Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

PalArab terrorists would love to kill Britney Spears and Madonna

From WND:

Muslim terrorist leaders threatened to forcibly convert Britney Spears and Madonna to Islam and warned if they resist, their heads would be cut off for "spreading Satanic culture," according to a new book released today.

The threats, recorded on audio, come as Madonna is due to arrive in Israel Wednesday to celebrate the Jewish new year with fellow Kabbalah practitioners.

"If I meet these whores I will have the honor – I repeat, I will have the honor – to be the first one to cut the heads off Madonna and Britney Spears if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam," said Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

I heard that Britney bombed at some awards show recently, but I didn't think she did that badly.

Read the whole thing...and Aaron Klein's book looks like a must-read.

Beersheba suicide bombing thwarted

From JPost:

On September 3 security forces foiled a plot to carry out a suicide attack in Beersheba, officials announced Wednesday.

Reportedly, the terrorist, a resident of the Gaza Strip, infiltrated Israel via the Egyptian border with an explosives belt. In his interrogation he admitted to being an PFLP activist on his way to Beersheba, where he was planning to detonate the explosives belt in a large crowd of people.

And this isn't even considered a major story in Israel.

9/11

More on James Abourezk's review of Walt/Mearsheimer

It turns out that the California Literary Review allows comments on its website, and the first comment on the review by James Abourezk was someone named "Kyle" who quoted my posting on the topic from yesterday. (Thanks, Kyle!)

Surprisingly, Abourezk responded back, saying that

When Kyle opens his comment with the accusation that I believe Jews were behind 9/11, he makes my point for me.
That is something that I have never said. Kyle’s accusation is one of the ways Israel’s supporters use to silence dissent–that is attributing something to me that is not true.

In response, I wrote two comments:

Kyle quoted the MEMRI translation of Abourezk’s interview with his friends at Hezbollah.
If Abourezk want to dispute MEMRI’s transcript (found at http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD170807 ) the video, which is in English, can be seen at http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1551.htm. The exact quote is “the Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation.”

Unless I am mistaken about the meaning of the word “actually” this is exactly what Mr. Abourezk is saying.

Of course, while I am sure that he can quibble about whether he meant that literally, when he in that same interview refuses to call Hamas “terrorists” - preferring to refer to them as heroic “freedom fighters” - which shows that Mr. Abourezk’s definition of terrorism is fairly elastic, twistable in ways to make Jews into terrorists while absolving Arabs who were behind countless suicide bombings against civilians.

Perhaps the evil Zionists who control the world and the media managed to edit the interview with Al Manar to make Mr. Abourezk look like he supports terrorists from Hamas and Hezbollah.

And then, since Abourezk is so fond of quoting Ilan Pappe, I added:

By the way, Ilan Pappe himself admits that his “history” is not based as much on facts as on how he wants to perceive them: “My [pro-Palestinian] bias is apparent despite the desire of my peers that I stick to facts and the ‘truth’ when reconstructing past realities. I view any such construction as vain and presumptuous. This book is written by one who admits compassion for the colonized not the colonizer; who sympathizes with the occupied not the occupiers; and sides with the workers not the bosses. He feels for women in distress, and has little admiration for men in command…. Mine is a subjective approach….” In other words, he is a fraud as a historian and he uses whatever facts he uncovers in only one direction: to demonize Israel. Which is very similar to how Abourezk seems to write, judging from his “review.”

It is not surprising that Abourezk chooses to base his claims about Zionist atrocities on such a flimsy basis - and Pappe’s description of “Plan Dalet” is just one of his more egregious attempts to build a case for ethnic cleansing when there was none. How effective can Israel’s supposed “ethnic cleansing” be Israel now has more Arab citizens than the total number of Palestinian Arabs in 1948?

I must say, though, that I was amused that Abourzek mentions Jonathan Pollard. One would think that with such an all powerful set of Elders of Zion running the United States government, they would have managed to get him pardoned by now!

We'll see if Abourezk responds.

UPDATE: Someone else did, so I answered them:

Elder wrote: “Anything but the subject of American policy towards Israel, PLEASE.”

