Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 05, 2009

UNRWA workers go on strike in West Bank

Ma'an reports:

Workers employed by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees went on strike accross the West Bank on Thursday, demanding higher pay.

Striking UNRWA workers held demonstrations in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, and Jericho on Thursday to highlight their demands.

At the UN Teachers’ College in Ramallah, union head Shaker Ar-Resheq said, “This demonstration is in protest of the rejection of our demands by the UN administration.”

Ar-Resheq said UN workers are demanding a pay increase to reflect rising prices, and two days off a week, similar to PA employees and UN workers in other countries.

I had recently looked at UNRWA job postings, and came up with these:

For a treasurer, January 2008, in Amman:

UNRWA offers an attractive compensation package including annual salary starting at $67,709 net tax free with dependants or $63,052 single, plus 48.3%, post adjustment (subject to change). Other benefits, subject to eligibility, include education grant, dependency allowance, home leave, pension fund, health insurance and 6 weeks annual leave.

After the post-adjustment the salary is over $100K.

For Director of UNRWA Operations in West Bank, 2007:

UNRWA offers an attractive compensation package including gross annual salary starting at $126,565 ($94,564 net tax free with dependants, $87,407 single) plus 37.1% (subject to change) of post adjustment.) Other fringe benefits could include mobility and hardship allowance, education grant, dependency allowance, home leave, pension fund, health insurance and 6 weeks annual leave.

Deputy spokesperson, May 2008:

UNRWA offers an attractive compensation package including annual salary starting at USD 106,907 (net tax free $81,197 with dependants or USD 75,432 single) plus 47.6% post adjustment (subject to change). Other benefits, subject to eligibility, include education grant, dependency allowance, home leave, pension fund, health insurance and 6 weeks of annual leave.

To be fair, however, UNRWA grunt employees look like they are paid about the same as similar workers in the areas they are employed. Jordanian UNRWA teachers get about $8500 annually.

Hamas selling baby formula stolen from humanitarian aid

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas has stolen selling large quantities of baby formula from France that arrived in Gaza as humanitarian aid, and started selling it openly.

In other news, an Egyptian governor denies that Mahmoud al-Zahar is hiding in Al Arish. I guess he knows every single citizen there.

A new poll of Palestinian Arabs shows that more people now support Hamas - in the West Bank. A majority of West Bank PalArabs think that Hamas won the war, while only 35% of Gazans felt that way.

The most inaccurate op-ed. EVER

We are used to seeing an insidious form of propaganda, where an op-ed piece sprinkles lies as facts to support the columnist's opinion. Since the rules for op-eds are looser than reporting, often the newspaper editors let these sorts of lies go through. (For a perfect example, see Khaled Meshal's op-ed in the Guardian last month.)

However, I have never seen an English-language op-ed that has as many lies as this one from Al-Arabiya, in English, by Dr. Salim Nazzal:

Many lessons can be concluded from the Gaza war. The first is the Palestinians’ great will to sacrifice to defend their home.

More like Hamas' great will to sacrifice Gazans.

...one cannot conceal the feeling of being proud of the Palestinian resistance.

As they stayed in tunnels underneath hospitals and shot rockets from mosques.

But the most insanely absurd part comes later:

According to the human rights specialist Lyna al Tabal, there is not a single item in the Geneva Convention Israel did not violate.

That's right - every single Geneva Convention! Israel must have done biological experiments against Gazans, shot at Hamas parachutists ejecting from damaged planes, and raped Gaza women, to name a few of the hundreds of Conventions.

This is a state that has more than 200 atomic weapons which means two atomic bombs for each Palestinian.

You mean there are only 100 Palestinian Arabs?

A state that has wires and check points (a check point means a slow death and daily humiliation for Palestinians) 20 times more than the Nazi check points during the Nazi occupation of Europe.

Um....yeah.

The number of Palestinians who have been imprisoned since 1967 is 30 times more than the Europeans who went to prison during the Nazi occupation of Europe.

There were hundreds of thousands of people in Nazi prisons, not counting death camps. Which means that Nazzal is claiming that far more Palestinian Arabs have been imprisoned than there are Palestinian Arabs.

The number of bombs Israel used against Palestinians is estimated to be 50 bombs or rockets to each Palestinian.

Assuming he means Palestinian Arabs in the boundaries of Mandate Palestine, that's 300 million bombs!

