Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 08, 2008

MSM keeps ignoring Hamas war crimes

AP released a dispatch yesterday:

Hamas policemen seized a convoy of humanitarian aid bound for the Palestinian Red Crescent on Thursday evening, the second convoy it has taken from the aid agency, aid employees said.

Policemen from Hamas halted 14 trucks filled with food and medicine at a checkpoint after it crossed an Israeli checkpoint into Gaza on Thursday, said employees of the Palestinian Red Crescent, who declined to be named, fearing reprisals from ruling group Hamas. A Hamas official said the aid was seized because the organization was distributing aid to former Fatah fighters and not to impoverished Palestinians.

Employees from the Red Crescent said they were meant to distribute the aid to some 8,000 needy Gaza residents from lists of people the organization keeps. The aid came from the organization's regional headquarters in Jordan, an employee said.

...The food aid was unloaded in the warehouses of the Hamas Ministry of Social Affairs, and two trucks of medicine were taken to a nearby Hamas-run hospital, he said.

The employee said that it was the second time Hamas policemen seized aid meant for the Red Crescent. Last month the group seized the aid from warehouses.

This article was essentially ignored by newspapers and other Web news outlets outside of Israel, and only a handful mentioned it buried in other articles about Gaza. And absolutely no one goes slightly beyond the article to ask the basic question of how much of Gaza's "humanitarian crisis" is being engineered by Hamas itself.

On a similar note, the number of Qassam rockets fired at Israel has increased dramatically in the past few days compared to a relative lull for a couple of weeks. This issue is also being all but ignored by news outlets, mentioning them in passing in other articles about the Egypt/Gaza border, for example. The fact that there are as few casualties in Sderot as there are is nothing short of a miracle.

Finally, yesterday's AP story of Hamas hiding rockets in a school was also picked up by only a dozen or so newspapers worldwide according to Google News counts.

Each of these stories show that Hamas and its partners are engaging in daily war crimes according to the Geneva Conventions. Shooting indiscriminately at civilians, using civilian areas to hide legitimate military targets and confiscating humanitarian aid are all explicitly illegal in international law as well as humanitarian law.

While Israel is constantly being accused of war crimes, either explicitly in the media or by their quoting handpicked "experts" to confirm the bias of the reporters, Palestinian Arab terror actions - all of these three in the past 24 hours - get a free pass, either ignored completely or reported in a passive manner.

The media is a big part of the problem, and a large reason why Hamas feels that it can act with impunity.

Hamas hid rocket launcher in school

Sometimes you have to go digging in the mainstream media to find a gem. AP writes:

An Israeli missile on Thursday struck a makeshift school that Hamas militants apparently used as cover to launch attacks, killing a Palestinian teacher.

Six militants also died when Israeli ground forces backed by warplanes exchanged fire with Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, part of the escalating violence that is hobbling peace efforts.

...The 38-year-old teacher was killed when a surface-to-surface missile struck the agricultural school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, Hamas security forces said.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry said the man was killed outside the school gate. The Israeli military said it opened fire in the area at a group of rocket launchers. It denied firing at a school.

Associated Press Television News footage showed the school to be a series of huts in a rural area. A rocket-launching device was spotted between some olive trees, indicating militants had used the school for cover to launch attacks.

Placing a rocket launcher on the grounds of a school is, of course, a war crime. But Hamas, as well as the "moderate" PA, will cynically use use the death of a teacher as proof of supposed Israeli attacks on civilians.

(h/t EBoZ)

Increase in Gaza motorcycle accidents since border breach

The media had a couple of pictures of "poor" Palestinian Arabs bringing motorcycles purchased from Egypt into Gaza:

Apparently, this cyclemania has some consequences. From Palestine Press Agency (autotranslated):

Palestinian medical sources announced this evening the death of a citizen and the injury of two others in a motorcycle collision domains in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah town in southern Gaza.

For his part, Dr. Hassanein Maaouya director of emergency ambulance and the Ministry of Health "that the hospital sector received twenty injured in similar incidents [recently], including critical situations."

It is noteworthy that the hundreds of motorbikes purchased after opening the border with Egypt where he led teenagers failed to get a driver's license with it lacks those bikes for licensing and insurance.

It wasn't a handful of motorcycles bought in Egypt by the starving, poverty-stricken PalArabs - they purchased hundreds! And their poor, hungry kids without drivers' licenses are being given these gifts worth thousands of dollars, where they can crash into other poor Gazans with impunity.

