Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Morning links (updated twice)

Britain's Lessons in Cultural Suicide

The perfect car for a trip to Mecca

Jews' subway hero a Muslim

My return to Kever Yosef

Testimony at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs by David Wurmsler (h/t Israel Matzav)

Audit finds U.S. funded university linked to terrorism (h/t Anti-Racist Blog)

Canada Praised For What Israel Should Have Done

Saudis give big to US colleges (h/t Smooth Stone)

The Middle East needs a lot, but not more weapons (Lebanon Daily Star)

I just saw this picture on World Photos, but it is not clear if it was taken recently. Still, it is classic:

Tony Blair declares Bethlehem safe - what about Sderot?

Tony Blair stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Bethlehem last night, to show that Bethlehem was a safe place for Christians to visit and to jumpstart the Palestinian Arab economy:

Palestine is a “safe destination” for tourists to visit, envoy to the Quartet Tony Blair said on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to journalists at a joint press conference with the Palestinian minister for tourism, Khouloud Daibes, in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, Blair said, “Bethlehem is a safe and good place to come.”

Citing Bethlehem as the litmus test for Israeli commitment to peace, he told reporters, “The real test of the sincerity of the Israeli side is if we really get change here in Bethlehem.”

“I know the Palestinian Authority is prepared to do everything it can to meet any legitimate security concerns but really there is no reason why tourists can not come here safely,” he added.

I don't expect Blair to visit Sderot any time soon, to stay there overnight and to declare how safe it is. I don't expect him to refer to it as a "litmus test" on Palestinian Arab commitment to peace. I don't expect him to praise the PA over how well they are helping stop their own Fatah-based Al-Aqsa Brigades from firing rockets at Israel.

Sderot is not on the radar of the "peace" plan. Sderot cannot be found on the roadmap. The 20 rockets that were shot today towards Sderot are not considered an obstacle to peace. It is way too inconvenient to mention Sderot when talking about the sacred "peace process."

No, Sderot and its residents are not important to Tony Blair and the Quartet. Because if they are forced to think about Sderot, they would be forced to reconsider whether real peace is possible. They would have to recall that the peaceful Palestinian Arabs freely elected a terrorist government in their most recent elections. They would be compelled to remember that the Western-trained PA "security forces" folded immediately in their first real test.

No, the "process" is too important to be derailed by inconvenient facts. Blair knows he is safe from Israeli actions in Bethlehem, but he knows just as well that he is in danger from those peaceful PalArabs should he visit Sderot.

So he won't.

One last video for the eighth night

Happy Chanukah from the NBA Stars!

"Humanitarian crisis" meme - since 1993

Did you ever get the feeling of déjà vu when reading news accounts about a "looming humanitarian crisis" in Gaza?

You are not imagining it:

November 17, 1993:

...the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza continues to grow.

December 6, 2000:

...impoverishing families across The West Bank and Gaza Strip and risking a humanitarian crisis, according to international economists and aid workers...

June 15, 2001:

The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to a shortage of medical supplies there.

November 19, 2002:

The humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza is a crisis of access and mobility; it is further compounded by an economic downturn that severely limits the ability of the civilian population to purchase and access basic needs.

February 27, 2003:

Humanitarian crisis: The cumulative impact of damage to civilian infrastructure, curfews and closures, and ongoing violence led the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to describe the humanitarian situation as "the most dire since 1967."

October 7, 2004:

The United Nations has warned in a special report of an impending humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

August 19, 2005:

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a chronic humanitarian crisis that is deepening during the disengagement period.

March 19, 2006:

Gaza facing humanitarian crisis

May 18, 2006:

As the representatives of donor governments made fresh vows to rapidly establish a flow of aid to Palestinians on Monday, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues.

July 9, 2006:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has demanded that Israel take urgent action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.

August 16, 2006:

Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza: "People are crying, hungry, thirsty, and desperate"

November 20, 2006:

Gaza: UN appeals for $2.5 million to ease 'humanitarian disaster'

July 20, 2007:

U.N. Official: Humanitarian Crisis Looms in Gaza

December 8, 2007:

The World Health Organisation warned against a humanitarian crisis erupting in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip due to Israeli travel restrictions

One would have thought that after 14 years of this "crisis" the Gaza population would be decimated by now. Reading these stories you'd expect Gaza to be like sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, somehow, the brave Gazans still manage to get weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, medicine and hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid, managing to stave off the starvation forecasted by "human rights" experts year after year.

