Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 25, 2008

AFP can't find a good photo, so it posts an old one

Today, Hamas staged what was meant to be a huge rally on the Gaza border with Israel. There was a lot of publicity and many people got very nervous, but it sort of fizzled out:

Despite concerns that Palestinian demonstrators against the continued blockade of the Gaza Strip would attempt to storm the border with Israel during a "human chain" demonstration Monday, the event itself proved an anticlimax and the thousands of Israeli security personnel manning the Israeli side of the border were not forced to cope with the nightmare scenario.

About 5,000 people, many of them schoolchildren released from school early to attend the event and university students, joined the "human chain" outside the town of Beit Hanun, about six kilometers from the border.

The crowd hoisted banners in English and Arabic, saying "End the siege of Gaza now," and "Your siege will not break our will."

Organizers had hoped to form a chain running the length of the 40-kilometer Gaza Strip, but turnout was well below expectations.

Not only was Hamas disappointed, but also the teams of wire-service photographers who were hoping for some juicy, Pulitzer-caliber stuff.

Reuters' picture was underwhelming:

So was AP's:

AFP was so upset that they decided to use an old photo to add the pathos that they felt was necessary to augment the story:

Palestinian children in the West Bank city of Jenin hold candles during a sit-in against the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians are forming a human chain the length of the Gaza Strip in protest at a crushing Israeli blockade, with Israeli forces on alert for any rush on the border.(AFP/File/Saif Dahlah)

See? That's much more likely to tug at the heartstrings, especially when AFP adds the "crushing" adjective to describe a group of apparently quite well-fed people.

Who cares when the photo was taken? Who cares what the signs say? As long as cute-looking PalArab kids are holding candles and AFP can claim some connection with events (or non-events) from today, then all is well.
(h/t Callie)

Looks like the PA did torture the Hamas imam to death

From PCHR:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 17:30 on Thursday, 14 February, two civilian vehicles with Palestinian registration plates moved into Koubar village, northwest of Ramallah. When Sheikh Majd ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Mustafa al-Barghouthi, emerged from the local mosque, he was confronted by four masked persons. Al-Bargouthi called for help, at which point a man got out of one of the vehicles and introduced himself as an officer of the Palestinian GIS. He claimed he had a warrant to arrest al-Barghouthi, who was immediately transferred to the GIS Headquarters in the north of al-Bireh for interrogation. During his detention, Majd al-Bargouthi was denied visitors.

On the evening of Friday, 22 February, Majd al-Barghouthi's body was transferred to Khaled Hospital in Ramallah. The Palestinian Attorney General ordered an autopsy to be performed at the forensic medicine institute in Abu Dis. According to the forensic report – a copy of which has been obtained by PCHR – “the cause of death was the inflation and subsequent failure of the heart. Having inflated to a size above normal, the heart failed, and under these circumstances, death is often sudden.”

However, in an affidavit given to PCHR, a Palestinian who had been detained by the GIS at the same time as Majd al-Barghouthi alleged that al-Barghouthi was violently beaten whilst in detention. The detainee claimed he recognized al-Bargouthi's voice calling for help from an interrogation room opposite his own cell. He also alleged that he could hear al-Bargouthi being interrogated about his relationship with the Executive Force of the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in the dismissed government in the Gaza Strip.

The detainee further alleged he could see al-Barghouthi through a hole in the wall of his cell, and that al-Barghouthi was handcuffed by an iron chain which was connected to the top of the window pane, suspending his body above the ground. On the third day of al-Bargouthi's detention, the detainee said he heard an interrogator asking

Al-Barghouthi if he was vomiting before moving him to another cell.

The detainee indicated that al-Barghouthi was beaten about the abdomen during the early stages of his detention, and said he was screaming. The detainee also alleged that he was personally tortured whilst in detention. The PCHR field worker saw marks on al-Bargouthi's hands that were consistent with being chained and suspended for a lengthy period.

