Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Elder of ZiyonFor those who like to slice and dice numbers while the Israeli election returns come in, Ha'aretz' graph is lots of fun.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Elder of Ziyon
Can't find anything good to post, so I will fall back on the old Open Thread trick.
One pet peeve: At the moment, 60% of Israel's eligible voters have voted, versus 57% at this same point last elections. This does not mean, as all the Israeli papers are saying, that "voter turnout is 3% higher than in 2006," it might be 3 percentage points higher but voter turnout is (in this example) 5.2% higher (since 60 is 5.2% higher than 57.)
One pet peeve: At the moment, 60% of Israel's eligible voters have voted, versus 57% at this same point last elections. This does not mean, as all the Israeli papers are saying, that "voter turnout is 3% higher than in 2006," it might be 3 percentage points higher but voter turnout is (in this example) 5.2% higher (since 60 is 5.2% higher than 57.)
- Tuesday, February 10, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
From Time magazine, May 30, 1977:
The idea that Begin would be the architect of Israel's most important and longest-lasting peace agreement would have been dismissed as absurd by every single one of the "experts" quoted in this article.
Here we have a classic example of how the media tries, and often fails, to analyze facts and predict outcomes.
Just something to keep in mind during this current Israeli election.
TRIUMPH OF A SUPERHAWKYes, Begin was considered a warmonger, an inflexible, intransigent "superhawk" who would lead Israel to disaster and force an inevitable war.
In a stunning upset victory, Begin's Likud (Unity) coalition last week became the dominant bloc in Israel's parliament, replacing a shattered, scandal-ridden Labor alignment that had governed the Jewish state since its founding in 1948. Likud's superhawkish campaign slogan had been "Israeli sovereignty between the Mediterranean and the Jordan," meaning no surrender of biblical land that Israel has occupied since the heady triumphs of the Six-Day War in 1967.
Begin's unexpected rise to power not only changed the internal politics of Israel but suddenly raised serious questions about hopes for any new moves toward a peace settlement in the Middle East....""The platform of the Likud does not permit the necessary opening for negotiations," said Peres. "The Likud offers no alternative for peace."
The Carter Administration's "worst case" scenario is that a Begin government would mean not just a postponement of Geneva but a substantially escalated possibility of renewed war in the Middle East. If Washington is unable to exert pressure on the new Israeli government for a settlement, one Syrian official said, "any kind of peace conference would be quite useless. The only other way would appear to be to resort to military action."
Pondering a host of seemingly unpromising policy alternatives last week, some U.S. diplomats raised the prospect of an ominous Middle East chain of events: 1) a Begin government would announce the annexation to Israel of occupied territory, thereby triggering an Arab mobilization, or 2) the Arabs would desperately mount a pre-emptive strike to prevent Begin from carrying out annexation.
Although another Middle East war is far from inevitable, it cannot be ruled out if Begin sticks to his uncompromising stance on negotiations (particularly over the future of the West Bank and Gaza) and if the Arabs give up hope that the U.S. can maneuver the next Israeli government into meaningful concessions.
Anew war, in this most dangerous of the world's potential trouble spots, would be far more deadly than all the previous ones combined. About 2,600 Israelis were killed in the three-week October War of 1973. Next time around, according to Washington military estimates, Israel would lose 8,000 and suffer about 24,000 wounded in a war of the same duration; the Arab loss could be 40,000 killed.
Before that can be achieved, all parties need to know how much negotiation can and will be done by a seemingly unrepentant former underground fighter who believes deeply that Israel should not surrender any part of the Jewish people's ancient landed heritage. ''The new government is going to be composed of a group of people who are religious nationalists imbued with mysticism and a belief in force," said one Jerusalem official. "I worry as much about their theocratic tendencies at home as I do about their getting us into a war."
The biggest worry of the voters was whether or not the Likud state of mind might provoke another war with the Arabs. Said one woman, who lost a brother in the Six-Day War and her husband in the October War: "All I can see is a long line of husbands whose wives will become widows." Warned an alarmed trade-union leader: "The Likud will force us into another war. Begin relies on God, but we will have to rely on our divisions. The workers will suffer, and a new left will rise from the ruins."
