Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Daily life in Saudi Arabia

From Arab News, a story meant to show the quirkier side of life in Saudi Arabia:

BAHA, 1 January 2008 — You’re out shopping with your wife and children and you get into a disagreement with your wife. What do you do? One man did the unthinkable, he announced to hundreds of shoppers that he was divorcing his wife, the Al-Riyadh daily reported yesterday.
According to the report, the man left his wife and children to do his own shopping. As he was coming back to rejoin his family, he saw a young man approach his wife and give her his cell phone number on a small piece of paper. The wife took the paper and put it inside her bag and continued shopping as usual, not aware that her husband saw what happened.
When he approached her and asked her to give him the bag, she refused. He forcefully took the bag and dug out the piece of paper.
Enraged, the man walked over to the cashier and grabbing hold of the store’s microphone, he announced to shoppers that he was divorcing his wife and had no intention of ever getting back with her.
He then stormed out of the shopping mall and left his wife and two children behind.

This is a funny story, emblematic of a place where all you need to do if you want a divorce is proclaim it. But things turn darker with the next, explanatory paragraph about what daily life is like in a theocracy where women are so highly honored that they have to cover themselves in public:

Women being harassed in public places is a common occurrence in Saudi Arabia and the harassers can often get very aggressive and insist that the women pay attention to their advances and take their telephone numbers. Women often resort to accepting telephone numbers so they will be left alone.

Doesn't this demolish one of the major reasons that Muslims use to justify the hijab?

The first 2008 murder in Gaza

Palestine Press Agency (Arabic) has a breaking news item: "Death of a young man from a family Dairi during violent clashes taking place in the Sabra downtown Gaza." The dateline says 1:57 AM.

So the new year started just as peacefully as the old one ended.

Since I started counting on June 28, 2006, I have recorded 815 violent Palestinian Arab deaths in the territories by PalArabs.

UPDATE: Two more die in a gun battle this morning. 3 this year.

"Stranded?"

In yet another subtle but telling piece of bias by the media, a number of news outlets are describing the Gaza Hajj pilgrims in Egypt as "stranded:"

Canadian Press: Stranded Palestinian pilgrims protest in camps in northern Sinai area of Egypt

All Headline News: "Thousands of Palestinian pilgrims were stranded on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border following a dispute over how they will return to the Gaza strip."

BBC: "Protest by stranded Gaza pilgrims"

Boston Herald: "Stranded Palestinian pilgrims protest in camps in northern Sinai"

AP: "Stranded Palestinians Set Fire to Camps"

These people aren't stranded. They can choose to go to their homes any time they want - they just have to be checked to make sure that they are not illegally smuggling money or weapons. If they refuse to do that, this does not make them stranded - it means that they are choosing to stay away from their homes.

By calling them stranded, it appears that they have no choice in the matter, that Egypt and Israel are forcing them into an impossible situation. They aren't stranded - they just consider Hamas' wishes more important than returning to their homes.

UPDATE: Backspin quotes the Independent on the pilgrims who are going home through Egypt via Keren Shalom.

PalArabs end the year with a bang

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Anniversary celebrations for the Fatah movement turned violent in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis after nightfall Monday, and medics said three people were killed.

They said one of the dead was a Hamas police officer, and another was a Fatah supporter. About 30 people were wounded, they said.

YNet confirms that the third to die is a teenager; Ma'an translates it to "child." Palestine Today says 5 were killed. Palestine Press makes it sound like the fighting is still going on and it appears the number dead is at least 5. For now I will only count 3 until we get the names of all the victims, so for now the 2007 Palestinian Arab self-death count is at 606.

Which means that 2007 is ending exactly the same way it started.

UPDATE: Ma'an, PalPress and PalToday all agree on five dead. 608. For now, based on these stories, I am assuming one minor.

UPDATE 2: Ma'an Arabic as well as PalToday now says 6. 609.

More BBC crimes of omission and commission

It is not only the BBC that has these problems, of course, but the BBC claims to be "independent, impartial and honest", and this clearly isn't true:

More than 1,000 Palestinian pilgrims stranded in Egypt have held protests after they were blocked from travelling through a border crossing to Gaza.

The pilgrims broke windows and started fires to protest against the decision to move them to a temporary camp.

Israel has insisted that the pilgrims must return to the Gaza Strip through a crossing that it controls.

It says it wants to ensure that no weapons or money are being channelled to militant groups.

The pilgrims returning from the Hajj in Mecca include several prominent members of the Hamas movement, who fear they will be detained if they try to travel through an Israeli-controlled crossing.

