Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 03, 2008

Today's PalArab press roundup

A young man, whose age is being variously given as 17, 19 or 20, was shot and killed in Khan Younis. According to Palestine Today, he was a member of Islamic Jihad. A bus full of Hamas supporters were passing by, clapping and singing, and the victim asked them to stop singing because they were passing a funeral home. An altercation broke out, starting with rock throwing but escalating quickly into gunfire.

Hamas is calling reports out of Israel that Americans are helping Egyptians find tunnels - 42 in September alone - "fabricated," saying it is a Zionist plot to cause division between Hamas and Egypt.

Members of Hamas met with Mahmoud Abbas for two hours last night to discuss re-unification - in other words, ways that the PA can become even more terrorist than it already is.

"Lofa", which seemes to be a PA-aligned "human rights" monitoring group, accused Hamas of 21 human rights violations between September 19-28. These include murder, abductions, torture and attacking worshippers at a mosque.

The PCHR, which normally publishes its own exhaustive list of supposed Zionist crimes every Thursday, has not done so this week as of yet. However, it completely believed "eyewitnesses" who lied saying that "settlers" murdered a Palestinian Arab shepherd a few days ago.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 192.

Two lame ducks

One of the frustrating parts about Olmert's public announcements of abject surrender to everything Palestinian Arabs are demanding, with no real quid pro quo, is that Olmert represents no one. He is still legally the prime minister but he has no mandate; yet he is hell-bent on achieving this great Zionist defeat and victory for terrorism.

Less reported, though, is the fact that Abbas has no mandate either. According to PA law, since amended by the truncated PA parliament, Abbas' term ends in January 2009, and Hamas has already stated that they will no longer recognize Abbas as president after that date. Since much of Olmert's surrender involves doubling the size of Hamastan into the Negev, this is no small matter.

It is ironic that Israel's greatest hope to not make a catastrophically stupid capitulation is the disunity and weakness of their enemies.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon....

Thousands of Syrian troops are massed at the northern border of Lebanon.

The Lebanese that still care about their independence from Syria are not happy:

In recent declarations following Monday’s explosion in Tripoli, former President Amine Gemayel and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea have both expressed their worries concerning Syria’s heavy military deployment and President Bachar al Assad’s recent declarations comparing Lebanon to Georgia.

Amine Gemayel insisted that the deployment of Syrian troops along the northern border of Lebanon is “not innocent”.

Samir Geagea considered that Assad’s statement following Monday’s explosion in Tripoli is “extremely dangerous”. Lebanese Forces added that the statement “clearly shows that (Assad) is preparing Syria for another military interference in Lebanon. Some of the cells of Fatah al Islam, which are the making of Syrian intelligence are still active in Tripoli and wanted to take revenge from the army”.

Other Lebanese think that Syria will attack under the pretext of stopping Islamist groups in northern Lebanon.

The Syrians have given different reasons for the buildup - first to say that they were to stop smugglers (which Amir Taheri finds laughable), and then to say that it was part of a deal with Lebanon to "avert problems."

Say goodbye to any chance for a truly independent Lebanon.

That Arab yearning for peace

In Bahrain, a surprising proposal:

The foreign minister of staunch US ally Bahrain has called for the creation of a regional grouping of Arab states with historic foe Israel, as well as Iran and Turkey, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"Israel, Iran, Turkey and Arab states should sit together in one organisation," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa was quoted in the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat as saying.
"Aren't we all members of a global organisation called the United Nations? Why not (come together) on a regional basis? This is the only way to solve our problems. There's no other way to solve them, now or in 200 years."
Al-Hayat, which interviewed the Bahraini chief diplomat in New York, said he had proposed the establishment of a regional bloc in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

And an unsurprising response:

an NGO yesterday slammed the Foreign Minister's comments.
"We are dismayed and outraged at such repeated normalisation overtures with the Zionist enemy,"

Bahrain Anti-Normalisation Organisation's secretary general Abdulla Abdulmalik said.

"Such moves represent an affront to our parliament and public opinion, who are totally inimical to any form of normalisation."

He accused the minister of disregarding MPs, Bahraini people and civil society, who unflinching support the Palestinian struggle.