The idea that Begin would be the architect of Israel's most important and longest-lasting peace agreement would have been dismissed as absurd by every single one of the "experts" quoted in this article.
Here we have a classic example of how the media tries, and often fails, to analyze facts and predict outcomes.
Just something to keep in mind during this current Israeli election.
- Tuesday, February 10, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
antisemitism
Harry's Place covers a new ten-minute play called "Seven Jewish Children" where Jewish parents and grandparents teach their unseen charges to hate Arabs. (Melanie Philips also talks about it.)
The climax of the play is where unfeeling Jewish parents literally cheer the deaths of Gaza children:
But it is important to point out that the playwright, who pretends to be a liberal, is displaying the worst kind of bigotry possible.
The climax of the play is where unfeeling Jewish parents literally cheer the deaths of Gaza children:
Tell her about the family of dead girls, tell her their names why not, tell her the whole world knows, why shouldn’t she know? tell her there’s dead babies, did she see babies? Tell her she’s got nothing to be ashamed of. Tell her they did it to themselves. Tell her they want their children killed to make people sorry for them, tell her I’m not sorry for them, tell her not to be sorry for them, tell her we’re the ones to be sorry for, tell her they can’t talk suffering to us. Tell her we’re the iron fist now, tell her it’s the fog of war, tell her we won’t stop killing them till we’re safe, tell her I laughed when I saw the dead policeman, tell her I wouldn’t care if we wiped them out, the world would hate us is the only thing, tell her I don’t care if the world hates us, tell her we’re better haters, tell her we’re chosen people, tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? Tell her all I feel is happy it’s not her.It is pointless to argue that Jews and Israelis don't feel anything like the words spoken here. It is a waste of time to explain that, Jews are not happy to see dead Palestinian Arab civilians. And it is beyond the comprehension of the playwright to mention that the only population that unabashedly and joyously celebrates the deaths of innocents are the Arabs that the author of the play is so sympathetic to.
But it is important to point out that the playwright, who pretends to be a liberal, is displaying the worst kind of bigotry possible.
- Tuesday, February 10, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
Here were the preliminary results for the elections of the 18th Zionist Congress in Prague, August 1933:
These were the first Zionist elections where Labor outpolled the General Zionism list.
After this Congress the Revisionists (precursors to Likud) established their own alternative organization; they rejoined in 1946.
After this Congress the Revisionists (precursors to Likud) established their own alternative organization; they rejoined in 1946.
- Tuesday, February 10, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
- unrwa
UNRWA is upset at blaming Israel for its teachers not telling their young charges that firing rockets at civilians is wrong:
However, how absurd is it to hear, after sixty years of being the major educator of Palestinian Arab children, that UNRWA now has decided to teach that cold blooded targeting of civilians is somewhat less than ideal?
And that it is Israel that is somehow stopping this lesson from being taught?
[UNRWA chief John Ging] voiced particular exasperation at the ban on importing paper which UNRWA needs for printing school text books and a new curriculum on human rights, calling it shameful, appealing for common sense to prevail, and stressing that the new rights programme would instil in the young how wrong it is to fire rockets.In the previous paragraph, Ging is quoted as saying
“We have 900,000 people queuing up for food at UNRWA, and we’re only getting through them at 30,000 a day because that’s all the food we can get in,” he added. “The plight of the people is extremely bad, as we should all know by now. We’re struggling to get in the quantities that are needed, and failing I might add.”I cannot say for certain why Israel might think that food is a higher priority than paper, even if you don't believe the claims that somehow Gazans are only getting 3% of their food needs.
However, how absurd is it to hear, after sixty years of being the major educator of Palestinian Arab children, that UNRWA now has decided to teach that cold blooded targeting of civilians is somewhat less than ideal?
And that it is Israel that is somehow stopping this lesson from being taught?
Monday, February 09, 2009
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
From WAFA:
PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina stated that the PA "will not deal with any Israeli government that is not fully committed to the peace process."Sounds like as good a reason to vote for the hawks as any.
Abu Rudeina said in a statement, on the eve of the Israeli general elections, "We will not deal with any Israeli government that were not fully committed to the peace process and the two-state solution and the roadmap and the Arab peace initiative, to stop the settlements."
