Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 03, 2007

"New 'Salman Rushdie' in Italy" - Egyptian writes pro-Israel book

From Jordan's Al-Bawaba, via Daily Alert:

The Union of Islamic Communities in Italy has urged all Muslims across the country to express their views following a new book which hails Israel and slams Palestinian resistance groups. According to a Saudi newspaper, the leaders of the Islamic community in Italy are furious about the new book which amazingly was edited by an Egyptian-born Italian writer and journalist!
Magdi Allam, 55, deputy chief editor of Italy’s most influential newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, is again at the center of the storm following his seventh book, dubbed “Viva Israele” (Long Live Israel). The subtitle of the book reads “From the ideology of death to the civilization of life: my story.”

“Long Live Israel” is the tale of his life ever since his youth under the republican regime of late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

According to Allam, Nasser is responsible for having turned Egypt - and the rest of the Arab world - into the cradle of the "ideology of death". Allam claims Nasser brought about an aggressive pan-Arabic dream based on the denial of Israel’s right to exist. The need for the destruction of Israel is the dominant theme that, Allam states, made death and destruction the core values of a once liberal Islamic culture.

Thus, the new book defends the existence of Israel and terms armed Palestinian groups as "dangerous terrorist threats." In addition, Allam wrote that during their operations in the Palestinian territories, Israeli forces have been trying to avoid hitting Palestinian civilians and only aim to defend Israeli citizens….

Furthermore, Allam added that the main cause for the Israeli – Palestinian dispute stems from the Palestinian terror.

Allam says that "Israel - along with Pope Benedict XVI - represents the residual hope for Western civilization, which, more than other civilizations, embodies the sacredness of life and personal freedom."

Allam also slams the Arab calls for the killing of Jews. In the past, Allam also criticized resistance groups in Lebanon and Iraq.

Muslims in Italy have been claiming that Allam is an unreliable person who spreads suspicion and hatred against Islam and Muslim people by reporting undocumented, unverified or even utterly false news, just to flatter to the West.

It should be noted that during his adolescent years, Allam maintained completely different views. Allam was raised as a Muslim and attended the Italian school of Cairo. In Italy since 1972, Allam started his stay there as an enthusiastic activist for the Palestinian cause. At that period, Allam thought of Israel as a racist and aggressive state "invented by the Western world as some kind of compensation for the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust".

Years later, his interest in the history of Zionism and a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat brought him to realize that "Arafat was responsible for Palestinian terrorism" and that "the predication of the ideology of death eventually hit and harmed the Palestinians themselves."

The latest book has changed Allam's life. The Saudi newspaper reported that following threats to his life, the Italian police decided to intensify his security escort. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that many Muslims in Italy denounce Allam as a new "Salman Rushdie", the British writer who was forced into hiding in the 1990s after Iran's religious leaders issued a fatwa (religious edict), calling for his death.

Friday micro-blogging news links

As is often the case, there are too many stories to blog properly, so here's a few micro-blog entries:

Egyptian soldiers brutally lynched 4 Sudanese refugees trying to reach Israel - and IDF soldiers caught it on videotape.
This story has been all but ignored by the MSM; I found it at only a German site outside Israeli and Sudanese news sites. The Sudanese site credited AP which means it is not the wire services' fault but the individual news editors - in some ways this is worse.

Google News seems to have gone back yet again to indexing The People's Voice despite its repeated anti-semitic articles.
This pattern has repeated often enough.

Ma'an News has a "breaking news" (non-linkable) headline saying that Hamas and Fatah are in talks to form another unity government. (Ma'an Arabic has the story.)
...thus assuring that international aid meant to prop up Fatah goes to Hamas as well, as it always does. Here's the illustration in the Arabic story, showing that PalArabs will always prefer Hamas to the West - always.

Three Qassams were fired at Israel today, injuring one; four on Wednesday evening.
These attacks barely rate as news anymore, while Sderot residents live in daily fear.
Some Israelis are shooting back - vegetable rockets.

The "amnesty deal" for Fatah is reported to be falling apart as it is found out that the "weapons" they handed in were ancient rifles.
Who is surprised about this?

(h/t Judeopundit, Israel Matzav)

Jonathan Cook's lies and bigotry

We've discussed Jonathan Cook before. This British journalist, based out of Nazareth and enjoying freedom of the press that just doesn't exist in the Arab nations he loves, consistently writes well-written and absurdly biased articles blaming Israel for all Middle East problems and praising Hamas.

His latest article, for Al-Ahram, is a thinly-veiled slander saying not only will Israel attack Jews in Iran to get them to leave, but that Arab bigotry against Jews is justified:

What is the basis for Israel's dire forecasts -- the ideological scaffolding being erected, presumably, to justify an attack on Iran? Helpfully, as George W Bush defended his Iraq policies last month, he reminded us yet again of the menace Iran supposedly poses: it is "threatening to wipe Israel off the map".
This myth has been endlessly recycled since a translation error was made of a speech Ahmadinejad delivered nearly two years ago. Farsi experts have verified that the Iranian president, far from threatening to destroy Israel, was quoting from an earlier speech by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in which he reassured supporters of the Palestinians that "the Zionist regime in Jerusalem" would "vanish from the page of time".

Ahmadinejad was not threatening to exterminate Jews or even Israel. He was comparing Israel's occupation of the Palestinians with other illegitimate systems of rule whose time had passed, including the shahs who once ruled Iran, apartheid South Africa and the Soviet empire. Nonetheless, this erroneous translation has survived and prospered because Israel and her supporters have exploited it for their own crude propaganda purposes.