The BBC finally admits that some of the "pilgrims" are Hamas members. They don't mention, however, that there at least some known terrorists among them.

Egyptian authorities have moved more than 1,100 of the pilgrims to several temporary camps set up in and around the Mediterranean coastal city of el-Arish.

Reports say the pilgrims shouted slogans against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Hundreds of riot police surrounded the protesters, while the fires were put out.

A 67-year-old Palestinian woman collapsed and died during the protests, reports said.

After the unrest ended, some pilgrims continued their protest by refusing to accept meals provided by the Egyptian government.

Again, accurate as far as it goes. But the Beeb doesn't mention the very pertinent fact that some of the pilgrims that left through Rafah have already returned via Keren Shalom:

Palestinians, returning from the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, cross through the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Egypt, on their way to Gaza Strip Monday, Dec. 31, 2007. Another group of Palestinian pilgrims, include some members of the militant Hamas group, have rejected Egypt's demands that they enter Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Aouja border crossing. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

If some of the pilgrims who went through Egypt are returning to their homes through Keren Shalom, then that makes the motives of the others a bit suspect. (The other set of pilgrims who went through the West Bank and Jordan returned through the Erez crossing.) One would think that this little fact should be mentioned.

The BBC might also want to verify or refute Debka's report that Hamas hajj pilgrims met with Ahmadinejad in Mecca and he gave them $50 million, and that they got an additional $100 million from the Muslim Brotherhood. Is Debka any more or less reliable than the anonymous "reports" the BBC mentions above? There is no way to know - the Beeb doesn't reveal who is behind those reports.

In early December, Israel allowed some 2,200 Palestinian pilgrims to leave Gaza through the Rafah border-post.

This is simply a lie - Israel protested Egypt's opening of Rafah, and the BBC did report that.

Peaceful Gaza news

The Palestine Press Agency may be rabidly anti-Hamas but lately all of its stories ended up being corroborated by others, often a couple of days later. So here are today's stories from the Arabic edition:

* Hamas looted trucks filled with aid from Jordan
* Hamas threatened Egypt if it doesn't allow Hamas hajj terrorists to cross Rafah unimpeded
* Hamas abducted 30 Fatah members in northern Gaza
* Hamas threatened journalists not to cover Fatah celebrations of its 43rd anniversary tomorrow in Gaza
* Hamas arrested hundreds of Fatah members in Rafah
* Hamas stormed a house in Khan Younis and another in Jabalya
* Hamas abducted an "intelligence officer" in Rafah
* Hamas attacked mourners at a funeral who were displaying Fatah flags

And all of these stories are from today.

UK interview with just another nutcase radical Imam

From the Sun (UK):

A FANATICAL Pakistani cleric told The Sun yesterday of his chilling dream to turn the world Muslim – by force if necessary.

Qari Hifzur Rehamn, 60, spoke openly of imposing Islamic law’s stoning and beheading on Britain – as Pakistan was rocked by unrest over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

He warned: “We want Islamic law for all Pakistan and then the world.

“We would like to do this by preaching. But if not then we would use force.”

Rehamn, 60, spoke in the Pakistani town of Kahuta as the call to prayer echoed over the dusty streets.

He is Imam of the town’s fundamentalist religious school or madrassa, where classes for kids as young as nine include Jihad or Holy War and barbaric punishments.

His teachings are frightening enough. But his mosque lies in the shadow of the secret bunker where Pakistan produces nuclear weapons.

And when asked if it would be right to nuke British infidels, he laughed and answered: “Probably.”

Rehamn, in a flowing grey beard and turban, explained Islamic, or Sharia Law as we sat surrounded by some of his 250 students.

He said: “Adulterers who are married should be buried in earth to the waist and stoned to death.

“Homosexuals must be killed – it’s the only way to stop them spreading. It should be by beheading or stoning, which the general public can do.

“Thieves should have their hands cut off. Women should remain indoors and films and pop music should be banned.”

So what does he think of Britain? The dad insisted: “The nonbelievers must be converted to Islam. Morals in your society, with women wearing revealing clothes, have gone wrong.”

And here I thought there was no compulsion in Islam.

Saddam party tomorrow. Dress informally. Poison gas optional.

From Ma'an (Arabic, autotranslated, cleaned up):

The Arab Baath Socialist Party announced a rally tomorrow, Tuesday, in the city of Nablus, to commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The party's leadership called on the Palestinian masses to participate in the ceremony in the Hall bureau in the city of Nablus two p.m., in memory of the late President Saddam Hussein.