The detainee eyewitness stated:

“… At approximately 08:30 on Thursday, 21 February, an officer came and asked Sheikh Majd al-Barghouthi to eat, and to drink water and juice, but he [Al-Barghouthi] vomited. I then heard the cell door being opened. Through a small hole in the wall, I saw the officer pulling Sheikh al-Barghouthi, with his hands under the Sheikh’s shoulders. When the officer asked him to stand up, Al-Bargouthi replied that he could not stand anymore. In the afternoon, he was taken to the balcony, and I could hear him groaning until 08:30 on Friday morning (22 February). He then became silent.”

Al-Barghouthi was married with eight children. He was the Imam of the Koubar village mosque. His family denies that he was suffering from any of the symptoms identified in the autopsy report as causing his death.

I was reluctant to consider this a murder based only on Hamas accusations, but it seems clear here that Barghouti was tortured and left without medical attention.

The 2008 self-death count is now at 26.

There was also a "collaborator" killing today but it occurred in Israeli territory.

Hamas kidTV: Kill the cartoonists!

The latest MEMRI transcript of the "Pioneers of Tomorrow" Hamas children's show includes:

Child host Saraa Barhoum: Amani, you've seen the kind of attack that the West launched against the Prophet Muhammad. What do you have to say on behalf of the Prophet Muhammad?
Amani, by phone: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I say to those cowardly infidels...

Assud the Bunny: Those criminals...

Amani: Yes, those criminals... You mock our Prophet Muhammad, but look, my beloved Prophet Muhammad, how Allah responded to them: "Allah shall pay them back for their mockery, and He leaves them alone in their excess, blindly wandering on." My beloved Messenger of Allah, they mocked you with their drawings, because they do not know the mercy in your heart. My beloved Muhammad, if they had known the mercy in your heart, they would not have done this to you. Allah knows that we love you, and that we will redeem you with our souls, our blood, and our hearts.

[...]
Saraa: How did these Danes have the audacity to affront the Messenger of Allah? Do you have an answer to that, Assud?
Assud: No, I don't. Maybe because the Arabs and Muslims keep silent, [the Danes] humiliated them and did these things to them.

Saraa: That's one reason, but there is an even more important reason, Assud.

Assud: I have no idea.

Saraa: It's because the West has seen that we've moved away from the religion of Allah, and from the Sunna of our Prophet Muhammad. They have also seen that we have forsaken the religion of Allah, and therefore, they could affront the Prophet, because... We have done nothing to redeem the Prophet Muhammad. But I say to them: You haven't seen anything yet. Allah willing, the soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow will redeem the Prophet Muhammad with all that they possess, and even with their blood, Assud. They will not allow them to do this again.

Assud: If they do it again, Saraa, we will kill them, right?

Saraa: Allah willing.

Assud: I will bite them and eat them up.

Saraa: Yes.

[...]

Assud, we are not terrorists. All we want is to get our beloved homeland, Palestine, back. We want all of Palestine to be ours. We are not terrorists...

Assud: Because it was ours to begin with, right?

Saraa: Right. They say we are terrorists merely because we want this, but of course, we're not terrorists...,/p>
Assud: They are the terrorists.

Saraa: Yes, Assud. Allah willing, we will regain the cities under Zionist occupation, such as Jaffe, Haifa, Acre, Ashdod, the village of Hoj, and all the Palestinian cities.

Assud: Saraa, do you know what I'm hoping for? I want us to take Jaffe, Acre, Haifa, and all of Palestine, Allah willing, and then we'll go to Iraq. All the borders will be opened. Between Egypt and us, there will be no barriers, and the same goes for Jordan and Saudi Arabia. We'll come and go by car. I hope this comes true. Do you think this will come true?

Saraa: Allah willing, this will come true soon.

Assud: Allah willing, when I am martyred, a tiger will take my place... Allah willing, I will be the one to fix things, and there won't be any tiger. The "Pioneers of Tomorrow" and I will make this dream come true.

[...]

Who will host this show if you are martyred? Will 100,000 Saraas take your place?

Saraa: Allah willing, Assud.

Assud: We'll take them from among the Pioneers of Tomorrow, Allah willing.

Saraa: Allah willing, there are thousands of soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow.

Assud: Martyrdom for the sake of Allah is what we hope for, right?

Saraa: Right, Assud.

[...]

Saraa: What do you have to say to the cartoonist who started all this, and affronted the Prophet by drawing him?

