Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, August 10, 2008

The mysterious Iranian sports illness

It is really intriguing that there are so many sheer coincidences that stop Iranian athletes from competing with Israelis.

In 2004, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeli strangely missed his weight and thus didn't get to compete against an Israeli.

The International Judo Federation investigated and concluded that he didn’t miss his weight to avoid the bout.

Even so, in the spirit of fair play, Iranian president Ahmadinejad rewarded Miresmaeili with the same $125,000 that Iranian gold medal winners received.

And in this Olympics, Iranian swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei mysteriously developed "stomach cramps" a half hour before his meet, where, coincidentally, an Israeli was going to compete. From IRNA:

Iranian swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei has pulled out of the Olympic men's 100m breaststroke heats due to severe pain in his stomach, an official with the Iranian team said on Saturday.
The head of Iran's Swimming Federation, Vahid Moradi, told IRNA that Alirezaei failed to attend the competition as he felt a severe pain in his stomach and nauseous 30 minutes before the contest.
The physicians accompanying Iranian swimming team have diagnosed Alirezaei with appendicitis or herina rupture and said he should immediately be taken to hospital, Moradi said.
He added that Alirezaei's coach has informed the Olympic Games Committee of his sickness prior to transferring him to hospital.

The IOC says it will investigate, but as long as there is no proof that he didn't get sick, there will be no sanctions.

And Alirezaei stands to profit mightily from his "illness".

Some Muslims believe that astronauts heard call to prayer on the moon

I just read a fatwa in Arab News where the response included an answer to a question that was not published:

As for your other questions, I may say that there is no truth whatsoever in the story of an American astronaut having heard the call to prayer as he landed on the moon. He denied it himself. It simply does not fit. There are no humans living on the moon. There may be other creatures, having a totally different form of life, but then they would not be using human language in calling to prayers.

Which prompts the question: do some Muslims believe that astronauts heard the Muslim call to prayer on the moon?

Sure enough, there has been such a belief among some Muslims for decades. Muslim newspapers published these rumors as fact in 1983 (you can see some of the titles in this footnote to a biography of Neil Armstrong) and it is still being spread.

Here is how the current version of the rumor looks:

Armstrong and his two fellow astronauts, Aldrin and Collins, saw an object on the Moon’s horizon, which looked like an open book, and then they heard some mysterious “music.” They reported this back to Earth. At first, no one on Earth believed them: how could there be a book on the Moon and music in airless space? But the “music” was also heard on Earth over the radio transmission, and the “book” was photographed.
It is believed that the book the astronauts saw on the Moon is the prototype of the earthly Koran that exists in the heavens.
But all this information was classified.
In February 1983, fourteen years after his flight to the Moon, Astronaut Neil Armstrong went to Egypt to participate in a scientific conference. During the meeting, the azan sounded. Armstrong, sitting in the presidium, went pale and asked: “What is that music?” Surprised by the astronaut’s behavior, the conference participants explained that it was the Muslim call to prayer. “That voice. That’s what I heard when I first stepped on the Moon, hearing it is giving me goose bumps!… O Allah! I found You not on Earth, but on the Moon!… I stepped onto the Moon without praying, but now I will pray, you can consider me a Muslim.” So the first person to walk on the Moon, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, became a Muslim.
Later a NASA employee, who recorded all the conversations between the spaceship and Earth during the astronauts’ time on the Moon, declassified this information by allowing the public to listen to the tape.

The same website goes into full details:

Astronaut Aldrin: “We can see some object that looks like an open book. Right above the Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis).”
Astronaut Armstrong: “It looks like two rings, or to be more exact, like an open book.”
Astronaut Collins: “I changed the position of the sextant, now we can clearly see that it is shaped like a book.”
Observation from Earth: “What are you talking about, how can there be a book on the Moon?”
The voices were recorded on tape. The next day the book disappeared, however some external interference constantly jammed the radio transmission, a sound kept breaking in similar to the siren of a fire engine.
Collins: “Earth, can you hear me, get rid of the interference, that siren, or I’ll go deaf…”
Earth: “That sound is not coming from Earth, it’s coming from without, are you sure there isn’t another ship there besides yours?”
Armstrong: “And now some music has started, Earth, are you going to get rid of the music or not?”
Earth: “Everything here is in working order. The music is coming from you.”
Aldrin: “What nonsense! Can we agree or not? That music is coming from you!”