It appears that there is an entire cottage industry of "human rights" organizations that are dedicated to sounding the alarm about Gaza every few months so they can keep their jobs and keep blaming Israel for every self-inflicted problem that the PalArabs have created in their Gaza homeland.

Bethlehem, 2007

Michael Gove in the Times (UK) mentions:

There’s one invariable sign that Christmas is almost upon us – a story about how Bethlehem is suffering at the hands of wicked Israel.
This year we’ve already had our first exercise in demonising Israel for its treatment of Bethlehem with the graffiti artist Banksy enjoying extensive coverage for his trip to decorate the security barrier near the town with his work. The message of Banksy’s work and the coverage it has generated is the same: oppressive Israel has snuffed the life out of the town where the Prince of Peace was born. Herod’s spirit lives on, even as the spirit of Christmas is struggling to survive.
The truth is very different. The parlous position of Palestinian Christians, indeed the difficult position of most Christians across the Arab world, is a consequence not of Israeli aggression but of growing Islamist influence. Israel goes out of its way to honour sites and traditions sacred to other faiths while the radicals who are driving Palestinian politics seek to create an Islamist state in which other faiths, if they survive at all, do so with the explicit subject status of dhimmis. But when it comes to Israel’s position in these matters it’s still a case of O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see them lie.

He is right, of course. Christians have been abandoning Bethlehem for decades, and the intifada has only accelerated their exodus:

In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, the Christian exodus has been most acute. In 1990, 60 percent of the population there was Christian. Today, some estimates say 20 percent or less of the city's population is Christian.

Tens of thousands of Arab Christians have fled the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the years. An estimated one thousand Christians have left Bethlehem each year for the last seven years -- a period covering the Palestinian uprising. There are between 10,000 and 13,000 Christians remaining in the city.

Today, only 1.5 percent of the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is Christian.

This doesn't stop Bethlehem's Christian mayor from blaming Israel:

"The cradle of our Lord Jesus Christ has turned into a big prison," the mayor said.

"This discriminating wall, besides isolating our town from the outside world and depriving Bethlehem from any future growth, snakes its way deep inside our municipal borders... closing the historic and main entrance of Bethlehem."

The barrier has devastated Palestinian farmers, the mayor said, confiscating 7,000 dunums (about 700 acres or 280 hectares) of arable land, making the lives of Palestinians "almost impossible" and putting them in "ghettos".

Yet amazingly, Bethlehem's population continues to grow even as the Christians flee:

Locality Name	Mid-Year Population in
	2004	2005	2006

Bethlehem (Beit Lahm)

28,111

29,019

29,927

Somehow, according to Israel's critics, the horrible separation barrier is only effective in forcing Christians to leave Bethlehem but it causes Muslims to increase.

See also previous post: Guess who's stealing land?

Meryl also weighs in on the issue.

The PA's officlal car theft ring

From YNet, published on December 8:

In a report earlier this week, a senior Palestinian police officer boasted that following their new deployment, Palestinian police were able to confiscate a total of 180 stolen Israeli vehicles. An Israeli reading this report would think: Look at that, Mahmoud Abbas is starting to put the house in order.

But let’s wait a moment. What do they mean by “confiscated?” What would a Swiss police officer do if his people seized vehicles stolen in Italy? We can assume he would call his counterparts in the Italian police force and hand over the vehicles to them. However, Palestinian police “confiscated” the vehicles.

In other words, the Palestinian police force is short on vehicles, so it confiscates stolen vehicles to meet its own needs. Up until yesterday, a vehicle would be used by the person who stole it, or by the person who bought it from the thief. As of today, this vehicle is being used by a Palestinian police officer.

If the Palestinian police force was able to find 180 vehicles fitting for confiscation within a week, it means there are thousands of stolen Israeli cars out there that have not been taken apart.

Even in Nablus or Jenin one cannot drive around without a license plate, and in order to receive a vehicle permit anywhere in the world you need to arrive at some government office, present the documents of the new vehicle, and explain how you got it. So what does the Palestinian car thief say when he comes to the Palestinian government official and asks for a permit for a stolen Israeli vehicle?

My guess is that he tells the truth. Hello, I have a vehicle that was stolen from the Jews, how much do I need to pay in order to register it as a Palestinian vehicle? The official then offers his congratulations. Now fill out this form and pay the fees. Please fill in the thief’s name, date of theft, type of vehicle, and date of last emissions test in Israel. Please go over to the police now and fill out another form. We must have order here. The police officer may ask you to pay another fee. Good luck.

