Tuesday, February 17, 2009

  • Tuesday, February 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
As a followup to yesterday's article about Hamas bragging that they got lots of free munitions from unexploded Israeli ordnance, the BBC explains exactly where they got it from:
A large stockpile of unexploded weapons has disappeared in Gaza, before United Nations experts were able to dispose of it safely, the BBC has learned.

The explosives, including aircraft bombs and white phosphorus shells, were fired by the Israeli military during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.

UN officials said they were urgently trying to establish where the arms had gone and have called for their return.

Israel has accused Hamas of taking the stockpile, which was under Hamas guard.

A UN Mines Action Team has been in Gaza since the end of the war, last month, its job to locate unexploded Israeli ordnance and to organise its safe disposal.

Two weeks ago, on 2 February, the UN team was given access to a storage site in Gaza City where more than 7,000kg of explosives were being housed.

They included three 2,000-pound bombs and eight 500-pound bombs, which had all been dropped from aircraft but failed to explode.

There was also a large number of 155mm shells for delivering the incendiary chemical white phosphorus.

Many of the explosives had been collected by the Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip.

The UN staff had been waiting for the Israeli army to allow them to bring specialist equipment into Gaza so they would be able to destroy the explosives safely.

In particular, the team needed explosives or flares to set off a controlled explosion and they needed tools to allow them to extract fuses from some of the bombs.

The UN staff were also waiting for permission from the Israeli military to use two safe areas to dispose of the munitions.

At a meeting last Thursday with the Israeli army, two areas were identified: one in the north, in a no-go area close to the border with Israel and the other near Khan Younis in the south, in a former Hamas training area.

On Sunday, when UN officials returned to the warehouse, which was under a Hamas police guard, they say they found most of the explosives had gone missing.

Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said the stockpile had been "commandeered by Hamas".

And why exactly did the UN allow Hamas to "guard" seven tons of explosives?

(h/t Callie)

  • Tuesday, February 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Try to guess what organization wrote these words in their press releases during January:
Zionist killing machine aimed at medical staff and drug stores

The [Zionist] forces of Nazi oppression, which has taken upon itself to destroy crops and cattle, adding to its black record every minute a new shameful affront to civilization and humanity. A new Holocaust in Gaza, the indiscriminate targeting of elders, women and children.

Army of the Nazi occupation attacks children and women

Seems that there is no sanctity of anything in this war declared by the barbaric Zionist killing machine on the defenseless people of Gaza Strip...every hour there was a massacre.
Was it Hamas? Islamic Jihad? Iranian TV?

No, these press releases were from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, of the moderate PA, reporting to peacemaker Mahmoud Abbas, whose webpage is plastered with pictures of dead children.

Reading their words does not make one think that they would be the most reliable sources for objective information.

Yet it just so happens that the Palestinian Ministry of Health was the "official source" for most media outlets during the Gaza operation when they counted the number of casualties. They were the ones that insisted that one third of the dead were children. And they were also the source used by the UN's John Holmes when discussing how many casualties were civilians - even when the somewhat less biased PCHR reports were out that showed the MOH to be exaggerating.

Journalists can be forgiven for using MOH's figures as long as they identify the source and indicate the possible bias. But when they use them as fact, they are simply part of the problem.
  • Tuesday, February 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JPost:
A Palestinian boy who threw a shoe at the car of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad has been arrested by the PA security forces.

The boy was identified as Saher Ahmed Muhaisen, 15, from the Dehaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem.

The incident occurred last Thursday while Fayad was in Bethlehem to attend a conference of Christian community leaders.

Sources in the city told The Jerusalem Post that Muhaisen hurled his shoe and an orange at Fayad's car as his convoy passed through one of the main thoroughfares. No one was hurt.

They said that PA policemen and security officers accompanying the convoy arrested the boy after chasing him through the alleyways of the camp.

The sources quoted eyewitnesses as reporting that the boy was severely beaten before being taken into custody. The boy remains in prison, and the motive for his attack on Fayad remains unclear.

A Palestinian journalist living in Bethlehem told the Post that he and his colleagues have been warned by the PA security commanders not to report on the incident.

The journalist, who asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety, said that Fayad's convoy was attacked on two other occasions.

"Each time the convoy passed through the main streets, young men would throw different objects, especially vegetables, at the cars," he said.

