Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The PA plans to take all Israel; Hamas wants the world

Two more must-see videos have been translated by MEMRI over the past couple of days.

In the first, Abbas Zaki, Palestinian Authority representative in Lebanon, spoke about the 1974 "phased plan" of the PLO (where Israel gets destroyed in phases) and asserted that it is still in place, and the importance of Jerusalem to that plan:

Abbas Zaki: We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith.

Interviewer: Do you still believe in weapons, not just in negotiations?

Abbas Zaki: The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate leads to victory and what climate leads to suicide. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn't gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons.

[...]

Young Palestinian: As I recall, the invasion of 1982 and the destruction of South Lebanon was not just in response to missile attacks, but in response to operations as well. Israel does not use only the missiles as a pretext. It uses any activity of the resistance as a pretext.

Abbas Zaki: The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don't want cases in which you don't kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price.

[...]

The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.

Let me make this clear: this is a Palestinian Authority representative, speaking on the record on Lebanese TV, saying that he is only interested in the destruction of Israel and driving out all the Jews, and "harvesting" UN resolutions to help them with this goal.

The idea of negotiating and granting concessions to such a party is foolhardy, at best, and suicidal at worst.

But these are the "moderates." What is the goal of the "hardliners"?

MEMRI gives us a broadcast from Hamas TV last Friday, showing a Hamas MP giving a "religious" sermon:

Yunis Al-Astal: Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion, so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security, and consolidation of power, and even to conquests thorough da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world. Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.
I believe that our children or our grandchildren will inherit our Jihad and our sacrifices, and Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them. Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls, and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire on the brink of which they stand.

Clear enough for you? The difference between "moderates" and "extremists" is that the "moderates" only want to destroy Israel and all vestiges of Jews in the Middle East, while the "extremists" are aiming at the rest of the planet.

And too many denizens of that same planet think of sacrificing Israel as a kind of protection racket against their own battles with Islamic supremacists, not realizing that Israel is literally the front line of their defense.

Shas negotiating with Hamas?

Palestine Press Agency has published pictures purporting to show that Hamas and Shas have been holding secret meetings.

It shows two photos, the first of someone transliterated as Dr. Mark Oliver Turnn, apparently a British official, with Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

And then another photo of the same person with Shas leader and deputy PM Eli Yishai:

The two photos clearly were not taken at the same time ("Turnn" is wearing a tie in one and not the other) but the implication seems to be that he is mediating between Shas and Hamas, presumably negotiating the release of Gilad Shalit.

Yishai has already said that he would negotiate with Hamas or Hezbollah on the safe return of Israeli soldiers.

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

Three Palestinians were killed and two others injured on Sunday in an explosion in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Sources in the Interior Ministry of the Hamas-led de facto government said the explosion was "internal," and not related to any fighting.

Ma'an learned that the explosion was at home of Hamas fighter Hasan Al-Mutawwaq who was assassinated by Israeli forces.

Firas Press identifies one of the victims as a 15-year old.

As Palestine Press Agency elaborates, "Typically, the militia elements of Hamas store weapons and explosives in densely populated Palestinian camps and neglect the lives of citizens and threaten their security."

This is the second "work accident" this weekend.

Our count of the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other this year is now at 61.

Jewish bodies dug up and discarded in Belarus

From AP: (h/t Global Freezing)

GOMEL, Belarus - Workers rebuilding a sports stadium on the site of an 18th century Jewish cemetery in Belarus say they have no choice but to consign the bones to city dumps.

"It's impossible to pack an entire cemetery into sacks," said worker Mikhail Gubets, adding that he stopped counting the skulls when the number went over 100.

But critics say it's part of a pattern of callous indifference toward Belarus' Jewish heritage that was prevalent when the country was a Soviet republic and hasn't changed.

The stadium in Gomel, Belarus' second largest city and a center of Jewish life until World War II, is one of four that were built on top of Jewish cemeteries around the country.

The Gomel cemetery was destroyed when the stadium was built in 1961, but the remains lay largely undisturbed until this spring when reconstruction began and a bulldozer turned up the first bones.

A Jewish leader in Gomel, Vladimir Gershanok, says he asked the builders to put the bones into sacks for reburial at a cemetery that has a monument to Holocaust victims.

