Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Tunnel collapse, plus other Gaza news

Another Palestinian Arab has been killed in a tunnel collapse:

The body of a 40-year-old Palestinian man was pulled out of the debris of a tunnel collapse on the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday evening.

Medical sources said Ramadan Hilmi Ramadan died when the tunnel caved in near the As-Salam neighborhood of Rafah.

Four Palestinians were hospitalized following after the tunnel that runs under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed at 11.30 am on Monday.

Egypt has recently found more large caches of weapons and explosives meant to be smuggled to Gaza in those same tunnels:

"We found 27 plastic bags loaded with ammunition, a number of rockets, anti-tank missiles and bombs, which were hidden in the mountains in the Al-Roda area" of north Sinai, the official said.
Authorities also found another cache containing 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) of TNT about four kilometres (2.5 miles) west of the Gaza border, the official added.
On Saturday authorities said they found a cache which included about 30 anti-aircraft missiles, 3,000 bullets and rifles.

Meanwhile, terror groups continue to shell the crossings that provide them with food and fuel, with no condemnation from within or without Gaza:

The Nahal Oz crossing was shelled by Fatah three times on Sunday and five times on Monday by the PRC.

The Sufa crossing was mortared twice on Thursday by Fatah.

For the first time, a Russian-manufactured Katyusha rocket was shot from Gaza at Israel. Earlier Grad rockets were made in Iran.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 76.

Male Kuwaiti MPs insulted at female MPs without hijab

The good news is that Kuwait actually has two members of its parliament who are women.

The bad news is that the male MPs are upset that they don't wear their hijabs:

Muslim hardliners in Kuwait's parliament walked out of the body's inaugural meeting on Sunday to protest two female Cabinet ministers who were not wearing headscarves.
The nine men left just after lawmakers and ministers started taking the oath of office. They returned after the two women, Modhi al-Homoud and Nouria al-Subeih, were sworn in. Neither of the women were wearing long dresses or covering their hair, which Islamists maintain is required by their religion.
No female legislators have won any seats since 2005 when women won the right to vote in Kuwait, but the prime minister appointed two to the Cabinet.
Al-Homoud, the minister of state for housing and development, ignored attempts by conservative lawmakers remaining in the chamber to take the floor as she read her oath. She wore a skirt rather than long robes or a headscarf.
Al-Subeih, the education minister, dressed conservatively though not with a headscarf and was not interrupted. She went through a similar situation when she was first appointed in April 2007.
Many women in Kuwait wear headscarves and long dresses, but Islamic dress is not mandatory like in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Right after this incident the lawmakers voted to force the women to abide by male rules:

The conservative-controlled Parliament later approved by 33 votes to 21 a proposal by Islamist and tribal MPs to refer the case of the two women ministers without hijab to the house legal committee. It will have to establish if the two violated a law requiring women to “abide by Islamic regulations while voting or contesting the elections.”

This is the Kuwaiti version of equal rights for women: if they are going to be visible, they had better be invisible.

MEMRI heads-up

Firas Press prints a foaming-at-the-mouth article trying to blast Professor Mordechai Kedar, who was interviewed on Al-Jazeera recently and apparently was more adamant about the Jewish attachment to Jerusalem than the Al Jazeera hosts were comfortable with:

Host Jamal asked: "What do you think of the Declaration of Israel from building new settlements eve of a meeting with Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas' and passengers think it is a provocation and disregarded and embarrass the Palestinian side ..!?"

Professor started shouting, "What's this question?! لI think that no one in this world has the right of Israel to ask such a question?! Build or not build what does it matter to you ?! We are building in Jerusalem is the land of Israel, which Israeli for three thousand years, why must we ask permission from anyone .?! Should we agree to what is right ?! "

Said to him, Jamal: "But Jerusalem an occupied territory of Palestine" and he answered: "Who said this!?"...

He also emphasized that Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. This was enough to send the firasd writer into convulsions, although the autotranslation is unclear I think the message is:

Jerusalem and the first Qiblah and the third the Two Holy Mosques and plot our Prophet Muhammad and the recklessness of those pigs this time the Zionists who damage Larsen returned to the impact of any one of them ..! I firmly believe that this pig is the pronunciation of the Zionist amateur or a purely personal opinion whatsoever .. '

The rest of the article is even harder to understand but plenty of insults are thrown in.

Although the author admits that he didn't actually see the interview, it sounds like it was a good one - I can't wait to see if MEMRI translates it.

UPDATE: Arutz-7 has much more detail (h/t Soccer Dad.)

Arabs freak over a logo change

The extreme hatred that Arabs have towards that Zionist entity sometimes manifests itself in unusual ways.

The Arab world has a huge multimedia company called Rotana, owned by Saudi Prince Waleed bin Talal. Rotana includes divisions for music, movies, and television.

Recently, Rotana changed the logo of one of its movie divisions from green and white to blue and white. This caused quite a stir, and the Firas Press report includes the most amazingly stupid conspiracy theories one can imagine:

The movie channel Rotana showed its true face after it adopted the logo colors of the Zionist entity, replacing the Saudi flag colors, which carries the banner of "No God but Allah," and the news channel Melody quoted says that the Saudi Royal Canal has sold large number of shares to an Israeli company,. Rotana has denied that, but that its magazine of the same name published an extensive report on its pages talking about investing in a Zionist channel.

Rotana, which reversed the colors of the logo of blue and white as a condition of partnership as a source refused to reveal the name then be denied an Israeli partner has entered the heart of their networks, but the colors and shortly after the second year celebrations channel indicates that the news whispered by some valid and that the flag of Greater Israel now enters every home...

The infiltration of the Israeli media and satellite channels are not new, especially since the partnership held by Al-Jazeera news agency Ramatan with Israel is no longer a secret, but there are some who say that the Zionist Agency owns half the shares of Al-Jazeera, which retains the Prime Minister of Qatar share a huge addition to the good relations with Israel.