* * *

The next day, Armstrong went onto the Moon again. “The Eagle has landed!” he said with emotion. A person was walking on the Moon for the first time. Suddenly the sound like a siren was heard again. But this time (this is all recorded on tape), the following words were heard: “RABBI-EL ARDZ-DINI ENDAHU-IZA-KUN-ALIM.”
Earth: “Hey, who’s talking?”
Armstrong was walking on the Moon at this time. Again the sound of music was heard: “Ashgadu ala illaga illallag.” (I testify – there is no God but Allah.)
Earth: “UFOs again? What were the words in that music?”
Collins: “Ashan mahatma rasamballa…,” something like that. Sounds like Indian…”
Armstrong: “I heard it (the Arabian prayer presented above. – Ed.) to the end. It somehow makes you feel good. I think it’s from African radio stations…”
Aldrin: “I changed the frequency, the same sound again. It’s coming from the Moon. It’s not a radio wave. It’s something hard to believe.”
Earth: “What, have you all gone crazy up there? How can there be sound in airless space?” Collins: “So what is it then? UFOs?”
Armstrong: “Can UFOs be shaped like books?”
Earth: “A strange indisposition. Or some space wave? It’s obvious that the voices, sounds, are all figments of your imagination?”
Armstrong: “You can’t take pictures of figments! You can’t record an imaginary voice on tape!”
Earth: “Alright, but how can sound spread in airless space?”
Sometime later, the astronauts returned to Earth. The cassettes were listened to again. In the meantime, consultations were held with Al-Baz, NASA’s executive secretary. He gave an explanation of the “music” heard on the Moon, declaring it to be a holy saying in Arabic.
Much time passed, and Warden, an Apollo 16 astronaut, heard the same “saying.”
What is more, while photographing the Earth in infrared rays, he picked up something akin to the aura of our planet, which looks like the Arabic inscription of the Creator’s name – Allah.
This photograph, which was published in “National Geographic,” has traveled around the whole world.

Details about this hoax can be seen at Answering Islam. Neil Armstrong has had to deny these rumors multiple times, and even the State Department got into the act (click to enlarge):

Death Dung re-Dux

Since I shamelessly stole Aussie Dave's "Zionist Death weapon" phrase, I point you to his followup post on the real weapon that Israel was testing out that convinced the protesters that they were being sprayed with feces last Friday.

Guess what country is the "Holy Land" to NBC?

The NBC Olympics site has brief country descriptions. Some are briefer than others.

Here is the description of Israel:

Located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and is bordered to the west by Egypt, to the east by Syria and Jordan, and to the north by Lebanon. Proclaimed its independence in 1948 as the state of Israel.

But check out the more expansive description of "Palestine":

Often called the "Holy Land." A historic region of southwest Asia between the eastern Mediterranean shore and the Jordan River, comprising parts of modern Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Israel has handed most of the Gaza Strip and seven West Bank population centers to Palestinian rule under a process set in motion by the historic Israel-PLO peace deal in 1993.
In the late 1990s, the PLO and Israel agreed to expand The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Yasser Arafat, was founded in 1964 and is recognized by the United Nations as the government of the Palestinians. After a three-year hiatus, negotiations to determine the future of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank began in September 1999 but were cut off in September 2000 after violence broke out in both regions.
In April 2003, United Nations, European Union, United States and Russian officials announced the "Road Map to Peace," which outlined the steps that Israel and Palestinian authorities would have to take to achieve peace - including the creation of an independent Palestinian state - by 2005. The path was stymied along the way, as Palestinian authorities were unable to stop anti-Israeli terrorism and Israel's military struck back against Palestinians with force. But in 2005, all Israeli settlers were evacuated from the Gaza Strip and control was transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

So "Palestine" is the "Holy Land" while Israel is just some country that started in 1948 and has no history at all. And I I didn't know that "Palestine" claims some land in modern Jordan and Egypt; I wonder which parts?