"We know we can't stop the construction but we're trying to minimize the destruction," Gershanok said.

But city authorities have ruled that the construction can go ahead because the bones are more than 50 years old.

Igor Poluyan, the city official responsible for building sports facilities, says he doesn't understand the problem. "If something was scattered there, we'll collect it and take it away," he said.

A history professor, Yevgeny Malikov, sees the cemetery as part of the city's heritage. He has filled three sacks with bones and pulled aside two of the unearthed marble gravestones. Other gravestones are piled near a trash bin or already carried away. Some of the bones have been carried off by stray dogs.

"The history of the city is being thrown into the dump together with the human remains," Malikov said.

Jews began settling in Gomel in the 16th century and by the end of the 19th century made up more than half of the population. In 1903, they made history by being the first to resist a pogrom, defending 26 synagogues and prayer houses.

Most of Gomel's 40,000 Jews managed to flee before the Nazis arrived. The 4,000 who remained were shot in November 1941. Only a few thousand Jews now live in the city of 500,000.

Oleg Korzhuyev, 38, who lives on Karl Marx Street at the edge of the site, said the workers aren't happy about digging up human bones, "but if they find a gold tooth then it's a real celebration."

Another city, Grodno, experienced a similar problem while reconstructing a stadium built on a Jewish cemetery. The excavated earth and bones were scattered into a ravine.

Jewish graves also have been disturbed in neighboring Ukraine.

"It's not just a Jewish issue, it's this general Soviet legacy," said Ukraine's chief rabbi. Yakov Blaikh. "They didn't respect people while they were alive and they don't respect them when they are dead."

This month, the Jewish community in the city of Vinnyntsa was able to stop construction of an apartment building on a pre-World War II Jewish cemetery.

Ukrainian authorities apologized, saying they did not realize the construction would affect the cemetery. Belarus, on the other hand, has been "one of the least responsive countries on all Jewish issues," according to Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"The government is simply erasing Jewish history from the face of this land," said Yakov Basin, vice president of the Belarusian Jewish Council.

Before the war, about 1 million Jews lived in Belarus and 800,000 of them died in the Holocaust. Today they number 27,000 in the country of 10 million.

Belarus' president, Alexander Lukashenko, has shown little respect for Jewish culture. In a radio broadcast in October that provoked a sharp protest from the Israeli government, he suggested that when Jews were numerous in another town, Bobruisk, they turned it into "a pigsty."

"You know how Jews treat the place where they live. Look at Israel; I was there," he said.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Palestine Press reports:

Ahmed Omar Abu Jayyab, a a member of the Hamas militia, was killed in the late evening yesterday, Friday, in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.

Hamas militia claimed in a statement that Abu Jayyab, who lived in the camp, was killed late night while performing what it called "important jihad."

Which means he was accidentally killed while playing with his gun or explosives.

Meanwhile, Hamas troops stormed into the mourning tents of some Fatah members and others and abducted 11 people in Gaza.

Hamas is also explicitly threatening Egypt, saying that they hold Egypt responsible for the siege and warning that the situation will "explode" the next few days. A spokesman said "Everyone knows that Hamas will not die alone and everyone will die with them and attend Arab world and international same will be the [as a ] third uprising against Israel, but against everyone and the coming days will prove this."

A different spokesman said "The inevitable Gaza explosion is coming at any time during the next two days."

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now 58.

IDF security problems - with Facebook

From the BBC:

Israeli defence chiefs have moved to tighten internet social networking rules after photographs appeared showing sensitive military subjects.

A review of Facebook pages belonging to Israeli troops found that some had posted detailed pictures of air bases, operations rooms and submarines.

"These are things we don't want the public to see for security reasons," an official source told the BBC.

The new set of rules - which has not been made public - includes a ban on images of pilots and members of special units, and anything that shows specific military manoeuvres.

The defence ministry launched its inquiry earlier in the year to check the potential security risk in the dozens of social networking groups dedicated to life in the Israeli military.

"There's a lot of illegal photography inside the Israeli Defence Forces, including the Israeli Air Force," a source inside the air force told the BBC.

