Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Today's PalArab news

A "military court" in Gaza sentenced a man to death for "collaboration" with Israel. Human Rights Watch just came out with a report decrying the 11 people sentenced to death in the West Bank and Gaza this year, not including this latest example, most of them for the same "crime."

Islamic Jihad again reiterated it has no interest in maintaining a "truce" with Israel. Of course, they have been ignoring the truce for a month and a half now.

There are reports that Jimmy Carter was giving political advice to Hamas leaders in Damascus, suggesting that if they just stop rockets for two more months that they'd have a more pliant government to deal with in Israel. Don't worry about Israeli threats to invade Gaza; they are just election propaganda, Carter said.

Another Hamas raid at al-Azhar University, attacking female students while in class.

Three stories from Saudi Arabia

Saudi women who get international scholarships have problems getting and staying married to Saudi men:

“Most men prefer young docile girls and with this kind of prevalent marital environment, traveling abroad for married women is an idea that many are still not used to. Not to forget that a man’s ego also plays a role; he might not tolerate the idea if his wife becomes more successful, his male superiority might get affected...

"Most of these women don’t get married easily, since they are used to receiving respect and being treated at par with men abroad, and so their level of tolerance to any type of ill-treatment is low. Its hard for them to find men who would treat them the way they are used to.”

In a possibly related story, monkeys terrorize a girls' school in Saudi Arabia.

A group of monkeys has been wreaking havoc on Al-Ajer Intermediate and Secondary School for Girls in Tandaha in eastern Khamis Mushayt. The monkey scare has forced panicky students and teachers to stay away from the school altogether.
The school’s principal has sought the help of municipal authorities to restore order after piles of monkey waste were found in the school’s courtyard a day after the initial attack on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia just opened its first movie theatre in 30 years!

After a long wait of 30 years, public cinema is back in Saudi Arabia. Using the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, Rowad Media and Kawthar Foundation and Production screened a show for the public at the King Abdul Aziz Cultural Center in Abraq Al-Raghama, attended by a large number of interested men and women who watched the comedy film “Manahi.”

The 2008 Splodie Awards

It is time for the much-anticipated Second Annual Splodie Awards, where we honor the best of the year's "work accidents" and other self-inflicted deaths in the peaceful Palestinian Arab areas.

Without further ado...

Best house explosion: A house exploded in Gaza on February 15th, killing an Islamic Jihad member and his entire family of 8. Apparently, the house was also the site of a missile factory, as eyewitnesses saw debris from the huge explosion that looked like Qassam rockets. Which just goes to show - sometimes, they really are home-made rockets!

Almost as bad as sand in your swimsuit: A beachfront Hamas training area was rocked by an explosion on March 20, killing two Hamas members. Hamas claimed that it was merely two really, really bad cases of sunburn for the vacationing jihadists.

Best place for Farfour the Mouse to play: On May 11, a Hamas member who was trying to bring some explosives to Israel exploded at the Gaza border fence. The Hamas press release said that he had been killed in the "playground of death" while preparing for a Jihad mission. Well, the UN does complain that Gaza doesn't have enough playgrounds.

Second best house explosion: In June, around 7 Hamas members attained paradise when the house of the Hamouda family in Beit Hanoun blew up. Unless there is a clause in a hadith somewhere that you don't get into heaven unless you kill some Jews. Boy, that would suck, wouldn't it?

The pen is mightier than the sword award: In October of 2007, Reuters credulously reported that Hamas was building a "media city" at the site of the former Israeli community of Ganei Tal in Gaza. They even showed a picture of a building being built there. Well, in July, a large explosion destroyed a building in that same community, killing two Hamas members. It must have been those highly-combustible 8mm tapes.

True truce award: Right after the "calm" started with Israel, a Hamas member was killed and his 17-year old brother severely injured when a bomb they were preparing blew up a bit earlier than intended. It was a moderate bomb, though, so Israel had no need to be concerned.

