Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Open thread (Update - now even more open!)

There have been some cool discussions in the threads, which is always fun. Plus I'm too busy to blog much today.

This is also always a great place to talk American politics as well....I thought Palin's speech was extremely well written, and fairly well delivered (I didn't get the impression that these were her words at all, unlike Guiliani.) I had only seen the end of Guiliani's, which was excellent, and the end of Thompson's the day before, which was even better. But I didn't watch any of the DNC so I have no good points of comparison.

Nothing illuminating at the RNC but some great rhetoric. Looking forward to the acceptance speech tonight.

Syria and Hamas: an analysis (updated and gutted)

A few days ago, a Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported that exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal had been asked by Syria to move from Damascus to Sudan. Hamas denied it, and there has been no independent confirmation of that rumor.

Today, a different Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that Jordan rejected a request by some Hamas leaders to move their offices to Amman. This gives a bit more credence to the earlier story that Syria is pressuring Hamas to leave.

The Western press makes the assumption that this must be the result of the indirect Israeli-Syrian talks; that Syria wants to push their "peace process" forward. This assumption is worth examining.

Syria has been remarkably consistent over the past thirty years. Its primary concern has not been Israel, and neither has it been the happiness of its people; the consistency of Syria has been in keeping its leaders in power. Hafez Assad was a master at this game; his son Bashir seems to be learning quickly.

The peace talks with Israel has two potential benefits for Syria. By far the most important one was to blunt Western pressure on Syria as a terrorist state; if it could talk to its implacable foe, how dedicated to terror could it be? Syria could not afford the economic isolation that the West has been putting on Iran and above all it needed to make sure that such pressure never happens to Syria. The net result is that Syria is dodging a bullet yet again.

The secondary result is that if the current Israeli government is so stupid and desperate for "peace" that it is willing to give up the strategically important Golan for a piece of paper, why not? Syria has had a de facto peace with Israel on that border - the quietest border in Israel - for decades; it has literally nothing to lose. The chances that Syria and Israel would normalize relations is nil; they would spin gaining the Golan as a military victory to the hungry-for-victory Arab world, shrug off the criticisms the way Egypt did, and that would be that.

Any moves that Syria makes vis a vis Hamas needs to be looked at through the same prism. If Syria has quietly made Hamas' leaders know that they are no longer as welcome there, there must be more benefot to Syria than simply the desire for peace - it must be that Hamas in Syria has become either irrelevant or a burden.

It is easy to make the case that Hamas in Syria is irrelevant. Hamas is not monolithic, and the Damascus Hamas has lost all of its influence over Gaza Hamas. After all, there is effectively an Arab state in Gaza run by Hamas - those are the practical leaders of the group, not Khaled Meshaal making speeches from abroad. It is Gaza Hamas that Jordan has spoken to recently in recognition of its growing power, not Meshaal. Meshaal has just become a windbag; the equivalent of Farouk Kaddoumi railing against Israel from his PLO offices in Tunisia. They are good for headlines but they have literally no power over the people they pretend to lead.

As such, Hamas in Syria no longer gives Syria any benefit. And it might be a burden.

Meshaal might not be a leader in any real sense any more but he is smart enough to try to ride Hamas Gaza's coattails as its influence increases. Hamas Gaza's coup has been the greatest practical victory for the Muslim Brotherhood - the first time that al-Ikhwan ever controlled any territory.

Syria has been trying to co-opt and channel internal Islamic fundamentalism to deflect the danger it poses to the regime, and right now the Muslim Brotherhood is a looming - of not immediate - threat. The Assads have not been in the habit of letting potential threats survive very long. While Hamas in Damascus has no political power in Gaza, it is the vanguard of the Ikhwan in Syria, and as such it is a threat to the Syrian regime itself, and not to Israel.

The very moment that Hamas in Syria is perceived to turn from an asset to a liability is the moment that the regime will start trying to use that fact for political advantage, which is precisely what we are seeing.

UPDATE: I emailed this to Barry Rubin, prolific author, analyst and expert on the Middle East, where he disagreed with some of my points and demolished others.

He writes:

Just because Kuwaiti newspapers say something has no necessary relationship to the truth but either is guessing, wishful thinking or misinformation. I think these are planted rumors from Syria. Probably nothing has happened at all.

I'm not so sure, because the second "leak" was from Jordan, not Syria; this is what made me take notice (the first report I ignored.)

Meshaal has just become a windbag; the equivalent of Farouk Kaddoumi railing against Israel from his PLO offices in Tunisia. They are good for headlines but they have literally no power over the people they pretend to lead.
Actually Meshal is the main leader and his supporters just purged the local “moderate” politicians. The reason Jordan talks to the Gaza Hamas is that the Damascus people are enemies of Jordan.

