Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 30, 2008

Those dastardly Western X-Rays

From AFP (h/t Global Freezing):

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of an "X-ray radiation plot" during his trip to Rome for the UN food summit earlier this month, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
The news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Italy, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, as saying that the plot was to use extreme radiation in the place where Ahmadinejad was due to stay.
The diplomat spoke out after Ahmadinejad himself charged that he had been the target of an assassination plot during his landmark trip to Iraq in March and his aides spoke of a similar attempt in Rome.
"One day before Ahmadinejad's trip, I checked and found out that the (security) X-ray machine set up in the place where he was staying gave off excessive radiation," Zohrehvand said.
He said that the regular radiation level of such equipment in Italy was "300" but on this machine it had reached "800".
He gave no indication of the units he was using but radiation is normally measured in millirems with the average American experiencing a total annual exposure of an average of 360, according to medical websites.
"First we suspected the machine was broken and after replacing it with another one it turned out that the radiation was controlled from another source," the ambassador said.
"When the president entered this place, the radiation increased and exceeded '1,000' so that the intensity of the radiation was completely felt inside the building," he added.
The diplomat did not say if the place where Ahmadinejad was staying was a hotel or official residence.
Ahmadinejad said in mid-June that enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their travel plans.
Some reformist newspapers openly ridiculed his suggestion, with one daily saying that if the Americans had wanted to kidnap him they would have done it during Ahmadinejad's annual visit to the UN General Assembly in New York.

To quote the Kinks, "Paranoia, the destroyer."

Fatah accuses Hamas of "collaboration"

In the wake of yesterday's arrest by Hamas of the Fatah Gaza spokesman Abu Qusay (since released,) Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades accused Hamas of arresting him on the orders of "their Zionist masters."

Once again proving that anyone considering Fatah to be "moderate" is nuts.

Palestinian Police Phunnies XXXI

From Ma'an:

Israeli border police pursued and arrested a Palestinian man driving a stolen Israeli jeep on Sunday, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.

According to Maariv, the man was a high-ranking Palestinian police officer from the Barghouthi family, who had been wanted by Israel.

Amit Louzin, the director of a company named "Autoran," which helped the police track the car electronically, said, "A new Mitsubishi Bajero jeep was stolen from Qisariya [in Israel] two weeks ago, just a few days after the owners received it from the company. It seems that robbers used a copy of the key, and that they knew the secret start-up code. Autoran knew that the jeep was taken to Ramallah, but the Israeli military did not allow the company to enter the West Bank and try to get the car back."

Autoran continued to monitor the car and until last Thursday it was seen traveling from Ramallah towards a village near Israeli settlement of Ofra. The company alerted the border police who tracked down the jeep and arrested the driver.

It is always heartening to know that not only are the police of Israel's "peace partners" the biggest criminals, but also that their crimes are far more innovative and organized than their policing.

UPDATE: It gets better:

The jeep had PA police license plates, a communications system, a siren and blue police lights.

h/t Yerushalimey

Now, we can say that Hezbollah won the war

It has always been problematic to say that Hezbollah won the 2006 Lebanon war, notwithstanding their bragging about it. After all, Hezbollah and Lebanon suffered far more during the war than Israel did, and the UN resolution that ended it did place severe restrictions on Hezbollah, even if they knew they were going to ignore it.

Unfortunately, in one sense, Israel just handed Hezbollah its victory.

In February, 2006, months before Regev and Goldwasser were abducted, Hezbollah chief thug said at a large public rally in Lebanon, "We are working on making this year the year to free our brothers in Israeli detention. Samir Kantar and his friends, which will in turn pave way to free our Syrian and Jordanian brothers detained in Israeli prisons."

In other words, Hezbollah planned to kidnap Israeli soldiers specifically to bargain them for the disgusting child-killer Samir Kuntar months before it happened. While he later stated that he did not anticipate that Israel would go to war over the issue, this was his explicit motivation.

Now, two years later, Israel is ensuring that Nasrallah's plan worked as well as he had hoped. And from all indications, he didn't even have to keep the two brave soldiers alive in order to effect this swap.

I cannot imagine the pain that the Regev and Goldwasser families have been going through, but giving Hezbollah their stated prize - in which they give up nothing that is of any value to themselves - is doing nothing less than giving them total retroactive victory in the Lebanon war, by their own stated goals. We know by now that the UN forces in Lebanon are not enforcing their own mandate and that Hezbollah has more than recouped their losses from 2006, and now Israel is doing nothing less than conceding defeat.