LOL, reader. I do take requests.
The best response I’ve seen is Dore Gold’s article here:
http://jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=2&amp;DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=376&PID=0&IID=1795&TTL=Understanding_the_U.S.-Israel_Alliance:_An_Israeli_Response_to_the_Walt-Mearsheimer_Claim
If you want to know chapter and verse of what the US gets out of its relationship with Israel, that’s a great place to start.

Another good point is made here: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/pollak/902
“It is no exaggeration to say that France’s Middle East politics are exemplary of the kind of foreign policy Walt and Mearsheimer claim will best serve American interests. But what, after all, did France gain for all its legendary favoritism toward the Arab world? Absolutely nothing—except, I suppose, revenue from arms sales during the Iran-Iraq war (overtly to Saddam Hussein and covertly to Khomeini). France, as with so many Western countries, has found it difficult to convince Middle East thugs to return its affections.”

Ditto for Denmark - one of the most tolerant and pro-Arab nations in the planet, but a single cartoon causes death threats - and deaths. What a realistic policy!

My question is, why do we want America to be even-handed towards a people who celebrate American and Western deaths?

I have news for you: Israel is only the “little Satan.” America is the “big Satan,” and if Israel would disappear tomorrow it would not make any difference at all as to how Arabs think of the US - and the West as a whole. The West symbolizes humiliation for Arabs and that is not going to go away without a wholesale change in the way most ordinary Arabs think. There are group psychologies at work here, and we don’t understand them as badly as they don’t understand us.

I hope that’s enough for you to start with, reader. My blog elaborates at length on many of these issues.

(h/t Soccer Dad for the Commentary quote.)

"Overwhelming joy" at rocket attack

While the English-language Palestinian Arab press has been muted in its reaction to the Qassam attack this morning that injured dozens of Israeli soldiers in Zikim, the Arabic newspapers are unrestrained in their enthusiasm.

From Palestine Today (autotranslated):

The overwhelming joy swept around the Gaza Strip following the operation carried out by Al-Quds and Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades in the Israeli military expedition south of the city of Ashkelon and resulted in the injury of 67 different Israeli soldier wounded, while prevailed shock Israeli society that has not yet absorbed the painful blow.

And across the citizen Abu Rami joy of the process, saying: I invite all the Palestinian factions to walk in the footsteps of Al-Quds introduced joy to our hearts after the sadness that Uncle sector.

The Islamic Jihad supporters distributed sweets to motorists and pedestrians in the streets of Gaza City as an expression of joy with the "dawn of victory."

The West Bank territories received news of the "dawn of victory", which was carried out by the Palestinian resistance in the sector dawn today, the overwhelming joy, playing the Palestinian need for such operations, which would restore unity to the Palestinian people which is now scattered among the sector and the West Bank.

...a university student from Ramallah said that the process was actually a gift from the resistance all Palestinians in a situation experienced by the vast nation divided, the opportunity to emphasize that the resistance is unite the Palestinian people and is the only destination, and also unite community Israeli completely against the Palestinians.

He continued: "I think that this process may revive energy in the hearts of all mujahideen factions represent Bushra beginning of a new stage of resistance and struggle with the Zionist enemy. "

(Another) noted that the joy of the people this process is only an indication of the public rallying around the resistance option, every Palestinian as he said, agreed to celebrate this process.

The first and most obvious thing to note is that these Arabs are ecstatic over what they perceive as a military victory, where many soldiers were injured. The only comparable times that I can remember Israelis being equally happy over military operations - to the point of celebration - would be Entebbe, Osirak and 1967, all of which celebrated the saving of Israeli lives as opposed to celebrating enemy casualties.

Westerners need to understand that this is a different mindset. We do not celebrate enemy deaths or injuries (and in Israel's case, Israel often treats those very injuries) - but Arabs do celebrate their enemies' pain, unapologetically.

Which brings us up to the next point - why are they celebrating?

The Islamic Jihad has always taken the "high road" in the Fatah/Hamas clashes, saying that they need to unite in order to fight the real enemy. In this case, they succeeded in creating that unity, even if it is brief. They are completely invested in the destruction of Israel - it is their entire raison d'etre - and operations like these help prolong their existence. They know that one thing and one thing only unites the Arabs and that is their pure, unadulterated hatred for Israel. This attack heralds the "unity" that Palestinian Arabs never had but always talk about.

