Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 01, 2009

A Muslim liar re-appears - as a sock puppet

Over three years ago, I posted an article called "Reasonable sounding liar - Dr. Sam Hamod." In it I look at an article written by Dr. Hamod where he espouses an American conservative philosophy before launching a bizarre rant against Israel, including the claim that Israel receives some quarter of a trillion dollars every year from the US. I found then that Hamod had written much nuttier things to his preferred audience of haters and lunatics, claiming (for example) that 90% of reporters are Jewish and advocating a children's intifada against the US government.

In other words, truth is not his strong suit.

I had forgotten about Dr. Hamod, and in general I don't bother with such lunatics anymore on my blog. But a comment made last night is most interesting:

Dear Elder of Ziyon and others,
I would like to offer both my expert opinion and personal opinion in regard to Dr. Hamod’s professionalism and character. I have known the man for several years and find him to be a fine example of Truth, faith, and loyalty. He is a genuine follower of his faith and exemplifies it in his personal life and professional life. He is of the utmost integrity and is the most giving man that I have personally had the privilege of knowing. I have taught with Hamod in the past and continue to interact with him and the beautiful godly woman in his life. This is America and Dr. Hamod has his opinions whether we all agree or not he is entitled to air his. I have found that at times we agree and at times we disagree, but it is most often that we agree. Also, I know him to be friends with many of the Jewish nationality; we both share a good friend in Rabbi Handleman. So, let us not be hasty to judge this good descent American-Lebanese man who has done much good for the arts and politics as well. His heart encompasses all faiths and nationalities as I have seen through the twenty years that I have had the benefit of knowing him.

Sincerely,

Dr. Tovah Blum
Dr. Bloom | 02.01.09 - 2:36 am | #

I found it most interesting that Dr. Blum spelled her own last name differently in the same post. And unless "Dr. Bloom/Blum" is a very unethical psychiatrist, "she" wouldn't offer her defense of Hamod as an "expert opinion."

So I went a bit further, researching this "Rabbi Handleman." I could not find anyone with that name, but I did find a "Rabbi Shmuel Handelman" mentioned on a number of websites.

And in every site, he is either defending Dr. Sam Hamod, quoted by Hamod or posting on a website the Dr. Hamod is associated with.

Here is one of the posts by this "Rabbi:"

To the world from Rabbi Shmuel Handelman,

As a Jew, I denounce this crime that the zionists in our midst are
doing in the name of Judaism and Israel. All Jews with any conscience
will condemn this dastardly attack on Gaza.

Thank you Ms. Surasky, and all those who are working for a just
peace, not one imposed by arms and cruelty. This is not Judaism, this
is the cruelty of zionism and its devils on the earth.

Mr. Barak, Ms. Livni, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Olmert, we condemn you
all in Yahweh's name, you will reap the whirlwind as surely as Moses
is our prophet. And where is the voice of the man who was given an
Nobel Prize for Peace, Mr. Peres? Have you lost your belief in our
religion Mr. Peres to give up your soul for these fools like Barak,
Livni, Netanyahu and Olmert?

I pray for you because you have a chance to prove you deserved that
Nobel Prize for Peace--if you do not raise your voice agains this,
then you should return the medal and the money to the Nobel Foundation
for you will not have deserved, nor deserve, it.

In sorrow, shalom,

Rabbi Shmuel Handelman

Anyone who is the slightest bit familiar with Judaism would know, without a doubt, that this is not written by a Jew. It is written by a Muslim pretending to be a Jew, "as surely as Moses is our prophet. "

Notice that "Shmuel" is Samuel in Hebrew, and that "Handelman" shares Hamod's initials.

It is clear that "Rabbi Handleman/Handelman" is a sock puppet for Dr. Hamod, who I am now doubting should be called "Dr." I could find no links to him outside of his political writings, so why would we believe that this liar has a doctorate - or any other of his supposed credentials as a professor?

Moreover "Dr. Bloom" visited me by Googling "sam hamod," something that one would expect Hamod to do on his own. Once we know that Hamod is willing to use fake Jewish sock-puppets to defend himself, it seems more than likely that our English-challenged "Dr. Bloom/Blum" is "Dr." Hamod himself.

