiciously at Dallas Love Field.

One of the women, Kimberly "Asma" Al-Homsi, 42, of Arlington, who is on probation for a 2005 Garland road rage incident involving a fake grenade, is said to have long-range assault rifle and explosives training, according to a Dallas police intelligence bulletin issued March 5.

"I'm a trained sniper and proud of it," Ms. Al-Homsi said in an interview Thursday after first refusing to comment on whether she has any terrorism ties. She then said no.

Police officials said they have no direct evidence the women have ties to terrorism.

"I am not a dangerous individual," said Ms. Al-Homsi, who said she is an accountant who has dual Syrian-U.S. citizenship.

On the afternoon of Feb. 25, Ms. Al-Homsi and a friend who could not be reached for comment, Aisha Abdul-Rahman Hamad, 50, of Irving, were spotted at Love Field wearing Muslim robes and camouflage pants and "acting suspiciously," the bulletin states. The surveillance video shows one of the women walking back and forth, apparently pacing off distances.

When confronted, the women told officials they were looking for the Frontiers of Flight museum. They left in a red Honda. Descriptions of the incident and the car were circulated at the airport.

Two days later, the museum executive director was leaving for the evening when he noticed the Honda parked facing the runway. A woman, later identified as Ms. Al-Homsi, was sitting on the hood, looking through binoculars at the airplanes. He told the women the museum was closing, and they left.

Dallas officers stopped the car nearby, but the women refused to let police search their car, , according to a police report. The women had digital camera memory cards, binoculars, a flashlight and several lighters on them.

Police issued one of them a citation for having no front license plate and failing to change her address on a driver's license. They were released.

"We were watching the airplanes," Ms. Al-Homsi said. "That's not a crime, unless you're Muslim."

On Dec. 20, 2005, Ms. Al-Homsi was arrested after a report that she waved a grenade at a motorist on Central Expressway near LBJ Freeway. Richardson police stopped her car and arrested her. The Garland bomb squad determined the grenade was a fake. She was released the next day, after officials charged her with making a bomb hoax. She was placed on probation.

Law enforcement sources acknowledge that activities of both women have garnered substantial attention.

"We are aware of the activities that occurred at Love Field in February and are giving it appropriate consideration," said Lori Bailey, spokeswoman for the Dallas FBI.

Ms. Al-Homsi said that she has been questioned by local authorities "maybe a dozen times."

She said that she practices her rifle skills at the Alpine Shooting Range in Fort Worth. An employee confirmed that she's been going there for years.

"In all the Muslim garb, shooting an assault weapon, it seemed at first like she was trying to draw attention," said Dave Rodgers. "But then she came out so much, it became normal."

He said federal agents have talked to range employees about Ms. Al-Homsi, which is not uncommon of their clientele. He recalls seeing the fake grenade hanging from Ms. Al-Homsi's rearview mirror before she was arrested.

Just ordinary peaceful Muslim women who like to go out (unaccompanied by a Muslim male, as per shari'a) and shoot rifles, decorating their car with a hand grenade ornament, wearing camouflage pants, with citizenship in a nation that arms terrorists.

Nothing unusual about this at all.

British teachers not teaching the Holocaust to avoid upsetting Muslims
Many more Israeli Arabs volunteer for National Service
Israeli Arabs love to eat Matzah!
Anti-semitic incidents over Passover:

Chicago synagogue defaced with Arabic graffiti
A bomb exploded outside a Jewish community center in Montreal
UK Chelsea soccer team warns fans not to shout anti-semitic slogans during games
Anti-semitic graffiti in a park in Northern New Jersey
Swastika painted on a liberal San Francisco synagogue
Swastika and crude cartoon on chalkboard at Princeton University
10% of Swiss said to be anti-semitic; another 28% harbor some anti-semitic attitudes
White supremacist and anti-semitic literature distributed in Berkeley

The ninth Abu-Ghanem honor killing victim

Ha'aretz has a followup of a story I linked to here about eight women in one Ramle family being murdered in "honor killings."

It appears that the main witness herself has become a victim, and as a result the case is now falling apart.