Another point is that the PalArabs are absolutely convinced that attacks like these will bring them to victory. They know intellectually that Israel will likely respond in ways that will make life in Gaza more difficult, and from past experience they know that those responses will be limited and temporary. Their psychological boost from such "victories" are far more powerful than their humiliation fromIsrael's traditional, "proportionate" responses have been.

From reading about the visceral reaction about this attack it is hard not to think about the other famous time Palestinian Arabs handed out candy to celebrate a perceived victory- exactly six years ago on 9/11. Over the years of the intifada is is abundantly clear that civilian deaths are celebrated as much as Israeli soldier deaths.

Mentally, this attack against brand-new recruits makes the PalArabs think that they can engage the IDF as real men and that is a huge ego boost. They have celebrated in their media much smaller attacks - sniping Israeli soldiers or blowing up empty jeeps, as well as the daily Qassam attacks against kindergarteners. One cannot understand the Arab joy of hurting their enemy unless one understands their bottomless feeling of humiliation at having lost wars to the weak Jews. Their egos are so crushed that any tiny feeling of empowerment is an occasion for unbridled joy.

Which brings up another reason for attacks like these. One major purpose is to humiliate the Jews the way that the Arabs themselves feel humiliated. They project their own feelings onto the Jews and they imagine that Israelis are cringing at being bested by the Arabs. They are absolutely clueless as to how Israelis think - certainly in Israel there is anger because this Qassam rocket problem has not been solved, and there will be finger-pointing and hand-wringing - but there is not a feeling of humiliation. (If Israeli felt that way, they would have already reacted the way that the Arabs would react if they had the means - with complete and total destruction of the enemy.)

The gaps in how the two sides perceive each other will not close in the foreseeable future, so it is imperative to understand the other side's thought-process. And neither side seems to be able to do that.

Freedom of the press, PalArab-style (XIII)

Hamas just arrested another journalist:

Palestinian security services, affiliated to the de facto government in the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday seized the director of Palestine TV, Fayiq Jarada. 'Security reasons' were stated as a pretext for the apprehension.

The ministry of the interior in the Gaza Strip alleged that Jarada was detained because he was filming too close to a security post in Gaza City, along with other photojournalists and cameramen.

The ministry claimed that Jarada was filming Palestinian security personnel in order to send their images to the Fatah-affiliated caretaker government in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

The committee for defending journalists within the government will secure the fair trial of Jarada, said the interior ministry, as agreed by the ministry of information in Gaza.

Well, at least he will get a fair trial before he is tortured and his body dumped.

Times(UK) editorial: 9/11 and the cult of death

This article by Martin Amis is quite meandering but it finally hits its stride towards the end:

