Thursday, September 11, 2008

  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
(This post will remain on the top today, scroll down for other posts.)

This is a view of lower Manhattan at around 9:59 AM on September 11, 2006.

It is difficult for people who are unfamiliar with the skyline to understand how huge the twin towers were. I attempted to show in this picture, in a very limited way, the enormity of what was lost.
  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
As if we needed any more proof, here is yet another tie between the "peace activists" of the International Solidarity Movement (and their affiliates in the Free Gaza movement) and the extremist inspiration for al Qaeda and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood.

From the ISM site:
Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege: At 8am this morning (10th September), a first group from the Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege, mainly Labor Party’s members, left Cairo in 4 micro-buses with food and medicine to go and try to break the criminal siege of Gaza.

When they arrived at Ismailia, located at 100 km from Cairo and 30 km from the Suez Canal, the Sinai entrance, the Egyptian police stopped the convoy and took away the driving licences of the drivers, preventing them to go forward

More than 150 people got outside the buses with Palestinian and Egyptian flags and chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians.

Several national forces are participating in this action, including the Committee Against the Gaza Siege, Engineers against Detention, al-Karamah party, Labour Party, Nasserist party, Kifâya, independent lawyers, March 9 Movement, April 6 Movement and Muslim Brotherhood’s members.

Notice how the ISM tries to downplay the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement in this protest, which is clearly a Western-style protest architected by ISM members to begin with (the photos on the site show "activists" doing sit-ins and the like.)

But if you look at the wire-service reports of the protest, the Muslim Brotherhood is mentioned a bit more prominently. From AFP:

The group of judges, independent MPs, members of the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and activists from other parties wants to protest the continued closure of the Rafah crossing by Israel and Egypt.
From Reuters:
Along with many opposition groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition force in the country, favours ending the blockade and opening the border for goods and people.
Not that these other parties are so peaceful either. The Socialist Labor Party is currently illegal in Egypt, and supports the imposition fo Sharia law throughout that nation. In fact, it tried to form a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990 elections.

The Al-Karama party praises Maomar Khaddafi, Libya's loopy dictator not known for his human-rights record.

Yet the ISM happily partners with groups that openly advocate and condone violence, all the while maintaining that it is a "peace" group.

Apparently, the only credentials one needs to be considered a "peace activist" is to advocate the destruction of the US and Israel.

  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Click on image to make it larger.

This was the scene opposite the site of the World Trade Center this morning at 8:46, the moment the first plane crashed into the North Tower seven years ago. The Jersey City Fire Department shot red, white and blue water from a fireboat.

The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the background, next to Ellis Island.
  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Monsters and Critics:
Four Syrians and a Lebanese were killed when a truck loaded with smuggled fireworks from Syria exploded Thursday near the Lebanese-Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, police said.

The alleged fireworks smuggling operation came a few days after a UN team assessing the monitoring of the border said progress in fortifying it had been minimal and remained 'penetrable'.

'Lebanon has not yet succeeded in enhancing the overall security of its borders in any significant manner,' the report said.

Oh yeah. Fireworks.

  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
For the twelfth consecutive week, Palestinian Arabs have managed to kill each other more than the evil IDF has managed to kill them.

The score this week (Thursday-Wednesday) is 3-1. (A Nablus man was reportedly killed by the IDF as they were arresting a known Fatah terrorist, for the first Palestinian death from the IDF in nearly six weeks.)
  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Another man was killed as the tunnel he was helping to dig collapsed under the Gaza/Egypt border.

Following yesterday's explosions aimed at Hamas sites in Gaza, two Fatah men were arrested in a car full of explosives.

Islamic Jihad held its annual Iftar breakfast banquet for "journalists and intellectuals" south of Gaza City. The terrorist speakers stressed to the journalists what an important job they had in telling the world about their side of the story. (Pictures of the banquet here.)

The DFLP threatened to break the "calm" in face of alleged Israeli aggression. Islamic Jihad characterized the "calm" as "scandalous."

