Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 09, 2009

Natan Sharansky has a blog

My favorite thinker, Natan Sharansky, has a blog.

Spend five minutes now to read his section on human rights.

Throughout the site one finds true gems, such as this:

Hamas is not the only Palestinian group at fault. In 2005, shortly after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, I met with the chief of staff to the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. My question to him: Now that we have uprooted thousands of Jews and empowered Gazans to be masters of their own fate, can we hope that within a year’s time there will be fewer refugees in the camps? “Absolutely not,” he said. “The refugees will be relocated only in the context of the final status [agreement]. How can we move them if we do not know where they will live? Maybe they will live in Israel.”
In withdrawing from Gaza, Israel made painful concessions for peace by forcibly removing Jews from their homes. And yet even the Palestinian Authority, the most moderate among Palestinian political groups, would not consider easing their own people’s plight in the wake of Israel’s compromise. This is because the suffering of the refugees is essential to their broader political struggle.

How does the West respond to the obvious exploitation of Palestinian refugees? Soon after my meeting with Mr. Abbas’s chief of staff, I met with the ambassador of one of the West’s most enlightened countries. I asked: Why are the Palestinians not willing to help their own refugees? “I can understand them,” he answered. “After all, they don’t want the refugee problem to be taken off the agenda.”

The world needs such clarity as Sharansky's.

Freedom of religion, Saudi-style

From the Saudi Gazette:

Establishing houses of worship for non-Muslims is a sensitive issue but the Kingdom does not restrict non-Muslims to practice their religion in private, a senior human rights official said here Saturday.

Zeid Al-Hussein, Vice President of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, said the Kingdom is not only an Islamic state, but it is also the cradle of Islam and of Islamic civilization. It is the land of the Two Holy Mosques and the destination of Muslims from around the world.

Therefore, he said, the Kingdom is charged with the responsibility of preserving Islam, its rituals and its sanctities.

Regarding not allowing the establishment of places of worship for non-Muslims in the Kingdom, Al-Hussein said, we believe that Islam is the seal of religions and that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the cradle of Islam, the land of the Two Holy Mosques, and the destination of 1.5 billion Muslims.

Therefore, the religious peculiarities make it difficult to establish worship places in the holy land.

However, non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia are completely enjoy the freedom of worship and can practice the rituals of their religions in their own places.

Imagine the outcry if an Israeli "human rights" official said that "Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people and the object of their prayers and devotions. As a result, there can be no churches or mosques, but everyone is free to practice their religion in private." Or a similar statement from Rome disallowing synagogues and mosques there.

The Saudi article has some humorous sections about Islam and human rights, like this:

Islam supplements, rather than undermines, international human rights standards and Saudi Arabia derives its values from all sources provided that they are compatible with the objectives called for by the Islamic Shariah, Al-Hussein said.

The Shariah pays special attention to the rights of vulnerable groups, such as, minorities and non-Muslims, and, in fact, the Shariah grants women extensive rights.

We all know that Saudi Arabia is hardly a mecca (pun intended) for freedom of religion, but for the "Human Rights Commission" official to justify it in the name of human rights is more than a little hypocritical.

Update on UNRWA West Bank "strike"

A Ma'an report last week said that UNRWA workers in the West Bank went on strike, so I emailed UNRWA:

Is there any comment about the UNRWA workers' strike reported in Ma'an? http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35542

Which workers are striking? How is it affecting UNRWA services? How many are on strike? What is the minimum and average salaries for UNRWA workers in the West Bank?

Chris Gunness replied that he was much too busy to reply, but this morning I received an answer from Sami Mshasha, denying any strike:

1- Who are striking? No one.

The UNRWA West Bank Staff Union issued a circular last week calling for ‘protest activities’ to protest:

a-UNRWA not wanting to move its field operations work week from a six-days into a five-days work week. The Union believes that this is possible and would not affect services. UNRWA—and large segments of the population benefiting from UNRWA services—thing otherwise.

B- Increase in salary to correspond to cost of living increases and

c- compensating losses in the staff’s provident fund (retirement fund).

2- So far direct assistance to the refugees are not being affected. If and when the Union decides to go on strike, education, health and social services stand to be affected.