"Most of the soldiers don't understand how much damage it may cause," the source added.

Militants in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories are believed to monitor Israeli web forums and communities, including Facebook and the photo sharing site Flickr, to get information.

The military source, who cannot be identified, says a few of his comrades are authorised to take pictures at their bases and to post them on Flickr.

Every photo is vetted by military censors, and the ones considered appropriate are assured a warm reception by the many enthusiasts of military hardware in the Flickr community.

But the defence ministry says military tribunals have investigated and disciplined about 100 soldiers who broke the rules and unwittingly helped the enemy this year.

It may seem a large number, but the defence ministry source said: "Considering the number of soldiers there are with social networking websites, it is a tiny proportion."

The worst offenders were punished with a month in jail for particularly egregious posts, while others were warned they would face similar punishment if they re-offended.

People do not realize how much information about themselves is on the Internet, and most of it is information they willingly put up on their own. All the social networking sites are filled with personal information that is astounding.

There are even automated data mining tools that can find much of the public information, and organize it, instantly.

I hope that the IDF also looked at the soldiers' friends' pictures and looked at more than just Facebook. Spying has become much easier in the electronic world.

Putting things in perspective

From Radio Netherlands: (via Daily Alert)

(by Nicolien den Boer)
When the Israeli woman who's interrogating me at Tel Aviv airport says, "I've just sent someone back who didn't co-operate", what she actually means is "you've been warned". It's 4 a.m., and this is the third time I've been questioned so far. I'm trying to stay calm. I haven't slept yet and I haven't had anything to drink for hours. The woman, probably a member of the Israeli security services, points me to the water fountain outside the toilets. I rinse my mouth, nothing more (is it safe to drink the water here?).

My passport has stamps from various Arab countries: Dubai, Yemen and archenemy Syria. After having to explain away all the telephone numbers I have in my possession, give my e-mail address and provide information about all my planned visits to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, there yet another interrogation of about an hour followed, this time about my time in Syria: "What did you do there?" "Do you know anyone there?", "Where exactly did you go?".

Finally, after more than five hours of waiting and being questioned at Tel Aviv airport, I get my passport back and am allowed to go. My suitcase is waiting, but - despite what I was promised - there's no one keeping an eye on it.

On the way to my hotel, I am feeling rather confused. I thought the Israelis always laid out the red carpet for members of the Western press. Haven't they got a reputation for bending over backwards to help journalists, handing out beautiful press packs and great quotes? If they treat me, a Dutch woman like this, what's it like for a Palestinian? I'd started going on about getting the Dutch embassy involved. I even rang them up - they were closed, of course. But a Palestinian wouldn't have any embassy to call. I'm trying not to think in simplistic terms of ‘good guy, bad guy', but it's difficult.

So I save my complaint for the government press office in Jerusalem, where I go to pick up my press card next day. "Security measures," is the explanation I get from the press officer, a tired looking woman by the name of Pnina Aizenman. "What do you think it's like for us, waking up each morning and never knowing what the day will bring?" she says, clearly referring to Palestinian suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

While Pnina's busy getting my press card ready, I take a look at the photos of children and a newspaper article on the wall behind me. The article is about a woman who lost her mother and her five-year-old child in a Palestinian suicide bombing. The name of the woman is Pnina Aizenman. I get the shivers. "That's you," I stammer. "Yes. Do you understand now what I mean by security measures?" she replies. I suddenly feel ashamed that I've just been complaining about being kept waiting for five hours when this woman's life has been totally wrecked by a bomb.

Then I also remember the bread roll that a police officer offered me at the airport, and that one of the women questioning me told me about the death of two friends and how she dedicated her work to their memory and did it "to defend her country". Totally confused, I leave the press office and walk out onto the streets of Jerusalem. Suddenly I find that I've totally binned that ‘good guy, bad guy' thing I had in my head less than 24 hours ago.

Israel finally admits Hamas stealing fuel

Ha'aretz reports:

Hamas seizes half the fuel Israel sends to the Gaza Strip and uses it in part for its military wing's vehicles, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials said Thursday.

Israel cut off the only source of fuel for Gaza's 1.4 million people Thursday after Wednesday's deadly attack on the only fuel transfer point into the territory.