Assud: He's a criminal...

Saraa: Yes, a criminal.

Tasnim, by phone: I say to him, and to all of them, that no matter how much they try to hide him, we will manage to kill him, to assassinate him.

Assud: Allah willing.

Saraa: I pray that Allah makes the earth swallow him up, so that he serves as a lesson to others like him, Tasnim.

[...]

Assud, it appears that our show is coming to an end. What do you have to say to this criminal, the cartoonist who affronted the Prophet by drawing him?
Assud: I say to him what you already said: You criminal, you lowlife, you scum of the earth – right, Saraa? Allah willing, the day will come when you will regret what you did

It's nice to know that Assud is already preparing for his death, as is the habit of this show's mascots.

Counting the days until his cousin the tiger takes over....

Iran's Tae Kwon Do follies

Iranian competitors continue to be coerced into refusing to go up against Israeli opponents, resulting in funny articles like this one from Iran's PressTV:

Iran's team has pocketed seven medals during the second day of competitions at the 35th Dutch Open Taekwondo Championships in Eindhoven.

...Alireza Shakouri settled for bronze in the men's 54-kilo competition after refusing to face a contestant representing the Zionist regime in the semi-finals. Hadi Mosta'an also made the same decision when he came up against an Israeli opponent in the finals and opted for the silver.

In the women's competitions, Fatima Ne'mati took bronze after losing in a semi-final match against a British practitioner. However, Aitak Me'marzadeh, who could have walked away with the gold, decided not to face her Israeli rival and placed second.

What is noteworthy is that the international sports bodies refuse to penalize Iran for its behavior.

In 2004, an Iranian judo competitor refused to go up against an Israeli opponent in the Olympics, but he purposefully missed his weight so as to have a legitimate excuse to avoid sanctions from the International Judo Federation. Iran rewarded his scam with a $125,000 reward, the same amount it gives its gold medal winners, and praised him for his cowardice.

Mecca. The holiest of all cities. Where one cannot walk a cubit without thinking about Allah. Where infidels and dhimmis are strictly prohibited to pollute with their presence.

It is also the land of shopping malls.

Our heroes, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, know very well about the dangers of malls.

After all, they must be extra vigilant to guard against that most hideous of Western-style creatures - the mall rat.

The appropriately-named mall rat is a subhuman who goes to the mall, but not to shop for items that increase his holiness and piety. No, this rat has far more nefarious ideas in mind:

To use the mall to meet women.

Our ever-watchful heroes know where to look, and what to do:

Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested after allegedly flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported.

The country's religious police arrested the men Thursday night, alleging behavior that included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing, according to the Okaz newspaper, which is deemed close to the government.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice runs the religious police, who are charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

The police _ informally known as the muttawa, literally "enforcer" _ don't wear uniforms. But they are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men. They also shun the black cord that sits atop the headdress worn by most Saudi men.

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear a long, enveloping black cloak called an abaya and to cover their hair with a headscarf.

The newspaper report said the men who were arrested Thursday could be released if they could prove they did not flirt with any women. Otherwise, they will be transferred to court and stand trial, the paper added.

The Muttawa arrested the men on Thursday, kept them in jail of course for the Friday day of prayer, and started asking them questions about what they were doing after two nights in jail. And, obviously, if they cannot prove that they were not flirting with women - well, they will stay in jail indefinitely.

Because how else can the Commission keep the holy kingdom moral?

The streets of Mecca are now a bit safer without the improperly dressed dancing men. Thanks, once again, to our heroes.

Earlier episodes:

Episode 8: Seeing red on Valentine's Day
Episode 7: Depravity at Starbucks
Episode 6: Protecting Saudi Women
Episode 5: What's ummah, Doc?
Episode 4: The car washer
Episode 3: Holy Shi'ite
Episode 2: Alone with a strange, sick woman
Episode 1: Introduction, plus A Gang of Magicians

Egypt has killed 6 Africans this year trying to reach Israel

3 men and 3 women paying the ultimate price.