3- UNRWA employs some 5,000 staff members. Almost all of them are union members.

4- UNRWA’s salary scale is set on a scale of 1 to 20— Grade one being the lowest and grade 20 the highest (for nationally recruited staff).

Salary for grade one (average): Jordanian Dinar (JD): 370

Grade 20: JD1200.

Average salary: JD530.

I'm not sure if the 5000 workers are for all of UNRWA or just the West Bank.

A Jordanian dinar is worth about $1.41, so this means that the union employees average $9000 a year. Management, however, seems to make over ten times that amount.

PalArab media roundup 2-9-09

A Hamas member, who was arrested on Friday, died in a PA prison. The PA claimed that he committed suicide but Hamas and his family are saying that he was tortured to death. His brother says that his body showed bruises around his waist. He had not been charged officially with any crimes. (I am going to count this as a 2009 PalArab self-death, the 20th this year. The suicide story seems farfetched, and the PA tortures people as regularly as Hamas does.)

Hamas' expulsion of Al Arabiya correspondent Wael Essam is making ripples, as many Arabs are criticizing the move. MEMRI has two of his recent reports on arms smuggling and rocket production. Essam, who has Palestinian Arab ancestry, is interviewed here, where he says that he has been kicked out of war zones before (he reported from Iraq and Lebanon) but never by his own people.

Gunmen opened fire at the PA Minister of the Interior in Nablus. Attacks on PA members and institutions seem to be increasing in the West Bank, possibly as a result of the increased prestige Hamas enjoys there for managing to hide most of its fighters for a few weeks.

Hamas is now reacting to the withering criticism it received when it floated the idea of a replacement fo rthe PLO. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar now says that Hamas doesn't want to replace the PLO but it does want to have a much greater role in it, including the reversal of the PLO's supposed revocation of the articles in its charter that call for the destruction of Israel. Khaled Meshal says that the PLO should not only be represented by Fatah.

UNRWA is still waiting for Hamas to return the goods that it stole. Commenters at Palestine Press Agency are skeptical.

$2.2 billion of PA cash went to Gaza

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah has channeled 2.2 billion dollars to the Gaza Strip since Hamas took full control of the coastal territory in June 2007, said Ramallah-based Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday.

At the very moment that the West decided not to fund Hamas, the PA gave twice as much money per capita to Gaza than it did to the West Bank - indirectly funding Hamas by allowing it to use its own cash from Iran and elsewhere to buy weapons and build bunkers instead of take care of the day-to-day duties of governing Gaza.

And the PA gets virtually all its money from the West.

U. of Rochester moonbats pretend to act tough

Ma'an reports:

University of Rochester students and community members began an occupation of campus buildings Friday afternoon.

It then goes on to detail their demand - divesting from companies who sell weapons to Israel, twinning with a Gaza university, and so on.

But it turns out that the moonbats didn't act quite as disobediently as they are pretending.

The UR chapter of Students for a Democratic Society issued a news release tonight saying it was occupying Goergen Hall — the biomedical engineering and optics building — “to show the university we are serious about supporting our brothers and sisters in Gaza.”

The group characterized its actions as occupying the campus building, but a university spokeswoman said the group had reserved the space in advance.

And when the time for the reservation was up?

UR Dean of Students Matthew Burns negotiated with the students Friday night and the two sides apparently reached an agreement to continue talking about the students’ demands. That agreement avoided a possible confrontation that loomed at midnight, when the university said it was planning to close the building.

So essentially the students reserved a space, made some noisy "demands," lied about their actions, lied about their victory in gaining concessions, and left the building before even a hint of confrontation could occur.

This wasn't even civil disobedience - it was civil obedience.

Wow, what bravery!

Links!

The 203rd edition of Haveil Havalim is up at Esser Agoroth, and two of my postings are included.

Soccer Dad links to a number of stories about the parties vying to lead Israel in this week's elections.

Backspin notices the MSM waking up about Hamas war crimes.

Someone shot at the Al Hayat al Jadida PA newspaper building, and Ma'an hints that they think it was the Jooooz - even though Al Hayat itself blames Arabs (by calling on the PA police to investigate, not asking for IDF help.)

