Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Wild Saudi women let loose in all-girl coffee shops

Women’s coffee shops are no longer just meeting places for friends or refuges for a moment’s escape from the daily routine. Instead, according to some, they have become the haunts of university students and schoolgirls playing truant to indulge themselves in smoking shisha pipes and cigarettes, with women using the locations as impromptu job agencies, and matchmakers seeking willing bribes. Behind the walls of women’s coffee shops, some say, all sorts of things go on.

Salwan Abdullah, a 24-year-old university student, recalls the first time she was invited by a student friend to go to an all-female coffee shop. “I had no idea of what went on in these places, and when we entered the room was crowded with university students and girls from secondary and intermediate school. The air was full of smoke from shisha pipes and cigarettes. There were married and single girls, and women matchmakers going round asking girls if they were looking for husbands and if so what sort of features they were looking for.”

“I saw the same thing in another café during school exam time,” Salwan continued. “I saw girls in school uniform, no more than 14 years old, going into the bathrooms to change into jeans and T-shirts and putting on make-up they’d hidden in their school bags along with their cigarettes.”

“Girls have become more and more daring in coffee shops,” said university student Khuloud. “I once saw two girls among a group smoking shisha and laughing out loud as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and I could tell from their eyes that they were proud of it.”

Sara, a science student at King Abdulaziz University, described some of the behavior she saw in coffee shops as “incredible.”

“It goes completely against our ethics,” she said. “In one of the larger coffee shops I saw girls dressed very immodestly, acting as if they were young male teenagers, drinking coffee and tea, and there was a special place for listening to music which had been turned into some sort of place for dancing and showing off their bodies. Families need to keep an eye on this and prevent this sort of behavior in our conservative society.”

Smoking? Dancing? Make-up? Jeans? Acting like boys?

What could make Saudi girls want to act like this?

It couldn't possibly be living in a society where they are forced, 24 hours a a day, to avoid accidentally being seen by any man, could it?

No...it must be that they are simply immoral.

Money doesn't buy influence from Arabs

Diplomats are addicted to the idea of "influence." The thinking goes that they can influence how other entities act by dangling carrots or threatening with sticks. In recent times, sticks have gone out of fashion and the carrots have proliferated, but either way, the thinking is that by offering positive incentives, intransigent parties can become more malleable. Likewise, by offering a steady stream of positive incentives, the implicit threat of withdrawing them can likewise influence parties to act in more acceptable ways.

In the Arab and Muslim worlds, the entire carrot idea is not only ineffective, but it is derided as a perfect example of Western stupidity. It is as if both the scientists and the laboratory rats are convinced that each one has conditioned the other one to behave in the way they want. Paying off a party who is already resentful or hateful does not tend to make them change their minds nearly as much as it is supposed.

A perfect example of this comes from an Al Ahram article from last week, talking about the wisdom of Camp David from Egypt's perspective by countering arguments of those who were opposed. The last section has this very instructive section (h/t Judeopundit):

The last charge against the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty that I would like to address here is that which maintains that it turned Egypt into a US dependency. The contention could only come from someone who is not quite mentally stable, or that has never read history, or that does not know the true nature of Egypt, the Egyptian people and the Egyptian government. Clearly, no rational person would fail to take the world's sole superpower into account. But all that country's economic and political clout has not prevented Egypt from casting its vote contrary to that of the US in 83 per cent of issues that came to a vote in the UN (compare this to Israel's record of voting with the US in 87 per cent of the cases). History is full of instances of Egypt's ability to stand firm in the face of US demands. Cairo refused to cooperate with the American attack against Libya in the 1980s and it refused to exert pressure on the Palestinians during the negotiations that took place in the 1990s. Indeed, Egypt, which signed a peace agreement with Israel, has been the foremost obstacle to the rush to normalisation with the Hebrew state, keeping normalisation as a major card in the negotiating process between the Arabs and Israel, in perpetual defiance of Washington's wishes. Nor is it a secret that all the "advice" given by Washington regarding domestic change was not heeded. In fact, those who hold that Egypt is a US dependency would do well to study the entire chapter of the past eight years when Cairo was at constant loggerheads with the Bush administration. Moreover, even then Egypt remained the largest recipient of arms and money from Washington apart from Israel. This was the product of wisdom and skill...