But who cares - Arabs killing civilians isn't news! There are no UN observers or holidays dedicated to the plight of these people, no people protesting how they are treated by Egypt, none of the lobbyists and very few bleeding heart liberals who care enough to notice that Egypt has a policy to shoot and kill civilians wandering in its territory trying to find a job or food.

And notice these black Africans aren't trying to get into modern Egypt, but rather into the racist Zionist entity.

From AP:

Egyptian border police shot and killed an African woman Sunday who was trying to cross illegally into Israel with a group of other migrants, a local medical official said.

And, from Amnesty International last week:

Egyptian security forces shot dead a Sudanese man trying to cross into Israel on Tuesday. A total of five African migrants have now been killed crossing the border so far this year.

Security officials said 50-year-old Ermeniry Khasheef was shot in the back after he ignored orders to stop as he attempted to cross barbed wire near the border town of Rafah.

An Eritrean woman, Mervat Mer Hatover, was shot dead three days earlier, after she ignored orders to stop as she was attempting to jump over the barbed wire in the El Kuntilla border region. According to security officials, Mervat Mer Hatover and her two daughters, aged eight and ten, were among a group of Africans who paid smugglers to help them cross into Israel. All were arrested.

Two migrants from Ivory Cost were shot and killed on 30 January trying to cross the border south of Rafah. According to the Egyptian security forces, a 22-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman bled to death before an ambulance could reach them. Six Eritreans and two Ethiopians were also arrested.

HH CLV

Haveil Havalim #155 is up at Jack's Shack.

As usual, I forgot to even think about sending anything in to this weekly roundup of the best of the JBlogosphere, but luckily two of my posts made it in anyway.

Check it out!

Hamas: Sderot is occupied "Northern Gaza"

From Arutz-7:

A Hamas website carried the following response: "The Zionist colony of Sderot, which steals our occupied land in northern Gaza, will continue to be a legitimate target for the jihad warriors of the Al-Kassam Brigades, as are the other colonies and Zionist positions surrounding Gaza, as a part of the ongoing response of Al-Kassam to the continuing Zionist crimes, which take the form of massacres in Gaza and the West Bank."

Al-Kassam spokesman Abu Ubeideh added, "The dream of the thieves of Sderot to live in peace, security and stability is a dream that is far from realization, and it will not be attained as long as our countrymen are being killed and their houses are being bombed."

You see? If only Israel would end the occupation of Sderot, and then Beersheva, and then Haifa and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, then there would be peace!

Nutty conspiracy theory of the day

Every once in a while I dip my toe into the frigid waters of the off-the-wall, loony left-wing conspiracy theorists who know that everything in the universe is the fault of Israel and the US. Today I read a new one: the reason that the Internet was created, among other things. By a tin-foil hat wearing Peter Chamberlin: (WARNING: According to Chamberlin, the very act of reading his words will condemn you to certain death. So be careful out there!)

The human race must learn to be more than just cattle. We move like a herd, we think like a herd, we are controlled like a herd. We are about to be stampeded into thousands of slaughterhouses, just like the end of all livestock herds.

Perhaps we are more accurately compared to industrious ants in a global ant farm? We are trapped in an enclosed environment by an unseen sadistic hand, which collapses our carefully dug tunnels and incinerates us with magnifying glasses. Many independent ants try to get a glimpse of our tormentors, spending hours speculating about the motives of those who so cruelly command our fate. It is important to our overlords that they identify who all of these free-thinking rebellious ants are, in order that they might be marked and sorted-out for termination.

The masters of our universe always follow this pattern in stamping-out resistance to their immoral plans. The American government has carefully planned for the elimination of all those who resist their master plan to dominate all things on this earth. Through covert operations with code names like Phoenix, Condor and Gladio, they have methodically used torture, terrorism and murder to identify and eliminate all potential left/liberal resistance to its ultra right-wing plans for allied nations.

...In America today, we see the same game plan being playing-out. When the liberal resistance explodes in reaction to the sight of the slaughterhouse, coming into view, then the herd will be culled, removing all the free-thinking trouble-makers who resist the stampede. To that end, lists have been drawn-up of war-resisters, in preparation for the round-up. The Internet was given to the American people for just that purpose.

