Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 08, 2008

Latest anti-semitic meme: There is no Jewish nation!

A few of months ago there was a small kerfuffle when an absurd book, written by an Israeli professor of cinema and French history named Shlomo Zand, postulated that there is no Jewish people and no Jewish nation. No one took it the least bit seriously except for, unsurprisingly, Ha'aretz, which published a number of articles about it. The author has no expertise as an historian and the ideas in the book have been well-debunked elsewhere.

It was only a matter of time before the anti-Israel crowd would seize on this shoddy piece of pseudo-scholarship and use it to show the complete illegitimacy of Judaism, Zionism, Jewish history and any non-Arab in the Middle East.

For example, Gilad Atzmon just wrote a worshipful article about this book, and added his own layers of stupidity on top.

He quotes Zand in Ha'aretz and adds his own "proof":

In case you follow Zand’s line of thinking and happen to ask yourself, “when was the Jewish people invented?” Zand’s answer is rather simple. “At a certain stage in the 19th century, intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people ‘retrospectively,’ out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people.”

...It is an established fact that not a single Jewish history text had been written between the 1st century and early 19th century.

That last sentence seemed a bit too declarative to me, so I just looked a bit at Google Books for histories of Jews that predate the 19th century. A single counterexample should be enough to prove that the entire thesis is ridiculous, and, sure enough, I found it:

The History of the Jews: From Jesus Christ to the Present Time: Containing Their Antiquities, Their Religion, Their Rites, the Dispersion of the Ten Tribes in the East and the Persecutions this Nation Has Suffer'd in the West. Being a Supplement and Continuation of the History of Josephus
By Jacques Basnage, sieur de Beauval Jacques Basnage, Thomas Taylor, Pre-1801 Imprint Collection (Library of Congress)
Translated by Thomas Taylor, of Magdalen College Oxford Thomas Taylor
Published by Printed by T. Bever and B. Lintot [etc.], 1708
759 pages

Plus, a well-known and disputed work that still serves as a counter-example:

The Wonderful, and Most Deplorable History of the Later Times of the Jews: With the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem, which History Begins where the Holy Scriptures Do End
By ha-Levi Abraham ben David, Abraham ben David, Sebastian Münster, Peter Morwen, James Howell, J. S.
Published by Printed for W. Thackeray, and are to be sold by James Gilbertson at the Sun and Bible on London-Bridge, 1689
340 pages

This last example seems to be at least a partial translation of a book written in the tenth century.

And, finally:

The History of the Present Jews Throughout the World: Being an Ample Tho Succinct Account of Their Customs, Ceremonies, and Manner of Living, ... Translated from the Italian, Written by Leo Modena, ... To which are Subjoin'd Two Supplements, One Concerning the Samaritans, the Other of the Sect ...
By Leone Modena
Published by printed and sold by Edm. Powell, 1707
286 pages

Atzmon isn't the only anti-semite to seize on Zand as the latest savior of racist philosophy. Rense.com, for example, wasted no time quoting Tom Segev's review in Ha'aretz.

Of course, there are a myriad of other reasons to prove that both Zand and Atzmon have no idea what they are talking about, but this one just struck my fancy.

Palestinian Arabs fighting to keep their brethren miserable

One of the larger ironies in this conflict is that the people who are most against any permanent resettlement of PalArab "refugees" are usually the ones who live in the most comfort themselves. Europeans of Palestinian Arab descent are among the loudest in railing against even the hint of a "resettlement" of genuinely desperate Palestinian Arabs, while the ones who are in the worst shape will consistently say that they are more than willing to be resettled anywhere.

The hypocrisy of those who claim that the "right of return" is sacrosanct is most obvious when we talk about the 2000-3000 Iraqi refugees of Palestinian origin who are stuck in real camps between the Iraq and Syrian borders. The UNHCR is responsible for these refugees, not the ineffective and counterproductive UNRWA, and the UNHCR has been trying hard to find countries worldwide that could accept even a very small number of them to be resettled.