Isn't it nice to know that the West Bank is so progressive?

Lies, damn lies, and B'Tselem's statistics

B'Tselem just came out with its annual report on how horrible Israel is, and for purposes of "balance" it threw in some statistics on Palestinian Arabs killing each other.

It comes to the apparent conclusion that even with a reduction of Palestinian Arab deaths at the hands of Israel this year, Israel was responsible for more PalArab deaths than Palestinian Arabs themselves were. It counts 373 Palestinian Arabs killed by the IDF and 344 killed in internal fighting.

The press releases don't go into the details of B'Tselem's methodology, and its apparent attempt to keep track of intra-Palestinian Arab violence gives it a veneer of respectability and even-handedness. But look a bit deeper into how it claims to get its numbers, buried almost unnoticeably on its website:

Since the beginning of the current intifada, B’Tselem has published on its website the names of every person (Israeli, Palestinian, and foreign) who was killed in the violence.

The data include the person’s name, age, and place of residence, the date and place of death, and who killed the individual. The data on Israelis who were killed indicate whether they were a civilian or member of the security forces. Regarding Palestinians who were killed, the data state whether they took part in the fighting, in the event that B’Tselem has this information. In some cases, the data provide a short description of the circumstances in which the individual was killed.

B’Tselem emphasizes that the listing of a person as a civilian, or having not participated in the fighting, or the inclusion of any other details regarding the cause of death, does not indicate that the person or entity that killed the individual violated the law, or that the deceased was innocent, or that any other legal or moral conclusion can be drawn from the facts. The lists of fatalities relate to persons killed during incidents related to the al-Aqsa intifada, and are to be viewed solely in that light.

The problem is that B'Tselem uses a very expansive definition of deaths related to the intifada when counting Israeli killings and a very narrow one when counting Arab killings.

For example, it counts this as an Israeli killing related to the intifada (and as a killing of a minor):

Jihad 'Alian Muhammad a-Nabahin, 17 year-old resident of al-Bureij Refugee Camp, Deir al-Balah district, killed on 09.11.2007 in al-Bureij Refugee Camp, Deir al-Balah district, by gunfire. Did not participate in hostilities when killed. Additional information: Killed when he and his friend tried to cross the perimeter fence and enter Israel.

If he was killed for only trying to cross a fence, and had no intent to do anything bad to Israelis (as B'Tselem implies when it says that he was not participating in hostilities), then what exactly does this death have to do with the intifada?

But when it comes to intra-Arab deaths, B'Tselem becomes much more restrictive in saying that they have to do with the intifada. While Hamas/Fatah battles do seem to count, tunnel collapses and "work accidents" and Arabs shooting other Arabs at checkpoints and Christians killed for being Christian and many other types of deaths do not make it into their list. So while over 600 Arabs were violently killed by each other this year, B'Tselem implies that the number is only 344, thereby neatly making it look like Israel is responsible for more Arab deaths than Arabs themselves are - a very wrong implication.

But B'Tselem's dishonesty does not end there. They nicely list 53 minors and come to conclusions that most of them "did not participate in hostilities" when they were killed. Probably most of them didn't, but again B'Tselem's definition of "not participating in hostilities" includes minors who tried to cut through the fence around Gaza, trying to escape arrest, trying to "collect" Qassam rocket launchers, or throwing stones (the very definition of "intifada" according to Palestinian Arab propagandists.) Once again, B'Tselem interprets its own definitions in ways that maximize propaganda value and minimize adherence to a true picture.

One interesting statistic that B'Tselem doesn't bother mentioning in its press release: the number of females killed. B'Tselem likes to count "minors" even though the majority killed were 16 and 17 years old. But its own list shows only 2 adult women (and 3 girls) killed by Israel during the year, as opposed to the 41 adult women and far more than 3 girls killed by PalArabs this year, statistics that B'Tselem doesn't count in its quest for "human rights."

In other words, B'Tselem will use statistics that seem to imply an Israeli policy of random shooting of non-combatants but that randomness falls apart when one sees that the minors are usually fully grown and the number of females killed is diminishingly small compared to men.

Publicizing those statistics as well as the others mentioned would make Arabs look more bloodthirsty than Israelis, and B'Tselem cannot countenance such a conclusion.

Fayyad is ticking off Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, on Sunday called for the murder of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad for "collaboration" with Israel and the US.