The number of displaced Palestinians from their ancestral home in more than 415 villages and cities, due to the European Zionist invasion of Palestine, is about 5 million Palestinians.

A neat trick, considering that there were less than a million total Palestinian Arabs in 1948.

Therefore the Palestinian resistance is a reaction to occupation. The occupation comes first; the resistance comes as a natural reaction.

See my last post about the Arab murders of Jews in 1914.

Palestinians have every right to resist the occupation following article 1 of the additional protocol of the Geneva conventions 1977 which states clearly that:
(Armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination).

Even if this applied, this means that they are covered by the Conventions, it doesn't mean that they can flout them.

Weakening the fist of Zionism is in the interest of all Europe, which the Israeli atomic bombs can reach it in few minutes.

Ah, yes, the Europeans are threatened by Israel far more than from Islamic terrorism.

Palestinians prefer to compete with the Jewish community in Palestine in football grounds and in musical halls and not in wars. This view is related to the Palestinian vision which views as Palestine more than a piece of land, but rather as a unique place where God is glorified through synagogues, churches and mosques.

A sentiment that I have not seen a single time - ever - mentioned in any Palestinian Arab media, from years of reading them. And keep in mind how many synagogues survived in the Old City of Jerusalem one month after Jordan ejected the Jews there - zero.

And this is only a sample of Nazzal's piece!

Jews and Arabs living peacefully together

One often hears claims such as this one, printed as a letter to the editor in a Dallas newspaper:

Muslims and Jews were living in peace in Palestine until the Zionists established Israel and started driving Arabs from their ancestral homes...

I just came upon the American Jewish Yearbook for 1914-1915, describing events of the year. Here are some of the events in Palestine at the time:

August. Bedouins attack colony of Rehobot, killing one colonist and wounding several others. --Rehobot vineyards penetrated by villagers from Zernuka, who kill Jewish student.

November. At colony of Kinneret two Jewish watchmen murdered by Arabs.

December. Near Tiberias, two colonists killed and several injured by Arabs.

January. At Hebron, Jewish storekeepers are boycotted by Mohammedan women.

April. Minister of Interior removes Governor of Tiberias on complaint of Chief Rabbi of his laxity in protecting the Jews against Arab attacks.

May. Minister of Interior orders officiais in Palestine to repress all anti-Jewish manifestations.—Chief Rabbi waits on Minister of Interior and reads to him two violent articles in Arab journal Palestine, and warns him that any disorders that might result therefrom would create bad impression abroad.

There were constant attacks by Arabs against the tiny Jewish community even then, as well as incitement against Jews in the Arab media and economic boycotts.

Pointedly, these attacks and incitement were not against Zionists, but Jews. And the Jews didn't attack any Arabs.

These are the idyllic, peaceful days that the Arab world wants to return to, when the Jews were defenseless and the Arabs could attack them with impunity.

The Gaza pawns and their players

The way that the world is treating Gazans is an extension of how the world has treated Palestinian Arabs for decades.

Immediately after the 1948 war, there was a very real refugee problem. The Arab states who did everything they could to eradicate Israel had no interest in helping the refugees that resulted from their war. Instead, they tried to use the refugees as political weapons against Israel, adamantly refusing to resettle them the way that every other refugee group in history has resettled in their new lands.

Over time, different Arab states would try to co-opt the others in pretending to care more about Palestinian Arabs. Egypt and Syria both created their own "Palestinian" organizations to co-opt the growing group and use them as their own propaganda weapons. None of them made any moves to create a Palestinian Arab state, of course, unless it would replace Israel. The only nation in the Middle East that managed to get rid of their Arab refugee camps and replace them with real homes was Israel.

Meanwhile, UNRWA had to grow to take care of the ever-increasing numbers of "refugees." Over time, UNRWA forgot that it was supposed to help solve the refugee problem and instead started acting in self-serving ways, exactly how Arab leaders did. The more "refugees," the more important UNRWA became, as they took care of the PalArabs from cradle to grave, providing food, shelter and schools.

Palestinian Arabs continued to be used for their political value, remaining explicitly stateless even as their sojourn in Arab lands stretched from years to generations. They managed to get for themselves a single, charismatic leader - who used them the same way that everyone else did, while convincing them that he was thinking about what was best for them.

Now, in Gaza, we have groups who are fighting for the loyalty of the Palestinian Arabs there yet who care as little about them as any of their forebears.