September 11 means September 11, 2001 – the day the towers came down. It was also the day when something was revealed to us. Do we now know what that was? Much of our analysis, perhaps, has been wholly inapposite, because we keep trying to construe Islamism in terms of the ratiocinative. How does it look when we construe it in terms of the emotions? Familiar emotional states (hurt, hatred, fury, shame, dishonour, and, above all, humiliation), but at unfamiliar intensities – intensities that secular democracy, and the rules of law and civil society, will always tend to neutralise. There is religious passion too, of course, but even the bruited, the roared fanaticism seems unrobust. It may even be that what we are witnessing is not spiritual certainty so much as spiritual insecurity and spiritual doubt.
Islamism has been with us for the lion’s share of a century. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928, and within a decade there was an offshoot in what would soon become Pakistan. But the emotionally shaping event, one is forced to deduce, was the establishment of the Jewish Homeland. In the war fought to bring that about, Israel, occupying 0.6 per cent of Arab lands and with a proportional population, defeated the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Trans-Jordan, together with the supplementary forces of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
In the other 99.4 per cent of Arab lands, this event is known as al-nakba: the catastrophe. And that epithet hardly overstates the case. The “godless” Soviet Union, after a comparable reverse, might have fallen into troubled self-scrutiny; but what does it mean for peoples who sincerely believe that an omnipotent deity is minutely attentive to their desires and deserts? Having endured several centuries of Christian prosperity, global power and reach, and eventual empire, the Islamic nations were vanquished by a province the size of New Jersey. In the Koran, the Jews are portrayed as cunning and dangerous, yet they are never portrayed as strong: “Children of Israel . . . Dread My might.” We in the West have ceased to understand the meaning of the word “humiliation”, and we use it, in descriptions of our daily struggles, with the lilt of comic hyperbole. Now we must further imagine how it feels to be humiliated, not only by history, but also by God.
This was surely a negative eureka for the Muslim idea. Following the defeat of 1948, and following the defeat (in six days) of 1967, Islam, or its militant vanguard, was finding that it had arrived at a crossroads – or a T-junction. The way to the left was marked Less Religion, and meant a journey to the future. The way to the right was marked More Religion (Islam is the Solution), and meant a journey to the past. Which direction would lead to the return of God’s favour? On their left, a stretch of oily macadam, perhaps resembling one of the unlovelier sections of the London orbital, scattered with windblown trash, and, of course, choked and throttled with traffic. On their right, something like a garden path at the Alhambra, cleaner, simpler and – thanks to the holy warriors and their “smiting of necks” – much, much emptier. In Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern, John Gray reminds us that Islamism, in both its techniques and its pathologies, is on the crest of the contemporary. But the emotions all point the other way; they speak of retrogression and revanchism; they speak of a vehement and desperate nostalgia.
Sayyid Qutb, like someone relaying a commonplace or even a tautology, often said that it is in the nature of Islam to dominate. Where, though, are its tools and its instruments? The only thing Islamism can dominate, for now, is the evening news. But that is not nothing, in a world of pandemic suggestibility, munition glut, and our numerous Walter Mittys of mass murder. September 11 entrained a moral crash, planet-wide; it also loosened the ground between reality and reverie. So when we speak of it, let’s call it by its proper name; let’s not suggest that our experience of that event, that development, has been frictionlessly absorbed and filed away. It has not. September 11 continues, it goes on, with all its mystery, its instability, and its terrible dynamism.

Get your Crusade NYC T-shirts here!

According to the New York Post:

Proving again that even bad publicity can be good for business, the group that created "Intifada NYC" T-shirts is being swamped with requests for its controversial fashion statement.
The shirts, produced by Arab Women Active in Arts & Media, made headlines after Debbie Almontaser, the first principal of a controversial Arabic-themed city school, defended them.
The furor led to her resignation as principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy on Aug. 10.
"Good question. No comment," was all Erica Waples, an organizer with AWAAM, had to say when asked about the surge of support for her insurgent-themed line of clothes.
AWAAM's Web site has received messages of encouragement and order requests for the pink-hued shirts that the group says advocates empowerment for Arab women.
"I am so sorry for all that your organization has been going through, I would very much like one of the intifadah NYC shirts," one fan wrote.
Another posted: "Expose the ignorance. Expose the Zionist angle."

Well, here's the Ziyonist angle:

Yes, you can order your own Crusade NYC T-Shirts right here!

Only $18.18! Order today for the holidays!

Crusade USA T-shirts coming soon!

California Literary Review chooses Hamas supporter to review "The Israel Lobby"

So the California Literary Review wanted to find someone to review the Walt and Mearsheimer book - and who do you think they found?

A pro-terror former US Senator and founder of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, James Abourezk!

Not surprisingly, he is thrilled with the book, and throws in his own personal examples of being persecuted by the all-powerful Elders of Zion, er, Israel Lobby. Interestingly, he uses as one example Jonathan Pollard, who remains in jail despite the incredible power of the omnipotent Lobby. Abourzek throws in some praise for Ilan Pappe and a few insults against Alan Dershowitz for good measure.

By a happy coincidence, he was recently interviewed on Hezbollah TV (Al-Manar), where he had a chance to show where his loyalties lie:

Interviewer: "You also called Hizbullah and Hamas 'resistance fighters.'"

James Abourezk: "They are."

Interviewer: "While the U.S. administration brands them as 'terrorist organizations'..."

James Abourezk: "That was done at the request of Israel. That name was done at the request of Israel - that the United States calls them terrorist organizations."
....
Interviewer: "Here I need to ask you something, which is growing and escalating in the Western world, and particularly in the U.S., which is this immense wave of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment, lumping all Arabs together as 'terrorists.' This was clearly manifested in movies and TV series, like 24. Why? Why now? Is it just after 9/11?"

