Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, November 09, 2008

The Arab world's nightmare

As we have seen in the past, the Iraqi refugees of Palestinian Arab origin are symbolic of the hatred that the Arab world has for Palestinian Arabs. The UNHCR has tried mightily for years to find permanent homes for these people, kicked out of Iraq, but no Arab country (save for a cynical Sudan) has offered to help.

The only countries that do help - Canada, Iceland, Chile and a few others - are vilified by Arabs who pretend to care about their Palestinian brethren, and the reason is clear: to them, "resettlement" means that the refugees will no longer be pawns in the gigantic game of pressuring Israel. Every Palestinian Arab who no longer sits in stateless misery is one less bullet against Israel. The very idea of Palestinian Arabs becoming full citizens of Arab countries is treated as blasphemy, an idea that the UNRWA tried to push in the 1950s but was so violently rebuffed that it became the largest perpetuator of PalArab pain in the guise of gigantic, ever growing "refugee camps."

And the only people that get hurt are Palestinian Arabs themselves. The Arab world congratulates itself on maintaining "Palestinian unity" but it is just a code word for Palestinian Arab misery.

The very few that manage to escape are the proof.

An article in the "Women's International Perspective" about a handful of these Iraqi refugees that made it to Chile includes the words that no Arab leader, and especially no Palestinian Arab leader, wants to see:

Five months into their time in Chile, a strong sense of community is already apparent within Villa La Pina; the refugee children sit playing in the courtyard with their Chilean counterparts and make valiant efforts at playing the traditional game of trompos. As we talk to Basem, his front door is left open and the daughter of the Chilean family next door wanders in and out, enchanted by the newest addition to the Hamlawis – baby Tabarak. At just six days old, Tabarak is the first of the new immigrants to receive full Chilean nationality, although she will be brought up reminded of her heritage. When we ask for a photo of the new baby with her mother, 18 year old Isra, Basem disappears and returns with two Palestinians scarves which he drapes proudly around his young family.

The Chilean based campaign Transforma el dolor en amor (Transform the pain into love) works to promote the refugees’ right to return to the Palestinian homeland. Despite the refugees’ obvious attachment to their nation, however, the relocation to Chile seems to be considered as a permanent move. “I have no intention of going back,” Thamer tells me, “I live in Chile now.”

These are the words that send chills up the spines of Abbas, Assad and other Arab leaders whose positions are based on the existence of an oppressed Palestinian Arab population.

Because if the "refugees" can be resettled and become happy and productive parts of other nations, their so-called "leaders" lose one of their biggest weapons that keep them in power.

Auschwitz blueprints discovered: the banality of evil

The Jerusalem Post reports on an article in Bild about the discovery of original blueprints for Auschwitz that leave no doubt as to its purpose:

The German newspaper Bild published never-before-seen architectural plans of the Auschwitz extermination camp on Saturday that reveal, in their unequivocally marked sections, that everyone involved in the operation of Auschwitz knew full well that it was intended for the systematic extermination of human beings, the paper said.

The floor plans, cross-sections and maps on yellowing paper, mostly on a scale of 1:100, were reportedly found during the evacuation of an abandoned Berlin apartment. They were drawn up between 1941 and 1943.

The 28 documents include detailed blueprints of prisoner barracks, gas chambers marked clearly Gaskammer (Gas chamber) in a gothic-inspired font and a cross-section of the gate into which the rails of trains entered carrying Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled persons and other people the National Socialists sent to die.

One of the maps carries the handwritten signature of Gestapo commander Heinrich Himmler.

The plans were not construction plans but were drawn after Auschwitz-Birkenau was built (on the foundations of an old military base from the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

On January 20, 1942, Nazi officials met in the resort of Wannsee east of Berlin where they devised the Final Solution, and this has traditionally been taken by historians as the beginning of the Nazis' extermination campaign.

One of the drawings, predating the Wannsee Conference by eight months, sheds new light on the chronology of the German genocide machine.

Dr. Hans-Dieter Kreikamp, chief director of the Bundesarchivs, the federal archives in Berlin, said the find was of "extraordinary importance."

"The plans are authentic certificates of a systematically planned genocide of European Jews," Bild quoted Kreikamp as saying.

As the plans show a "Laundry and shower room" leading into a "Dressing room" and then to the "Gas chamber," there could be no doubt of the purpose of the large room marked Gaskammer.