The journalist added that the PA police have so far arrested eight suspects, including Muhaisen, in connection with the assaults. He said the families of two other teenagers have refused to hand their sons over to the security forces for questioning about the attacks.

According to the sources, all the suspects are minors.

A senior PA official in Bethlehem said the suspects were detained for throwing vegetables at vehicles belonging to the security forces in the city. He refused to say whether the attacks were directed against Fayad's heavily-guarded convoy.

Asked why the PA has refrained from informing the public about the alleged incidents, the official replied, "This is not an important issue and we don't think there's a need to publish it. It's just a trivial matter concerning thugs."
I found this mentioned in the Arabic press - only after the Jerusalem Post report, and only quoting from it.

The anti-Fatah Palestine Today mentions the JPost story, as does the independent Al-Quds newspaper. Ma'an, Firas Press and Palestine Press Agency do not.

Freedom of the press is still dead in the "moderate" PA.
  • Tuesday, February 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
UNRWA has begun investigating PA Ministry of National Economy accusations that the agency has been importing private-sector goods under its name behind the back of the ministry, Undersecretary of the Ramallah-based government office Nasser As-Sarraj said on Monday night.

As-Sarraj, part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry in Gaza not to be confused with the separate Ministry of National economy of the de facto Hamas government in the same area, said UNRWA has been caught selling rice and sugar to local merchants without coordinating with the ministry first.

When contacted, UNRWA spokespeople said they had not heard of any such accusations and were unaware of any ongoing investigations of Gaza staff.

As-Sarraj said UNRWA employees were involved in bringing truckloads of goods into the Gaza Strip under title of the agency and selling them to the private sector, and called the act “illegal.” He said he brought the accusations to UNRWA’s attention Monday night.

We seized three truckloads of rice and sugar [being sold to] merchants of the private sector through UNRWA, and the [PA] coordination committee had no idea. UNRWA does not have the right to use its special position [in the Strip] to engage with the private sector.”
Whether or not these accusations are true, the very fact that they exist is evidence that UNRWA in Gaza is firmly on Hamas' side.

Monday, February 16, 2009

  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
According to an article in the Islamic Jihad-oriented Palestine Today, the percentage of unexploded IDF ordnance in Gaza is considered a "gift from the sky:"
Abu Maaz of the resistance in the zz el-Deen al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades of the military wing of Hamas made clear that dozens of missiles and rockets by Israeli aircraft over the Gaza Strip in the recent war did not explode, and Hamas was quick to dismantle them and use the material that is inside.

He said: "After the war of aggression was stopped, we discovered dozens of rocket-propelled grenades which did not explode ... a gift from the sky. We in the resistance, we found the treasure trove".

"Abu Anas", an expert in explosives engineering al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed that the resistance is in the process of dismantling the missiles that did not explode, and making use of inside and outside.

Abu Anas noted that 5% of the rockets shot by Israel did not explode...
They go on to say that since there is a scarcity of raw materials in Gaza to manufacture missiles, these will come in very handy.

They also quote a YNet article about this phenomenon, which I could not find in English.
  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The LA Times blog says:
Hezbollah said it has a right to acquire and use antiaircraft weaponry against Israeli warplanes, in a ceremony commemorating assassinated leaders of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group.

"We have the right to possess any weapons including air defense arms, and we have all the right to use these arms if we wished to," Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah said to crowds in the southern suburb of Beirut, which is the group's stronghold.

Nasrallah did not confirm or deny whether the group had acquired antiaircraft missiles but said that Hezbollah has built its successes on the "basis of surprises."

Israeli warplanes have launched regular flights over Lebanon since the 2006 war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.

Nasrallah said that Israel's superiority in its wars is only due to its air force, adding that Israeli ground troops have proved their weaknesses during the 2006 war and the latest offensive on Gaza.

"If the air equation changes, the equation for the whole struggle changes," he said.
Al Quds - Arabic seems to have understood Nasrallah a little differently, assuming that the autotranslation is correct:
Secretary-General suggested the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, on Monday evening that "the resistance in Lebanon has anti-aircraft missiles," saying that "resistance to the full right to possess such a weapon."
It is interesting that the Lebanese government doesn't seem to have any reaction to an extra-governmental militia gaining such capabilities.

It will also be interesting to see if UNIFIL - which is supposed to guard against such things - has any reaction.
  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Following up on the IDF report that the Arab-sourced casualty numbers from Gaza are completely wrong....

