Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Even nuttier: "Chabad is a worldwide spy organization"

I just happened across a blog by Joachim Martillo called "Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel."

In it, he makes the incredibly bizarre assertion that Chabad is a worldwide network of spies, and that the Holtzbergs were Mossad agents:

There is an even more sinister aspect to the Lubavitcher organization.

Because Lubavitcher outreach offices are located in some of the most important political, corporate and university centers throughout the world, the Lubavitchers have put together a network that is incomparable for corporate and international espionage as well as for the secret exchange of information. Because Chabad Houses could potentially act as safe houses, where there would be no record of a person's stay, the Lubavitcher outreach network is far superior to that of Aish HaTorah for covert operations.

Most people do not take the Lubavitchers seriously, but I have visited Chabad houses and encountered senior Israeli government or military officials (and probably intelligence agents). One can easily imagine that Neocon intelligentsia trying to develop a relationship with Hindutva (हिन्दुत्व) intelligentsia or politicians might have used the Chabad Nariman House as a meeting place.

Because the Lubavitchers provide an unconditional welcome to all Jews in the hope of bringing them closer to the Lubavitcher way of life, not only have the Lubavitchers been open to potential subversion by Israeli intelligence organizations, but in general Mossad and Shin Bet have found it quite easy to penetrate the haredi community as the two organizations managed to do both in Israel and also in the USA...

To Zionize haredi groups that practice outreach, the Israeli government need only give encouragement to Zionistically indoctrinated Hebrew-speaking young people to participate in outreach programs, and in a few years the targeted haredi community is thoroughly enmeshed in Zionist thinking while Israeli intelligence organizations have a new crop of saya`nim in place ready to serve in Zionist covert operations.

The Lubavitcher shluchim (outreach emissaries) Gavriel Noach and Rivkah Holtzberg fit the saya`an profile to a "T" -- especially Rivkah.

If the Israeli government wanted to put someone into a place with more direct influence over the leadership over the Lubavitchers or another Charedi group, it is just a matter of training agents with the proper intellectual skills to pose as hozrim bitshuvah (returnees). Within a few decades, Israeli intelligence would be running a large easily mobilized Charedi community while the ordinary haredi members would not have a clue.

Who is Joachim Martillo?

I used to read Usenet in the late 1980s, and Martillo was an active poster in various groups. In the beginning, he represented himself as a Sephardic Jew with an overwhelming hatred for Arabs and Ashkenazi Jews. For example, in this message from 1990:

In practically every way, Palestinians are a thoroughly dispicable
community whose bigotry and fanaticism prevents them from joining
the modern world and who deserve much worse punishment than they
are receiving (apparently mostly at their own hands -- poetic
justice or the cunning of history, if I have ever seen it).

And this from 1985: (when he sometimes spelled his name Yakim:)

>(2) Ashkenazik customs are inferior to Sephardic customs
> with regard to expressing Jewish sentiments or beliefs.

At least in tefillah and probably in other regards this is halakah.
You may check the responsa of Jacob of Emden (an Ashkenazi), ii, 15.
Luzzato holds similar opinions. I believe the Vilna Gaon also
expressed this opinion but I am not certain. Nathan Adler in Germany
considered Ashkenazi pronunciation erroneus.

At some point in the mid-90s, though, Martillo (then calling himself by many variants, including Juan Carlo Santos Martillo Ajami) claimed to have never been Jewish. He became rabidly anti-Zionist, which he remains today, having posted long, unintelligible articles in major anti-semitic and anti-Zionist websites.

He apparently is quite a TCP/IP network guru.

He married a Muslim woman in 2002, who would say things like "don't trust any kaffirs" while at the same time pretending to be an activist for social justice.

He quotes both Pirkei Avot and the Quran on his blog.

The guy is proof positive that a high IQ and a great deal of knowledge - which he clearly has - does not mean that one has any sense.

(Why he identifies himself now as an ethnic Ashkenazi is anyone's guess.)

Egyptian paper: Hamas worse than the Zionists

From Al-Ahram, whose content is controlled by an Egyptian ministry:

Although Egypt opened the Rafah crossing for three days, the Palestinians pilgrims did not reach it since the Hamas militia stopped them from crossing, allegedly for visa reasons.

These Palestinian pilgrims therefore cannot the visas from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and cannot go to the Ka'ba in Mecca, to Mount Mercy in Arafat.

But Hamas men used force and militia, beat the elderly, shed blood on the ritual clothing and fired tear gas and bullets on a bus carrying pilgrims in the Gaza Strip, to prevent access to the crossing, which led to injury 13 of them.