I’m certain there is an official procedure for this, with orderly registration. In fact, when an amateurish thief stole the vehicle of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef by mistake, a call was made to a senior Palestinian official and the car was returned within a few hours. How did they know where to find it? That’s very simple. The stolen vehicles are registered over there. The thieves pay fees. Everything is orderly.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad, who has a tremendously prodigious memory, recalls this article from 2001 that shows that things really don't change.

Another "mysterious explosion" kills another terrorist

From Ma'an:

A mysterious explosion killed one member of Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, and injured two others just after midnight on Tuesday in the old city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

Medical sources at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus confirmed the death of of Sulaiman Al-Qassas. They said he had arrived at the hospital in a coma.

Al-Aqsa Brigades spokesperson Mahdi Abu Ghazala told Ma'an accused "the Israeli occupation and collaborators" in an area known to be a meeting point for Al-Aqsa Brigades activists.

Invariably, these "mysterious explosions" are "work accidents" where explosives meant to kill Jews go off a bit early.

Notice also that the tens of thousands of PA "security forces" cannot seem to find and shut down terrorists even in places that they are known to hang out, and even when the terrorists belong to the same organization that rules the West Bank. And this is in Nablus, where the PA received kudos - and $1.3 million - from the US on how well it pretended to fight terrorists in the weeks leading up to Annapolis.

My count of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other this year now climbs to 590.

IAEA talking to Tehran about university uranium

From AP via JPost:

Iranian and UN nuclear officials began a new round of talks here on Monday, this time to probe the source of weapons-grade uranium that was found at Teheran's university, the official IRNA news agency reported.

It was not clear from the report how or when the weapons-grade uranium was discovered at the Technology faculty of the state university.

This uranium was not found recently, but during IAEA's last visit to Tehran.

I wonder what the NIE's thoughts on this are?

Also, see Alan Dershowitz' take on the NIE fiasco.

The first ever Shari’ah compliant exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market. The three funds launched by iShares enhance the range of Shari’ah compliant products available in London, underlining the City’s emerging role as an important centre for Islamic finance.

The three funds are the iShares MSCI World Islamic, the iShares MSCI USA Islamic and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Islamic. The funds track indices which screen out companies whose business activities involve earning interest, alcohol, arms manufacturing, tobacco, pork-related products, gaming and certain other forms of entertainment prohibited under Islamic law. The funds’ compliance with Shari’ah requirements will be reviewed annually by a Shari’ah Panel.

Barclays Global Investors BGI said the panel has issued a fatwah (edict) on the three new ETFs, which will track MSCI indexes of Shariah-compliant companies.

These are the iShares MSCI World Islamic, which consists of 793 stocks; the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Islamic, tracking an index of 306 stocks; and the iShares MSCI USA Islamic, with 276 stocks.

The panel, which comprises Islamic scholars Dr Mohammed Elgari, Sheikh Nizam Yacuby and Dr Abu Ghuddah, will certify that products are Shariah-compliant, provide advice on fund operations and investment methods, and carry out overall supervision of funds' compliance with Shariah principles.

The ethics involved in directly employing people to certify that you are fulfilling a religious duty should be pretty clear.

But beyond that, it is not far-fatched that one day, as Sharia compliant funds grow into a more significant percentage of the global financial business, that these scholars could threaten to withhold their approval unless Barclay's as a whole changes its general investment style to be more submissive to Islamic law. Given a choice of losing billions of pounds or slowly reducing investments in, say, alcohol and pork could become a no-brainer.

This is not the same as a "green" fund or other ethical investment options. This is a purely religious endeavor. It is increasingly dangerous for major financial institutions to depend on Islamic religious clerics for any portion of their business.

And the problem is only going to get bigger. Check out this flyer from a recent Sharia financial conference in Dubai, especially the "Master class" in Sukuk - effectively a day-long seminar on Islamic financial law meant for Europeans.

British spies slam American assessment of Iranian nukes

It is not only Israel that has severe doubts over the recent NIE report. From the Telegraph (UK):

British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.
A senior British official delivered a withering assessment of US intelligence-gathering abilities in the Middle East and revealed that British spies shared the concerns of Israeli defence chiefs that Iran was still pursuing nuclear weapons.
The source said British analysts believed that Iranian nuclear staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation. "We are sceptical. We want to know what the basis of it is, where did it come from? Was it on the basis of the defector? Was it on the basis of the intercept material? They say things on the phone because they know we are up on the phones. They say black is white. They will say anything to throw us off.
"It's not as if the American intelligence agencies are regarded as brilliant performers in that region. They got badly burned over Iraq."
A US intelligence source has revealed that some American spies share the concerns of the British and the Israelis. "Many middle- ranking CIA veterans believe Iran is still committed to producing nuclear weapons and are concerned that the agency lost a number of its best sources in Iran in 2004," the official said.