Thanks, Sam, for not only proving my initial assertion that you are a liar, but for adding to the evidence.

January Rocket Calendar

Q=Qassam (may include Katyusha-style rockets)
QS=Qassam landing short in Gaza
M=Mortar
F=Fatality (F=Gazan, F=Israeli)
(G)=Grad (included in Qassam count, not consistent yet)

M*- Apparently upgraded 120mm mortars
MS=Mortar landing short
P - unnamed "projectiles"
(Paren) indicates unconfirmed Palestinian claims

* - Fatal non-rocket attack

K=Katyushas from Lebanon

Mortars are severely undercounted since they simply don't make the news any more.

Yellow=day Israel sent aid to Gaza

January 2009

Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
				1	2	3
				59Q (9G) 5M	41Q (4G) 5M	28Q 10M
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
50Q 5M	39Q(4G) 5M	30Q 3M	24Q(8G) 1M	30Q 4K	30Q (7G)	16Q (4G)
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
28Q (3G)	20Q (3G) 3M	18Q 5M	11Q 5M 3K	29Q (3G)	21Q (3G) 4M	27Q 4M
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
("CeaseFire") 13Q (3G) 4M		8MS
25	26	27	28	29	30	31
(1QS)		*	1Q (7M)	1Q	(1M)	1G
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
4Q 8M	3M 1Q	1Q(1G)

A day without yellow doesn't necessarily mean the crossings were closed; I just may not have seen the reports of them being specifically open.

January 27 the crossings were closed immediately after a fatal attack on an IDF patrol outside Gaza during the day, but goods didget transferred in the morning.

All previous calendars here.

PalArab news roundup 1-31-09

Al Ahram is reporting increasing tensions between Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus.

Egypt arrested some armed Palestinian Arabs emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, who told them that there were at least seven others that the Egyptians missed.

The PalArab press latches onto another American Israel-basher, this time Ramsey Clark, who is calling the Gaza op a "genocide."

Hamas denied that it had anything to do with the murder of a Fatah teacher in Gaza last week, but the Palestine Press Agency is warning them to 'fess up or they will name names. Meanwhile, the MSM is slowly starting to report on Hamas murders during and after the operation.

Doctors in Gaza are now claiming that 90% of Gazans suffer from some sort of mental disorders, blaming Israel. It is unclear what percentage might have been suffering beforehand.

Palestinian Arabs are still up in arms over the idea that Hamas will set up an alternative to the PLO, which is still not being reported much in the Western media. One Palestinian Arab blogger is trying to get a million signatures on his blog against the idea. So far, he has about 65.

Terror group Hizb ut-Tahrir gave a lecture in Qalqilya, adding another extremist group to the mix in the West Bank.

The BBC's Gaza appeal debacle

The BBC last week made a strange decision not to broadcast an appeal to help Gazans. In their words, "We decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal because we wished to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of covering a continuing news story where issues of responsibility for civilian suffering and distress are intrinsic to the story and remain highly contentious."

Anyone who ever watches how the BBC covers Israel cannot but laugh at this absurd logic. Israelis and Zionists have no problem with the millions of dollars being spent to help Gazans; only with the millions being given to Hamas, directly or indirectly. Israel itself spends incredible amounts of time, effort and money to help Gazans. Israel has never protested aid going to Gazans from WHO, the Red Cross or any other charity group.

In a weird way, the BBC in making this decision seems to have betrayed its own genteel anti-semitism. While no Jewish or Zionist group asked the BBC not to air the appeal, the Beeb assumed that the selfish, powerful Jews would be upset at giving money to Gazans. Rather than deal with those imaginary protests the BBC thought that they should throw the Elders a bone, deny the appeal and use it as "proof" of their objectivity.

One reason that the BBC is so skittish is because of the Balen report that showed the BBC to have anti-Israel bias. While the BBC has spent enormous amounts of time and money to keep the report secret, it appears to have made an impact on the BBC - but in the wrong way. Rather than actually improve its reporting, the Beeb instead decided to make cosmetic decisions like quashing the appeal for Gazan aid.