This was the first time the group has openly called for Fayad's assassination. In the past, the group distributed leaflets strongly condemning Fayad and calling for his dismissal.

Fayad has been under heavy criticism from some Fatah leaders and activists, who accuse him of denying them public funds and plotting to undermine Fatah's grip on power. Other Fatah leaders have also accused Fayad of seeking to consolidate his power with the hope of replacing Mahmoud Abbas as PA president.

The threat was made in a leaflet distributed by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip. Some Fatah officials in Ramallah sought to distance themselves from the threat, claiming that the leaflet had been forged. They even went as far as accusing Hamas of being behind it.

"The command of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip calls on all its elements and striking forces in the West Bank to immediately eliminate the so-called Salaam Fayad," the leaflet said. It claimed that Fayad's Ramallah-based government was working for Israel and the US.

Fatah is not the only terror group upset over the unelected "prime minister" of the PA. Islamic Jihad and Hamas took great offense at his sorrow over the murder of the two Israeli hikers last week. The pro-terror Palestine Today reports (autotranslated):

Islamic Jihad said such statements are a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and are outside the bounds of unanimity with the Palestinian resistance.

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that the statements detract from the extent of resistance, does not represent our people in any way.

Similarly, the Islamic Jihad Qudsway website criticized Fayyad for offering condolences to the families of the murdered Israeli boys, and for using the word "sad" to describe it.

I am about halfway through reading "Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948" and hope to write a review when I'm done. But this very reminiscent of the 1936-39 Arab riots: for about six months, the rival Arab factions in Palestine managed to hold together long enough to keep a strike going, but afterwards the Husseinis started accusing all of their political rivals of "collaboration" - leading to the murders of some thousand Palestinian Arabs. The Nashashibis, who were just as interested in a Palestinian Arab state as the Husseinis but who wanted to work with the British to achieve it, and who did not have a problem with speaking to Zionists when it suited their interests, were targeted and killed by the intolerant terrorist Husseini clan.

In 1937-38, as now, pragmatists had to be silent because of fear for their lives. The terrorists have a near-monopoly on public opinion because the comparative moderates are targeted and threatened for their views - a problem that the terrorists themselves rarely have within the Arab world. By the nature of that society, the extremists have a huge advantage because the moderates are usually not the type to advocate or execute political assassinations.

Fayyad, because he is more realistic and willing to talk to Zionists, gets called the worst name in the Arab vocabulary: a traitor to the cause. His desire to balance the PA budget gets him death threats. Such is the state of the enlightened Palestinian Arab society.

The Islamist Lobby

The saga of the Gaza Hajj pilgrims and their likely terrorist guests continues. YNet reports:

Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority reached an agreement on Sunday evening to allow more than 1,000 Palestinians returning from the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia to return to their homes in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas had demanded that Egypt reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the pilgrims to pass directly into the coastal territory rather than force them to pass through Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Israel was insisting that they must all pass through Israeli security checks on the grounds that some of them might be carrying arms or money for Hamas.

Palestinians sources claimed that the agreement stipulated that Egypt would check the Palestinians and report to Israel about any large sums of money found on the pilgrims.

Israel was concerned that senior Hamas members carrying large sums of money raised in Saudi Arabia were among the throngs of Gazans that were preparing to enter the Strip.

Hamas blamed Israel and the PA government led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for trying to use the pilgrims to leverage political pressure on the organization.

"Those Palestinians are our brothers. We'll find them a solution, but let's do without loud mouthing. Negotiations won't work that way," he told a news conference in Cairo.

The case of the pilgrims gave rise to a heated debate in the Egyptian parliament on Sunday, with most members favoring their return directly to Gaza without Israeli checks.

Hamas Islamists called on Egypt to open its shuttered border crossing with the Gaza Strip to let the Palestinians return to their Gaza homes on Saturday.

What the news media is refusing to mention is that by Egypt acquiescing to Hamas demands to open Rafah, it is a slap in the face of not only Israel but also of the PA, which nominally is supposed to control the Gaza crossings. By Egypt allowing Hamas to dictate how Rafah operates, Egypt is giving de facto recognition of the Hamas government of Gaza as being legitimate.

From this article is appears that a majority of Egypt's parliament supports Hamas' position concerning Rafah. For some reason, no one considers it strange that a nation, ostensibly at peace with Israel and an ally of the US, would so blatantly support Hamas at a time when its influence among Palestinian Arabs - and Gazans themselves - appears to be slipping. It doesn't seem to be in Egypt;s best interests to strengthen Hamas politically. So why does its government support Rafah being open in this case?

