Thursday, June 05, 2008
- Thursday, June 05, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
One person was killed Thursday morning when a mortar shell fired from northern Gaza landed in Kibbutz Nir Oz, located within Eshkol Regional Council limits in the Negev. Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for the fire.As I've noted previously, far more mortars are shot at Israel than Qassams.
Two other people were seriously wounded in the attack, two more suffered shrapnel wounds and mild injuries and several others suffered shock.
All were taken to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba by Magen David Adom emergency services. No details were available on their condition.
The rocket hit a Nirlat Groups facility, located in Nir Oz. the council's security director and security forces swept the area, but no further injuries were reported.
This is the second fatal mortar attack in a month, and the third fatal attack from Gaza in that time period.
Keep in mind that the proposed anti-missile systems Israel is working on do not protect against mortars. And that the latest mortars from Iran are deadlier and have their own propulsion, similar to rockets.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
- Wednesday, June 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- saudi vice
A number of weeks ago a Saudi man went to a barber shop and heard something that made his skin crawl.
At least, he claims that he did. It is possible that he was in a bad mood, or that he got into an argument with the barber, or that he just didn't like his haircut.
At any rate, he knew that he had legal recourse. He immediately contacted our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and told them that his Turkish barber had blasphemed Mohammed (PBUH.)
The Muttawa sprang into action. They immediately went to the barber shop and arrested the suspect, named Ersin Taze.
By an amazing coincidence, some 15 months ago another Turkish barber, Sabri Bogday, was arrested in Saudi Arabia by our same heroes for exactly the same offense.
In this case, the Turkish Embassy intervened and asked the Saudi justice system to expedite the trial, and the case against Mr. Taze was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Mr. Bogday, on the other hand, remains in jail, convicted and sentenced to death, as his appeals have not all been filed yet. Bogday got into an argument with his neighbor, an Egyptian tailor, and he was arrested after the tailor told the police that he had sworn at God. While Bogday has been in prison for over a year, the Egyptian who made the allegation has disappeared.
Mr. Taze is using his newfound freedom to get out of Saudi Arabia.
Our heroes at the Muttawa have therefore managed to get one blasphemous creature off the streets and another one out of the Kingdom.
A job well done, boys!
- Wednesday, June 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
JEDDAH, 4 June 2008 — A man walked in with a machine gun and opened fire on a group of people holding talks to reconcile an ongoing land dispute in Al-Sail near Taif, killing six and injuring seven others on Tuesday, police said yesterday.If this is how intra-Arab peace talks go, imagine how they would treat non-Arabs.The incident took place during reconciliation talks between two tribes involved in the dispute. The man was arrested shortly after the killing spree. Capt. Turki Al-Shahri, spokesman of the Taif police, yesterday declined to provide more details, citing sensitivities related to the dispute.
According to an eyewitness, the man killed three brothers and another man on the spot, while two others succumbed to gunshot wounds at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Taif later.
Reconciliation talks are common in Saudi Arabia. They are often conducted — with the help of a government committee or nongovernmental mediators — in situations related to negotiating blood money and settling inter-tribal feuds.
- Wednesday, June 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
The Adresseavisen, published in Trondheim, on Tuesday ran a cartoon of a man with a bomb-belt around his waist and a T-shirt emblazoned with the text "I am Mohammed and no one dares to publish me."Well, you can judge for yourself. Here's the original cartoon from The Adresseavisen (autotranslated page):
Managing editor Arne Blix said the cartoon did not depict the prophet "but was a comment on events in Islamabad," referring to the bombing Monday of the Danish embassy in Pakistan that claimed six lives, including two Pakistani nationals employed by the embassy.
Some Muslim representatives in Norway said they expected protests over the drawing while Blix said the publication was "important for the innocent victims impacted by terrorism and for freedom of speech."
The bomb belt might not be as offensive to Muslims as the minute anatomical details.