The BBC's vaunted "impartiality," of course, mistakes evenhandedness for reality. The BBC made the assumption that Zionists would be as upset at aid being given to Arabs as Arabs would if the BBC appealed for bomb shelters for Sderot. That may be evenhanded but it is hardly impartial. It betrays the BBC's biases.

And now, instead of dealing with imaginary threats from the all-powerful Jewish lobby, they have to deal with very real threats from very real people.

From News of the World:

NEWSNIGHT hardman Jeremy Paxman was chased onto a tube train by a raging Palestinian supporter.
Shocked commuters watched as the presenter leapt into a carriage, pursued by a protester who was outraged at the BBC’s refusal to broadcast a Gaza appeal.
‘Rotweiller’ Paxman ended up on the receiving end of a verbal rant at London’s Green Park station.
After fleeing down the escalators, Paxo, 58, managed to squeeze in between the closing doors of a train.
He told a friend: “A man started shouting at me, ‘Paxman, you are a Zionist agent’.
“He pursued me down the escalators, moving very quickly to get me. I turned round and told him I’d tell him my opinions on Gaza if he settled down but he carried on shouting.

And this is not an isolated incident. There have been protests outside BBC buildings over the past week.

So now the BBC will have to bend over backwards to prove to anti-semitic, anti-Zionist idiots that they are not the Zionist tools they appear to be to protestors. One example is a former BBC journalist and now government minister:

Others, including Health Minister Ben Bradshaw, pointed the finger at Israel. Insinuating the BBC had bowed to pressure from the Jewish state, he said: "I am afraid the BBC has to stand up to pressure from the Jewish state occasionally."

It would be nice, of course, if the BBC would actually start to be as fair and impartial as it pretends to be.

What is the worst thing you can call a Hamas supporter?

As I reported yesterday, in a story that has been completely ignored by practically all the media, Hamas is planning to create its own alternative to the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian Arabs, not only in the area once known as Palestine but in other countries.

As can be expected, the PLO is not keen on the idea. The head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, Azzam Al-Ahmed, has slammed Hamas and the Arab countries that support it, like Syria and Qatar, by saying that the leaders of these states were "Zionists want to divide the Arabs and the Palestinian revolution, who sabotage and tamper in the Palestinian arena."

He called a stop to those "Zionists who rule the Arabs in some Arab countries because they have destroyed much of the Arab situation in this country and believe that they can now destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization."

He added, "We will not be silent for a long time after today and there will be an open confrontation between the Arabs and the Zionists [supporters of Hamas.]"

If someone in the Western world wants to insult someone else they would call them a terrorist, murderer or sociopath. But if an Arab wants to insult terrorists, murderers and/or sociopaths, he has to call them Zionists.

Thank you and a question (open thread)

With one day left in the month, I have more than doubled my previous record for pageviews and visitors. I should hit 80,000 pageviews for January sometime tonight or tomorrow, and well over 60,000 visitors, numbers which blow my mind.

I have also posted more this month than any other, with at least 184 postings.

Thanks to all my readers, old and new.

Out of curiosity, if I would put together and expand on my best original posts in a (self-published) book, would anyone be interested in buying it? As I have thousands of posts from over the years, I would like to have a way for people to be able to find good articles from the past without having to dig. But writing a book, even a compilation of older stuff, takes a lot of time and effort, and before I consider it I wanted to make sure that there was an audience.

Either way, have a Shabbat Shalom and a good weekend!

According to Palestine Today, News photographer Abdul Rahman Al-Khatib received medium-degree burns after he caught fire during coverage of the burning of Israeli and American flags in a march organized by Hamas in Gaza City this afternoon.

Witnesses said the cameraman was covering the demonstration when a masked man poured gasoline on burning Israeli flags. The resulting explosion burned his hands and feet.

Gazans managed to extinguish the fire.

Now, that would be some good video!

UPDATE: This picture looks like it shows the very flag that burned poor Mr. al-Khatib (that's his name, not the name of his paper, as I originally wrote.)

Yeah, looks like gasoline.

Another NGO denial

I emailed to the ICRC, asking about aid trucks being hijacked in Gaza:

I am a news blogger trying to confirm stories about Hamas hijacking aid trucks in Gaza and distributing the aid to their own members. The UNRWA has denied that this has happened to their aid convoys, despite press reports to the contrary. However, there have been more reports of aid meant for the Palestinian Red Crescent being forcibly taken by Hamas over the past year (links upon request.)

