Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Israel barred from international sports event - Iran brags

Iran's news agencies are reporting that Iran successfully blackmailed the International Military Sports Council (CISM) from allowing Israel to join:

Iran's efforts to establish a single stance among Islamic countries eventually succeeded in preventing the Zionist regime of Israel from joining the International Military Sports Council (CISM).

Speaking to FNA here on Sunday, General Mohammad Ali Sabour , a member of the presiding board of the International Military Sports Council, said Israel strives to attend international events and bodies in a bid to buy recognition for its illegitimate entity.

"The Zionist regime, backed by certain western countries, launched extensive efforts in 2001 to take part in the world armies' Olympic games," he said, adding, "But Israel's pressures were defused due to solidarity of the Islamic countries which had been created through the extensive consultations of Iran, and thus, they (Israeli regime and its western supporters) could not achieve their goal."

The General said that following the said efforts by the Israeli regime, Iran, supported and accompanied by Islamic countries, threatened to withdraw from CISM.

"And the officials of the International Military Sports Council were eventually made to oppose Israel's membership in the council, arguing that these games are meant to provide a place for peace and tranquility while the Zionist regime's participation would cause tension and instability of these games," he concluded.

Let's take a look at some of the CISM's goals and principles:

The International Military Sports Council, known by its acronym "CISM", is an international sports association composed of the armed forces of member nations accepted by the General Assembly. CISM is open to the armed forces of all nations.

The aims of CISM are to develop friendly relations between the Armed Forces of member nations, promote physical education and sports activities, provide mutual technical assistance, support less privileged members in the name of friendship and solidarity, contribute towards the balanced and harmonious development of military personnel, and contribute to the international effort for universal peace.

This ideal is encapsulated in the CISM motto "FRIENDSHIP THROUGH SPORT".

A. CISM is an apolitical organization which fosters, through sport, friendship between military athletes to promote international harmony.
B. CISM values sport in the Armed Forces as an essential pillar of international sport and universal peace.
C. CISM adheres to the universal principles of “mens sana in corpore sano”, and “all human beings are born free and equal, in dignity and in rights”, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the United Nations Charter.
D. CISM rejects all forms of discrimination towards a nation or a person on the basis of race, religion, political belief, and any other discriminatory practice.

Putting these two together, one can see that the CISM is blatantly hypocritical in allowing a single nation, by its own admission, to exclude another nation in violation of its own published principles.

The CISM has 128 member nations, and it is telling that none of them are willing to stand up against Iran in its bullying tactics. I don't think that any Israelis are losing any sleep over what is essentially yet another bunch of hypocrites running obscure sporting events, but it shows that even today, with its explicit calls for genocide, Iran is a much more esteemed member of the family of nations than Israel is.

Fatah is capable of goodwill too!

It is perhaps unfair to characterize Israel as being the only party in this conflict that hands out goodwill gestures like Arab candy after a terror attack. Fatah has its own version of goodwill gestures as well.

To Hamas.

This photo of terrorist man-love comes courtesy of our friends, the moderate PA.

A Palestinian member of the Hamas movement, who would not give his name, right, is embraced by a friend, left, after his release by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Jenin, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007. The Palestinian authority released 12 Hamas members from a prison in Jenin Sunday. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

See? They can be nice too!

Interestingly, Reuters reported the story too, but rather than say "12" terrorists were released, it says "several." :

Palestinian Hamas supporters wait before being released from a Palestinian prison in the West Bank city of Jenin October 7, 2007. Several members of the Hamas movement were released from prison on Sunday by Palestinian security forces. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK)

Reuters never misses an opportunity to minimize the terror threat!

Palestinian militants on Sunday fired a Katyusha rocket from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, police said. The rocket, identified as a Grad-type Katyusha, landed in the area of Netivot, in the Negev Desert.

The Popular Resistance Committees armed organization claimed responsibility for the attack, which coincided with a number of mortar attacks against the Negev on Sunday.

There were no damage or injuries caused.

The mayor of Netivot said that the government had denied the town funds intended to provide for civil rocket defense. He said the stated reason for denying the funds, was that the town is located 11 kilometers from the Gaza border, rather than within a 10-kilometer radius the government had set, Israel Radio reported.