The biggest obstacles that the UNHCR faces are so-called "Palestinian leaders" themselves. They are so invested in keeping Palestinian Arabs stateless and poor that they fight tooth and nail against their own people - of their own volition - relocating to countries where they might become happy, and no longer pawns.

Reading between the lines of this article in Ma'an News, one can see where the real problem lies:

Iceland decided to accept 29 stranded Palestinian refugees after appeals by UNHCR seeking to find permanent solutions for the group of mostly widows and their children.

The group, made mostly of women and children, has been stranded on the Iraq-Syria border for two years, according to UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond who spoke at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.

UNHCR says there are approximately 2,300 Palestinians living in refugee camps made mostly of tents.

For these Palestinians, under the protection of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), the organization feels that "resettlement is their only option."

According to Redmond, the commission has "repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians, but with few results." Though there have been 300 refugees settled in Brazil and Chile recently. Redmond noted that "some urgent medical cases were taken by a few European countries, but this is a very small proportion of the 2,300 Palestinians stranded in the desert."

The two camps that most Palestinian refugees from Iraq are living in have minimal services. Tents provide shelter for hot summer sun and freezing winter temperatures, and the nearest medical facilities are 400 kilometers away.

UNHCR has announced that a second group of refugees, made up of 155 women and families, are scheduled to resettle in Sweden.

Many Palestinians worry that if they are resettled in a new country they will be giving up their right to return to Palestine if and when that option becomes available. In his statements to the press, Redmond stressed that relocation to escape the dire circumstances of camp life would "in no way jeopardize their right to return at any stage, if and when such a possibility arises."

Who are these "many Palestinians" that are so worried? Certainly it is not the ones who live in Gaza under Hamas rule, who are more than willing to relocate to other countries if they could. Certainly it is not the ones in these Iraqi/Syrian camps. Certainly it is not the ones who live in Lebanon, stateless, who would grab any opportunity to become full citizens of the country they were born and raised in if they were given the chance.

No, the "many Palestinians" who are against any sort of resettlement are the ones who already live in Europe and write angry op-ed pieces about this sacred "right of return." They are the Palestinian Arab leaders who will decry any hint of a permanent solution for their people that does not include destroying Israel. They are the leaders of other Arab countries who would never want Palestinian Arabs to become citizens in their own countries - but pretend that this bigotry is for the good of Palestinian Arabs themselves!

Wreaths for a terrorist

Al Hayat al Jadida reports that a Belgian parliamentary delegation visited Ramallah yesterday and laid a wreath at the grave of the syphilitic godfather of modern terrorism, Yasir Arafat.

They now join other illustrious people who have genuflected to the symbol of the murder of civilians worldwide, including Jimmy Carter, Mahmoud Abbas, Kofi Annan, Jack Straw, Vladimir Putin, Ban Ki-Moon, Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein head) and leaders of North Korea.

Those who refused to engage in this sick tribute to Arafat include Tony Blair (although he did visit he refused to lay a wreath), George Bush and Condi Rice.

The latest Zionist crime: stealing water - from the Nile. The crafty Jews have managed to dig wells from the Negev, through the entire Sinai and past the Suez Canal in order to steal precious Nile water, according to unnamed "human rights" activists. Some six conduits of water are alleged to have been built under the Suez Canal. Their estimate is that Zionists are prepared to steal some 3 billion cubic meters of water to irrigate the Negev.

Islamic Jihad claims to have uncovered a "network of collaborators" in Gaza. People accused of "collaboration" with Israel have historically been killed but there have been no reports of any deaths for that reason over the past few months despite regular reports of such discoveries. It is entirely possible that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have found ways to murder people without anyone finding out.

Palestine Today reports that Doctors Without Borders has finally commented on the doctors' strike in Gaza. (I couldn't find anything about it on the actual MSF website.) According to this report, the organization blames both Fatah and Hamas for the reduction in medical services in Gaza and Hamas' systematic abductions and beatings of doctors is only mentioned in passing as not helping to alleviate the situation.