Taking the Ziyonist conspiracy to the next level

If you like the stories I find and want to help spread them, here are some things you can do:

The easiest is to use the social-networking bookmarks using the tool I place after every story that looks like this:

When you mouse over that you can then submit stories you like to various sites, some of which generate lots of traffic. You of course need to join Digg or Reddit or any of the other sites to be able to submit the story to begin with.

Twitter also has tools to easily grab a webpage you are on and tweet it.

If you are more ambitious, you can join one of the increasing number of "citizen journalism" websites, where you can write your own stories, or sometimes link to them. Just for fun I joined NowPublic and posted an article, although I didn't link back here. It was very easy.

Even easier are sites like Newsvine where you can add a button to your browser to submit a story. A couple of my readers have done this, often generating more comments there than here. See this page for a pro-Israel Newsviner.

Wikinews is completely generated by users, although it goes through a review process to keep its quality up. It is also indexed by Google News.

Keep in mind that many of these sites are already infested with Israel bashers and it is easy to get sucked in to their conversations. I think it is better to post, let others do the commenting.

Carter: "The Israel lobby doesn't want peace"

Jimmy shows his hatred for Israel again, in the middle of an interview with The Houston Chronicle:

You have to remember that the major Israeli lobbies, they’re not in favor of peace. They never have professed to be. What they are in favor of is protecting the policies of whatever government is in charge in Israel. If you look at their Web sites, they make that quite clear. So they’re for Israel, they’re not for peace between Israel and its neighbors.

There you have it - according to Jimmy, it is impossible to be pro-Israel and pro-"peace."

Of course, if you define "peace" the way he does, where Israel surrenders everything in exchange for worthless promises, I guess that is true.

But if you define peace correctly, this is pretty slanderous.

(In case you are interested, the word "peace" is mentioned over 6000 times at the AIPAC website, about 200 times at the ZOA website, and as far as I can tell none of them are against "peace," although I'm sure they have qualms about the "peace process," which is hardly the same thing.)

PalArab news roundup 2-7-09

My bad: Hamas claims that they cleared up all their misunderstandings about stealing 300 tons of aid from UNRWA. UNRWA replies, um, first return what you have stolen before you announce that things are copacetic.

Extremism is fine, in moderation: Mahmoud Abbas says that the PA doesn't ask Hamas to recognize Israel, but he does want it to be part of a unity PA government. Which means that the PA won't really recognize Israel any more, but no one is really mentioning that part. "He also asserted, in line with his statements since mid-Gaza war, that the Palestinian people have the right to resist occupation as long as they live under it." - the exact opposite of the Oslo agreement.

Remember, he's the "moderate."

The brave little wimp: Mahmoud Zahar emerged from hiding and plans to lead a Hamas delegation to Cairo. Haniyeh is still underground.

Freedom of the press, Hamas-style: Hamas is expelling Al Arabiya reporter Wael Essam because they didn't like his coverage of Gaza.

Cash is king: There are reports that the millions of dollars that Egypt found in Hamas' members' bags last week are a small percentage of the money that Iran gave Hamas' Damascus leaders recently.

Hamas turning hospitals into torture chambers

Ma'an reports on the latest wacky antics of those terrorists that the moonbats love so much:

The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry accused the Hamas-run de facto government’s security services of turning medical centers into virtual prisons on Saturday.

According to a statement from the Health Ministry, Hamas has used hospitals and clinics in Gaza as interrogation and detention centers, where medical staffers have been expelled.

“After Israel ended its aggression in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry was surprised that Hamas militants returned to their old behavior, expelling medical staff and using medical centers as detention centers, and for torture and interrogation,” the statement said.

Hospitals affiliated with the PA that were taken over include Al-Quds

Hospital in Tal Al-Hawa, a Red Crescent initiative, parts of the Ash-Shifa

Hospital in Gaza City, the upper and lower floors of the An-Nasser

Hospital, as well as the Psychiatric Hospital, according to the statement.

I mean, seriously, can you blame Hamas? After all, Israel bombed all their old torture centers and didn't bomb their hospitals, so where else can they do their torture?