But Israeli defense officials indicated that the cutoff would not last past the weekend.

Nir Press, commander of the military liaison unit for Gaza, said Hamas takes about half the fuel transferred to the Gaza Strip.

Hussein al-Sheikh, a PA official, told Haaretz that Hamas seizes some 400,000 of the 800,000 liters of diesel transferred to Gaza weekly and intended for uses such as generators, hospitals, water pumps and sewage pumps.

Israeli sources said Hamas was preventing the pumping of all the fuel from the Nahal Oz depot's reserves and funneling it to the Strip's gas stations. In the past week, only a small amount of fuel and diesel was pumped from the depot, leaving some 820,000 liters of diesel and 200,000 of gas in the depots, they said.

"Hamas is trying to create a false fuel crisis in the Gaza Strip," a senior government source said. "The simulated strike by Gaza's gas-station owners is also organized by Hamas. They want to create long lines for gas and a feeling that Israel is tightening the siege on Gaza, although this is not the case," he said.

Funny, I've been mentioning these facts for months.

Sickness in Yemen - 8 year old abused by 30-year old husband

The courage and maturity of this girl is amazing, and the depravity of the society that allows this to occur is bottomless:

SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man.

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.

“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said.

Nasser said that she was exposed to sexual abuse and domestic violence by her husband. “He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. One day I ran away from him and came to the court and talked to them.”

“Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months," added Nasser. "He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.”

Nasser’s uncle, who does not want to reveal his name, is following the case now as her guardian. According to her uncle, after Muhammed Nasser, the girl's father, lost his job as a garbage truck driver in Hajjah, he became a beggar, and soon after suffered from mental problems.

Thamer is in jail now. “Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me," he said. "But if the judge or other people insist that I divorce her, I will do it, it’s ok.”

So far, no accusations have been made against her father, who was later released due to health problems, or Nasser's husband, who will remain in jail for further investigation.

“So far there is no case and no charges, as Nojoud arrived by herself to court asking just for a divorce,“ said Shatha Ali Nasser, a lawyer in the Supreme Court who is following Nojoud Nasser’s story.

Shatha Ali Nasser confirmed that item number 15 in Yemeni civil law reads that “no girl or boy can get married before the age of 15." However, this item was amended in 1998 so parents could make a contract of marriage between their children even if they are under the age of 15. But the husband cannot be intimate with her until she is ready or mature,” said Nasser.“This law is highly dangerous because it brings an end to a young girl’s happiness and future fruitful life. Nojoud did not get married, but she was raped by a 30-year old man.”

Nasser confirmed that Nojoud Nasser’s case is not the first of its kind in Yemen, but it is the first time that a girl went to court by herself to ask for a divorce.

Lessons from the 1936 Olympics

ESPN published a large excerpt from a book called " "Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics" that gives details on the American decision to participate in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, even though Hitler made it clear that he was discriminating against Jewish athletes. Parts of the story are striking in seeing how willing people are to believe lies if those lies reinforce their own wishes:

