Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 15, 2008

Pseudo-intellectualism is fun!

I noticed a few articles today that where the authors use really big words and have no clue what they are talking about.

Our first example comes from The American Muslim magazine, where author Robert Crane asserts:

In any false ideology, the prefix “neo” indicates that it is false. Placing the “neo” in front of “conservatism,” indicates that it is fraudulent, which is precisely why it is so dangerous.

This is pretty absurd (the prefix "neo-" means "new") and really nonsensical - does he mean that any ideology that isn't prefixed "neo" is true, or does his syllogism only apply to "false ideologies" to begin with?

Crane knows his audience knows nothing that would contradict an even dumber statement:

Much less has Neo-Conservatism had anything to do with spiritual Zionism, which Jews have traditionally understood as the return to God. In this sense, every Muslim should be a Zionist and should be a follower of the greatest spiritual leader of the twentieth century, Rebbe Abraham Izaac Kook, who was the Chief Rabbi of Palestine from 1919 until the outbreak of the first great Palestinian intifada against Brtish imperialism beginning in 1935.

Rav Kook was an ardent Zionist and not only in the "inner jihad" sense that Crane is applying to him; he supported a Zionist state (although not a secular one.) The statement that every Muslim should be a Zionist in Rav Kook's sense of the word is accurate but far from Crane's intent.

Notice also how Crane now retroactively refers to the riots and infighting of the 1930s - where hundreds of Arabs murdered each other - as a "great intifada."

His entire essay is filled with such quasi-scholarly garbage, but it is fun to pick apart.

Similarly, the weekly Al-Ahram English edition is always a source for pseudo-intellectual gibberish. Check this out:

All modern theories, from Hegelian dialectics to Marxian class struggle, from Max Weber's theories on the evolution of government to Sigmund Freud's analysis of civilisation and its discontents, offer insights, however varied, on the law of historical change.

These theories came my mind as I read the Winograd Report on Israel's war on Lebanon in July 2006....The pioneers of the Zionist project were cunning, managing to convince world Jewry that the rape of Palestine was a legitimate thing to do.

What gave momentum to the Zionist project was international support and the sense of vitality Ibn Khaldun so aptly described. For nearly half a century, this vitality survived as new settlers grappled with a foreign land and the fact that they had little in common. Israel was a hybrid. At the top of the social ladder were white settlers from East Europe, followed by Jews coming from Arab countries and Iran. The bottom of the social ladder was left for Jews known as the Falashas. The duality of the Ashkenazi and the Sephardim was only one aspect of disunity in Israel. And war proved to be the one rallying cry that would cement the new country. The Israelis needed wars to keep them together. Indeed, the Zionist project -- as I have said many times before -- is a project of war. It was Israel's very social fabric that triggered what the Zionists like to call "preventive wars".

The amount of projection in this last paragraph is breathtaking. While no one will argue that there wasn't discrimination against Sephardim in the 1950s, to say that the 1948 war was only meant to give unity to Jews who commonly suffered at the hands of their host nations is too absurd for words, let alone the implication that the Jews started it. (He also seems to think that the Ethiopian Jews were a part of Israel in the 1950s and 1960s.)

Again, the readers of Al-Ahram, thirsty for some sort of scholarly-sounding justification for their own prejudices and hate, lap this stuff up.

French and Saudis refused to nab Mughniyeh

From the WaPo:

...Lebanese officials, exploiting a monitored telephone call, traced Mughniyah to Paris in 1985, only five months after the hijacking of a TWA jetliner, to which he had been linked. He was staying at the Hotel de Crillon, a luxurious hotel across the street from the U.S. Embassy. Tipped off by the Lebanese, U.S. officials asked French police to arrest him and turn him over. Instead, as previously reported in The Washington Post, French agents met with him several times over a six-day period, according to a source closely involved, and worked out an agreement to release him in return for the freedom of a French hostage.

From ABC News:

[Richard] Clarke says the CIA learned that Mugniyah, wanted for a string of terror attacks, had boarded a commercial flight in Khartoum that was scheduled to stop in Riyadh [in 1996.]

"We appealed to the Saudis to grab him when the plane landed, and they refused," Clarke said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on ABC "World News With Charles Gibson."

After the initial refusal, Clarke said, U.S. officials went to the then-crown prince, now king.

"We raised the level of appeals all the way through Bill Clinton who was on the phone at three in the morning appealing to the highest level in Saudi Arabia to grab him," Clarke said.

"Instead, the Saudis refused to let the plane land and it continued on to Damascus," Clarke said.

The same people who complain about "extrajudicial killings" don't give people the opportunity to bring them to justice.

While the French actions were despicable, at least they got something concrete out of it - the release of a hostage.

The Saudis, however, were given a clear choice in 1996 as to whose side they were on - their "good friends" the United States, or Hezbollah. And we see which side they chose.

