Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Abbas takes credit for opening Rafah. Did Olmert allow it?

A few interesting wrinkles on the story:

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is in Cairo and raised the pilgrims' plight in a meeting with Mubarak, said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki.
"The Egyptians completely coordinated their return with the Israeli side," Malki said.

"We asked Egypt to help, and the president (Mubarak) said he would do his best, and he did," said Nabil Shaath, an Abbas aide who attended the meeting.

PalPress, autotranslated:

In turn spokesman said Fatah Fahmi Azaaarir that President Abbas "Abu Mazen" made a great effort with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to solve the problem of pilgrims from the Gaza Strip and ensure their return to their homes as urgent humanitarian issues in the first degree.

He added in a statement Azaaarir journalist arrived in Palestine Press News Agency a copy of "Hamas tried to exploit the issue politically and pilgrims rejected accusations put forward by officials in Hamas coup against Egypt despite all what Egypt for the Palestinian cause and humanity."

Earthtimes:

Meanwhile, Mubarak and Abbas also discussed the plight of more than 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims who were stranded on Egyptian territories pending authorization to return to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing point.

But as the leaders talked, the Egyptian authorities had already agreed to reopen the Rafah point ahead of allowing the pilgrims to make their passage.

Also from PalPress:

Israeli political sources said today that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved quietly to Egypt for the opening of the Rafah crossing to solve the problem of pilgrims trapped in Egypt since week. "

And the relocation of Israeli military intelligence sources as saying that "Olmert does not want Hamas to exploit this crisis and the approaching visit of the American President George Bush to the region."

The sources added that "Egypt informed Israel intends to open the Rafah crossing to the Gaza Strip and pilgrims but Israel gave approval for a quiet opening to pilgrims."

These developments came pilgrims crossing and also following his talks Palestinian President who visited Cairo today and make unremitting efforts to end the crisis pilgrims.

Debka:

Their return was similarly unmonitored. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has apparently decided not to kick up a fuss for fear of provoking violent Hamas outbreaks that would spoil US president George W. Bush’s visits to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, starting Jan. 8.

Cairo claims Israel was notified of its reversal but made no response, while Jerusalem denies being informed. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who flew to Cairo to press Egypt to give way to Hamas, Tuesday, Jan. 1, claims Israel was informed.

Israeli security sources further report that Egypt took advantage of Israel’s blind eye to get rid of 300 Palestinian terrorists, who were detained in Sinai - some of them al Qaeda and its allied Fatah al Islam activists, who were smuggled in from Lebanon. They entered Gaza under cover of the returning pilgrim group.

Ma'an:

A security source in the Palestinian de facto government in Gaza Strip told Ma'an that dozens of Fatah activists who fled the Gaza Strip after the Hamas takeover in June 2006 have entered the coastal enclave along with the Hajj pilgrims.

The security source told Ma'an that Hamas security forces arrested dozens of the Fatah fugitives for "security reasons," as several of them were suspected of crimes, including corruption.

Things are very muddy, to say the least. Did Olmert tacitly agree to allow Rafah to be opened to avoid an embarrassing episode when Bush visits? Did Mubarak and Olmert set it up to give Olmert plausible deniability? It sounds like something Olmert would do, and his denials also sound like something he would do.

Did Abbas really appeal to open Rafah, or is he trying to take credit after the fact? My guess is the latter, especially given the Earthtimes report above.

There is no question that Hamas is the real winner in this whole sorry episode, but no matter how you slice it Egypt has consistently chosen to side with Hamas from early December to now.

Hamas lying about its "martyrs"?

An intriguing claim being made by the (anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency says that a Hamas leader that was announced today as having been killed by Israeli airstrikes was in fact killed by Fatah two days ago:

Confirmed and reliable local sources in the Gaza Strip said that "promised Mahmud Farraj north," one of the most prominent militia leaders Field Hamas lawless in Gaza City, which claimed that the movement quoted today in Israeli shelling that targeted the Shajaiyeh neighborhood at dawn today , deceased since the day before yesterday, which caused fired during clashes between the militias of Hamas and elements of the Fatah movement in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood two days ago.

The sources indicated that Hamas hid the body in the north of the hospital and did not announce the news of his murder ...and was found after examination that [he was killed] two days ago after being [shot] twice in the chest.

This isn't reliable enough to add to my self-death count but it is interesting. There is more honor in dying as a martyr by Israeli fire than in being killed by a Fatah terrorist.

Egypt caves to Hamas; terrorists cross Rafah freely

From Ha'aretz:

Hundreds of Palestinians began pouring into the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Wednesday despite Israeli objections, ending a five-day standoff that left them stranded in Egypt after returning from an Islamic pilgrimage.

Two people, including one traveler holding a large cloth bag, were the first to pass through the Rafah terminal, greeted by green-vested representatives of Hamas, the Islamic group that rules Gaza. The two were followed by a flood of returning pilgrims walking across the border.