The Russian-invented Katyusha has a longer range than the more makeshift Qassam rocket that has been fired by the thousands at Negev towns and villages. Most Katyushas fired in the area are fired by the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah organization. But Palestinians fired a Katyusha at the southern Israel city of Ashkelon a year ago.

Nice to see that all that goodwill Israel received from abandoning Gaza is being paid back in spades. Not to mention Israel's abandonment of the Philadephi corridor that allows weapons smuggling to be increased from Egypt.

A similar goodwill gesture from Judea and Samaria would bring a large part of Central Israel, all the way to the Mediterranean, vulnerable to similar attacks.

Palestinian Christian bookstore owner murdered in Gaza

From JPost:

The body of a Christian official who was kidnapped over the weekend was discovered in Gaza City early Sunday, Palestinian sources said.

The man was identified as Rami Ayyad, 31, director of The Teacher's Bookshop, which is operated by the Palestinian Bible Society.
Although no group claimed responsibility for the murder, a number of Christians in Gaza City told The Jerusalem Post that Ayyad had received several death threats in the past from radical Muslims who accused him of conducting missionary activities.
His bookshop and the Palestinian Bible Society had been the target of repeated attacks over the past two years.
They noted that attacks on members of the 2,500-strong Christian community in the Gaza Strip had increased in recent months, especially since Hamas took full control over the area.

The PalArab self-death count for 2007 rises to 534.

UPDATE: Clan clash in Nablus, 32-year old man murdered. 535.

UPDATE 2: PalArab police shot and killed a man in a stolen car. 536.

UPDATE 3: Arab man found "riddled with bullets" near Hebron. 537.

Palestinian Arabs depressed - but not over "occupation"

Near East Consulting recently polled Palestinian Arabs on their attitudes, as they do every month.

A whopping 70% described themselves as "extremely depressed" or "depressed." So obviously they must be depressed over that insidious Israeli occupation, right?

Well, not quite:

Main issue that makes you feel concerned:
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent
The economic hardship of my household	338	34.7	35.4
The absence of security for me and my family	193	19.8	20.2
The internal power struggle	216	22.2	22.6
The Israeli occupation	76	7.8	8.0
Family problems	48	4.9	5.0
I have no concerns	83	8.5	8.7
Total	954	97.8	100.0

There has always been a major disconnect between the attitudes of real Palestinian Arabs and those of the people who pretend to speak for them - often their power-hungry so-called leaders, but also people of Palestinian Arab descent who moved to the West and and gained positions in academia or other professions where they can trumpet their extreme anti-Israel opinions that are increasingly divorced from how real Palestinian Arabs think. (The same poll in August showed that only 2.6 percent mentioned the Israeli "occupation" as their major concern.)

This has been a consistent pattern over recent decades - the Palestinian Arabs who have enough ambition to get the hell away from the territories are the ones who claim that they can speak for those who have stayed. They live privileged lives in the West as they rail against the Western countries that treat them best. Above all, they are complicit in the crime that allows Arab countries to keep up their apartheid uniquely against Palestinian Arabs, not allowing them to become citizens like any other Arabs.

Not only are Palestinian Arabs being betrayed by their own elected leaders, but they are being kept in misery by their own cousins who left them behind and pretend to speak for them. Because of them, the amount of pressure on Palestinian Arab leaders to truly reform in minimal while they spin their wheels railing against Israel, who the real Palestinian Arabs do not seem to have nearly as much of a problem with.
(h/t IMRA)

Chag Sameach yet again

Time to gear up for another long Jewish holiday weekend. Have a good Yom Tov, everyone!

Qods Day celebrations continue: Jerusalem prayers

Here is a list of all Muslim prayers that mention Jerusalem:

Once again, there are none.

As far as Jewish prayers that mention Jerusalem, here are a small sample:

3 times a day: "And to Jerusalem, Your city, may You return in compassion and may You rest within it, as You have spoken. May you rebuild it soon in our days as an eternal structure, and may you speedily establish the throne of David upon it. Blessed are You, Builder of Jerusalem."