(h/t Yid with Lid)

Neo-Andalusia?

The Tehran Times has an illuminating article:

There is a general reawakening taking place in the Islamic world.

A number of groups are associated with this reawakening and one of them is the Neo-Andalucian movement, which is a progressive pan-Islamic movement.

They use the appellation Neo-Andalucian because Muslim Andalucia was a center of learning and, at least for a time, a very tolerant place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in peace and harmony for the most part.

Islam teaches Muslims to seek out knowledge and to be tolerant toward non-Muslims who are not at war with Islam.

Also, the fall of Andalucia in 1492 marked the beginning of the 500-year decline of the Islamic world.

The Neo-Andalucians want to start an Islamic revival to end this 500-year decline, hence the identification with Andalucia.

The Neo-Andalucians are seeking to start a new Islamic Renaissance, unite the Islamic world, and uplift the oppressed Muslim masses.

There are many interpretations of Islam, but there is only one Islam since there is only one Holy Quran, one qibla (direction of prayer), one hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and one Friday prayers ceremony.

These factors unite the Muslims, despite their differences.

...To uphold the banner of Islam and defend the faith, to start the new Islamic Renaissance, unite the Islamic world, and uplift the oppressed Muslim masses, we must strengthen our faith, dedicate ourselves to the cause of Islam, and struggle hard for the cause of Allah.

One doesn't have to read very far between the lines to see what the intent of this article is. The current regime in Iran has always tried to position itself as the leader of the Islamic world, with its Shi'ite leaders publicly playing up the similarities with Sunni Islam while privately bitterly fighting it. Iran's purpose is to create a pan-Islamic caliphate, controlling the entire Middle East, dominating Europe and acting as the Islamic superpower opposing the US.

One of the interesting parts of this article that betrays its real agenda is its description of the ideal state: "a very tolerant place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in peace and harmony for the most part." Does such a place exist today?

Ahmad Jum’a, a 25-year-old student, has been to the kingdom six times for the ‘Umra, the minor pilgrimage. A member of the Nazareth-based Salam Association for Hajj and ‘Umra, he is also qualified to guide groups from Israel during their pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

Jum’a was born in Sullam, an Arab village in northern Israel. He is an Arab Muslim and has Israeli citizenship....

Once he has fulfilled his religious obligations of the pilgrimage, Jum’a spends the rest of his time mingling with the crowds and talking to Muslim pilgrims about life in Israel.

Explaining that he is a Muslim Arab with Israeli citizenship often leaves his audience gobsmacked.

“The Arab media always shows negative things about Israel and as a Muslim Arab living inside Israel I want to show a positive side of the country. I tell them there are good things in Israel and that we live side by side with the Jews. There are problems sometimes but the relations with our Jewish neighbors are generally good.”

The Muslims in Israel have freedom and passports, he tells them. They have a good economic situation and good jobs; they get along with their Jewish neighbors and they benefit from Israel’s services.

On a separate occasion he was talking with a Syrian pilgrim who, it transpired, had been a commander in the Syrian army in the 1967 War (Six Day War). Upon hearing that Jum’a was from Israel, the officer attacked him verbally and expressed support for Hizbullah.

Jum’a, a student of Middle Eastern studies, retaliated with a detailed review of Syria’s history, poor economic situation, its lack of freedom and the persecution of dissidents.

The Syrian officer was stunned by Jum’a’s knowledge, and astonished when he learned this was being taught in Israeli universities by Jewish lecturers.

“When I’ve completed the ritual, I talk politics,” Jum’a says. “I feel that I’m an envoy and wherever I go I need to explain the good things and bad things about Israel.”

Jum’a is not alone in this conviction.

Sheikh ‘Ali Bakr, 47, an imam from northern Israel who works for the Israeli Interior Ministry, has been to Saudi Arabia 24 times on pilgrimages. Bakr does not feel a contradiction in holding Israeli citizenship and attending the Hajj.

“On the contrary, I feel we’re a bridge between Israel and the Arab countries. We can bring people closer together,” he says. “Some think that Israeli Arabs are neglected and underprivileged, so we tell them that’s not the case, that we live here as equal citizens and that we fit well into the Jewish social fabric.”