Despite the assurances of American Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage to the contrary, anyone could see that the Third Reich had no real intention of allowing Jewish athletes to compete fully on its Olympic teams. Almost since the day the Nazis had come to power, it had been clear that they planned to discriminate against Jewish athletes, despite their assurances to the contrary. Those assurances had first been offered in Vienna in June 1933, at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee. The committee had convened in part to decide whether Germany would still be allowed to host the 1936 Olympics. If the Germans refused to promise to treat Jewish athletes fairly, the committee would move the games. Initially the Germans offered merely to abide by all the laws regulating the Olympic games. "The German Olympic Committee had arrived with this promise from their government in their pockets," John MacCormac reported for The New York Times from Vienna. But when several American members of the IOC demanded a specific assurance that Jews would not be excluded from the German Olympic team, the German legation had to cable superiors in Berlin for instructions. Finally the Germans agreed to the broader guidelines.
"What has happened is another proof of the spirit of fellowship that sport engenders," said His Excellency Dr. Theodor Lewald, the chairman of the German Olympic committee. MacCormac was duly impressed. "This development represents a complete backing down by the Hitler government," he wrote. "The straightforward character of the promise obtained from the German Government came as all the greater surprise, and the opinion was expressed that a real blow had been struck in the cause of racial freedom, at least in the realm of sport."
Of course, no such blow had been struck. The Nazis, typically, simply made a promise they had no intention of keeping. Still, the IOC went to the trouble of entrusting the task of enforcing the agreed-upon regulations to Lewald and the other members of the German Olympic committee: the duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Dr. Karl Ritter von Halt, Carl Diem, Dr. Heinrich Sahm, and Hans von Tschammer und Osten. The Viennese reporters covering the story were skeptical. They thought, quite rightly, that "nothing but formal and empty assurances on the question of Jewish participation in the Olympics could be expected from the committee, which, it was remarked, consisted of 'diplomats rather than sportsmen.'" The Austrian press already knew how much stock to put in Nazi promises.
Just a few days after the convention in Vienna, at a Nazi party meeting in Berlin, Hans Von Tschammer und Osten, the German minister of sport, made it clear that the Austrians were right. He told his fellow Nazis, on the record, that the pledges made in Vienna would not hinder the national agenda. "We shall see to it that both in our national life and in our relations and competitions with foreign nations only such Germans shall be allowed to represent the nation as those against whom no objection can be raised," he said. Everyone in the room knew which people were to be objected to.
Von Tschammer und Osten said virtually the same thing at another meeting, in Cologne. He wanted his fellow Nazis to know exactly where he and the German Olympic officials stood, despite Lewald's public statements. To clarify the German position for its readers, the Associated Press asked him to answer several questions. Responding to a question about a German decision to deny Jewish sports clubs "all special facilities," Von Tschammer und Osten wrote:
"It is hardly fair to expect that state support be given to purely Jewish organizations, which, being composed almost exclusively of Zionists, are even today in sharp political conflict with the government. Just as Nationalist sports organizations during the past years continued to enlist and engage in activities without any material assistance by relying purely upon themselves, so, too, no other treatment can now justly be meted out to Jewish organizations. That certainly won't create any difficulty for them, for in their circles substantial private means are available."
For three years the Germans engaged in similar rhetorical games with the international press and diplomatic corps. No, they said, we would never discriminate against the Jews. They have every right to take part in our Olympic trials. But of course, like everyone else, Jewish athletes must be sponsored by local clubs. And of course we cannot compel the local clubs to have them as members. These clubs have rights, too. And they must also abide by our laws. Which bar Jews from non-Jewish clubs. What about Jewish clubs? They are all either Zionist or Communist fronts. You cannot possibly expect them to be allowed to send athletes to our trials. And so on.
AOC president Avery Brundage saw no evil...Brundage said he would see for himself how the Third Reich was treating its Jewish citizens, including, of course, its Jewish athletes, several of whom were among Germany's best, such as the high jumper Gretel Bergmann and the ice hockey star Rudi Ball. But his tour of the country in August 1934 was merely a public relations stunt. Hitler wined and dined the prickly construction magnate. Over the course of six days, Brundage spoke to several Jews -- but only in the presence of Nazi chaperones such as Karl Ritter von Halt and Arno Breitmeyer. Not so shockingly, no one told him how bad the situation had become, and he failed to witness any overt displays of Nazi hostility to Jews. Dismissing Mahoney's concerns, Brundage declared that the Olympics "are an international event and must be kept free from outside interference or entanglements, racial, religious or political." He also said, "Certain Jews must understand that they cannot use these games as a weapon in their boycott against the Nazis." In other words, Brundage was saying, as he would famously say after the massacre in Munich in 1972, that the games must go on.
Despite the obvious -- and well chronicled -- games the Germans were playing, Brundage went out of his way both to praise their efforts to include Jews and to insult Jewish athletes. "The fact that no Jews have been named so far to compete for Germany doesn't necessarily mean that they have been discriminated against on that score," Brundage said on July 26, 1935.
Most famously, Brundage absolved himself of all moral responsibility when he said that organized amateur sport "cannot, with good grace or propriety, interfere in the internal political, religious or racial affairs of any country or group."
Seven weeks after Brundage's statements, Hitler made an important trip to Nuremberg, the quaint medieval city that the Nazis considered their spiritual home. It was there, on September 15, 1935, that he announced the new anti-Semitic decrees that came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws. In an instant Germany's Jews were stripped of their citizenship, deprived of protection by the laws of the land, and forbidden to marry Aryans or to employ Aryan women as servants.