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
Just about every day the PalArabic press mentions another Jewish plot against the Al Aqsa Mosque. Either the Jews are planning to build a synagogue there, or they are building a tunnel underneath, or they are installing cameras nearby, but either way they know that the goal is the same - to destroy the mosque one way or another.
Today, we have a novel method of undermining the holy site: by deliberately introducing immodestly dressed women to the area. From Palestine Today:
Today, we have a novel method of undermining the holy site: by deliberately introducing immodestly dressed women to the area. From Palestine Today:
The "Noble Sanctuary Heritage Institution" charges that Israel is violating the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque by allowing the Jews and foreigners to enter the area with scandalous clothing.Another brilliant Zionist plot against Islam!
The institution stressed that the occupation authorities deliberately introduced thousands of Jews and foreign tourists to Al Aqsa clothing does not respect the sanctity of the place, especially women.
They said that "the Israeli authorities that accompany tourist groups prevent any of the guards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Muslim faithful patrons from approaching the tourists to object to their semi-naked and provocative behavior."
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
It has been over a week since my last Open Thread, so I have been remiss in my duties to provide my readers with a spot to place their flotsam and jetsam.(Actually, only jetsam; flotsam cannot be placed anywhere voluntarily, from what I understand.)
Anyway, here's the place to put stuff that I haven't spoken about or to add links to interesting finds on this vast World Wide Web.
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
From the NYT (h/t EBoZ):
Once again, the so-called "leaders" of the Palestinian Arabs are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice the life and health of their own people in order to score rhetorical points. Projecting their own hatred onto Israelis, they feel that the Zionists only care for Arabs for propaganda purposes and they would rather remove that perceived, imaginary gain by Israel - and let their own children die.
This is no different than how Palestinian Arab leaders have made most of their decisions in their short history - looking at everything as a zero-sum game and assuming that what is good for Israel is bad for their people, and vice versa. And then they make decisions that are the exact opposite of what their own people would prefer.
After all, no one is forcing Palestinian Arabs to choose Israeli hospitals to treat their people. They obviously want to - but their wise health minister can't stand it and would rather have some of them die.
Even the most obvious win-win cannot be stomached, because one of the sides that wins is the hated Jewish side. This kind of hatred is pathological.
Scores of Palestinian patients being treated in Israeli hospitals, a rare bright spot of coexistence here, are being sent home because the Palestinian Authority has stopped paying for their treatment, partly in anger over the war in Gaza.As the article goes on the show, there are many patients - cancer patients especially - who simply cannot get comparable care in Palestinian Arab hospitals. And Israel's hospital costs are one quarter that for comparable care in the West.
Hadassah Hospital says that for the past week no payments have come in and Palestinians whose children are being treated there have been instructed by Palestinian health officials to place them in facilities in the West Bank, Jordan or Egypt.
“Suddenly we have had 57 patients dropped from our rolls,” lamented Michael Weintraub, director of pediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation at Hadassah. “We have been bombarded by frantic parents. This is a political decision taken on the backs of patients.”
The Palestinian health minister, Fathi Abu Moghli, said he was examining the entire referral procedure because he was tired of adding to what he called Israel’s “oil well,” meaning the payments for Palestinian patient care. In particular, he said, he had no desire to see the injured from the Gaza war get Israeli care.
“We already pay $7 million a month to Israeli hospitals,” he said in a telephone interview. “Since the first day of the Gaza aggression I said that I will not send to my occupier my injured people in order for him to make propaganda at my expense and then pay him for it.”
An Israeli clinic set up with great fanfare on the Israeli-Gaza border the day the war ended on January 18th has already been closed since both Hamas, the rulers of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority essentially boycotted it. The Palestinian Authority pays for the care in Israel of its citizens — or much of it — out of its budget.
Once again, the so-called "leaders" of the Palestinian Arabs are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice the life and health of their own people in order to score rhetorical points. Projecting their own hatred onto Israelis, they feel that the Zionists only care for Arabs for propaganda purposes and they would rather remove that perceived, imaginary gain by Israel - and let their own children die.
This is no different than how Palestinian Arab leaders have made most of their decisions in their short history - looking at everything as a zero-sum game and assuming that what is good for Israel is bad for their people, and vice versa. And then they make decisions that are the exact opposite of what their own people would prefer.