With that, senseless and irresponsible, the Islamic movement Hamas has revealed its true face, which usurped power is the name of religion, and disrupted one of the most important pillars of Islam, and prevented thousands of Palestinians from performing the Hajj, and assaulted the guests Rahman, and prevented them from completing elements of their religion.

Israel has never committed such an act since it occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967, and no one could have imagined that Hamas would do such an act, which it claims is an Islamic movement governed according to the laws of God!!

The mask has fallen, which Hamas has worn for years.

Egypt did not fail .. it did not hesitate to give all it could, and there is no liability on Egypt in this context, can not make more than made .. No one can be required to try harder than that.

As EBoZ points out in the comments, Hamas' reaction was predictable, as written in the Israeli Walla website:

Hamas demanded that the Government of Egypt "put an end to abuse and serve as a mouthpiece of the Zionists". According to Hamas, Al Ahram writers take advantage of the Egyptian democracy to attack "honorable Arab officials," in their words.

H/T Walla Israel, via EBoZ

More proof of that Hindu Zionist conspiracy

Some insane Jew-hating Muslim linked to my site for proof of a Hindu-Zionist conspiracy against Islam.

One of his proofs was this picture that was on an MSN "Hindu Zionist" group, which apparently has approximately one member.

Further research shows that this group got that picture from exoticindiaart.com which shows that the six pointed star is a recurring motif in Indian art:

And so are swastikas, as in this jarring image:

Which means I just uncovered the Hindu-Zionist-Nazi connection!

PalArab mortar damages power cable in Gaza

From Ha'aretz:

Palestinian militants fired three Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Wednesday, further unraveling an Israel-Hamas truce in the Gaza Strip.

The rockets struck open areas near a Kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.

Gaza militants earlier in the day fired a volley of mortar shells into Israel, one of which damaged a power cable transferring electricity to the energy-strapped Gaza Strip, according to Army Radio.

Exactly how much of the "power crisis" in Gaza is Israel's fault again?

(Fatah-linked Firas Press reports on electricity failing in Gaza but doesn't mention any mortars.)

Lots of links (updated)

Too busy to blog, too many things to mention....

Daled Amos on Atlanta's new Israel Consul General - who is Druze.

Boker Tov Boulder on the latest flagrant violation of UN Security Council Res. 1701 in Lebanon.

Judeopundit on Muslim justifications for Mumbai

National Post: Anti-semitism at University of Ottawa

Ha'aretz on the Mossad in Iran

Zionism-Israel blog on Iraqi Jews, 1917-1941

Soccer Dad on some psychological warfare by Israel.

Remembering the Holtzbergs, new details on their horrific murders and the lessons of Mumbai:
Seraphic Secret
Israel Matzav
Times - UK
Dennis Prager
New York Post

The slight epiphany of an Israeli leftist

Every once in a while, Ha'aretz' Bradley Burston wakes up from his leftist slumber and starts to comprehend the real problem. This is the part after he quotes exactly how the Mumbai murderers tortured their Jewish victims, a quote I cannot bring myself to post on this blog:

For the whole of my adult life, it irked me when my fellow Jews would routinely and without compunction, accuse anti-Zionists of being anti-Semitic, and conflate anti-Israeli sentiment with the Nazis.

I felt that the latter eroded the memory and the magnitude of the Holocaust, and that the former was a slightly more elegant way of telling people with whom one took issue, to shut the hell up.

Only this week did I realize my error.

It turns out, that when Jews suspected that the Jihadi hated the Jew the way the Nazi hated the Jew, they were right.

After all this time, I am embarrassed to admit that only when the monsters entered Chabad House in Mumbai, did I understand.

Monsters, not solely for what they did there, but, if the reports are to be believed, for the fact that they were able to do what they did after having actually gotten to know the young couple who founded the center, after asking them for shelter in Chabad House, after telling them that they were Malaysian students eager to learn about Judaism.

Monsters, for having befriended these sweet people in order to better learn how to execute them. Monsters, for having targeted a young couple who had devoted their lives to helping others better live theirs, despite having had a baby who died of a genetic disease and a second child ill and under treatment far away in Israel.

The monsters in Chabad House were not Nazis because they were Muslims. It was specifically because they so faithfully emulated the Nazis, that they, in fact, betrayed Islam.

The hatred of the Jihadi for the Jew is such that - as in the case of the Nazis - the killing of Jews - anywhere they may be found - is an obligation on par with whatever other enemy, target, cause, mission, goal or creed they may be pursuing at the moment.