The documents rebut the last of those who would deny the Holocaust, Bild said in its report.

To understand the sheer number of people involved in and complicit with the world largest death factory, I want to concentrate on one tiny tidbit.

Here is the plan for the gas chamber:

"Vorraum" is the vestibule, "Schleuse" are locks and "Gaskammer" is the gas chamber itself. Outside the vestibule are a "dressing room" and a "laundry and shower room."

Think about how much effort went into the plans themselves. Forget the hundreds of workers who used those plans to actually build the death camp - just the anonymous architects and draftsmen who had to calculate the sizes of these "dressing rooms" and "shower rooms," and how exactly to build airlocks between deadly gas-filled room and the rest of the structure. Note the German efficiency of ensuring that there is a separate entrance and exit, to make the factory that much more effective.

Someone decided that a Gothic font would be the most appropriate one to use to describe "gas chamber." A different, meticulously hand-drawn font was used for the blueprints of the crematorium itself.

Another person thoughtfully drew some trees on each side fo the crematorium, with a chimney a little off the center.

These are utterly ordinary architectural drawings, complete with cross-hatchings to symbolize where brickwork would be. People drew up these plans, consulted with their superiors about details, asked questions about the dimensions and uses of the buildings so they could be designed more efficiently and modified the blueprints accordingly. They were meticulously drawn with pride and a sense of accomplishment.

The draftsmen went home to their families after a day of drawing exacting representations of gas chambers and crematoria, they ate hearty meals and told jokes about their workday.

These are only a small number of the many who knew quite well what was happening during the Holocaust, and they all deserve a special place in hell.

Gaza quintuplets named after terrorists

Haniyeh "ready for serious dialogue with Obama"

Firas Press reports that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has declared that he is ready to have a "real and serious" dialogye with President-elect Obama.

He hopes that Obama "learns from the mistakes of the previous administration" and not to remain aligned with Israel.

He made these statements while visiting a new mother of quintuplets in the West Bank, who named the babies after Hamas leaders.

Sorry, this joke doesn't translate well.
(h/t Yisrael Medad)

"Insult to Islam" of the day

From Lebanese news source Menassat:

The Moroccan Ministry of Communication banned the entry of the international-edition of the French daily L’Express to Morocco on October 31 because of a report that was published in its October 30 issue.

One of the articles was titled "Jesus, the rebel message," and another “Mohammad, prophet and warrior”, to establish the differences between Islam and Christianity.

Managing editor Christian Makarian said he didn't understand this reaction because the articles deal about the conflicting relation Islam can have with other religions, but never contained any defaming or offensive sentences.

The Moroccan Ministry of Communication simply banned the publishing of this newspaper, declaring that the report is “an insult to Islam”, based on article 29 of the Moroccan Press Code, which permits the ban of newspapers “when they insult Islam, the royal regime, the territorial integrity, the respect to the King and the public order.”

Magazine staff are surprised and don’t seem to understand why they are being blamed.

Preemptive measures were taken: in order to respect the Moroccan sensibilities, the face of Mohammad was veiled, in conformity with Islam to not show the face of the Prophet.

No precise article was mentioned, which means the whole report is suspected.

However, the report doesn’t bring any new information. The articles were inspired by Christian Makarian’s book, The confrontation: Jesus-Mohammad, with the sub-title, Jesus and Mohammad don’t speak of the same God.

According to the site algerie-dz, the part entitled, Mohammad, prophet or warrior, was the reason behind the ban, which would be a paradox, knowing that the Sira as well as the Quran described the warrior activities of Mohammad, even mentioning how he distributed his loot.

The document, going back to the Quran, also reminds that the Holy book mentioned that the “previous ones”, the Thora as well as the Gospels, were falsified, and that the Christians will add Mary to the Trinity.

Hence, the comparison between the Bible and the Quran, is difficult, with the ill-established bases.

“In respect to the religious sensitivity of our Moroccan readers,” adds Makarian, we took care to conceive a cover specially dedicated to the international edition, with the face of Mohammad being veiled, in conformity to Islams customs.

The image used is issued from an Ottoman manuscript of the XVI century and was not modified. Despite this special attention that shows our respect to the Moroccan public and Islam, we were banned. I don’t understand.”

Of course he doesn't understand. He thinks that there is a logic behind what Muslims will consider insulting.

Meanwhile, in Gaza....

