Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 07, 2007

No Gaza prayer deaths, but...

According to Palestine Press Agency (Arabic), 65 Fatah supporters were injured during Hamas/Fatah clashes this morning, two seriously. Six journalists were arrested by Hamas as well and their film confiscated. Many Fatah members were arrested.

Some pictures managed to get through. In this one, Reuters charmingly says:

Security forces from the Hamas Islamist movement arrest a member of the Fatah movement during clashes in the southern Gaza strip September 7, 2007

Doesn't this look like a policeman arresting someone?

Another pic:

Palestinian members of the Hamas Executive Force use their batons as they detain a Fatah supporter during clashes at a protest following Muslim prayers in Gaza City, Friday, Sept. 7, 2007.

UPDATE: A 14 year old student was stabbed by another in Qalqiya. 521.

UPDATE 2: The body of a person whose name is translated as "Talaat Mohamed Abdel Karim Beekeeper" was found in Netzarim in Gaza, four days after he was abducted by Hamas, his hands and feet bound. 522.

Moral relativism's ugly progeny

Many years ago, before blogs and even before the Web, we had Usenet. It was effectively a world-wide bulletin board in which it could take days for a message to propagate through the system, and when almost everyone used their real names.

In the early 1990s a group of Holocaust revisionists started spamming dozens of newsgroups with their heavily footnoted "proofs" that the Holocaust never happened. This upset a lot of people, and many people spent countless hours documenting proofs that the Holocaust did happen.

I remember seeing one post from someone saying that, after reading both sides of the issue, he was convinced that the truth was somewhere in the middle.

Here we see the effectiveness of lies. As long as they are dressed up with large words and references to source material that sound legitimate, and as long as the audience is uneducated on the matter, they are just as effective as the truth. The truth does not always win out - the winners are the ones with the best presentation who can appeal to the existing worldviews of people.

In this case, it is not only a situation of truth versus lies - it is also a case of right versus wrong, of morality against immorality. In a society where everything is relative, where everybody has an equal claim to the truth, where concepts of morality are considered naive - such a society is in deep trouble.

Two news stories that reflect this complete lack of both a moral compass and the ability to distinguish truth from lies came out yesterday.

In one, 42% of Democrats think either that President Bush caused 9/11 or knew about it ahead of time and let it happen. This is a direct result of the so-called "9/11 Truthers" who have come out with insane conspiracy theories and publicizing them to people who just don't have a clue. When the theories happen to coincide with existing prejudices, in this case against Republicans, they are much easier to swallow. It is a modern manifestation of the logic of Holocaust denial.

The other troubling story was that many younger, non-religious Jews have no attachment to Israel and most would not find it tragic if Israel would be destroyed. Again, this is a result of a combination of ignorance and relentless "even-handedness" where they have grown up seeing Israel demonized in the media and put on an equivalent moral plateau with the Arab world, although their own disenchantment with being brought up with an empty form of Judaism certainly plays a part as well.

Is the truth in between? Yes, if you define "in between" as being anywhere between 0.000% and 100%. The liars will hammer away at the 0.1% that supports their thesis and the ignorant will think that proof of of the 0.1% means that the truth is at 50%.

We are raising a generation of people who have no ability to think and check facts independently, who are not given the tools to distinguish fact from fiction, and who believe that there is no such thing as being "right." This is a truly frightening prospect.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad in the comments here mentions another factor for the Jewish apathy towards Israel - the unremitting left wing bias that Jewish weekly papers have towards Israel.

How much do Arab countries contribute to UNRWA?

Close to zero:

Things improved slightly by 2006:

COUNTRY	REGULAR BUDGET	NON-REGULAR BUDGET	GRAND TOTAL
AUSTRALIA	3,307,087	2,768,625	6,075,712
AUSTRIA	940,000	1,450,284	2,390,284
BAHRAIN	30,000	0	30,000
BELGIUM	2,434,918	1,317,511	3,752,429
BULGARIA	10,000	0	10,000
CANADA	8,620,690	19,106,433	27,727,123
CHINA	80,000	0	80,000
COLOMBIA	4,143	0	4,143
CYPRUS	66,300	0	66,300
CZECH REPUBLIC	70,735	0	70,735
DENMARK	10,012,378	3,713,010	13,725,388
EGYPT	10,000	0	10,000
FINLAND	3,105,590	2,040,816	5,146,406
FRANCE	8,529,015	3,444,638	11,973,653
GERMANY	2,967,819	5,334,108	8,301,927
GREECE	400,000	0	400,000
HOLY SEE	20,000	0	20,000
ICELAND	100,000	0	100,000
INDIA	20,000	0	20,000
IRELAND	3,129,574	637,755	3,767,329
ITALY	0	2,962,923	2,962,923
JAPAN	7,031,687	6,832,703	13,864,390
JORDAN	656,133	0	656,133
KOREA, REPUBLIC OF	100,000	0	100,000
KUWAIT	1,500,000	999,958	2,499,958
LEBANON	17,700	0	17,700
LIECHTENSTEIN	22,599	0	22,599
LUXEMBOURG	2,073,460	241,838	2,315,298
MALAYSIA	25,000	0	25,000
MEXICO	5,000	0	5,000
MONACO	5,000	0	5,000
MOROCCO	23,000	0	23,000
NETHERLANDS	15,766,924	2,418,716	18,185,640
NEW ZEALAND	204,900	497,400	702,300
NORWAY	14,749,263	10,565,995	25,315,258
PAKISTAN	17,468	0	17,468
PALESTINE	853,772	0	853,772
POLAND	50,000	0	50,000
PORTUGAL	100,000	0	100,000
SAUDI ARABIA	1,200,000	0	1,200,000
SOUTH AFRICA	159,212	0	159,212
SPAIN	8,161,709	5,157,602	13,319,311
SPAIN (CATALONIA)	0	665,554	665,554
SPAIN (VALENCIA) 1/	0	228,823	228,823
SPAIN (BASQUE) 1/	0	194,291	194,291
SPAIN (ZARAGOZA) 1/	0	52,701	52,701
SPAIN (TEULADA) 1/	0	1,318	1,318
SWEDEN	29,635,488	11,552,665	41,188,153
SWITZERLAND	6,963,359	5,842,001	12,805,360
SYRIA	85,293	0	85,293
THAILAND	30,000	0	30,000
TUNISIA	9,302	0	9,302
TURKEY	500,000	1,251,880	1,751,880
U.A.E.	500,000	0	500,000
UNITED KINGDOM	26,191,696	897,088	27,088,784
USA	79,650,000	57,350,000	137,000,000
TOTAL GOVERNMENTS	240,146,214	147,526,636	387,672,850

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

96,470,176

46,783,440

143,253,616

The total Arab nation percentage of the UNRWA budget is about 1.1% .

Fourteen individual nations give more money to Palestinian Arabs through UNRWA than the combined amount given by Arab nations, not counting the aggregate EU contribution. Apparently, Finland cares more about Palestinian Arabs more than all the Arab nations combined.

A UAE "charitable foundation" gave $6 million to UNRWA, more than the combined Arab governments did.

Update on tomorrow's Fatah/Hamas prayer showdown

Today, Hamas staged their own anti-Fatah rallies to blunt tomorrow's prayer protests planned by Fatah.

Tonight, Hamas is filling all public areas in Gaza with garbage, presumably to make those areas unsuitable for prayer or difficult to access (I haven't been able to determine exactly what kind of garbage makes a place unsuitable, certainly urine and feces do but I do not know if Hamas has gone that far.)

Meanwhile, Hamas is arresting all the Fatah members they can to stave off the protests.

PCHR has documented numerous cases of torture by Hamas in recent weeks.

Another pseudo-intellectual whiny article blaming Israel for everything wrong in the Arab world

I can't get enough of these exercises in self-delusion that the Arab intelligentsia come out with so often:

The damage done to the Arabs by Israel’s creation is an untold story in the West. To understand it, you have to set aside the Israeli narrative and the idea of Arabs as fanatical, backward warmongers irrationally bent on destroying a modern, democratic and peaceable state.

Fair enough. Let's see:

For the Arabs, Israel’s presence in their midst has been disastrous. It has led to six major wars, forced them to militarise when they could not afford it, distorted their development, split their ranks and encouraged their fragmentation into ethnic and religious minorities, provoked the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and reared generations of young Arabs on conflict, hatred and hostility. It has forced them to host a state that dominated them and ensured continued western hegemony in their region. A disproportionate amount of damage was borne by the frontline states of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. But now Iraq and the rest of the Arab world are affected, as is Arab society in general.