Their hatred of the Jew is such that - as in the case of the Nazis - all tragedy that befalls the Jews was brought on by the Jews themselves.

Their hatred of the Jew is such that even if a Jew rejects the concept of a state of Israel and is wholeheartedly opposed to Zionism, if he wears the clothing of a believing Jew - as in the case of victim Aryeh Leibish Teitelboim - he will be bound and tortured and put to death.

Burston goes on to quote a rabidly anti-semitic sermon from PA TV from 2005. Why he only wakes up to the obvious after Mumbai and he ignored the evidence out there for years is a question only he can answer.

And, of course, he then goes on to distinguish between the bad Jihadis and the good Muslims (who also want to see the Jewish State utterly destroyed and who also reject the concept of Jewish self-determination, but whom Burston still feels an affinity to:)

Muslims the world over have recognized that the jihadi is a terrible threat to Islam. The world has seen that the jihadi, in hating the Jew, the Christian, the Hindu, the Muslim of another denomination, has become - like the Nazi - the enemy of all peoples everywhere.

The jihadi shows his love of death in brutality, sadistic executions, the self-righteous calm of the premeditated mass murderer, the blaming of the victim for the crime.

One lesson of the Holocaust is that one can't afford to miss the signs and the intentions.

I'm only seeing it now.

He clearly isn't, because he still ignores the celebrations from his moderate Muslim friends every time Jews are butchered in Israel.

And, judging from his track record, this realization will fade again as he gets caught up in his next column bashing right-wing Zionists and ignoring the links - some explicit and mostly symbiotic - between the jihadis and Israel's "peace partners."

But at least he noticed it for long enough to write it down.

BBC anti-Zionism on display

From the BBC website, by their diplomatic and defense editor, Mark Urban:

The global honeymoon that accompanied Barack Obama's election was never going to last forever, but there are some people for whom it already appears to be over - even though the president elect will not take power until 21st January. The Illinois senator's desire to name his administration, in order to 'hit the ground running' has already been the cause of some political sniping, and so have his meagre foreign policy pronouncements to date.

The appointment of Rahm Emanuel in October as White House Chief of Staff nettled many. There were his former Republican opponents in the House of Representatives, who consider him abrasively partisan, but I am not talking about them. Put his name and 'Zionist' into Google and you will see what I mean. The brickbats are already flying on certain Islamic, 'progressive', and far right websites.

With the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the plot thickens for those who wish to imply that a good man - President-elect Obama - is surrounding himself with 'zionists' who will prevent any fresh thinking about Middle East peace. Ms Clinton is not of course Jewish, unlike Mr Emanuel, but she has been a two-term senator for New York state.

"She's had a certain position which has not been very friendly toward the Palestinians", said Karen AbuZayd, Commissioner General of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency on the Today programme this morning, adding, "we hope that there'll be a broader view once she comes into office". Ms AbuZayd's job involves daily dealing with the dismal humanitarian consequences of Israel's blockade of Gaza, so I'm not surprised she longs for a different US foreign policy in the region. But the implication from an international civil servant - who must get on with all the relevant players - that an incoming US Secretary of State is bringing too much political baggage to the job is unusual, to put it mildly.

Up until this point, Urban appears to dissociate himself from those "progressive" websites he mentions. But from here on in, he makes it clear that he agrees with their anti-Zionist philosophy:

Is it not obvious that Secretary Clinton, representing the US national interest, will serve quite different political imperatives to Senator Clinton, representing one of the largest Jewish democratic constituencies in the world?

In other words, "chill out, progressives, Obama and his team may very well still turn out to be as anti-Israel as you and I want him to be."

The response to the appointment of the new foreign policy team shows something else. In the first place, the president-elect's campaign promise of change was always going to look less exciting once he put in place the people with the necessary political experience to run their departments. If you think Ms Clinton comes with political baggage - what about Robert Gates, who will switch from being President Bush's defence secretary for the past to [sic] years to the new president's administration?

Secondly, there are certain laws of political gravity that cannot be defied, whatever the brand of a new administration. The anti-American imperative is so central to certain ideologies - in this case militant Islam - that any Jewish appointees or appeals to Jewish voters will be used to argue the administration is pro-Zionist. It might turn out to be, but shouldn't everyone wait until the new president has been sworn in and set out some Middle East policies before jumping to that conclusion?