Everyone with any sense knew that the Nazis were lying when they said they wouldn't discriminate against Jews. But Nazi attempts to paper over their hatred - by saying that they were only against Zionism, not Jews, for example - were eagerly accepted by people whose self-interest coincided with the obvious lies.

Today, much of the lukewarm reaction by Europe towards Iranian genocidal speech ("only against Zionists, not Jews"), obvious nuclear ambitions ("for peaceful nuclear power") and long-range ballistic missile development ("for an Iranian space program") is powered by the same desire to overlook clear lies for short-term self-interest.

In some ways, this is a useful way to look at the entire Israel/Arab conflict. The Arab case - the destruction of Israel - is fundamentally one of aligning Arab wishes with the self-interests of the other nations of the world. The incentives are both positive (the huge petrodollar economy) and negative (the threat of terror,) but they are clothed in the language of morality (Israel's treatment of "Palestinian refugees.") The lies are obvious but they get lost in the static generated by the buzz of other nations' self-interest.

Israel's case to the world audience - that Israel has the right to exist in security- is primarily a moral one, and from a purely moral perspective it is correct. But the moral argument alone does not contribute as much towards the audience's perceived self-interest as the incentives and disincentives of the Arab world.

This is why we see the world give more weight towards the moral arguments of the Arabs. By themselves, they are close to worthless, but combined with the implicit threats and economic rewards of their proponents their value becomes inflated to appear to be on a par with, or superior to, Israel's moral claims. Any perceived moral infraction by Israel gets exaggerated, yet much worse violations of morality by Arabs get downplayed. In this fashion, the audience - primarily the West - can use the convenient moral cover to justify their ultimately self-serving actions (and it is of course in their self-interest to appear to be acting out of moral considerations rather than naked selfishness.)

The ironic part is that Israel's interests really do conflate with Western self-interest more than those of the Arabs. The Islamist threat - powered by oil money and Western fears of terror - would not end with the destruction of Israel but with the Islamization of the world. Unfortunately, most nations usually sacrifice long-term interests in favor of the short term.

What this means for Israel is that it cannot rely on moral arguments alone to make their case. Israel's leaders and supporters need to show how Israel's case is in everyone's - Western and Eastern alike - self-interest.

The rare, publicly moderate Arab

This letter to Al-Ahram is unusual, to say the least.

There is no way of knowing how many Arabs share this person's views, and of course they are not in complete consonance with those of many Israelis, but if there is a chance for peace it would be because of the minority of Arabs who think like this:

Sir-- It has become a ritual to blame all our misfortunes, from sectarian feuds to natural disasters, on hideous Zionist strategies. I am neither qualified, nor willing here to confirm or ridicule any of the globally spread conspiracy theories on Jewish dominance over our world, but I can simply say that passing this legacy of hatred from one generation to another could very well bring our fears to reality, with our bare hands.
No conflict should last forever; there must come a time for reconciliation, which might not ever convert hostility into passion, yet could pave the way for a certain extent of mutual acceptance.

What if we choose, as Arabs, to live in peace with Israel? Would not that consolidate the Palestinian case, putting extra pressure upon the Israeli government to recognise the Palestinians' right to live decently on their lands? Would it not deprive Israel of legitimacy for massive armament, including nuclear weapons? Furthermore; it would eventually strip down all the regional leaders that have been fortifying allegations on the necessity to abort democracy while preparing for the sacred struggle to liberate Palestine.

I have had the opportunity during the past few years to correspond with some Israelis via the Internet, and it was amazing to find out that we have much more in common than differences. They have dreams for their children to grow up and live in peace just like we do.

I cannot understand what makes the Arab and Muslim conscience capable of absorbing and tolerating traumas like the invasion of Kuwait, the genocide in Darfur, Chechnya, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine itself, yet reject the concept of living with Israel, a status quo that has been going on for 60 years.