After every meal: "Rebuild Jerusalem, the holy city, soon in our days. Blessed are You, Who rebuilds Jerusalem in His mercy, Amen."

At the end of the Passover Seder and at the end of Yom Kippur prayers: "Next year in Jerusalem!"

So now we have seen that there is no mention of Jerusalem in Islamic numismatics, art, poetry, and prayer that predate Zionism. The Muslim claim that Jerusalem is holy seems not to be evident from how Muslims have treated it throughout the centuries. The relatively recent innovation of Qods Day appears to have been created for purely political purposes, because Muslims, historically, have ignored the Holy City.

Qods Day has been moved up to this Friday, so I don't have the time I wanted to research Jerusalem being mentioned or ignored in Islamic folksongs or literature and compare them to Jewish mentions of Jerusalem throughout the centuries. I'm pretty sure that we would see the exact same results that we've seen so far. (We already know that Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran, as opposed to the hundreds of times it is mentioned in the Jewish Bible.)

So I want to once again thank Iran for giving me this opportunity to celebrate the city that is holy to Jews as well as Christians, and has been treated like garbage by Islam through most of its history.

UK Muslims freaking over Israeli dates

First it was Morocco, then Egypt. Now the Muslims of the UK are freaking out over the fact that some Muslim-owned stores are selling Israeli dates that people are eating during Ramadan.

The pro-terror MPACUK website has at least 4 articles about this horrible crime, complete with liberal use of exclamation points:

Ramadan has come, a time when Muslims around the world focus on all that is good and just. All Muslims come closer to Allah in this period except those who are truly cursed. It seems many Muslim shop-keepers fall into that category. Putting the money God before the One true God that created them. For years some Muslim shop-keepers have been selling dates soaked in the blood of Palestinian children. Can you believe the parasites who are selling Muslims dates from Israel to open their fasts with during Ramadan?!

A group of MPACers decided to spend one afternoon during Ramadan ascertaining the general consensus amongst these shop managers in Manchester and we gained a fascinating insight into the psyche of some Muslim businessmen!...
The most concerning meeting was in a store, where the man whom we were informed was the manager proceeded to lecture us on how he used to think like us when he was our age…

“but it is useless…you can’t do anything!”

“The Palestinians deserve it.”

“Arabs are so and so…”

Shocking! And they were happy to continue selling Israeli dates. How worrying that we give business to such nonchalant people with no sense of responsibility and a terrible streak of racism ingrained in them.

A Muslim sister writes in desperately seeking help:

“In a nutshell Sabar Brothers in Slough are selling Israeli dates - last time I got screamed at when I complained. When MPACUK helped with an Action Alert the shop-owners were abusive to others who called in and then went to the Jewish Chronicle to defend themselves.

This year they are selling big boxes of Israeli Carmel dates for £9.99 each also Jordan River dates (which they have purposely labeled Jordan River dates on a piece of cardboard to mislead people to think they come from Jordan) - even though I looked closely and I saw a little sticker that said 'product of Israel' in French on the box.

So, just like in 1947, Muslims are boycotting other Muslims when they just want to make a living, and they end up hurting their "brethren" while Israel hardly notices. Way to go!

PalArab "ambassador" shows his colors

An ambassador, by definition, is only supposed to speak to his "country"'s official positions, right?

Get a load of the "Palestinian" ambassador to Tehran:

Palestinian ambassador to Tehran Salah Zawawi here in Tehran on Tuesday dismissed any compromise with the Zionist regime in the so-called peace conference in the US, stressing that Palestinians want the Holy Qods back as their capital.

Zawawi noted the oppressions of the Zionist regime and the national resistance of the Palestinian people, and said, "There is no family in Palestine which has not dedicated a martyr or a handicapped member" to the national resistance against Israeli occupation.

He further assured that the "Zionist regime, this enemy of mankind, will be defeated soon and Palestine will eventually return to the Islamic Ummah (nation)."

The envoy also underlined unity and solidarity of Palestinian groups, and said all Jihadi groups in Palestine contribute a role in the struggle against Zionists' oppression, occupation and usurpation.