Besides mosques and kindergartens, of course.

Temple Mount webcam freaks out Arabs

The Al Quds newspaper is alarmed by a proposed new webcam that will be aimed at the Temple Mount:

Militant Jewish groups planned to set up a camera to control the Temple Mount

The weekly "Kol Ha'ir" newspaper on Friday reports that Israel set up be a surveillance camera near the Al-Haram Al-Sharif to be controlled 24 hours a day by a Jewish extremist group.

Standing behind this initiative is the "Temple Institute" in the Jewish quarter, who is seeking to establish the theme of "Holy Temple" in the minds of the Jews and sought to push the Jews to deal with this issue daily.

The site will allow users to request tours of the campus. It should be noted that the camera and web site are the focal point of the Institute and meant to strengthen the link between young Jews and Jerusalem, with an emphasis on what is important about the structure.

It appears that the camera might be able to see more of the Mount itself than any existing Kotel webcams.

Hamas Chutzpah

Al Quds reports on a couple of funny Hamas stories.

In the first, Hamas admits that it took 300 tons of aid from UNRWA - but says it was all a big mistake.

In a comment on the incident, a Hamas spokesman said the "UNRWA" aid was loaded by mistake into trucks belonging to the Ministry of Social Affairs and it will be returned to the UNRWA.
The Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum ,said, "The goods were loaded incorrectly in the absence of a representative of the Government of the crossing in Gaza, where the drivers did not distinguish between goods [for UNRWA] and goods for the governmental agency."

In the second story, where Egypt detained Hamas leaders at the Rafah crossing yesterday where they found them trying to smuggle some $10 million into Gaza, Hamas is complaining that the Egyptians didn't treat them well:

The leader of the Movement "Hamas" and a member of the negotiating delegation, Salah Bardawil on Friday strongly the treatment of the Egyptian authorities to the delegation of the movement by returning to the Gaza Strip yesterday evening. Bardaweel said in remarks published in an website of "Hamas": "We were badly treated by the Egyptian security during our return to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing .. Egyptian officials closed the phone in our faces."
Bardawil said: "Unfortunately every time we enter the official delegation and the easy way, but this time there was the intransigence and insistence on inspection of our bags," he said, "that the delegation had contacts with Egyptian officials, especially intelligence, but they locked the phone."

How dare they inspect us and find us doing something we aren't allowed to do!

Hamas steals from UNRWA again

This time, hundreds of tons of aid:

UNRWA informed the IDF on Friday that it is suspending its humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after Hamas stole supplies the United Nations organization had transferred to the Palestinian territory.

The seizure of the 200 tons of supplies took place Thursday night and in response, UNRWA officials informed the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration that it was suspending its deliveries to the Gaza Strip until further notice. The supplies confiscated included flour and other basic commodities.

The transfer of 40 truckloads of humanitarian supplies - some 800 tons - planned for Sunday has already been canceled.

This is a lot more than the couple of thousand blankets and few hundred food parcels stolen on Tuesday. In fact, the UNRWA press release details 300 metric tons being hijacked:

During the night of 05 Feb 10 truckloads of flour and rice were taken from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Gaza. They had been imported from Egypt for collection by UNRWA today. The food was taken away by trucks contracted by the Ministry of Social Affairs. Two hundred metric tons of rice and one hundred metric tons of flour were taken.

UNRWA’s suspension of imports will remain in effect until the aid is returned and the Agency is given credible assurances from the Hamas government in Gaza that there will be no repeat of these thefts.

Remember that UNRWA castigated Israel for closing crossings when mortars were being shot at the crossings themselves, sarcastically wondering whether Israel's security concerns were more important than feeding the supposedly starving Gaznas. Now, the UNRWA unilaterally stops the delivery of 800 tons of aid even though not one of their workers has yet been hurt by Hamas' aid pirates.

Arab and Muslim attacks against Jews, 1907-1915

I recently posted events from the American Jewish Yearbook of 1914-15 showing that the frequent claim that Jews and Arabs lived together in peace before Israel is a lie.