From JPost:
Amid controversy over the number of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded during Operation Cast Lead against Hamas last month, the United Nations is working on compiling its own report to determine the exact figure.

Work on the UN figures is being led by the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO).

UN officials said Monday that researchers were scouring data on the number of casualties provided by the Palestinian Health Ministry, the IDF and Gaza-based human rights organizations. The work is complicated and will last several weeks, if not months, one official said.
Isn't it amazing that uncritical belief in bogus statistics takes no time at all, while doing actual research takes months?

Even so, the UNRWA has already told me that they stand by their figures of 30 killed initially at the UN school, without being able to tell me how they came up with that number.
"It [the IDF report] prompts inquiries," a UN official said. "The UN is researching from various sources the number of casualties to gain clarity on the number of people who were killed in the conflict."
Yet if the IDF hadn't done some research, the chances that the UN would have cared to check is somewhere between zero and none.
Defense sources also reiterated their earlier claim that three civilians and some nine terror operatives were killed in an IDF shelling near a UN school in Jabalya in early January, and not 40 or more people as was widely reported at the time based on Palestinian claims.

A New York Times report from the Gaza funeral after the incident stated that "the row of bodies [were] uncountable in the press of the mourning crowd" and cited reports that as many as 40 people were killed in the shelling outside the school. It said Palestinian hospital sources reported that 10 of the dead were children and five were women, and quoted one mourner who said she had lost nine members of her extended family, age three to 25.

The defense sources Monday said that the IDF had studied the incident and was adamant that its figures were correct.
It would take guts for the IDF to make such a claim if there were really 30-40 dead, and their credibility would take a huge hit if they were found to be wrong. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same for the Palestinian Arab side - although their credibility for casualties has been nil for years, the press is always eager to report their accusations as facts.
  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AP:
CAIRO (AP) — Outrage at the Israel war in the Gaza Strip has turned to intimidation and even violence against Jews living in some Muslim lands, raising questions about the stability of these often tiny communities.

In Turkey, Yemen and Indonesia, Muslims have shut down a synagogue, stoned homes and used anti-Semitic slurs. Although the incidents have been isolated, the Jewish minorities in these lands are concerned.

"Before the conflict broke out in Gaza, we were very involved in the community," said Yusron Samba, whose family for years had operated a synagogue in Indonesia that shut down in fear over the war. "Of course we're afraid following strong reaction recently from some Islamic groups questioning our presence here."

The fury over Gaza has centered around the hundreds of Palestinian civilians killed in the war, in which 13 Israelis also died. Israel says it could not avoid killing civilians because Gaza militants operate from residential areas, but critics accuse it of using disproportionate force in its war to halt rocket attacks on its territory.

The steep Palestinian death toll sparked protests across the Muslim world, Europe and in Venezuela, and in some cases, the rage turned to violence. ...

In Yemen, where Islamic militancy is on the rise, anti-Israel protesters pelted several Jewish homes with rocks and smashed windows, injuring at least one person, security officials said.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has offered to give plots of land in the capital, San'a, free of charge to Jews who want to relocate from the provinces, officials said. No one has taken him up on the offer, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the offer was made privately in a meeting between the president and Jewish leaders.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim state, Islamic hard-liners marched to the gates of the country's only synagogue, chanting, "Go to hell, Israel."

"If Israel refuses to stop its attacks and oppression of the Palestinian people, we don't need to defend (the synagogue's) presence here," said Abdusshomad Buchori, who led the protest in the town of Surabaya and has threatened to drive out its Jews. The synagogue has been shuttered since.

In the past, Jews in Surabaya have experienced no hostility, Samba said. But increasingly — probably because of events like the Gaza war — a smattering of swastikas has appeared on the backs of buses, he said.

Because of the hostile reaction, "we're not exposing ourselves to the media right now," he said. "We also report all protests to the police."

Several dozen Jews are thought to be living in Indonesia, descendants of traders from Europe and Iraq.

The Iranian Jewish community went out of its way to distance itself from Israel during the Gaza fighting, issuing a statement expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and condemning the Israeli offensive. "The inhuman behavior of the Zionist regime contradicts the religious teachings" of the Jewish faith, the statement said.

A group of Iranian Jews, including Jewish lawmaker Siamak Mara-Sedq, protested against the war in front of the U.N. office in Tehran in late December.

Turkey is Israel's best friend in the Muslim world, but the greatest turbulence over the Gaza war has taken place there. ...