After all, no one is forcing Palestinian Arabs to choose Israeli hospitals to treat their people. They obviously want to - but their wise health minister can't stand it and would rather have some of them die.
Even the most obvious win-win cannot be stomached, because one of the sides that wins is the hated Jewish side. This kind of hatred is pathological.
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
- unrwa
YNet reports:
There is increasing evidence that UNRWA and Hamas have worked together, not officially but as de facto partners. If we take UNRWA's statements at face value, Hamas has avoided stealing UNRWA goods while it has taken supplies from other NGOs over the years; if we are more skeptical, then UNRWA has been covering up Hamas crimes against the agency. Either way, it looks more like collusion than an adversarial relationship.
Additionally, Hamas has admitted to diverting Palestinian Red Crescent aid to UNRWA.
Much has been written about known Hamas terrorists in UNRWA, and perhaps those accusations aren't entirely fair, as UNRWA has argued. However, instead of looking at the relatively low percentage of verified terrorists among the thousands of UNRWA employees in Gaza, we can get a more complete picture by looking at the UNRWA union. In 2003, more than 90% of the vote for the UNRWA workers' union was won by Hamas - and this is way before Hamas' Gaza coup. Hamas won every UNRWA union election since 1990.
After years of what can only be considered a symbiotic relationship between UNRWA and Hamas, where a Hamas-dominated UNRWA controlled the majority of aid in Gaza allowing Hamas to import weapons, it seems strange that Hamas should suddenly openly steal aid from UNRWA.
In the context of the new spotlight on UNRWA ties to Hamas, between the aforementioned congressional pressure and the recent report by James Lindsay on UNRWA's many shortcomings, is it possible that UNRWA engineered this "hijacking" of aid? UNRWA now appears to be upset at Hamas (and the UN genuinely is,) it gets Hamas to back down and admit its "mistake" - something Hamas never does - and the Hamas now shamefully returns the aid, also something Hamas has never done before. The idea that Hamas and UNRWA work together seems much less likely and this could be enough to allow that relationship to survive another couple of years without serious oversight.
I'm generally not big on conspiracy theories, but UNRWA seems to have benefitted greatly over this while Hamas has lost little.
The United Nations said on Monday that Hamas has returned all of the aid supplies that it seized from the agency in the Gaza Strip last week.But one of the sentences at the end of the article is more interesting:
The UN is under pressure to show international donors that it is independent of Hamas as it seeks funding to rebuild the territory after Israel's crushing three-week military offensive.Indeed it is. There have been prominent calls for Congress to withhold funding UNRWA until it proves it can audit UNRWA more effectively, and a bill has been introduced to increase oversight over UNRWA and investigate its ties to terror.
There is increasing evidence that UNRWA and Hamas have worked together, not officially but as de facto partners. If we take UNRWA's statements at face value, Hamas has avoided stealing UNRWA goods while it has taken supplies from other NGOs over the years; if we are more skeptical, then UNRWA has been covering up Hamas crimes against the agency. Either way, it looks more like collusion than an adversarial relationship.
Additionally, Hamas has admitted to diverting Palestinian Red Crescent aid to UNRWA.
Much has been written about known Hamas terrorists in UNRWA, and perhaps those accusations aren't entirely fair, as UNRWA has argued. However, instead of looking at the relatively low percentage of verified terrorists among the thousands of UNRWA employees in Gaza, we can get a more complete picture by looking at the UNRWA union. In 2003, more than 90% of the vote for the UNRWA workers' union was won by Hamas - and this is way before Hamas' Gaza coup. Hamas won every UNRWA union election since 1990.
After years of what can only be considered a symbiotic relationship between UNRWA and Hamas, where a Hamas-dominated UNRWA controlled the majority of aid in Gaza allowing Hamas to import weapons, it seems strange that Hamas should suddenly openly steal aid from UNRWA.
In the context of the new spotlight on UNRWA ties to Hamas, between the aforementioned congressional pressure and the recent report by James Lindsay on UNRWA's many shortcomings, is it possible that UNRWA engineered this "hijacking" of aid? UNRWA now appears to be upset at Hamas (and the UN genuinely is,) it gets Hamas to back down and admit its "mistake" - something Hamas never does - and the Hamas now shamefully returns the aid, also something Hamas has never done before. The idea that Hamas and UNRWA work together seems much less likely and this could be enough to allow that relationship to survive another couple of years without serious oversight.