Meanwhile, more doctors are being abducted by Hamas and others forced to work at gunpoint. Also being targeted are female health care workers.

The latest seizure of bad food in the West Bank was a shipment of expired dates that was infested with bugs. Of course, it came from "settlements."

Hamas cuts power to journalists. None of them report it.

A small story in Firas Press says that Hamas cut off electricity to a building in Gaza City that houses a number of media outlets, including Reuters and Al Hayat al Jadida, for the fifth day in a row. (The story was originally written by the pro-Fatah Palestine Press Agency.)

Nothing about this at Reuters or any other news outlet.

How the PalArab press reports a anti-semitic attack

From the Jerusalem Post:

Three Jewish counselors from the Bnei Akiva youth movement were attacked not far from the organization's central branch in Paris on Saturday afternoon. The boys, aged between 17 and 18, had just finished the Sabbath minha prayer when they were attacked by a group of Muslims.

According to a press statement released by World Bnei Akiva spokesman Tzvika Klein, the youths were initially approached by a group of three Muslims and African immigrants who began to hurl chestnuts in their direction. When one of the counselors complained, the assailants began yelling out anti-Semitic remarks. Between 10 to a dozen other attackers wearing knuckle dusters joined the original three and began beating up the Jewish group until police arrived at the scene.

...The victims' families filed a complaint with local police that had responded by opening an investigation into the incident, which has already been recognized as an anti-Semitic attack by local authorities.

Now, let's see how Palestine Press Agency reported it:

A group of young Moroccans attacked three young Israelis serving as guides for a Jewish youth movement in Paris Sunday evening, causing minor to moderate injuries.

You see, since Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing against Jews, it is of course impossible for Muslim youths to have attacked Jews. So the victims must have been Israeli, thereby turning it from a hate crime into a simple political disagreement which is perfectly OK.

Because everyone knows that "Zionists" are fair game to be the recipients of "resistance," worldwide.

Discuss something.

I dare ya.

Free Gaza supports terrorism in petition

The FGM has announced the utterly absurd aim to gain one million signatures - all from Gazans - on a petition to give to the UN. Since nearly 50% of Gazans are under 15 years old, and there are 1.4 million Gazans (according to probably inflated estimates), this should be an interesting exercise in wishful thinking and/or outright forgery.

And what will the petition say? Well, among other things, it "affirms that the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have the right to resist occupation" - which is the code-word used by Palestinian Arabs for "terrorism." Every terror group calls themselves "resistance groups." The petition pointedly doesn't say "peaceful resistance," so the meaning is clear to everyone.

Yet the Freaks of Gaza still style themselves as "peace activists."

In other FGM news, 6 of the members stuck in Gaza because of their own stupidity announced that they are fasting during Ramadan, thus telling the world that they consider Islam to be superior to their own belief systems. They say that their fasting is in solidarity with the "Palestinian people," which means that they don't consider Christians to be Palestinian.

Somehow, I missed their petition against Palestinian Muslim abuse of Christians.

The FGM website has a short film that describes the situation of Gazans with lovingly narrated lies. The video says that all of Gaza's land borders are controlled by Israel (tell that to the FGM members who tried to leave through Rafah), that basic food and water supplies are being restricted by Israel, and that Gazans are starving to death. (I have been looking for a single victim of starvation wince that meme started years ago and still have come up empty.)

Peaceful PalArab weekend

There are ten days fo the year that Muslims can have exclusive access to the second-holiest Jewish site in the world, the Cave of the Patriarchs. They used one of those days last Friday to urinate in the area of where the Torah scrolls usually are and to place Hamas flags throughout the synagogue. (Nothing about this in even the mainstream Israeli papers, only Arutz-7.)

Israel informed the UK that five British "charity" organizations are fronts for Hamas and will be banned in Israel.