Egypt has been playing the US, accepting billions of dollars of aid while not changing its policies towards US interests one iota. All of the benefits of the Egyptian/Israeli peace treaty, as enumerated by the author in the rest of the article, would be just as effective without US largesse.

In other words, all the billions of dollars given by the US to Egypt, ostensibly to influence that country, have gone to waste.

Washington's influence over Israel is not predicated on aid money but on shared interests and a deep friendship. That is what makes a reliable ally. And as we see from this article, Egypt is anything but.

Syphilitic dead terrorist in the news

A new website has been set up by the Yasser Arafat Foundation to celebrate the life of the world's foremost modern terrorist.

Don't take my word for it; here is how Arafat is described in his biography on the site (autotranslated):

Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian people and the revolution of modern bomber, and one of the most great leaders in the world during the twentieth century, the struggle and fought a relentless jihad for more than half a century ago on various fronts, the name of life for the cause of Palestine and its people in human rights awareness, and the development of the Palestinian issue on the political map of the World .

In normal English, this means that Arafat innovated in the modern use of murdering civilians deliberately to gain attention for his cause.

The Foundation's biography of the AIDS-stricken martyr starts off with a lie:

Born and raised in Jerusalem

Born, "Yasser Mohammed," Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Husseini Kidwa. Known to be the name of Yasser Arafat in Jerusalem, the fourth day of August 1929, the sixth in the family of Daoud Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Husseini and mother Kidwa Zahwa Khalil Abu Al-Saud, in the corner house in the honorary, the point of view of Abu Al-Saud, in the South West of the Temple Mount Al-Sharif.

Of course, Arafat was born in Cairo and his relationship with his father was so poor that he didn't attend his funeral in 1952 and never visited his Gaza grave.

The man behind the website and the Arafat Foundation, named Nasser Al-Kidwa (who is Arafat's nephew,) has also announced that he is starting a "Commission of Truth" to investigate exactly how Arafat died. Given that he has already established himself as a liar, it isn't too hard to imagine who he will conclude was behind the likely AIDS-ravaged murderer's death.

Clan clash!

From Ma'an:

A young Palestinian man was killed and six others were injured on Monday afternoon after a fight broke out between two families at Balata Refugee Camp east of Nablus.

Palestinian security sources said Ma’an that 25-year-old Saher Mahmoud Sawalmeh, a policeman, was killed after being injured in a clash at the camp as a result of being struck on the head with an iron bar. Shortly after his arrival at Rafidia Hospital he died, they said.

Sources added that six others were wounded in the clash and that Palestinian security services arrived at the scene and arrested a number of people who were allegedly involved.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 60.

New Israeli MK supports Iranian nukes

In other countries, this would be considered treason. From The Bulletin:

Hanin Zoabi is the first woman to be elected to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as a representative of an Arab party. Ms. Zoabi, former director of the I’lam: Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel, is a feminist and strong secularist. She is now one of three representatives of the Balad (National Democratic Assembly) Party.

On one of her first days in the Knesset, the new parliamentarian asked for her thoughts regarding increased Iranian influence in Gaza. Ms. Zoabi replied that she welcomed it.

She said, “If this influence is supporting me, so I will not mind this influence. Even, I would ask for this influence ... The question is not whether there is an influence or not, the question whether this influence is supporting you, can support your demands or can go against your demands.”

Queried regarding Iran’s quest to manufacture nuclear weapons, she stated was that “It would [sic] be more supporting me to have a counter-power to Israel” and “I need something to balance its [Israel’s] power.”

She also spoke of Egypt and Jordan as being a threat to the Arabs of the Gaza Strip, intimating that they are scared of a free and democratic Palestinian state.