We have Hamas, trying to convince everyone that they won the war, and at the same time promising to pay Gazans for their losses.

We have the PA, sending some of their billions from international largesse to Gaza, paying salaries and rebuilding institutions that they hope will not be used by Hamas.

We have the "other" terrorists, who will do what is needed to keep the conflict simmering forever.

We have Egypt, who loudly declare that they are the only ones who can broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and therefore claiming the mantle of the entity that cares most about Gaza - but they will forcibly stop any Gazans that try to go to Egypt.

We have Turkey, who loudly insist that they are the most loyal to Gaza and help in purely symbolic ways.

We have Iran, who send weapons to Gaza in order to have a toehold in an area where they can attack Israel directly from and who has great interest in keeping Gazans miserable and angry at Israel.

We have Gulf states, rich with oil money, sending petrodollars to Gaza to get the citizens to feel that they weren't completely abandoned by them.

And we have UNRWA, who now claim to take care of some 60% of Gazans and who want to keep their own positions in perpetuity.

Look at how Hamas reacted to the UNRWA's charge that their aid was being stolen:

Yihia Mussa, A Hamas MP, told IMEMC that the deposed government in Gaza is not welling to make obstacles for delivering aid supplies to Gazans, he added that the Ministry of Social Affairs told the Palestinian Parliament that UNRWA have been using local NGOs that has political affiliations to deliver the aid to the people, which contradicts with the political neutrality of UNRWA.

Hamas, which counted UNRWA as one of their allies, now is lashing out at another potential competitor for influence over Gaza.

None of these players are interested in solving the real problems of Gaza. Nothing is being done by any of these players to reduce the birthrate, to create real jobs, to increase productivity, nor to create a permanent peace with Israel. None of these players are interested in having Gazans mature from a welfare culture into people who act like responsible adults. Doing any of those things would reduce the players' influence and control.

The only player who wants to see Gaza truly get on its feet, to turn into a Singapore or Hong Kong, is - Israel. And since what Israel wants is axiomatically the antithesis of what all the other players want, this will never be allowed to happen even if it was a remote possibility.

Because the other players want to continue to control and influence Gaza for their own selfish reasons.

Women's Gaza forum in UK: Establish a caliphate!

A conference for Muslim women in Manchester concluded that there can be peace - as long as Muslims rule the world:

OVER 150 women gathered to discuss a way forward in Gaza during a conference in Manchester.
The event organised by the sister arm of Hizb ut-Tahrir and held at the Pakistani Community Centre in Lonsight looked beyond the ceasefire, evaluated practical steps that could have prevented atrocities in Gaza and mapped out a future political set up to ensure stability and peace for the region.

The second speaker, Sultanah Parvin, the Women's Deputy Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain spoke in great detail on how an Islamic government would deal with a rogue state occupying territories illegally. She detailed the regional peace a Caliphate would offer to Jews, Christians and Muslims no different to the rich Muslim History which saw huge prosperity amongst communities in the very same region.

Yes, we all remember how prosperous Palestine was before Zionism.

This same person wrote an article for the Guardian a few years ago where she said

I don't identify with the term "British Muslim". It suggests allegiance to Britain and connection to the country's secular system of rule, which is based on capitalist ideals.
Britain is a secular society that separates politics and religion, and that is in contradiction to what Islam teaches. Muslims cannot accept compromising core Islamic values just for the sake of wanting to be labelled "British".

When is the West going to wake up to the fact that, by definition, Islam is not simply a religion, but an expansionist and exclusivist political phiosophy?

Pro-Hamas rally fizzles in California university

Occasionally, there is some good news from the mecca of moonbats, this time at California State University at Northridge:

Palestinian students were set to hold a protest against the Israeli government yesterday until around 40 students for Israel gathered in a counter protest. The Palestinian students decided to not to hold the protest after discovering they were outnumbered, but the Israeli rally continued with chants of "no mas Hamas" and "we want peace, we don't want war."
Political science major Julia Pitt, sophomore, said in an e-mail sent to the Daily Sundial that the Palestinian protest was rescheduled to a later date because there was concern of whether or not they had enough people to make an impact.

From reading the article, the only person who spoke for the pro-Hamas side was Pitt, who doesn't sound like a Palestinian Arab to me.

A whopper of a lie by Hamas

Buried in the middle of an AP article about alleged Israeli "war crimes" comes this jawdropper:

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied the group's men battled from civilians areas.

