Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 22, 2007

South Korean vs. Arab reaction to terror

Many articles have been written about the Arab reactions to 9/11. Critics claim that Arabs refused to condemn the atrocity in an appropriate manner, and Arabs would point to articles and statements that did seem to condemn it.

Even so, there was still a nagging feeling in much of the West that the condemnations were not strong enough, that they weren't heartfelt, that something was missing.

In the wake of the VA Tech massacre, looking at the South Korean community's reaction, it is now clear what was missing: shame and responsibility.

For Korean Americans especially, the tragedy is hitting close to home. Though they don’t personally know Cho or his family, local Korean Americans share a cultural and ethnic background with them.

“I’m very ashamed,” admitted Buwon Brown, a community volunteer who is Korean American.

Dong Lee, an editor at the Korea Central Daily News’ office in Seattle, said the community was “very shocked, very saddened by the news.”

The state’s only Korean American legislator, Paull Shin, said he was watching the news early Tuesday morning as he was getting dressed. He “collapsed” when he heard the gunman was a fellow Korean American. “I could not face the reality. How could this have happened? I lost my control,” Shin recounted.

Later that day, the Edmonds legislator took the floor of the Senate chambers to apologize on behalf of the Korean American community. He told his fellow senators, “This (shooting) really affects me deeply. I’m sorry.” Afterwards, his colleagues came over to console him and to emphasize that the shootings were not his fault or the Korean community’s.

South Koreans expressed shock Wednesday, as new details revealed that the Virginia Tech shooter was Cho Seung-Hui, who was born -- and lived for eight years -- in Seoul.

President Roh Moo-Hyun held a special meeting with aides Wednesday to discuss the shooting and figure out further steps to ease the situation.

The president is expected to make a statement of apology at an event in Seoul Wednesday afternoon. His office has issued two statements of condolence about the mass killings.

"It's a tragic incident. But to find out that he is a Korean, I am ashamed and confused," a shipping-company employee said. "I keep asking myself what would have made him do such a thing. It's a very bad day."

A wave of shame washed over the Rev. Kun Sang Cho when he learned the Virginia Tech shooter was a native of South Korea.

He knew the murders occurred hundreds of miles away, possibly at the hands of a mentally ill young man. But what most pained Cho and many other Korean-Americans living in Colorado was that the shooter was Korean -- one of their own.

"They feel ashamed," said Cho, pastor at Asbury Korean United Methodist Church. "This is our culture. If one of my members got involved in a crime, all members feel the shame."

To honor the 32 victims of the shooting, Cho's church will host a community memorial Sunday at 4 p.m. at 7140 S. Colorado Blvd.

First-generation Koreans tend to have a cultural sense of shared responsibility, said Adrian Hong, a board member of the Mirae Foundation, a national organization of Korean-American college students. "If something good happens to one, it happens to all Koreans, and if something bad happens to one, it happens to all of them," he said.

Kyeyoung Park, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles and member at the university's Center for Korean Studies, said that because Korean culture tends to be homogeneous, new immigrants rely on one another emotionally.

"In Western culture there is an emphasis on guilt; in many Eastern cultures the emphasis is on shame," she said. "I think Korean-Americans want to do something because they feel ashamed. Some of them feel truly responsible, even though it is ridiculous to think they are responsible for the action of this person."

Park said some first-generation immigrants identified with the comments of South Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-sik, who said not only do Korean-Americans feel ashamed but called for them to "repent." He suggested a 32-day fast - one day for each victim of Monday's carnage.

Now we can understand more fully what was lacking after 9/11 and countless other Arab terror attacks.

A condemnation is not a heartfelt, spontaneous reaction. It is almost always a contrived, carefully written, political reaction more for damage control than for true remorse.

Koreans don't have madrassas with daily exhortations against infidels. Koreans don't have daily or weekly terror attacks against the West. Koreans don't have countless newspapers and websites demonizing Americans.

And yet, they spontaneously show true, heartfelt shame - and a sense of shared responsibility - for the actions of a lone crazed man who happens to be one of them. While they have a fear of a backlash, their shame is not a calculated reaction designed to blunt political reprisals - it is a true reflection of what they are feeling.