James Abourezk: "No, it's after the Soviet Union collapsed. The Zionists were looking around for another enemy to have, because to them the Soviet Union was an enemy because they wouldn't allow Jewish emigration. So they used that as an organizing tool, basically, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, there was no more organizing about the Soviet Union. So they looked around, and they said: Well, the Muslims. Let's find the Arabs and the Muslims, and make them the boogeyman. And that's what they did."

Interviewer: "But why did this sentiment of hatred increase after 9/11?"

James Abourezk: "Well, because the Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs. It's a racist sort of thing, really racist - you know, picking out these 19 or 20 terrorists - they were terrorists - and saying all the Arabs are like them. So, you know, people in America don't really look at it that deeply, and they accept what the government and the press are saying."[...]

Interviewer: "So who is controlling who?"

James Abourezk: "The lobby is controlling the Congress."

Interviewer: "But you said that the U.S. is not in need of Israel, but rather, Israel needs the U.S."

James Abourezk: "Yes, that's right. But how they..."

Interviewer: "It's very paradoxical."

James Abourezk: "Well, how they fulfill that need is by pressuring Congress to support Israel. The chief objective of the Israeli lobby is to keep the American taxpayers' money flowing to Israel. That's the chief objective. They stop anybody who criticizes Israel, so that may stop the money from flowing. That's why they attack people who attack Israel."[...]

Abourezk's paranoia about Jews makes him a well-qualified person to comment on the Elders/Israel Lobby!

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency today appealed to international donors for 55 million dollars to fund the first year of rehabilitation and emergency assistance to refugees from the Nahr el Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Launching the appeal, UNRWA estimated that a high percentage of the camp’s infrastructure had been “put out of action” by fierce fighting raging since the third week of May. The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Karen AbuZayd, joined the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora in launching the multi-million dollar appeal in Beirut on Monday.

(AFP has the number at $400 million.)

Let's step back for a minute.

The only reason that there are "refugee" camps in Lebanon is because Lebanon refuses to allow Arabs of Palestinian descent to become citizens of Lebanon, no matter how many generations later. (In 1994, however, a law was passed in Lebanon instantly allowing a half million Syrians to become citizens of Lebanon.) In addition, Lebanon places severe restrictions on what kinds of jobs Palestinian Arabs may have there, and it has laws that de facto discriminate against Palestinian Arabs.

If people were truly interested in ending Palestinian Arab suffering in Lebanon, they would pressure the Lebanese government to stop its discrimination against Palestinian Arabs, allowing them to integrate into society and dismantling the camps.

The UNRWA runs the "refugee" camps in Lebanon. Yet the UNRWA has allowed terrorists to operate freely in these camps, as evidenced by what happened in Nahr el Bared. By any objective measure, the UNRWA policy in Lebanon has utterly failed.

While in the immediate future the suffering of the Nahr el Bared residents do need to be alleviated, no money should be given unless a clear path is created where Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon can live there without discrimination. UNRWA is a joke and has proven that over sixty years they have not helped Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon - on the contrary, they have allowed the suffering to continue, the UN has not lifted a finger to pressure Lebanon to stop its discriminatory policies, and they have allowed the Arab nations to use Palestinians as pawns in the name of a bogus "Palestinian national interest" - sacrificing everyday Palestinian Arabs on the altar of a pretense of their best interests.

A large part of Palestinian Arab suffering is a direct result of UN policies that pretend to help them. To give the UN more money without forcing them to fix their mistakes is folly.

Followup on New Statesman libel

The New Statesman (UK) published a response by an IDF captain to the disgusting article last week comparing the IDF's Gadna and Marva programs with Hamas and Islamic Jihad training camps.

As one might expect, the reader comments are tending towards the rabid, Jew-hating side.

(h/t Backspin)

Jordan's apartheid citizenship law

As my continuing series on Palestinian Arab history has shown, Jordan has been unique among Arab countries in extending full citizenship to all "Palestinians."