Wow. Besides videos and voluminous documentation that Hamas did exactly that, we can add the very anti-Israel PCHR site, which lists exactly where many of the "resistance fighters" were killed:

(Jan 2) At approximately 19:25, an IOF warplane fired a missile at Sami Ibrahim Lubbad, a member of the Palestinian resistance, near Sheikh Zayed housing project in Beit Lahia town. He was instantly killed.

(Jan 6) At approximately 02:40, a group of the Palestinian resistance exchanged fire with an IOF special unit, which was supported by warplanes and gunboats, in the southwest of Deir al-Balah refugee camp.

(Jan. 7) At approximately 23:05, IOF warplanes fired missiles at the street connecting al-Amal neighborhood and Khan Yunis refugee camp, killing two resistance fighters: Salem Ahmed Abu Mousa, 24; and Hassan Rateb Sama'an, 23.

(Jan 8) At approximately 09:40 on Thursday, an IOF aircraft fired a missile at three members of the resistance who were near al-Qassam mosque in Beit Lahia, killing all three.

At approximately 22:30, IOF bombed al-Zaytoun neighborhood, killing two members of the Palestinian resistance.

(Jan 9) At approximately 20:15, IOF warplanes attacked a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance in Street #2 in al-Qarara village, east of Khan Yunis.

(Jan 10) At approximately 23:30, an IOF warplane fired a missile at Rami Mohammed Sa'id Abu al-'Ata, 27, a resistance activist, when he was in al-Shoja'eya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

At approximately 14:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at Hassan Mohammed Harb, 24, a resistance activist, in al-Sikka Street in al-Boreij refugee camp.

(Jan 11) At approximately 02:00, fierce fighting erupted between Palestinian resistance activists and IOF in Sheikh 'Ejlin neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. The fighting continued for a few hours, during which time 11 Palestinians were killed.

At approximately 06:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at a number of Palestinian resistance activists in Khuza'a village.

(Jan 12) At approximately 15:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at a group of the members of the Palestinian resistance near Sha’aban Mosque at Palestine Square in the center of Gaza City. Three members were killed as a result.

At approximately 17:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at Ussama Abu al-Seifi, 20, a member of the Palestinian resistance, in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

At approximately 20:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at two members of the Palestinian resistance in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

At approximately 18:55, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a group of the Palestinian resistance, whilst in the Abu Bakr al-Seddiq Street near al-‘Awda Square in the center of Rafah.

(Jan 13) At approximately 02:00, IOF moved towards al-Karama area and ‘Aamer housing project in the southwest of Jabalya, under firing, shelling and clashes with members of the Palestinian resistance that continued till 08:00. The clashes resulted in the killing of 13 members of the Palestinian resistance.

At approximately 01:30, violent clashes erupted between members of the Palestinian resistance and IOF troops that moved into al-Dahadih area, between al-Zaytoun and Tal al-Hawa neighborhoods. The clashes resulted in the killing of 8 members of the Palestinian resistance.

At approximately 10:00, an OF warplane fired a missile at Mohammed Maher Mohammed Harazallah, 23, a member of the Palestinian resistance, whilst in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood. He was killed.

At approximately 19:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a Palestinian resistance activist in al-Zayotoun neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, killing him.

At approximately 20:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a Palestinian resistance activist in al-Sabra neighborhood, killing him.

At approximately 19:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at a number of activists of the Salah al-Din Brigades (the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees) in al-Shouka village, east of Rafah. Two activists were killed.

(Jan 14) At approximately 03:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at two Palestinian resistance activists in al-Sabra neighborhood, killing them.

At approximately 20:00, an IOF warplane bombed a group of members of the Palestinian resistance in the New Camp, west of al-Nussairat refugee camp.

At approximately 20:30, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a number of resistance activists in Abu Marahil Street in al-Nussairat refugee camp.

(Jan 15) At approximately 22:00, IOF warplanes fired a missile at a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance near al-Karama apartment buildings west of Jabalya. All the members of the targeted group were killed.

(Jan 17) At approximately 05:00, IOF tanks shelled al-Karama apartment buildings, southwest of Jabalya. As a result, 3 activists of the Palestinian resistance were killed.

At approximately 23:00, medical crews found the bodies of two resistance activists in 'Aamer housing project in the northern Gaza Strip.