Hamas arrested 50 Fatah members at a meeting in Gaza, on the eve of the unification negotiations in Cairo. This must be what is called a "confidence-building measure" in that part of the world.

And since they were in the mood, Hamas also arrested three journalists from Fatah's Ramattan News Agency. (I saw that they had detained an AFP reporter yesterday but cannot find the story now. Reporters Without Borders, as usual, is silent.)

And for the hat-trick, Hamas also raided some sort of computer laboratory in Gaza City, also associated with Fatah, and arrested the Fatah-linked governor of Gaza there.

Labor MK gives best reason to oppose Labor/Kadima

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Kadima and Labor parties are warning that a Netanyahu government would be disastrous for Israel because Obama and Bibi would not get along:

Labor and Kadima MKs said that Netanyahu was "too much of a Republican" to get along with Democrat Obama. They warned that electing Netanyahu in the February 10 general election would be a recipe for deteriorating ties between Israel and its closest ally in the world.

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni hinted at Netanyahu when she warned that "if Israel puts itself in a corner and is seen as rejecting diplomatic processes, we could enter an era that is worse than the current one."

This is exactly wrong. The PA has not been exactly dovish concerning the "peace process" by any objective measure; only compared to Hamas and the other "extremists." Nevertheless, the US sends Condoleeza Rice every couple of months to genuflect before Abbas, even though he has made no concessions on fundamental issues - and the PA leadership has made very clear they have no intention on any real compromise in the future.

The reason that the US pressures Israel is because Israeli leadership sends signals that it is ready to keep conceding more and more for an illusory "peace." Instead of pointing to Gaza as an object lesson of the futility of concessions, Olmert and his people tell the US with their actions and words that they are prepared to keep on giving in exchange for worthless and unenforceable promises.

Israel's leaders have co-opted the positions of their extreme Left of ten years ago. There is no way that Yitzchak Rabin would have countenanced someone from his party saying this:

"It would be a missed opportunity if we elect Netanyahu," Labor MK Ophir Paz-Pines said. "Netanyahu's English is fluent, but they still won't understand each other. Obama will try to advance the peace process from day one, and he can do it, because he has more trust from the Arab world than his predecessor.

"Then Netanyahu would say no to the Saudi peace plan, no to dividing Jerusalem, no to withdrawing from the Golan. That's why it's so important that the center-Left bloc win our election."

One cannot find a better argument against Labor/Kadima than that highlighted sentence. Labor/Kadima says "yes" to every concession and every threat to Israel's existence, and they ridicule those who think that being surrounded by Iranian proxies within short rocket distance from the entire population of Israel is a bad thing. In addition, Labor/Kadima is eager to divest the Jewish State from historical Jewish land and every major Jewish shrine.

Bibi and Likud are far from perfect, but experience shows that standing up for your rights gains you more respect in the West, not less.

5000!

This is my 5000th published posting.

Which brings up the question:

What am I, nuts?

This amusing poster comes from an exhibit at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. It also applies to one current exhibit in its sister museum, the Experience Music Project.

The American Moslem Brotherhood, 1893

In 1893, on the third floor of 30 E. 23rd Street in New York City, was the headquarters of the American Moslem Brotherhood.

The organization was the brainchild of what most consider to be the first American to convert to Islam, named (Mohammed) Alexander Russell Webb.

Webb converted to Islam while he worked in the US Consulate in the Philippines. He then went to India on a fundraising mission to spread the faith to America: (Washington Post, December 21, 1892)

He arrived in New York City in February of 1893, enthusiastic and full of major plans, and quite willing to use the New York Times (Feb. 25, 1893) as his means of spreading Islam in America:

Webb did manage to start an Islamic publishing company as well as a Muslim school and a mosque. But unlike his initial comments, he started backtracking upon the goal of converting Americans to Islam, now saying that he only wanted to educate them about Mohammedeanism. (NYT 10/8/1893)

And a milestone was achieved in December of 1893, as the Muslim call to prayer was first sounded in New York City: (12/11/1893 NYT)

But all was not Paradise for Mr. Webb. He got into a dispute with one of his workers at the publishing company and she barricaded herself in the office demanding to be paid money he owed her. (This is the first article that refers to his organization as the American Moslem Brotherhood.) The worker, Nefeesa Keep, also alleged various monetary indiscretions from Webb, saying that he solicited and took large amounts of money from rich Muslims abroad and used them for his personal needs (7/16/1894):

The first American Muslim convert retaliated by accusing Keep of stealing from the office; Nefeesa turned around and filed a complaint against Webb and his wife on conspiracy charges.