Hamas keeps arresting doctors in Gaza.

Three more smuggling tunnels found and destroyed by Egypt.

Hamas claims that Israel killed 2 PalArabs in August. They are lying. The PCHR, which leaves no stone unturned looking for supposed Israeli abuses, reported zero killings. Hamas didn't provide any names nor circumstances.

The Al Aqsa Brigades of Fatah claimed to have exploded a bomb near the town of Itamar on Saturday.

Some questions are being raised about a Hamas member who died in late August, supposedly of a heart attack during training. Some people think that he may have been killed. He was responsible for an assassination attaempt against Mahmoud Abbas.

There is a controversy in Egypt over whether actors and actresses are permitted to kiss on-screen during Ramadan.

Hamas complains that Jews aren't saving terrorist lives

The Al Qassam website of Hamas is always a fun place to see the twisted logic of a sick, perverted people, and today is no exception.

A Hamas member died of cancer today. Hamas' announcement of this event is filled with fascinating tidbits:

Military Communiqué

Al Qassam Brigades mourns Mohammed Hassuna, martyred by cancer

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy ... Today, Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahed:

Mohammed Rawhi Mahmoud Hassouna 25-year-old

Sheikh Redwan Neighborhood - Gaza Strip

The Mujahed was martyred from cancer; the martyr didn’t manage to travel for medical treatment, because of the Zionist siege on Gaza strip. Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

First we have the interesting use of the word "martyr." A martyr is someone who sacrifices his or her life for a cause; dying of cancer is hardly "martyrdom." Hamas is purposefully cheapening the term to include pretty much anyone they feel like (on their web page they also have a "martyr" who died in a car accident.)

If someone is designated a "martyr" their families get more honor and in many cases extra money, so Hamas is apparently trying to inflate their own importance by designating every dead member as a shaheed.

Hamas loves using the term "playground of death" and it is perhaps more apt than they realize; after all, they seem to do a lot of their terror training in playgrounds.

But by far the most ironic part of this death notice is where they blame Israel's partial blockade for his death.

Forget the fact that thousands of Gazans have traveled to Israel to get medical treatment during the "siege." We have a case here of Hamas bitterly railing against the Zionist entity for the "occupation" and promising to murder every Zionist Jew in the Middle East, and then complaining that these same Zionists who they want dead aren't saving their members' lives. (Notice again that they do not blame Egypt for refusing to treat their terrorists; only Israel is blamed. I guess because evil Zionist medicine is better to treat Hamas martyrdom-seekers.)

The bizarre case of Hala Kaware

Last week, a woman was discovered to have been killed by her father and four brothers in an "honor killing":

At approximately 09:00 on Saturday, 30 August 2008, Hussein Mustafa Kaware’, 67, from Jourat al-Lout area in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, went to a police station in the town and confessed murdering his 24-year-old daughter, Hala, and burying her in land belonging to the family. Immediately, the police moved to the area and took the body out. The girl’s hands and feet were tied and her mouth was muzzled. The body was evacuated to Nasser Hospital in the town and from their to the forensic medicine department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to police sources, the father confessed murdering his daughter “to maintain the honor of his family.” The police also arrested 4 of his sons.

This is not a very atypical story in the Palestinian Arab territories - 28 PalArab women were killed in "honor killings" last year - but a strange detail just emerged.

According to the UN, Halas had been caught with a suicide bomb belt two weeks earlier.

Hamas caught her and jailed her until August 30th, and when they released her she was murdered immediately by her family.

Why would a young woman in today's Gaza want to become a suicide bomber? There are no Jews around to blow up, and if her target was Hamas then you can be sure that they would not have let her go after only two weeks.

It would appear that Hala must have done something to disgrace her family earlier, and the family must have decided that the best way to deal with it would be to force her to blow herself up - perhaps at a checkpoint - as a pretense of martyrdom and to regain some family honor. Possibly Fatah or Islamic Jihad provided the belt.