This is what was missing after 9/11 - the kneejerk reaction of guilt, shame and responsibility from the Arab community. Instead we saw attempts to deny, or redirect, or contextualize the despicable acts - never to take ownership.

While the Koreans are taking responsibility for the actions of a single nutcase, the Arab Muslims spent all their time trying to abdicate their responsibility for the culture that brought about Al Qaeda.

All the condemnations in the world is not worth a single heartfelt apology. And even though it is absurd for the Korean community to apologize for something that is clearly not their fault, the fact that they are doing it shows true remorse.

The world Arab community in general, and the Muslim Arab American community in particular, never felt truly sorry for 9/11, or else they would have acted beyond the way that Koreans are acting today for an event that is miniscule in comparison.

Invoking Elder's First Rule (part 2)

Another example of how Arab accusations about Jews are merely projections of Arab crimes can be seen here:

(IsraelNN.com) Residents of the Gush Etzion hilltop community of Sde Boaz had hundreds of grape vines and scores of fruit trees uprooted and destroyed Friday. The latest vandalism, though the most costly yet, is just the latest in a string of attacks on the community’s property.

Residents of the agricultural community said that in addition to the destruction of the Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards and fruit trees Friday, expensive irrigation systems were damaged and stolen as well. The vandals used donkeys to plow under the hundreds of vines and uproot the fruit trees.

As Omedia notes, mainstream Israeli media refuses to even mention Arab destruction of Jewish agriculture, seemingly because it happens on the "wrong" side of the Green Line:

This accumulation of facts attests to a situation in which Israel is gradually conceding its sovereignty and its rule of law while abandoning Jewish agricultural property to the mercy of the Palestinians. The myth that the Palestinians are deeply attached to trees, perhaps as opposed to the Jews, plays into the hands of those who use trees for political purposes. When the trees belong to Jews, the tree is merely considered another tool in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. It is well known that the Jewish-Arab conflict in Israel is tied to the struggle over land, such as the struggle between the Jewish National Fund’s pine and cypress forests (only in recent years have they begun planting olive trees), and olive groves, typically seen as a Palestinian symbol.
All of the above information was only made public on Arutz Sheva, a radio station identified with the settlers, and never managed to reach the general public. Why was such pertinent information never published in Ha’aretz or on central news sites such as NRG? Such information is obviously newsworthy. Perhaps these media outlets consider the uprooting of Jewish trees by Palestinians too commonplace – a “dog bites man” story – or see it as a mere curiosity. Whatever the reason, tree removal by Palestinians deserves media exposure as well.

As I have shown in the past, Palestinian Arab destruction of trees and other Jewish agriculture predates 1948 and PalArabs have been found to destroy their own trees when it can make the Jews look bad. The idea that trees are somehow sacred to Palestinian Arabs is a preposterous myth, one that is all too ready to be swallowed by even more preposterous supporters.

Invoking Elder's First Rule (part 1)

My First Rule of Arab Projection states that whenever Arabs accuse Israel of doing some crime, they are doing that exact crime, usually on a far grander scale than their accusations.

This weekend gives us the opportunity to invoke this rule more than once.

The first example can be seen in an article in Ma'an:

The Al-Aqsa association for protection of Islamic endowments and holy sites revealed on Saturday that some Jewish organisations are manufacturing forgeries of documents aimed to illegally purchase Arab properties in the old city area of Jerusalem.

The forgery and deception is being conducted through registering Jerusalemite lands to the names of Arab citizens who do not originally possess any lands in Jerusalem.

Extremist Israeli groups then come to those people and submit the forged documents, showing that there are lands registered in the lands' department under their names.

They offer those people huge amounts of money in return for selling properties which they never owned, nor did they know about it.

The conspiracy was unfolded when an elderly Palestinian man from the village of Qalansawa in ‘the triangle area’ inside Israel, told the Al-Aqsa association that “a Jewish extremist group had came to his home offering a large sum of money in return for 2600 square meters in Jerusalem registered under his name.” They then showed him the ownership document.

The old man added, "I kicked them out and told them that they are plotting a trick, since I never owned the span of a hand in Jerusalem."