"We will not be satisfied with anything less than having the Holy Qods as our capital city; the one who forgets his country does not have the right to live. Palestine belongs to all Islamic countries and everyone has the right to express his/her views about the fate of Palestine," the Palestinian ambassador underscored.

He also assured that Palestinians' national resistance would continue until liberation of Palestine and achievement of freedom and victory.

So he is saying that terror is A-OK, that an eventual Palestine will encompass all of Israel and that after it gets established it will become part of a Muslim 'ummah - which shows yet again that the point isn't a Palestinian Arab state but the destruction of the Jewish state. He is negating every single Palestinian Arab "concession" ever made - all the paper declarations of desire for peace, against terror, for living side by side with Israel.

Now, it is of course possible that Zawawi is not saying the official Fatah line. But if that is true, wouldn't his comments start a firestorm of controversy and his forced resignation?

Don't hold your breath.

Tunnel meant to attack Israelis collapses

Ma'an (Arabic) reports that a Hamas terrorist was killed when the tunnel he was helping to build collapsed.

The tunnel was in Beit Hanoun, by the Gaza border with Israel.

There have been other terror tunnels built in the area - in 2004, PalArab terrorists killed an Israeli after digging a tunnel under the Erez industrial zone.

So far, no English-language news source has reported this.

The 2007 PalArab self-death count is now at 532.

UPDATE: A "work accident" in Rafah as an RPG accidentally gets fired and kills a 20-year old Hamas terrorist. 533.

"Do what we want or we'll kill you" - the moderate Fatah mafia

From reading the statements given by a senior member of Mahmoud Abbas' government, you can see how much the "moderate" Palestinian Arabs are just itching for peace:

A failure in the upcoming US-sponsored Middle East peace conference would have more dangerous repercussions than the botched Camp David summit in 2000, Fatah officials warned on Tuesday.

This was the first time senior Fatah officials hinted at a possible wave of violence if the conference - expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, next month - did not meet the Palestinians' demands.

"If we don't prepare well for the conference so that it will result in something positive, the repercussions will be more dangerous than what happened after the failure of Camp David," said Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the Fatah parliamentary list. He is closely associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Another top Fatah official warned against raising expectations on the eve of the conference. He pointed out that the second intifada erupted a few months after the Camp David summit.

"People then had high expectations," the official told The Jerusalem Post. "But then they realized that Israel was not serious about achieving peace with the Palestinians. The failure of next month's conference could bring another catastrophe upon us."

Hafez Barghouti, editor of the Fatah-controlled Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda daily, said pent-up frustration among the Palestinians could be vented if the US-sponsored event failed.

"Those who want the conference to succeed know the conditions for success," he said. "But those who want this fall's conference to be followed by a fall of wrath know the size of the accumulated anger [among Palestinians]."

Once again, it is time for the old mind game: How would the world react if Israeli officials said "Palestinian Arabs must accept our demands or we will wage war against their civilians"? This is what the moderate, Abbas-oriented Fatah says explicitly, and their desire for peace is nonexistent unless they dictate 100% of the terms on Israel.

Israel does not help its cause by being wishy-washy on its own red lines, which seem to move wildly every week. The Palestinian Arab "bargaining" position has not changed one bit since Camp David, which means that they still regard the intifada as a great victory for themselves and they feel that they are in the driver's seat. Meanwhile, Israel already gave up some of its best bargaining chips (Gaza and some settlements) unilaterally - and now we see how that "goodwill" is being repaid.

Qods Day celebrations continue: Numismatic edition

As I've mentioned, the late Ayatollah Khomeini had declared the last Friday of Ramadan to be "Qods Day" where he urges Muslims to celebrate Jerusalem. This is because for the vast majority of the years that Islam has been in existence, Jerusalem did not even show up on Islamic radar.

Today's online celebration centers around ancient coins. Here are all of the Islamic coins I could find from before the 20th century that mention Jerusalem:

That's right - none. The only sort-of exceptions were the coins issued by Christians when the Crusaders controlled Jerusalem, written in Arabic but with Christian themes.