During IOF ground incursion into Tal al-Hawa neighborhood that continued until 07:00 on Friday, 16 January 2009, ten members of the Palestinian resistance were killed.

This is hardly a comprehensive list, but I think it proves the point fairly well.

By the way, the Hamas spokesman followed that lie with another equally transparent one:

He also called Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel towns "a means of self-defense."

"Those are not civilians. They are all soldiers," Barhoum said of the residents of southern Israel. "We are firing at places that bring us the F-16s, the warplanes and the tanks."

Turkish soccer player plants Palestinian flag on field

From Reuters:

A Turkish soccer player planted a Palestinian flag in the middle of the pitch at a match on Tuesday, in an apparent protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza, Turkish broadcasters reported.
Sivasspor midfielder Ibrahim Dagasan placed the flag on the centre spot at a stadium in the central Turkish city of Sivas after his side beat Galatasaray in the quarter final of the Turkey Cup.

After he did so, some spectators chanted: "Damn Israel". Dagasan then raised a finger to his mouth, gesturing for them to be silent. One of Dagasan's team mates is the Israeli forward Pini Balili.

A fan site described the scene like this:

After the match, while his whole team was celebrating and greeting the fans in the stadium with Israeli soccer player Balili holding the Turkish flag, he ran around with Palestinian flag!
This was absurd in soccer stadium! I am against any political stuff in the stadiums. This really damage the Sivasspor image, in my opinion....

While your team mate who is from Israel, runs around with Turkish and Sivasspor flag , Ibrahim Dagasan has no right to do this...

I hope, Turkish Football Federation and Sivasspor fine this absurd soccer player.

I reported on January 17th that there were reports that Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar had escaped Gaza by faking injuries, forging medical papers and taking an ambulance from Gaza to Egypt during one of the three-hour "lulls" during the fighting.

Since then, the Gazans have been wondering where exactly Zahar has disappeared to. Some of the rumors say that he actually was injured. There are reports that he shaved his beard and is staying at his mother's house in Al Arish.

Hamas has denied that he was injured, but cannot seem to produce him. And since perception is everything, Gazans now almost certainly look at him as a coward who ran away from his people.

He was featured prominently, and apparently prophetically, in my PaHamas video.

UNRWA now admits Hamas stole aid (updated)

After weeks of denials, it appears that UNRWA finally admitted that Hamas has stolen aid from UNRWA itself:

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said Wednesday that Hamas had seized hundreds of food parcels and thousands of blankets destined for Gaza civilians in the wake of Israel's war.

"At 1430 on 3 February, over 3,500 blankets and 406 food parcels were confiscated from a distribution store at Beach Camp in Gaza by police personnel," it said in a statement.

"This took place after UNRWA staff had earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs.

"The police subsequently broke into the warehouse and seized the aid by force. The aid was due to be distributed to five hundred families in the area," UNRWA said.

"UNRWA condemns in the strongest terms the confiscation of its aid supplies and has demanded that it is returned immediately."

This is not on the UNRWA site yet.

I am awaiting confirmation or comment from Chris Gunness.

UPDATES: Gunness replied with the official UNRWA press release. Aussie Dave commented that Gunness told Haaretz that this was the first time Hamas ever confiscated UN aid, even though we have seen numerous reports over the past year of exactly that happening.

And now Hamas denies that it did any such thing, according to Ma'an Arabic.

This year's Pallywood? (update 3)

One of the more disturbing alleged stories from Operation Cast Lead concerns the Abed Rabbo family that was supposedly slaughtered in cold blood by Israeli soldiers.

There have been at least three accounts of this alleged massacre - the Sydney Morning Herald, the Independent and Time magazine. All of them are nonsensical.

Aussie Dave at Israellycool (4:05 PM update) noticed many inconsistencies between the SMH and Independent versions of the events. Read his entire account. Especially note that Khaled Abed Rabbo claims that the Israeli soldier had sidelocks/"ringlets"/payot, while The Independent notes that the only ultra-Orthodox army unit did not go into combat.

Richard at The Augean Stables takes apart the Time magazine account, showing how easily a reporter can be deceived by "eyewitnesses" based on his exacting research with other faked Palestinian Arab accounts of similar IDF 'crimes" that turned out to be fiction.

Read those two accounts. Also notice that there are inconsistencies between the Time version and the others - for example, in Time the soldier kills the two-year old (who was targeted first in all accounts!) with a single shot, in the SMH with three.