As such, Hamas in Syria no longer gives Syria any benefit. And it might be a burden.
Hamas is the main instrument for Syria to influence (and possibly some day take over) Palestinian politics, a key aim of Syria for almost 50 years.

While Hamas in Damascus has no political power in Gaza, it is the vanguard of the Ikhwan in Syria, and as such it is a threat to the Syrian regime itself, and not to Israel.

Not at all true. Hamas and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood are allies of Syria and oppose the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Everyone in the area knows this.

As the late Emily Litella put it, "Never mind." :)

A convenient fatwa

A Hamas mufti came out with a fatwa that justifies Hamas' arresting striking teachers - and stealing their money:

Marwan Abu Ras, leader of the Hamas-led Palestine Scholars Association Hamas movement and a representative of Hamas in the legislature ruled that Hamas may suppress and punish doctors, teachers and staff who are on strike in the Gaza Strip and allows the seizure of their money to pay for new teachers appointed by Hamas.

Abu Ras said that "The strike by staff at this time is a moral and religious crime of first degree and a betrayal of national interest. The strike is contrary to God's orders, a crime of humanity and religious legitimacy and a national betrayal by all standards."

Abu Ras called on Hamas "to chase strikers legally and legitimately, punish and impose fines on them and hold them to maximum penalties because of their strike, and for the government in Gaza to bring in other non-striking teachers and take appropriate action to pay salaries of new teachers from the pockets of striking teachers."

What an amazing coincidence that a Hamas scholar would study the sources impartially, pray for guidance from Allah and come out with a legal opinion that Hamas is right all along!

September 4, 1938: What a "binational state" would look like

Here is a rundown of how things were in Palestine exactly 70 years ago, when Arabs were a majority:

People who are pushing for a "binational state" (with an Arab majority, of course) don't care that the results of that experiment are far more likely to look like Palestine in 1938 than the utopian vision they espouse.

Random stuff

Just because I don't have time for proper blogging today:

An article today by Barry Rubin reminded me of one I wrote last year and one that I quoted a year before.

Ha'aretz caught onto my Monday scoop, picked up and expanded upon by Backspin yesterday.

Terror museum in Lebanon a smash hit

You can tell a lot about a culture from their museums. America has museums dedicated to science, natural history, rock and roll and even sex. Israel has museums for archaeology, art (including Islamic art), the Bible and Jewish history.

And Hezbollah's Southern Lebanon has a museum for terror.

From NYT (h/t EBoZ)

The children crowd forward around the glass case, eager for a glimpse of the martyr’s bloodstained clothes. His belt is here, and the shoes he died in, scarred with shrapnel. The battered desk where he planned military operations still has his box of pencils on it, his in-box, his cellphone.

An exhibit in Nabatiye celebrates the life of Imad Mugniyah, the shadowy Hezbollah commander suspected in the West of masterminding devastating bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in the 1980s and ’90s. Busloads of schoolchildren have flocked to the exhibit, which includes bloodstained clothes and, at night, light and laser shows.

“May God kill the one who killed him,” an old woman says, wiping tears from her eyes as she stares through the glass.

The dead man being shown such veneration is Imad Mugniyah, the shadowy Hezbollah commander. Until his death in a car bombing in Syria in February he was virtually unknown here, his role in the militant Shiite group clothed in secrecy. But since then Hezbollah has hailed him as one of its great military leaders in the struggle against Israel.

Now, the group has opened an exhibit in this southern town in honor of Mr. Mugniyah, who is widely accused in the West of masterminding devastating bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in the 1980s and ’90s.

At first glance, the exhibit could almost be taken for an outdoor children’s museum. A fake skeleton stands upright in a torn uniform and helmet beneath the legend, “The invincible Israeli soldier.” There are captured Israeli tanks jutting up from the ground at odd angles, their hatches burned and broken. As visitors crowd from one display to another, a soundtrack blares overhead, mixing the sounds of bombs and machine-gun fire with mournful operatic voices and warlike speeches.

But the eerie heart of the exhibit is the glass-encased room displaying Mr. Mugniyah’s possessions. His prayer mat is here, his slippers, even his hairbrush, as if they were a saint’s relics.

On a recent afternoon, a crowd of onlookers stared through the glass in awe, some of them weeping openly.