The director of the media department of the Islamic movement and spokesperson of Al-Aqsa association, Sheikh Khalid Muhanna, warned of the dangers of this phenomenon, which, it has been noted has been rising in frequency recently.

He accused the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem in particular, and the Israeli government in general of taking a big share with these far right-wing groups. He based his accusations on the supposition that “such groups could not wander along the length of the country carrying bags loaded with money and forged documents without assistance of formal governmental institutions and departments”.

There are certainly Zionist groups that raise large sums of money to legally purchase Arab-owned land. While it is altogether possible that a member of this organization saw a common Arab name on a legal deed and made a mistake approaching the wrong man, this accusation shows no evidence of forgeries, Israeli government conspiracy or anything else.

But it is interesting that this accusation came on Saturday, because a much stronger accusation came just last Thursday - by the PA itself: (H/T: Backspin)

Dozens of Christian families from the Bethlehem area are about to discover that their homes and lands have been "sold" to Muslims without their knowledge, Palestinian Authority security officials said Thursday.

The officials told The Jerusalem Post that members of a local Muslim gang have been arrested on suspicion of stealing land and property registration documents from the Bethlehem Magistrate's Court.

Bethlehem Governor Salah Ta'mari confirmed that an investigation was under way to determine who was behind the theft. He said most of the stolen documents belonged to families living abroad.

A Christian businessman told the Post that most of the victims were Christian families living in the US and Latin America. "They are stealing our homes almost every day," he said. "We believe the suspects have been receiving help from some Palestinian security officers here."

The scam was uncovered when court officials complained that many files relating to cases involving ownership of property had disappeared, a security official said.

Initially, police thought thieves had broken into the court and stolen the files, he added. However, further investigation revealed that the theft was an inside job. Three court employees and five land dealers were later arrested in connection with the case.

The official refused to reveal the land brokers' identities, but sources in the city said some of them were not real land dealers.

"These are people with close ties to the Palestinian security forces," the sources said. "We have written to the Palestinian Authority demanding a full inquiry. This is one of the biggest scandals in Bethlehem and many families are very worried that they may lose their property."

Apparently, the "Al-Aqsa Association" decided that now would be a good time to divert attention from the real phenomenon of Muslims stealing Christian land in Bethlehem.

Ann Arbor synagogue gets picketed every week

A Jewish pro-Palestinian-Arab organization has been picketing an Ann Arbor, MI Conservative synagogue, Beth Israel, every Shabbat for over three years.

Even though the synagogue is pro-peace, and supports a two-state solution, this is not enough for the airheads who continue their protests. They demand that the synagogue disavow all support for Israel as a Jewish state, support all PalArabs to move to wherever they want in Israel, and some other absurdities. The protest group has been deplored and condemned by the Ann Arbor City Council and most major newspapers, and an anti-protest organization that just started in March already has 260 members.

Perhaps the most innovative response comes from a group named SPURN, for "Synagogue Protest UNACCEPTABLE! Respond Now," which raises money for Magen David Adom proportional to the size of the protest every week. So far, they have raised over $84,000.

Try to imagine the headlines that would result if people protested a mosque every week, no matter how peacefully.

Paging Dr. Melfi - Terrorists suffering from depression

An article in YNet that would be considered a spoof in any other area of the world: (Hat tip: EBoZ)

Palestinian security forces have been seeking emotional counseling, following "internal infighting in Gaza". Dr. Riad al-Aqra, the director for the Gaza hospital for mental health, said that "although the occupation is a major cause for emotional depression for Gaza residents…Palestinian infighting plays a striking role in the increase of shock, tension and depression, present in previously unseen amounts."

"One member of the Hamas security force came to me suffering from high tension, which was causing physical problems. He said he felt fear from the fact that he would burn in hell forever if he fired even one bullet at someone," the doctor said.

He told of another case, in which a member of the security forces arrived with similar symptoms. "He said he couldn't fire at another Muslim, and that he felt pain and bitterness," al-Aqra said.

"These are the feelings on both sides of the infighting, and emphasize that everyone, deep inside, rejects the civil war in his soul, rejects that which is unnatural," he explained.

As opposed to killing Jews, infidels and women who speak with unsuitable men, which is the most natural feeling in the world!