He described it as the translation of the American pro-Israel project in the Middle East, also known as the Greater Middle East.

"The moribund Arab League Peace Initiative at least acknowledges the Palestinians' basic legitimate rights," he said, accusing the minister of seeking to normalise with Israel for free.

Media Line notes:

While Bahrain's leadership has been willing to meet with Israeli officials, it is a nation led by a Sunni dynasty ruling a Shi’ite majority, making greater change unlikely.

We have heard from this Bahraini organization before.

Allah Akhbar - BOOM!

Via Weasel Zippers comes this awesome video - meant as propaganda for "Hamas in Iraq" - that shows jihadis trying to shoot a rocket at US soldiers and blowing themselves up instead.

Why they packaged this up as some sort of victory is anyone's guess. I imagine if death is so wonderful, it doesn't matter much how it is achieved...

WARNING: This video includes a dying jihadi - with an instant replay in slow motion, no less - and really obnoxious jihadi singing.

The New York Sun, 2002-2008

The New York Sun folded on October 1. Here is part of an article about its demise by Sol Stern at the City Journal:

As I have done every weekday morning for the past few years, I opened the door of my apartment yesterday to pick up my copy of the New York Sun. Immediately, I spotted the headline above the fold announcing the paper’s demise. No surprise, of course. All of us who counted ourselves as the Sun’s friends knew this day was coming. Still, the paper’s demise is a profoundly sad moment for the city. It feels as if a cherished and inspirational colleague has passed away and, moreover, that our democracy and civic life are diminished.

...But the single greatest void left by the death of the Sun will likely be its principled commitment to telling the unvarnished truth about the great struggle of our times—the battle between democratic civilization and the forces of worldwide jihad. In some respects, the Sun was a Jewish paper in its editorial management, its financial backing, and its staff. And it didn’t try to hide its passions or equivocate about the moral imperative of defending Israel. It was openly Zionist at a time when that label has become a term of disdain in the sophisticated world of liberal opinion. It refused to be deterred by the bogus charge of “dual loyalty” hurled by academics like Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer and nervous Jewish journalists like Time magazine’s Joe Klein. Almost every week for the past six-plus years, the Sun ran a column by the brilliant Israeli (originally American) writer Hillel Halkin that invited readers to see Israeli democracy and society, warts and all, from the inside. More than any other daily newspaper of our time, the Sun helped its readers understand that in standing up for the defense of Israel, they were also standing up for the defense of America.

I have quoted the Sun often in this blog, and it has done many stories that one would simply not see elsewhere. It will be sorely missed.

PalArab news roundup

Here's some of what's been happening during the past couple of days:

A 16-year old PalArab girl from Jenin was arrested by Israel for planning a suicide bombing in Netanya. Apparently, information about her plans came from the PA security services.

A 17-year old boy was killed by "stray bullets" in Rafah while visiting a friend.

Hamas is accusing Fatah of torturing a prisoner to death. Fatah denies it, saying that he died from illness. I don't have enough information to call this one a "self-death."

Some 150 children in Gaza have been injured from toy guns. It seems that "toy guns" in Gaza shoot plastic bullets that can cause serious injuries, especially to eyes. But they are very popular; the peace-loving Gazans like to buy these guns for their kids for Eid.

On Monday, a shell from Gaza aimed at Israel fell short and landed on the Gaza size of the fence.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 191.

Shana Tova u'Metuka! ! שנה טובה ומתוקה

May this be a year of peace, happiness, blessings, prosperity, and redemption!

Today's search terms

Here's how one can tell that it is almost Rosh Hashanah - my blog is Google's number one link for "Shana Tova u'Metuka"! (Because last year's post was so popular in recent days, and Isaw people were looking for how to write it in Hebrew, I added the Hebrew to the title this year - and already it surpassed my last-year post in Google.)