In addition to an extraordinary array of weaponry and martyrs’ paraphernalia, it includes a large indoor room that was remodeled to resemble “what we believe the martyrs’ heaven is like,” according to one of the guides on duty. In the darkened room, a figure representing a dead Hezbollah fighter lies on his back on a large sloping bank of white flowers. A sound of exploding bombs gives way to patriotic anthems as a screen shows a brilliant sunset and a coffin being carried through a dark forest. Later, a laser show illuminates the darkness.

On a recent afternoon, busloads of schoolchildren were arriving to see the exhibit, with a group of Boy Scouts.

“I came here to teach my kids the culture of resistance,” said a visitor who gave his name only as Ahmed, as he stood with his wife and two children. “I want them to see what the enemy is doing to us, and what we can do to fight them, because this enemy is not merciful.”

A society is truly twisted when it sends hundreds of children to venerate - and emulate - a bloodthirsty killer.

Human rights orgs still silent over latest Hamas outrages

Hamas continues to arrest and beat striking health workers in Gaza:

Speaking from Ramallah, Zakarnah told Ma’an, “De facto government police on Tuesday arrested Maysarah Fayyad, a nurse who works at Mubarak Hospital, Dr Kamal An-Namlah, head of surgeons at Nasser Hospital, Dr Abdul-Halim Al-Masri, from Ash-Shifa Hospital, Wisam Karim, administration employee at Muhammad Ad-Durrah Hospital, Usamah As-Sa’idi and Muhammad Lafi from Muhammad Ad-Durrah Hospital.

He added that de facto government security assaulted the arrestees, beating them while in detention at Al-Mashtal prison in order to pressure them to end strike.

Hamas is also harassing the doctors' families:

The Hamas movement on Tuesday called for demonstrations in front of the homes of doctors who are on strike in the Gaza Strip, beginning with with three doctors in the city of Khan Younis.

There was also a bomb outside a pharmacy that closed for the strike.

And "human rights" organizations still remain silent. Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have nothing about these actions on their pages.

One group that has acknowledged what is going on is the UN news agency, IRIN, but it frames it (and the teachers' strike) as simply "political strikes", barely alluding to any violence and making it sound like both sides are equally guilty in the next to last paragraph:

A senior UN political official told IRIN he was concerned by the "transfers and replacements" by Hamas of health and teaching professionals and the subsequent strikes called by unions, which he said "threaten the provision of health and education services to the people of Gaza who already face considerable hardship."

In various reports released by local and international rights groups both the Ramallah government and the de facto rulers of Gaza have been accused of politically motivated attacks and arrests in the areas under their respective control.

Here we have the UN considering the arrests of Hamas terrorists in the West Bank to be the same as Hamas arrests and torture of teachers and doctors.

This is a vindication of Hamas' terror. The facts are plain, but the UN and other NGOs are so afraid of Hamas attacking them that they refuse to condemn these heinous acts, making a tacit deal with terrorists and justifying it to themselves as saying that things would be worse if they were forced to leave or close down. The net result is that Hamas is emboldened to increase their attacks on civilians in Gaza, and the only people blamed for the poor shape of medicine in the territory are Israelis.

(Also silent in all this are groups like British teachers' unions, who are quick to condemn Israel but never said a word about Hamas replacing 2000 union teachers with unqualified Hamas workers.)

Anti-semitic cartoon on Hamas TV

I wrote recently about the increasing amounts of incitement in the Palestinian Arab media with bizarre allegations that Jews are digging under the Temple Mount.

Now, the ante has been upped even more, as Hamas' Al Aqsa TV is running a cartoon showing stereotypical religious Jews, straight out of the Nazi cartoon playbook, scheming as they dig under the foundations of "Al Aqsa" while the Arab world sleeps. From Palestinian Media Watch, via YNet:

Who is dumping bad food on Palestinian Arabs?

There have been a number of stories in the PalArab press in recent weeks of the PA authorities discovering that some shipments of food to the West bank were bad. For example:

Palestinian Preventive security system seized quantities of inedible flour from a warehouse of a charity in the West Bank city of Jenin city on Monday evening (8/25).

Palestinian customs agents seized 500 kilograms of expired and inedible meat in a village near Qalqilia on Tuesday (8/19).

The Customs department told Ma’an that the confiscation took place after tests determined that the food was unfit for consumption. The meat was destroyed.

The Palestinian Consumer Protection Department confiscated 150 tons of expired food products on Wednesday (8/20) which were intended to be sold during Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, sources in the Ministry of National Economy said.

Palestinian customs and consumer protection agents seized huge amounts of inedible foods and poisonous cleaning materials across the West Bank on Sunday (8/31), the evening before the first day of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.