But how exactly do they define "Palestinian?" After all, the Jews of Palestine before the 1948 war were certainly as "Palestinian" as the Arabs were, and were in fact considered more Palestinian at the time. So how could Jordan create a citizenship law for only the Palestinians they wanted and not the ones they didn't?

It turns out that Jordan managed to get around that problem in their Law No. 6 of 1954 on Nationality:

"Any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954;"

Even though Transjordan expelled every single Jew from its illegally annexed territory in 1948-9, just in case there were a few left they enshrined into law that even those Palestinian Jews could never become citizens of Jordan.

The law has been revised since then, as recently as 1987, but the "not being Jewish" line is still a part of Jordanian law today.

For the human rights junkies out there, this entails multiple violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.

Gaza journalists self-censor out of fear of Hamas

From the New York Times (h/t Elder Brother of Ziyon):

...Hamas seems confused about how to quash Fatah protests and simultaneously deal with the news media. Trying to nurture a reputation for honesty and legal behavior since they conquered Gaza in bloody fighting in June, Hamas’s leaders promise journalists freedom of action while the police intimidate them.

One result is a kind of self-censorship, local journalists say, that goes beyond what they traditionally practiced under Fatah, which also tried to pressure, manipulate or own the Palestinian press....

Palestinian journalists describe a confusing situation, in which Hamas, as a fundamentally religious organization new to politics and used to obedience, is putting undue pressure on the news media, especially with regard to the use of television images and photographs. Hamas is in a fierce political struggle with Fatah, and both factions are using the media at their command — the official Palestinian television and radio by Fatah, which also has its own outlets and newspapers, and Hamas’s newspapers, radio and sophisticated television channel, Al Aksa, which is modeled on Al Minar, which is run by Hezbollah.

Each accuses the other of being infidels and in the service of outsiders — Fatah says Hamas serves Iran; Hamas says Fatah serves Israel and America. In addition to children’s shows urging war against Israel and the Israeli occupation, praising martyrdom and attacking Jews, Hamas television runs a news scroll underneath devoted entirely to Hamas-flavored news. The official Palestinian Authority television, hard to see now in Gaza, is only a little more balanced.

Fatah in the West Bank has closed Hamas-affiliated media outlets and charities and prevented Hamas-supported newspapers from circulating or Hamas television from broadcasting. Equipment has been confiscated or destroyed, and six Hamas journalists have been arrested, Mr. Nounou said, and 12 more beaten. But here in Gaza, Hamas has done the same to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority-controlled media. At least eight outlets were closed, including three newspapers, and many Fatah journalists have fled.

Ahmad Odeh, of Maan news agency, said: “This government came into power by a coup, and in Ramallah, there is an emergency government that rules by decree. There’s no democracy on either side. What do you expect?”

Local reporters, including those working for international news agencies, have been pressured, as they used to be pressured under Fatah, but now with a degree more menace. Yet Hamas leaders say they are committed to freedom of speech, while demanding that journalists report “objectively.”...

Under Fatah, “the rules were essentially clear,” said another local journalist working for a different news agency. “Don’t attack Yasir Arafat or Muhammad Dahlan or Rashid Abu Shbak,” all prominent Fatah figures, “and don’t touch the issue of corruption. That was basically all. Now, of course, it’s Abbas and a few other figures.”

But Hamas, he said, “isn’t used to criticism and doesn’t like it.” While Fatah is essentially a broad, secular movement and disorganized, “Hamas is less accepting of advice or criticism, and it’s less experienced and open to the world.”

Since June, he said, Gaza is under a kind of military rule, and everyone is wary.

“People aren’t sure what the boundaries are, and Hamas tries to reassure them, but people feel a little afraid,” he said. “Self-censorship is more devastating than censorship laws. And the self-censorship, especially for journalists, is more depressing and complicated than before.”

Which means that things in Hamastan and Fatahland are worse than is being reported.

And one of my problems when trying to mention things happening in Gaza is that I am relying on the Palestine Press Agency, which seems to be only barely reliable. For example, tonight they reported on Hamas attacking a 12-year old boy in a camp for displaying a picture of a previous victim of a Hamas assassination. Is it true? No one else will dare report this information and Palpress hates Hamas with a passion. So what's the truth in Gaza? Unfortunately, we will not know based only on the reports of journalists who are too afraid to actually report.