Another attack in Gaza - by Muslims against Christians

The YMCA in Gaza was attacked:

A band of 14 masked gunmen forced its way into YMCA offices in the Gaza Strip and exploded a library there, Israel Radio reported Friday.

Thousands of books were reportedly burnt in the ensuing fire. The YMCA in Gaza also operates a gym and a wedding hall.

The gunmen laid a second explosive device near a computer in the library but it failed to detonate. Two security guards on the scene were not able to block the intruders; they were taken by them from the YMCA and later released in the northern Gaza Strip.

The latest incident is another link in an ongoing chain of attacks against Palestinian Christians which has worsened since Hamas took power of the Gaza Strip last June.

Notice their target - the library. Any knowledge that is not Islamic is "haram" for the Islamists, so much so that they want to destroy it everywhere.

What they fear most, apparently, is the possibility that any other points of view might be more valid than theirs. Which says a lot about their confidence in their own beliefs.

I've been noticed

There is an Arabic thread about this blog in a message board site called paldf.net. The autotranslation is funny as they note my post about the glossy Hamas magazine and then notice my 2007 self-death count. Plenty of side mentions of "wicked Zionists" and "Zionist criminals" and, of course, that I have a strong relationship with World Zionism. I've received about 40 hits from that site so far!

Even funnier, they put a URL for the Google autotranslation of my site into Arabic! Which, I suppose, is only fair.

By the way, my name autotranslated to Arabic and autotranslated back is either "Hakim Zion" or "Wise Zion." Hakim is of course like the Hebrew "chacham/חכם " meaning wise; ironically al-Hakim was also the nickname of the late terrorist George Habash.

(If anyone knows how to change an uploaded Blogger picture to something else, so that the pictures they stole from me might be changed to something a little more interesting, please let me know.)

Abbas: Most of PA budget is spent in Gaza

Trying to interpret auto-translated text is sometimes tricky but one part of the Wafa transcript of Mahmoud Abbas' speech today at Sanaa University seems interesting:

President Abbas confirmed that despite what happened, the power [PA] is still completely responsible directly for all staff in the Gaza Strip and 77,000 staff members, while in the West Bank 73 thousand staff, and budget spent on the Gaza Strip rather than spent on the West Bank where it is disbursed 58% in Gaza and 42% disposal in the West Bank.

It appears that the West gives hundreds of millions to the PA and the PA gives the lion's share of that money to the same Gaza Strip that the West is pretending to sanction. And the PA, with Western money, still bankrolls tens of thousands of employees in Gaza who are doing next to nothing.

Meaning that Hamas has the luxury not to worry about Gaza residents rioting over not getting paid and can use all of its smuggled cash for building bombs and rockets.

UPDATE: I found confirmation in a February 3 article from Xinhua:

Fayyad explained that his government has spent 58 percent of its budget on Gaza Strip "to ease the life of the people and enhance their living conditions."

As Abbas makes clear, most of this 58% in in paying salaries, so the PA is not even trying to limit its spending of our tax dollars.

It also means that the PA is spending more than double per capita on Gaza than in the West Bank.

Adar 8

A Texan, a Frenchman and an Israeli are on a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean when the engines stop functioning. The plane crash lands on a Pacific Island and the 3 are immediately captured by a tribe of cannibals and taken to their village. The Chief tells the 3 captives that these cannibals are civilized and they have a custom on their island that before they eat anyone, they grant that person his or her last wishes?no matter what they are.

He asks the Texan, "What is your last wish?"
The Texan replies: "I want a 2 inch thick steak with all the trimmings, Cajun fries and a case of Bud." The Chief motions to some of his tribesmen who immediately run into the jungle and come back with the steak, the fries and the beer. The Texan eats his meal and he is thrown in the pot.

The Frenchman is asked: "What is your last wish?"
He replies: "I'd like a case of Dom Perignon and I'd also like a big plate of escargots cooked in the French manner." The Chief motions to his tribesmen who immediately rush off into the jungle and bring back everything the Frenchman asked for. He eats and drinks his fill, and he is then thrown in the pot.

The Chief turns to the Israeli and asks, "And what is your wish?"
The Israeli looks the Chief squarely in the eyes and replies: "I want you to kick me in the behind as hard as you can." The Chief is bewildered and asks the Israeli again, only to receive the same reply. "I want you to kick me in the behind as hard as you can." The Chief shrugs his shoulders, asks the Israeli to turn around, and kicks him as hard as he can. With that the Israeli pulls out a gun and kills the Chief and all of the other cannibals.

The Texan and the Frenchman get out of the pot, look at the Israeli and say: "If you had that gun why didn't you do anything sooner?"

The Israeli replies: "What? And risk being condemned by the UN, EU and the State Department for 'overreacting' to insufficient provocation?"