Best solution to the Gaza overpopulation problem: Hamas decided that the best way to train for urban battles was to

use live fire - and missiles - in a residential neighborhood of Gaza City. Residents panicked and many houses were damaged. But, Gaza is so crowded, what choice does Hamas have? Anyone who complains must be a collaborator, anyway. (A similar live-fire exercise did kill a civilian a couple of months later.)

Bada bing, bada boom award: A senior Hamas member, along with four others, were fragged at an explosion at the El Hilal Cafe. They were warned not to criticize the soup. It is, after all, a matter of honor.

Cyber warfare award: One of those nests of evil and vice, an Internet cafe, was targeted by a very religious and moral man who couldn't stand the idea of something so vile in the middle of the beautiful place known as Gaza. He managed to blow it up, thank Allah. Unfortunately, he was still inside, giving a new meaning to the phrase "distributed computing."

"Can you dig it? Um, no": A smuggling tunnel collapsed in Rafah in August, killing 5, and another one a week later killing 6 more. At least they had a really good accidental death plan from their employer.

The dead can't complain award: A bus filled with happy Hamas supporters took exception to the Islamic Jihad member who asked them not to sing when they were passing a funeral home. So they killed him. But they were very respectful about it.

Best bomb disposal of the year: A bomb was discovered near Gaza City and the Hamas police were called in to defuse it. The explosives expert carefully transported the device to the police station. There, surrounded by other explosives and weapons, he managed to detonate the bomb, killing himself and wounding others, as well as causing secondary explosions. I guess that Hamas experts have much more experience building bombs than dismantling them.

(Last year's awards can be seen here.)

Iranians calling to assassinate Mubarak

This goes a little beyond "regime change..."

From MEMRI:

Iran's attacks and accusations against Egypt and Saudi Arabia have recently intensified. In early December, Iran's leading conservative government dailies Kayhan and Jomhouri-ye Eslami accused the Egyptian and Saudi regimes of treason, and called on their peoples to topple their regimes. Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari, who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, praised Khaled Islambouli, the assassin of the late Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat, and called to follow his example. At the same time, student demonstrations were held in Tehran, during which protesters called for killing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and threw firebombs at the Egyptian interest office.

Kayhan editor Shari'atmadari wrote in Kayhan's December 2, 2008 editorial: "...The absence of [Sadat's assassin] the martyr Khaled Islambouli, God bless his soul, is sorely felt. Many more should follow his example. "

And, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a sign from an anti-Egypt rally from Iran's FARS news agency:

Not much subtle about that.

Links!

I'm going to be traveling this week and posts will be sporadic. To help tide you over, check out:

Dr. Nasrallah! at Judeopundit

On the Road Again and What medical crisis? at Backspin

Severe human rights violations in Gaza from ZioNation

Where's Waldo, Islamic edition (h/t Israellycool)

The Energizer ...Rabbi? at Daled Amos

Daled Amos also weighs in on the NYT and defining terror

CAMERA notices some anti-semitism in the London Times' coverage of Mumbai

Iran's brain drain at Pajamas Media

This morning's peaceful PalArab news

Israel started releasing some 250 Palestinian Arab prisoners today, including people from Gaza. Hamas and Islamic Jihad welcomed these confidence-building measures and promised to reduce rockets and other terror attacks.

Just kidding. They said that this prisoner release was proof of the effectiveness of the "resistance" and that they would work to intensify those actions.

Israel today opened the crossing points to Gaza for about 100 trucks of goods - 26 for UNRWA, 24 for the "private sector", and some 40 trucks filled with wheat and other food and many more filled with fuel. This despite yesterday's Qassam and mortar attacks.

Hamas abducted three children in the Jabalya camp, the oldest of whom was 13, including two brothers. Witnesses say that the boys were thrown into a car while playing and driven away.

Another person died from the collapse of a smuggling tunnel. About twelve were injured in a fire in another tunnel.

The Palestinian Arab press is ecstatic over the Iraqi who threw his shoes at President Bush yesterday. Videos of the event are all over, and jokes about it are being repeated. For example:

President Bush asked President Abbas and journalists accompanying him to come to the White House on Friday without shoes.

The security services raided shoe factories in Hebron in the West Bank after the discovery of a shoe store near the Press Syndicate, and the journalist union denies the union/warehouse relationship.