The sickening piece of filth called Samir Kuntar was the only thing that stopped Hezbollah from being able to declare total victory. Now, victory is theirs.

And now we need to examine the second half of Nasrallah's remarks from 2006, that Israel's release of Kuntar will "pave the way" for more such releases. Just as the Shebaa Farms is not the end of Hezbollah's territorial claims, neither is Kuntar the end of Hezbollah's goals in gaining prisoners. Nasrallah has already shown that he can get Israel to do whatever he wants, even if not as directly as he would wish. Kadima is Nasrallah's puppet, albeit a reluctant one.

Israel's current government has just made the lives 121 soldiers and 44 civilians who were killed during the Second Lebanon War to be worthless. They died, literally, for nothing. Not only that, but Israel has just created circumstances where it is a certainty that there will be more attempted abductions and murders.

This exchange is the height of immorality, ensuring the suffering of countless future Regev and Goldwasser families. Their pain, as heartbreaking as it is, does not justify this capitulation of Israel to the demands of Nasrallah and the pigs he commands.

The most reliable PalArabs are the most bloodthirsty

Despite the mounting number of violations of the "cease fire," all indications are that Hamas is really trying to adhere to its terms. This is evidenced not only in Hamas statements made in Arabic but also in their actions.

Hamas has gone on a spree of arresting members of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, which perhaps is nothing new, but their latest arrest is noteworthy: they abducted Abu Qusay, the Fatah spokesman who on Thursday and Friday criticized Hamas for the truce.

While Hamas has acted in duplicitous ways in the past, they have always been comparatively far more honest than their Fatah counterparts. Even in the "truce" of late 2006, Hamas could argue that they had never formally accepted a truce nor had they agreed to enforce one among other groups.

Obviously Hamas continues to smuggle explosives and weapons into Gaza in opposition to the Israeli understanding of the "calming" (Hamas never publicly accepted that position, as far as I can tell.) And it is entirely possible that Hamas considers this truce minimally binding because they made these promises to fellow Muslims in Egypt and not to the Jews directly. It does, however, bring up an interesting question:

What should a state that cares about democracy and human rights do when its most credible negotiating partner has zero concern for democracy or human rights? What is the moral course to take when the conditions of the agreement involve the partner acting immorally?

For better or for worse, both ancient and modern Israel is situated in a really bad neighborhood, and it has enough of a hard time existing in relative security without adding concerns about how the neighbors act towards themselves. On the other hand, any ultimate peace - if it is remotely possible - will be based on all the actors in the region accepting basic human rights for everyone else, and any short-term solutions might endanger the longer-term ones.

I don't have a good answer.

Turkish TV star responsible for 6 Arab divorces

Firas Press reports on a Turkish TV drama that stars a handsome character named Muhannad (when dubbed into Arabic.) Apparently, he is so good looking that he is now responsible for 6 divorces in the Arab world.

The most recent case was ion Saudi Arabia, where a woman complained that her husband didn't show emotion the way her dreamy Muhannad does. This caused the husband to get upset and he divorced her on the spot.

In Jordan, a man divorced his wife after seeing that she put a picture of the Muhannad character on her cell phone.

Four cases occured in Syria, including one where a man overheard his wife jokingly say that she just wanted to spend one night with "Muhannad" and then she could die.

If my research is correct, the actor playing that part is a former "Best Model of the World" named Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ. The name of the show is Noor, which is the name of Muhannad's wife in the Arabic version (translated as "Light" in the Firas autotranslated article.)

Clan clashes!

From Ma'an:

Akram Abu al-A'atayah, 60, was killed by a relative Saturday afternoon in what appears to be a family fued.

Sources close to the family said that Abu al- A'tayah, a resident of the al- Sheja'iyah neighborhood east of the Gaza city, was stabbed with a knife by a family member and was killed instantly.

Tulkarem – Ma'an - Security sources in Tulkarem said that a local man had burned his uncle during a family clash Saturday.

The police in Tulkarem arrested the attacker following an initial investigation. According to the police, the man poured petrol over his uncle during a family clash. The Thabet Thabet Hospital reported that the man has third degree burns all over his body.

The police have opened a file for continued investigation into the incident.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 101.

Man tortured to death in Hamas prison

PalPress reports on a 57-year old man who was arrested six days ago by Hamas, and whose family was informed by Hamas today that he had unfortunately died in custody.

He was in good health before this sudden, coincidental deterioration that just happened to occur while he was under Hamas' benevolent control.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count now hits the grim milestone of 100.