Hala reluctantly agreed, knowing she was going to die no matter what happens, but she got caught by Hamas, which is trying to maintain the "calm" with Israel and knows that an attack at a checkpoint - even a halfhearted one - would cause Israel to close the Gaza crossings for a few days and increase pressure on Hamas.

Once Hamas was convinced that they were not her intended target, they had no reason to keep holding onto her.

The UN report says she was released on August 30th. The PCHR says that her father turned himself in at 9:00 AM on the same day - indicating (if the UN report is correct) that Hala was murdered immediately after her release.

We have seen before where disgraced girls were encouraged to become "martyrs" and this seems to fit the pattern. Just the double disgrace of not only being a "tainted" woman plus failing at becoming a shahada is way too much to even consider leaving her alive an hour more than necessary.

Links from our commenters 2: 1925 Waqf pamphlet

Lynne T as well as Brian mentioned a pamphlet, created by the Waqf in Jerusalem in 1925, as a guidebook to the Temple Mount.

The reason the pamphlet is interesting can be seen in this Arutz-7 article:

In 1997, the chief Moslem cleric of the Palestinian Authority, Mufti Ikrama Sabri, stated, "The claim of the Jews to the right over [Jerusalem] is false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic supervision..."

Thus began a campaign to convince the world that the millennia-old natural association between Jerusalem and Jews was untrue. As Islamic Movement chief Raed Salah stated in 2006, "We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque [on the Temple Mount], including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it."

However, it is now known that this "absolute" Moslem claim is actually not as absolute as claimed. In fact, back in 1925, the Supreme Moslem Council - also known as the Waqf, which has overseen Temple Mount activities on behalf of the Moslem religion for hundreds of years - boasted proudly that the site was none other than that of Solomon's Temple.

The Jerusalem-based Temple Institute (http://www.templeinstitute.org) reports that it has acquired a copy of the official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Moslem name for the Temple Mount). On page 4, the Waqf states, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the L-rd...', citing the source in 2 Samuel XXIV,25.

The Temple Institute's Rabbi Chaim Richman writes that the pamphlet provides proof that the Waqf's current position is a departure from traditional Muslim belief. "In recent years," he writes, "the Moslem Waqf has come to deny the historic existence of the Holy Temple, claiming that the Temple Mount belongs solely to the Moslem nation, and that there exists no connection between the Jewish nation and the Temple Mount. It is clear from this pamphlet that the revised Waqf position strays from traditional Moslem acknowledgment of the Mount's Jewish antecedents."

"The current denial of historical reality is merely one tool in the war being waged by Moslems against the G-d of Israel and the entire 'infidel' world," Richman declares.

The pamphlet itself includes pictures of the Temple Mount - this time without weeds, although still in a state of disrepair (the reproduction is poor, though.)

Links from our commenters 1: New book by Sharansky

Lynne T. links to a fascinating review of a new book by Natan Sharansky called "Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy" in which he makes what seems like the counterintuitive claim that democracy without nationalism is a weaker democracy. I'd probably need to read it to understand it fully but some of the tidbits mentioned are most interesting. I especially like this paragraph:

By clouding the differences between democracy and tyranny, the cultural relativism of post-identity doctrines have had the poisonous effect of making human rights standards more difficult to apply universally. Sharansky exposes the double standards and hypocrisy of those who argue that while nationalism must be eliminated in the West, it is perfectly justified in weaker societies. He is particularly critical of international human rights groups that fail to distinguish between rights violations in open and closed societies, as if the abuses characteristic of authoritarian regimes are indistinguishable from deviations from democratic practices in democracies that are brought to light precisely because of their transparency. And he is scathing in his condemnation of post-Zionists who argue that Israel must be transformed into a secular state while at the same time preaching a self-determination for the Palestinians that would preserve their Arab identity 'as part of the surrounding Arab and Islamic world.'