Sounds like a wonderful society being built there.

(No, I will not count this in the self-death count.)

It's the first of Adar!

Which means it is time to dust off some old Jewish jokes!
--------------

During his school holidays, 17 year-old Avrohom decides to take a temporary job as a delivery boy for Minky’s Restaurant. One evening he delivers a meal to Bernie’s house. He hands over the meal and Bernie pays the bill. Then Bernie looks at Avrohom for a few seconds and somewhat begrudgingly says, "I suppose you also want me to give you a tip?"

Avrohom doesn’t answer immediately, but looks at Bernie for a few seconds before replying. "Yes, sir, that would be most appreciated, especially as the guy who normally delivers to this area told me that I shouldn’t expect much from you. He said I should be thankful if I got 10p."

"Well," says Bernie, "just to prove your friend wrong, here’s £2 for your efforts."

"Thank you very much," says Avrohom. "This will go into the fund I’m building up to pay for my future education."

"Really?" says Bernie. "So what are you going to study?"

"Applied Psychology," replies Avrohom.

Blair claims PA implementing roadmap - let's fact check

From Ynet:

International Middle East envoy Tony Blair said on Thursday the Palestinians were meeting their security obligations under a long-stalled Road Map peace plan and that Israel should start responding.
"I think it is important to recognise that what has happened here in Nablus over these past few months is, of course, precisely what phase one of the 'road map' asks for," Blair said during a visit to the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Really?

The roadmap includes:

At the outset of Phase I:
Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.

So let's see some recent examples:

A new video clip broadcast continuously since October 2007 by Palestinian
TV promises a mother that that Palestine will be violence, claiming the
Palestinians have the right to all of Israel:

Oh Arab, oh noble son, your blood is my blood,
and your cause is my cause
This land is Arab in history and identity
Palestine is Arabic is history and identity.
We will live in peace, oh mother and
our lives will not be lost…
From Jerusalem and Acre
and Haifa and Jericho and
Gaza and Ramallah
From Bethlehem and Jaffa and
Beersheba and Ramla
From Nablus to the Galilee
and from Tiberias to Hebron
And from Nablus to the Galilee
and from Jenin to Hebron
We are all in the same ditch, oh mother
And our resolve is [as sharp as] a sword

Another video currently heard is a song called “My Enemy, My Enemy,”
broadcast many times in the past. It depicts the Jews as snakes twisting in the
earth (the snake is an anti-Semitic symbol for the Jews).

And here are a couple of cartoons published in the PA official or semi-official media since Blair was declared an expert envoy on the Middle East:

The Nablus PA operation was a cosmetic sham that was geared towards petty criminals and PR more than towards eradicating terror. Nablus is still the hub of terror in the West Bank, and Nablus is where 3 PA policemen murdered an Israeli in December.

Tony Blair, like most Western leaders, is letting his desire for a fictional "peace" cloud his common sense and ability to see facts clearly.

The PA has done next to nothing to implement Phase I of the roadmap except for superficial actions to fool Westerners desperate to believe them.

More counterfeit news

Looks like Hamas' printing presses have been busy....

Egyptian authorities have seized more than a million dollars in forged US currency allegedly produced in the Gaza Strip since the Gaza-Egypt border was toppled by Palestinian fighters two weeks ago, Egyptian sources told Ma'an on Thursday.

The sources expect more counterfeit banknotes to be discovered, as hundreds of dollars are being found every day. Egyptian merchants in towns bordering Gaza, such as Al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zwaid have helped investigators by saving counterfeit bills.

See also this posting wondering how Hamas manages to get so many pristine $100 bills.

WRMEA blames Israel for persecuting Gaza Christians

One of the more egregious examples of turnspeak I've seen lately, from the Arab lobby in Washington. Check this out:

AS THE SUN rises in the east on the first day of Advent, the bells of Gaza’s churches fill the air, mixing amicably with the Muslim call to prayer. There is an air of quiet serenity spiced with excitement as the faithful walk to their churches and mosques, the doors swinging open, and Christians and Muslims bid each other good morning on yet another Sunday.