UPDATE: Firas Press says the man was 72.

Friday links

YNet: 3 female paramedics save lives in Gaza

MEMRI: Liberal Syrian Journalist Abi Hassan: My Day in Haifa

PalPress (autotranslated): Attempted bombing at Islamic University in Gaza

Israel eNews: Israeli Musician Idan Raichel Stars On Al-Jazeera

The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy

A small but illuminating brouhaha erupted over the past two days.

Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for yesterday's rocket attack, but then another statement was released denying those claims and saying that the person who made them, Abu Qusay, were wrong and he was banned from the Brigades.

Then this morning the Brigades reclaimed responsibility and denied the denial.

Beyond the amusement at watching bumbling terrorists try to figure out how to best manage their PR, some of Al-Aqsa's statements are worth examining. Al Aqsa has been criticizing Hamas for the truce, saying that it should have included the West Bank (an indeed they claimed that their rocket attacks have been in retaliation for Israeli raids in the WB.) Even so, in response to an appeal by Mahmoud Abbas, Al Aqsa now say they will respect the "calm."

Fatah and Hamas can't stand each other. This does not in any way imply that one of them hates Israel any less. When it is convenient, Fatah will take an even harder line than Hamas against Israel, even though Western journalists are loathe to mention it. Similarly, any conciliatory gestures towards Israel are also based on convenience, nothing else. And when that "peaceful" Holocaust-denying Fatah leader wants to exercise authority over this "rogue" organization, he can - which means that when they do terror attacks, they have his tacit agreement.

It is a major mistake to think that one of these competing organizations is any more peaceful than the other. One could credibly argue that Hamas' current "calm," as flawed as it is, is more effective than anything Fatah ever accomplished since 2000. The fact that Fatah and Hamas compete with each other has essentially no bearing on whether one or the other is more pro-Israel - that term is completely foreign to both organizations, and both still share the goal of eradicating Israel even if their tactics differ.

Israel's "Physicians for Human Rights" make stuff up

Reuters reports:

Israel's Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) group accused Israeli doctors on Thursday of ignoring what it described as the torture of Palestinian detainees during interrogations.

The PHR said its findings were based on testimony from two Palestinians who developed trauma-related symptoms, such as weak hearing, panic attacks and incontinence during and after their detention.

Israel said those findings were "fraught with mistakes, groundless claims and inaccuracies".

Palestinian prisoners undergo medical examinations before, during and after their interrogation, but doctors in detention facilities fail to report such symptoms, making them complicit in "prisoner torture", the PHR said in a statement.

PHR Executive Director Hadas Ziv told Reuters her organization's findings were also based on reports by other Israeli human rights groups.

Last year, two groups, B'Tselem and HaMoked, said they had found Israeli security interrogators routinely mistreat and sometimes physically torture Palestinian detainees.

The PHR urged the Health Ministry in a letter to forbid doctors from participating in interrogations carried out by Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet.

I found the original PHR Israel report, strangely only as a link to a Word document on their home page.

One would be generous to say that their arguments are flimsy. Here, in brief, is their proof that physicians are complicit in torture:

1) We hear that torture exists. Not from any physicians, mind you, but from a couple of alleged victims and other "human rights" groups who also get their information from the same alleged victims.

2) We know that physicians are employed by the Israel Prison Service and that others have seen these patients in emergency rooms.

3) None of them corroborate any of these allegations of torture.

4) Therefore, the allegations must be true and the hundreds of physicians who don't say a word must be afraid of losing their jobs, or guilty of racism, or supportive of torture.

There is not an iota of proof, or even logic, behind this report. It is purely an attempt to try to add relevance to the PHR organization itself. It is an absurd conspiracy theory that lacks even the shreds of evidence that most such theories use.

Ironically, it also indicates that most Israeli physicians consider IHR a joke, as the IHR cannot even find a single left wing doctor one with first-hand knowledge to support their theory.

Reuters, of course, is only too happy to parrot their claims.

Olmert giving Hamas millions of shekels. Really.

The acronym WTF has rarely been more appropriate. From Arutz-7:

The Prime Minister's office has admitted, in a letter to the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, that it is enabling the transfer of huge amounts of shekels into Hamas-run Gaza.

Asked about this issue by Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of human rights organization Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, the PM's office replied, "The transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip takes place with the knowledge of the Israeli government, for diplomatic reasons."

Notably, the letter states that the money is transferred to the PA, when in actuality, Hamas - not the PA - runs Gaza.