Western media too nervous to illustrate Mohammed cartoon story

Yesterday, 17 Danish newspapers, in a show of free speech, decided to republish the infamous Mohammed cartoon on their front pages.

Now, this gave Western newspapers a conundrum.

Clearly, the fact that the newspapers published the cartoon is news, but how can they illustrate the story without printing the cartoon themselves?

As can be imagined, the vast majority of liberal, free-speech-loving Western newspapers decided not to risk the wrath of crazy Muslim fanatics and they didn't even print sample front pages of the Danish newspapers.

So far, the only exception I have found is Der Speigel, which printed the picture shown here. Outside of that I have not been able to find a single mainstream newspaper to illustrate this story.

Fear of Islam dictates our "independent" news policy.

So who killed Imad Mughniyeh?

He had no shortage of enemies, as Noah Pollak points out (via Soccer Dad.) And even beyond his obvious enemies, other ones are being revealed - for example, Kuwait.

But in the end, perhaps the best evidence that Israel was really behind the killings is that the bomber was careful not to kill any civilians in what was apparently a well-trafficked neighborhood. None of Mughniyeh's other enemies, with the possible exception of the US, would have cared in the slightest if the entire block was blown up.

Meanwhile, in the Negev...

I count 10 Qassam rockets today, making it the worst day this week.

UPDATE: The total is 12.

And #13 came just before midnight.

AFP falls for Hamas Valentine's Day propaganda

AFP publishes a bleeding-heart story about how Gaza cannot export beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day:

In past years, Ziad Hejazi's colourful Gaza-grown carnations would would adorn the homes of lovers across Europe, bringing an early springtime splash of color to wintry Valentine Days.

But the 35-year-old farmer from the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah says that this year his flowers will be fed to animals because of a punishing Israeli economic lockdown of the Hamas-ruled territory.

"I apologise to the lovers on the day of their love because I cannot bring flowers to them," Hejazi says. "Our flowers have become food for the sheep."

Flower farmers across Gaza, whose sunny climate allows for year-round exports to Europe, have been hard-hit by an Israeli closure regime tightened in June after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there

...The carnations that might have adorned February 14 festivities in Europe have meanwhile flooded the local market, taking the place of other flower varieties kept out by Israeli restrictions.

"Last year I had 30 different kinds of flowers but now there is only one, the carnation, and very few roses," says Wasim Abdu, 28, a flower shop owner.

His shop is ablaze with red hearts and candles, artifacts of a more cheerful and romantic time in the increasingly impoverished coastal strip.

The rest of the surplus flowers will end up in Gaza's trash heaps and vacant lots, their pastel colors fading in the cool winter sunlight.

The Arabic WAFA version of this story is interesting in comparison (autotranslated):

Roses fragrance emitted from agricultural greenhouses, in the city of Rafah, south of Gaza Strip, not only marred Ruth beasts that has been ignored, on the eve of Valentine's Day, only meal of fresh roses American ready for export.

Millions of red and white flowers and UV trampled cattle and sheep himself in different parts of the Gaza Strip. Varud become the President of the cattle diet, not a luxury, but a copy of the images painted by frivolous Israeli siege on Gaza.

On the brink of agricultural greenhouses in the town of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip presented Majed farm buildings, hundreds of bouquets of roses free of a shepherd who arrived cart donkey cart, which also had a share of the meal and fresh flowers. وفي

On the other side of the greenhouse, shaking the tail cows eat up this meal is rare in the day 'sweetheart'.

So AFP is saying that only carnations and very few roses are available in Gaza because Israel doesn't allow flower imports. But WAFA is saying that roses are being eaten by the animals, not being resold (certainly for more money.)

It is possible that the autotranslation really meant carnations, but the word "varud" above is cognate to the Hebrew "vered" which means "rose."

What seems more likely to have happened is this: There was a major cold snap in January in Gaza, with the frost destroying millions of dollars of agricultural goods. The flowers in that "sunny climate", especially fragile roses, were probably ruined. Which means that they were only useful for animal feed.

And when feeding animals roses, why not get some propaganda mileage out of it, from gullible reporters from AFP and Reuters?

"The Muslim Youssef Wali"

In a press release about Joseph's Tomb, Mahmoud Abbas refers to the son of Jacob as "the Muslim Youssef Wali" - Youssef meaning Joseph and Wali meaning "friend" or "master."

Aaron Klein at WND has more:

In the wake of an attempt by Palestinians to burn down Joseph's Tomb – Judaism's third holiest site – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction issued a statement denying it will help restore the shrine, referring to both the shrine and the biblical patriarch as "Muslim."

"Pay no attention to the rumors that we will work with Israel to restore the burial site of the holy Muslim Joseph," said the statement, issued from Nablus, the biblical city of Shechem. "We are going to guard this holy Muslim site."