(Other Arab countries have more expansive descriptions, but curiously all the descriptions of the Gulf nations seem to revolve around the US and Iraq.)

The Holocaust wasn't a secret in 1942

It isn't that the West didn't know about the Holocaust; it is that it chose to ignore it.

Here is an article in the Palestine Post from November 26, 1942 that was quite detailed as to what was happening to Jews in Poland, before the bulk of Jews were murdered:
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In December 1942, many more details were published and widely disseminated. The genocide of the Jews was very well known by the end of 1942 in England, the United States and worldwide. (The following three articles were all from the Palestine Post, December 20, 1942):

London newspapers all published the information as well as ideas on how to help the remaining Jews:

Jewish agencies pleaded for help and prominent politicians were informed about the details of the Holocaust, many of whom professed their support:
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And yet at this point there were still over 3 million more Jewish men, women and children who were fated to be butchered over the next two years, while the Allies did almost nothing to save them.

Weeping over the ruins of Jerusalem

Today is Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem.

In the 19th century a large number of Christian pilgrims voyaged to the Holy Land, and a good number of them recounted their experiences in books and lectures back in their native lands. Here are three descriptions of how the Jews would, year-round, weep over the destruction of the two Temples from within the ruins of Jerusalem.

From "The Quiver", 1862:

THE Jews' Wailing Place," says Dr. Stewart, "is a narrow court or passage adjoining the western wall at the Haramwhich has been lately paved by a Jew tor the benefit of his brethren, and is one of the most interesting places in the city. No one can look at the immense blocks of stone in that wall without being convinced that he has before him, in its original state, a portion of the Temple enclosure.

It is from thirty to forty feet in height, built with large stones, some of which are nearly twenty feet in length. The Jews have purchased from the Government the privilege of resorting to this place ; and on every Friday many of both sexes are to be seen sitting in the court, reading the Scripture and their prayer- books, and weeping over the ruin of their temple and nation

Some of them rock their bodies about, rattling over their prayers at the same time with a tremendous rapidity. Others go up to the wall, and putting their mouths to the openings between the stones, pray in that attitude, because tiiey imagine that their prayers are more sure to reach Jehovah's ear when breathed through the foundation walls of what was once his holy and beautiful house. It is a most touching sight to see these mourners weeping over the fallen Jerusalem.

The account which Dr. Robinson gives of this spot is as follows : — " I went with Mr. Lanneau to the place where the Jews are permitted to purchase the right of approaching the site of their Temple, and of paying and wailing over its ruins and the downfall of their nation. ...Two old men, Jews, sat there upon the ground, reading together in a book of Hebrew prayers. On Fridays they assemble here in greater numbers. It is the nearest point in which they can venture to approach their ancient Temple... Here, bowed in the dust, they may at least weep undisturbed over the fallen glory of their race, and bedew with their tears the soil which so many thousands of their forefathers once moistened with their blood. This touching custom of the Jew is not of modern origin. Benjamin of Tudela mentions it, as apparently connected with the same spot, in the twelfth century ; and very probably the custom has come down from still earlier ages.

The Jew who was our guide, on approaching the many stones, took off his shoes, and kissed the wall." Speaking of the large stones, they tell us " some of them are worn smooth with the tears and kisses of the men of Israel."

The Land and the Book, William McClure Thomson, 1870:

No sight meets the eye in Jerusalem more sadly suggestive than this wailing place of the Jews over the ruins of their Temple. It is a very old custom, and in past ages they have paid immense sums to their oppressors for the miserable satisfaction of kissing the stones and pouring out lamentations at the foot of their ancient sanctuary. With trembling lips and tearful eyes they sing, " Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever : behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste."