At least one Arabic newspaper chooses to interpret this as an insulting caricature of Mohammed.
- Wednesday, June 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
It will be recalled that Hams is an unapologetically biased journalist.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
- Wednesday, June 04, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
That section of Gaza has seen a number of Qassam rockets hitting buildings and causing damage, injuries and sometimes deaths. I only see reports of Qassams that cause damage in Gaza; it is unclear what percentage of those fired land in Gaza without any damage.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
- Tuesday, June 03, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
Firas Press reports a woman in Jordan found out that her husband was planning to marry another woman and she poisoned his milk, killing him.
She is sentenced to death by hanging.
Apparently, "honor" is not a mitigating factor for women who kill. Perhaps they are considered as if they have little honor to begin with.
- Tuesday, June 03, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- antisemitism
His major work is the (Arabic-only) "Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism," which was published in 1999.
I found a four-part article by this professor in Al-Ahram where he summarizes his theses of the encyclopedia, and it is pretty much what one would expect - a ridiculous analysis based more on his own biases and perceptions than on any reality, all dressed up is pseudo-scholarly garb.
To summarize his thinking, he defines the concept of a "functional group":
Functional groups, defined as a group of people, usually a numerical minority, either imported from outside the society or recruited from within its ranks, and generally defined in terms of a definite, limited, abstract function (profession, etc.), rather than their complex, concrete, and full humanity. They are entrusted with certain jobs or functions which members of the host society (the majority) either cannot or will not perform for a variety of reasons. Among the characteristics of these groups, besides those mentioned in the first part of this series, are: Separateness from time (history) and place (homeland) and the illusory feeling of a separate identity.
The following are examples of functional groups:
1. Hebrew and Macedonian mercenaries in the Hellenic states.
2. Armenian merchants in the Ottoman empire.
3. Gypsies in Europe.
4. Eunuchs in the Chinese and Ottoman courts.
5. Chinese in Southeast Asia.
6. Arab traders (especially Lebanese) in Africa.
7. Huguenots in England and Canada.
8. Mamelukes in the Islamic Middle East (especially Egypt).
9. Cossacks in Tsarist Russia.
10. Janissaries in the Ottoman empire.
11. Ethiopian prostitutes in Africa.
12. Jews in Europe, especially Eastern Europe.
Jewish communities, especially in Europe, are a prime example of the functional group. The Hebrew Kingdom of David and Solomon, and the United Kingdom of Judah and Ephraim, were not characterised by high technological standards. Therefore, they failed to offer job opportunities to the population. This forced large numbers of people to emigrate, forming functional groups in new host societies. Due to their weakness, and consequently their failure to afford protection to their population, the Hebrew Kingdom and the United were the source of thousands of captives who worked as mercenaries or merchants. The idea of Zion, a country of origin, was deeply entrenched in the Hebrew imagination, which loosened the ties binding Hebrews (and later Jews) to the countries they lived in. The Mediterranean and the ancient Middle East were dominated by a number of powerful empires which recruited members of the Jewish communities as mercenaries, settlers, and spies. But the decisive reason that contributed to the transformation of the Jewish communities into functional groups is the very nature of Western feudal society. Commercial and financial activities were not subsumed under the two main normal activities of this society, agriculture (the peasantry) and warfare (the knights). Therefore, they had to be assigned to a group of people imported from outside the society.This is all very interesting in an abstract sense, and one gets the clear impression that the author used his perception of Jews as the paradigm for this concept and then shoe-horned in his other examples so as to make it appear universal.
What complicated matters was the nature of land ownership in Western feudal societies. There were laws prohibiting members of the Jewish communities (as well as monasteries and churches) from owning land. Due to this, members of the Jewish communities were concentrated in the commercial and financial sectors, and their status as middlemen was firmly established. By the 13th century, they were largely landless, which made their transformation into functional groups almost inevitable.