Urban pointedly does not say that the anti-Zionism of the "certain Islamic, 'progressive', and far right websites" is wrong. No, their crime is not being against the existence of the state of Israel - that is a valid and laudatory goal. Their only mistake is that they are jumping to conclusions that Obama is not sufficiently anti-Israel enough.

Just wait, our BBC editor is saying: All of us anti-Zionists may still be pleasantly surprised by Obama's "fresh thinking" on how to dismantle Israel.

Chaim Weizmann on Jerusalem, December 1, 1948

Here is part of a speech given by Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, in Jerusalem on December 1, 1948:

It is with a sense of humility and sorrow that I rise to speak here among you who have suffered so much and wrought so much during this great and tragic year. Jerusalem holds a unique place in the heart of every Jew. Jerusalem is to us the quintessence of the Palestine idea. Its restoration symbolises the redemption of Israel. Rome was to the Italians the emblem of their military conquests and political organisation. Athens embodies for the Greeks the noblest their genius had wrought in art and thought. To us Jerusalem has both a spiritual and a temporal significance. It is the City of God, the seat of our ancient sanctuary. But it is also the capital of David and Solomon, the City of the Great King, the metropolis of our ancient commonwealth.

To the followers of the two other great monotheistic religions, Jerusalem is a site of sacred associations and holy memories. To us it is that and more than that. It is the centre of our ancient national glory. It was our lodestar in all our wanderings. It embodies all that is noblest in our hopes for the future. Jerusalem is the eternal mother of the Jewish people, precious and beloved even in its desolation. When David made Jerusalem the capital of Judea, on that day there began the Jewish Commonwealth. When Titus destroyed it on the 9th of Ab, on that day there ended the Jewish Commonwealth. But even though our Commonwealth was destroyed, we never gave up Jerusalem.

An almost unbroken chain of Jewish settlement connects the Jerusalem of our day with the Holy City of antiquity. To countless generations of Jews in every land of their dispersion the ascent to Jerusalem was the highest that life could offer. In every generation new groups of Jews from one part or another of our far-flung Diaspora came to settle here. For over a hundred years we have formed the majority of its population. And now that, by the will of God, a Jewish Commonwealth has been re-established, is it to be conceived that Jerusalem - Jerusalem of all places - should be out of it?

Ten years ago the question first came up in connection with the Report of the Royal Commission. And in the great debate which took place on that subject in the British House of Lords the then Archbishop of Canterbury said these memorable words:

It seems to me extremely difficult to justify fulfilling the ideals of Zionism by excluding them from any place in Zion. How is it possible for us not to sympathise in this matter with the Jews? We all remember their age long resolve, lament and longing.

"If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

They cannot forget Jerusalem ...

The Archbishop spoke the truth. We cannot forget Jerusalem. And if that was true then, it is all the more true today, for in this last year we have sealed afresh our covenant with our ancient mother-city with the blood of our sons and daughters. In addition to our historical unbroken chain of Jewish settlement in this city, the fact of our numerical preponderance among its inhabitants, a new link has been forged - your heroic defence of Jerusalem in this past year. It gives us the right to claim that Jerusalem is and should remain ours.

Where were all those who indulged in such fine phrases about the spiritual associations of Jerusalem for the whole civilised world? Did they lift a finger to protect Jerusalem, its men and women and children, its homes and houses of prayer, against the Arab shrapnel which rained death day and night on your homes for months on end? Did they make the slightest move when the Jewish Quarters of the Old City with their ancient synagogues were reduced to rubble by Arab gunfire, and were desecrated and defiled after the surrender? Did they utter one word of protest against the Jews being denied, for now over a year, access to the Wailing Wall, which is our holiest shrine? Do not worry, my friends. The ancient synagogues will be rebuilt, the road to the Wailing Wall will be opened.

You have renewed the ancient covenant with your blood and your sacrifices. Jerusalem is ours by virtue of the blood that was shed by your sons in its defence. You suffered hunger and thirst in the broiling heat of the summer and defended Jerusalem against surrender and destruction. Not only the soldiers. The ordinary men and women, yea, and the little children, who went about your work while the bullets flew around you and many of you fell victims to the deadly missiles. All of you have had a share in this defence.

When I say that Jerusalem is ours, I am fully conscious of the sacred associations which Jerusalem has for others than ourselves. We respect these associations. When you defended Jerusalem against havoc and destruction, you fought not only for your own people but for civilisation.

...
Men and women of Jerusalem, fear not for the future of your city - of our city! The words of our national hymn Hatikvah will yet come true:

To be a free people in our own land -
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

They don't make Israeli leaders like they used to.