Gaza’s oldest church, the Greek Orthodox St. Porphyrus, dates back to the 16th century. The majority of Gaza’s Christians are served by the Roman Catholic Church on Al Zayotoun St. and the Gaza Baptist Church, which offer living room prayer groups, interfaith outreach, several schools, and humanitarian/medical Christian charities staffed by both locals and internationals. Today Gaza is home to approximately 3,000 Christians, the majority of whom live near these Gaza City churches.

Until November 1947, when the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 181 partitioning Palestine, Palestinian Christians lived peacefully among the Muslim and small Jewish populations of the area. With the passage of the nonbinding resolution, however, Zionist forces began their ethnic cleansing campaign in earnest. At the time Christians represented 18 percent of Palestine’s population, with many families tracing their ancestry back to the time of Christ. Today Christians comprise less than 2 percent of Palestinians, with the loss of Jerusalem’s Christian community being the most profound—plunging from a peak of 51 percent in 1922 to just 4 percent today. By the time of the Deir Yassin massacre in early April 1948, over a quarter-million Palestinians—many of them Christian—had been displaced, either killed or made refugees.
...
It is well known that one of the most effective tools for rendering a society subservient is the tactic of divide and conquer. Thus the October kidnapping and murder of Rami Ayyad, the manager of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore, presented a dangerous challenge. Speculations about the motive still abound: was it a hate crime or simply a random tragedy?

Father Manuel Musallam, the senior Roman Catholic priest in Gaza, doubts the attack was religiously motivated.

“Rami was not only Christian,” the priest explained. “He was Palestinian. Violent acts against Christians are not a phenomenon unique to Gaza.”
...
Asked if Christians in Gaza are being harassed by Hamas or the Palestinian police, all the students agreed that this is not the case.

“Every society has extremists,” Ali observed. “Like sometimes I’m criticized for not wearing my hijab. But that has nothing to do with being Muslim or Christian. Those people don’t represent our Palestinian society.”

Once again, Israel somehow manages to selectively oppress Christians, according to the apologists for Islamist terror against Christians. The Zionist war machine manages to force only Arab Christians to leave the territories while it keeps Muslims there.

Even though Israel's Christian population has grown over the years.

Compare to this recent article on Gaza's Baptists:

Hundreds of people crowded around a small stage on the sidewalk in Bethlehem. Traffic slowed not only to dodge those dancing in the street but so passengers could listen to the musicians publicly proclaiming God's love for the nations.

A visiting Gaza woman nervously looked around, checking the crowd for troublemakers at the outdoor praise and worship concert by Bethlehem Bible College students.

"We couldn't do something like this in Gaza. People are always watching," she whispered, afraid someone might hear. "Ever since our dear brother was killed for his faith, Gaza Christians live in fear."

Rami Ayyad, a prominent Baptist, was kidnapped and found dead less than a mile from a Christian bookstore he managed for the Palestinian Bible Society. Officials say there has been no progress in the investigation of the October incident. The bookstore was bombed last April but no one was injured.

Life has been increasingly difficult for Christians in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the coastal strip last June. Attacks against Christians have been rare; however, the Baptist community has been a target for extremists because of its evangelical work.

Many Baptist leaders have fled Gaza Strip, taking refuge in the West Bank. Pastor Hanna Massad and his family are among eight families who relocated because they felt it was too dangerous to remain in their homeland.

"The Lord is teaching us many things during this time. To follow Christ is very real to us now," Massad said. "There's a price to pay to follow our Lord. We see people willing to give their life for Christ. Every day, Gaza Christians are confronted with the question, 'Are you willing to follow?'"

These refugees spend much time worrying about their Baptist family back home and praying for their safety. Christians living in the Gaza Strip number around 3,000. Most are Greek Orthodox, but there are a few hundred Catholics and a small community of Baptists living in this 140-square-mile territory where more than 1.5 million Muslims live.

Massad said believers in Gaza have been robbed or threatened in recent months. When a 6-year-old girl answered the intercom system at her house recently, a voice told her he plans to kill her father.

"The man threatened isn't a leader in the Baptist church, but he is a very committed Christian," a Baptist worker said. "Most of those left in Gaza are not high-profile Baptist leaders, but they are still identified as part of the Baptist church. The threat to them is still very high and very real."

The Arab propaganda machine is spinning furiously.

Gaza morality police continue blowing things up

Last night a billiards (snooker) hall was torched in Rafah.

This is just the latest of a series of bombings and arsons against establishments that are deemed to be not Islamic enough for some.