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 161.
  • Thursday, September 11, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
From YNet:
In a telephone interview with Ynet on Wednesday, Booth slammed Israel's policies and called Gaza "the largest concentration camp in the world today. I was startled the Israelis agreed to this.”

Despite her current predicament, Booth said she has no regrets. "My children are the ones who are suffering, because I'm being prevented from leaving and they can't see me. I don't regret it, because I wanted to come here and help these children who are suffering on a daily basis," she said.
Apparently, her children miss her but she doesn't miss them too much.
When asked about Israel's right to respond to incessant attacks emanating from Gaza, Booth evoked Holocaust-related rhetoric. "There is no right to punish people this way. There is no justification for this kind of collective punishment. You were in the concentration camps, and I can’t believe that you are allowing the creation of such a camp yourselves.

“The Palestinians’ suffering is physical, mental and emotional," she went on, "there is not a family here in which someone is not in desperate need of work, shelter or food. This is a humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur. "
Indeed, I have photographic evidence of the terrible conditions these concentration-camp inmates have to suffer through.

On the very same day that Lauren Booth gave this interview, Islamic Jihad held their annual Iftar breakfast for journalists south of Gaza City in a restaurant. Palestine Today covered the event.

Note the distended stomachs, the threadbare clothing, the suffering faces, and the awful humanitarian conditions that these brave Gazans are forced to survive in, day in and day out:


I don't know about you, but when I first saw these pictures the very first word that came to my mind was "Darfur!"

I was so surprised to find out that the deplorable conditions seen in these pictures did not take place in sub-Saharan Africa or in a Nazi concentration camp.

Poor Lauren, forced to witness such wide-scale suffering and starvation.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

  • Wednesday, September 10, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
I like a good parody, but sometimes one finds a real-life story that is so way beyond parody that even if someone would have invented such an over-the-top character, no one would have found it believable enough to be humorous:
The Shondes, a four-piece political post-punk band from New York City, are the outsiders' outsiders, but they wear that badge with pride.

This queer political band, heavily influenced by riot grrrl and queercore as well as traditional Jewish music, gets its name from the Yiddish word for “shame” or “disgrace.” Three-quarters of the band are Jewish and three-quarters are trans.

The band's in-your-face, dramatic debut album, The Red Sea, has created comparisons to the now defunct all-girl rock trio Sleater-Kinney as well as political punk Patti Smith.

Windy City Times spoke with drummer Temim Fruchter right after they kicked off their long, fall tour.

WCT: I noticed that several of you are involved in Jews Against the Occupation ( an anti-Zionist organization ) . How much would you say Judaism influences your music, your sound? Obviously, it influences your life.

TF: I would say just as much as any aspect of our lives influences our music. For the three of us, Judaism is pretty central to who we are. So, we sort of bring that to the table as much as our activism, as much as the other stuff and components we bring to the music.

WCT: And all of your either identify as queer or trans, as well, so I'm sure it's just as important as that aspect of your life.

TF: Exactly.

WCT: Since many of your are involved in both Jewish activism, as well as the queer community, I was wondering if you ever receive any negative feedback from the Jewish community, or for the most part, are most people really progressive and welcoming?

TF: We definitely encountered people in various communities who have been challenged by some of views, particularly about Israel-Palestine, and those are some of the conversations with more mainstream Jewish outlets, so that isn't part of the subject. But we've mostly just had productive and interesting conversations. Definitely, overall, we constantly have supportive audiences—people who are really interested in the music, but people who are also interested in the content and are either challenged by it and talk about it, or support it and are excited that there is music that is affirming that content.

It always fascinated me that "Jewish activists" have completely disregarded Judaism for activism, and instead use Judaism as an excuse to justify their causes. They usually use the words "Tikkun Olam," or "perfecting the world."

That term has been mostly popularized by Tikkun Magazine, the far-left, pro-Arab magazine founded by fake rabbi and Friend of Hillary Michael Lerner.

The tikkunolam.com site says:
Tikkun Olam, healing and repairing the world, is a primary mission of the Jewish people.

