Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Lyndon Johnson, hero

Two stories came out today about Lyndon Johnson, both showing what a mensch he was.

First, AP has a story on LBJ's feelings towards Israel as revealed in newly-discovered White House recordings:

Tapes of Lyndon Johnson's Oval Office conversations, released to the public for the first time on Wednesday, reveal that the American president had a personal and often emotional connection to Israel.

In the first public presentation of the tapes Wednesday at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Robert Johnson said this connection influenced his policy decisions and helped lay the foundation for the special relationship between the two nations.

"I sure as hell want to be careful and not run out on little Israel," Johnson said in a March 1968 conversation with his ambassador to the United Nations, Arthur Goldberg. The recording was released to researchers on on May 1, according to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, in Austin, Texas.

The tapes document LBJ's growing belief in the importance of Israel throughout his administration.

In a taped conversation from June 25, 1967, about three weeks after Israel defeated three Arab armies, Johnson relates a conversation with Soviet Premier Alexey Kosygin.

"He couldn't understand why we'd want to support the Jews — 3 million people — when there are 100 million Arabs," the president said. "I told him that numbers do not determine what was right. We tried to do what was right regardless of the numbers."

Professor Johnson said, "It's one of the starkest expressions of a moral obligation to Israel that came from an American President."

He said the former president, who died in 1973, had a romanticized view of Israel that paralleled his view of his home state of Texas: a frontier nation filled with self-made men, often misunderstood by the outside world.

Far more impressive was that LBJ saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust:

Five days after taking office in 1937, LBJ broke with the “Dixiecrats” and supported an immigration bill that would naturalize illegal aliens, mostly Jews from Lithuania and Poland. In 1938, Johnson was told of a young Austrian Jewish musician who was about to be deported from the United States. With an element of subterfuge, LBJ sent him to the U.S. Consulate in Havana to obtain a residency permit. Erich Leinsdorf, the world famous musician and conductor, credited LBJ for saving his life.

That same year, LBJ warned a Jewish friend that European Jews faced annihilation. Somehow, Johnson provided him with a pile of signed immigration papers that were used to get 42 Jews out of Warsaw. But that wasn’t enough. According to historian, James M. Smallwood, Congressman Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle “hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as the entry port. Enough money could buy false passports and fake visas in Cuba, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. … Johnson smuggled boatloads and planeloads of Jews into Texas. He hid them in the Texas National Youth Administration…. Johnson saved at least four or five hundred Jews, possibly more..”

On June 4, 1945, Johnson visited the Dachau concentration camp. According to historian Smallwood, Lady Bird later recalled that “when her husband returned home, he was still shaken, stunned, terrorized, and ‘bursting with an overpowering revulsion and incredulous horror at what he had seen.’”

14 year old Egyptian boy tries to join Gaza terrorists

From Firas:

Egyptian security forces seized a boy from east of Cairo while trying to infiltrate into Gaza through one of Rafah international border points. The Egyptian security sources said the 14-year old boy had been seized during his attempts to cross the barbed wire fence that separates between Egyptian Rafah and Palestinian Rafah.

The boy admitted that he was on his way to Gaza to fight against Israeli occupation forces after seeing the massacres perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians on TV.

The last paragraph is notable, as it shows the real-life fruits of incitement.

Most adult Arabs are smart enough to know when they are being fed propaganda and know to discount anything that shows up on their news shows. They will pay lip service to the idea of jihad but they will practically let others do the job for them, as they are busier trying to feed their families. Of course, the cumulative effect is still to instill a deep and lasting hatred against Israel, but the over-the-top rhetoric about holy war is ignored by most.

Some, however, take this non-stop barrage of incitement seriously. These would be the ones who are too immature to recognize propaganda as well as those who look at everything in stark black-and-white terms.

And, of course, children.

When they are fed a diet of nothing but hate, leavened with the subtext that all Zionist Jews have no legitimate reason to live in "Arab lands," plus a healthy helping of the promise of paradise for those who die fighting a jihad, it is natural that a number of them will gravitate towards the logical conclusion of this incitement - that it is obligatory for every Muslim to fight the Jews and moreover that it is shameful that most Muslims are not doing exactly that.

These are the results of the non-stop incitement on Egyptian TV against its erstwhile peace partner.

The evil Zionist settler pigs are back

Once again, Ma'an publishes this story with a straight face:

Settlers from the Ariel settlement have dumped wild pigs on Thursday in 'Ein Al-Qabileh neighborhood south of Salfit where they smashed the farmers' plants.

Farmer Mohammad Faleh 'Omran said that the pigs destroyed his tomato seedlings, ruined the earth and trampled on his plants.

Farmer Mahmoud Hassan said that the pigs smashed his apple shrubs and his field at night.

He added that the farmers have killed three pigs among the large herds released by the settlers.

Yes, those Zionists have bred pigs that can distinguish between Arab and Jewish crops. They spend years raising these huge herds of pigs specifically to dump them in Arab villages when they reach just the right amount of maturity. They drive over to the Arab neighborhoods in trucks and dump them there, knowing implanting them with embedded microchips they will leave the village and make their way to Arab farms and cause damage far less than the value of the pigs themselves.