That Gaza open-air prison

AP reports on a mother and daughter stuck in Gaza:

An Irish woman who crossed a breached border into Gaza with her daughter said Wednesday that border guards were preventing them from returning to Egypt.

Treasa Ni Cheannabhain said she and her daughter, an Egyptian national, entered Gaza on Saturday, more than a week after Hamas militants knocked down the border wall.

As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt, Ni Cheannabhain, 56, said she sneaked into Gaza with her 19-year-old daughter, Naisrin el-Safty, to distribute money to needy Gazans.

Egyptian guards resealed the border Sunday, ending the 12-day breach. Ni Cheannabhain said she had not heard warnings that the crossing would close.

The pair tried to return to Egypt late Tuesday, but were stopped by Egyptian border guards.

"I admitted I entered illegally, but we want to come back in legally," Ni Cheannabhain said in a telephone interview from the border town of Rafah.

Ni Cheannabhain is married to an Egyptian physician.

Ireland's Foreign Ministry is trying to help but only Egypt can authorize the pair's return, a ministry spokesman said.

"The Egyptian authorities apparently are refusing to let her cross back over to Egypt," said the spokesman on customary condition of anonymity.

As we all know, Gaza is an open-air prison run by the heartless Zionists. So this must be Israel's fault, by definition.

The entire world that blamed Israel for its not allowing Gazans to freely come and bomb Jews - and ignored the many hundreds of people Israel did allow to leave for medical or religious reasons - somehow remains silent when forced to confront the fact that Gaza is bordered by two countries, not one, and that Egypt can allow its fellow Arabs to roam freely back and forth as well.

(h/t Global_Freezing)

2000 Arabs entered Gaza to fight Israel

Ma'an reports:

Around 2,000 men from different Arab countries entered the Gaza Strip, after the toppling of the Rafah border wall, wanting to join the Palestinian resistance against Israel, reliable Palestinian sources told Ma'an on Wednesday.

Sources within Hamas told Ma'an that the men, many of whom are Egyptian young men offered to join the Palestinian resistance. He added that Hamas expressed its appreciation for the solidarity shown by the move. However, he added that Palestinian resistance factions are not interested in foreign fighters.

Amazing what years of non-stop incitement can do to people. When millions grow up hearing how evil the Jews are and how dying while fighting them guarantees you a place in Paradise, it is no wonder that thousands of them want to join the bandwagon of hate and terror.

Old City snowman

The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon snapped this shot last Friday after the snowstorm in the Old City of Jerusalem:

Man sentenced to death in Iran for drinking alcohol

From AFP:

TEHRAN -- A young Iranian man has been sentenced to hang for repeatedly drinking alcohol which is strictly banned in the Islamic republic, the Etemad newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old, identified only as Mohsen, was handed down the death penalty by a criminal court after being found guilty of drinking alcohol for a fourth time, the daily said.

"The defendant in this case has been sentenced to death and the official notification will be given soon," it quoted Judge Jalil Jalili as saying.

"According to article 179 of the Islamic penal code, if someone drinks twice and is punished for it on each occasion he should be executed on the third offence," Jalili said.

See how lenient the Iranians were in not hanging him after the third offense?

Truly, Allah is most merciful.

Louise Arbour's journey

Sorry I've been too busy to blog much, but this is a good article from UN Watch that I didn't see any other JBloggers address:

UN rights chief reversal on anti-Semitic Arab charter

In an unprecedented reversal, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has backed off from her earlier endorsement of an Arab text calling for the “elimination” of Zionism, in response to a UN Watch protest. News of the controversy was covered internationally, sparking a series of Canadian newspaper editorials critical of Ms. Arbour’s initial statement and her overall handling of the affair.

Following is a timeline of the events as they unfolded around the globe.

Jan. 24, 2008, Geneva: High Commissioner Arbour issues an official statement: “I welcome the 7th ratification required to bring the Arab Charter on Human Rights into force... the Arab Charter on Human Rights is an important step forward [to] help strengthen the enjoyment of human rights.” At U.N. headquarters in New York, Marie Okabe, spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, highlights Arbour’s statement. When asked, she does not have the text of the charter.

Jan. 25, 2008, United Arab Emirates: The Arab world takes note of Arbour’s support for the Arab Charter, prominently featured in this article by the United Arab Emirates news agency.