Hmmm....the only way I can understand the Arab world wanting so badly to destroy Israel since 1948, ramping up its military, threatening Israel at every turn, moving its vast resources from development into war and terror - is to say that they are "fanatical, backward warmongers irrationally bent on destroying a modern, democratic and peaceable state." But that might just be me.

On each visit to the Arab world I am struck by its immense resources and its varied geography, history and customs, from Yemen to the Levant, sweeping through Egypt and Sudan to its westernmost point in Morocco. Such diversity could have made this the wonder of the world, physically beautiful, self-sufficient and wealthy. Instead, it is backward, poor and divided. This is not all Israel’s fault, but its existence has contributed significantly to the Arabs’ decline, and ignoring Israel’s role in the story would be misleading.

Yup, the existence of a few million Jews in a tiny sliver of land amongst a billion Arabs encompassing a large part of two continents obviously would contribute significantly to the Arab world's decline. Makes perfect sense!

The devastating and continuing effects of Israel’s establishment on the Palestinians are well documented, but they were not alone in paying the price for Israel’s creation. The Arab world was transformed by its imposition. No other event there since world war one has been so cataclysmic. There has not been a decade since 1948 when Israel has not been in combat with its neighbours. This has damaged the political process in the Arab world, which has come to depend on its army generals for leadership and to admire military strength and violence.

So it is Israel that forced the Arab world to admire military strength and violence! Ah, so!
The UN’s Arab Human Development Report in 2002, which revealed the extent of the Arabs’ retardation, was clear that Israel’s occupation had affected the region’s political and economic life, and that the Arab-Israeli conflict was “a major impediment to human development in the region”.
I took the liberty to download the actual report, and, believe it or not, that phrase does not appear at all! While the UN is harsh on Israeli "occupation" as always, the bulk of the report deals with Arabs' self-inflicted problems, not any perceived problems from without.

This is hardly surprising. The Arab states, struggling with post-independence when Israel was established, should have focused on their own political and social development. Instead, the frontline states were dragged into wars that diverted their resources into armaments and surveillance. After each defeat, they were forced to re-arm ever more extravagantly.

Oh, how they were forced to arm! Who can forget the Israeli threats to throw the Arabs into the Euphrates and Tigris? This borders being farcical.

Arab military spending in the late 1990s accounted for 7.4% of GNP (three times the world average of 2.4%). Since then it has grown by an annual 5%. As Israel acquired sophisticated arms from the United States, Arab states were pushed into trying to keep up at increasing expense, although the arms the Arabs bought from the US and Britain needed the sellers’ technical assistance for operation. These sales were thus designed to benefit western arms industries rather than help the Arab states protect themselves against aggression.

The continuing conflict has discouraged foreign and domestic investment in Arab states and led to a migration of skilled labour, further impoverishing local economies; in particular, it has exhausted and weakened the frontline states. Their economies have been grossly distorted towards militarisation at the expense of social and economic development. In 2002 average Arab expenditure on health and education combined was only 3.7% of GNP. Yet the Arabs had no choice but to militarise against what they saw as an expansionist Israel bent on taking their land. Israel did not set its borders with Egypt until the 1979 peace treaty and has still not done so with Syria or Lebanon.

The projection here is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

But beyond the idiotic reversal of facts, the author doesn't seem to recognize that Israel was forced to militarize itself on a per-capita basis far beyond that the Arabs were "forced" to do, and still Israel enjoyed a booming economy, outside investment, an influx of skilled laborers and thinkers, and it didn't abandon social services and internal development.

In other words, Israelis have no reason to write whiny articles like this blaming every problem on everybody else.

The rest of the article is more of the same, but it is another great indication of how little Arabs have the capability to self-criticize when they have an easy Jewish scapegoat next door.

And the author?

Ghada Karmi is Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, and author, most recently, of Married to Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine (Pluto Press, London and Ann Arbor, 2007).

She is of course one of those Arabs who willingly left the Middle East - no doubt because of Israeli pressure!

