Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

This round goes to Hamas

For over four months, Israel managed to maintain a "calm" of sorts with Gaza, with the tacit agreement that there will be no attacks from either side. Although in many ways the original agreement was ignored by Hamas - they continued to smuggle in weapons, they continued to build a huge underground terror infrastructure with the cement Israel allowed in under the agreement, and Gilad Shalit turned from an important part of the agreement to someone completely peripheral - Israel did benefit by having residents of Sderot and other Negev communities being able to live relatively normal lives.

There were violations of the calm by Hamas and other Gaza terror groups, but Israel consistently applied a single rule: for every rocket or mortar shot, Israel would shut off the border for at least a day. The response was immediate and, most importantly, consistent. Hamas arrested Islamic Jihad rocket cells and worked to keep at least part of the deal.

Now, Israel is starting to allow supplies to go into Gaza even while under attack.

Bowing to the ever-present international pressure, where moral midgets like the UNHCR's John Ging will continue to insist that Israel open its borders at the very moment that Qassams are falling on Israeli communities, Israel is poised to resume fuel shipments - despite the fact that Hamas is well positioned to get all the fuel it needs from the elaborate network of tunnels under Rafah that provides cooking oil and gasoline at half the price of Israeli fuel.

Today, Hamas tried to send four well-armed terrorists into Israel - but Israel has let them change the rules of the game where such attacks are going to be considered normal, while Israel continues to provide supplies to an entity determined to destroy it.

The status quo has changed and it was not a change in Israel's favor.

THE place for Jewish singles in Dubai!

A friend of mine just told me he is speaking at an upcoming conference in Dubai, and he said that this is the first time he will ever remove his yarmulka for a talk.

I imagine that this is a good move, given that Dubai's Al-Arabiyah TV is advocating the molestation of Israeli Jewish women, but even so I was curious as to how Jews in general do in that booming, multicultural city.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a place for Dubai singles to look for Jewish partners!

Scrappleface on Arafat in 2004

Four years ago I copied this funny piece from Scrappleface. Alas, the link to the original is gone:

Coroner: Arafat Died of Tilex Poisoning

(2004-11-11) -- The coroner for the Palestinian Authority today announced that former Chairman Yassir Arafat died from 'acute Tilex poisoning,' and blamed the CIA and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.

'Infidel agents infiltrated Chairman Arafat's personal quarters and sprayed his bathtub with Tilex, a deadly toxin to certain lifeforms,' said an unnamed spokesman for the coroner. 'We believe the bathtub was poisoned up to two years ago, but Chairman Arafat's exposure came only recently, due to his personal hygiene schedule.'

The coroner said his report 'ensures Mr. Arafat's status as a martyr, which helps to overcome his shameful legacy as the man who signed a peace accord with Israel.'

Happy Death-day, Arafat!

Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of the Egyptian-born lifelong terrorist known as Yasir Arafat.

Palestinian Arabs are mourning the sickening mass murderer. Firas Press has no fewer that 12 articles commemorating his overdue passing.

For a more honest and annotated history of this low-life syphilitic scum, see Honest Reporting's biography.

Hamas aide claims talks with Obama's advisors

I do not have any corroboration for this story, but the Palestine Press Agency is quoting Al Hayat of London as saying that a Hamas aide held talks with Obama's team during the presidential campaign:

Yusuf Ahmed Haniyeh, adviser in the Hamas government, claimed that there was a secret meeting between the leaders of Hamas and advisors to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama in the Gaza Strip.

Yusuf said in an interview broadcast on «London al-Hayat» the "contacts between us and some of his advisers (Obama) came via the Internet and we met some of them in Gaza, but we were cautioned not make any comments about this meeting so as not to negatively affect the electoral campaign, or have the meetings exploited by his Republican rival," John McCain.

He pointed out that "there is still a continuing relationship with Obama advisors," pointing out that he had enjoyed with «fellowship and friendship relationship» with each other when he was resident in the United States. He said that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would send a congratulatory message on the occasion of the Obama's victory in the elections.

One of Obama's advisors did meet with Hamas in what he said was as a member of a think tank and having nothing to do with Obama, and he got (temporarily) fired by the Obama team last May for those contacts.

I never heard the name Yusuf Ahmed Haniyeh before and cannot find the original Al Hayat story, so this should be taken a little skeptically. Such a lie could certainly be politically expedient for Hamas.

UPDATE: I misunderstood the autotranslation; the name of the aide is Ahmad Yousef (YNet has the story now.)

Al-Arabiya suggests all Israeli women deserve to be raped

A female Egyptian lawyer argues, on Al-Arabiya TV, that Arab men should sexually harass Israeli women, and suggests that all Israeli women deserve to be raped. From MEMRI, h/t Atlas):

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on October 31, 2008.

Interviewer: Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam has proposed that young Arab men should sexually harass Israeli girls wherever they may be and using any possible method, as a new means in the resistance against Israel.

[...]

Interviewer: We have with us the lawyer Nagla Al-Imam from Cairo. Welcome. What is the purpose of this proposal of yours?

Nagla Al-Imam: This is a form of resistance. In my opinion, they are fair game for all Arabs, and there is nothing wrong with...

Interviewer: On what grounds?