I'm generally not big on conspiracy theories, but UNRWA seems to have benefitted greatly over this while Hamas has lost little.
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
Michael J. Totten files a dispatch from the Gaza border
Meryl Yourish goes much further than I did in taking apart Jimmy Carter's latest screed
Soccer Dad presents his 12th edition of Shiny Happy Dhimmi
Yaakov ben Moshe covers some amazing ground in The Biggest Honor Killing of All (h/t Augean Stables)
And some more garden-variety British anti-semitism
Meryl Yourish goes much further than I did in taking apart Jimmy Carter's latest screed
Soccer Dad presents his 12th edition of Shiny Happy Dhimmi
Yaakov ben Moshe covers some amazing ground in The Biggest Honor Killing of All (h/t Augean Stables)
And some more garden-variety British anti-semitism
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
The Daily News Egypt reports:
The comparisons are eerie. Like Madoff, Boushi promised high returns to his clients (actually much higher than Madoff - 40%) and he targeted high-profile clients:
And of course we can expect plenty of articles about Arabs agonizing over how Boushi could besmirch all Arabs by doing this, how embarrassed they are that he shares their culture and religion and how it will increase Islamophobia. Right?
UPDATE: Almost certainly I was reading the decimal point wrong, and it is $68 million, not billion.
Broker Mahmoud El Boushi of Optima Securities Brokerage, who allegedly pilfered around $68,422 million and €200,000 from his clients, was arrested earlier this week in Dubai, but was granted bail after he reached a settlement with an Egyptian businessman in an AED 5 million dud check case.Last week there were some articles about this Boushi, who swindled millions from Arab celebrities, but only now do we see that the amount he stole might be significantly worse than Bernie Madoff's alleged $50 billion.However the same businessman filed another complaint involving AED 21.9 million [$2.5m -EoZ], according to Khaleej Times, a UAE-based newspaper.
Over 48 Egyptians, including high-profile public figures, had also filed complaints to Egypt’s Commercial and Financial Affairs Prosecution office against Mahmoud El Boushi, accusing him of fraud.
Last Tuesday, the Interpol requested from the Emirati government to hand over El Boushi to the Egyptian authorities, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, Major-General Khamis Matter Al Mazeina, said.
The comparisons are eerie. Like Madoff, Boushi promised high returns to his clients (actually much higher than Madoff - 40%) and he targeted high-profile clients:
The list includes famous actress Laila Olwi, said to have lost more than $500,000 dollars, Mervat Amin, another cinema star, losing almost the same amount, and her ex-husband, actor Hussein Fahmi, who lost $2 million.I can only find the huge $68 billion figure from the Khaleej Times, but it if is true, this could have a huge impact in Arab financial circles.
Mahmoud al-Khatib, former footballer and the current vice chairman of Egypt's Al-Ahly Club (lost $6 million) and Hassan al-Gabali, the brother of Egypt's Minister of Health Hatem al-Gabali (lost $12 million) are also among those named as victims, according to the list published by Rose al-Youssef Egyptian daily.
And of course we can expect plenty of articles about Arabs agonizing over how Boushi could besmirch all Arabs by doing this, how embarrassed they are that he shares their culture and religion and how it will increase Islamophobia. Right?
UPDATE: Almost certainly I was reading the decimal point wrong, and it is $68 million, not billion.
- Monday, February 09, 2009
- Elder of Ziyon
- self-death
Hot on the heels of Hamas accusations that Fatah tortured a Hamas member to death, Fatah announced that Hamas abducted a 48-year old father of ten in Gaza named Nehad Saadi Aldbaki three days ago and tortured him to death.
Palestine Press Agency also mentions another person killed by Hamas a few days ago I had not counted, a member of the PFLP named Shaqqura.
My "self-death" count of Arabs violently killed by other Palestinian Arabs in 2009 rises to 22.
Palestine Press Agency also mentions another person killed by Hamas a few days ago I had not counted, a member of the PFLP named Shaqqura.
My "self-death" count of Arabs violently killed by other Palestinian Arabs in 2009 rises to 22.
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