Can you confirm that this has ever happened, and if so, how often? if it has happened, has the ICRC ever condemned Hamas for doing this?

The reply I received (three days later):

The ICRC carefully follows up and monitors the humanitarian assistance it
brings into Gaza, as it does in other conflict situations. It makes sure
that the aid reaches those who are most in need of it - in the case of
Gaza, wounded persons in hospitals and civilians affected by the conflict.

The ICRC does also sometimes transport humanitarian assistance for the
Palestine Red Crescent Society, which is delivered directly to the society
in Gaza. So far, no incidents such as those you mention have been reported
with aid channelled through the ICRC.

You may find more detailed information about the assistance the ICRC has
been able to bring into Gaza on our website,
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/palestine?OpenDocument.

With best regards,

I didn't realize that the ICRC acts independently of the Pal Red Crescent in Gaza, so I probably didn't phrase it correctly. It seems that writing the Red Crescent directly would be a waste of time.

Another case of Hamas using human shields

From Palestinian Media Watch (I couldn't find the original article in Al Hayat:)

Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a "fortress" by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. They told the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper that for years Hamas has used their property and homes for military installations from which to launch rockets into Israel, dig tunnels and store arms. According to the victims, those who tried to object were shot in the legs by Hamas.

The following are excerpts from the article from the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
The Abd Rabbo family kept quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza strip into a fortress. Right now they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after Israel bombed the farm and turned it into ruins...
The hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks the Israeli town Sderot, a fact that turned it into an ideal military position for the Palestinian fighters, from which they have launched hundreds of rockets into southern Israel during the last few years. Several of the Abd Rabbo family members described how the fighters dug tunnels under their houses, stored arms in the fields and launched rockets from the yard of their farm during the nights.
The Abd Rabbo family members emphasize that they are not [Hamas] activists and that they are still loyal to the Fatah movement, but that they were unable to prevent the armed squads from entering their neighborhood at night. One family member, Hadi (age 22) said: "You can't say anything to the resistance [fighters], or they will accuse you of collaborating [with Israel] and shoot you in the legs."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 27, 2009]

I have yet to hear any human rights organization accuse Hamas of using human shields - they only accuse Israel, as Amnesty International did.

And the "eyewitnesses" who say that the IDF used human shields are suspect, to say the least. A reporter from YNet visited a house in Gaza during the operation where the IDF took over but the family was free to leave, and chose not to. Yet as soon as they saw the reporter they started screaming:

We come across a local family in one of the buildings. Grandparents, a few young parents, some children and a few toddlers. Sitting on a rug, their legs are covered in blankets and two soldiers are standing guard nearby. "What about them?" I ask. "They're free to go if they want to, but they don't want to," said Eilon Perry, Givati's operations officer. "They informed us they would be staying in the house and we have no choice but to accept that."

The family suddenly notices the cameras, and immediately, the expression on their faces changes. "We have no food," they say in Arabic, as one of the youngsters suggests we interview him in English about their plight. Givati troops are extremely concerned about being portrayed as abusing innocent civilians. Perry points to a stack of canned goods, water bottles and other provisions. "We provided some of that and they cook and eat quite well," he said. The Palestinians seem to understand him and one of them smiles. It's a war – they had to try.

Is there any doubt that this family is now telling every reporter and NGO in sight that they were used as human shields? And is there any doubt that the reporters and "human rights" workers will believe them uncritically and unconditionally, and carefully document their lies in their campaign to gather evidence to bolster their preconceived notions of IDF brutality?

PalArab news roundup 1-30-09

The Fatah-linked Palestine Press Agency details some $400 million of fraud, money laundering and illegally redirecting government contracts to private companies run by Hamas members in Gaza. One example was that the late Siad Siam who apparently founded front companies in Turkey and Egypt to funnel goods to Gaza through tunnels he controlled.

Hamas has been denying the house arrests, tortures, shootings and killings of Fatah members, although Ma'an reports that the evidence is "overwhelming." Hamas placed Fatah members in Gaza under curfew, forcing them to shut their shops and stay home after 6 PM.