The pilgrims left Gaza last month to make a religious pilgrimage to Saudi
Arabia. They became trapped in Egypt on their way home last weekend when the Egyptian government said they would have to cross through Kerem Shalom, an Israel Defense Forces-controlled crossing, instead of going directly into Gaza through the Rafah terminal.

Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, fears that some of the
travelers are carrying large sums of money for Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Fearing capture by the Israelis, Hamas leaders among the pilgrims refused to go through the alternate crossing. The pilgrims rioted in temporary camps set up for them by Egypt and have threatened a hunger strike.

An Egyptian official said Wednesday that Israel had been informed of the
Egyptian decision to let the pilgrims back.

But Israeli defense officials said Israel hadn't approved their return and that Egypt's decision to let them back into Gaza contradicts understandings between Israel and Egypt. Officials in the foreign ministry said they had not been informed about Egypt's decision.

As I have mentioned in the past, this means that Egypt is legitimizing Hamas. It also means that Egypt is more concerned about Hamas' concerns than Israel's.

Practically, if Debka's figures are accurate, it means that some $150 million dollars has just been added to terrorist coffers.

Egypt, of course, has been deeply offended by Israel's objections to Egyptian collusion with smugglers to Hamas. And Egypt's tender feelings, as well as Hamas' threats to create a humanitarian crisis among its own people in the Egyptian desert, are obviously more important to the world than Israel's security.

Another victory for terrorism. 2008 looks like it will be a great year for the "peace process" where real facts don't interfere with the illusion of progress.

More fun with prisoner statistics

The Palestine Center for Human Rights issued a press release a couple of days ago:

Twenty one year old Fadi Abd El-Latif Abu El-Rob died in the Israeli Jalbou' prison on the evening of 28 December, 2007. A Palestinian from the town of Qabatia, near Jenin, and a member of Islamic Jihad, Fadi Abu El-Rob had been detained in Jalbou' prison since 29 June, 2007.

According to PCHR information, Fadi Abu El-Rob was suffering from an unspecified illness on the morning of December 28. He was transferred to the prison clinic, where his condition deteriorated.

The Israeli Prisons Authority (IPA) announced his death on the evening of December 28, without specifying the cause of death.

Fadi Abu El-Rob is the fifth Palestinian prisoner to die in an Israeli jail during 2007. Four Palestinians died as a result of medical negligence, and the fifth was shot in the head by an anti-riot unit who broke into Ketsa’ot Detention Center in the Negev on October 22, 2007.

PCHR notes with the utmost concern that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are being subjected to harsh and inhumane conditions as a direct result of deteriorating prison conditions, including deteriorating standards of healthcare. These conditions violate Articles 22 and 26 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

And here comes the fun part.

As I noted recently, the mortality rate for Palestinian Arabs between the West Bank and Gaza is roughly 3.8 per thousand. During 2007 there has been an average of about 10,000 PalArab prisoners in Israeli prisons. So if the 10,000 prisoners were home, if they mirror general PalArab demographics, one would expect about 38 of them to have died. So only 5 of them dying in Israeli prisons, and only 4 for medical reasons, sounds quite humane. I am certain that the Palestinian Arab prison mortality rate is a couple of orders of magnitude worse.

Even if we say that these mostly young men are healthy and are unlikely to have died from natural causes at those rates, if we generously assume some 100,000 terrorists altogether in the territories, about 350 were killed in Israeli operations this year and about 600 were killed by each other, the mortality rate for healthy male terrorists being violently killed is probably about 1%. Adding in traffic accidents, other medical emergencies and such, and we could probably assume 1.5% total annual mortality for young PalArab men. Which means we would expect some 15 of them to have died this year (and many more to have been injured.)

It sounds like, if PalArab youths are worried about their health, the best thing they can do is get arrested by Israel.

Palestinian children watch an Israeli soldier during a routine patrol in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2008.(AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

And it's just a coincidence that the picture that Nasser Shiyoukhi submitted to AP happens to show an Israeli gun appearing to be inches from a child's head.

Nice shooting (6)

Once again, the IDF has achieved perfection: four attacks, seven dead terrorists, no civilians, no IDF injuries. From Ma'an:

Six Palestinian activists were killed and several others injured on Wednesday morning in a series of Israeli air raids and a simultaneous ground incursion in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced the death of three of their members after Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at a group of activists in the Ash-Shuja'iyya neighborhood. Amongs the victims was Ahid Shamali, a leader in the Al-Qassam Brigades.

After a second Israeli strike, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of activists Yousif Shamali and Mus'ab Jundiyya.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles a third time at another group of Al-Qassam Brigades fighters, killing Abdul-Karim Al-Hilou and Hammad Abu Amira, all fighters with the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades.

In fierce clashes between Palestinian resistance fighters and the invading Israeli forces in Ash-Shuja'iyya, an activist from Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades named Salim Al-Wadiyya was killed.

On Tuesday evening, a leader within Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades, twenty-five-year-old Yahya Abu Talha was killed and five others were injured after the Israeli artillery bombarded a base in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Which is more humane than shaving off their mustaches.

And the 2008 EoZ Dhimmi of the Year is...