If you accept the Iranian description of an ideal state for Muslims, Israel sounds like the place! (And certainly most Western nations.)

Obviously, the intent of "neo-Andalusia" isn't a place where all peoples live together with equal rights; it is an Islamic-dominated 'umma - that likely would extend to the real Andalusia - where non-Muslims are tolerated as second-class citizens and dissent is brutally crushed.

Bilin lies continue

Pro-terrorist Palestinian Arab supporters (like the ISM) routinely refer to the weekly Palarab protests at Bilin as being "peaceful" and "nonviolent." And every once in a while, although only a few times a year, wire-service photographers show exactly how peaceful the protest is.

A Palestinian uses a slingshot to hurl a stone at Israeli border policemen, not seen, during a demonstration at the construction site of Israel's separation barrier in the village of Bilin, near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Friday Dec. 7, 2007

Airport blogging

A couple of links while I wait for my (delayed) plane....

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islamic "moderates." (h/t EBoZ)

Judeosphere presents the Zionist Conspiracy-o-Matic.

And, of course, you must check out edition CXLIV of Haveil Havalim over at Jack's Shack.

More as I see them....

* Review of "The Siege of Mecca", a book about a little known but incredibly important event from 1979.

Browsing through Google Books I just found an interesting 1893 edition of R. Saadiah Gaon's translation and commentary of the Torah into Arabic, using Hebrew letters for the Arabic transliteration (click to enlarge):

PalArab fear of "normalization"

While I do not usually agree with everything Ray Hanania says, this article in Arab News should be read by every Palestinian Arab. Excerpts:

Palestinians I meet always point to the Israeli occupation as the main stumbling block preventing them from achieving independence and driving their oppressive lives. But I think far more obstacles exist that Palestinians are afraid to acknowledge, most that begin right in their own back yards.
Maybe because I was raised in America where tyranny is far more subtle and less violent than the real threats and physical dangers facing people in the Arab and Muslim Worlds. Or, maybe it is also because I am a realist, a state of mind that apparently continues to elude Palestinian society. Palestinians live in the past. Even when they emigrate to the Western countries, they may live physically in their adopted homelands, but they remain mentally imprisoned in “the balad. “The heaviest chains of this self-oppression may in fact be something Palestinians call “normalization.”
“Normalization” is a state of mind in which Palestinians prevent themselves from living in the present so they can dwell in the long lost past. Normalization is the act of refusing to accept reality, insisting that Palestinian existence is not in the present but in the past In this “unreality,” fading memories are more important than the clarity of the present.
Palestinian activists use “Normalization” as a bludgeon to keep Palestinians in line like sheep. Extremists pull the strings of suffering and frustration, throwing down the “normalization” card whenever a Palestinian tries to break free of the mental bondage and address the reality of the Israeli occupation.
...
I leave Palestine and Israel this trip recognizing that Palestinians are suffering from several layers of occupation, and a self-imposed oppression that has become the excuse for their failings. They say they want peace with Israel, but many deep down can’t accept the damage to their pride that compromise means accepting that their efforts over the past 60 years have been an utter failure caused by their own failed leadership.
While Palestinians are stifled in their aspirations, only miles away, Israelis are enjoying life, growing as a people and flourishing as a people. The ability of Palestinians to establish their own state continues to erode. That the people driving this erosion are Palestinians themselves is most troubling to me. Imprisoned in a wall of ignorance constructed by their own foolish failure to see through the rhetoric and the hatred of the past to the reality of today, Palestinians have only one option. They can either start living in the reality or they can disappear in the past.

He doesn't go far enough - Hanania, for all his candor, is not going to start blaming other Arab nations for their continuing contribution to PalArab misery, which can be remedied easily if the PalArabs were smart. But he is correct when pointing out that even "moderate" Pals have no ability to see things realistically as they wallow in self-pity and victimization - what seems to be a strategy on the part of their leadership, not a consequence of history.

Donkey prices soar in Gaza

From Ma'an (Arabic):

The blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip has caused prices of donkeys to increase by 60% since last June, following the reduction of fuel supplies to Israel sector resulting in difficulty in supplying water and other basic needs.

A trader named Saber Jabbur said he sold his car and that he now intends to buy a cart and donkey (autotranslation: "stupid") to be able to sell agricultural harvest cucumbers and onions and other vegetables traveling between the houses.