This is an often heard leftist lie. While the literal translation may indeed have meant "vanish from the page of time," the official Iranian translation was "wipe off the face of the Earth." Even more dishonest is Cook's ignoring of Ahmadinejad's many, many other statements threatening Israel and declaring Islamist supremacy. He undoubtedly knows better and chooses to ignore anything that contradicts his tendentious arguments.

In the meantime, the 25,000-strong Iranian Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel and traces its roots back 3,000 years. As one of several non-Muslim minorities in Iran, Jews there suffer discrimination, but they are certainly no worse off than the one million Palestinian citizens of Israel -- and far better off than Palestinians under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

When there is a Jewish consul representing Iran in other countries, or a temporary Jewish president of Iran, or a Jewish supreme court judge in Iran, perhaps Cook would have a point. As it is, he is stating his own unsupported opinion as fact.

To step up these efforts -- and presumably to avoid the embarrassing incongruence of claiming Iran's genocidal intent while thousands of Jews live happily in Tehran -- Israel is now backing a move by Jewish donors to guarantee every Iranian Jewish family $60,000 to settle in Israel, in addition to a host of existing financial incentives that are offered to Jewish immigrants, including loans and cheap mortgages. The announcement was met with scorn by the Society of Iranian Jews, which issued a statement that their national identity was not for sale. "The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradeable for any amount of money. Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran's Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews."

Somehow, Cook fails to mention that fully three quarters of Iranian Jewry emigrated after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Somehow, he fails to mention the 13 Jews arrested as spies in 1999 - including a rabbi - on trumped up charges of spying for Israel.

Somehow he fails to mention the 13 Jews executed since the Iranian revolution.

He also displays a remarkable lack of skepticism about what a Iranian Jewish group might want to say publicly in the land of the mullahs where Jews can be arrested arbitrarily or executed. I guess that journalists are not trained to be skeptical when the absurd statements they can quote fit their agendas.

However, this unwelcome financial gesture may not be as innocuous as it seems. Israel introduced a similar scheme a few years ago, when Argentina's economy plunged into deep recession, broadcasting an offer of $20,000 to every Argentinean Jew who settled in Israel. Months later the Israeli media reported a rise in anti- Semitic attacks in Argentina, only adding to the pressure on Jews there to leave. Of course, there was no mention of a possible causal connection between the attacks and Israel's generous offer to Jews to abandon their homeland as other Argentineans sank into poverty.

Can you spot the bigotry? Cook is justifying Argentine anti-semitism on the grounds that since the Jews were offered money they would of course become targets on basis of their religion!

But if financial enticements fail to move Iranian Jews, there is every reason to fear that Israel may resort to other, more dubious ways of encouraging them to emigrate. That is certainly a path Israel has chosen before with other communities of Arab Jews, whom it has regarded either as a pool of potential spies and agents provocateurs to be used when needed, or as "human dust", in the words of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, to be recruited to Israel's "demographic battle" against the Palestinians.

In "Operation Susannah" of 1954, for example, Israel recklessly recruited a group of Egyptian Jews to stage a series of explosions in Egypt in a bid to discourage Britain from withdrawing from the Suez Canal zone. When the plot came to light, it naturally cast suspicion of disloyalty over Egypt's wider Jewish community. Following Israel's invasion and occupation of Sinai two years later, the government of President Gamal Abdel-Nasser expelled some 25,000 Egyptian Jews and, after others were imprisoned on suspicion of spying, the rest soon left.

Can you spot the bigotry? While the Lavon affair was not a great chapter of Israeli history, Cook uses it to justify Egyptian anti-semitism. Would he argue that Americans and Europeans can justifiably hate Arabs because of the much deadlier and rampant terrorism done by Arabs in their countries?

Even more notoriously, Israel went to greater lengths to ensure the exit of the Arab world's largest Jewish population, in Iraq. In 1950 a series of bombs targeting Jews in Baghdad forced a rapid exodus of some 130,000 to Israel, convinced that Arab extremists were behind the attacks. Only later did it emerge that the bombs had been planted by members of the Zionist underground, supported by the Israeli government.

Sorry, Jonathan, but this just ain't true either. The major deadly synagogue bomb was thrown by Islamists, and the others were done by a Jew to prove that the Jew falsely arrested for the other bomb couldn't have done it. The idea that Zionists launched that campaign was a lie based on a British embassy assessment at the time that had no basis in reality. This was discovered by Tom Segev, a "new historian" who would not whitewash Israeli acts under any circumstances.

Now, Iran's Jews may find themselves treated in much the same manner -- simply as human fodder. Stories are growing of Israel exploiting the free movement between Iran and Israel enjoyed by Iranian Jews and their Israeli relatives to carry out spying operations on Iran's nuclear programme. Such reports have come from reliable sources such as the American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, citing US government officials.

The fallout from such actions is not difficult to predict. Besieged by the US and the international community, Tehran is cracking down on dissent and minority groups, fearful that its own grip on power is shaky and that the well-publicised subversion being carried out by US and Israeli agents is likely only to be stepped up. So far most officials in Tehran have been careful to avoid suggesting that Iran's Jews have dual loyalties, as has the local Jewish community itself, both of them aware of Israel's interests in provoking such a confrontation. But as the strains increase, and Israel's need to prove Tehran's genocidal intent grows ever stronger, that policy may end up being forfeited, and with it the future of Iran's Jews.