Yes, Al Jazeera is a Zionist plot, and those Jews are now buying up all Arab media in order to send their propaganda deep into all Arab homes. This is all done in secret, and the only way to really know this is going on is because they insist that their newly-acquired companies change their logos to reflect their new Zionist masters. Besides that, everything is hush-hush, only to be revealed by a privileged few who notice such subtleties.

Even funnier is that one can look at Rotana's home page and see that they came up with different colors for each division on order to differentiate them, and blue just happens to be one of the colors for one of their movie channels.

What kind of weird psychology is behind a huge group of millions of people who are extraordinarily allergic to the color blue?

HRW and Islamic Jihad: Two cases of hypocrisy

Recently, Islamic Jihad claimed to have discovered a cell of "collaborators" with Israel. They apparently tortured these alleged Israeli spies and then handed them over to Hamas.

Human Rights Watch described the events this way:

“An armed group like al-Quds Brigades has no legal right to arrest, detain, or interrogate suspects,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.

A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told Human Rights Watch that, as of May 18, all three men had been transferred to the custody of the Hamas-controlled Internal Security Force. The spokesman, Ihab al-Ghussein, said Hamas had called on Islamic Jihad to transfer the men after learning of their detention. “They were severely beaten and tortured,” he said.

Relatives of one of the abducted men, Salah Abdullah Awad, 44, a former captain in the General Intelligence Service of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, told Human Rights Watch he showed visible signs of torture when they recently visited him in prison.

“He was unable to stand normally on his feet. Someone was helping him to stand and walk,” Awad’s 24-year-old son Bakr told Human Rights Watch. “He was very tired, with clear signs of torture on his body. There were remains of burns on his feet.”

As condemnations go, this one of Islamic Jihad by HRW is fairly mild. But that didn't stop Islamic Jihad from going ballistic on the organization. Palestine Today reports that Islamic Jihad responded (autotranslated):

The report bears the words aimed to divide the ranks of the Palestinian resistance, and causing a fabricated stir to divert attention from suffering of our people and the siege and aggression (by Israel).

We recall that more than a million and a half Palestinians are subjected to genocide by the unjust embargo, which will continue for the second year and killed 171 martyrs of the sick, children and elderly, neither children nor women nor Sheikhs escaped from this holocaust and genocide, (with Israel) bombing houses in Gaza and targeting their occupants in their homes.

The Islamic Jihad movement irrefutablely explained through an official document issued by the Palestinian internal security apparatus that those involved were not subjected to torture and had been screened by professionals hour they receive between good health, and materials available in possession of documentary photographic movement that they made an explicit confession. [The photos show] they are in good condition, which deny and refute the allegations being subjected to torture.

There is a bit of irony there, as Islamic Jihad released another statement over the weekend condemning the PA for making "political arrests" against their members in Jenin. Apparently, a non-governmental terrorist organization like Islamic Jihad can abduct and detain anyone they feel like and call it an "arrest" but the actual functioning government is not allowed to arrest any members of Islamic Jihad.

There is also a more interesting form of hypocrisy here, being shown by Human Rights Watch. The organization considers Israel to be the "occupying power" in Gaza even though it withdrew from there years ago. But in this report they recognize that there is only one real government in Gaza, namely Hamas:

“As the de facto political authority in Gaza, the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya needs to show it won’t tolerate vigilante abuse," [Stork said.]

Human Rights Watch said that Hamas should either release the men now in their custody or charge them with a recognizable criminal offense and try them in accordance with international fair trial standards. While in detention, the men should be treated fairly and granted access to a lawyer. They should also be speedily brought before a judicial authority with the power to review the legality of their detention and order their release.

If Israel is still legally occupying Gaza, then it is Israel that should be arresting suspects and giving them a fair trial. The legal definition of occupation means to take over the day-to-day functioning of the territory being occupied, including the judicial system. The fact that HRW is calling Hamas the "de facto political authority in Gaza" shows that even HRW realizes that Israel is not a legal occupier of Gaza - except when that organization decides to condemn Israel for various perceived "crimes" in much harsher terms, in which case it is far more convenient to call Israel an occupier responsible for Gaza rather than a legal combatant against Gaza's "de facto" government.

Another work accident

Ma'an reports that a member of Hamas' Qassam Brigades, named Sari Abu Samra, died of wounds sustained during "training" sessions in Beit Lahiya a few days ago.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count climbs to 75.

Meanwhile, Gaza gunmen attacked a Christian school for the second time this year and stole a bus belonging to the Bible Society.

Iran again calls for Israel's destruction

AFP reports:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the world's Muslims on Sunday to work to "erase" Israel, in the latest verbal attack by Tehran against the Jewish state.
"As the Imam Khomeini said, if each Muslim throws a bucket of water on Israel, Israel will be erased," Mottaki told a conference in Tehran, recalling a saying by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked international outrage for his repeated attacks against Israel, which he has predicted is doomed to disappear and described as a "stinking corpse" and a "dead rat".
His most notorious attack was in 2005 when he repeated another saying from Khomeini calling for Israel to be "wiped from the map".
Mottaki added: "More than ever, the Zionist regime is disintegrating from within. Today, the Islamic resistance in this region has shattered the regime's legend of invincibility."
While Ahmadinejad and top military commanders reguarly predict the demise of Israel, such virulent attacks from the foreign ministry are relatively unusual.

Of course, the apologists for Iran's terrorist ambitions like Juan Cole will claim that this is a mistranslation, even if the state-run Iranian media embraces exactly that same translation for internal consumption. Besides the two examples I gave earlier this year, here's another from a billboard on a Tehran street:

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.