PalArabs looking at everything through a lens of violence

The IDF foiled a major attack in Gaza today by Fatah and Islamic Jihad:

IDF forces killed five Palestinian gunmen en route to carry out an attack near Israel's border with central Gaza on Thursday afternoon.

Military sources said that the gunmen were advancing towards the Kissufim crossing in two cars when the IAF targeted their vehicles, thwarting the attack. Ground forces also fired on the gunmen.

The army said it was investigating the possibility that one of the vehicles had been rigged with explosives to serve as a car bomb.

The army said no soldiers were wounded and no damage was reported.

The Islamic Jihad and Fatah-allied Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesman for Islamic Jihad, Abu Ahmed, said a pickup truck crashed through the fence in central Gaza first, allowing an armored jeep to drive through.

The truck blew up inside the Israeli base (according to PIJ - EoZ) and militants inside the jeep began attacking soldiers with light arms and hand grenades, and an Israeli watchtower was blown up.

As usual, take the Islamic Jihad claims with a large grain of salt. But they do indicate that the intent of the operation was fairly sophisticated and large-scale. Thank God they were unsuccessful.

Because of this failure, it is unlikely that Western wire services will mention this story except in the context of "Israel kills 5 Palestinians."

It is notable that Islamic Jihad and Fatah consider this operation a success, because they claim that they managed to enter an IDF base. The fact that this is considered a success to them shows how much they have redefined "success" in order to assuage their extraordinarily low self-esteem.

It is also notable how the Palestinian Arab press is reporting on the Israeli Supreme Court ruling modifying the security barrier route around Bil'in. They are regarding this as a great victory, but not as a victory for non-violence or of the rule of law - they are regarding it as a victory for the "resistance." In other words, everything that PalArabs do is filtered through the prism of violence and even when something happens that is clearly not because of violence - on the contrary, if there was more violence in Bil'in chances are that the court would have ruled otherwise - even then, they celebrate it as a military victory.

The Arab psyche requires that their victories are seen as military, not diplomatic. Israeli concessions for peace are framed as being a result of successful military (i.e., terrorist) operations. In short, they define themselves as warriors, not as peacemakers.

Any peace agreement, from the Arab perspective, must be seen as being forcefully imposed by the Arab victors upon the hapless, weak Jewish victims. Anything less than that - any concessions on issues that they have held fast to for six decades - would be considered weakness and at odds with their own pretense of being proud warriors.

Which is yet another reason why a true peace is highly unlikely.

Shops on London's Edgware Road now "off-limits" to women

From Jewish Comment, by Carol Gould:

Recently I went into a well-known coffee chain in Edgware Road near Marble Arch. As I waited to be served I noticed the café was crowded but that I was the only female customer. Men in various permutations of Middle Eastern garb, including several in full head-to-toe keffiyah and robe, stared at me.

When I sat down and opened my bottle of apple juice I noticed it was fizzing. I called the server over and told her that the juice had fermented. ‘No -- English’ she said, throwing her arms up in despair. Another server came over and asked me what the problem seemed to be. I told her the juice had fermented and that they needed to check their fridge. She looked at the other woman and they shrugged.

I have to confess I have a short fuse about non-English people populating what seems to be 99% of every job in London and the Home Counties. I am spoilt because in recent years I have been to the USA several times and marvel at the stupendous service provided by young college students and other Americans who possess perfect English and are obliging beyond anyone’s expectations.

So, I became exasperated and said ‘Is there no-one working here who speaks English? This is Paddington - this is still a London neighbourhood.’

A well-dressed man came over and said ‘I speak English.’ I thought he was going to intervene on my behalf but instead came out with this astonishing observation:

‘You are a racist! You are a racist ape! Look at you-- you are an ape!’

I was dumbfounded. I came to London thirty-two years ago to soak up the culture of Dr Johnson and Chaucer and Milton, and in the autumn of my life am called an ape by a man from, well, perhaps Egypt, perhaps Palestine, perhaps Saudi Arabia..

Shocked, I glared at him, but he had to finish things off : ‘You want them to speak Hebrew, don’t you?’

I got up from my seat and went over to him and at the top of my voice said I would be proud to speak Hebrew if I could, it being the language of the Torah and of an ancient culture going back six-thousand years.