More important than the welfare of Iranian Jewish families, it seems, is the value of Iranian Jews as a propaganda tool in Israel's battle to persuade the world that coexistence with the Muslim world is impossible. For those who want to engineer a clash of civilisations, the 3,000- year-old Jewish legacy in Iran is not something to be treasured, but is merely an obstacle to war.

As usual, Cook bases his predictions on nothing but lies and his own fantasies, all coming to the conclusion that Israel is inherently evil and hates the Iranian Jews who it is trying to get out of Iran. And he neatly avoids blaming Iran for any future mistreatment of Jews - in classic Israel-bashing manner, the only one respinsible for anyone else's actions is Israel.

Way to go, Jonathan! Your quasi-historic writings may play well in Egypt and in the usual leftist rags that publish you, but it exposes you to being a hack when put up against any real analysis.

Al Qaeda in Gaza

This is the first article I've seen showing direct linkage between Al-Qaeda and Gaza, as well as Hamas' probable relationship with AQ. From Omedia:

The Gaza Strip as a Hothouse for Al Qaeda

Ismail Haniyeh is trying to con the West when he says Hamas is not aiding Al Qaeda

Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi (7/30/2007)

The Gaza Strip under Hamas rule has turned into a hothouse for Palestinian terror organizations and a base for an Al Qaeda offshoot that goes by the name of "the Army of Islam." Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, like other Hamas leaders, is trying to deceive the Western media by repeatedly denying Hamas is assisting Al Qaeda, either directly or indirectly. "There is no Al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip and talk of Gaza becoming a foothold for Al Qaeda invites international hostilities," Haniyeh told Reuters (July 15, 2007).

Haniyeh’s comments are diametrically opposed to the current reality in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas movement is well aware of the growing power of the Al Qaeda offshoot and is troubled by the fact that quite a few in the Hamas military arm and even in its leadership have begun to embrace the global outlook of Al Qaeda. Assumption of responsibility for attacks against Israel were published even prior to the unilateral disengagement by Israel from the Gaza Strip (August 2005) and furthermore the the Army of Islam even takes open pride in taking orders from the leadership of Al Qaeda abroad.

In an interview on the Ilaf website (July 17, 2007), Abu Ashour, the right-hand man of Army of Islam leader Mamtuz Doghmush, said the organization "embraces the principles in which Al Qaeda believes" and supports the establishment of an Islamic state in Gaza and the liberation of Palestine. He noted Al Qaeda sends money to finance the activity of the Army of Islam, as well as conveying directives for action. Ashour believes "the decision to kidnap Alan Johnston was made by Al Qaeda 'on the outside' and the decision to release him also arrived from 'outside' in order to avoid bloodshed."

Abu Ashour also revealed the Army of Islam was established in the Gaza Strip 30 years ago. "At first the Afghans arrived in order to spread religious awareness," he said, referring to Arab fighters who had fought in Afghanistan. "All the Afghans belonged to Al Qaeda and we called them by their noms de guerre. We established the popular resistance committees due to the corruption in Fatah...later on Mamtuz Doghmush established the Army of Islam due to disputes among the committee heads."

One of those very same “Afghan” fighters is Kattab al-Maqdesi, whose real name is Ahmed al-Mazloum, a resident of the Al-Darej neighborhood in Gaza. He studied Islamic law in Pakistan, spent time in Afghanistan, attended 40 of Osama bin Laden's lectures and then returned to the Gaza Strip to continue jihad against Israel. He took part in the terrorist attack at the Karni Crossing in January 2005 (a joint attack by Hamas, the Resistance Committees and a faction of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) and in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (a joint attack by Hamas, the Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam). Likewise he was part of the group that executed Moussa Arafat, the commander of the military intelligence apparatus in the Gaza Strip (over 2000). Today al-Maqdisi serves as a spokesperson of the Army of Islam and is one of the organization's senior leaders.

The ties between Hamas and the Army of Islam are apparent in the agreement between the two organizations, which led to the liberation of kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston. In recompense for the Army of Islam’s agreement to liberate Johnston, the Hamas movement transferred to the Army of Islam (this according to a source close to the Army of Islam as quoted in Al-Quds Al-Arabi on July 5, 2007) $5 million and more than a million Kalashnikov bullets, and the Army of Islam received recognition from Hamas as a legitimate jihad organization. Furthermore it was agreed that neither organization would disclose joint operations they had carried out in the past.

The validity attached to this Hamas policy was well expressed by Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, in a conversation with a journalist from Al-Hayat following his meeting with Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in Damascus (July 19, 2007). "When Hamas came to power," noted Abu Marzouk, "the entire PA became a fighting authority in the sense that the fighters [mukawaymun] were no longer subject to arrest or liquidation, for Hamas had made the resistance [i.e. armed struggle] legitimate." In other words Abu Marzouk confirms that the Gaza Strip has become a hothouse for global Islamic terror. The Army of Islam, an offshoot of Al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip, enjoys freedom of action under Hamas rule.
This article was prepared in collaboration with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

"Grim milestone" reached: 500 Palestinian Arabs killed by each other this year

A 2 1/2 year old girl was shot and killed near the Jabalya "refugee camp" according to Palestine Today (autotranslated):

Palestinian medical sources announced this evening in the killing of infant girls mi lamp defrocked and that at age two and a half years due to injuries sustained in the head from an unknown source at the Ho Ha front of her house near the Civil Administration east of the Jabaliya refugee camp.