The American resisters are self-identifying themselves by their Internet searches and activities, in effect, signing their names to subversive lists every time they surf conspiracy or antiwar sites, or dare to express themselves on any forum. This is the sinister motive behind the seemingly benign creation of the Internet. Every technological innovation in communications is co-opted into servicing the malignant government plans through the insertion of "backdoors" and the secret installation of government software.

Who are the conspirators? Are the principle powers behind the plot to be described as international bankers, Zionists, Illuminati, or some mysterious combination of all of them, as has been described in detail by former British spy John Coleman, in "Committee of 300"? Elements of all these subversive secretive groups are definitely the financial powers driving the New World Order, but, on another level, they are merely pawns as well, dancing to the tunes of the CIA puppeteers. All lesser conspiracies must be subject to one primary driving group of plotters. Many (if not most) of the conspiracy sites on the Internet are agency creations, serving to divide and mislead the real truth-seekers in a thousand different directions. The right-wing conspiracy against freedom is driven by leftist impersonators.

Many of the sources of new conspiracy theories keep turning-out to have connections to various intelligence agencies, like Coleman, who is alleged to have been a member of MI6. This calls his veracity into question, especially considering that his work largely ignores the Zionist connection to world events, blaming everything on the super-secret "Committee," that he alone knows the inner workings thereof.

...It is obvious that Joe Vialls was correct about American and Israeli goals, to seize the oil fields of the Middle East and the Caspian Sea region, in order to pipe this strategic resource away from Russia and China, into American tankers and the strategic reserves that we maintain for Israel. His contentions about the power of "New York (Jewish) money" are also correct. The fascist ethnic-cleansing policies of the Israeli military did provide the bloody template that was to be used throughout the war on terrorism, in order to subjugate and rob the Muslim people. It seems that most of his reporting was usually dead-on, except when he relied on intelligence leaks from inside the Israeli establishment, which then proved to be misinformation.

One thing that is certain, is that the writer of these words, and all of you who read these words have been marked for "disappearance," or termination. In the end, it will matter very little about the nationality of the man who shoves the gun in our faces, for whoever he proves to be, he will surely be an immoral monster.

He can't like his readership very much if he is responsible for their ultimate violent demise.

Today's Newspeak: "Non-Violent Demonstration"

Ma'an (English) says:

At least 70 people were injured, including a number of children, during a non-violent demonstration against the Israeli separation wall in the village of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem on Friday.

We've already shown in the past the nature of these weekly "peaceful" events, but another Arab source today quotes Israel radio as saying that two Israeli soldiers were injured during that same non-violent demonstration.

But as long as they keep calling it "peaceful," some of the useful idiots will believe it.

A fake "international court" designed purely to vilify Israel

Misozionistic people, those who loathe the very idea of Israel existing in any form and spend uncounted hours coming up with ways to show their hate, have come up with a new idea:

"Let's set up an international tribunal whose only purpose will be to try, and convict, Israel, over and over again!"

Sounds silly? Think again:

A new civil court founded in Belgium by human rights organizations will convene for the first time Friday evening and discuss war crimes Israel had allegedly committee during the Second Lebanon War and war crimes the groups claim it is currently committing in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past year, human rights groups, in cooperation with Arab and European intellectuals, have been working on establishing the new court, which will be tasked with addressing different issues related to human rights violations and war crimes.

The first matter on the court's agenda will be Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip. Human rights organizations, as well as the victims of these alleged crimes, will appear before the court. The court has also invited Israeli representatives to attend the hearing and respond to the accusations.

After much searching, I found the webpage of this group, in French.

This group does not even have its own Internet domain, which means it might not even have $5 in support. It is on a blog site.

It calls itself the "Tribunal citoyen international contre les crimes de guerre au Moyen Orient", the "International Citizens' Tribunal on war crimes in the Middle East."

Its founder, Raoul Marc Jennar, makes no pretense of objectivity:

The doctrine that underpins the State of Israel was incompatible with international law.

Our initiative is independent of any ideological, religious or political affiliation. It is based on the desire to combat the impunity enjoyed by the Defense Forces of Israel. It is also based on the inalienable right of the Lebanese people to defend the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Lebanon.