My Trip to the Orient, John Collinsworth Simmons, 1902:

I went down to what is known as the "Wailing-place of the Jews." Here were scores of Jews, from lads of a few summers to old men who had grown gray and stooped in waiting. Stretching for a hundred yards or more was a part of the old wall of their city. These stones were there in the days when their Temple stood on Mount Moriah, when their altars smoked with their sacrifices, and they were the people of God, known and recognized among all men. And now they were strangers in their own city, and here they, and their fathers for generations, have assembled every day, and, with their faces to these unsympathizing stones, are wailing out their sorrows, and waiting for the coming of their Messiah. I saw nothing in Jerusalem that touched me so deeply as the scene at this wall. I heard their murmur all along the line as they stood with their backs to the light, and their faces to the hard, senseless stones....

It is said that these Jews at their wailing-place use the Lamentations of Jeremiah as their texts. Among those there the day I saw them, my guide told me were some of the richest Jews in Jerusalem. 1 could not but mark the earnestness and the seriousness that characterized old and young. When I knew of the oppression to which they are subjected in this the land of their fathers, I could not wonder so much that they never wearied in crying for help. And one generation is taught by another that here they are to find relief.

Zionist Death Dung

The ridiculous IMEMC "reports:"

The Israeli army dispersed the weekly nonviolent protest located in Bil'in village north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday midday with gas, guns and grenades.local sources reported.

A number of civilians reported suffering from gas inhalation and for the first time Israeli troops threw smelly manure at the protestors.

I couldn't find any wire service photos from today's Bil'in protest, but yesterday's Naalin protest which the IMEMC also described as "non-violent" was captured by this AP photographer, showing a non-violent protester punching an aggressively violent IDF soldier in the face. (Also a picture of some non-violent rock hurling with slingshots.)

Ah, but that's not the half of it. The Arabic media is reporting that the nefarious IDF did much, much worse things in Bil'in, calling this "field testing" new weapons (autotranslated):

The march started from the village centre and headed towards the wall, where participants tried to cross into their confiscated land , but the occupying soldiers fought them with fire hoses (using) contaminated wastewater cow dung and chicken (dung) with some chemicals, thus leading to the injury of dozens of cases Altakiu , Where demonstrators surprised color green and fragrant water stinking, and that became his clothes for several hours.

Just imagine the infrastructure necessary to weaponize cow dung and wastewater. You gave to fill out the necessary paperwork, requisitioning the manure for the purposes of stopping non violent protests; you have to establish a relationship with the manure bendor, you have to test the manure to make sure that it has the correct consistency for flinging at the optimum distances (you don't want blowback!) which means having farms dedicated to creating consistent diets for cows and chickens in order to ensure quality dung; you need a good mechanism for dung delivery which means that weapons need to be created for each type and size of manure bullets or cannons (as the case might be), you have to have a way of loading the weapons without getting dirty or smelly, meaning special gloves and clothing....and that's just the dung. For the wastewater you need to transport it in special trucks just for the purpose of putting down protesters....

Wow, my respect for the IDF's logistics personnel just went up a hundredfold!

The three star general of wishful thinking

Ha'aretz has a wide-ranging interview with General Keith Dayton, who is tasked with building up the PA security forces so that they can effectively defend against terror groups as well as give the IDF enough confidence to be able to leave security tasks to them.

The challenge facing him is very complicated. He must convince the Palestinians that if they manage to organize their security forces, they will be bringing statehood closer. He must show the Israelis that if they loosen their restrictions a bit, the Palestinians will prove they are a responsible neighbor, and that it is worth the Israelis' while to support the Palestinians and not focus only on Iran and the Hezbollah. He must also explain to the Congress in Washington that American taxpayers' money is not being wasted on another futile attempt at reform in the Arab world.

"We're trying to build their capacity to govern themselves, in such a way that their territory does not become a launchpad for attacks against Israel."

The question troubling Israelis is whether that force will ever be able to take responsibility, to allow us to live without fearing rockets and without the Israel Defense Forces having to maintain a presence among the Palestinians all the time.