Jan. 28, 2008, Geneva: UN Watch is the first to speak out, exposing the hateful provisions in the Arab Charter, and demanding action from Arbour. UN Watch sends her a detailed letter:...[click on link for full description]

Jan. 30, 2008, Geneva & New York: Arbour changes course. Now she asserts that various Arab Charter provisions are “incompatible” with international norms. The UN headquarters in New York issues a new release, entitled “Arab rights charter deviates from international standard.”

Read the whole thing.

Egyptians freak over idea of studying Hebrew

In the interests of normalization, Israel's ambassador to Egypt suggested that Egyptians study Hebrew in their schools.

The reaction is both hilarious and telling:

The Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, called for the Hebrew language be taught in Egyptian schools on Tuesday evening . The suggestion has provoked an angry response from Egyptian political parties who claimed that the demand came as part of the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978.

Jamal Zahran, an independent Egyptian lawmaker, told the Al-Khalij daily newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates that the Israeli ambassador’s comment reflected Israeli efforts to encourage the Egyptian young people to learn the Hebrew language and travel to Israel to ‘assimilate in its society.’

He criticized the Egyptian government for remaining silent in the wake of Cohen’s comments. Zahran urged Egypt to announce its rejection of the demand and to warn Israel against what he called intervention in internal Egyptian affairs.

"The Hebrew language does not possess any heritage or civilization, and it is spoken by very few people, and so Egypt can't adopt it in its schools as a foreign language," the deputy president of the Nasserite party, Husam Issa said. He described the Israeli ambassador's demand as "stupidity and triviality" and reminded the ambassador that most of the Egyptian people antagonize the Israeli government for its brutality against the Arabs in general and the Palestinian people in particular.

The fact that Egyptians are worried that hundreds of millions of Arabs could "assimilate" into Israeli society betrays a deep insecurity in their own culture. The fact that an Egyptian politician can even utter a sentence such as "the Hebrew language does not possess any heritage or civilization" also shows how hate can trump common sense.

Interestingly, there is increasing interest in Hebrew language instruction in Egyptian universities, as YNet noted recently:

An unexpected new trend among Egyptian university students... Hebrew language studies. Foreign Ministry data indicate that over 1,400 Egyptian students are currently enrolled in full-time Hebrew studies programs.

More than 10 Egyptian Universities currently offer Hebrew courses, usually as part of Oriental Language faculties that also teach Turkish and Persian.

Two major Egyptian universities, Ain Shams University and al-Azhar University, even boast a separate Hebrew language faculty. This is a major accomplishment, especially in universities that are considered bastions of strong anti-Israel sentiments.

One Hebrew lecturer, an Egyptian that has never visited Israel, recently told an Israeli diplomat that he teaches his students Hebrew through “Ha'Gashash Ha'chiver” comedy skits and Israeli music.

The lecturer even asked the Israeli diplomat for new movies to show his students, stressing that they must show absolutely no sex or nudity, or he could be charged with corrupting his students with Israeli pornography.

State officials explained that this burgeoning interest in the Hebrew language stems mostly from Egyptian curiosity, but also of a keen desire to “know the enemy”. Many students are sent to Hebrew studies programs by Egyptian intelligence, who frown upon students who study Hebrew of their own initiative.

Students who attend the Israeli academic Center or frequent the Israeli embassy in Cairo are likewise harassed by security personnel, who incessantly question them and often warn them not to return. Those few students brave enough to attend Hebrew lecturers are deemed highly courageous.

My letter to the Arab News

I know it is a waste of time, but sometimes I can't resist...

An article in the Arab News said:

The situation in Gaza represents misery, not only for the Palestinians but also for all civilized people of the world.
The West is preoccupied with human rights issues in the Middle East and the collapse of the American economy when children of Gaza are dying because of the blockade. Hunger, cold, darkness, pain and blood covering women and children and many other traumas are part of the bigger picture.
...The situation in Gaza represents a slap in the face of the civilized world. Children are living outdoors, women are dying from bullets and old people are freezing to death.

I wrote:

I have been following the events in Gaza pretty closely, and I do not recall any children dying (besides a very few who were already extremely ill), I do not recall anyone starving to death nor do I recall anyone freezing to death. Do you by any chance have names and the circumstances?

And if not, why does the Arab News keep publishing absurd lies like these? Self-perpetuating myths that incite hundreds of millions of Arabs is not quite the best way to get to a peaceful solution.