Ms. Zoabi was then asked if she felt worried due to the fact that Iran is getting close to acquiring a nuclear weapon and because she lives in close proximity to Jews. She replied, “No, I am not, I’m afraid from the nuclear Iran, I am more afraid from the Israeli nuclear [weapons].”

Israel does not officially admit to being a nuclear power, yet it is generally accepted that it has been a nuclear power since the 1960s.

When asked if she thought that Iran would use nuclear weapons, she deliberately misunderstood and replied, “The Israelis? I think yes. And I am afraid from real risk rather than from potential risk.” She said that everyone is asking about potential risk while “Every day the Israeli uses its violence, army violence.”

“The Iranian is a potential … but the real risk is the Israeli army.”

She was then asked if an Iranian bomb would lead to a nervous America and thus more U.S. pressure on Israel and if that would be good for her she replied “Exactly.”

Asked about Israel as a Jewish state, Ms. Zoabi declared that the very concept of a Jewish state is “inherently racist,” saying that Israel must be turned into a “state of all its citizens,” which would eliminate its Jewish or Zionist nature.

The irony of an elected Israeli Arab MK, who while declaring her allegiance to a foreign power also calls Israel a racist state, is apparently lost on Ms. Zoabi.

If only the reporter would have asked her is the "Islamic Republic of Iran" or every Arab country is inherently racist by her definition, and if she would answer honestly, then she could compare the criticisms she'll receive from the Jewish state from the ones she would receive from her Arab brethren....

(h/t Jameel via email)

Qaddafi goes nuts in Doha

It looks like the good Colonel has not mellowed in his old age:

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi stormed out of an Arab summit on Monday after denouncing the Saudi king and declaring himself "the dean of Arab rulers."
Gadhafi disrupted the opening Arab League summit in Qatar by taking a microphone and criticizing Saudi's King Abdullah, calling him a "British product and American ally."
When the Qatari emir tried to quiet him, the Libyan leader and current Africa Union chairman insisted he be allowed to speak.
"I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam (leader) of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level," Gadhafi said.
He then got up and walked out of the summit hall.

Doha looks like it will be fun to follow!

Doha showcasing Arab disunity and support for genocide

There is an Arab League summit starting today in Doha, Qatar, and - as usual - it highlights the differences between Arabs more that their purported "unity."

In fact, pretty much the only unified statements that the Arab League has ever made have been support of Palestinian Arabs and denunciations of Israel.

This year, Egypt refused to attend, due to disputes between Egypt and Qatar. Egypt feels that Qatar has fallen under the influence of Iran and Qatar, including through Al Jazeera, has bitterly criticized Egypt for keeping the Rafah border closed.

Saudi King Abdullah walked out of the opening session following remarks made by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

But there is one issue that the Arab League does seem unified about this year: supporting genocidal Sudanese president al-Bashir.

The Arab leaders are expected to show support for Al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted him for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur province. The indictment is perceived in the Middle East as a Western attempt to undermine a sitting Arab leader.

Al-Bashir adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Doha, according to Reuters, "We expect this popular uprising of support for Sudan, not just in the Arab world, to be translated into a strong resolution that meets the hopes of the Arab street."

Hmmm...the Arab League defying the International Criminal Court? But I thought that they had such respect for international law!

What I have been working on

With what little free time I had on Sunday, I decided to start creating a Passover gift for Elder of Ziyon readers.

Soon, I hope to be able to post a full EoZ Passover Haggadah.

It will not have any original material; it will just be a series of commentaries that I have taken from various websites that have a religious Zionist perspective, along with the full text in Hebrew and most of the full text in English. Since I didn't spend that much time on it, there will be inconsistencies in the transliterations and such between the commentaries, and some of the commentaries assume a fairly deep knowledge of Jewish texts and "yeshivish" Hebrew, but there should be enough material to add a dimension to your Seder.

If any of my readers wants to add their own Zionist-oriented divrei Torah to the Haggadah, I will be happy to put them in and give proper credit. Just do it by tonight!

The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon plans to create the cover art tomorrow, and then I will try to post a PDF that can be downloaded.

I hope it comes out well, and I hope you like it!