... This session will be presided over by five people from every continent and around the circles of the judiciary. Victims, witnesses facts and representatives of humanitarian agencies, environmental and economic present their testimony. A lawyer of the accused could be heard. An indictment is handed down and a jury of people from the five continents, will deliver on behalf of injured humanity, conclusions.

This approach makes sense only if maximum publicity shall be granted.To this end, we have to choose the venue of the session with care and raise the funds needed to organize it. An association of fact - the International Jury of Conscience for Lebanon - has been established and a bank account was opened.

Sounds so objective!

It will be interesting to see if any major human rights organizations give this sham their approval, by attending. The Jerusalem Post writes:

Israel's position would also be represented, [Israeli Arab MK] Nafa said, but, "I don't know by whom."

The Knesset member said he decided to attend because of a decision by the Israeli-Arab leadership's Monitoring Committee to "turn to international tribunals" to circumvent Israeli courts. "Arab Israelis have no defense under Israeli national law," he said.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch would attend the event, Nafa said, but a spokeswoman for Amnesty told the Post that members of the organization's London and Belgium branches had not heard of the event. Human Rights Watch was unable to respond to a request to confirm its participation by press time.

Asked if the conference would discuss Hizbullah's Katyusha missile attacks on Israel during the Second Lebanon War or the Kassam rockets being fired at Sderot by Hamas, Nafa said he "did not know. My personal position is that I'm against harming Sderot civilians who are innocent. It doesn't matter where the rockets are coming from."

The conference's organizers did not provide a contact number and failed to return an e-mail message asking for more details on their meeting.

In other words, it is an exercise in Israel-bashing under the name of a "court" - with handpicked, misozionistic members guaranteed to prejudge not only which cases they will hear but also their conclusions.

Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli troops during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus February 21, 2008. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini (WEST BANK)

Which is more likely:

1) Four Arab kids happen to throw stones at the exact same time so that the photographer can capture not only the kids but also the stones in mid-air, increasing his chances of winning an award.

2) The photographer shouting to the kids after getting them in optimal position, "Wahid, ithnan, thalatha (1-2-3) THROW!"

Sticks and stones may break my bones. How about concrete blocks?

AP took this picture with this caption:

A Palestinian boy prepares to throw a brick at Israeli troops operating in the West Bank village of Beta near Nablus, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A standard brick weighs about 6 lbs.

Let's look a bit closer at what exactly this boy is hurling:

This is no "brick," this is a concrete block weighing some 30 lbs.

There is no question that this is a lethal weapon, especially thrown from a height. The intent is to kill.

What should the legitimate response of a soldier be when faced with a 30 lb. projectile?

And why do you suppose the AP would describe this as merely a "brick?"

BBC's "Monopoly" on anti-semitism

Many other JBloggers have been dealing with the issue of Jerusalem on the Monopoly board during this past week. As CNN summarizes:

Monopoly, the world's best-selling board game, is going global. A simple idea, substituting the iconic properties of the original game with hallmark cities of the world.

Hasbro is letting people vote on its Web site for which cities to include in the new game.

In this celebration of capitalism, would-be moguls could buy up properties in cities such as Moscow, Russia; Tokyo, Japan and Jerusalem, Israel.

Wait. Nix that last one -- at least the Israel part.

Given the white-hot controversy over Israel -- the world's most fought-over piece of real estate -- should the board game refer to "Jerusalem, Israel" even though Palestinians say Jerusalem will be the capital of any future Palestinian state? Should it say "Jerusalem, Palestine?"

Instead of rolling the dice, parent company Hasbro is taking the middle ground.

The company is letting people vote on its Web site for which cities to include in the new game -- "Dublin, Ireland" for example. It recently removed "Israel" after "Jerusalem" and then eventually removed all of the country names.

Hasbro told The Associated Press that a mid-level employee decided on her own to take out "Israel" after pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers complained -- sparking even more protests from the other side.

"It was never our intention to print any countries on the final boards and any online tags were merely used as a geographic reference to help with city selection," Hasbro said in a written statement. "We would never want to enter into any political debate. We apologize for any upset this has caused our Monopoly fans."

