Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Egypt catches Gazans with explosives

Palestine Press Agency reports (autotranslated):

Egyptian sources revealed that the security authorities had detained several Palestinians in the Egyptian governorates of possession of explosives and advanced mobile phones capable of penetrating Egyptian security communication networks.

Deputies of the prominent ruling National Democratic Party in Egypt warned of the seriousness of leaving open the border with Gaza, without controls, saying that Palestinians carrying explosives, and a sophisticated communications, caught the night before last, and warned deputies also what it called "a blueprint for the settlement of Israelis in Sinai, Gaza residents.

During a meeting of the Egyptian People's Assembly was held yesterday evening, said deputy ruling party and the President of the Court of the President, Dr. Zakaria Azmi, "said 30 infiltrators from Gaza were arrested in possession of explosives," adding that "were found inside a belt taxis after going down in the Palestinian Sinai, will also present 18 security guards Egyptian officers were in danger of attack by armed Palestinians tried to blow up the crossing 5 times "(referring to the Hamas militias), reiterating that" Sinai will not be a substitute for Gaza. "

For its part, Egyptian security sources said the seizure of more than 20 Palestinians aged between 20 and 40 years, said: "They infiltrated into the country and was caught with someone quantity few primitive explosives, in addition to a sophisticated communications networks capable of breaking the security in Egypt, and that the security bodies are high investigate what is happening in the search for other suspects. "

I have not yet seen this in any other press reports, but there are enough specifics here to make it appear that PalPress is reporting fairly accurately.

UPDATE: Confirmed.

Iranian official threatens Jews worldwide

From the Iranian Mehr News:

International Institute for Holocaust Research Secretary General Mohammad-Ali Ramin has called on the Jewish community to break their silence on Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and give up their support for the Zionist regime.

“If the world’s Jews keep silent on the blatant genocide of Palestinians, the entire human community will hold Jewish people responsible for the crimes,” Ramin told the Mehr News Agency on Friday.

He said, “The presence of a blood-thirsty enemy at the heart of the Islamic world like the Zionist regime which poses a threat to all Islamic countries provides the best opportunity for the Islamic Ummah to preserve unity and return to its religious identity.”

Referring to Israel’s “organized massacre of Palestinians”, Ramin said, “Silence on these crimes will have irreparable repercussions for Muslims.”

Summing up:

* If Jews don't publicly declare that the Islamist viewpoint on "the Zionist regime" is correct, the entire world will be justified in punishing the Jews.

* Jews aren't human, as the "entire human community will hold Jewish people responsible."

* Israel is a direct threat to every Islamic country from Malaysia to Bahrain.

* If Israel didn't exist, Muslims would all be fighting each other, so the Zionist regime is the best hope for Muslims to unify - and get religion.

* Muslims cannot be held responsible for their actions if Israel has the audacity to continue to exist.

* The Muslim that holds these viewpoints is the leading Holocaust "researcher" in Iran.

Glad he cleared that up!

Great moments in UN history

During the discussion around yesterday's routine UNHRC one-sided condemnation of Israel came this exchange, which pretty much says it all about how serious one should take that august institution:

HILLEL NEUER, of United Nations Watch , said that the proposed draft resolution constituted a case of psychological projection. It was Hamas which deliberately fired rockets into Israel. They were the ones rejecting the very notion of distinction between combatants and civilians. Israel did the opposite by protecting its citizens. It should also be considered who had initiated this session. They included the lowest possible rated States in the annual world survey released by Freedom House. Were these the arbiters of human rights in the world today?

JUAN ANTONIO FERNANDEZ PALACIOS ( Cuba ), speaking in a right of reply in response to the statement of United Nations Watch, said the organization was a lucrative organization amply funded by the CIA and Mossad aimed to degenerate certain States on the Council. There was nothing more barbaric than the occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

When one cannot tell the difference between websites written by loony conspiracy theorists and official UN delegates, perhaps it is time to rethink the legitimacy of the latter.

Is Gaza occupied?

Yesterday, the ever-reliable UN "Human Rights" Commission did what it literally always does - it condemned Israel and no one else. As Israellycool points out, the resolution used the terminology "occupied Gaza Strip" no less than four times.

Is Gaza legally occupied?

It is hard to find a good definition of "occupied territory" in international law. The best one is perhaps from the Hague Convention of 1907, which the Geneva Conventions seems to rely on:

Art. 42. Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.
The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.