The Union of Italian footwear manufacturers sent a letter of protest to the Iraqi government and will sue the journalist because his throwing their shoes was an insult to them.

[This is in the format of terrorist press releases - EoZ] In an official statement, the Hebron Shoe Association congratulates the successful operation in Iraq...

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 219.

Carnival barking

I have been remiss in mentioning the carnivals that have linked to stories of mine lately.

This weekend saw Soccer Dad's Shiny Happy Dhimmi #5 which linked to this post of mine.

Haveil Havalim #196, at the former site of Jack's Shack, includes a link to this.

And while it isn't a carnival, Sultan Knish's Friday Afternoon Roundup included links to two posts of mine.

Check them out!

Cash in Gaza: Cause and effect

Last week Israel started transferring cash to Gaza so that the PA could pay salaries. Supposedly none would go to Hamas.

And now, Hamas suddenly has cash!

Ma'an reports that Hamas distributed some $130,000 in cash to the needy over the weekend.

But, of course, none of Hamas' newfound cash could possibly go towards rockets and explosives, could it?

Iran's creative reaction to its economic crisis

The Globe and Mail reports:

Of the Middle East's oil producers, Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, is the hardest hit of all. With daily production of about 2.5 million barrels, Iran loses about $1-billion a year for every dollar drop in the price of oil.

As oil goes, so go Mr. Ahmadinejad's political fortunes. And while his vaunted nuclear program is not immediately threatened, those in the West who seek to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons should gain considerable economic leverage as a result of the financial crisis.

As recently as last month, Mr. Ahmadinejad put on a brave face, boasting that Iran was capable of enduring oil prices as low as $5 a barrel. But last week the Iranian President was forced to admit his government will have to come up with a new budget, based on more realistic price estimates.

With inflation at about 30 per cent and unemployment at 10 per cent, Mr. Ahmadinejad has run out of political options, says David Menashri, chair of modern Iranian studies at Tel Aviv University. "Thirty-per-cent inflation is a terrible hardship for someone on a fixed income," he said, noting that "800,000 people are added to Iran's work force every year; the government can find jobs for only about half of them."

So Iran came up with a creative way to slow down its losses - close all markets for a brand new "holiday":

All markets in Iran will be closed on Monday as a protest to the crimes of the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip.

Releasing a statement on Saturday, the Basij department of the merchants’ union announced the merchants will close their shops on Monday throughout the country to show their resentment to Israel over its brutal measures in Gaza.

It isn't clear how closing markets will help Gazans, or Iranians, but it does save a day of expenses in an economy that is heavily subsidized by the government.

NYT: Jews in Judea/Samaria cannot be victims of terror

In an otherwise halfway decent article about the use of the word "terrorism" by the media in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, we see this sickening unofficial decision by the New York Times:

James Bennet, now the editor of The Atlantic, was The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief from 2001 through 2004. After his return, he wrote a two-page memo to Chira on the use of “terrorism” and “terrorist” that is still cited by editors, though the paper has no formal policy on the terms. His memo said it was easy to call certain egregious acts terrorism “and have the whole world agree with you.” The problem, he said, was where to stop before every stone-throwing Palestinian was called a terrorist and the paper was making a political statement.
Bennet wrote that he initially avoided the word terrorism altogether and thought it more useful to describe an attack in as vivid detail as possible so readers could decide their own labels. But he came to believe that never using the word “felt so morally neutral as to be a little sickening. The calculated bombing of students in a university cafeteria, or of families gathered in an ice-cream parlor, cries out to be called what it is,” he wrote.
The memo said he settled on a rough rule: He would use the words, when they fit, to describe attacks within Israel’s 1948 borders but not in the occupied West Bank or Gaza, which Israel and the Palestinians have been contending over since Israel took them in 1967. When a gunman infiltrated a settlement and killed a 5-year-old girl in her bed, Bennet did not call it terrorism. “All I could do was default to my first approach and describe the attack and the victims as vividly as I could.”

Now, why would victims of terror in the disputed territories be considered any less human than those within the Green Line?