Joseph's Tomb is the believed burial place of the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became viceroy of Egypt.

Palestinian security officials in Nablus said Monday they were called to the tomb to find 16 burning tires inside the sacred structure. A Palestinian police official who inspected the site told WND there was some fire damage to the tomb.

He said the Palestinian Authority, fearing embarrassment, immediately formed a joint committee from the PA's Force 17, Preventative Security Services and Palestinian intelligence, to find out who was behind the fire.

The move comes after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced last week he would ask Israel's Defense Ministry to work with the PA to reconstruct and restore the tomb, parts of which were destroyed in 2000 by Palestinians, including known PA security officers.

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which granted nearby strategic territory to the Palestinians, Joseph's Tomb was supposed to be accessible to Jews and Christians. But following repeated attacks against Jewish worshippers at the holy site by gunmen associated with then-Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat's militias, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak in October 2000 ordered an Israeli unilateral retreat from the area.

Within less than an hour of the Israeli retreat, Palestinian rioters overtook Joseph's Tomb and reportedly began to ransack the site. Palestinian mobs reportedly tore apart books, destroying prayer stands and grinding out stone carvings in the Tomb's interior. A Muslim flag was hoisted over the tomb.

Every single ancient Jewish shrine in Israel has been belatedly claimed by Arabs - usually only in the past hundred years - to be Muslim shrines instead, as they desperately try to erase any connection between Jews and Israel.

PLO considers all of Israel "occupied"

The Palestine Media Center, which issues press releases for the PLO, has included this tiny item:

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) announced Tuesday the opening of its new Jerusalem office in the Israeli-occupied Jerusalem.

Yet the ZOA press release does not mention the address of the new office - so the PLO cannot know what part of Jerusalem it is in. But our "peace partners" are certain that it is "occupied."

Which proves, once again, that to the "moderate" Palestinians, all of Jerusalem even within the Green Line is "occupied."

And by extension, this must mean all of Israel.

One more for the list

This year has beenseemingly more peaceful than last year in the PalArab terrortories, and I am convinced that Hamas is hushing up various deaths by making them look like they came from Israel, but the official 2008 self-death count has risen to 17 as "a 21-year-old Palestinian man named Ahmad Abu Wadi was stabbed to death on Wednesday in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia by unidentified people."

The Fatah connection to Mughniyah

Time has an interesting tidbit about the late terrorist Imad Mughniyah:

A U.S. official told TIME that Mughniyah had been linked to the 2002 discovery of 50 tons of weapons by Israeli Navy commandos who intercepted a freighter called Karine A in the Red Sea.

Wikipedia mentions:

The captain of the vessel was Omar Akawi, a Fatah activist since 1976 and former member of the Palestinian Authority. According to the Beirut newspaper The Daily Star, the alleged purchaser of the weapons, Adel Salameh (aka Adel 'Moghrabi`) was a former member of Yassir Arafat's staff until the early 1980's "when he was dismissed for conducting private business which conflicted with his official status."

Robert Satloff wrote an extensive article about the Karine A affair, and says

the karine-A was a joint undertaking of Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Islamic Republic of Iran, facilitated through the good offices of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hizballah.

The facts are these: On August 31, the head of the PA'S procurement department, one Adel Awadallah (a.k.a. Adel al-Mughrabi), purchased a 4,000-ton freighter in Lebanon with $400,000 provided by a man named Fuad Shobaki. With the rank of brigadier general in the Palestinian military; Shobaki held the tide of director of the Military Financial Administration; in practice, he was widely considered to be Arafat's closest financial advisor. The acquisition itself was supervised by two PA naval police officials, Fathi Razam and Omar Akawi. On September 12, the day after the World Trade Center/Pentagon terrorist attacks, the boat was registered with the Kingdom of Tonga and renamed the Karine-A. After steaming to Aden, Akawi took over as captain, with a crew of nine Egyptians and Jordanians--who evidently did not know about the arms smuggling plan--plus four armed and well-trained Palestinians. The ship proceeded to waters off the Iranian island of Kish. There, under the watchful eye of a chief aide to Imad Mughniyah--Hizballah's operations commander and the man thought responsible for the bombings of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon and the bombings of the Israeli embassy and Jewish community center in Argentina--the boat was loaded with eighty crates of weapons. Though the weapons were not an outright gift from the ayatollahs to Arafat, they were sold at steep discount--$30-50 million of goods for just $10 million.

So the same "moderate" leaders of the PA were intimately involved in working together with this master terrorist - and murderer of hundreds of Americans as well as Argentine Jews.

No wonder the Palestinian Arabs are so upset that this mass murderer is dead.

Pure brilliance

If you haven't been following the whole Archbishop of Canterbury/sharia flap, the best description humanly possible can verily be founde at Iowa-hawke, whereby he presenteth
the newly-discovered Tale of the Asse-Hatte.