From the specifics of both the Hague and Geneva Conventions, it is clear that "occupation" means control over the day to day lives of the citizens of the territory. For example:

Art. 55. The occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.

Other provisions talk about maintaining public order and the like.

From these many provisions in the Hague and Geneva, as well as in normal use of the word in English, it is clear that "occupation" means physical presence as well as the effective takeover of functioning governmental institutions and tasks, like collecting taxes.

From Israel's perspective, its (legally ambiguous) declaration of Gaza as a "hostile territory" is far more accurate, as is clear from this article by two legal experts at The American Thinker last year:

If Gaza is territory under the control of the enemy -- as it manifestly is under Hamas -- then the Israeli government is both within its rights and arguably obliged by its responsibilities to its citizens to treat the strip as "hostile territory." Siege and blockade of a hostile territory is a legitimate tactic of war, used in declared and undeclared (e.g., Cuban) conflicts and explicitly recognized by the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The Conventions' sole limitation is that there be "free passage of all consignments of food-stuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers, and maternity cases" (Fourth Convention, art. 23) -- and even this exception was conditioned on there being "no reasons for fearing... [t]hat a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy" (for example, if resources destined for humanitarian aid will be commandeered by the enemy). Israel has carefully respected this requirement.

In fact, if anyone is occupying Gaza, it would appear to be Hamas.

Hamas never legally seceded Gaza from the PA and both Hamas and the PA keep declaring that both Gaza and the West Bank are a single legal entity. In fact, Hamas and the PA keep negotiating over where the PA might be able to take over some functions in Gaza, as well as their ultimate rapprochement, thus fulfilling another essential portion of the definition of occupation - that it be temporary.

In addition, Hamas clearly acted against the wishes of the PA and against PA laws in its takeover. Beyond that, Hamas is fully acting like an occupier, taking over the governmental institutions in Gaza like the police and the courts and collecting taxes.

Obviously Hamas has never accepted any international legal conventions. And Hamas is not a country, which complicates the definition further. Even so, as the effective occupier, it clearly violates many of Geneva's laws, including forcibly taking hospital supplies from the civilian population for its own purposes (Geneva IV, Art. 56)

Hamas' status under international law needs to be clarified, and its obligations spelled out. The current situation where a terrorist occupying force (or quasi- government) has no legal obligations is absurd, and it directly leads to travesties like this UNHRC resolution.

Two terror attacks near Jerusalem

One Israeli was killed and another wounded Thursday night in a shooting attack near the entrance to the Shuafat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem.

One of the wounded died after resuscitation attempts and the other, a female, was listed in serious condition.

IDF sources said that terrorists had approached the entrance to Shuafat by foot and opened fire at a group of Israelis nearby and then fled the scene. Military forces and Border Policemen immediately dispatched search parties to catch the gunmen.

In another simultaneous incident, two terrorists were killed after they infiltrated a high school in Kfar Etzion, south of Jerusalem.

The terrorists, armed with knives and possibly with a pistol, infiltrated the kibbutz - in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc - and snuck into a building used by the Makor Haim High School, run by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

“The terrorists came inside and began stabbing students,” a defense official said. Three students were injured, including two moderately. They were all evacuated to Hadassah Hosptial in Jerusalem.

Shortly after the infiltration, a number of the school’s counselors, armed with guns, arrived at the scene and shot and killed the terrorists. IDF sources hailed the student’s quick response.

“This could have ended much worse,” a source in the Central Command said.

YNet says

Fatah’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack. A Fatah spokesman told Ynet that the organizations “Black September” activists carried out the attack.

This is of course the Fatah faction that the PA declared “dismantled” a few weeks ago and then “disbanded” a week later.

This must all be part of the celebration of breaking down the Rafah wall.

4,200 Balloons

From YNet:

The Israeli consulate in New York released 4,200 red balloons Thursday, equal to the number of Qassam rockets fired at Sdeort since the Gaza disengagement, outside the United Nations headquarters in the city. The display aimed to protest the international community's disregard for Qassam fire at Israel.

Consul for Media and Public Affairs in New York, David Saranga, said that the protest aimed to place the distress faced by Israelis on the American and global agenda.

"To this day, all attempts to place this issue on the American media's agenda have failed," Saranga said.

So far, none of the major wire services have posted a single photo of this protest.