These are the keywords that people are using to find me today, in order of popularity:

shana tova u metuka
shana tova wishes
shana tova u'metuka
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elder of ziyon
www.sagangor
shana tova ve metuka
shana tova u'metuka in hebrew letters
shanna tova u'metuka
shana tova u metuka! means
chomsky zionist
jewish humor shana tova
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dalal mughrabi
saudi women preachers
shana tova wishes in english
adnan al-baitouni
nazi paratroopers
kidnaping soldiers jewish
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druze jerusalem post
cleric targets mickey mouse
shana tova u'metuka translate
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umetuka wikipedia
bahrain gays
shanah tovah wishes
images of non violent protests
sumaya al yusuf
falaka in ramadan series
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fallisi, joe opera
shana tova u' metuka
g'mar chatima tovah
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'gay bahrain'
saudi gazette
succes of the israeli wall
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press release about a bank taking over another bank
g'mar chatimah tovah
u'metuka
lbj took 2000 jews to israel
street harassment of female joggers
muhammad seif al-islam
shanah tova u metuka
jihad photos
shimon peres speech to un
qods day
good yom tov
metuka translation
has obama ever met prince al-walid bin talal bin abdul aziz al saud
egypt hijab
stuff they found by the kotel
shimon peres
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hebrew alphabet handwriting style
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grenades for sale
o servant of allah, o muslim, this is a jew behind me, come and kill him
shana tova metuka
shaná tová u metuká
chatima in hebrew
shanah tova u metuka translate
shimón peres, new year speach
anti semitism financial crisis
sigheh mashad islamic temporary marriage
g'mar chatima tova
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prostitution in islam

A Palestinian vendor sells sweets as Muslims prepare for the Eid-al-Fitr festival in the southern Gaza Strip September 28, 2008. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)

The packaging on the candy boxes is in Hebrew.

(Although it is possible that the vendor is using old boxes as display cases. "Medjool" is a type of date.)

Abbas in 2007 accused Israel of "desecrating holy places"

I couldn't find Mahmoud Abbas' full speech at the UN this year, but his speech last year included an amazing libel against Israel that I do not recall anyone condemning him for:

Is it not time for the city of Jerusalem to become a city of true peace for all peoples of faith from all religions, and for Israel, the occupying Power, to cease all actions aimed at altering the character of the sacred city, imposing siege on it and forcing its inhabitants to leave, and desecrating the Christian and Islamic holy places in the city?

This is an outrageous lie, and it far better fits the description of how Arabs have historically taken care of the city rather than how Jews did.

Yet I do not recall the Israeli government angrily condemning Abbas for this libelous claim, let alone other Western nations.

When a supposed "peace partner" cannot be trusted to tell the truth, how much weight should one give to his promises?

Religion of Peace firebombs book publisher

From the Guardian (h/t Yerushalimey):

The London home of the publisher of a controversial new novel that gives a fictionalised account of the Prophet Muhammad's relationship with his child bride, Aisha, was firebombed yesterday, hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics.
A petrol bomb is believed to have been thrown through the door of Martin Rynja's £2.5m town house in Islington's Lonsdale Square, which also doubles as the headquarters of his publishing company, Gibson Square. Three men have been arrested on terrorism charges.
The Observer has learned that police told Rynja late on Friday night to leave his property. His company recently made headlines when it announced it was to publish The Jewel of Medina.
Written by US journalist Sherry Jones, the book was due to have been published in August by US giant Random House. But amid controversy the company halted publication, a move denounced by Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, as 'censorship by fear'.
Rynja bought the UK publishing rights earlier this month. 'The Jewel of Medina has become an important barometer of our time,' Rynja said at the time. 'As an independent publishing company, we feel strongly that we should not be afraid of the consequences of debate.'
Yesterday the Metropolitan Police confirmed that three men had been arrested in connection with the incident in Lonsdale Square. Two men aged 22 and 30 were stopped by armed officers in the street outside the property and a third man, aged 40, was arrested near Angel tube station. Police have begun searching four addresses around north-east London - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate.
The men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, and last night were being questioned at a central London police station, a Met spokesman said. Scotland Yard confirmed that a small fire inside the property had been extinguished. 'At this early stage it is being linked with the arrests,' the spokesman said.

This is exactly how Jews, Christians and other religions react when books are published that they feel insulted by, right?

Anatomy of a supposed "settler attack"

Ma'an, as well as the rest of the PalArab media, reports:

Israeli settlers executed an 18-year-old shepherd boy in the fields outside Aqraba, a town in the Nablus district of the northern West Bank.