Other recent citations of the phrase can be seen at the Rabbis for Obama site:
Some of us know Senator Obama personally, and we recognize that he has been inspired by Jewish values such as Tikkun Olam and the pursuit of justice, and he is deeply committed as well to a civil discourse between opposing arguments.
One could be excused if one thinks that Tikkun Olam as activism for social issues is a great mitzvah, one of the commandments given by G-d to Jews (or perhaps mankind).

The source for the phrase Tikkun Olam is not the Torah, though, but the Talmud. Many examples of Tikkun Olam are given in Tractate Gittin, but they generally are meant to stop people from doing various sins. None of the Talmudic examples have anything remotely close to what the current users of the phrase have in mind.

Another prominent example is found in the thrice-daily Aleinu prayer, where Jews ask G-d "to perfect the world under God's sovereignty" -- a purely spiritual quest. Later, Kabbalists expanded the concept somewhat but it is still oriented towards Jews doing their own mitzvot, to perfect themselves and thereby helping to repair the world, in a more mystical sense.

Either way, the concept is clearly not biblical and not nearly as expansive as many people assume. The idea has been changed into an amorphous concept that molds to whatever preconceived notions one has about the environment, or justice, or politics, or really any subject one wants. Today, we have a strange situation where the phrase is used to apply to people like the Shondes, who are the antithesis of the concept (and whose name, while meant to be ironic, ends up being anything but.)

This is not to say that the idea of Tikkun Olam is irrelevant. However, if a Jew wants to apply Tikkun Olam to today, he or she needs to increase spirituality, not decrease it; to inspire by adhering to the religion, not by replacing it with some sort of wishy-washy universalist message that has nothing to do with Judaism. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks summed it up nicely:
Our task is to become a particular living example of a set of universal truths, and therefore the conflict between the universal and the particular in Judaism is not a conflict at all because it is only by being Orthodox Jews that we are able to mitaken ha’olam - it is only by being true to ourselves that we can be true to other people. Only if we preserve the sanctity of Jewish family can we talk with authority about the sanctity of the family to the world. Only by studying Torah can we speak compellingly about the value of education and human dignity. Only by having the courage to be different can we be role models to the dignity of difference. That is why Tikkun Olam in my view is the special responsibility of we who are the guardians of Torah.
This is a univeralist goal that can only come about from a particularist application of real Jewish laws and ideas, and this is the real meaning behind Tikkun Olam.

UPDATE: Hillel Halkin at Commentary apparently made a similar point last month (full article not online.) h/t EBOZ

EBoZ emailed me the article; it makes many of the points I made but in the context of "40 short essays by a group of American Jewish intellectuals and social activists, all on the Left, appearing in a new book called Righteous Indignation." Many of those essays invoked Tikkun Olam, and, as Halkin writes, almost all of them get it wrong:
And so it goes. Health care, labor unions, public-school education, feminism, abortion rights, gay marriage, globalization, U.S. foreign policy, Darfur: on everything Judaism has a position—and, wondrously, this position just happens to coincide with that of the American liberal Left.

If it is easy to caricature most of the essays in Righteous Indignation, this is because so many of them caricature themselves. They represent the ultimate in that self-indulgent approach, so common in non-Orthodox Jewish circles in the United States today, that treats Jewish tradition not as a body of teachings to be learned from but as one needing to be taught what it is about by those who know better than it does what it should be about. Judaism has value to such Jews to the extent that it is useful, and it is useful to the extent that it can be made to conform to whatever beliefs and opinions they would have even if Judaism had never existed.

...The Jewish public interest is not a concept that plays a role in any of the 40 essays in Righteous Indignation. Just as the authors of these essays take almost no interest in the state of Israel, apart from chiding it for its various alleged faults of racism, religious intolerance, militarism, and so forth, so they take almost no interest in the American Jewish community except insofar as it is prepared to act outside of itself. They want world repair—and they want it now. An end to environmental exploitation! An end to economic injustice! An end to sexual inequality! An end to war! And since the end will not come of itself, let Jews go out into the world and force it.