But protests against Israel that appear to have attracted a dozen or so people get prominent coverage, like this one from Lebanon. AP posted no less than 10 pictures of this protest, each one cropped in such a way so that you cannot see how tiny it really is.

Which proves Israel's point precisely.

This of course begs the question - why does AP consider a small protest of Hezbollah-supporting college students in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut to be infinitely more newsworthy than Israel's more creative and innovative protest taking place opposite the United Nations?

From FARS
(h/t NRO Corner)

An interesting "martyr"

Palestine Today keeps up the tradition of finding roughly one person a day who dies in a hospital in Gaza and blaming his death on Israeli travel restrictions:

Palestinian medical sources announced last night on the death of a patient due prevented by the Israeli authorities from leaving the Gaza Strip to receive the necessary treatment abroad.

The same sources stated that the young Naji Hamdan Cream (36 years), resident of the Rafah governorate joined the caravan of martyrs of patients travel ban after suffering from heart disease.

What makes "Number 77" interesting is that he died while the border to Egypt was open. In fact, he is a resident of Rafah!

Did anyone notice in the crowds of hundreds of thousands of supposedly desperate Gazans streaming to Egypt whether any of them were transported by ambulance or stretcher to go to Egyptian hospitals? I have yet to find any such picture, among the photos of the "starving" Gazans carrying large-screen TVs back to their homes. If the medical crisis is so acute (and of course it isn't - Israel is still allowing dozens of ill Gazans to enter Israeli hospitals daily) then why haven't we seen a surge of sick PalArabs being escorted through Rafah to Egyptians happy to help them out?

Fertilizer for bombs and terrorists going through Rafah

From the Daily Telegraph:

And somewhere in the teeming crowd, came people anxious to exploit the day for their own less innocent purposes.

Fertiliser, broken down into half bags for lugging through the many tunnels that arms smugglers normally use for delivery into Gaza, was to be seen as it was manhandled overland.

It was white, oily, crystalline and a dab on the tongue left a sharp, burning sensation.

In most countries fertiliser has a perfectly innocent function but in Gaza militants use it to make explosive.

"Hey, hey, hey," shouted a man as I took a photograph of a pile of fertiliser half bags.

His aggressive tone jarred with the mood the crowd as he grabbed my camera lens firmly.

From the Washington Post:

Along one teeming road in the Egyptian part of Rafah, a Hamas security official who had been stranded on Egypt's side of the border since June -- fearing arrest by Israel during a crossing if he tried to return -- met his mother and sisters in the surging crowd. "Eight months I haven't seen him!" his mother exclaimed after a flurry of hugging and kissing.

The man excused himself for not talking. "I'm on the wanted list," he explained.

Israel accuses Egypt, increasingly sharply, of allowing smugglers to bring arms and explosives into Gaza. It was clear Wednesday that contraband and gunmen could cross the border that day with little chance of being stopped.

... Seven or eight Egyptian border guards stood lined up along one stretch of no man's land, which was thick with milling Palestinians and livestock.

The Egyptian guards watched but did not move. "Don't speak to us! Don't even look at us!" one Egyptian officer shouted after someone in the crowd moved toward them.

(h/t Backspin)

Morning links

Israellycool continues his liveblogging of the situation in Gaza, Sderot and vicinity.

Egypt Today on the Israeli film The Band and why Egypt refuses to screen it.

YNet and BackSpin on anti-semitic Arab cartoons.

Canada decides not to attend Durban II : "We'll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance"

Brazilian singer: "I constantly ask myself why I need suffer so. I am not Jewish, I did not crucify Jesus.”

Sderot Reality

And. from what I can tell, it's been about 36 hours since the last Qassams, although mortars have continued. B'li ayin hora.

More Hamas staged stunts - candlelight edition

From the Jerusalem Post:

On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.

In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.

In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.

But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.

"They had closed the curtains in the rooms to create the impression that Hamas leaders were also suffering as a result of the power stoppage," one journalist told The Jerusalem Post. "It was obvious that the whole thing was staged."