But Hamas angst ran even deeper this week:

Hamas members were troubled by an additional issue this week: an altercation with the Egyptian branch of the hitherto supportive Muslim Brotherhood.

The rift occurred after a senior leader in the organization, Abd al-Munam Abu al-Fatouh, announced that the Brotherhood supports the creation of a secular Palestinian state and a bi-national presence in Palestinian, as a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hamas members were so incensed by al-Fatouh's announcement that the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Akef, had to release a special statement refuting it.

Akef said, in his statement, that the Muslim Brotherhood believes that "Palestine is Islamic and therefore, holy to Muslims and, thus, belongs only to Palestinians."

"No Palestinian has the right to refute this…The Zionists have no choice but to live under the rule of a Palestinian nation in which they will be free to worship their God and enjoy full rights of citizenship," Akef added.

"If the Zionists do not agree, our Palestinian brothers will have no choice but to resist and undertake all actions that are consistent with holy principles that were given to the Palestinians and that are in accordance with their national interests," he said.

Nonetheless, a source from the Muslim Brotherhood told the London-Based a-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that Akef's statement was made primarily to reduce tension between the two groups.

No one even mentions the horror that accompanied reports that King Abdullah of Jordan said that he favors monetary compensation to PalArab "refugees" rather than their physical moving to Palestine.

Too much news, too little time - Dhimmi Carter edition

Jimmy Carter has decided that Palestinian Arab rights are the most important issue in the coming presidential election, a litmus test that Iowa caucus voters should use when choosing a candidate. It seems that the Saudi money that pays for The Carter Center is being spent very wisely.

A Palestinian Arab whose rights Carter is so concerned about got very close to blowing up a bus in Israel two months ago, but he put the batteries for the bomb in incorrectly. He made it into Israel through parts of that apartheid fence that Jimmy wants to see destroyed. As Barak at IRIS points out, he would be a candidate for prisoner release the next time Islamic Jihad kidnaps a Jew, because he doesn't have "blood on his hands."

While Dhimmi Carter is obsessing over the Israel Lobby, Harper's Magazine is more concerned with the Saudi Lobby.

Carter's favorite moderate PalArab group, Fatah, announced that it want to kidnap more Israelis.

Birthright Israel is bringing a record 23,500 students to Israel this summer. Carter would want them to go to Gaza.

I've been skeptical about the possibility of strengthening moderate Islam. Daniel Pipes disagrees. I'm not sure what Jimmah would think.

Canadian reporter attacked over Islam article

From the Toronto Star:

Journalist Jawaad Faizi says he can still feel broken glass showering over him in his car as he fended off blows from a cricket bat in a surprise attack he blames on "religious fanatics."
A writer for the Pakistan Post, Faizi said he was beaten by three men because he mocked a Pakistani cleric in a column.
Faizi said the men smashed the windshield and driver's window of his car as he arrived at his editor's home about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. He said he was struck by the cricket bat and was cut on his forearm.
"They were smashing and smashing, hitting and hitting," Faizi said. "I could not stop them."
Faizi said both he and his editor, Amir Arain, recently received phone calls warning them to stop writing defamatory articles about the religious group Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran and its leader, Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri.
Faizi said he wrote a column two weeks ago mocking the cleric, who he said told a gathering in Pakistan "that he could write the name of Mohammed on the moon with his finger."
"He is always trying to fool the people," Faizi said.
The columnist said his three attackers screamed at him in Punjabi and Urdu to stop writing about Minhaj-ul-Quran.
He said they fled when he dialed 911 on his cellphone. He was treated at Mississauga's Trillium Health Centre and released the same night.
Constable Jodi Dawson said Peel Region police have assigned the case to detectives in 12 Division.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, a Toronto-based association of more than 300 journalists, editors, publishers, producers and students, condemned the attack.

Hat tip Zionist Spy.

Hamas: We don't give no respect

Remember when the EUdiots and others were falling over themselves to explain that the Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah meant that Hamas was moderating? It was based on language that Hamas promised to "respect" previous agreements of the PA.