One more interesting part regards the Abed Rabbo family. As Israellycool observed a few days later, a family with the same name, who apparently control a district in Jabalya, accused Hamas of using them as human shields. Could the family have been shot by Hamas?

And, finally, Ruthie of America emailed me with another intriguing mention of Khaled Abed Rabbo:

Hamas Cell Uncovered
Israeli authorities announced on March 5 that they discovered a Hamas cell from Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah. The group, according to the Shabak, is responsible for the deaths of 22 Israelis and the injury of 345. The five-member group was planning to take hostages in an embassy in Israel in exchange for Hamas detainees in Israeli prisons on March 8. The military court in Lod sentenced two of the members, Khaled Abed Rabou and Majdi Bakhirat to 21 and 19 months respectively.

I don't know if it is the same person, but this is what reporters should be investigating, not taking clearly inconsistent "eyewitness" accounts of fake Israeli massacres at face value.

UPDATE: Here is how PCHR described the incident:

At 14:00 on Wednesday, IOF opened fire at houses in 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu area, east Jabalia, killing three sisters: Su'ad 'Abed Rabbu, 10; and her sisters Amal, 3; and Samar, 2.

There were many clashes in the 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu area according to PCHR, so it seems clear that there were lots of terrorists around.

UPDATE 2: Here are some pictures from the neighborhood.

UPDATE 3: CAMERA finds many more inconsistencies, especially between early accounts (that the sisters were killed by either an airstrike or artillery) and the lurid later accounts of cold-blooded executions of children holding white flags.

It appears that the stories get more embellished in time. Like...lies.

Hamas still rules through fear

It is unfortunate to note that while Israel clearly weakened Hamas, the terrorist organization is still the only game in town. Its campaign of terror against Fatah - killing far more Palestinian Arabs than Israelis during the duration of the war - has kept it in its role as a thugocracy. And as this article shows, the residents of Gaza are back to their old fears:

On street corners, Hamas police are back in uniform, flaunting their AK-47s....

A recent declaration by Hamas’s prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, that the movement has won a great victory draws mirthless smiles.

But many faithfully stick to the official version. “The resistance did very well,” says Assad al-Hartani, a municipal worker as he shops for cigarettes in the market. “They stopped the invasion. Without them the Israelis would have destroyed all of Gaza.” The fact that Hamas has not been ousted from power is itself considered a fine achievement. “Israel’s war didn’t change anything,” Mr Hartani goes on. People in the crowd around him nod in agreement, albeit aware of two uniformed guards watching and listening.
In the streets you hear only support for Hamas. In more secluded conversations, views are more nuanced, with expressions of anger, fear and exhaustion. “People are furious with Hamas for bringing this on us,” says a taxi driver from Jabaliya, a big refugee camp in the north of the strip, after first making sure that the car windows were closed and no one was eavesdropping. “But they are too afraid to speak out. They know that if they say the truth about this war they may disappear.”

But he also describes how people’s feelings changed as the war went on. At first, some were delighted by the prospect of Hamas’s demise. But after days of bombs, sentiment shifted. “The Israelis made a mistake when they killed so many women and children. Everyone then supported Hamas. The Israelis made a big mistake.” He repeats that last phrase several times.

Vacuums in Arab societies tend to be filled by extremists, and in this case it was refilled by the old dictators.

Natan Sharansky famously said:

Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society.

Gaza is going to be a fear society for a long, long time.

(h/t Ruthie of America)

Zionist, infidel Rotary and Lions' Clubs

From AFP:

Indonesian Islamic hardliners have called for a ban on international organisations the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy, reports said Monday.
The (FUU) said the clubs were "infidel" fronts for Freemasonry and the world Zionist movement and threatened Islam in the world's most populous Muslim country.
"They gather funds and give them to America and the Israeli Zionists," FUU chairman Atian Ali Mohammad Da'i was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Globe daily.
"We urge all Muslims to renounce membership in the Rotary Club and the Lions Club. Otherwise they can consider themselves infidels."

And as always when people are accused of being Zionist, they have to defend themselves from the slur:

Leaders of the Lions and Rotary Clubs yesterday shrugged off claims by a hardline Islamic group in Indonesia that they are part of a "Zionist conspiracy".

They dismissed the claims made by the People's Ulema Forum (FUU) in Jakarta that the clubs were "infidel" fronts for freemasonry and the international Zionist movement.