Hamas also seems to have timed its Sunday night blackout for prime-time TV:

Fortunately for those who wanted all-Gaza, all-the-time, there was still Al-Jazeera, which had been on the scene with live broadcasts and commentary from the very moment that Hamas had decided to cut the power in Gaza and send it into darkness on Sunday night.
Indeed, so ready was Al-Jazeera with live coverage of candle-bearing Palestinian children and immediate reaction from across the Arab world, that Israeli officials said Tuesday they strongly suspect the Arab news network had coordinated its coverage in advance with the Hamas leadership.
"They were so prepared, it's hard to believe they didn't know this was going to happen," said the official. "Although it's already dark in Gaza by 6 p.m., they waited two hours to shut their generator down so that the lights going out in Gaza could be carried live on Al-Jazeeera during prime-time viewing."

Others noticed the fortuitous timing of a "spontaneous" candlelight demonstration only minutes after the power plant shutdown:

Minutes after the power plant shutdown, Gaza residents started a candlelight march. Live Associated Press TV pictures showed dots of light moving slowly up a darkened main street.

So when the media talk about how Hamas won the PR war with Israel, it is a bit disingenuous of them not to admit their own responsibility for that victory - the news organizations are not only susceptible to obvious staging, they welcome being manipulated if they can get a good picture or story out of it.

See also my posting "Baking a crisis" on a similar theme.

Rafah blasts were planned for weeks

From Dion Nissenbaum of McClatchy Newspapers:

Before dawn, Palestinian militants blew up and tore down large sections of the concrete and iron walls separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

They had apparently been planning the attack for weeks. With the knowledge of locals, militants had spent weeks methodically using blow torches to cut along the bottom of the 30-foot-tall corrugated iron wall along the Egyptian border.

Before dawn on Wednesday, militants blew holes in the adjacent concrete slabs and then toppled the iron wall.

It looks like yesterday's clashes between Gazan women and Egyptian border guards were staged specifically for the purpose of doing this pre-planned operation in such a way that Egypt would be unwilling to interfere.

And it seems probable that everything we've seen over the past few days - Hamas closing bakeries, shutting the fuel plant, perhaps even the rocket barrages themselves last week - were all meant to play to world opinion, create a fake "crisis", all ultimately to force Egypt to open Rafah, something that Hamas has been trying to do for months.

(h/t Backspin)

UPDATE: The Times (UK) reports that this has been going on for months!

a Hamas border guard interviewed by The Times at the border today admitted that the Islamist group was responsible and had been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches.

That meant that when the explosive charges were set off in 17 different locations after midnight last night the 40ft wall came tumbling down, leaving it lying like a broken concertina down the middle of no-man's land as an estimated 350,000 Gazans flooded into Egypt.

The guard, Lieutenant Abu Usama of the Palestinian National Security, said of the cutting operation: "I've seen this happening over the last few months. It happened in the daytime but was covered up so that nobody would see."

Asked whether he had reported it to the government, he replied: "It was the government that was doing this. Who would I report it to?"

Abu Usama, who normally works from a small guard cabin in no-man's land, added: "Last night we were told to keep away from the wall. We were ordered to stay away because they were going to break the blockade."

Just remember, it is all Israel's - and the Joooz' - fault

I haven't been spending too much time lately looking for absurd misozionistic and anti-semitic rants, but that is not a reflection of any sort of moderation in the Arab and Islamic world - these rants are still printed daily in Arab and Muslim media.

Two examples from today, the first from the ever-reliable Iranian IRNA:

Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said here Wednesday that Palestine is the main problem of the world of Islam.
"It is for 60 years that criminal West has imposed Israel on the world of Islam like a dagger and occupied the first Qibla of Muslims," said Haddad-Adel in an address to a group of parliamentarians.
He said today, Muslim world has been awakened and Muslims have regained their identity.
He added that Americans too intend to deceive public opinion by their lies, which are broadcast by the media run by the Zionists.

Our second comes from that moderate ally of ours, the UAE:

ONE of the basic principles of war is that one must have a plan. One of the even more basic principles is that in order to win the war, one must know the enemy's plan!

This is impossible, unless one has first identified the enemy and has taken whatever measures are necessary to know him as well as he can possibly be known. This leads to an old, probably Chinese, injunction; "To succeed, keep your friends close; but your enemies even closer!"

If you are going to fight for the Palestinian, the Middle East, the Arabic, the Islamic, the Pakistani, the Lebanese, the Iraqi, the Iranian cause, or any of the many causes of "the people" in the Middle east, or even understand the conflicts in the region, it is imperative that you not only know all about the enemy, and his plans, but first that you recognise and acknowledge exactly who the enemy actually is!

I am not sure this has been done, for I see little mention of him in the media which seems to be flowing out of the region. ...