She then added an additional charge of mail fraud:

The following year, an Indian prince came to America to see how his money meant for converting Americans to Islam was being spent, and he left sorely disappointed. The New York Times did a very large piece on this, interviewing both the prince and Webb. Webb strongly denied receiving most of the money from the Nawab and was found to be living in poverty.

Webb again in this interview denied wanting to convert most Americans to Islam.

Webb vigorously defended himself, giving an exact tally to the Times of every amount he received from India.

Things quickly went downhill for Webb and his mission. There was lots of name-calling and blaming, and Webb became disillusioned at the idea of having any success in America. He blamed the lack of funds on his failure as well as some of his partners who split off from him.

Strikingly, even at a time that the media was explicitly racist in many guises, Alexander Russell Webb's faith was treated with respect - there was no "Islamophobia" in America in the late 19th century.

Obama asks son of Israeli to be Chief of Staff

Barack Obama's first choice for White House Chief of Staff is Rahm Emanuel, and it appears likely that he will take the job. The best news about Emanuel can be seen in, of all places, the pro-terror Electronic Intifada website. Its editor, Ali Abunimah, has expressed bitter disappointment that Obama has not been publicly espousing the pro-Palestinian Arab stance of his earlier career, and his description of Emanuel is filled with loathing:

During the United States election campaign, racists and pro-Israel hardliners tried to make an issue out of President-elect Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein. Such people might take comfort in another middle name, that of Obama's pick for White House Chief of Staff: Rahm Israel Emanuel. Emanuel is Obama's first high-level appointment and it's one likely to disappointment [sic] those who hoped the president-elect would break with the George W. Bush Administration's pro-Israel policies. White House Chief of Staff is often considered the most powerful office in the executive branch, next to the president. Obama has offered Emanuel the position according to Democratic party sources cited by media including Reuters and The New York Times. Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1959, the son of Benjamin Emanuel, a pediatrician who helped smuggle weapons to the Irgun, the Zionist militia of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, in the 1940s. Emanuel continued his father's tradition of active support for Israel; during the 1991 Gulf War he volunteered to help maintain Israeli army vehicles near the Lebanon border when southern Lebanon was still occupied by Israeli forces. As White House political director in the first Clinton administration, Emanuel orchestrated the famous 1993 signing ceremony of the "Declaration of Principles" between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. One of the most influential politicians and fundraisers in his party, Emanuel accompanied Obama to a meeting of AIPAC's executive board just after the Illinois senator had addressed the pro-Israel lobby's conference last June. In Congress, Emanuel has been a consistent and vocal pro-Israel hardliner, sometimes more so than President Bush. In June 2003, for example, he signed a letter criticizing Bush for being insufficiently supportive of Israel. "We were deeply dismayed to hear your criticism of Israel for fighting acts of terror," Emanuel, along with 33 other Democrats wrote to Bush. The letter said that Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders "was clearly justified as an application of Israel's right to self-defense" ("Pelosi supports Israel's attacks on Hamas group," San Francisco Chronicle, 14 June 2003). In July 2006, Emanuel was one of several members who called for the cancellation of a speech to Congress by visiting Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki because al-Maliki had criticized Israel's bombing of Lebanon. Emanuel called the Lebanese and Palestinian governments "totalitarian entities with militias and terrorists acting as democracies" in a 19 July 2006 speech supporting a House resolution backing Israel's bombing of both countries that caused thousands of civilian victims. Emanuel has sometimes posed as a defender of Palestinian lives, though never from the constant Israeli violence that is responsible for the vast majority of deaths and injuries. On 14 June 2007 he wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "on behalf of students in the Gaza Strip whose future is threatened by the ongoing fighting there" which he blamed on "the violence and militancy of their elders." In fact, the fighting between members of Hamas and Fatah, which claimed dozens of lives, was the result of a failed scheme by US-backed militias to violently overthrow the elected Hamas-led national unity government. Emanuel's letter urged Rice "to work with allies in the region, such as Egypt and Jordan, to either find a secure location in Gaza for these students, or to transport them to a neighboring country where they can study and take their exams in peace." Palestinians often view such proposals as a pretext to permanently "transfer" them from their country, as many Israeli leaders have threatened. Emanuel has never said anything in support of millions of Palestinian children whose education has been disrupted by Israeli occupation, closures and blockades. Emanuel has also used his position to explicitly push Israel's interests in normalizing relations with Arab states and isolating Hamas. In 2006 he initiated a letter to President Bush opposing United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Dubai Ports World's attempt to buy the management business of six US seaports. The letter, signed by dozens of other lawmakers, stated that "The UAE has pledged to provide financial support to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority and openly participates in the Arab League boycott against Israel." It argued that allowing the deal to go through "not only could place the safety and security of US ports at risk, but enhance the ability of the UAE to bolster the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and violence against Israel" ("Dems Tie Israel, Ports," Forward, 10 March 2006). Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, told Fox News that picking Emanuel is "just another indication that despite the attempts to imply that Obama would somehow appoint the wrong person or listen to the wrong people when it comes to the US-Israel relationship ... that was never true." Over the course of the campaign, Obama publicly distanced himself from friends and advisers suspected or accused of having "pro-Palestinian" sympathies. There are no early indications of a more balanced course.