The PM's Bureau letter continues, "The money transfer takes place after consultations on the matter with the relevant elements, in which are taken into consideration various possibilities and ramifications of the stoppage of the transfers. At this stage, in light of the conclusion that was reached that it was an Israeli interest that the money transfers continue, it was decided to continue to transfer certain sums to Gaza."

Law Centers Demands Stop to Money Transfers
Shurat HaDin, an organization representing hundreds of terror victims in ongoing global battles against terror funding, had sent letters to the Prime Minister, the Bank of Israel and the Israel Postal Bank, demanding an immediate cessation to the transfer of funds to Hamas.

Israel Launders Hamas Money
A Law Center representative explained that the funds are transferred in two ways: "For one thing, trucks from Arab banks in Judea and Samaria bring new banknotes and shekels issued by the Bank of Israel to the Gaza crossings, where the money is exchanged for dollars and euros smuggled into Hamas under the Philadelphi Corridor from Iran and elsewhere. This means that Israel is essentially laundering Hamas's smuggled money."

Replacing Old With New
"In addition, the Bank of Israel sends Brinks trucks to the Gaza crossings to replace old, unusable shekel banknotes. It replaces the old ones with shiny new ones - and last November, just days after such an exchange took place, the whole world saw pictures of Hamas terrorists holding their Kalachnikov rifles kissing Israeli banknotes with pictures of Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi and Shmuel Yosef Agnon that they had just received as their salaries; they had not been paid in months, and the Hamas government appeared to be on the verge of collapse, when Israel stepped in with this delivery."

"Without these criminal acts," the Law Center writes, "Hamas' financial hold on the Strip would collapse, and thus these measures are directly responsible for shoring up the Hamas control over Gaza and its continued terrorist activity launched from the region."

Shurat HaDin director Darshan-Leitner had sharp words for the government of Israel, saying it "cannot fight against the Hamas terrorist organization with one hand, and continue to secretly finance it with the other. Hypocritically, the Prime Minister demands that governments around the world isolate and and embargo the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and stop transferring funds to them, while at the same time he authorizes the transfer of Israeli currency into the hands of the enemy. "

"There can be no doubt," Darshan-Leitner said, "that the Israeli government's policy of transferring shekels is assisting the Hamas terrorists with their missile attacks on the Negev communities. If the Prime Minister does not immediately halt the currency transfers to Gaza, Shurat HaDin will take all legal means available against the government to bring this terror financing to a close."

I knew that the PA was giving the lion's share of its money to Gaza but I didn't realize that Israel was the source as well as the conduit.

Throughout the siege, Hamas managed to hang on to power, and now we understand why - there was no siege. It has been known for months that Hamas has taken over the PA institutions in Gaza and that any money that goes to PA/Fatah elements there really go to Hamas.

As a result, Hamas' prestige and power increased during Israel's closing the Gaza border, rather than the stated opposite goal by this same Israeli government.

And this Kadima government is staying in power. Unbelievable.

See also Israel Insider and Seraphic Secret. As of yet, nothing in the mainstream Israeli news media.

Hamas: Teaching children how to kill Jews (video)

From the Al Qassam Brigades website of Hamas, a smiling child learning hate and murder from his now-dead father.

Hamas publishes Shalit letter

The Hamas website published a letter written by Gilad Shalit to his parents. I do not think this is the same letter as the one delivered earlier this month - that one was undated and this one says "June '08."

The Hamas Al Qassam website is using this letter as supposed proof of its humanity, although Shalit does say that he is suffering both physically and psychologically. Of course, the Red Cross has not been allowed to see Shalit.

In the letter, he also calls for negotiations for his release.

Translation by Annie:

Dear Mum and Dad, my dear family, I send to you my many homesick feelings. Two long hard years have passed for me since I left you and have been forced to live in prison conditions.

I continue to suffer from health and emotional difficulties and depressions that exist in this kind of life.

Like in my previous letters, I very much hope that your health and emotional situation has not been harmed since you began to live without me.

I still continue to think and dream of the day when I will be released and meet you again, and I still have the hope that this day is close, although I know it is not dependent on me or on you.

I turn to the government that it should not neglect the negotiations for my release, and it should aim its efforts only at releasing the soldiers in Lebanon.

Missing you,
Gilad
June 2008

A murder I missed

The PHRMG has a poorly organized and belated count of various deaths in the PA territories, and I just saw this one where a man in Nablus was beaten to death on February 22 that I had not counted before.

So the 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 99.

Also, a hat tip to Eric from The Israel Situation who has placed my self-death count pseudo-widget on his blog.