According to our correspondent in the northern sector, the girl "mi Shalhah" hit back Wednesday bullet in the head from an unknown source at the Ho Ha front of her house located in the street near railway from the Civil Administration, was transferred to hospital Shahid Kamal Adwan, hailing her death was announced later the same day.

We have reached the "grim milestone" of 500 PalArabs that we have been able to document violently killed by each other this year.

Since we started the self-death count 13 months ago, we have documented 705 violent deaths of Palestinian Arabs due to infighting, honor killings, "work accidents," shootings during funerals and weddings, children picking up bombs being built by their parents, and similar self-inflicted incidents.

Don't expect any press releases about this milestone, though.

UPDATE: 3rd death announced this morning from IJ/Hamas clashes. I guess that last Monday's Hamas media blitz to promote Gaza's safety is taking a hit. 501.

UPDATE 2: Welcome to all the Instapundit (and other) visitors. My updated numbers of Palestinian Arabs killed by each other can be found in the upper right of this blog, and there is a link there to my methodology for counting.

While you are here, you may want to see some of my other posts, such as my ongoing series "A Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs", my new series "Saudi Vice" or just browse around my homepage.

Islamic Jihad kills Hamas member over right to shoot at weddings

It's so good to know that the PalArabs have some moral principles worth killing over. Notice how the pro-terror IMEMC "news" tries so hard to use the passive voice when discussing Arabs murdering Arabs:

A member of the Executive Force of the Hamas Ministry of Interior was killed and seven persons were injured in clashes with Islamic Jihad members north of Gaza city on Wednesday night.

Islam Shahwan, spokesperson for the Executive Force, reported that three of its members were shot while trying to apprehend a civilian who was breaking the law. Members of Islamic Jihad intervened, resulting in an armed clash.
Shahwan explained that a group of the Executive Force was ordered to arrest a civilian who broke a recently-created law by firing gunshots during a wedding celebration for the Eteesh family. Heavy gunfire from the family's house injured Husam Abu El Kheer, an Executive Force member, causing his death.

Shahwan reported that the Executive Force sent reinforcements to the area and imposed an intensive blockade on the family's house which caused the injuries of three of its members. A large number of Executive Force fighters besieged the house aiming to capture the gunmen.

For his part, Shahwan criticized the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, and its collusion with the Eteesh family in firing on Executive Force members who try to preserve security in the region.

Currently, efforts are being made by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to contain the situation, since the leaders of Islamic Jihad hold Hamas responsible for the incident.

Every year, dozens of PalArabs are killed or injured during shootings during wedding and funeral celebrations. Hamas, to its credit, actually tried to do something about it - but the peace loving PalArabs will defend their time-honored deadly traditions to the death.

IMEMC also reports on other "tensions" between IJ and Hamas since the Hamas takeover, including Hamas blowing up the entrance to an IJ "charity" and one other armed clash. Islamic Jihad always opposed Hamas' entrance into politics.

UPDATE: There were two killed in Hamas/Islamic Jihad fighting this morning. The 2007 PalArab self-death count is now at 499.

Latest news from Saudi vice squad

I just love the Saudi Arab News! And my favorite articles involve the famous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or CftPoVatPoV as its many fans like to call it.

This week's news:

The lawyer of the family that saw members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice acquitted on Monday in the death of a Saudi national said they will appeal the decision of the judges in the case.
The three judges presiding over the case ruled that the three commission members and a security guard were not guilty of any wrongdoing in the death of Ahmed Al-Bulawi, a 50-year-old Saudi man who collapsed and died in early June after being detained at a commission center in Tabuk....
A part-time commission member in Tabuk arrested Ahmed Al-Bulawi, a retired border patrol guard, in early June after a woman was spotted entering his car near an amusement park. Both Al-Bulawi and the woman were reported to be in a state of “illegal seclusion”. They were arrested and taken to the commission center.
At the center, it was established that the man worked as a driver for the family and would run errands to earn extra cash to support his family. The woman was released after her brother picked her up at the center. Al-Bulawi, on the other hand, collapsed and died. An official medical report said that he died of natural causes due to a sudden heart attack.

Also...

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Madinah recently arrested an African national, who was practicing black magic at a house in a village outside Madinah. Police and commission members had been on the lookout for the man — the third member of a gang of magicians — since last year.
The commission members’ searched the man’s home and found several items used in black magic and a letter to another magician in Africa. In the letter, the man requested the help of the magician to secure the release of his friends that were arrested last year.

Not to mention...

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Madinah began this week a series of summer activities aimed at reaching out to the youth and teaching them Islamic principles.
The activities, which are entitled “Discover Happiness by Yourself,” began earlier this week and will run for 10 days. “They are taking place in the Al-Sultana District of Madinah. The activities include lectures, quizzes and fun events,” said Sulaiman Al-Tuwaijri, head of the commission in Madinah.
Talking about the aim of the programs, Al-Tuwaijri said, “The main aim is to increase awareness among the youth regarding Islamic principles and to highlight what is wrong. We aim at solving the social, religious and psychological problems faced by youngsters. The activities aim to show the youth the path of future success.”
Abdullah Al-Zahrani, the general supervisor of the events, said that the commission hopes to provide an opportunity for youths to enjoy their summer and invest their time in something useful.
“We have selected the location of the activities close to areas where youths gather in order to attract them. It is much better for youth to attend these events than go around in malls, which may put them in trouble with the authorities,” said Al-Zahrani.