How nefarious can you be?

Previous Zionist pig sightings here, here and here. Oh, and a Zionist lion once terrorized poor Palestinian Arabs as well..

Palestinian police show off

From AP:

Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security force demonstrate their martial arts skills during a graduation ceremony in the West Bank city of Jericho, where they arrived earlier in the day from Jordan, Wednesday, May 28, 2008. Six hundred members of Abbas' police force graduated in Jordan and returned to be deployed in Jericho Wednesday. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Hold on for a minute - did that maneuver reveal some PA police undies?

Either his pants split, or he was really trying to show off for the press.

(h/t Soccer Dad)

Arab boycott not doing too well

From Globes:

Direct exports to Arab countries continue to grow. Exports to Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco were 45% higher in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the corresponding quarter of 2007, the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute reports. It estimates the potential of exports to Arab and Muslim countries which with Israel has no current trade relations at $1 billion. Obviously, realizing this potential is contingent on the regional political situation.

Jordan is now Israel's primary Arab trading partner, after an 85% increase in exports last year. The Export Institute reports that exports to Jordan totaled $102 million in the first quarter, 62% more than in the corresponding quarter. Most exports were metals, jewelry, processed wood products, textiles, and plastics. 1,050 companies exported goods to Jordan at the end of 2007, 8% more than a year earlier. This is the largest number of companies exporting to an Arab country.

Palestine Today reports the raw numbers plus its own inimitable editorial spin (autotranslated):

Despite the Almighty votes claim for activating Arab economic boycott of Israel with a response to its policy of racism against all that is Arab, a report of the volume of Israeli exports to Israel's exports to Arab countries during the first quarter of this year amounted to 145 million dollars, an increase of 48% compared with the same period In 2007.

The report emphasized the importance of the Arabian Gulf region and a market for Israeli products prepared especially in light of the economic boom witnessed by the Gulf Cooperation Council states during the past three years by registering record levels and oil prices.

They expected the volume of Israeli exports to increase trade with Arab and Islamic states to reach one billion dollars during the current year, and include others that did not sign the trade agreements directly with Israel. This has reached the volume of bilateral trade with Arab countries in 2007 through about 410 million dollars.

It is curious that Palestinian Arabs, who so desperately want the barrier between them and Israel to go down so they can get Israeli jobs and money and who are completely dependent on Israeli money for their own industry, are so insulted that other Arab countries trade with Israel.

This is typical, however. Arabs historically always wanted other Arabs to take the hit for their own hate. The same people who wanted the death penalty for selling land to Jews in the 1930s sold land to the Jews themselves, and the Arab leaders who advocated a boycott of Jewish goods and services in 1947 ended up a reign of terror against the Arabs who were hurt by the boycott most.

Hamas smugglers reportedly kill two Egyptian troops

Palestine Press Agency quotes "media reports" as saying:that two Egyptians were killed last night in violent clashes between smugglers and the Egyptian army stationed at the border.

This may have been related to the half-ton of explosives and other arms found by Egypt last night.

Hamas has a monopoly on Gaza smuggling, netting the terrorists organization some $150 million each month in profits.

Israeli Arabs wouldn't want to live anywhere else

Arabs might hate Israel but the ones who live there wouldn't trade their lives for anything else.

From a new survey on Arab/Jewish co-existence in Israel:

Do you think that any Arab nation can boast such numbers?

Other interesting findings include that most Israelis would like to see Arabic taught in Jewish schools, and an overwhelming majority of both Israeli Jews and Arabs agreed with the statement, "Israel should be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."

Sounds just like apartheid-era South Africa, right?

Today's Gaza news you won't read anywhere else

Hamas attacked a medical clinic in Rafah. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that this is only the latest incident where Hamas has closed down Gaza medical centers and fired health workers, as well as confiscated medicines and equipment.

Jamal Watt, the Palestinian Minister of Religious Endowments, said that Hamas has embezzled many funds meant for charity. Watt said that this is not a crime against his ministry, but against Islamic law. He also complained about Hamas' politicization of mosques in Gaza.

Egyptian forces discovered another half-ton of explosives near the Rafah crossing. The cache included mortars and rockets, already separated into smaller bags for transport through smuggling tunnels under the border.

Hundreds of Arabs killed, no one cares

There are some Arabs in the Middle East who have been in a constant state of war against a professional army.

Their food supply has been cut, and they are desperately short on fuel. The government forces have cut all communications links. Hundreds have been killed in a short period of time.

And nobody really cares, because it isn't a Jewish government doing the fighting:

SA’ADA, May 25 — A fifth war between the Yemeni army and Houthis has broken out fiercely in numerous Sa’ada districts, Amran governorate’s Harf Sifyan district and Sana’a governorate’s Bani Hushaish district, leaving hundreds on both sides killed or injured, tribal sources said Sunday, adding that the war is the fiercest ever since fighting between the two sides first erupted in June 2004.

In Sa’ada’s Matra district, believed to be the main stronghold of Houthi loyalists, local sources reveal that government troops have been attacking the area for two weeks, using helicopters, tanks, Katyusha rockets and other heavy weaponry.