No one seems to want to address this major issue, which for years has been behind the Balkanisation of so many countries in the region, and the establishment, installation, stabilisation and solidification of one great foreign and aggravating element, Zionist Israel!

To know the enemy is half the victory. No victory or defence can be devised or pursued without knowing whom one is fighting. Since the "enemy" in this case is right there on the home grounds of the people he is invading and attacking, it should be obvious who he is.

I ask, of the people who live in the region, the Press who write about it, and Muslims particularly, what would the Prophet have done faced with such a scenario? What are you doing?

Read a rare and refreshingly clear voice of startling and exceptionally clear vision on this “unmentionable topic,” by an American. He, and what he has to say on the matter, may be a good platform from which to search for the truth of the enemy, and get an ID on him.

Scott Ritter is not only a clear-sighted and perceptive visionary, he is a brave man who writes exceptionally well. Worth reading!

“Israel at present can have no friends, because Israel does not know how to be a friend. Driven by xenophobic paranoia and historical grievances, Israel is embarked on a path that can only lead to death and destruction. ...” writes Ritter.

America's inability to resolve the question of Palestine is one of the gravest tragedies of our times. This is primarily because the US administration and the US Congress have succumbed to the demands of the Zionists and the Zionist regime. This is a lethal ailment that afflicts the US. The American politicians have fallen captive to the Zionist network. Even though Jews only make up 2.9 per cent of the country's population, an astounding 56 per cent of Clinton's appointees were Jews. Let me assure you the situation was the same in the Bush administration. A coincidence? I don't think so. You have to ask yourselves what motivates American Jews to gain such political power. Is it a genuine care for American interests?

The proportion of 56 per cent in the administration, compared to 2.9 per cent in the populations, says it all without going into the specific numbers. Surely fair-minded Americans the likes of Scott Ritter prefer US-inspired policies to those perpetrated by the Zionists. Regretably little is being done to cure this fatal disease.

Hamas mimicking Arafat

Yasir Arafat was infamous for directing terror attacks while denying any responsibility as he used other front organizations to do the work. (And Arafat was copying his mentor, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who instigated anti-Jewish pogroms in the 1920s and '30s while denying any responsibility to the British.)

The events of the past two days shows that Hamas is following the same game plan.

Yesterday's demonstration by women at Rafah was orchestrated by Hamas, as they bussed hundreds of women from all over Gaza. The goal was to embarrass Egypt into allowing Rafah to open.

Then, this morning, 17 simultaneous explosions by "masked gunmen" took down the Rafah border wall with Egypt - and Hamas denied responsibility.

But Hamas immediately "took control" of the border, and even allowed a Caterpillar tractor to clear the debris so cars can pass through. This "control" has been what they have been demanding for months.

The denial is telling. It shows that, while Hamas used to be unusually honest about its actions and goals before it took over Gaza, it has now started subscribing to using other terror groups to do actions that might be considered distasteful to the international community and to Arab countries.

Yesterday's barrage of 20 rockets - which Hamas did not take credit for - indicates the same thing.

Arab countries sick of Hamas

Despite the manufactured "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza and (perhaps because of) extensive al-Jazeera coverage, Arab countries have been muted in their support for Gazan Arabs - and Hamas is frustrated, as Iranian al-Aram reports:

A senior member of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has criticized Arab and Islamic states' stance towards Gaza blockade by the Israeli occupying regime.

Speaking to Alalam TV Tuesday, Hamas representative at the Palestinian Legislative Assembly, Ahmed Abu Halbiyeh lashed out at Arab countries, asking them to rise and save the Palestinian people as soon and effectively as possible.

"Hamas movement calls on the leaders of all Arab and Islamic countries, parliaments, political parties, and people to help save the Palestinian nation," Hamas official said.

"Unfortunately, Arab and Islamic countries have not so far given a positive response to our calls, and there has been only little talk for putting pressure on the Zionist regime or for encouraging the Palestinian groups to resume internal negotiations and find a resolution to the Zionists' blockade", Abu Halbiyeh said.

He further noted that "it seems the Palestinian blood is not important for the Arab and Islamic countries".

Hamas legislator said that the Palestinian nation would fulfill their duties concering resistance against occupation by every possible means, and "criticism goes to those countries which make no effort to help the Palestinian people".

Sounds like a spoiled teenager screaming to his parents "You don't love me!"