When Ali Abuminah is angry, this is usually a good sign.

Heroes!

From AP (h/t Weasel Zippers):

With painting of Jesus Christ, top left, and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, top right, late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, bottom left, and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, bottom right, Palestinian painter Waleed Ayyoub adds the last touches on a painting he drew of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, in the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.

"Moderate" Fatah claims Israel inventing history in Jerusalem

As I reported last night, it is not only the "Al Aqsa Foundation" who spoke out against the rebuilding of the ancient and historic Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.

The PA's chief negotiator and former prime minister Ahmed Qurei has slammed the building of the synagogue, calling it a "danger" and furthermore accusing Israel of fabricating a Jewish history in Jerusalem.

In addition, as I wrote, one of the things that really upsets the Arabs is the height of the Hurva. As Palestine News Network writes:

The skyline around Abdullah bin Omar, or Omari Mosque, will be dwarfed by the new synagogue creating the illusion that the Old City of Jerusalem is Jewish.

Yet Jerusalem in 1900 included not one but two tall domed synagogues that dominated the skyline, the Hurva and the Tiferes Yisrael synagogues, as can be seen in the lower right of this picture (click to enlarge):

This picture of Tiferes Yisrael shows how it dominated its immediate surroundings, circa 1940:

An interesting implication about this new kerfuffle is that it proves beyond any doubt that Israel's "moderate" peace partners are anti-Jewish, not only anti-Zionist. The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem has been around since at least Second Temple times but the apparent official policy of the PA is to render it Judenrein, exactly the way Jordan did in 1948 when it demolished 35 synagogues there.

The fact that the PA does not countenance the presence of any Jews or the restoration of destroyed synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem shows that their policy is one of ethnic cleansing, not peace.

Followup on Damascus, 1816

Kashmiri Nomad takes me to task for misreading James Silk Cunningham's description of ">an encounter between the richest Jew in Damascus and a dervish in tattered clothes. He correctly points out that the dervish is not a servant:

The comparison that Buckingham made was not between the richest Jew in all of Damascus and a servant but rather was a comparison between the richest Jew in all of Damascus and a Sufi dervish. For any one in any doubt Muslim societies that venerate the sufic mystical interpretation of Islam that naked tatters wearing dervish would have been in a higher social status than even the prime minister himself . Therefore for elder of ziyon to characterise him as a servant is misleading to say the least.

I wish he would have commented here so I could have corrected it earlier.

While Kashmiri Nomad (who links here often) says this is a case of the "pot calling the kettle black" in terms of today's discrimination that Arabs suffer in Israel, my point still stands: the richest Jew in Damascus still had to spend an entire meal "seated ...with the greatest possible humility on the floor beneath us, at the feet of his superiors who occupied the sofa, first kneeling, and then sitting back while kneeling, on the heels and soles of his feet, with these and his hands completely covered, in an attitude and with an air of the most abject and unqualified humiliation." The visiting Christians and the Muslims in the room enjoyed fine foods and were attended to by servants, while the Jew was given nothing and apparently ignored by the servants, and was denied a place at the table.

So while I certainly was mistaken as to the social standing of dervishes, the point is that in 1816 Damascus, even the most powerful Jews were treated like dirt.

It is undeniable that there is discrimination in Israel against Arabs, but the difference is that it is roundly considered by most to be a bad thing, while in the Muslim world the social discrimination against non-Muslims is an essential feature of the religion.