In Bethlehem, customs agent seized 6 tons of expired biscuits that were manufactured in Israeli settlements.

In Ramallah, one ton of inedible dates and 300 kilograms of inedible meats were seized.

In Hebron, the Ministry of Economics seized one ton of cheddar cheese that did not conform to Palestinian safety standards.

In Nablus, consumer protection and customs agent seized 2000 liters of expired and poisonous cleaning materials as well as large amounts of juices manufactured in Israel that include high levels of toxic gases and bacteria.

While Ma'an is quick to mention that these foods were manufactured in Israel, one fact in one of the stories seem to indicate that it is Palestinian Arab greed that is driving these events:

He explained that all the seized food products were bought from Israeli settlements with validity date already expired. Merchants usually forge new expiration dates. Amongst seized products were dates, nuts, peppers, rice, candies, grains, raisins and other products.

So while the press reports try to blame Israelis, especially "settlers," it looks like Arabs are picking up expired food out of the trash in Israel and trying to resell them in the West Bank.

Today's story adds another wrinkle:

The Palestinian Preventive Security forces on Tuesday afternoon seized 46 tons of dates and pickled olives with expired validity dates. The goods were confiscated from a warehouse in the eastern neighborhood of Nablus.

The director of the Preventive Security’s operations, Yasser Al-Bulbul, told Ma’an, “The economic department of the Preventive Security service received information about a truckload of pickled olives coming from Egypt. After inspections, we knew where the truck was unloaded and we stormed the place accompanied with representatives of the Ministry of Health.”

A Ministry of Health employee told Ma’an’s reporter that 16 tons of dates and 30 tons of pickled olives were seized.

Apparently, Egyptians are also keen on unloading bad food on Palestinian Arabs for profit.

Arabic Wikipedia entry on "Jewish"

The autotranslated Arabic Wikipedia article on the word "Jewish" contains lots of incomprehensible things, and clearly it has been used as an outlet for anti-semitism, as the header states:

As a result of sabotage on this page, disabled the ability to edit this page for new users or anonymous temporarily.

One paragraph stands out both for its bizarreness as well as for its evident hatred:

The resistance has Almachihanih [I think this means "Messiah" - EoZ]

Resistance in the Jewish concept is the Christ who would take another decade to fight Alammyin or non-Jews is a prophet in their concept and fighters deny them this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) because the Prophet came unlike Jewish and racist tendencies that were Imagine that the resistance of the Jews who avenged of everything they have on one hand and the fact that the Messenger of Jesus and Mohammed opened the door for all the faith in God unlike the Jewish religion and closed Almachihanih orientation is now among some extremists affected by some American Christians and Biblical concepts that will ensure the return of Christ to Earth And waged a global war against everyone on behalf of Armageddon battle

Not sure what it means, but it doesn't strike me as being quite up the standards one would expect from an encyclopedia!

Some "Free Gaza" freaks are stuck in Gaza!

When the "Free Gaza" farce unfolded last week, a few of the members stayed behind. But they didn't plan to stay quite this long.

On Sunday, some of them tried to enter Israel via the Erez crossing, claiming that they needed to accompany the many sick patients who do leave Gaza to be treated in Israel. They were denied.

So they decided to try to leave to Egypt via Rafah, along with the thousands of people who crossed over the past two days. They were denied.

It is curious why the people who wanted to show their support for Gazans are so eager to get out of there. Fortunately, they might have the opportunity to spend weeks or maybe even years to get much friendlier with the locals as their official pleas to leave Gaza are ignored.

Today's PalArab press roundup

Work accident gone awry: A 19 year old youth and his 14-year old sister were injured in Jabalya, Gaza after a mortar fired from a terrorist training camp nearby landed on their house.

We are family: A clan clash east of Nablus resulted in one death and two injuries.

Terrorist chic but capitalist bomb: Another article about how the Chinese have taken over the keffiyeh market, and the Chinese versions are even being imported to the territories. The article stresses that the keffiyeh is a symbol of "resistance," popularized by Arafat, and they bemoan the fact that even Palestinian Arabs aren't buying locally-produced scarves.

Abbas' obsequience: Samir Kuntar insisted that Mahmoud Abbas wanted to meet with him.

Calm weapons: Egypt found yet another cache of weapons in the Sinai meant for Gaza, including hundreds of anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortars.

Mama's boys: Apparently, some Arabs are marrying much older women just so they can be taken care of but without cohabitation. Some Muslim scholars are decrying the practice.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 157.