Dr J.P. Kamalanathan, governor of Lions' Club International district 308 B1, which covers Peninsular Malaysia, said the organisation never took any religious, political or nationalistic stand.

He said with some 1.3 million members worldwide, it would be illogical to pin the club's affiliation to any one country or group. "We are not anti-anything," he said yesterday.

Hamas managed to come to the conclusion that Lions and Rotarians are Zionist infidels decades ago. From the Hamas charter:

For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.

South Africa minister "apologizes" for anti-semitism

JTA reported last week:

On Jan. 14, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatima Hajaig told a pro-Palestinian rally that Jews controlled America "no matter which government comes into power, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Barack Obama or George Bush."
"The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money," she said. "If the Jewish money controls their country, then you cannot expect anything else."

A local Muslim television station, Channel Islam International, aired Hajaig's comments as part of its rally coverage.

The rally, held during Israel's three-week operation in Gaza, was organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, a partner of the ruling African National Congress party. Other sponors included the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, the South Africa Communist Party -- also an ANC government partner -- and the South Africa Council of Churches.

"We haven't seen such brazen Jew-baiting from a senior government representative in South Africa for at least 50 years," David Saks, the associate director of the South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies, told JTA. "What was especially troubling about it was the raucously enthusiastic response from the large audience."

No kidding. Mail and Guardian blogger David Saks describes the rest of the rally:

In addition to such revolting conspiracy theorising, various other speakers at the Lenasia rally made threatening statements against the local Jewish community.This included calls that anyone with Zionist sympathies be expelled from the country, that “Israeli” businesses be boycotted (a list of Jewish-owned businesses is in fact now doing the rounds within the Muslim community and further afield) and that action be taken against South African Jews who served in the Israeli military.

One presenter said: “The common enemy is making inroads in South Africa … the Zionists in South Africa must be kicked out of the shores of South Africa”. Another speaker praised “our Jewish brothers and sisters” who had come out against the Israel Defence Force, assuring them “there is a place in the world we are building in South Africa for you”. Those who had not done so, he warned, had “better watch out because the winds of change are blowing”.

Regarding local Jews allegedly serving in the IDF, another presenter shouted (again to rapturous and sustained applause): “We are going to become impimpis [informants - EoZ], we are going to become impimpis … the business that we are going to carry out with the Jews, with these Zionist entities. We are going to talk to them, were going to find out if their sons have gone to fight our brothers and sisters in Palestine and then we’ll say to them come and fight us at home”.

Other speakers included ANC Provincial Secretary Nazeem Adams and Eddie Makue, general secretary for South African Council of Churches. Makue denied that the fight against Israel and Zionism was anti-Semitic, saying that he and his fellow activists only wanted to bring their “Jewish brothers and sisters onto the right path”.

“This is a global struggle. We are inviting you to join us in it, otherwise you will be mowed down in the annals of history as people who refuse to support justice and peace” he said, as the crowd bellowed its approval.

All in all, it must have been very much reminiscent of a Nuremburg rally.

So on January 14th, we had a televised rally with explicit anti-semitism, broadcast by a Muslim TV station that didn't condemn it (quite the opposite,) that was exposed in the media since at least January 19th...and now, three weeks later after much criticism, the deputy minister has finally issued a pseudo-apology:

Deputy foreign minister Fatima Hajaig today apologised for any pain caused by alleged anti-Semitic remarks she made at a rally a few weeks ago.

"To the extent that my statement may have caused hurt and pain, I offer an unequivocal apology for the pain it may have caused to the people of our country, and the Jewish community in particular," said Hajaig in a statement.

She said she regretted the "inference" made by some people that she was "anti-Jewish".

"I do not believe that the cause of the Palestinians is served by anti-Jewish racism."

Note that she is not apologizing for the statement - only for the fact that people might be offended. Needless to say, this is not an apology.

She then added:

"I conflated Zionist pressure with Jewish influence."

SA Jewish Board of Deputies national chairman Zev Krengel said today that Hajaig had given only a "veiled apology" in her statement.

"She is still not apologising for what she has said. She is apologising for the hurt."

Krengel said he believed she still needed to apologise for what was actually said and repudiate it.

He said she had used her apology to make another statement towards the Middle East and almost "justify" what she had done.

Since it took the netter part of a month for her to do even this, I think we can be sure that she really isn't too sorry about what she said.