(The Palestine Post report of this speech can be found here.)

The most bizarre writer for Indymedia?

Usually, raving paranoid anti-semitic losers at least pretend to make a modicum of sense when they write their thoughts down.

Not so Bobby Meade.

Bobby is a blogger who writes bizarre, essentially unreadable fantasies that betray serious mental illness. Which is fine, really.

What is more bizarre is that his retarded ramblings are also published by various far-left Indymedia sites, which then get indexed by Google News.

Here is the last paragraph of his latest lunatic screed:

Update 12/2: Bush Nazi report (blog addition): After kicking about 250 miles since September, I confirmed what the benefit was of trying to heal the scorpion sting sores that way. I learned that the lymph fluid in the lymph vessels is moved by muscle contractions; thus such exercise promotes the elimination of the toxic material from the body. A few weeks ago they filled my bedroom with bedbugs as they did in Ithaca eight years ago. I discovered that all prior bites become inflamed when you get new bites, producing a condition that Nazi doctors would probably call a rash. I bet all instances of bedbug infestations are promoted by Bush Nazis; i.e. sh*theads, queer boys, Jews, or someone of that ilk. It is extremely difficult to get rid of them. If you call an exterminator, they will probably spray then dust the places with eggs so they have to return every 30 days. Standard business procedure? They have also been making it so there is only one available computer at the library where I am surrounded by riff-raff throwing such insects. I have even witnessed fleas that were dumped from an upstairs window being blown in my open window. To top things off there is a WARNING sign on the front door, informing people that my building is under the protection of the Sheriff. That's odd because I was certain that the jurisdiction of the Sheriff was restricted to the town, the county, and the state roads within the city. Then again, if Broome County is anything like Tompkins County, every single police officer would be at the beck and call of the sh*t-eating Bush Nazi that rule the Sheriff Association. Ask Emery Guest, former Chief of Zion's Secret Police in Tompkins County. Do you wonder why the Star of David is on Sheriff vehicles? As for the massacre in India, that looked like Special Forces. You know the group that was apparently involved in the murders of @ 700 soldiers in the bogus portion of the 21 Day Persian Gulf War 2/6/91-2/24/91. Nevertheless Dumb Boy could play cowboy and go start a war in India, couldn't he? I bet that they picked India because so few people have guns over there. Can you imagine the number of murders if they didn't have such strict gun control?

Yes, this is real.

Syrian generosity to their PalArab brethren

From the Syrian Arab News Agency:

The 22nd convoy carrying humanitarian aid from Syrian citizens to their brothers in the occupied territories left Damascus on Tuesday. The convoy includes 4 trucks loaded with foodstuff, clothes and medicines. Chairman of the Syrian Popular Committee for Supporting the Intifada and Resisting Zionist Ahmad Abdul-Karim said: " This convoy is a gift from the Syrian people on the advent of the blessed Eid Al-Adha to their brothers in the Gaza Strip who suffer hunger because of the Israeli unjust blockade and depriving them of all means of life. Abdul Karim reiterated Syria's stand by the Palestinian people's struggle to achieve their legitimate goals including the right to return, self-determination and to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

It is unclear how often they send this "aid" and how the trucks travel from Damascus to the PA, but it appears to be once or twice a year, if this is the 22nd shipment.

So how effective is four trucks of humanitarian goods?

According to UNRWA, it needs 15 trucks a day to support Gaza only. Which means that four trucks would be enough to support the PalArab population in the West Bank and Gaza for about two hours.

Now, do you think that Syria spends more money on these largely symbolic truckloads of goods to pretend to help Palestinian Arabs - or on arming Hezbollah? A Katyusha rocket costs roughly $1000.

Was Mumbai from Hindus or Zionists? Pak TV says both!

From the Times of India:

Mumbai's 26/11 was actually a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists" and "Western Zionists", including the Mossad, said a self-styled Pakistan security expert on a Pakistan news television show, uploaded on www.hotklix.com.

"They look like Hindus. No Pakistani speaks the language they chatted in," said Zaid Hamid while referring to the terrorists on the show Mujhe Ikhtilaf Hai (I differ) on Pakistan's News One channel. The sensationalist channel was launched in November last year.

Hamid said that it was a "badly planned" operation that had gone horribly wrong. "The Americans executed the 9/11 attack perfectly. They managed the media very well. The Indians tried to repeat the formula but goofed up. The idiots made a complete mess of it."