Some of Turkey's 23,000 Jews were alarmed by a government-ordered minute of silence in schools for Gaza's dead, which they fear is a sign that the Islamic-leaning government's declared intolerance of anti-Semitism might waver. Erdogan's recent observation that the Ottoman Empire welcomed Jews also rankled many who took it to mean that Turkey considered them guests, not citizens.

Although Turkish fury was mostly directed at Israel, a few Turkish protesters held placards with anti-Semitic messages. Turkish media showed a photograph of three men in front of the office of a cultural association, holding a dog and a sign saying, "Dogs are allowed, but Jews and Armenians aren't."

Jewish community leaders say hundreds of anti-Semitic writings have appeared in Turkish media, and that prosecutors have failed to take legal action.

"Everyone can criticize the policies of Israel, we respect that," Silvyo Ovadya, head of the Jewish community in Turkey, told the Milliyet newspaper. "However, every speech criticizing Israel has a tendency to turn into cries of 'Damn Jews.' I don't recall such an atmosphere previously."

Erdogan has tried to reassure Turkey's Jews, who live in a country of more than 70 million Muslims, that criticism of Israel does not amount to an attack on Jews and their faith.

"There has been no anti-Semitism in the history of this country," Erdogan told ruling party lawmakers last week. "As a minority, they're our citizens. Both their security and the right to observe their faith are under our guarantee."

  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
In the wake of the IDF report that only 12 were killed outside the Jabalya UNRWA school in Gaza, I asked UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness:
As I am sure you have seen by now, the IDF is claiming that there were 12 killed by shells outside the Jabalya UNRWA school on January 6, not the 30-40 that have been claimed by others. (See http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304788684&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.) The IDF is also saying that only three of the victims were civilians.

I seem to recall the UN or UNRWA saying that some 30 were killed immediately and another 10-15 died overnight from their injuries.

Does UNRWA have a list of the dead from that incident, along with their ages? If not, where did UNRWA get their numbers from - was it from local doctors, or the media, or some other source? (The PCHR mentioned 27 killed initially but did not list the names, as they usually do.)

In other words, can UNRWA show that the IDF is wrong in its account of the incident, and if so, how?
He replied, in his usual terse manner:
Let it all come out in an independent investigation. C
I persisted:
John Ging said at the time that there were 30 dead and 55 injured.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN06430746

Does UNRWA still stand behind that statement or are you saying now that it is unclear? And are you saying that UNRWA does not have a list of victims from the incident? Where exactly did Ging get his numbers from?
And Chris replied:
We stand by the figures and our call for an impartial investigation to see if there have been violations of int humanitarian law. C
Meanwhile, I found John Ging's email address and asked him similar questions; we'll see if he replies.
  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon


Ben-Yehuda in the comments noticed that the Kadima website was been hacked.

It does appear to have been done by hackers in Gaza, as the domain name (gaza-hacker.com) is registered in Gaza itself.
Registrant:
Mr. Mohammed AbuYousef
Palestine - Gaza
Gaza, PS 00972
IL

Registrar: DOTREGISTRAR
Domain Name: GAZA-HACKER.COM
Created on: 08-MAR-07
Expires on: 08-MAR-12
Last Updated on: 06-FEB-09

Administrative, Technical Contact:
AbuYousef, Mr. Mohammed Master@Mohammed.ps
Palestine - Gaza
Gaza, PS 00972
IL
00972599901972
Mohammed.ps is a malformed page dedicated to the "prophet" Mohammed himself.

The hacked page itself has some stupid pictures of burning Israeli flags and the like; it is playing what sounds like a PalArab national anthem; pretty boring stuff.

The gaza-hacker.com site itself is hosted by a US site called liquidweb.com. If you are so inclined you might want to complain to them:
OrgName: Liquid Web, Inc.
OrgID: LQWB
Address: 4210 Creyts Rd.
City: Lansing
StateProv: MI
PostalCode: 48917
Country: US

ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.liquidweb.com:4321/

NetRange: 72.52.128.0 - 72.52.255.255
CIDR: 72.52.128.0/17
NetName: LIQUIDWEB-6
NetHandle: NET-72-52-128-0-1
Parent: NET-72-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS.LIQUIDWEB.COM
NameServer: NS1.LIQUIDWEB.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2006-08-03
Updated: 2007-03-26

OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE551-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-800-580-4985
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@liquidweb.com

OrgTechHandle: IPADM47-ARIN
OrgTechName: IP Administrator
OrgTechPhone: +1-800-580-4985
OrgTechEmail: ipadmin@liquidweb.com
The most effective way to get rid of the cyber-arsonists is to complain to their hosts, and from their web page it appears that they have been kicked off of previous hosts as well. A polite email to abuse@liquidnet.com or webmaster@liquidnet.com should be enough.