What he pointedly fails to address is the idea that Jews' historic separation from their host countries during the diaspora is more a function of the oppression imposed from without rather than a role that the Jews embraced from within. To Elmessiri, this persecution is a minor point, while in reality Jews have been more than willing to assimilate into their adopted homes when given the chance. He implies that ancient Israel and Judah disappeared because of Jewish voluntary emigration in order to fulfill this strange will to be a "functional group" rather than because of attacks from without.
In other words, Elmessiri is trying very hard to turn Jews into the architects of their own misery, which might not be classically anti-semitic but is clearly a biased and warped perspective.
Elmessiri's descent into pure fantasy can be seen by his definition of Zionism:
In attempting to define Zionism, I did not follow the normal course, namely choosing one or two definitions. Instead, I developed what I term the "basic comprehensive Zionist formula". This formula, in my view, includes all the elements of Zionism that form the basis of Zionist consensus, regardless of the strain of apologetics (socialist, religious, liberal, fascist, etc.) used to justify it. This formula could be summarised in the following elements:Why exactly are the two mutually exclusive? Obviously, Zionism is the most Western of all Middle Eastern nationalisms.1. The Jews form an organic people (a Volk) that is organically attached to Palestine, and therefore does not belong to Western civilisation.
Not a "persecuted" people, but a "parasitic" people.
2. They are also a functional group without a function, a pariah Volk, a parasitic people in Zionist or anti-Semitic parlance.
Even though he admits Jews' historic connection to the Land of Israel, here he denies it as irrelevant, in order to fit his pre-conceived notions of "Jew as colonialist." Considering Zionist Jews as revenants would destroy his theory.3. To transform this parasitic people into a useful one, it should be transferred to any area outside Europe (Palestine eventually became the targeted area, on account of its strategic importance to the West).
Again, he considers this concept as being "Zionist consensus," not bothering to notice the million Arabs who live in Israel as citizens under this Zionist rule.4. The pariah Volk would then be settled there, replacing the indigenous population (that should be either exterminated or expelled, as is always the case with similar settler colonial projects).
The idea that Jews wanted to move to Israel in order to serve Western interests, as opposed to their own, is the height of Arab fantasy.But it is dressed up in lots of big words, and it also fits a comfortable Arab formula of how to look at Jews and still appear intellectual and nonbiased, so this encyclopedia of drivel is worthy of awards and praise.5. In its new habitat, the pariah Volk would reconstitute itself as a state that would serve as a base for Western powers and a fortress defending Western interests in the region. In exchange, Western powers would support the new state and guarantee its survival and continuity, as long as it discharged its function, namely serving Western interests. In this way, the Jewish Volk would achieve through the Western imperialist formation what it failed to achieve through the Western cultural formation.
- Tuesday, June 03, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- zionist attack zoo
But now the pigs are getting smarter:
Herds of wild pigs dumped in the outskirts of the West Bank city of Salfit by residents of the nearby Ariel Israeli settlement, are preventing civilians from leaving their homes in the evening, for fear of being attacked.Not only do the pigs know to attack only Arabs, but they know when the exact prayer times are!
Eyewitnesses from the Al-Freiz neighborhood near the settlement said that in the evening after the sunset prayer the pigs attack gardens.
- Tuesday, June 03, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- self-death
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.Egypt has recently found more large caches of weapons and explosives meant to be smuggled to Gaza in those same tunnels:
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.
Meanwhile, terror groups continue to shell the crossings that provide them with food and fuel, with no condemnation from within or without Gaza:"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.
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.
Monday, June 02, 2008
- Monday, June 02, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
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.Right after this incident the lawmakers voted to force the women to abide by male rules: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.
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.
- Monday, June 02, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
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 ..!?"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:
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!?"...
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.)
- Monday, June 02, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
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.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.
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.
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?
- Monday, June 02, 2008
- Elder of Ziyon
- HRW
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.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):
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.”
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).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.
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 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.]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.
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.