Nagla Al-Imam: First of all, they violate our rights, and they "rape" the land. Few things are as grave as the rape of land. In my view, this is a new form of resistance.

Interviewer: As a lawyer, don't you think this might expose Arab youth to punishment for violating laws against sexual harassment?

Nagla Al-Imam: Most Arab countries... With the exception of three or four Arab countries, which I don’t think allow Israeli women to enter anyway, most Arab countries do not have sexual harassment laws. Therefore, if [Arab women] are fair game for Arab men, there is nothing wrong with Israeli women being fair game as well.

Interviewer: Does this also include rape?

Nagla Al-Imam: No. Sexual harassment... In my view, the [Israeli women] do not have any right to respond. The resistance fighters would not initiate such a thing, because their moral values are much loftier than that. However if such a thing did happen to them, the [Israeli women] have no right to make any demands, because this would put us on equal terms – leave the land so we won't rape you. These two things are equal.

[...]

I don’t want young Arab men to be interrogated. I want these Zionist girls with Israeli citizenship to be expelled from our Arab countries. This is a form of resistance, and a way of rejecting their presence.

So this Egyptian woman is pretty much telling her countrymen and fellow Arabs to rape any visiting Israeli women.

Just to emphasize: this is an opinion that was aired on the Al-Arabiya channel, based out of "moderate" Dubai, showing the opinion of a lawyer from "moderate" Egypt, essentially condoning the rape of Israeli women.

And they call Jews savages!

Hamas' latest blackout stunt

Since the tahdiya agreement in June, every violation of the "calm" has resulted in Israel stopping food and fuel delivery to Gaza for a day or so.

The daily rocket barrage that started last week likewise resulted in Israel's stopping fuel deliveries since they started, for six days now.

Hamas is using this opportunity to stage blackouts in Gaza, just like they did last year. They claim that they suffer from a shortage of industrial diesel to run their Gaza City power plant. Just like last time, they already staged a candlelight protest to coincide with their first night of sporadic outages!

What they don't say is that 75% of Gaza's electricity is provided by Israel and Egypt directly and that this supply has not been interrupted.

What they are also not saying is that the many tunnels under Rafah now supply more fuel to Gaza than Israel did before the latest attacks - 150,000 liters a day, compared to the 120,000 that Israel was providing.

Not only that, but the Egyptian diesel is cheaper than Israel's, allowing Gazans to purchase fuel at half the price that Israelis pay! Hamas has already informed Israel that they will not need diesel for their fleet of cars, as they are getting that from Egypt.

Even so, Israel is considering resuming shipments of fuel while rockets continue to be shot at Israel. Thankfully, today it decided not to.

While it is probably true that the Egyptian diesel is not suitable for Gaza's power plant, almost certainly Hamas could get its hands on proper industrial diesel to keep the plant going, but it prefers to stage blackouts to gain world sympathy - and cause its citizens to suffer.

Gaza freak, keffiyeh chic

Some of the Hamas-friendly freaks who arrived on the latest Free Gaza boat, members of various world parliaments, decided that terror-chic clothing were de rigueur:

Saudi marries off 12-year old over mother's objections

A new twist in Saudi child abuse:

A Saudi mother filed a complaint with the Jizan police against her ex-husband for marrying off their 12-year-old daughter without the mother’s knowledge.
The woman who has the custody of her daughter claims that her child is too young to get married and the father did not inform her of his plans to marry the girl.
Maj. Ahmed Al-Wada’ani, official spokesman for Jizan police, told Arab News that after the woman filed the complaint police brought in the girl’s father for questioning.
“The man simply asked his daughter whether she wanted to get married to a certain person or not, and he claims that she completely approved her marriage,” said Al-Wada’ani. However, the case is being transferred to the Shariah court for a decision.

Legal custody clearly is meaningless when it goes up against sharia law that holds women in such high esteem.

Why exactly are they bulletproof again?

Ma'an has an ominous-sounding article about Rachel's Tomb:

Dozens of armored buses brought hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jewish worshippers to pray at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Tour buses lined the streets on the western side of the seperation wall, and roads were blocked off from Tantur to the Beit Jala (Gilo) checkpoint as hundreds of worshipers in black coats and hats gathered in the area.

The mass prayer gatherings were organized by the Mosdos Kever Rachel (Rachel's Tomb Institute) around the date believed to be the anniversary of Rachel's death. The official date set by the group is 9 November, but worshipers overwhelmed the area on Saturday evening as well.

The Institute runs a Jewish religious school at the tomb, and funds a daily bullet-proof bus service that brings Jewish worshippers from Jerusalem to the tomb.

The biblical Rachel is revered as one of the four matriarchs of the Jewish people, and Jewish tradition holds that she was buried by her husband Jacob in Bethlehem. The tomb is also a holy site for Muslims and Christians, and the location of the Bilal Ibn Rabah mosque, which is now inaccessible to West Bank Palestinians.

Ma'an doesn't bother to explain that as little as ten years ago the buses that went to Bethlehem weren't bulletproof. In fact, ordinary cars could travel there and people could even walk there!

What could possibly have happened that would cause these threatening, black-clad ultra-religious fanatical Jews to be forced to use armored buses to travel to the third holiest site in Judaism?

And is there any Jewish holy place that Muslims don't also claim as their own?

It's a real mystery....

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.