UPDATE: That was not the official Kadima site. The real site is here. (h/t lol)
  • Monday, February 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
In Judaism there is a concept of "chesed shel emet," of a true kindness that can never be repaid. It is usually said with regard to taking care of the needs of the departed, as the recipients of the kindness can never return the favor.

Here is a beautiful example.

During the massacre in the Mumbai Chabad House, the murderers not only shot the Holzbergs multiple times, but they also shot their computer.

An Israeli company has spent many hours recovering the contents of the damaged hard disk, and have now restored thousands of photos and videos of the Holzberg family - priceless memories that can now be seen by the grandparents as well as little Moishe.

Here is an Israeli TV report about this huge mitzvah. It's in Hebrew, but easy to understand even if you don't know the language, and you can also see clips of the Holzbergs that would have been lost forever, as well as the reaction of the grandparents upon seeing these photos for the first time:


Holtzberg's Computer Restored from COLlive.com on Vimeo.

(h/t Atlas)
From Ma'an:
A Palestinian was killed on Monday morning and four others were injured in a mysterious explosion in the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources reported. One Palestinian, identified as Rajab Usama Subuh, 25, was killed in the blast, while two of four others injured in Beit Lahiya were in critical condition just before noon on Monday.
Earlier, Gazans had claimed this came from an Israeli artillery shell, but the IDF denied any activities in the area. The PalArab self-death count in 2009 is now at 29. UPDATE: This was not a work accident, just an apparent case of stupidity:
Palestinian hospital officials say a 25-year-old Gaza man has been killed and five people have been wounded in a blast along the border with Israel.

Palestinian security officials say the explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya was caused when people who were melting down scrap metal for recycling inadvertently threw an explosive device into the fire.

This no longer falls into my definition of self-death (although, as Richard from Augean Stables points out in the comments, it is a Darwin Award candidate,) so we are back down to 28, unless more information comes out.

(h/t PTWatch)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

  • Sunday, February 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
I was linked to in Soccer Dad's weekly Shiny Happy Dhimmi #13. Soccer Dad and I are two degrees separated from each other by both of us knowing Elie.

I am also included in the two hundred somethingth edition of Haveil Havalim, this week hosted by Leora of Here in Highland Park. There is very little doubt that she and I know at least a few people in common, making us also two degrees separated.

And I recently found out that I am also two degrees separated from Jameel at The Muqata, through his brother. Whether I can parlay that into waffles remains to be seen.
  • Sunday, February 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
A 46 year old Palestinian Arab woman was shot and killed in Gaza, as terrorists were training in the former Jewish settlement of Nitzarim and a stray bullet hit her in the chest.

A man who was abducted by Hamas in early January died from his injuries last week.

Hamas claims that they have body parts of an Israeli soldier. Interestingly, this sounds like the same fake soldier that Hamas claimed to have abducted and kept for two days, yet they cannot produce his name or any identifiable information about him.

What do the settlements and Gilad Shalit have in common? They are both considered "obstacles to peace!" According to the DFLP, Israel's insistence on the release of Shalit is making a truce so much harder, and of course (as with the settlements) it is Israel's fault that there is no peace.

The rumors of an imminent agreement, including the release of Gilad Shalit and Marwan Barghouti, have been going on for weeks now; they seem to be accelerating. I haven't been talking about it much because it is still pure rumor, but just letting you know that the stories have been coming out every day about breakthroughs in negotiations. Similarly, there are also stories about negotiations on the verge of collapse.

Muslim leaders continue their daily accusations of Israeli attempts to destroy Al Aqsa. Today they claim to have seen cracks in the ceiling, and they are blaming Israeli excavations that they are convinced are going on beneath the Temple Mount.

A programming glitch seems to have caused a number of SMS messages to be sent to Jordanian cell phone users saying, in English and Arabic, "Welcome to Israel. We wish you a pleasant stay. We hope you enjoy the roaming services we provide." I'm sure that someone will use this as proof that Israel is planning to attack Jordan.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count rises to 28.

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