Dayton: "I'll give you a one-word answer, which is yes, but it is going to take time. I work with your defense forces. I understand very clearly the challenges they face. But I take great inspiration from something I heard, and I've heard more than once, from [IDF chief of staff] Gabi Ashkenazi. He says: As they do more, we will do less. My goal is to give them the capability to do more, so that the IDF will do less. And I have to assume logically that, eventually, the IDF will feel comfortable that it can leave altogether. I think they can do it."

Dayton is not stupid. He is doing everything he can and in many ways he is making sure that mistakes from the past aren't repeated.

But this initiative, like all others, is doomed.

Even if we accept the premise that the PA truly wants peace - a dubious assumption at best, given their continued incitement in their media and canonization of terrorists - the fact is that the days of Fatah having a true leadership role are numbered, if not already expired.

The current PA leaders have no charisma and no message. While corruption has decreased since the heyday of Arafat, so has the PA's ability to lead the people. The simplistic Islamist and terrorist message of "destroy Israel" resonates much more deeply with the average PalArab then "say we'll destroy Israel and continue to demonize it while we work together with it to help its security and meanwhile fight against the extremists who are our fellow Muslims and Arabs whom we profess solidarity with." The PA tries to appeal to the base - which consistently supports terror attacks against Israel.

A real leader, by definition, leads. He would use his leadership abilities to convince the people to agree with him. In the Arab world, it is much easier to sway public opinion: in the late 1970s Anwar Sadat managed to convince an entire nation who were weaned on unremitting hatred towards Israel to support Camp David - and then a short time after Egypt reclaimed the Sinai, the entire nation swung almost entirely back to hatred.

The PA does not only need a real leader, but an exceptionally skilled leader who can convincingly say to his people that if they are ever going to have a chance for a state it will involve real compromise and no more sloganeering for "right of return" and "100% of the territories" which are never, ever going to happen. The choice is clear - a real state or a continuation of 60 years of limbo. The Arab world is already getting sick of the Palestinian issue in part because the PA leadership keeps on being wishy-washy.

The people who depend on the PA payroll - really welfare - go with the flow but have no enthusiasm. (The welfare component also hits at Arab pride, a factor that cannot be discounted.) Gaza showed this problem starkly; Fatah simply didn't put up a fight, even with all its support from world leaders. It doesn't matter; no matter how well trained a security force is, and no matter how good its weapons are, its members need to believe that what they are doing is right.

That belief in the cause simply does not exist among the PA security forces that General Dayton is trying so hard to shore up. He can teach them discipline and he can teach them tactics, but he cannot teach them to believe in their cause enough to die for it. This is the fundamental difference between the Islamist terror groups and today's Fatah, and that hasn't changed since Hamas' Gaza coup. Even the polls that seem to show more support for Fatah in the West Bank don't say the whole story, because the passion is overwhelmingly on the side of the Muslim extremists, and passion is what wins in the end.

Today's peaceful PalArab news

An Islamic Jihad leader says that there are a large number of "human bombs" waiting for the "calm" to end so they can be sent into Israel for what Arabs refer to as "quality attacks." In this case, "quality" means "lots of women and children murdered."

The Arab media is upset over a story that a delegation of Arab students, as part of a young leadership program sponsored by the US government, went to the Israel embassy for a briefing - and then had the gall to take souvenirs and pose for photos with the Israeli speaker, saying that he is the first Israeli they have ever met.

Palestinian Arabs are starting a new lobbying and PR organization in the US today that is meant to battle the Israel lobby. Does this mean that they will try to influence American policy towards a foreign entity? I thought that was immoral!

A Sharia question was asked about whether it is permissible to drink soda daily. The fatwa in response was complex, but the gist seems to be that while carbonated drinks are not forbidden per se, one has to be mindful not to support Zionist soda companies. The question gets a little muddled, though, because the fatwa author realizes that one cannot boycott every Western company or else the Arab world would go back to living in tents in the desert (my phrase, not his!), so one needs to be wise as to when to avoid American and Zionist products and when to embrace them until the Arab world is strong enough to reject them and dictate its own terms to the West.

UPDATE (8/9): Clan clash in Hebron, one dead. The 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 142.

UPDATE(8/10): Another member of the Helles family succumbed to his injuries from Hamas' attack last week. 143.