The long-time sentimental favorite, the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner and, more importantly, the 2003 Fiskie Award winner, former President, peanut farmer and terrorist-sympathizer extraordinaire, Jimmy Carter!

While some (including myself) may dispute his status as a classic dhimmi, Mr. Carter did still manage to do some spectacularly dhimmi-type activities this year, including:

- The revelation that he might have advised his friend, Yasser Arafat, to reject Israel's Camp David offer in 2000;

- Declaring the mass murders in Darfur to not be genocide;

- Starting a pompously-named supergroup plagiarized from your humble host, which coincidentally includes mostly members that share his hatred of Israel;

- Not backtracking from his 2006 praise of Hamas on Larry King;

- Advising Jews to hate Christian evangelists, and advising Christian Evangelists to hate Israel;

- Telling Iowans to choose candidates who aren't so darn pro-Israel; and

- Quoting a fake "letter from Nelson Mandela" that was created on a virulently anti-Israel website calling Israel an apartheid state as if it was true.

If we add what we found out about this great humanitarian in December of 2006 we can add:

- It was revealed that Dhimmi Carter himself, when President of the United States, personally intervened on behalf of a Nazi war criminal.

- It was shown that in his "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" book, Carter purposefully plagiarized and misrepresented maps that came from Dennis Ross' book on Camp David.

Yes, it was a busy year for Jimmah, with much of his efforts going towards strengthening terrorists and demonizing Zionists.

So congratulations to Jimmy!

Honorable mention to Christiane Amanpour, our runner-up, who managed to equate a couple of abortion-clinic bombings and some decades-old Jewish settler actions with the purposeful murder of tens of thousands of people. Because, of course, all religions are equally likely to hurt people.

Perhaps she didn't win because she was accused of being a Zionist spy.

Honorable mentions to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the California congressional representatives, tied for third place. Full results here.

Let's count the Palstinian Authority lies since Friday

From the Jerusalem Post:

The terrorists who gunned down two off-duty soldiers hiking near Hebron on Friday are both Palestinian Authority workers, and one of them is even a member of the official PA security forces, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Service) revealed Tuesday night.

Ahikam Amihai (left) and Yehuda Rubin, who were killed in Friday's terror attack near Kiryat Arba.

Since the attack on Friday, the PA has claimed that the murderers of David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai were unaffiliated terrorists. On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that at least two of them were Fatah operatives.
According to details of the attack released Tuesday, the gunmen - Ali Dandis, 24, and Amar Taha, 26, both residents of Hebron - surrendered on the day of the attack to the Palestinian security forces in Hebron out of fear that they would be caught by the IDF. They also handed over the soldiers' weapons.

At first the PA said that this was a "criminal offense" - LIE.

Then the PA said that it was a "dispute" between arms dealers -LIE.

The PA broadly hinted that the victims were selling weapons to Israel's enemies - OUTRAGEOUS SLANDEROUS LIE.

The PA has claimed - even after the murders - that they have disarmed the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank and that there are no more Fatah terrorists - LAUGHABLE LIE.

The PA made all of these claims after the terrorists already turned themselves in last Friday - so there is no wiggle room to say that the PA was making guesses, or was misinformed. They knowingly, repeatedly lied to protect the terrorists and to avoid "looking bad" to the world.

The PA, at the very least, has proven that:

-It actively protects murderers.

-It conspires to cover up murders.

-It repeatedly, knowingly and publicly lies to the world.

Someone please explain the wisdom of negotiating with this terrorist organization called the Palestinian Authority. In what universe does it make sense to cut deals with people who support murderers and whose words cannot be believed - ever?

This is not spin on the part of the PA. This is not politics. This is not an amateurish attempt to deflect blame. This is the pre-planned decision, a clear choice between admitting that their people were involved or blaming the victims, between choosing the side of the terrorists or the "peace partners."

The PA terror organization, the clear heir of the PLO in every respect, made that choice crystal clear.

And these sickening liars, these people who continue support and pay terrorists, these subhuman scum whose heroes are mass murderers - these are the people that Olmert wants to entrust biblical Jerusalem to.

(See also Israellycool and especially Boker Tov Boulder's reproduction of Naomi Ragen's essay.)

January 1, 1948: The Jewish army kills two Nazis - in Jerusalem

On January 1, 1948, a Jewish army killed two Nazis:

The Arabs, still stinging from their defeat at the UN, decided to hire the most effective murderers of Jews they could find to help them follow in Hitler's footsteps.

It was a marriage made in heaven: Nazis who were disappointed with their failure to utterly destroy world Jewry were getting a second chance, and Arabs who supported the Nazis could get people with military expertise to help them out:

And the Arab desire to wipe out the Jews resonated with other assorted anti-semites, Fascist sympathizers from Great Britain among them:

It is ironic that the Arabs who love to call Zionists "Nazis" are the ones who were eager to hire real Nazis to kill as many Jews as possible.

See also this article about the saga of two Arab Nazi paratroopers who came to Palestine during World War II; one of them ended up being a faithful gang leader for Hajj Amin Husseini in 1948.

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.