Hamas stealing from and beating Gaza returnees from Egypt?

The Palestine Press News Agency, which is rabidly anti-Hamas, reports that the hundreds of people who so far returned to Gaza from Egypt through Israel are being subject to theft and beatings by Hamas (autotranslated):

Ramallah-Palestine-Presse more than 500 Palestinian dividend of citizens who remained stuck on the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip for more than seven weeks, in addition to the theft of beating and humiliation and defamation by the militias Hamas coup during return through the Erez checkpoint to Gaza recently.

The citizens returning to Hamas militia confiscated Chentham and personal belongings did not give any of them the right to prove luggage after forfeiture, and said that those who tried to challenge that was met with a storm of the beating, noting conversion of a number of cases to hospitals for treatment of bruises and wounds, With another woman said that the militia elements Humasawiyeh confiscated personal Massagha When he demanded it back to these murderers "and Sergnah Akhberti of Ardti will Isedkki anyone," Ms. answer "yes Hasbi Allah and the agent."

Eyewitnesses also confirmed lived in the place that militia elements Humasawiyeh mutilated battery of a child no older than ten years and the cancer patient, for he refused to give them the bag he was carrying in his hand, which contains a special medications, They explained that the child was kicked in the chest embroiled in a coma and was transferred to hospital to receive treatment.

He and citizens were waiting for relatives they also heard expressions of contempt by these elements blood can not say the people and the right of citizens to watch practices returnees can not exercise the right of animals.

One citizen returning resolution deploring bitterly and after what he suffered at the hands of the Hamas militia "after Maantna severe in Egypt border Israeli occupation soldiers received the best reception," and I swear that before asking about his passport Ordaya chilled bottle of mineral water and asked that the best Alaabarato was hungry for Ihiro him lunch and then Talbo passport, after his arrival to his homeland in Gaza Hashem reacted killers Altkeverien beating, humiliation and theft, wondering : from whom the occupation? !

Insurance co.s denying coverage to Zionists. State Dept. denies Jerusalem is in Israel.

From the New York Post:

Life-insurance companies are systematically denying coverage to customers solely because they have visited Israel or plan to go in the future - outraging travelers who say Israel's historic sites are as safe as any American city, officials say.
The practice has become so widespread that nine states, including New York, have tried to stop it.
But insurance companies continue to block coverage, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation last week prohibiting insurers from blocking coverage and requiring them to rely on accurate information.
"It is just unfair for people to be denied life insurance because they might travel to Israel," said Schumer.
Sarina Roffe, who works at ORT America, a Jewish organization, learned of her life-insurance company's policy the hard way, when the Brooklyn mother of three applied to expand her coverage.
Her carrier, John Hancock, refused - citing Roffe's 2002 travel to Israel.
"I was upset because I didn't feel that going to Israel represented risky behavior. To me it was just a business trip," Roffe said.
Rabbi Mitchell Hurvitz of Greenwich, Conn., had his request for coverage denied by insurance company AIG after he led a mission to Israel.
"I think it's a horrible practice," he said. "It totally misunderstands what it is to travel to the Holy Land, for a Jew or a Christian, or for that matter a Muslim."
AIG also denied a request by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) when she disclosed that she might visit Israel, prompting her to introduce a bill in the House.
An AIG spokesman said, "We don't comment on individual policyholder matters." There was no immediate response from John Hancock about the other complaint.
Insurance companies argue that Israel is included on the State Department's travel-warning list, alongside such war-torn hot spots as Iraq and Sudan.
The feds tell travelers to stay out of the West Bank and Gaza, but only to "be mindful" in Israel.
"Violent conflicts in another country are some of the factors that an insurer might consider," said Whit Cornman, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurance.
Yet jetting to Israel might actually be safer than staying stateside.
"The most dangerous thing I do when I go to Israel is drive to JFK Airport," Kaplan said.
Israel's death rate is favorable to the U.S.: 573 per 100,000, compared to 817 in the U.S., based on the most recent year's data.

That last statistic shows that the insurance companies are not basing this decision on actuarial tables or cold facts.

So what could possibly be their motivation?

The State Department's travel warning to Israel mentions the possibility of suicide bomb attacks, mentioning, for example, that the latest suicide bomb in Jerusalem occurred in 2004. Yet for some reason, the United Kingdom is not on the "travel warning" list, nor is Turkey, nor Bangladesh, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, nor many other countries that have been the hosts of multiple terror attacks over the past few years.

So what could possibly be their motivation?

Notice also these paragraphs:

This Travel Warning is being issued to update information on the general security environment in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and to reiterate threats to American citizens and U.S. interests in those locations.

Americans in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are strongly encouraged to register with the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv or the Consular Section of U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem through the State Department's travel registration website, https://travelregistration.state.gov.

Current information on travel and security in Israel, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States and Canada , or, from overseas, 1-202-501-4444.

According to the State Department, Jerusalem is apparently not a part of Israel.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Lebanon?