Six dead in Gaza tunnel collapse. I'm including it in the death count unless there is any reason to think that Egypt caused the collapse. 149.

Tegart's Wall

As my four year blogoversary is coming up, I'm hoping to find interesting old postings of mine from when my readership was much smaller.

One such posting was from going through old Palestine Post archives, about how the British tried to stop terror attacks in 1938 - by building a fence:

Nowadays, of course, building a fence is considered a terrible crime by many of the descendants of these British. Funny how one's perspective gets changed when one is the target of the terror.

Notice the last line in the first column: in 1925 and 1926, there was a problem of Arab troublemakers moving from Syria into Palestine and Jordan. These people's progeny, today, are called "Palestinian."

Similarly, a Time magazine article at the time stated:

Britain's most ingenious solution for handling terrorism in Palestine was revealed in Geneva last week to the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission by His Majesty's Government's Deputy Permanent Under-Secretary for Colonies, Sir John Shuckburgh. Following a suggestion of mail-fisted Sir Charles Tegart, now adviser to the Palestine Government on the suppression of terrorism, a barbed wire barrier to keep out terrorists is being strung along the entire Palestine frontier at a cost of $450,000. This includes a nine-foot barbed wire fence between Palestine and French-mandated Lebanon and Syria, which border Palestine on the north and northeast. A lot of Palestine's tougher Arabs come from those two mandates. The fence will be completed in August, announced Sir John. Almost as he spoke, a band of Arab terrorists swooped down on a section of the fence, dubbed Tegart's Wall, ripped it up and carted it across the frontier into Lebanon.

Again, the grandchildren of these Syrians and Lebanese Arabs who came to Palestine in 1938 to join the "great revolt" are now known as..."Palestinians."

The Jericho plot

From JTA:

A music CD with a provocative title triggered Israeli suspicions that nuclear secrets were being leaked.
Yasmin Sabah, a 22-year-old Israeli nurse, became the target of an undercover security probe last month after a passer-by saw a music CD in her car with the handwritten title "Jericho IV -- Nuclear Upgrade."

Israel is widely believed to have developed ballistic missiles known as Jerichos, though it is a state secret.

According to Sabah, who came forward with her account this week, two secret service agents posing as car buyers voiced interest in her vehicle and, having arranged a rendezvous, listened to every song on the CD before confiscating it.

Sabah said she was given the CD by a friend and she did not know the origins of the title. Israel's Defense Ministry confirmed that Sabah had been investigated.

"Honor killings" are different when a dhimmi is involved

Usually, a woman who is found to have an "improper" relationship is the one who gets killed in "honor killings."

But what if the person she is having the relationship with happens to not be a Muslim?

Things turn out slightly differently:

Local Pakistani police declared the death of a young Christian man in May to be a suicide requiring no investigation, but a high inspector has reopened the case and taken two Muslim suspects into custody.

Adeel Masih, 19, was found dead on May 4 in Hafizabad, Pakistan. His family and human rights lawyers believe the relatives of a 19-year-old Muslim woman, Kiran Irfan, with whom Masih had a one-year relationship, tortured and killed him. His family has dubbed his death an “honor killing.”

Marriage between Christian men and Muslim women is forbidden according to a strict interpretation of sharia (Islamic Law), and even social contacts such as these can incite violent reactions in Pakistan, a majority-Muslim nation of 170 million.

Local police in Gujranwala, in Punjab province, did not charge Irfan’s family with any crimes and effectively declared them innocent when Masih’s family first came to the station in May, according to the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), a Lahore-based Christian legal advocacy group.

CLAAS then presented the case to the office of inspector general of Punjab province, who reopened it on July 18. Afterwards the young woman’s father and one uncle, Muhammad Riasat, were taken into custody. The district police office is currently leading the investigation.

Members of the Masih family said that when they first tried to register the case with local police three months ago, officers did not cooperate in launching an investigation because the suspects were Muslim and the victim was a Christian, according to CLAAS.