I imagine that Sharansky is distinguishing as well between nationalism in democratic and repressive societies, because clearly nationalism can be used in a most negative way (which would explain Europe's skittishness about nationalism today.) It is possible that the United States is unique in its trans-ethnic nationalism (the "melting pot") based on principles of equality and democracy, rather than US-style nationalism being the reason for the relative success of US democracy. Still, Sharansky always brings up very good points, and it is probably a good read.

It is a shame that the White House seems to have fundamentally misunderstood his book "The Case for Democracy," something that might have helped Hamas gain Gaza.

Gaza, 1971

Just saw these two articles in the Time magazine archives, from August 9, 1971:

Robert Aroyo, his wife Preeti, and their children Marc-Daniel, 7, and Abigail, 4, had lived in Israel only eight months. Born on Malta, raised in England, Aroyo abandoned an advertising job in London to bring his family to the land of promise, where he felt they all belonged. Settled in the Tel Aviv suburb of Kiron, the Aroyos often spent Sabbaths touring their new country. One bright Saturday they set out south to visit a seaside nahal, or fortified camp, in the Sinai below El Arish.
Mahmoud Slieman Zak, 15, sat in the shade of an old building beside the highway that bisects the strip and gossiped idly with a friend. He was an indifferent pupil in school and wanted only to become a fulltime member of the Palestinian guerrillas for whom he had already been on eleven grenade-tossing missions. That morning Mahmoud fondled a grenade, wondering whether a target would present itself.
Carefully, the Aroyos checked with Kiron police before setting out on their trip to the nahal called Yam. The police saw no danger in their driving back to Tel Aviv by way of Gaza. Aroyo, therefore, was unconcerned as he reached the town of Gaza. The only thing he noticed on the road ahead of him was an old abandoned Seven-Up bottling plant.
Mahmoud's heart leaped. From the orange license plate on the slowly approaching car, he knew it was an Israeli and not a silver-tagged Gaza vehicle. Mahmoud' s friend, Wasfi Mussa Masharawi, 16, sauntered out into the middle of the street, forcing the car to slow to a crawl. Mahmoud tossed his grenade into a rolled-down window. The grenade had a four-second fuse, and he was gone before the explosion.
Aroyo braked his car to keep from hitting the boy who had walked out into the road in front of him. He never saw the missile that flew through the open window of his Cortina and landed on the back seat beside the children. All he heard was a muffled explosion and Abigail's cry, "Daddy, Daddy!" The back seat was bloody when he looked. Beside him Preeti moaned, "My back is broken."
Wasfi Mussa Masharawi watched indifferently as the man staggered out of the car, cradling a bleeding girl in his arms. He ran away when the man pleaded with him for help.
Abigail was dead by the time the Israeli military helicopter arrived. Marc-Daniel died soon after. Aroyo buried them on the Mount of Olives, smoothing the dirt over their graves with his own hands. Then he hurried back to the Beersheba hospital where his wife was being treated for injuries to the spine and pelvis that took six months to heal.
...After the tragedy Aroyo was a crushed man, hut he strained to be compassionate. "I do not hate the people who did this," he said.

Israel connected Gaza to its electric grid, drummed up potential business and even encouraged tourism to aid the territory. But Gaza's 390,000 residents were—and still are—unremittingly hostile. So far this year seven Israelis and 206 Arabs have been killed in the Strip. Last week alone seven Arab guerrillas were shot to death, two of them killed in a fight at the Shati camp, one of eight United Nations refugee camps in the Strip.
One reason for Israel's failure to pacify Gaza is the nature of the land. It is an elongated, desperately poor 25-mile finger of desert, which has little more than citrus groves in the way of resources. Some 11,000 Gazans have found work in Jordan's occupied West Bank and 5,500 others in Israel itself. But the Palestinian who "collaborates" with the Israelis is a marked man. Last February, 61 Arabs were wounded when guerrillas blew up the main post office in the town of Gaza where they were cashing their Israeli paychecks.