The answer, only half jokingly, is the Islamist Lobby.

A small population of Islamists can in many cases control the foreign policy of Egypt, as well as many other Arab countries. While the "realists" will try to cozy themselves up to the West, many in the government naturally sympathize with the hard-line, anti-West Islamist lobbies.

And, like the much talked-about Israel Lobby and Americans, the people in Arab countries are much more sympathetic to the Islamist lobby as well. Western aid is great but they don't like having any strings attached. Sure, some actions by some terrorists are beyond the pale, but in general they are solidly behind the goals of terror organizations.

For some reason, no one asks the Arab countries to be "even-handed" concerning Middle East peace. It is axiomatic that they will be 100% supportive of any side that fights Israel. But Western nations, when they naturally sympathize with the Western-oriented Jewish state, are accused of not being "honest brokers." Having 90% of the United Nations in knee-jerk opposition to Israel is not nearly enough for these hypocritical advocates of "even-handedness" - no, it is easier to blame a mysterious Jewish lobby for any possible pro-Israel actions in the West.

This is the power of the Islamist lobby. Just by adopting an anti-Western, anti-Zionist attitude, it wields great power in all Arab nations, and pro-Western "realists" cannot really fight it.

What is the major weapon in the Islamist Lobby arsenal? What does it do that makes it so effective?

The answer is as obvious as it is hardly mentioned: the implicit threat of violence. If Arab nations do not toe the Islamist Lobby line, they can expect terror attacks on their soil from thousands of Islamists already living there.

So even though Hamas is a threat to Egypt as well - even though the free flow of weapons and money to Gaza is not in Egypt's interests - the Islamist Lobby can ensure that Egypt toes its line. The implicit threat of Islamist violence, which is the real power of the Islamist Lobby, is far more seductive than the empty Western threats of cutting aid by a percentage point or two.

To some extent, the entire world is held hostage to this threat, but the likelihood of any nation capitulating to the Islamist Lobby threats is directly proportional to the number of Islamists on their land. And the number of Islamists is itself directly proportional to the number of Muslims.

The worst that anyone can say about the so-called Israel Lobby is that its members can threaten to support a different candidate in a free election. But, as Egypt and now Pakistan knows, the Islamist Lobby can threaten - and follow through on their threats - in much more bloody and effective ways.

Terrorism, and its implicit threats of violence, is just as much a political tool as fundraising or lobbying. But one doesn't see it being denounced quite as vituperatively when it is only a background threat that silently moves politicians to act in ways that are good for their self-preservation but bad for their nations and the world.

So don't expect any editorials denouncing Egypt's capitulation to those who support Hamas. The fear of the Islamist Lobby ensures that any criticism of it will be much quieter than that of other special interest groups.

The polls are now open: vote for EoZ Dhimmi of the Year

On the right hand side of this blog you can see the poll. It will stay up through New Year's Day.

Vote for the most deserving dhimmi of 2007!

"Sugar" explosives followup

As I suspected, this story was all but ignored in the European press. The exception proves the rule.

And note how the EU condemned it:

EU spokeswoman Alix deMauny said the bloc distributes its food aid through U.N. agencies, rather than directly, and does not export any sugar to Gaza.
"Based on the information received, it appears that these bags cannot be confused with any kind of EU humanitarian aid," deMauny said. "We would consider it an isolated criminal act and we condemn it."

Smuggling explosives in order to make bombs to kill Jews is "an isolated criminal act"? Sounds suspiciously like how the PA considers murdering Jews on a hike. Terror, it seems, is never the case when Jews are the intended victims.

PA: "Don't worry about murders, it was only Jew-hatred"

From Ma'an:

Hebron security commander Samih As-Sayfi said on Sunday that Friday's killing of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank was a criminal offense, not an act of political violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Earlier, the military wings of Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad all claimed responsibility for the attack.

And since robbery wasn't the motive, it must have only been old-fashioned anti-semitism. You know, the usual Jew target-practice. Anyone can understand that motive.

The commander said that statements by Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades, and Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades were attempts to curry favor with the Palestinian public and confuse the security services.

See? Just because the Palestinian Arab public overwhelmingly supports killing random Jews on a hike doesn't mean it is, Allah-forbid, a political killing!

Who would ever think that general violence against Jews was political?

The Iranian PRESSTV website used a satirical Photoshopped image as proof of Iran's benevolence towards Jews. I had noticed and even linked to this picture (since replaced.)

Read the whole story at The People's Cube.