A previously unknown group took credit for launching a "projectile" at Israel this morning. No mention of this in the Israeli media.

A competitor to Free Gaza? A ship called the "Brotherhood" is due to leave Beirut for Gaza on Sunday.

Egypt is banning people from visiting injured Gazans in Egyptian hospitals after the Muslim Brotherhood started turning these visits into political events.

US Academic Boycotters for Terror

Ha'aretz yesterday wrote that a new US group was formed to advocate an academic boycott of Israel.

Ha'aretz had some fun at the expense of this group, called the "U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel", asking them if they would accept support from Hamas (they would) as well as this:

Lloyd wrote that to the best of his knowledge, all supporters of the anti-Israel boycott were also opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Asked if logic wouldn't dictate that he and his colleagues boycott themselves, he responded, "Self-boycott is a difficult concept to realize. But speaking for myself, I would have supported and honored such a boycott had it been proposed by my colleagues overseas."

As is usual in these sorts of groups, their publicity is way out of proportion to their influence or size. They didn't even bother to get their own Internet domain; their website is a Wordpress blog.

Half of their "founding members" are Arab and all from California, except for one who is inexplicably from An Najah National University.

Rather than go through the tedious and pointless exercise of showing how stupid their position is (for example, they have no problem accusing Israel of "ethnic cleansing,") I'd like to concentrate on one part of their FAQ that proves their total hypocrisy concerning peace and their tacit support of terrorism:

[Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] is opposed by many Israelis who support the Palestinian struggle. By calling for BDS, aren’t we alienating these Israeli supporters?

Although the views of Israeli supporters regarding methods of struggle should be taken into consideration, Palestinians have the ultimate right to decide on the best method for attaining freedom from an illegal occupation and systematically oppressive regime. Supporters of the Palestinian struggle within the international community and within Israel itself have to stop attempting to dictate the terms of the struggle but support the Palestinian right to resist an illegal occupation, especially when the form of resistance is non-violent, as is the case with calls for BDS.

So while they are saying that they prefer non-violent means of protest, Palestinian Arabs have every right to attack innocent Israeli civilians via rockets, suicide attacks and bus bombings, if they think that is the "best method for attaining freedom."

Taking this one step further, if Palestinian Arabs should decide, as they did a few decades ago, that the best way for them to attain their freedom was by blowing up airplanes, attacking the Olympics and other terror attacks against the world, these idiotic academics will support them wholeheartedly, because to do otherwise would somehow infringe on Arab freedoms to choose to murder anyone they feel like by whichever method they deem the best.

The pure immorality of this position is breathtaking. And the fact that they end that same paragraph by calling themselves "morally consistent individuals supporting genuine peace" is far beyond ironic.

Hilariously, not only are these "academics" immoral, but they don't even know basic English grammar. From another FAQ:

Does Academic Boycott Infringe on Academic Freedom?

It may; but who’s Academic Freedom is being referred to within this context?

Perhaps they need to spend a bit more time actually studying things rather than pretending they already know it all. That way, they can avoid using their prestigious positions to make asses of themselves.

Life for our heroes at the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is not all fun and games. Sure, they will engage in high speed car chases to catch unmarried couples alone, or arrest people who allegedly cursed Mohammed, but sometimes they have very serious and complex cases as well.

Here is the sad story of witchcraft and sorcery, as recounted by the Saudi Gazette:

AL-QUWAI’IAH – Two Indonesian housemaids, identified as Suma Rini and Warnah Madthaying, cast a total of 55 spells on three families in Al-Quwai’iah. As a result of their sorcery, a boy was hospitalized for more than two months, a girl and some members of her family slipped into a coma and others were afflicted with different kinds of illnesses and pain.

According to Saudi national, S.Dh., the family’s tragedy began with the illness of one of their sons who was hospitalized in King Fahd Medical City Hospital for two months. When the housemaid, Suma Rini, visited the boy in the hospital, she told his mother that the boy was not in need of doctors or a hospital because he had a Satan in him, and that the boy’s eyes were a clear indication of this.