I do not place much stock in anonymous Hezbollah terrorists, but this story is still interesting:

The cease-fire acted as a life jacket for the organization [at the end of the Second Lebanon War]," a Hizbullah officer said in an interview aired by Channel 10 on Tuesday. The officer shown on Channel 10 said the organization's gunmen had been running low on food and water and facing rapidly diminishing arms supplies.
In the interview, the unnamed officer said Hizbullah gunmen would have surrendered if the fighting last summer had continued for another 10 days.
The officer also said that many Hizbullah commanders were ordered to hide before the war started, and that the gunmen who remained were forced to fire Katyusha rockets from inside urban populations because of the IDF's efficiency in destroying launchers minutes after a launch had been detected.
He said that when the gunmen relocated to cities and villages, they knew innocent civilians would be hurt as a consequence.
The quick arrival of IAF jets at rocket-launch sites, sometimes only four to five minutes after a Katyusha was fired, "surprised" Hizbullah, the officer said.

If this is true, it is more evidence that stopping a war too soon is almost as bad as defeat.

A Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs, part 11

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
December, 1948 was notable for one other event: the passing of UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The non-binding resolution has been cited innumerable times by Arabs as the source for Israel's obligation to accept all Palestinian Arab refugees. It says nothing of the sort.

The resolution included a number of parts, none of which has ever been implemented:

Protection of all holy sites in the area and allowing free access,
Placing Jerusalem under UN control,
Allowing free access to all parts of Jerusalem by everybody,
And, most famously: "Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."

This paragraph does not only apply to Arab refugees but to Jews as well.

Throughout the succeeding decade, Israel steadfastly emphasized the section saying "refugees wishing to...live at peace with their neighbors" and the Arab world equally steadfastly ignored that phrase. Israel's position was that the Arabs who fled, by and large, were not willing to live in peace with a ruling Jewish government, and it felt that this provision could only be implemented in the context of a full and comprehensive peace plan with all neighboring Arab states. Not surprisingly, the Arabs rejected that interpretation.

Meanwhile, most of the Palestinian Arab refugees suffered at the hands of their respective host countries.

In 1949, the UN appointed an Economic Survey Mission to the area, headed by Gordon Clapp, former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Its findings suggested that the UN create a set of development and public works projects meant to employ Arab refugees, increase their standard of living, improve the economies of the host Arab countries and thereby increase the chances for peace. As a result, the UN created in December, 1950 the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, to implement these recommendations as well as to continue to provide direct aid to (Arab) refugees that had been done by other interim UN agencies.

In April, 1949, King Abdullah officially changed the name of his country to The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, clearly planning to annex the West Bank and to implement his initial plans for a Greater Syria. Sure enough, a year later Jordan did annex the West Bank and offered citizenship to all the Palestinian Arab refugees in Jordan, making it the only Arab nation ever to offer citizenship to Palestinian Arabs.

Back in 1947, right before the UN partition vote, King Abdullah secretly met with Golda Meir and they agreed to a peace treaty and probably agreed to divide up the Arab partition of Palestine between them. This agreement was effectively abrogated when the Arab Legion attacked the new state of Israel as soon as it announced independence. Now, King Abdullah was unilaterally implementing his own annexation of part of Western Palestine, although almost no nations recognized this as legal.

It is not clear how ordinary Palestinian Arabs felt about being in the middle of all this political activity. Time magazine in 1949 stated that most Arab refugees had an "aversion" to returning to their homes similar to Jewish attitudes to returning to Europe. But by the early 1950s, the UNRWA reported that most Palestinian Arabs did want to return to their homes. Both accounts may be right.

From the Arab perspective, the UN Resolution 194 gave them a huge incentive to make Palestinian Arab lives miserable. The language states "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date." This meant that the refugees who didn't want to return to their homes would have to settle in other Arab countries, something that the Arab leaders did not want. (Again, Jordan was the exception, willing to take in the Palestinians as long as it gained land as part of the deal.) The Arab leaders therefore dragged their feet in implementing any of the UNRWA suggestions on building up large public works projects, as the only possible result would be that the refugees would get more comfortable in their new lands and want to stay.

Even though they signed agreements with the UNRWA on development and employment programs for the Palestinians, the Arab states continuously opposed those same programs as being a back door through which Palestinians would be resettled in their lands. For its part, the UNRWA intended exactly that, as it deemed the chances of Israel allowing all the refugees back to be exceedingly low.

Palestinian Arab refugees who had wanted to move and start new lives in other Arab lands were forced to stay in near-starvation conditions in refugee camps - and were told by their Arab hosts that Israel had the sole responsibility for their well-being, and that they can only move back to Israel. Given such circumstances, it is no wonder that most Palestinian Arabs would choose to move to Israel rather than stay in refugee camps indefinitely.

The Arab states continued to use the Palestinian refugees as pawns in their attempts to destroy Israel. Even after Jordan offered citizenship to 500,000 refugees and their children, the Arab nations continued to lobby for Israel to repatriate them to Israel. The Arabs would also tell the UN, year after year, that Jewish immigration to Israel needed to be stopped, under the pretense of refugee welfare.

The UNRWA continued to try to build its public works program through the early 1950s but it met with little success as the Arab nations continued to stonewall. It had other formidable obstacles as well - many Palestinian Arabs would lie to census takers and "borrow" children from friends to increase their ration cards, and the UN had a very difficult time determining the number of refugees truly in need. UNRWA recognized in 1951 the efforts of organized "troublemakers" to try to indoctrinate the refugees, at that time with only limited success. There was also a concerted anti-UN campaign in the Arab world designed to hurt UNRWA, both in the press and from a series of bombings, which the UN believed to be centrally managed. The bulk of its budget came from the United States.