I scoop the Jerusalem Post

Last Monday I posted about PalArab fears that the UN would declare Gaza "a dangerous area" and would withdraw as a result.

Today, the Jerusalem Post has an "exclusive" of the same story, adding some interviews mentioning how bad things are in Gaza, and even adding a flaming hoop picture.

Still worth reading, though.

The sources of Palestinian Arab suffering

Richard at Augean Stables gives a brilliant survey of the sources of Palestinian Arab suffering. Even strong supporters of Israel will not know all the facts he mentions and links to.

This is an absolute must-read. (Hat-tip Israellycool.)

Psychotic Israel-bashing in NJ newspaper

Opinion pieces in newspapers can and should have points of view. But it is unconscionable for newspaper editors to allow such opinion pieces to be filled with lies.

Here are just the first two paragraphs of an absurd screed printed in the Home News of Central New Jersey, written by a Hassan Mahmoud, published on the first day of Passover:

A civil discourse about ideas is anathema to fanatics, whether they are al-Qaida followers or Zionism espousers. Both practice bigotry and intimidation against their opponents and commit unspeakable violence to achieve their sinister goals.

Al-Qaida wants to establish an archaic form of Muslim caliphate empire from Spain to Indonesia, and the Zionists want to establish a biblical kingdom from the "river of Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates," Genesis 15:18. The current Israeli flag, which exhibits two blue parallel lines (the Nile and Euphrates) dominated by the Star of David in the middle, thus encompassing the land from Egypt to Iraq, symbolizes that fantasy. Both enterprises are based on religious intolerance.

This theory about the Israeli flag has currency among rabid Jew-haters and people who froth at the mouth at the mere mention of Israel. It is nothing less than a lie. The ignorant author uses it as evidence of Al-Qaeda-like extremism not only among those dreaded Likudniks but for every single Zionist, from Peace Now to the settler movement.

Readers of the newspaper will expect that the editors will do some basic fact-checks before printing such garbage. Alas, most newspaper editors are as ignorant about the history of the Middle East as the author himself.

The Home News, in propagating this myth, does a grave disservice to its readers.

Latest state-of-the-art in flaming hoop jumping

We've all seen the photos of Palestinian Arab "policemen" training by using the tried-and-true Flame Hoop Jumping Course:

But no one has really tracked the progress made by these innovators in the ancient circus art.

Originally, the hoop-jumping was merely for stationary flaming hoops, as seen above. But by 2003, the PalArabs had graduated to leaping through movable hoops while someone shoots a machine gun on the ground:

This was OK for a couple of years, but to really put fear into the Zionist infidels, a new dimension was needed. And, in 2006, the braintrust of the PalArab Security Forces came up with it:

Multiple hoops.

We don't have a picture of the actual exercise of multiple terrorists jumping simultaneously through adjacent flaming hoops, but it can be inferred from this picture:

But we are three months into 2007 now, and it is time for a enw wrinke on hoop-jumping. After months of preparation, the PalArabs are finally able to unveil their latest secret weapon:

Two jumpers through a single hoop.

One can only imagine what will come next. Three jumpers through a movable fiery hoop while trying to dodge live hand grenades? Jumping through flaming hoops backwards while reciting the Koran?

One shudders at the skill of these security professionals.

17 weeks in a row. Plus some other stats.

For the 17th consecutive week, the number of Palestinian Arabs killed by other PalArabs has exceeded the number killed by Israeli defensive actions.

PCHR claims 4 killed by Israel this week, and I counted 7 killed by other PalArabs from last Thursday to Wednesday.

PICCR, whose website has not been updated in months, keeps its own counts of internal PalArab violence, and its numbers for March are very close to mine (29 deaths, I counted 30.) They also added that in March there were 46 kidnappings in the PA territories.

Also, the utterly immoral "Defence for Children Internation- Palestine Section" has a press release vilifying Israel for everything terrible that happens to children in the territories, yet buried in the middle they admit that 17 children under 18 have been killed in internal PA violence this year, versus 8 killed by Israel (most of whom were 16-17.)