I am pleading hereby, for the sake of our nations, for the inhumane suffering of the desperate Palestinians, for the future of democracy, economy and human rights in our region, to stop the mainstream of violence, a multi-billion dollar business that should have been invested instead in providing Palestinians with decent education, modern infrastructure, healthcare and appropriate dwelling. We can obviously continue ignoring the conflict for it doesn't directly affect our lives, as we can go on repeating the passionate anthems of war we grew up chanting over and over again. We can remain being ostriches, but can our consciences do, too?

Ali Shakir
Amman
Jordan

The ability to understand that Israel is not going anywhere, that Palestinian Arabs have not benefited and in fact have been hurt by the "support" that Arab governments have given them, the importance of democracy and human rights, the distaste for using Palestinian Arabs as an excuse to avoid real problems, and the conscious recognition of Arab anti-Israel mantras as a form of brainwashing - these are all points that seem obvious to Westerners but are rarely mentioned in the Arab world.

Hamas orchestrating fuel shortages to attack Egypt?

There have been many stories in the past couple of days about Hamas demands of Egypt to open the Rafah border and threats that Hamas will try to destroy it again as they did in January.

One interesting detail is mentioned in a report in Palestine Press (Arabic). The paper claims that armed Hamas militia are shutting down gas stations in Gaza today, in order to put Gazans in the mood to storm the wall (which some reports say are already mined.)

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported today that Gaza fuel wholesalers had refused fuel deliveries for three days before the Nahal Oz murders, as a strange protest of the limited amount of fuel that they were getting.

If this is true, then the intelligence that other Arabic papers were reporting yesterday that Hamas is going to attack the Rafah border imminently might have actually been a misunderstanding : it is plausible that Hamas orchestrated Nahal Oz, knowing that Israel would react as it did by shutting down fuel shipments.

As Noah Pollak notes, "Hamas and its regional patrons continue to drive events, not the other way around." Israel (as well as Egypt and the other players) are all reacting to Hamas' actions, whether it is smuggling weapons or initiating terror attacks or threatening Egypt. Hamas has the luxury of setting the agenda, and it is getting to the point that it will be able to choose its own terms of when to fight Israel, unless Israel takes control.

Moderate Fatah's chemical weapons - attempt to poison hundreds of Jews

YNet reports:

The thwarting of an alarming terror plot was cleared for publication on Thursday, almost three weeks after a joint Shin Bet and police operation led to the arrest of two Palestinian employees of the 'Grill Express' restaurant in Ramat Gan.

The men, Eihab Abu Rial and Anas Salum, both 21-year-old residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, had planned to lace dishes served at the establishment with a powerful toxin without odor or taste, in the hopes of killing as many patrons as possible.

The two did not have working permits and were residing in Israel illegally. While in Nablus, they had been recruited to the al-Aqsa Martyr's Bridges, the military wing of Fatah, under the guidance and funding of Hizbullah.

The men were arrested by police investigators following information obtained by the Shin Bet, several short days before they planned to carry out the attack.

In their questioning the men told interrogators they were to receive the poison from two operatives in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus – Husseini Salag and Hani Quabi – who are still wanted by security forces.

The white substance is virtually undetectable and affects its victims approximately four hours after being ingested.

If they would have been successful they could have killed hundreds of people who frequent the restaurant; it would take many hours for investigators to figure out the source of the illness while the restaurant would remain open and serving more customers.

Again, Palestinian Arab terrorists and their supporters prove themselves to be capable of pure evil. All the talk about not wanting to kill innocent people and how immoral Israel supposedly is is shown to be a sham when measured against a crime like this. It is effectively an attempted - and nearly successful - WMD attack, that will be largely ignored by the world.

And who will be ultimately hurt by such an attack? As with the Mercaz Harav massacre and yesterday's Nahal Oz murders, the inevitable result is that Palestinian Arabs will be hurt, as no one in Israel will hire them any more as restaurant workers. There is no doubt that thousands of Palestinian Arabs are extraordinarily upset that their livelihoods are bing threatened by their comrades, and there is equally no doubt that their voices will not be heard because of the de facto censorship in their media, where any voices against terror are muted and marginalized.