It turns out that the American Jewish Committee has all their yearbooks archived on-line, and they are an exceptional resource for historical research. Here are the major events I found in those yearbooks of the friction between Arabs/Muslims and Jews in the years before the Balfour Declaration.

1907:
The Kabyles near Casablanca, Morocco, revolted,because the harbor works were in the hands of the French and because a Frenchman was appointed Director of Customs. A French battleship bombarded the town to oppose the attacks of the Moors upon the town, and the Arab tribes in turn attacked the 6000 Jews in the Mellah, killing 30, wounding 60, violating many women, carrying off 250 young women and girls. The Jewish quarter was ruined, and more than half the Jewish population fled to Tangier, Ceuta, Gibraltar, and elsewhere.

1908:
On the representation of the Consistory of Jerusalem the Grand Vizier of Turkey promised the Jews of Sanaa, in Yemen, full protection against attacks by Arabs to which they were subjected.

1909:
February: In Hebron, where out of a total population of 18,000 about 2000 are Jews, the Arabs decide to boycott Jewish merchants.

1910:
Community fearing attack by Arabs, telegraphs to Chief Rabbi in Constantinople, who makes representations to Minister of Interior. Latter sends energetic instructions to Governor at Haifa to prevent any disorders.

June 10: Jewish community, Haifa, brings action against editor of Arab newspaper El Carmel for continued anti-Semitic attacks. Defendant acquitted.

September 22: Jews forced to leave Yemen (Arabia) to avoid conversion to Mohammedanism.

1911:
April 28: Bedouins set fire to synagogue at Tschebel (Tripoli, Barbary), entirely destroying building, which contained valuable old manuscripts and books.

June 2: "Blood accusation" agitation in Turkey. Damascus paper El Muktaber charges abduction of Mohammedan child and publishes alleged confession by Jews. Chief Rabbi appeals to Government, which institutes criminal proceedings against editor of that paper.

June 4: Chief Rabbi, Turkey, receives telegrams from several places in Arabia and Syria, giving particulars of attacks made on Jews. Government takes precaution.

June 9: Report of attack by Bedouins on Jewish colonies, in vicinity of Nazareth and elsewhere; Chief Rabbi complains to Grand Vizier and Minister of Interior.

September 23: Arabs assault about sixty worshippers at religious service on Rosh Hashanah at Wailing Wall.

September 25: Forty-two Jews flee from Tripoli to Malta.

1912:
Feb. 2: Serious conflict between Jewish colonists in Palestine and the Arabs reported. Three colonists said to have been killed and seven wounded.

May 3: Anti-Jewish disturbances in Yemen. Several Jews murdered.

1913:
December: At Smyrna, two young Jewesses of seventeen and nineteen years abducted from their homes, to be converted to Mohammedan faith. Authorities refuse to restore them despite protests of Haham Bashi.

AUGUST (Yemen): Government permits organization of judicial tribunals exclusively of Arabs; this action victimizes Jews who may be falsely accused, as testimony of two Arab witnesses suffices to secure condemnation. --Jew ill-treated and left half dead in roadway because he submitted successful bid when invited to exchange large sum of money for Government. Complaint of Jew unavailing. — Heads of Jewish community imprisoned for disobeying edict ordering them to clean streets, no matter what their social status.

October (Yemen): Further cruelties of the Imam, spiritual head of Yemen, toward Jews reported. Jews denounced for alleged trading in intoxicating drinks promptly punished without investigation of the charges.

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.

1914:
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.

1915:
April: Merchavia, colony near Tiberias: Conflict between Jews and Arabs; two Jews killed.

Athlit: Klein, an American Jew, killed.

It should be noted that the Ottoman leaders generally took Jewish complaints seriously and would, for example, close down anti-semitic newspapers (temporarily) or arrest people who were inciting against Jews. But the Arabs throughout their lands were always antipathetic towards their Jewish neighbors.

It is also important to note that the Arab attacks against Jews, while numerous, did not come close to those happening in Europe at this time.

(Also, for those who want to check it out themselves: a Yearbook is for the previous year, so the events of the 1914-1915 yearbook are from 1913-1914. I think I got them all right but might be off by a year in some of the events listed above.)