The Arab opposition to an economic solution to the Palestinian refugee problem meant that the UNRWA morphed from its original goal of using economic means to eliminate the refugee problem into an almost-purely aid organization. To facilitate its mandate to provide relief to the refugees, the UNRWA was forced to create a working definition of "refugee" that is totally at odds with any legal definition. While no official document defined them this way, the UNRWA working definition is "Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. UNRWA's services are available to all those living in its area of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948."

When the UNRWA initially included children of refugees as being refugees themselves, it was no doubt for practical reasons as it ensured that they could continue their relief efforts. Over time, though, as no other definition surfaced, the UNRWA's working definition has taken on its own life and paradoxically it has ensured that the Palestinian "refugee" problem would only increase over time, as opposed to every other refugee problem in history.

The agency continued to try to provide jobs to Palestinian Arabs, and not surprisingly, the UNRWA hired many Arabs itself. This had the effect over time of turning the UNRWA from its original purpose of helping solve the refugee problem to one that more recently only helps perpetuate it, and the early warnings that it gave about the dangers of an entire people at the mercy of welfare has come true under its own watch. The Palestinian Arabs throughout the 1950s changed from a proud, independent people who wanted more than anything else to honorably raise their families into a defeated and despised people who were utterly dependent on outside, Western help just to eat.

Israel showed far more flexibility on the refugees than it is given credit for nowadays. Its first proposal, in mid-1949, was to act like Jordan intended - to annex Gaza and take responsibility for all 200,000 Gaza refugees, making them all citizens of Israel. This was rejected outright by the Arab nations.

Israel then proposed, in August 1949, to accept 100,000 Arab refugees (increasing its Arab population to 250,000) as long as this acceptance was part of a comprehensive solution to the refugee plight, including Arab resettlement of the remainder. This was also considered unacceptable to the Arabs. All Arab counterproposals involved either Israel accepting practically all refugees or Israel compensating the Arab nations with land in exchange for some responsibility for refugees.

There was a stark contrast between how Israel handled refugees from 1948 within its borders and how Arab nations handled their refugees. Israel ended up with some 48,000 refugees under UNRWA care within Israel's borders after the 1948 war (17,000 Jews and 31,000 displaced Arabs) by 1952 Israel agreed with UNRWA that its services would no longer be needed and the remaining refugees would be taken care of by Israel alone. The UN described Israel's feelings of taking handouts for its citizens, Jewish and Arab, as "repugnant."

Beyond that, Israel also allowed some 30,000 additional Arabs to come into Israel and become citizens as well, mostly in the interests of family unification. These 30,000 also became citizens and integrated into Israeli society. Israeli officials pointed out that if the Arab world would have accepted the same proportion of Arab refugees to their own population, there would have been no refugee problem at all.

Unfortunately for the Palestinian Arabs, such a solution was not forthcoming. Even many of the Jordanian refugees were kept in camps. Not only that, but continuous Arab incitement against Israel started raising up a rootless population indoctrinated in hate for the Jewish state, far beyond any antipathy the Palestinian Arabs felt towards Zionists before 1948.

Palestinian Arabs started terror attacks against Israel from neighboring states shortly after the war ended. The "Fedayeen" were actively supported by Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, although primarily trained by Egypt. Effectively, these Palestinian Arabs were encouraged to engage in a crime and terror campaign against Israel - the first raids were more aimed at stealing equipment than at murder, but by 1952 it had morphed into a full-blown terror campaign. More than 400 Israelis were killed and 900 injured during these terror operations from 1949-1956. The Egyptians did not deny their involvement behind these attacks, they even boasted about it in their media although the raids were in clear violation of the 1949 Armistice Agreement.

Iranians learning Hebrew, Israelis learning Farsi

From YNet:

The "intelligence war" between Iran and Israel is gaining momentum, as both countries' intelligence services are increasing efforts to recruit Hebrew and Farsi speakers to their ranks.

The Iranian regime needs Hebrew speakers to work as translators, intelligence agents and as part of its propaganda machine against Israel. The main source of Hebrew speakers is Palestinian students studying abroad or Palestinian terrorists sent for military training in Iran and Lebanon.

One of the most prominent centers for Hebrew studies is located at Iran's embassy in Beirut, where Hizbullah members learn Hebrew at the Islamic Culture and Education Center.

The embassy owns a vast library of Hebrew newspapers and books, including even children's' books. It was there that Hizbullah had trained, with the aid of Palestinians, a large group of fighters who were placed in charge of tapping Israeli communication systems, in a bid to collect intelligence on the "Zionist enemy" before and during the Second Lebanon War.
According to the Shin Bet, Israeli Arab students studying out of the country are an attractive target for Hizbullah, because it is easier for the organization to recruit and train them abroad.

Only recently a young Israeli Arab woman who was studying dentistry in Jordan was arrested at the Allenby Bridge border crossing on suspicion of collaborating with Hizbullah. The woman admitted in her investigation she was contacted by the group's agents in Amman and was offered to serve as its agent in Israel.

Meanwhile, in Israel, the Mossad has recently published an ad in the newspaper inviting Farsi speakers to apply for "an interesting, challenging position," which apparently includes listening in on Iranian transmissions and translating materials published in Iran.

For the rest of us, we have to survive using automated translation tools. Although the only Farsi-English tool I've seen is very poor.