He then embarked on a tirade at me about the ‘five million Indians’ slaughtered in genocide in America. Meanwhile, the men in the café were in various states of laughter at me, and exhibiting great admiration for him.

Believe it or not, the server had in the meantime brought me a fresh juice which I calmly drank with my very un-Hebrew ham and cheese sandwich, and then I left. I wandered over to the flower shop and found myself commiserating with what seemed to be two Englishwomen who lived in a permanent state of fear in a neighbourhood they had called their own for generations. They told me I must have been mad going into that shop, as ‘all the establishments in Edgware Road are off-limits to us now.’

Read the whole thing.

Israel saving the world - again

From MSNBC:

SDE BOKER, Israel - Reflective dishes may be the answer to make solar energy competitive with conventional sources of power, Israeli scientists say.

A global race is on to find energy alternatives as subsidies tip the balance in favor of renewable sources of power, which answer security and climate change concerns about fossil fuels.

New-found demand for one such renewable source, solar energy, has hoovered up supply of the silicon raw material, prompting a search for alternatives.

A team at Israel’s Ben Gurion University believe they have found just that, in a far less known material that is more expensive than silicon but also more efficient when used with a reflective dish.

“The dish could be put in a sunny backyard and generate most of the home’s utility needs,” said David Faiman, a professor of physics at Ben Gurion University who has studied solar energy for 31 years in Israel’s Negev desert.

“The costs per watt are comparable to that of a conventional power plant, but without fuel,” Faiman added.

No pollution and no money to terror-supporting states. It doesn't get any better than that.

Who's demolishing Arab houses?

Why, it's Egypt! (H/T Solomonia via Backspin)

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Sinai Bedouin blocked the road north from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with burning tyres on Tuesday in protest at the demolition of 20 houses, police and Bedouin sources said.

Police earlier fired about 20 teargas canisters at Bedouin families who refused to evacuate their houses, which the authorities say were built without licences, they added....

They said a total of 1,500 unlicensed buildings were scheduled for demolition in the Sharm el-Sheikh area and not all of them belonged to Bedouin.

As Backspin points out, it has taken nearly seven years for Israel to demolish 1900 homes, and NGOs have been fixated on this issue. Where's the outrage when Arabs plan to demolish a roughly equivalent number of Arab homes in a much shorter timeframe?

One must conclude yet again that the "human rights" organizations are not nearly as interested in Arab human rights as they are in demonizing Israel. Which means that they are more bigoted (or, to use their term, "racist") than they accuse Israel of being.

Google fun in Arabic

I don't know Arabic, but Google Translate has provided me and this blog with much interesting information.

A few minutes ago I figured out that the Arabic word for Jews is written اليهود , and I started Googling that word - and auto-translating the resulting pages.

Not surprisingly, one sees a mirror of the worst anti-semitism that one can imagine, complete with links to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, fake anti-Jewish quotes from Benjamin Franklin and all the other stuff one would see in sites like Jew Watch. It is quite obvious that when Arabs say that they are only against Zionism and not against Jews, they are not quite telling the truth.

Some cool tidbits:

Jews are the greatest enemies of the nation! The hostility towards Islam and Muslims has been and remains and will remain as long as Muslims and Jews on this land issue concluded spent from the years of what was, what is and what will organism God says (to find Strongest among men in enmity to the believers ... the Jews) - verse 82 Surat Al - Maida Faadaoh Jews continuing to Muslims become permanent certificate from the Koran and Albdehat established in the hearts and minds and conscience of every Muslim believes in this book and this belief witted can not Eglglh shaking him or anything in the world, hence the (ironic) and (students) from each Alaithiat are occurring under the pretext of peace with the Jews ... which will be! !

The strangest thing is to find that there are some who take Islam as a religion they believe in the necessity of achieving peace with the Jews, and Jews are not friends and allies want us good IT! .. But now America is the mother Habibet Arabs are justified fears that the sons of enemies wants peace and progress for the Arabs, while Iraq and bin Laden are the enemies of this nation said Amr Moussa said Amr Moussa, and soldiers Hezbollah terrorists are killers! !
But these madmen knows that the Jews are murderers prophets and messengers to God? IT! Not know these fools that the Jews of Palestine raped and plan to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque and annexation of Jerusalem the eternal capital them? ? ? IT

Here's a Flash movie that starts with a burning cross and goes on to celebrate American deaths in Iraq.