He said that the attackers wore saffron Hindu Zionist bands, which no Muslim would tie. Hamid also said that within the first 5 minutes of the attack, the three ATS policemen investigating the network of terror within India's security agencies and radical right were killed.

The video is available here, but no subtitles.

Freedom of the press, PA-style

From Ma'an:

Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces disguised as civilians detained two Ma'an journalists in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Tuesday.

Ma'an's Tulkarem correspondent, Sami As-Sa'i, and cameraman, Muayyad Al-Ashqar, were assaulted on Tuesday by PA security forces wearing civilian clothes before they were taken to a police station. Forces confiscated Al-Ashqar's camera, as well.

Reporters Sans Frontieres remains silent.

Open Thread

Knock yourselves out.

Must read

Moshe Ya'alon's article in Azure.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German priest executed by the Nazis, once wrote, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.” Fifteen years ago, the signing of the Oslo accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raised hopes that Israel had boarded the “peace train.” Over the years, however, it became clear that the train was not headed for the promised destination. Nevertheless, Israel’s leadership has been pointlessly running along the corridor ever since.

...
If we truly seek to understand why the Oslo peace process failed, we must reevaluate the fundamental principles of the strategy employed by the architects of the agreement, one of which—arguably the most important—was the assumption that bold diplomacy is the driving force behind historical compromise between two nations. Accordingly, the logic that dominated the Oslo process was based on the idea that negotiations and agreements are a necessary prologue to the achievement of tangible change in security, economic, and social conditions. Put simply, Israeli statesmen hoped that diplomatic breakthroughs reached at the negotiating table would pave the way to ending the larger conflict. They believed that treaties, goodwill gestures, and territorial concessions would ease tensions and violence in the region, and, as a result, security and stability would return to Israel’s narrow strip of land.4
This doctrine had already begun to falter before the outbreak of the Palestinian war against Israel in September 2000, but the extent to which it was in truth a monumental mistake has since become abundantly clear. Over the past eight years, the gap between the aspirations of the peace process and the dismal reality on the ground has expanded ad absurdum. Ostentatious international summits and the celebrated declarations they produced—including the pretentious Annapolis summit in November 2007—have yielded nothing but broken promises. In the face of the Palestinian Authority’s descent into corruption and violent chaos, the “peace process” has turned out to be an empty delusion.

In light of this, Israel and the West have no choice but to revise their entire policy toward the Palestinians. This requires not merely cosmetic alterations, or still more intensive efforts to advance the old Oslo process, but an alternative strategy that will redefine our objectives and the means necessary for their realization.

In outlining such a strategy, we must learn from our bitter experience, and realize, once and for all, that even the most impressive treaties carry no weight if one of the signatories is unable—or unwilling—to fulfill its commitments. Therefore, we need to turn the Oslo approach on its head: Instead of trying to achieve historical change “from the top down,” exaggerating the importance of declarations handed down to the masses as if from the peak of a diplomatic Mount Olympus, we should adopt a new, more pragmatic policy that promotes change “from the bottom up.” Such a strategy should seek to establish stability and security first, to be followed only later—and perhaps after a great lapse of time—by peace.

Read the whole thing.

Mideast tidbits

Some interesting gleanings from the Arab press this morning:

Oil prices fell below $50. Egypt is increasing its own oil output.

An Egyptian writer, columnist for Al-Ahram for 22 years, is quitting over continued government censorship.

In what can only be described as child abuse, a Palestinian Arab baby was forced to wear this keffiyeh showing child-molester Yasir Arafat wearing a keffiyeh, in the Firas Press website.

Another Firas story speaks of a US delegation in Egypt inspecting the Gaza border. In a throwaway line, it says they also looked at areas around Kerem Shalom that Israel "occupied" in 1948, indicating that Egyptian land claims against Israel might have quieted down but never really ended after Camp David.

While Hamas claims to want to keep the "calm" with Israel, the PRC - affiliated with Hamas - shot several mortars to Israel this morning.

An Egyptian official claims that Egypt is not biased towards either Hamas or Fatah. Wonder what the incoming US administration thinks about that?

In another indication of the crippling Israeli occupation, a brand-new and rather large mosque opened in Jenin.

A Saudi woman argues against marriages of children 10 and below. Yet she never quite says that it is socially acceptable child-rape:

Just imagine your 10-year-old daughter marrying a man even if he were somewhere between 20 and 50. How will she behave as a mother who is supposed to bring up children or a woman who is responsible for her husband and his family?

Is that really her primary concern?