There won't be any plays written about this ISM member

A member of the International Solidarity Movement was murdered last week.

Let's look at the circumstances of his death and compare it to another famous ISM member's demise:

Name	Rachel Corrie	Akram Ibrahim Abu Sba’
Gender	Female	Male
Nationality	American	Palestinian Arab
How killed?	Allowed herself to be hit while standing in front of a slow-moving bulldozer	Shot in the chest, point blank, by Islamic Jihad
Was the killing condemned by ISM?	Yes	No
Plays written about life story?	Yes	No
Used as a symbol of war crimes?	Yes	No

Poor Akram. He had the misfortune to be killed by people who ISM considers the "good guys."

If only he didn't belong to a group whose entire purpose is hypocritical, he might have been considered a martyr.

Help wanted: Job in Jerusalem starting at $126K/yr

Yes, you can live comfortably in Jerusalem if you qualify for this job!

Director of UNRWA Operations, D-1, West Bank (Jerusalem)
Ref. VN/M/35/2007

Under the overall direction of the Commissioner-General based in Jerusalem is responsible for:

(1) Administering the health, education and relief and social services programmes through subordinate officers by:

A) Assessing the needs for quasi-governmental services, drafting and implementing programme objectives to meet changing needs of refugee population, assigning available resources to meet objectives;

B) Monitoring the implementation of, evaluating and taking corrective action on programmes and projects administered by the Agency;

C) Supervising periodic and final reporting and evaluation of all programmes

(2) Promoting Agency objectives and refugee programme services by:

A) Establishing and maitaining effective relations with the host government/authority, diplomatic missions, other UN Agencies, non-governmental agencies and the media;

B) Negotiating with the host government, authorities and donors on privileges, permissions and physical assistance to improve the refugees' situation.

C) Briefing officials of donor governments, embassies, local government, NGOs and other UN agencies in relation to use of contributions, pursuit of Agency programmes and the refugee situation in general;

D) Undertaking a variety of speaking engagements and public appearances in order to promote the position of the Agency;

E) Coordinating, at the country level, fund raising, public information and public relations activities and following up on fund raising appeals.

(3) Managing the human and financial resources for the offices in the field by:

A) Planning and supervising overall activities of offices of the field and their operational requirements;

B) Ensuring efficient application of Agency policies, directives and procedures. ;

C) Motivating, training and developing staff, and providing support in the face of political and social upheaval and volatile security situations;

D) Overseeing the preparation of field budgets and work plans;

E) Representing the Agency in discussions on working conditions with staff unions.

(4) Providing substantive input to the Commissioner-General and the Management Committee for the formulation of Agency policies and plans. Providing input on political, social and economic developments in the host country/authority, as well as the impact on and of Agency policies and programmes.

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

A) An advanced university degree in political science, social science, public or business administration, or international relations.

B) At least 15 years of professional and managerial background of which at least 10 years should have been in successively senior positions in a large governmental or international agency dealing with similar programmes. The incumbent must have a high level of skill in management of broad programmes, political decision making and negotiating as well as demonstrated tolerance to frequently changing and highly charged situations.

C) Excellent command of written and spoken English.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

A) Knowledge of UNRWA operations and services;

B) Knowledge of Middle East geo-political realities and its socio-cultural implications.

C) Knowledge of Arabic and/or French.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The incumbent will be required to travel frequently throughout the Agency's area of operations in the Middle East.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE & HOW TO APPLY:

UNRWA offers an attractive compensation package including gross annual salary starting at $126,565 ($94,564 net tax free with dependants, $87,407 single) plus 37.1% (subject to change) of post adjustment.) Other fringe benefits could include mobility and hardship allowance, education grant, dependency allowance, home leave, pension fund, health insurance and 6 weeks annual leave. Initial contract is for 1 year, which is also considered a probationary period, and is extendable for further periods depending on the performance of the incumbent.

If you are craving a little more adventure, there's a job in Gaza as an assistant director that pays about $105K, but you aren't allowed to bring your children to Gaza with you.

The jobs that UNRWA offers to the locals don't pay quite as much. Positions in Amman, including programmer/analysts, pay closer to $12K annually.