What is entirely missing from the book and its righteously indignant authors is the slightest sense of the world’s complexity or of the fact that repairing almost anything can involve breaking something else. Yes, it is possible to reduce global warming significantly—but only at the cost of reducing standards of living around the world, including those of the poor. It is possible to let homosexuals marry and raise children like heterosexuals—but only by making heterosexuals wonder what is the point of marrying and raising children. It is possible not to go to war—but only by condemning the people of Iraq to life under a barbaric and aggressive dictatorship, and by continuing to condemn the people of Darfur to an indescribable misery that only military force can put an end to. There are few cost-free solutions to anything.

This is something that those who bandy the phrase tikkun olam might be expected to be aware of.
It is a very nice essay, but only available for subscribers to Commentary.
  • Wednesday, September 10, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
An 11-year old boy was shot and killed in central Gaza; circumstances still unclear.

The IDF and Shin Bet found a 15-kg bomb in Jenin.

Two Hamas sites were bombed in Gaza City, no injuries reported.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 160.
  • Wednesday, September 10, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
A couple of years ago I would regularly point out the huge number of small earthquakes that hit Iran every day. The IRNA "news" agency would publish the details of each event.

IRNA has not done that lately. Which is a shame, because Iran's shaky seismology should be a major concern to everyone who might be affected by a nuclear facility that gets compromised by an earthquake.

But today IRNA was forced to admit an earthquake, because this one was fatal:
A powerful quake measuring six on the Richter scale in Qeshm, Hormuzgan province, claimed three lives and injured 26 people.

Iran's Red Crescent Society has dispatched rescue teams equipped with most sophisticated equipment to the region.

Iran is often shaken by quakes of varying magnitudes as it sits on some of the world's most active seismic fault lines.

While Hormuzgan is not that close to Bushehr or other known nuclear facilities, all of Iran is at danger for earthquakes.

I wonder why the far left, always at the forefront against nuclear power, has been largely silent about Iran's building a nuke plant in a known earthquake zone?

  • Wednesday, September 10, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
How the PA handles demonstrators: Last night a PalArab man was shot by PA security forces as he was demonstrating against a water shortage in a camp north of Bethlehem. Ten more were beaten. (Yesterday it was reported that the man was killed; this morning it is reported that he was injured.)

Caustic terror: A PalArab woman threw acid on the faces of two IDF soldiers at the Huwwara checkpoint. She escaped into Nablus.

Hamas still trying to break strike: Hamas continues to raid the houses of doctors participating in the health-care strike in Gaza. Hamas also closed dozens of free clinics that the striking doctors set up in Gaza City. I have yet to see a "human rights" organization blame Hamas for these kinds of activities; instead making "even-handed" statements about how both sides are wrong.

Trouble in Paradise: There are increasing reports of friction between Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, although they are trying to hold talks in Damascus.

Shocking: A Gazan was killed - apparently electrocuted - while working in a smuggling tunnel on the Egyptian border.

Party of God wants to party: Hezbollah leader Nasrallah hinted that he would attack Israel if Israel does anything "aggressive," even in Gaza.

Another humanitarian crisis in Gaza: A number of articles have complained bitterly about the plastic bag shortage in Gaza, forcing some stores to make bags out of newspapers to sell their goods. Prices for plastic bags have gone way up as some suppliers hoard their inventories. Lauren Booth will have to carry her souvenirs by hand.

"Stupid woman": A Gazan man, probably a municipal worker or teacher, divorced his "stupid" wife because she didn't want him to continue his Fatah-encouraged strike in Gaza.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

  • Tuesday, September 09, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
I just ran the Hamas Charter through Wordle. It tells you pretty much what you need to know:

  • Tuesday, September 09, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Brian of London at Israellycool notices a May interview with Barack Obama:
Right off the bat he reaffirmed that Hezbollah is “not a legitimate political party.” Instead, “It’s a destabilizing organization by any common-sense standard. This wouldn’t happen without the support of Iran and Syria.”

I asked him what he meant with all this emphasis on electoral and patronage reform. He said the U.S. should help the Lebanese government deliver better services to the Shiites “to peel support away from Hezbollah” and encourage the local populace to “view them as an oppressive force.” The U.S. should “find a mechanism whereby the disaffected have an effective outlet for their grievances, which assures them they are getting social services.”