Notice also who planned the attack - the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, out of Nablus, the terror group that the PA announced months ago was disbanded.

Widget, v2

I mentioned last week that I configured a widget to easily browse through much of the Zionist blogosphere.

Since I wanted it to be as large as possible, as well as easy to get to, I just created a webpage specifically to show the widget, for easier bookmarking (or remembering if you are at an unfamiliar computer.)

The page can be found here.

A quick trip through the looking glass

I used to harp a bit on The People's Voice, an absurd publication that Google indexes as a "news" source. It got boring and while Google might take down links to a post or two it would end up giving in to the loony lefties that support the site.

Today's entry is so over the top, both in terms of its content and its amateurish style, that I had to share a bit of it. Here's the link for cutting and pasting - I don't want to give them any hits directly from here:
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/04/10/the_rise_of_the_jewish_empire_the_jewish
(His use of language, capitalization and punctuation, not to mention content, indicates someone with an intellectual and emotional age of about 13.)

The Rise of the Jewish Empire: The Jewish Conquest of America
Bob Finch

There is no such thing as an american empire. America does not have an empire. On the contrary, america has become part of the jewish empire which dictates america’s domestic and foreign policies. The policies that america is pursuing in the middle east have nothing to do with america’s national interests – on the contrary, over the last four decades it has been forced to fight the wars on behalf of its jewish master.

America may have lost the war against vietnam but it has never been invaded or conquered by external forces since its declaration of independence. But since the second world war and, in particular the establishment of the terrorist state refered to as Israel, it has been conquered from within. Wasps no longer have any significant control over american politics or its foreign policies.

The israelis in america control the republican party and the democratic party and even the green party. They control the left wing of american politics (noam chomsky, stephen zunes) almost as much as they control the extreme right wing. They control congress. Jack abramoff apparently had in the region of 60 members of congress on his payroll. And these were not insignificant members of congress either since he funded tom delay who provided dick cheney’s power base. This israeli was not only funding american goys but terrorists in the jews-only state. And this is the political influence of just one jewish billionaire. When aipac and all the other jewish lobbying groups in america, whose prime loyalties are to the jews-only state in palestine, are taken into consideration, the jews are financing virtually all members of congress. These days when american politicians talk about the need to defend their country from external threats what they mean is any challenge to the jews-only state in palestine.

Israelis own and control the american media. They compose the largest group of billionaires in america who fund a vast network of political research organizations which determine the views of america’s jewish owned media and america’s jewish funded politicians.

The israelis have even transformed christianity in america. There are now tens of millions of so-called christian zionists who have come to believe in the zionist god of vengeance rather than the christian god of forgiveness. They no longer live on a god given planet but focus solely on the god given land of palestine.

There is not the slightest doubt that the american military is by far and away the most formidable military power in the world. But who controls that military is an entirely different matter. The american politicians who dictate military policy are not wasps but israelis - agents of the jews-only state in palestine. So, in effect the jews-only state controls american politicians who control the american military which wages war for the sake of jewish world domination.

There is no such thing as an american empire. America does not have an empire. On the contrary, america has become part of the jewish empire which dictates america’s domestic and foreign policies.

There may be those who argue that just because america implements the foreign policies of another state doesn’t mean to say that there isn’t an american empire which pursues american interests around the rest of the world. But this is not the case. America’s zionist foreign policy has drained american military resources so they cannot be used in other places around the world. The jews in american politics and their shabbat goy colleagues have become so focused on the middle east to protect the sacred judaic headquarters of the jewish empire that they have ignored, or been unable to combat, the rise of democratic forces in south america from where america imports a substantial amount of its oil.

Israeli traitors control the american media, the republican and democratic parties, congress, the pentagon, the office of homeland security, the cia, the defence intelligence agency, the state department, the national security council, and the presidency. The american military is implementing the foreign policies of the jews-only state in palestine. There is nothing american left about america.

And there are many people who read this inane tripe and say, "Yeah!"

Speaking of those sort of people, I stumbled the other day on a site that says, among other things, that the Entebbe rescue operation was a hoax. Sure enough, other sites sprinkled throughout the web mindlessly copied this "evidence."