Hypocritical Anis

I wasn[t going to bore my readers with any more about Anis Hamadeh, the self-righteous German-Palestinian Arab "peace activist" who took such umbrage at my spoof of his "Free Gaza" song that he told threatened to sue me for copyright infringement, but this is too funny.

The aptly-named Anis has a page on his website where he links to 350 YouTube videos of the Beatles! These include entire Beatles movies as well as songs, most of which are clearly under copyright. I somehow doubt that Anis ever contacted Capitol or Apple or EMI or Paul McCartney about whether these videos are legally up on YouTube. (He also has an Elvis video page.)

Even better, after my little episode he added this text on his Free Gaza Song Contest page:

Copyright note: Songs, lyrics, videos and images are the copyright of their respective owners. As this is a public event fair use is appreciated. For commercial and media use please contact Anis

As my use of his song was by any definition "fair use," this means that Anis only defines "fair use" as "whatever fits my political opinions."

Ya gotta love these leftists for their consistent hypocrisy.

(I wonder if he is looking at the pictures I used in my Rachel Corrie video to see if one of them was perhaps copyrighted, so he can threaten me again.)

The paradox that Obama might be better for Israel

I believe that Obama is strongly pro-Palestinian Arab, and that he will pressure Israel to make extraordinarily dangerous concessions for an illusory "peace."

Paradoxically, this may make him a better president from Israel's perspective.

In the past forty years, only one Israeli territorial concession has paid off - the Camp David accords with Egypt. Even though that peace agreement did not bring anything approaching real peace, and Egypt got by far the better end of the deal (tens of billions in aid to prop it up plus the Sinai without having to normalize relations with Israel) it did result in a pretty quiet, long border and much less pressure on Israel's defense force.

But every other territorial concession for "peace" has brought more bloodshed: the withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Oslo, Gaza.

What did these events have in common?

They all occurred with American backing while a president was in the White House who was emotionally pro-Israel.

Hillel Levin just wrote an interesting article enumerating how Bush's presidency has been bad for Israel. While I would disagree about some of his points, to an extent what he is saying is true, and he has one paragraph that is critical to understanding why Zionists love Bush - and Bill Clinton:

So why, exactly, do Israelis love Bush so much? Actually, it isn't that difficult to understand. From the perspective of an Israeli, Bush is a true friend. Israelis live in a tough neighborhood, surrounded by states and movements that expressly seek the destruction of Israel. And here we have President Bush, the leader of the strongest country in the world, declaring himself an unabashed ally of Israel. Indeed, there's no reason to question Bush's sincerity on this point: he really does care about Israel's security. So Israelis can be excused for putting aside the content and effects of his policies and for appreciating his steadfast rhetorical and personal support for Israel. (By the way, this explains the paradox of why Israelis love both Clinton and Bush, despite their radically different regional policies: for Israelis, it isn't about the policies.)

Israelis have been so claustrophobic and isolated that a genuine friendship being offered by a world leader is a huge relief. And when these same leaders ask for concessions, Israelis act as friends do - they try to help out.

Even though the State Department has been implacably Arabist since modern Zionism began, Israelis (and, by extension, all Zionists) are willing to overlook threats to their security when a friendly president asks them nicely.

In fact, one of the major reasons that Sharon agreed to withdraw from Gaza was reportedly because he felt sure that Bush would, in exchange, allow Israel to keep much larger parts of the West Bank permanently - a faith in a single person who will be replaced soon, based on a letter that has no worth.

With Obama as President, Israel's leaders would be on guard, and would not be nearly as forthcoming. Any peace plans would be evaluated more on their merits and less on the personal charisma and genuine friendliness of the President. And on the merits alone, any further Israeli concessions for a Palestinian Arab state would require much more from the PalArab side than has ever been forthcoming.

(I hope it is obvious that this is not a reason to vote for Obama. It is a reason to vote for whomever would be better for the country, and for Israeli leaders to not let personal gratitude substitute for Israel's security - or to replace Israel's leaders with people who understand that.)

UPDATE: See Noah Pollak, whose points as far as how Bush has been towards Israel are roughly on target, but whose assumptions of where Levin's head is at seem way off base.

Members of Jaysh al-Ummah pray before training in the Gaza Strip August 29, 2008. Jaysh al-Ummah, or the Army of the Nation, is a Palestinian Islamist group modelled on the ideology of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda. It is training for battle with Israel, according to the group's leader Abu Hafss. Picture taken August 29, 2008.

REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

One might complain that it is unfair to paint all Muslims with such a broad brush, but one would also be hard pressed to find any Muslims who are angered enough by this picture (or others like it) to write an article or letter to the editor or blog post about how this is an affront to Islam.