The same sources add that the government’s troops are facing fierce resistance by Houthis, thereby hindering them in achieving any notable progress on the ground.

Additionally, there are ongoing bloody confrontations between republican guards and Houthis in Dhahian city, located 8 kilometers east of Sa’ada city, but neither side scored victory.

As a result, government forces were obliged to dispatch more republican guard troops. Backed by helicopters, the newly dispatched troops are fighting fiercely with Houthis in several areas of Haidan district.

This latest war has left hundreds on both sides dead and other hundreds injured in a relatively short time period while the Yemeni government imposes an information blackout on battlegrounds after cutting off all wired and wireless communication means, local sources note.

They express concern about the governorate’s worsening human situation amid shortages in diesel and gasoline supplies and soaring propane gas prices due to the blocking of nearly all roads leading to Sa’ada governorate.

The clashes resulted in food shortages, the closure of markets and the suspension of traffic on the Sana’a-Sa’ada Highway.

I don't know enough about the Houthis to know which side is in the right, but I do know enough to say that most "human rights" groups spend much more time caring about one set of Arabs than any other.

Best metaphor for Iran contest

Recently, Iran's president Ahmadinejad referred to Israel as, among other things, a "stinking corpse." He has also called Israel a "dead rat."

Since we have scientifically proven that Iran's government is much closer to extinction than Israel is, we need to find a better metaphor for Iran than the rather prosaic "stinking corpse."

So, at the suggestion of the illustrious EBoZ, who better than my beloved readers to come up with the best pithy description of the Iranian regime, suitable for use by heads of state?

My initial try was "a maggoty, pus-filled festering wound on the armpit of the world" but that is a mouthful.

Any good ideas?

And, as my brother added,

After that we need a "A World without Persia" conference at Columbia University. Then a cartoon contest to parody the Iranian casualties in the Iran-Iraq war, followed by another conference denying that the conflict even happened.

But first things first. What do we call that sickening excuse for a nation?

Another "mysterious explosion" injures Gaza mom, daughters

PalPress reports:

Palestinian medical sources announced at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Tuesday morning the injury of a mother and her two children in a mysterious explosion in the Shojaeya district east of Gaza City.

This is the same neighborhood in which a Qassam rocket fell on Saturday.

A real mystery, I tell ya.

Hamas porn filter slowing Gaza Internet service

The "pornography" Internet filter that Hamas had installed for all of Gaza - which probably is also used to spy on the Internet habits of everyone in Gaza - has slowed down all of Gaza's online access to a crawl.

The poor Gazans, most of whom supposedly eat only one meal a day, are having a hard time going online with their computers that run on the non-existent electricity in Gaza.

Hamas admitted that this slowdown was caused by its filtering software and says it is working hard to fix the problem.

Because they are all about customer service.

Terror attack in Jerusalem yesterday?

Palestinian Arab press is reporting that the "Galilee Freedom Brigades" that claimed responsibility for the Mercaz HaRav massacre is claiming to have killed an Israeli in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem in his apartment.

I cannot find any stories about a murder in Jerusalem yesterday.

Hamas contines to arrest and harass journalists

From Reporters Without Borders:

A TV crew working for the German television station ARD was detained on 15 May in Jabaliya, in the north of the Gaza Strip, by Hamas security forces after covering a demonstration organised by members of Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Cameraman Mohammed Al-Arabid and soundman Mwatasam Rashid were questioned for an hour and their equipment was confiscated.
Two journalists working for the Sudanese satellite television station Sudan TV were detained on 24 May in Gaza City while doing a report on what life is like for the city’s population. Reporter Samir Khalifa and cameraman Ahmed Al-Ras were questioned about their employer’s identity. They were suspected for working for the state-owned Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and has been banned in the Gaza Strip since June 2007. Khalifa used to work for the PBC but had to sever all contact with the station, which now operates out of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

It has been obvious for nearly a year that Hamas does not allow journalists to operate freely in Gaza and that it is now impossible to get objective news out of that area. Hamas harassment and threats of journalists is well documented. Western journalists have all but gone; all that is left are Arabs who fear, justifiably, for their lives.

The biggest example is Ma'an News, which was the single best source for reporting a year ago. Now its reports out of Gaza are carefully designed not to offend anyone in Hamas, to the point where they will continue to report on "work accidents" as being from Israeli missiles even after the terror groups themselves admit that it wasn't.

How can the casual reader know that they simply cannot trust any news that comes out of Gaza as being objective? It is all carefully scrubbed to make a group of murderers happy, yet even the major news agencies don't put caveats in their stories (as they do whenever the Israeli censor slightly limits their reporting.)

It is yet another example of how media bias is sometimes not only from within.

I smell a fatwa coming

Last month, a book was published named "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out". Some predicted that Muslims would get very upset over the cover, which depicts a picture of Mohammed being ripped in half:

Even so, it seems to have sailed under the Muslim radar - until now.

I just saw a story about this book, and especially the cover, in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press.

So it is possible that this issue will percolate up in the Muslim world in the coming weeks.