An interview with "Dr." Mahmoud Al-Zahar, co-counder of Hamas and current deputy in the Palestinian Legislative Council (as well as former foreign minister for the PA), explains the Mecca agreement a bit further from Hamas' perspective:

Dr, Zahhar said that "what happened in Mecca agreement were four issues; firstly , the agreements and laws that are related with the Palestinian issue which was signed by Arab countries and the PLO, but we didn’t mean (Oslo agreements), because it is known here that we did not recognize the Oslo Agreement and we will not recognize it at all. Also, the international agreements is the Geneva agreement which related to the international law. The humanitarian law which are war, prisoners of war and others. In addition, there are Arab cooperation agreements in security, economic and others.

"Regarding the word " respect" or " accept" .. if I respect your views , it doesn't mean that I accept your views. So , the saying that we are accepting the Oslo agreement is not true"

Q: You mention the word " respect" which evoked the debate recently that it is an introduction to recognize " Israel" ?

A: What does commitment mean in Law ?? does respect mean commitment ?? If respect means commitment , then why the two words are different in Language ..they are surely different". If Hamas wanted to recognize "Israel" , we will say it frankly. Hamas does not have the intention to recognize "Israel" at all because we will contradict the Quran with that in the Israa' verse "7" and will contradict ourselves that the occupation should be eliminated.

Q: Some said that "Accepting Hamas of Palestinian State on 67 borders is considered a retreat of the Hamas project " Palestine From Sea to River" ?

Zahar : If you read Hamas Charter , we were ready to establish a state on any "Span". That mean : we are ready to establish that state on less than 67 borders or more than that but that doesn't mean that we will leave the whole land… this is a clear point. The interpretations are Zionist interpretations and some other Palestinian factions , who leave the Palestinian issue at all , took these interpretations.

Q: What is the distinction between the political program of Hamas and the political program to the unity government, Which led by one of Hamas leaders Ismail Haniya?

A: The unity government duration of time is three years but Hamas program is not linked to time. Hamas even after the liberation of Palestine, is looking to the Arab and Islamic world as an Islamic state, forming the Arab-Islamic forces unity.

A couple of observations:

Islam is a legal-based religion, and therefore since the word "respect" is meaningless in a legal context, Hamas could claim to "respect" agreements knowing full well that they were not agreeing to anything. Zahar is explicit about that.
When he claims that accepting Israel's existence is against the Koran, he is tying Hamas' terror with religion. This means that the Saudi "peace" proposal where the "entire Arab world" would recognize Israel is known initially to be a sham - obviously, the large percentage of the Arab world that accepts Hamas' interpretation of the Koran can never recognize Israel - theologically.
The ultimate goal (which is clear in the Hamas charter) is not getting rid of Israel but establishing a global Islamic 'ummah, similar to Iran's goal.

Happiness is.... shooting a machine gun

In an Arab wedding in Hebron yesterday, the brother of the groom celebrated in the usual PalArab fashion: by shooting a machine gun in the air.

He was lucky - he only injured 7 guests, one seriously.

The PalArab leaders are struggling with the difficulty of wanting to limit weapons while at the same time making sure that there are plenty of weapons around to kill Israelis easily available.

The cult of death is so ingrained that it literally doesn't even occur to them that Israeli actions against them are proportional to their own violence against Israel, not inversely proportional as they seem to think. They honestly think that all they need are more weapons and things will then be hunky dory.

A different reaction to mass murder

I didn't really want to comment on the VA Tech massacre because it really has nothing to do with the normal themes of the blog. But Dry Bones makes an acute observation:

Indeed. Islam has been used as inoculation against outrage. When Muslims do something crazy in the name of Mohammed, it is not regarded as a mental illness, rather as freedom of religion.

That extra sympathy doled out by terror sympathizers, that "but..." that always accompanies every Muslim "denouncing" terror acts, not to mention the sheer quantity of Islamist mass murders (in Iraq, a day when 32 civilians are killed would be considered a pretty good day) all combine to give Muslims, if not quite a free pass, at least a much less critical eye for their terror.

