Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 01, 2008

May Qassam notes

As I finished up my May Qassam calendar, I noticed something that has never occurred before:

There was at least one Qassam rocket every single day in May.

Every other months there are some days where none are reported, or that "only" have mortars. This was the first time in the 16 months I've been keeping track that there were attacks literally every day.

And even so, demand for real estate among Israelis in areas around Gaza is at an all-time high. Far more are moving there than are moving away, making terrorist claims that they aim to depopulate the nearby communities rather pathetic.

May 2008

147 total

May 2008 Qassam calendar

As usual, this is far from complete, and it is more to show how ignored the Qassam issue is rather than to show how many are being fired. Many Qassams never make it in the news, and the rare times that the IDF publishes statistics shows that I am usually undercounting . Also, these are Qassams that don't make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself, often causing damage or even deaths.

This list does not include mortars being shot from Gaza, which are usually much more numerous on any given day. The mortars are turning deadlier as well. It also does not count the occasional rocket from Lebanon. It does attempt to count Grad/Katyusha rockets from Gaza.

May 2008

147 total

Previous calendars:

April 2008

March 2008
February 2008
January
December 2007
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February

Work accident!

From AP:

Health officials say an explosion in the house of a Hamas militant has killed the man and wounded 16 relatives and neighbors.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry says it's investigating the cause of Saturday's blast at the home of Hamas activist Nader Abu Shaban.

Our 2008 self-death count is now at 74.

Cairo University professor wants to ban kisses

From Firas Press (autotranslated, edited)):

Dr. Adel Ashour, Professor of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, announced his desire to establish a Society for the Prevention of Kisses between friends.

Dr. Adel stressed that all scientific research published in major medical journals world were unanimous in serious medical harm caused by an exchange booth by the spread of infection from serious diseases and microbial and viral diseases, notably the skin and comes Especially the young people love and microbial diseases such as the Group of cluster microbes and microbes are found in normal human mouth as well as meningitis and viral diseases carried by Kiss also like Catarrh and leaching, which must not be underestimated where it may affect the cells of lined cells of a brain and produces. By the very high temperature is difficult to control and can be fatal in some cases also mumps and German measles gray and viruses and liver and confirmed that the Assembly membership includes all medical disciplines to explain the ill effects of the earlier opinion and religion in the objectives of this

General Dr. Ismail of Al-Azhar University said that it is known that the teachings of Islam denies the kiss-frame doubles science has confirmed the existence of serious damage to it and the views of citizens on this Assembly to be established between the diverse views of rejection and acceptance

Another PalArab self-death that I missed

PHRMG keeps it own counts and it lists some deaths that were not reported in the Palestinian Arab press. Here's one:

Fa'ed A'mar , 44, married with 8 children, from sineidya-qalqelia 17.04.2008
killed by kidnapping him and putting him in a car and then burning the car while he was in it.

Our count is at 73.

UAE arrests doctor who surgically restores "virginity"

From DPA:

Police in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrested on Wednesday a German doctor of Arab descent for performing hymen reconstruction surgery and illegal abortions.

Police investigation indicated that the 61-year-old gynaecologist carried out the surgery to restore broken hymen for about $1,000), according to a police statement.

The surgery known as hymenoplasty is illegal in many countries in the Middle East and the Gulf where women are required to prove their virginity when they get married.

The surgery is usually done under local anaesthetic.

This is actually not funny - in many Arab countries, a bride may get herself killed if her husband sees no proof of her virginity.

But instead of trying to save the lives of these potential honor victims, the UAE makes it illegal for them to have any recourse.

Photo caption contest

A chicken crosses in front of Palestinian stone throwers standing in an alley during an Israeli army operation in the village of Nilin near Modin, Thursday, May 29, 2008. (AP)

The caption must answer the question: Why did the chicken cross the road?

UAE: "Mixed-sex schools cause cross-dressing"

There is a plague happening in Dubai:

Police in Dubai have arrested several men and women for cross-dressing in what they said was a campaign to preserve the social values of the cosmopolitan Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub, newspapers reported on Monday.
"We have noted an emerging trend of men dressed as women and vice versa in the UAE markets and streets," the Khaleej Times daily quoted Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan as saying.

"Several men in women's dresses and make-up have already been arrested from shopping malls and residential buildings," he said.

The detainees were being referred to the public prosecutor as part of the one-week campaign called "Preserve Our Social Values", though it was not clear what charges would be brought.

So what exactly has caused these abominations to occur?

Khalfan urged the Social Affairs Ministry to study the reasons behind the trend, which he said could be a consequence of mixed-sex schools.

Yes, that sounds like it.

Apparently Khalfan said a bit more about the spread of the phenomenon and the reasons, and the Arabic-English autotranslation is so funny that I don't want to try to misinterpret it:

Khalfan pointed to the presence of people working in certain occupations, such as some cosmetics centers trousers who come from their country Conduct strange Vicbhon women and behave lesbian, calling those responsible for the importation of employment or entry in scrutinizing these people do not even move their infection.

Khalfan said that the mixing of education among females and males is perhaps the main reason for the spread of this phenomenon, noting that there were studies confirmed that the official rate of 80 percent from the spread of this abnormal behavior in Western nations.

He added that the studies also confirmed that the group was not responsible for the genetic tendency to imitating the girl child and vice versa, demanding control of educational institutions and educating students in schools and universities.

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?