Certainly the terrorists don't make such distinctions between Jews on either side of the line. Certainly the victims are just as "civilian" on both sides of the line. And certainly mainstream Arab thought considers Israel to be occupying Arab land equally on both sides of the line, although they might be more willing to temporarily accept an Israel that gets diminishingly smaller with each passing year and decade.

If you define terror by its perpetrators, there is no difference. If you define it by the victims, there is no difference.

The only possible reason is that the New York Times feels that Jewish women and children who live on the eastern side of an arbitrary armistice line, to a small extent, deserve to be attacked. It appears that the NYT holds that terrorists have more justification when they attack Jews who live in un-politically correct portions of the Land of Israel.

So while the august Newspaper of Record wrings its hands over the use of the word "terror" in a way that makes a political judgment, they have just justified doing exactly that.

(h/t Backspin)

Morning links (updated)

Some really good stuff out there this morning:

Anti-Christian persecution by Palestinian Arabs, in the Jerusalem Post (h/t Backspin)

Bookmark this one, from the Globe and Mail: (also h/t Backspin:)

In fact, coupled with a large surplus of fruit and vegetables intended for markets in Israel, the vast majority of people here aren't wanting for food.
Reports that as many as 50 per cent of children are suffering from malnutrition are exaggerations, says Khaled Abdel Shaafi, director the United Nations Development Program.

"This is not a humanitarian crisis," he said. "It's an economic crisis, a political crisis, but it's not a humanitarian crisis. People aren't starving."

Sultan Knish asks "What does being Pro-Israel mean, anyway?"

A scholarly paper on the role of blogs in the 2006 Lebanon War "fauxtography" scandal, specifically discussing Little Green Footballs.

'Iranian ship to Gaza has hidden agenda' from the Jerusalem Post

Hamas mocks Gilad Shalit in rally at Haaretz

And, in an unintentionally telling headline from the Arab Times of Kuwait, we see Iranians chant ‘death to Israel’ (and 'death to America') in support of Gaza Palestinians. Notice that supporting Gazans, in the Arab and Muslim mindset, necessarily means the destruction of Israel.

Time for the annual December Bethlehem wars

Since terror attacks have gone down drastically from the West Bank territories, life has been getting better for both sides:

After eight bleak years, Jesus' birthplace finally has a Christmas season to cheer about.
Hotels are booked solid through January, Manger Square is bustling with tourists, and Israeli and Palestinian forces are working to make things go smoothly.

Elias Al-Araj's 200-room hotel is fully booked for the season, and he plans to open a 100-room annex. He says he already has bookings through July.

"This year, business was great," he said.

Bethlehem's economic fortunes are closely tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tourism blossomed in the 1990s, when peace hopes were alive, but was crushed by the outbreak of fighting in 2000. Christmas after Christmas, tourists were scared off by Palestinian violence and Israeli travel restrictions.

With calm gradually returning to the West Bank, Bethlehem has again become a magnet for Christmas pilgrims.

"It's a difference between heaven and earth," said entrepreneur Mike Kanawati, who is so optimistic he's opening a new restaurant near the Church of the Nativity.

Palestinian officials say that 1.3 million tourists have visited the West Bank this year, nearly double last year's level. The total for 2008 could rise to 1.6 million. The tourism boom has created 12,000 new jobs, said Riad Malki, the Palestinian information minister.

Bethlehem's 19 hotels are fully booked through January, said Mayor Victor Batarseh. He said he expects 30,000 visitors on Christmas Eve alone, compared with 22,000 last year, with about 5,000 more expected during Orthodox rites in January.

Batarseh said he hopes the signs of recovery will persuade more Bethlehemites to stay in their town. In recent years, growing numbers, particularly Christians, have emigrated.

"Calm and an increase in tourism will create more job opportunities and encourage families to stay in the city," said Batarseh, who is Christian. Officials say 40 percent of the town's 32,000 residents are Christian, down from 90 percent in the 1950s. The rest are Muslim.