The housemaid’s words caused the mother to become suspicious, and she continued to press the housemaid for the reasons behind what she had said. The housemaid said that when she was in Indonesia, she used to read a book on sorcery, magic and conjuring the jinn. This created doubts which increased when one of the family’s relatives visited the boy in order to recite verses of the Holy Qur’an.

When the recitation began, the housemaid ran away saying that everything had become dark, which only increased the family’s suspicions. This led the family to conclude that all that was happening was in some way because of the housemaid.

As a result, the family decided to begin discussing the matter with the housemaid in a way which would not arouse her suspicions in order to discover what secrets she was hiding.

The housemaid was reassured that no harm would come to her, and she was also tempted with a fake check for a large amount of money and with air tickets.

At that point, she admitted that she had cast spells on the whole family, each member with a special charm according to what she wanted from him or her. She also said that she was able to cast spells but did not know how to undo them. The family agreed to give her even larger amounts of money provided she showed them where she had placed the magic charms so that they could find another person who was able to undo them.

What should a family do in such circumstances? Who has the specialized training necessary to fix powerful, magic spells - and put the maid in jail?

Why, it must be our heroes of the Muttawa!

The family informed the security authorities in Al-Quwai’iah and two staff members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice came to the family’s house. The housemaid then showed them 15 places in the house where she had put charms, which the Commission staff removed and undid. In her charms and spells, the housemaid had used pins, nails, broken glass, clothes hangers and symbols that no one could understand. The Saudi national, S.Dh., said Suma Rini was then taken to the police station and her confessions were attested at Al-Quwai’iah Court in the presence of translators.

On asking Suma Rini about another housemaid named Warnah Madthaying working in the home of S.Dh.’s sister, she indicated that Madthaying was also involved in sorcery. The same method was used to lure Madthaying until she finally admitted casting spells in the sister’s and brother’s home. She showed the Commission staffers 40 different locations where she had hidden these spells and they were removed and undone.

While sorcery is strictly forbidden in the Holy Quran, apparently the purest of the pure and the holiest of the holy do have the esoteric knowledge needed to undo the effects of sorcery. Luckily, they also have the power to put away the evil Indonesian maids forever!

Once again, we must thank Allah for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, keeping people safe from magic and evil jinns!

Haniyeh to announce a competitor to the PLO

While the PA is the only recognized quasi-government in the territories, the PLO has been the only recognized representative of Palestinian Arabs worldwide. In fact, the PLO was enshrined in that position at Oslo, as the sole representative of the "Palestinian people." The PA is effectively but not officially a subsidiary of the PLO, and the president of the PA has so far also always been the head of the PLO.

While Hamas broke with the PA and created its own de-facto terror government in Gaza, they never broke with the PLO. n fact, the PLO includes some factions who are actively engaging in terror in Gaza, such as the PFLP and DFLP.

Hamas aims to change that.

All the major Palestinian media outlets are reporting that Khaled Meshaal is planning to create its own alternative "Palestinian national authority" as a competitor to the PLO. In a speech he gave last night in Doha, saying that "there can be no reconciliation for the Palestinian people at home and abroad without a national reference," and called for "the Palestinian national authority to maintain the right of return," saying that "by the Palestine Liberation Organization preventing Hamas from entering or working on reconstruction, they no longer constitute a national reference but a deficit and an instrument of division."

This means that Hamas is no longer only challenging the PA's primacy in the territories, but now it is bidding to create a new leadership for Palestinian Arabs in other countries, including the camps in Lebanon where the PLO now has de facto political control.

Harry Potter and the Zionist Brainwashers

I missed this MEMRI clip from last week, but it is a beauty:

Following are excerpts from an episode of an Iranian TV documentary series on Western Cinema featuring the Harry Potter films, which aired on IRINN, the Iranian News Channel on December 15, 2008:

Narrator: The early 1990s brought a revolution in digital technology to the world of cinema, helping the propaganda machinery of the 2oth century "Samaritans" [Jews] adopt useful tools for witchcraft and brainwashing. Now, more than ever, this tool serves to spread the dark and evil essence of Zionism and its goals. The creation of new stories, based on mythical themes relating to witchcraft and devil worship, has always been a tool used by contemporary Zionists, and it is once again being used in recent years, now, more visibly than ever, targeting innocent children and youth – the parents of the future.