Jewish religious teachings that do not hesitate to describe the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, as "crazy man"

Here's a manifesto that justifies the elimination of all Jews - from the Palestine Info site (I don't think the English translation is there.)

Here's a nice Arabic Jews in Hollywood page.

More fun:

They called pornography and corruption with deceive hide under the slogans such as freedom, equality, humanity and brotherhood, deaths Muslim youth, women and Egronh vices, persecuted women, and working hard to get a generation of Muslims emptiness, not a doctrine, not principles, and ethics and added, pollute the minds of emerging Petheij instincts and gratification, sometimes video, and other Balfdayat, the envy of Muslim women screened and says, and let the strength and values of decomposition, and writers are similar in their women treated decently and, for the Ihrvoha Vtartha, writers for young people and women lusts, sheds for everyone's religion and values, remains a hostage of appetites and impulses , God said about them: The SEEK amok and Allah loveth not spoilers

You can join the fun by clicking on the Google search link for Jews in Arabic.

Hamas may allow Red Cross to visit Gilad Shalit

I don't know the original source for this story, published a few minutes ago by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, but Palestine Press Agency had effectively the identical story in Arabic:

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that the Palestinian kidnappers of an Israeli soldier may permit representatives of the organization to visit him.
Angelo Gnaedinger made the statement after meeting with the Hamas leader of the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh.
"We asked for access to him and the possibility for him to communicate through us with his family," Gnaedinger told reporters after the meeting. "We have been told that this is under consideration and that everybody is working on a positive solution for this case and that the humanitarian aspects are being take care of."

UPDATE: I scooped YNet by about 3 hours.

Civil war watch

As the countdown to Friday's prayer/demonstration continues, a Hamas man was shot and killed in Gaza City this morning.

5 Fatah men were hospitalized after being kidnapped and tortured for two days.

5 more PalArabs were injured by Hamas in Rafah as Hamas attempted to arrest one of them.

Hamas arrested a sheikh who is also a Fatah member.

For its part, Hamas claimed that they have suffered 1000 attacks by Fatah in the last 80 days, mostly in the West Bank.

The number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed this year by their own people is now at 517.

UPDATE: A PalArab policeman was shot and killed in Jenin by Islamic Jihad. 518.

UPDATE 2: A Hamas member died of his wounds suffered a couple of days ago during a fight between Hamas and a family in Gaza. 519.

UPDATE 3: Palestine Press Agency reports on a Fatah member killed by Hamas in Gaza City, and hios brother wounded. 520.

Freedom of the press, PalArab-style (X)

The series continues...

In this edition, it is Fatah who threatened journalists. From Ma'an (Arabic, autotranslated):

A journalist bloc said that three Palestinian journalists received death threats from groups Fatah movement, believing that these threats represent bankruptcy nationally and morally.

It accused the Bloc of them said, "Samih Asa'ad groups" to send each of these threats Chief Editor of "Palestine" local journalist Mustafa Sawaf, director of the Office of the Press home, and board member of the bloc, the Palestinian journalist Imad Abdel-Quds newspaper correspondent and local journalist Ahmad Muchehrawi.

The Khalil Gibran school curriculum

Since there are more questions than answers about the Arabic-language public school opening in Brooklyn, here is where to find the details, with links so you can form your own conclusions.

The only subject that has a new curriculum is Arabic language. All the other subjects - math, history (humanities), science, reading - are typical 6th grade public school topics. The high-level curriculum can be seen here.

The Arabic curriculum is described this way:

All students will take a basic introductory Arabic language course that meets 3
times a week and is supplemented by small group instruction 2 additional
periods a week.

This is an introductory course designed primarily for non-native speakers and
differentiated based on student experience with Arabic and other language
study. It will begin with alphabet, phonetics, basic introduction to the language
framework, and will continue to include reading, writing, speaking and listening
in Arabic.

There is no NYC 6th grade curriculum for the introduction to Arabic.
Teachers who were trained at STARTALK, a federally funded
professional development program at Michigan State University, are
designing the curriculum.