7000 concentration camp prisoners killed in one day in 1945 - by England

Holy crap:

On May 3, 1945 - in the worst friendly-fire incident in history - Britain's Royal Air Force killed more than 7,000 survivors of Nazi concentration camps who were crowded onto ships in L beck harbor, Germany. The ragged masses that had survived the Holocaust stood no chance against the guns of their liberators.

This tragic mistake occurred one day before the British accepted the surrender of all German forces in the region. Reports of the incident were quickly hushed up - as a jubilant world prepared to celebrate the Allied victory in Europe.

Despite the bitter irony of dying in hellish fires on sinking ships just hours before liberation, the tragedy was quickly forgotten or resolutely ignored. The anniversary of this dark day will soon pass by again - largely unnoticed or unmentioned.
By early May 1945, the rumors of Hitler's suicide had rekindled hope for beleaguered prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. The Red Army had just conquered Berlin, the British held Hamburg and Americans were in Munich and Vienna. After surviving unspeakable horrors and deprivations for years, the battered prisoners could finally dare to hope that their day of deliverance was at hand.

In the closing weeks of World War II, thousands of prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, the Mittelbau-Dora camp at Nordhausen and the Stutthof camp near Danzig were marched to the German Baltic coast. Most of the inmates were Jews and Russian POWs, but they also included communist sympathizers, pacifists, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, prostitutes, Gypsies and other perceived enemies of the Third Reich.

At the port of L beck almost 10,000 camp survivors were crowded onto three ships: Cap Arcona, Thielbeck and Athen. No one knew what the Nazis were planning to do, or what plans the Allies had already set into motion.

Although the final surrender was imminent, British Operational Order No. 73 for May 3 was to "destroy the concentration of enemy shipping in L beck Bay." While thousands of camp prisoners were being ferried out to the once-elegant Hamburg-Sud Amerika liner Cap Arcona, the RAF's 263rd, 197th, 198th and 184th squadrons were arming their Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers with ammunition, bombs and rockets.

At 2:30 p.m. on May 3, at least 4,500 prisoners were aboard the Cap Arcona as the first attack began. Sixty-four rockets and 15 bombs hit the liner in two separate attacks. As the British strafed the stricken ship from the air, Nazi guards on shore fired on those who made it into the water. Only 350 prisoners survived.

The Thielbeck - which had been flying a white flag - and the poorly marked hospital ship Deutschland were attacked next. Although Thielbeck was just a freighter in need of repairs, it was packed with 2,800 prisoners. The overcrowded freighter sank in just 20 minutes, killing all but 50 of the prisoners.

In less than two hours, more than 7,000 concentration camp refugees were dead from the friendly fire. Two thousand more would have died if the captain of the Athen had not refused to take on additional prisoners in the morning before the attack.

MOST WHO were familiar with the Cap Arcona disaster believed that the Nazis intended to sink the ships at sea to kill everyone on board. Hundreds of prisoners had already been killed on the forced marches from the camps. In this case, however, RAF Fighter Command did their killing for them.

In the Cap Arcona/Thielbeck/Athen disaster, the tragic deaths of so many who had suffered so much for so long were quickly forgotten. After years of unprecedented bloodletting and destruction, the nations involved were in shambles, their populations numbed by suffering and death. The unfortunate victims who perished at the close of history's worst conflagration were quickly lost in the fleeting euphoria of peace.

...Britain has never officially apologized for its tragic mistake at L beck Bay, nor has it honored the innocent victims with a proper memorial.

The RAF records of the disaster are sealed until 2045, one century after the attack. No British government document has referred to the estimated 7,500 victims of its mistake.

In an age when the words "coverup" and "massacre" are thrown around like so much confetti, it helps to put things into perspective.

Even in the context of the war, it is unconscionable that Britain does not even acknowledge what it did, let alone investigate this unimaginable tragedy.

UPDATE: Wikipedia adds some detail:

The ships were carrying from 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the German concentration camps in Neuengamme, Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora, half of whom were Russian and Polish POWs, others from 24 nationalities, including French, Danish, and Dutch. Those reaching the shore after the sinkings were shot by SS troops, but about 350 managed to escape from the massacre; others were cannoned by the British pilots while trying to get ashore.