Now, here are the earliest known Jewish coins to depict Jerusalem:

From the Bar Kochba revolt, roughly 135 CE:

A depiction of the Temple and the Ark. And on the other side:

The words, written in the old Hebrew script, says "For the freedom of Jerusalem" with a lulav and etrog (appropriate for Ramadan/Tishrei this year.)

The Jewish attachment to Jerusalem, as can be seen by these coins, predates Islam itself by centuries. As we have seen so far, (and any Muslim readers are free to correct me if I am wrong), there were no Islamic references to Jerusalem in Islamic coins, Islamic art or Islamic poetry before the rise of the Zionist movement.

We still have some other avenues to explore in comparing Islamic and Jewish interest in Jerusalem, as "Qods Day" approaches.

Another peaceful week in Palestan

It is eerie how peaceful things are now among Palestinian Arabs. Here are a few of the more peaceful events of the last few days.

- 3 Hamas "police officers" were killed by a car explosion at Hamas headquarters in Gaza City, in what appears to be infighting. Hamas originally blamed Israel but has since backed off of that particular lie.

- One of the prisoners released by Israel saw his home attacked by Hamas.

- A Gaza clan clash injured "several."

- Seven injured in Khan Younis as Hamas attempted to arrest some Fatah members.

- The PFLP claims that one of its members was abducted and tortured.

- A 13-year old boy was kidnapped for ransom in a financial dispute between families in Nablus. He has now been released with some bruises.

- A riot erupted after a basketball game in Gaza with people hitting each other with chairs and sticks. 4 injured.

They are so peaceful with each other we can be certain that they will be fantastic partners for peace with Israel.

The 2007 Palestinian Arab self-death count is now up to 530.

UPDATE: A fourth has died. 531.

A Bethlehem shop owner was stabbed and customers in his shop attacked by a gang of eight more peaceful men.

PalArab writer: "Who cares how al-Dura was killed?"

The mindset of the Palestinian Arabs becomes even more apparent in an Arabic editorial written for Ma'an, which includes this (autotranslated):

And I say to you Siimann what business and the results of the investigation? اWhat business if the child Durra cited Israeli soldier shot or a stray Palestinian bullet? Is that prevents him crime was on the air immediately shook the conscience of the world and notified leaders and generals occupation shame?

He is directing his words towards Israel's Government Press Office Director Daniel Seamann, who just finally publicly said (sevenyears too late) that Israel has determined that the death was staged.

It appears that the Palestinian Arab position is that even if it was staged, or even if al-Dura was murdered by Palestinian Arabs, it doesn't matter - it's Israel's fault anyway! And the dozens of terror attacks that followed, fueled by this lie, are all justified anyway!

The legendary Palestinian Arab disregard for truth shines brightly again.

Qods Day is coming! Jerusalem Poetry edition

Last year I celebrated Qods Day with a series of posts showing that the Muslim attachment to Jerusalem was essentially nonexistent before Zionism. (The third post, contrasting Jewish art depicting Jerusalem with the nonexistence of Islamic art concerning the "third holiest city in Islam," has lost most of its links to the pictures. I will try to reproduce it this year.)

Well, it's that time again, so continuing the theme:

Here is every Islamic poem I could find about Jerusalem before the 20th century:

Not a single one.

And here is one from a Jewish source, written in the 12th century:

In Remembrance of Jerusalem
A poem by Yehudah ha-Levi
Beautiful land,
Delight of the world,
City of Kings,
My heart longs for you from the far-off west.
I am very sad when I remember how you were.
Now your glory is gone, your homes destroyed.
If I could fly to you on the wings of eagles,
I would soak your soil with my tears.

Remember, the word "Qods" itself is a variant of the Hebrew "Qodesh" which means "holy." Another popular Muslim name for Jerusalem, "Beit ul-Moqaddas," comes from the Hebrew "Beit ha-Miqdash" which means "Holy Temple" that predates Islam by centuries. In other words, any holiness that Islam claims for Jerusalem is derivative of Judaism's claims. See this posting from 2005 for more details.

So, have a happy Qods Day! Because it is impossible to celebrate Jerusalem honestly without coming to the conclusion that its primary significance is to Jews, and it has been that way for millennia.