The BBC, when talking about the issue a few days ago in a "diary" by Tim Franks, decided for some bizarre reason to use it as a springboard to accuse Israeli Jews of racism:

Yehiel Leiter is the director general of One Jerusalem, a group that, in its mission statement, declares a single objective: "Maintaining a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel."

The Monopoly campaign, says Leiter, "puts Jerusalem on the table. It has people not avoid Jerusalem because it's contested".

The group also says it has handed out 128,000 golden ribbons on the streets of Jerusalem (the colour is because of the song, "Jerusalem of Gold").

Mudi had a golden ribbon fluttering from the wing mirror of his taxi, until recently.

But Mudi is unusual, in that he is an Israeli Arab.

"The truth is," he told me, as I sat alongside him in his taxi, "Jewish people, especially religious people, won't stop any taxi driven by an Arab."

But when they see a golden ribbon, says Mudi, "they know no Arab guy would have it on his car".

Mudi has another advantage: he says he does not "look" like an Arab, and he speaks Hebrew fluently. Passengers mistake him for a Jew.

"And very, very few people are not prejudiced," in what they say to him. At least, that is the case in Jerusalem.

"In Tel Aviv," he says, "it is exactly the opposite. They don't care I'm an Arab".

When his Jerusalem passengers disembark, Mudi says he tells them that his name is, in fact, Mahmoud.

He says, though, that he has not felt "comfortable" with the ribbon. Indeed, the other day, when he was washing his taxi, he ripped it off, and so far has not replaced it.

Still, many of his Arab colleagues continue to tie a ribbon around their rear-view or wing mirrors, in order not to put off potential customers.

Some, says Mudi, even wear a yarmulke (Jewish skullcap).

Our intrepid BBC reporter, of course, bases his accusation that Jews refuse to go into Arab taxicabs based on a sample size of one, and many Israelis wrote to comment that the reporter was a bit off:

I am an Israeli Arab and I also tend to be a bit concerned when near the Palestinian controlled areas when geting into a taxi, as for the rest of Israel there are no such problems. Please don't try and make some racialist stories out of Israeli Jews, they are my fellow citizens!
Dr Moukie Fallah, Herzalia Israel

Firstly, the taxi story is obviously made up. Most taxi drivers here are Arabs, so waiting to find a Jewish one would take for ever. Also there is no way of telling if the taxi is driven by an Arab or a Jew and quite frankly we dont care! Secondly, even as a voter of Israel's most Left wing party, there is still no denying that J'lem is Israel's capital...so why not have it listed like that. Most Arabs in Jerusalem want to stay part of Israel and most are rushing to get citizenship.
Yoni, Jerusalem, Israel

I spent two years in Jerusalem and never heard of anyone avoiding an Arab taxi!
Avi, Manchester, UK

About the Mudi story: who cares who drives? In my work place most of the drivers are Israeli Arabs - and nobody cares. The story don't reflect nothing about the general situation here.
Shimon, student, Ben Gurion University, Israel

I am a non-Jewish American who lived in Jerusalem for over a year recently, and I still travel there several times a week to go to school. None of my Jewish Israeli friends has ever expressed any reservations about taking cabs driven by Arabs. We're students, and life in Jerusalem is not cheap, so we usually take the first guy who gives us a fair price. As others have pointed out, you can't necessarily tell at first whether he's Arab or Jewish or Klingon anyway.
Taybeh Chaser

The reason many Jerusalemites avoid Arab taxis is not, as you insuate by your lack of explanation, because they are racists. Most people do it out of fear of being driven into Arab East Jerusalem or Ramallah, for criminal or terrorist / political purposes. Jews in Tel Aviv are not fussed by the affiliation of their taxi drivers because there are no dangerous areas near Tel Aviv.
Shaya, Manchester, UK

I am Jewish & religious. I lived in Jerusalem for 28 years. Although I don't live there any more my parents do. I have used taxis all my life so I find Mudy's story awkward and strange. Never in my life, I checked up if the taxi driver is an Arab or not. Most recently I was sitting in a cab and the taxi driver's name was Muhamed, we discussed all the way to my parents' house and eventually finished our conversation blessing each other. So BBC, please stop this nonsense!
Joseph Elboim, Beit Shemesh, Israel

Something is not quite right in the Mudi story. All Israeli taxis have a prominent notice showing the driver's name, licence number and photograph. Consequently it would be very difficult for him to disguise his origins.
Victor Leaf, London, UK

Clearly, the BBC reporter decided to use the Monopoly story as a means to get in some old fashioned anti-semitism into a "respectable" article. It would never occur to him that "Mudi" is the one who shows the most bigotry - because the BBC doesn't want to, God forbid, accuse Arabs of racism.