“The police said, ‘We will first inquire whether Adeel has committed suicide,’ because the culprits told the police about the fact that their daughter wanted to embrace Christianity because of Adeel,” said Aneeqa Maria, a case worker for CLAAS. “[In] this way the police were biased and lingered on the matter, because if there is a long delay in the lodging of a first incidence report, the case becomes weak.”

On July 4 the Masih family brought the case to CLAAS, which applied to the district police in Gujranwala. The case moved up the police chain of command and went all the way to the office of the inspector general of Punjab. It was reopened two weeks later.

Masih’s friendship with Irfan began about one year ago. His mother learned of their contact six months later and warned his son to end it due to the dangers. She then told Irfan’s family about their relationship, which both families considered culturally inappropriate.

Irfan’s family began to harass Masih’s parents and threatened to kill him if they ever again heard that their son was contacting their daughter. They said they “would not allow a Christian man to disgrace Islam this way,” according to CLAAS.

Masih disappeared on May 1 while en route by motorbike to visit Irfan. Her father, Mohammed Irfan, and her two uncles, Muhammad Amjad and Muhammad Riasat, reportedly followed him. They then abducted him and threw his motorbike into a nearby canal, a local resident told CLAAS.

Two hours after Masih disappeared, Irfan’s family called his relatives, claiming he had committed suicide near a canal 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Gujranwala. The family searched for two days with the assistance of divers but failed to find him. Police found Masih’s body on May 4 in a canal in Hafizabad, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Gujranwala.

Links!

Another busy day at work, so here are some links to tide you over.

Worries of rocket attacks against US from offshore boats - 70% of Americans in range

You still can't write stuff about Mohammed - Random House pulls a book even before the first death threat

Good article on Gaza's smuggling tunnels in Der Spiegel.

Soccer Dad's posting on the Gaza Fulbright kerfuffle, which I didn't cover.

Two articles about the failings of UNRWA and the real reason there are so many "refugees":

Palestinians are not the world's first refugee population, but they may be the first to lament their perpetual refugee status while resisting any effort to resolve it.

Today's PalArab news

Al-Jazeera actually apologized to Israel for its coverage of child-killer Samir Kuntar's release, saying that they violated their own code of conduct:

Egypt says that it has found 20 smuggling tunnels this week. AP manages to write the entire story without using the word "weapons" once, and implies that each of the 20 were only to give fuel to poor hungry Gazans.

The PCHR complained that Hamas is not allowing lawyers to see clients in Gaza prisons, and explains that the reason probably has to do with reports of torture in those prisons.

One of the deported terrorists that used the Church of the Nativity as a place to shoot Israelis from was the object of an assassination attempt in Ireland. The shooters were a Palestinian Arab and a Moroccan.

Two rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel last night, no injuries. There were also three fired on Saturday.

Egypt opened the Rafah border briefly. Was it to take sick or injured people to the hospital? Not quite - it was to send Abdul Ghani Yassin across the border into Gaza. If the name sounds familiar, that's because he is the son of the Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin.

Members of the PA's Ministry of Education were arrested for stealing a million shekels from their employers. Nice to see Fatah's finances are so much more transparent. (Then again, there would never have been an arrest under Arafat - he would have been doing the stealing.)

A Palestinian Arab group is accusing Israel of threatening its Arab female prisoners with rape. This pack of lies will spread like wildfire, as usual.

The Nissan ad that riled up the Saudis

Last night I tweeted about a Nissan ad in Israel that upset the Saudis.

As Ha'aretz reported it (and they have their own video report:)

Saudi Arabia's MBC TV began its Sunday night news edition not with Syrian President Bashar Assad's trip to Iran, nor with Palestinian infighting in Gaza - but with an outraged report on an Israeli TV commercial.

The advertisement shows wealthy Arab oil barons enraged that a Nissan car is so fuel efficient.

MBC proceeded to interview a Saudi representative, who was asked why he thought Israel would broadcast the commercial. He warned of a boycott of Nissan by Persian Gulf states, and demanded the company apologize.

Here is a version on YouTube that has Russian subtitles, but it is pretty clear what is going on.