In the initial phase, materials will be created by curriculum teachers
based on samples and resources provided by the Arabic Language
Instruction Professional Development Program at Michigan State
University. As students develop proficiency, they will begin to use the
Scholastic My Arabic Library

(http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/worldwide/mepi/english.htm).
The library is a set of translations of English language stories into
Arabic.

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/lote/ (NYS Learning Standards for
Modern Languages other than English)

On first glance, the Scholastic Arabic program seems to be fine - the My Arabic library is described as "a set of translations of English language stories into Arabic." If this is true, then there should be no worries about indoctrination or glorifying any problematic parts of Arabic culture.

The Scholastic Arabic site describing My Arabic Library adds a couple of details that one will not find in the English sites:(autotranslated)

It "class library" prepared for the first year until the sixth basic education.

The library includes one thirty to forty interesting titles and five copies of each title, as well as the teacher guide and posters.

These books have been chosen by Arab educators and specialists and translated in the Arab world and ratified by the ministries of education in each of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Lebanon and the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kingdom of Morocco.

The list of books in the library seems innocuous enough, including The Cat in the Hat, biographies of Amelia Earhart and Louis Braille, a book about volcanoes and a "Mystery at the Museum" - pretty much the same kind of thing that American classroom reading classes have been using for decades.

From looking at this, assuming that the stated curriculum is adhered to, I cannot see anything dangerous about the school at this time. The school seems to be appropriately transparent in its studies and as long as it stays that way - and as long as it does not become a substitute for private Arabic schools - it should not be any more problematic than Spanish or Chinese charter schools. But because the potential downside is so large, it should certainly be observed carefully.

There are still many unanswered questions. While the curriculum does not talk about Arab culture, the Executive Summary of the school emphasizes the cultural aspect of the school. That is the part that we have not heard enough about. It appears that the school will stray into political topics in the ninth grade, and this has the potential of being a disaster.

Another question is what the orientation of the Arab American Family Support Center might be (it is the "Lead Partner" for the school), as they are the initial Arabic-language instructors since there are not enough teachers who know Arabic in the New York public school system yet.

Look for the Hamas/Fatah civil war to re-ignite Friday

For the past few weeks, Fatah has held "prayer gatherings" in Gaza as a protest against Hamas. Last week's ended up with 11 Fatah members injured.

This week, Hamas has issued a fatwa against these outdoor prayers:

The de facto Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip has decided to ban what they call "political prayer" on Fridays in public squares. The head of the union of Palestinian religious intellectuals in the Gaza Strip, Marwan Abu Ras, on Monday issued a fatwa declaring participation in such prayers a sin.

"The open-air prayers go beyond simply worship and are being used to create chaos and terrorism," the spokesperson of the deposed Ministry of the Interior, Eyhab Al-Ghussein told Ma'an. He pledged that the security services would impose security and order in Gaza Strip by any means necessary.

Abu Ras, who issued the fatwa, explained that during last Friday prayers last week, some worshippers were smoking, wearing golden chains, and even selling food and drink – activities that are not in keeping with the sacredness of Friday prayers. "The purpose behind that prayer was absolutely something beyond worship, " he said.

Tahir Nono, a spokesperson of the deposed government confirmed that his government decided to ban public gatherings on Fridays which he said were held in the guise of Friday prayers.

Of course, Fatah has its own imams who are more than thrilled to create their own opposing fatwas allowing prayer outside mosques:(autotranslated from PalPress):

Presse decreed Samaha Dr. Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, Chief Judge of Palestine Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council legitimate passport prayers outside mosques in the open and public squares, stressing that the official is authorized to issue advisory opinions are only Shariah courts or Dar Al-Fatwa.

His eminence pointed out that the fatwa inadmissibility Friday prayers in the open is not based on the text or forensic evidence, stressing that the Koran anecdotes and actual expressly stipulated passport prayer anywhere, he said peace be upon him (and made me land mosques and purifying فايما man farce hammer prayer فليصل) Tellers Bukhari, the Prophet peace be upon him lead prayers holidays and edema and funeral outside Nabawi Mosque in Medina Chapel, located in the open door at the east.

Now that Fatah and Hamas have enlisted both politics and religion into their positions, we can be sure that Friday's prayers will be a blast.