This news does not sit well with those who would rather see Bethlehem in misery, so they could blame Jews for Christian suffering. Of course, some may choose to ignore the good news:

A vicar has banned the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem from his services after witnessing the strife-torn state of Jesus's birthplace.
The Rev Stephen Coulter has decided that the words 'How still we see thee lie' are too far removed from the reality of Bethlehem today and should not be sung in his parish.
He toured Bethlehem in a recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was shocked at how the Arab-Israeli conflict that has raged around the West Bank town has decimated its population, wrecked its economy and hit tourism.
'The Christians we stayed with consider themselves descendants of the very shepherds who were keeping watch over flocks by night 2,000 years ago.

'Can you imagine how they feel being stopped by security guards, Jews from Russia, who have been in the country for just five years and who have all the freedoms denied those who have been there for centuries?
'They ask how the Jews who were treated so badly in the Second World War now inflict the same treatment on others.'

The good vicar seems to know exactly who to blame for Bethlehem's problems, and they are those Jews from Russia, not the Muslims from Hamas.

Even though the amount of anti-Christian bigotry by West Bank Muslims has been well-documented and many Christians have spoken out about how they live in fear of their Muslim neighbors, even though Bethlehem's Muslim population continues to increase even as its Christian population continues to dwindle, even though Muslims have been burning down churches in the West Bank and Gaza, even though we have documented threats by Fatah against Christian pilgrims from as far back as 1967 - Coulter and his ilk will always blame the Jews.

Islamic Jihad news gets "Jewish" and "Israeli" mixed up

Palestine Today, a mouthpiece for Islamic Jihad, mentions the murder last night of a Jewish man in Yemen.

But since Islam is the religion of peace, and it is inconceivable that even a mentally deranged Muslim would murder a father of five just because he was Jewish, the newspaper has to define the details of the case a bit differently:

Press sources revealed that an Israeli businessman was killed by a Yemeni pilot who fired dozens of gunshots to the passers-by.

Moshe Yaish-Nahari, a 35-year-old married man with nine children, was killed on Thursday night by machine-gun fire in the Bedouin in Yemen amid watching citizens.

The Israeli businessman who was murdered also taught the Torah in Israeli religious schools in Yemen, and it was not immediately clear what the real causes of his death.

And, no, it is not a translation error, as the Yemeni Arabic press certainly refers to Yaish Nahari as "Jewish".

They also add a detail that the murderer used to be a MiG-29 pilot until he killed his wife two years ago; he then got psychological treatment in Egypt and lost his pilot privileges. Apparently, he was considered sane enough to walk the streets with a submachine gun, though.

I love spontaneous rallies

There was a large anti-Israel demonstration today in Tehran. Even Iran's president marched.

But, officially, it wasn't sponsored by the Iranian regime. No, it was just spontaneous anger in Iran's streets.

And all the demonstrators were so united, they came out with their own statement!

Iranians attended a protest rally against Israel and in support of the oppressed and defenseless Palestinians particularly 1.5 million Gazans in blockade before Friday prayers.

Shouting “down with the US” and “down with Israel” marchers showed their hatred towards Israeli brutal measures and support for freedom of Palestine.

They also called for Muslims unification to defy cruelty and crimes of Israel and its biggest ally the United States.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Government Spokesman Gholam Hussein Elham were also among marchers.

The crowed [sic] also issued a statement that said intensification of cruel blockade imposed on Gazans is undoubtedly the offspring of alliance of the United States, Israel and some Arab states betrayal aimed at destruction of Palestine’s Islamic resistance and compensation of Israel’s disgraceful failures.

I've never seen a crowd issuing a statement before.

I wonder if Robert's Rules were used while formulating this statement, or something more informal.

I also wonder if Ahmadinejad would have dared to attend this rally from a few days ago.

Quick! Call Juan Cole!

Even though defenders of Iran keep trying to say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never advocated destroying Israel when he said that Israel should [be wiped off the map]/[vanish from the page of time]...he keeps saying it in different ways:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-stated necessity to raze Israel to the ground. The Israeli Government has blockaded Gaza Strip to influence on upcoming presidential elections in Palestine and to bring a necessary man to the post, the President said.

How do you say "unambiguous" in Farsi?