For weeks after the sinking, bodies of the victims were being washed ashore, to be collected and buried in a single mass grave at Neustadt in Holstein. For nearly three decades, parts of skeletons were being washed ashore, the last find, by a twelve years old boy, was in 1971.

This is one game the PalArabs win every week

For the 19th consecutive week, more Palestinian Arabs were killed by their own actions than by Israeli actions.

Those aggressive, genocidal Israelis with their sophisticated war machines managed to only kill a single Palestinian Arab during the week from April 12-18, according to the "Palestinian Center of Human Rights."

In that same time period 5 PalArabs were murdered by each other, including a woman in an "honor killing." In addition, two bodies were found of people murdered in previous weeks, including another woman, which makes last week's revised score 8-5, not the 6-5 squeaker we reported.

Of course, the PalArabs have a perfect record against the Israelis this year in how many PalArabs can be killed in any particular week.

As a people who are always so jealous of Israeli accomplishments while their own society literally wallows in its own sewage, this record should cause some much-needed pride for the oppressed Palestinian Arabs.

Did US lose Saddam's WMD?

Melanie Phillips speaks to a man who claims that he found Saddam's WMD bunkers back in 2003, but the army ignored him and the materials ended up getting smuggled out to Syria.

His story has made it into various right-wing websites and newspapers and his credentials seem stellar (although his web design skills are pretty bad.) He certainly deserves to be taken more seriously, no matter how circumstantial the evidence.

Mahmoud Abbas lies again

A couple of hours ago, Reuters reported:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reached an agreement with militant groups that they will stop rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel, an aide said on Wednesday.

"President Abbas is doing everything he can to stop the attacks," said Nabil Amr, accompanying Abbas on a visit to Poland as part of a diplomatic offensive to convince the EU to lift a freeze on financial aid to the Palestinian government.

"He has reached a real agreement with all forces that occasionally fire rockets," Amr told Reuters in an interview.

It took only a few minutes for even Reuters to show that Abbas was lying:

In Gaza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, which advocates the Jewish state's destruction, said his group's [sic] had no plan to stop firing rockets and was bound only by tactical considerations.

"There is no decision to stop firing," the spokesman, Abu Ahmed, said. "It increases and decreases according to security conditions on ground."

But what about Hamas? Surely the newly-moderate coalition partner will agree to stop rocket attacks?

Not according to Hamas' "military wing":

Al-Quds Brigades Denied what the Zionist media claimed about reaching an agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas to stop firing rockets, Abu Ahmed, the spokesmen said in a statement "the Zionist media claims are untrue".

For Hamas to call Reuters the epithet "Zionist" must mean they are really ticked off.

UPDATE: YitzchokGoodman of Judeopundit correctly points out that Al-Quds is Islamic Jihad, not Hamas. I mixed them up because I read it on a Hamas website. Sorry!

Novak's great white hope, redux

I wrote yesterday about the phenomenal self-delusion of Robert Novak as he seemingly found a single sort-of moderate Hamas voice and he played it to the hilt, implying that Hamas was ready to make peace with Israel and that not speaking to Hamas was foolhardy and wrong.

Today, his Hamas hero has backtracked on his moderate words:

Jenin - Ma'an exclusive - Palestinian Education Minister Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er has denied the declarations which the US daily newspaper Washington Post ascribed to him.

In an interview with Washington Post columnist Robert Novak published on Monday, Ash-Sha'er was quoted as saying that bombing attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets had ruined past peace attempts.

Ash-Sha'er reportedly said that "previous attempts at peace were ruined by suicide bombers. Now, we look forward to a sustained peace."

On Wednesday, in conversation with Ma'an, he depicted the newspaper's allegations as imprecise.

The minister highlighted, "electronic websites took portions of a long interview, and what they took was absolutely out of the real context." It was misinterpreted, he explained.

Ash-Sha'er explained, "Every people in the world has the right of self defence, and nobody can incriminate his own history or his own right to self defence."

So it seems that he really doesn't think that suicide bombings had a negative effect on peace efforts. And that terror attacks against civilians is every Palestinian Arab's right.

Poor Robert Novak. He wasted an entire year searching for the legendary Moderate Hamas leader. Perhaps he'll have better luck looking for the Easter Bunny in Bethlehem.