When has US aid ever convinced a hostile population to change their allegiances? Has Egypt become pro-US with the billions it gets every year? This is dangerously naive.

But it gets worse:

The U.S. needs a foreign policy that “looks at the root causes of problems and dangers.” Obama compared Hezbollah to Hamas. Both need to be compelled to understand that “they’re going down a blind alley with violence that weakens their legitimate claims.” He knows these movements aren’t going away anytime soon (“Those missiles aren’t going to dissolve”), but “if they decide to shift, we’re going to recognize that. That’s an evolution that should be recognized.”
What, exactly, are Hezbollah's "legitimate claims"? Hezbollah is not a Palestinian Arab movement; it is a Shiite movement with the single-minded goal of destroying Israel. Is Obama saying that there is a small amount of legitimacy in that goal?

And what about Hamas? Their "claims" are for 100% of Israel to become an Arab Islamic nation, and eventually part of a new Islamic 'ummah. They aren't asking for an independent Palestinian Arab state - somethign they effectively have already. They want Israel destroyed as well. Where, exactly, is the "legitimacy" there?

Obama doesn’t broadcast moral disgust when talking about terror groups, but he said that in some ways he’d be tougher than the Bush administration. He said he would do more to arm the Lebanese military...
Back in May it was already clear that the Lebanese military had zero interest in restraining Hezbollah, or even regarded it as an enemy. It certainly hasn't done anything to stop the smuggling of weapons into Southern Lebanon and it has not asked the UN to help in stopping Hezbollah activities - something that it has the right to do under UN 1701.

This is the sort of touchy-feely, "root cause" based foreign policy that we can expect from Barack Obama. Give people who already don't like you money and weapons, and they'll suddenly become loyal friends - and they will also turn against those who they are ideologically tied to.

  • Tuesday, September 09, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
A terrorist that Israel released last month will marry another terrorist that Israel released the month before. Will the first son be named "Jihad"?

Mahmoud Abbas will extend his presidency by an additional year without elections, after consulting with legal experts who agreed that it is all fine and dandy. He also threatened to pursue legal actions against Hamas for terrorism, bringing Hamas to the Hague if necessary.

Hamas, meanwhile, declared all of Abbas' decrees to be null and void retroactive to July 3rd saying that the Palestinian Legislative Council has not approved any of them. Hamas is attempting to create its own alternative or successor to the PLC.

Members of the Al-Qaeda inspired Jaysh al Ummah group is calling on Hamas to release their leader, Abu Hafss, arrested last week. Reuters thinks that Hamas arrested him after they got some "exclusive" photos of their training in Gaza (this picture is from a second round of photos.) However, Hamas clearly gives Jaysh al-Ummah as much room in "crowded" Gaza as they need for training.

Israel is planning to build a joint Israel-Arab industrial zone in the northern West Bank to employ some 10,000 Palestinian Arabs and 2,000 Israelis. It will be funded by the US and EU to the tune of some $200 million and will ultimately end up exactly like Erez did in Gaza.

Egypt killed two more Sudanese trying to get into Israel.

UPDATE: A PalArab man was shot and killed as he was demonstrating against a water shortage in a camp north of Bethlehem. The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 159.
Reuters has a series of photos published this morning that depict a Ramadan play being performed in Iran:

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard perform in a play at their military base in northeastern Tehran, September 8, 2008. The play tells the story of the history of human creation till the time of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) and Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN)

As of this writing, there is no accompanying news story, so we cannot see too many details about this clearly important cultural event that has Reuters sending out no fewer than nine separate photos of the play over their wires.

Guess what? This play seems to have a special obsession with Jews. Reuters, using the identical caption as above, shows us another scene:
But perish the thought that Reuters should use the word "anti-semitic" in their description of the play. No, it's just a factual play that shows an accurate depiction of world history, crammed into a couple of hours. And if the Star of David happens to be equated with the swastika, well, isn't that history in Reutersville?

I wonder if the Spanish Inquisition is a song-and-dance number?

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