Olmert crosses another Israeli "red line"

In diplomacy, one of the worst things you can do is abandon your principles, even for a second. Once you allow even a theoretical exception to a previously iron-clad rule, there is no going back.

There was a time when Israel referred to the territories, consistently, as "disputed" and not "occupied." There is a major difference between the two in international law and Israel was on unpopular but strong legal ground to maintain that position - and the US supported it. Sharon's and Olmert's rush to abandon the territories and evacuate all Jews has fatally undermined that policy, and one hardly hears the word "disputed" anymore from Israeli officials. As a result, Israel's attempts to hold on to large settlement blocs while giving up most of the territory has no legal basis whatsoever, and relies entirely on nonexistent Palestinian Arab and "good faith."

There was a time when Israel could tell the world unambiguously that Jerusalem was its undivided, eternal capital. Then Ehud Barak, now considered one of the more hawkish members of Olmert's government, offered to share Jerusalem with Yasir Arafat. It may have been under very a specific context but that is irrelevant now - the issue of Jerusalem is considered "negotiable" forever.

One after another, red lines have fallen. Paradoxically, these falling red lines have worked against any chances of peace, as they strengthen the resolve of Israel's enemies towards the next set of red lines.

The latest red line was Olmert's seemingly symbolic allowance of 41 Iraqis who consider themselves Palestinian (appears that they have never lived there themselves) to immigrate into the West Bank. This "goodwill gesture" crosses yet another red line in longstanding Israeli policy, and rather than promoting peace, it gives the PalArab "right of return" legitimacy - it strengthens the Arab "red line" on not allowing Palestinian Arabs, even after many generations, to ever integrate into any other society:

The minister of information of the caretaker government, Riyad Maliki, on Monday stated that he views the return of the 41 Palestinian refugees from Iraq as a first step in the return of all of the Palestinian refugees in Iraq to the West Bank.

Speaking from Cairo to Ma'an, he stated that the Palestinian government is to pursue the issue and to make the necessary consultations with the Israeli government to persuade it to let all of the 18,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq return.

The minister was glad to announce that he "succeeded in returning part of them," adding that the government is doing everything in its power to relocate all of the refugees to the West Bank.

Ironically, not only does this hurt Israel immeasurably, but it also hurts the millions of so-called Palestinians who live in Arab countries as their chances of ever becoming citizens have just dropped even further: the Arab governments can continue to wash their hands of any responsibility for the events of 1948, now that Israel has symbolically taken that same responsibility.

A goodwill gesture has no legal or political benefits, and its only possible wishful reciprocal benefits evaporate almost immediately. But the negative repercussions from such gestures can last forever.

A wise leader would know this.

Freedom of the press, PalArab style (VI)

On Monday, Hamas tried to show its best face to foreign journalists:

'Gaza today is better,' Ismail Haniyeh, still calling himself Palestinian prime minister, told dozens of foreign reporters who joined a bus tour of the coastal enclave that took in a prison, a church, border posts and security installations.

'But the strangling siege ... has affected Gaza very much,' he added, two days before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarks on a new round of peace diplomacy in Israel and the West Bank. 'I hope on your visit you have seen the suffering and will convey to the world the reality of the suffering.'
...
A Hamas official, acting as tour guide, drove home the point the party wished to make: 'You can see now Gaza is more calm,' he said as the buses drove through Gaza. 'Everywhere in Gaza is under control. Everyone bids you welcome. You can go anywhere.'
Journalists were shown round a prison which once housed Hamas political prisoners and now, Hamas officials said, houses only common criminals who in turn spoke well of their treatment.

One said he was serving six months for drug offences but he expected remission for learning to recite from the Koran.

But at the same time, Hamas was seizing newspapers that it didn't think were pro-Hamas enough:

Hamas militiamen on Monday prevented the distribution of three Fatah-affiliated newspapers in the Gaza Strip and briefly detained the local agents of the dailies.
This is the first time that the newspapers, published in the West Bank, were prevented from distribution in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian journalists said thousands of copies from the three newspapers were seized by Hamas's paramilitary Executive Force on the Palestinian side of the Erez border crossing. The newspapers were taken aboard a truck to a Hamas security installation nearby in the town of Beit Hanan.
According to the journalists, six Palestinians working for the newspapers were detained by Hamas for questioning. Two of them, Hatem Kishawi and Samir Jaber, work for the Fatah-controlled Al-Ayyam, which serves as a mouthpiece for the Palestinian Authority. The other four work for the PA-funded Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda and Al-Quds, a pro-Fatah newspaper owned by a family from east Jerusalem.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Executive Force, announced that the move was aimed at sending a warning to the newspapers to stop inciting against his force and Hamas. "They are publishing many lies about Hamas and the Executive Force," he charged. "In addition, they are ignoring the achievements of the Executive Force in imposing law and order in the Gaza Strip."
The three newspapers have been highly critical of Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip and have openly supported Fatah in its power struggle with the Islamist movement.
Some Hamas leaders recently called for banning the distribution of the newspapers in the Gaza Strip because of their anti-Hamas stance and in response to the PA's ongoing crackdown on Hamas figures and institutions in the West Bank.
Hamas's capture of the Gaza Strip has forced most Palestinian journalists and editors there to toe the line and refrain from criticizing the Islamist movement.
Gaza-based news Web sites that were once critical of Hamas have begun publishing stories that reflect negatively on Fatah.