[...]

Sai'd Mostaghasi, Iranian film critic: The Harry Potter film portrays all these theories, and especially the theory of witchcraft, which originates in the Kabbala. After all, the Jewish Kabbala is a school of thought which is full of secrets and witchcraft. Its roots are in ancient Egypt. These theories originate from a rabbi or magicians of ancient Egypt, and were passed down to the Knights Templar. You can see their traces in the Harry Potter series, in the fourth or fifth film – "Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix."

[...]

Ali Asghar Sa'dati, Iranian expert on religious cinema: [The Zionists] are trying to convince the viewers that there is no easy way to distance oneself from witchcraft, Satan, and the like, it is better to... They are saying indirectly: "Join us."

[...]

I call this a "cultural Crusader war" – a crusade in which the cultural aspect is currently stronger than the military aspect. Their military expedition is currently in Afghanistan and Iraq, while their cultural expedition consists of these films and DVDs, which are passed around from one to another throughout the world, including in our country and in the Middle East.

[...]

Dr. Mehdi Goljan, Iranian university lecturer: The second issue is the racial supremacy of the Jewish people. The Zionists have used this as a pretext to achieve their Zionist goals.

[...]

The third issue, which is a very important one, is the concept of the End of Days, or the belief that the Jewish people are saviors. As you know, throughout the history of the Jewish people, according to the views of global Zionism, the issue of world domination is a basic principle, of utmost importance.

[...]

Narrator: The Harry Potter film series reached the cinema, following the success of the Zionist propaganda machine, which made this little-known author and her books famous. It can be viewed as a compilation of secrets, and of theories used by the Zionist media. Let us ignore for a moment the efforts by the creators of this series to present witchcraft and wizards in a positive light – an effort that is evident throughout the series, and especially in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." This has always been the modus operandi of the Zionist teachings regarding the media. Many of these symbols have been adapted to the screen successfully.

[...]

Dr. Mehdi Goljan: [The Zionists] support Harry Potter, because he is the promised messiah. As you can see, he has the same traits and wants to defeat a dark force, which in this film is depicted as Voldemort. In the sixth episode, there is even mention of the War of Armageddon. This sixth episode is now being produced, and will probably be released next year. When Professor Dumbledore dies, Harry Potter reads in his memoirs that he will have to fight a War of Armageddon somewhere against Voldemort, the war witch, according to Zionist Christian beliefs, will take place at the End of Days. You can see that in all these films, they promote their ideology.

[...]

Narrator: Propaganda for purity of blood and race, one of the principles of global Zionism, is openly portrayed and emphasized in the second Harry Potter film. If we add this [film] to the other pieces of the puzzle – the beliefs depicted in the other propaganda and political products of the Ziono-Hollywoodists – the Satan features of this inhumane movement will become more evident.

One of the YouTube commenters said, "Oh for all you know, Family Guy is actually a Hassidic Rabbi living in Brooklyn..."

Another Hamas murder

From Reuters:

A Palestinian man on Thursday accused Islamist Hamas militants in control of the Gaza Strip of torturing and killing his brother for publicly criticizing them.
Osama Atallah, a teacher, was a supporter of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the sworn enemy of Hamas, whose gunmen drove Fatah militia out of Gaza in 2007 and fought Israel's army in a three-week war this month.

His brother Bassam said masked gunmen in two jeeps arrived at the family home in the city of Gaza on Tuesday. They identified themselves as members of Hamas internal security and they arrested his brother Osama.

Bassam said the Hamas security service told the Atallah family Osama would be released in a matter of hours. But a Hamas government official, who is also a member of the Atallah family, later denied the teacher was in custody.

The family subsequently received a telephone call from hospital that Osama Atallah was in critical condition.

He later died of his wounds.

This is confirmed in the PalArab media.

The 2009 Palarab self-death count is now (estimated) to be at 42.

A 14-year old boy was fond dead in a well in the West Bank, but that seems to have been accidental. But a new murder I was not aware of happened last month of a 13-year old, and I adjusted the self-death count from 2008 accordingly.