Only Jews.

Benny Morris' letter to The Irish Times

Historian Benny Morris wrote a nice letter to The Irish Times in response to an January 31 op-ed by Irish Senator David Norris and a letter by David Landy (not online for free) Here it is (hat tip Solomonia):

Madam, - Israel-haters are fond of citing - and more often, mis-citing - my work in support of their arguments. Let me offer some corrections. The Palestinian Arabs were not responsible "in some bizarre way" (David Norris, January 31st) for what befell them in 1948. Their responsibility was very direct and simple. In defiance of the will of the international community, as embodied in the UN General Assembly Resolution of November 29th, 1947 (No. 181), they launched hostilities against the Jewish community in Palestine in the hope of aborting the emergence of the Jewish state and perhaps destroying that community. But they lost; and one of the results was the displacement of 700,000 of them from their homes. It is true, as Erskine Childers pointed out long ago, that there were no Arab radio broadcasts urging the Arabs to flee en masse; indeed, there were broadcasts by several Arab radio stations urging them to stay put. But, on the local level, in dozens of localities around Palestine, Arab leaders advised or ordered the evacuation of women and children or whole communities, as occurred in Haifa in late April, 1948. And Haifa's Jewish mayor, Shabtai Levy, did, on April 22nd, plead with them to stay, to no avail. Most of Palestine's 700,000 "refugees" fled their homes because of the flail of war (and in the expectation that they would shortly return to their homes on the backs of victorious Arab invaders). But it is also true that there were several dozen sites, including Lydda and Ramla, from which Arab communities were expelled by Jewish troops. The displacement of the 700,000 Arabs who became "refugees" - and I put the term in inverted commas, as two-thirds of them were displaced from one part of Palestine to another and not from their country (which is the usual definition of a refugee) - was not a "racist crime" (David Landy, January 24th) but the result of a national conflict and a war, with religious overtones, from the Muslim perspective, launched by the Arabs themselves. There was no Zionist "plan" or blanket policy of evicting the Arab population, or of "ethnic cleansing". Plan Dalet (Plan D), of March 10th, 1948 (it is open and available for all to read in the IDF Archive and in various publications), was the master plan of the Haganah - the Jewish military force that became the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) - to counter the expected pan-Arab assault on the emergent Jewish state. That's what it explicitly states and that's what it was. And the invasion of the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq duly occurred, on May 15th. It is true that Plan D gave the regional commanders carte blanche to occupy and garrison or expel and destroy the Arab villages along and behind the front lines and the anticipated Arab armies' invasion routes. And it is also true that mid-way in the 1948 war the Israeli leaders decided to bar the return of the "refugees" (those "refugees" who had just assaulted the Jewish community), viewing them as a potential fifth column and threat to the Jewish state's existence. I for one cannot fault their fears or logic. The demonisation of Israel is largely based on lies - much as the demonisation of the Jews during the past 2,000 years has been based on lies. And there is a connection between the two. I would recommend that the likes of Norris and Landy read some history books and become acquainted with the facts, not recycle shopworn Arab propaganda. They might then learn, for example, that the "Palestine War" of 1948 (the "War of Independence," as Israelis call it) began in November 1947, not in May 1948. By May 14th close to 2,000 Israelis had died - of the 5,800 dead suffered by Israel in the whole war (ie almost 1 per cent of the Jewish population of Palestine/Israel, which was about 650,000). - Yours, etc, Prof BENNY MORRIS, Li-On, Israel. February 21, 2008

His point that two thirds of the Arab "refugees" were not even real refugees at the time is well-founded. They were just displaced, as were many Jews during the war; many were displaced and ended up in Israel anyway and the UN did not consider those "refugees" in its arbitrary definition.