Village municipal affairs representative Ghassan Douglas identified the young man as Yahya Atta Riahin. Douglas said that a gang of Israeli settlers from Itamar settlement shot the boy at least 20 times at close range.

Yahya did not return home with his sheep for the fast-breaking meal, Iftar. His family alerted the neighbors and the whole village organized a search party to look for the missing boy.

His body was found in fields between the illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar and the villages of Aqraba and Awarta.

According to Douglas, eyewitnesses reported seeing a white vehicle driven by Israeli settlers stop, chase down the boy and shot him directly.

We have here a story that only exists in the Palestinian Arab press and its veracity depends on a politician who claims that eyewitnesses saw it. (Some of the Arabic press is more lurid, claiming that the settlers beheaded the victim.)

None of the Israeli media has picked up on this story nor has any wire service.

Besides the fact that it is highly implausible that a carful of settlers was driving around just to kill a random Arab shepherd for no reason, there is another problem with this story: it supposedly happened on the Jewish Sabbath.

It had to have happened before the Sabbath was over, because the dead youth would have made sure to make it home to his family at the moment of the Iftar meal during Ramadan which would be roughly the same time that Shabbat is over.

So now we are supposed to believe that not only were settlers driving around and randomly murdering Palestinian Arabs, but that these supposed religious fanatics were violating the Sabbath to do that?

Sorry, but chances are more likely that the victim was shot by other Arabs, or something completely different happened. As it is, the accusations seem to be just another of a long series of lies.

UPDATE: The Israeli media is now reporting this story. YNet mentions the skepticism that "settlers" have towards being blamed; al-Aretz predictably believes the accusation, which now includes the detail that it happened "late Saturday night" - which means that the shepherd was still alive when he missed his family's Iftar meal, again making no sense.

UPDATE 2: Sure enough, it was not a settler attack. Ma'an reports it came from a grenade, which might indicate either a mistake or a "work accident." (h/t Shimshon)

Iranian "Qods Day" pictures (updated)

Hat tip to commenter Marc El, who noticed that the turnout to this year's Iranian hatefest was pretty poor.

From Iran's Fars News Agency:

No rally is complete without the obligatory burning of the infidel flags:

The "Holy War or Victory" sign shows a kid with a Palestinian Arab flag smashing a Star of David:

"How many must die before YOU act?" says this sign held by an army of veiled drones. Looking at it closer, it appears to show a US soldier shooting bullets that have - corporate logos. (The upper left is clearly Coca-Cola, I couldn't make out the others.) Does this mean that Iran is imposing sanctions on the US? I hadn't noticed.

True love - a Hezbollah supporter and his partner.

Chances are very good that this keffiyeh was manufactured in China.

Can't you feel the love?
UPDATE: A couple more:

This guy should go into advertising.

Finally, someone who admits that the Al Aqsa mosque was built on Jewish land!

"Free Gaza" freaks delayed yet again

There is an old maxim that when someone gives you more than one reason, you can be sure that they are lying:

Foreign activists who planned to sail to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade have delayed their trip to late October, an organizer said on Friday.
Members of the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement had planned to sail to the Palestinian territory from Cyprus this week, but said they were held up while attempting to find a boat.

There were also poor weather conditions in the eastern Mediterranean, and activists did not want their trip to coincide with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a spokeswoman said.

"The only analogy I can think of is like showing up with 22 people you don't know for Christmas dinner," said Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza Movement.

Hmm. If they don't have a boat, the rough seas don't seem to be as big a problem. And isn't it amazing that the people who planned this trip for weeks - includign many Muslims - didn't notice that it was the end of Ramadan?

Their press release, which is not yet on their website, darkly implies that the Jooooz were behind their inability to find a decent boat:

Unfortunately, every time we thought we reached an agreement with a boat owner, our agreement has fallen through, in part, we believe, due to outside pressure. Though it is a very difficult decision to make, we have decided to temporarily delay our voyage.

Yes, that Jewish lobby stops all boat owners from selling their boats to an organization that is still deeply in debt and almost certainly couldn't scrape the money together to pay for it.

Even though their website has mutliple pages begging for money, they don't have the honesty to tell reporters the truth, and would rather blame those nefarious Zionists yet again for their own pathetic inability to do anything remotely useful for Gazans.