Most Bahrani wife-beaters went to college

Another nail in the coffin of the idea that poverty and desperation causes violence among Arabs:

More than 60 percent of Bahraini men who abuse their wives have higher education, according to Baqer Al-Najjar, a professor of sociology at the University of Bahrain. He said Bahrain should invest more in counseling services.
“An academic qualification does not rule out violence. We need more family guidance centers across the country to deal with this issue,” Al-Najjar said, while speaking at a symposium organized by the General Organization of Youth and Sports recently.
Banna Buzaboon, head of the Batelco Care Center for Domestic Violence, said most of the people visiting counseling clinics were lawyers, doctors and engineers of both sexes. “Violence exists at all levels and in many forms. About 80 percent of women who are victims of domestic violence undergo therapy and rehabilitation process that could take up to 10 years,” said Buzaboon.
She said her center received about 1,200 cases in the first three months of this year. The doctor added that hospitals were increasingly dealing with domestic violence cases, especially during vacations and weekends.

We have already seen that most terrorists and their supporters are also middle- and upper-class, many of them well educated.

Unfortunately, to blame Arab culture for Arab violence is seen as a form of bigotry, rather than a fairly obvious conclusion.

Palestinian Arab kids' orchestra disbanded after Holocaust concert

Last week we saw a heartwarming story, the type of story that gives everyone who yearns for a real peace hope for the future:

For just over an hour on Wednesday, a club for elderly Holocaust survivors on a side street in this suburban town south of Tel Aviv came alive with an encounter of an extraordinary kind.

A youth orchestra came to play for the elderly Israelis, a good turn that might pass in other countries as routine. In this case, though, the entertainers were Palestinians, a group of musicians 12 to 17 years old from the Jenin refugee camp, once a notorious hotbed of militancy and violence in the northern reaches of the West Bank.

for a while on Wednesday, the politics of the conflict were put aside. The youths scratched at their violins and the Holocaust survivors clapped along, trying to keep up with the changing rhythms of the darbouka drums.

“We are here to play,” Wafaa Younis, 51, the Israeli Arab orchestra director, told the rapt audience. “I do not believe in politicians, only musicians and these children.”

The very idea of Palestinian Arab children trying to cheer up Holocaust survivors is one that brings with it hope that the future is not nearly as bleak as it appears, that people can change and maybe, just maybe, things can be much different in future generations.

All that optimism has just come to a fiery and fatal crash:

Authorities in an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp have shut down a youth orchestra, boarded up its rehearsal studio and banned its conductor from the camp after she took 13 young musicians to perform for Holocaust survivors in Israel, an official said Sunday.

Conductor Wafa Younes took the children from her Strings of Freedom orchestra to sing songs of peace last week as part of an annual Good Deeds Day organized by Israel's richest woman. But once parents and leaders back in West Bank's Jenin refugee camp realized where the group had been, they shut down the program, saying Younes had dragged the children into a political issue.

A community leader in the Jenin camp, Adnan Hindi, said the musicians' parents had not known where Younes was taking their children and were angry when they learned of the performance from media reports.

"She exploited the children for a big political issue," said Hindi, head of a camp committee responsible for municipal duties.

Hindi did not deny there was a Holocaust, but said Palestinians had suffered at the hands of Israel.

"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves," he said. "We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we've lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years."

The mainstream of Palestinian Arab society has no ability to empathize with anyone else. They consider themselves unique in their suffering, and they do not believe that anyone else's suffering is even comparable.

Until they get everything they demand, they will continue to live in a deluded world where they are owed everything and have no responsibility to help fix their own problems.

There are no refugee camps in Israel - they all are in countries or areas controlled by Arabs. The Palestinian Arab leaders as well as the leaders of their neighboring nations are the ones who explicitly and openly prolong their suffering, decade after decade.

Yet they will continue to blame Jews for their continuing predicament, and they will refuse to entertain the idea that they are not the center of the universe in their suffering. As a result, their suffering is self-perpetuating.

Holocaust survivors managed to build an entire nation in only a few years after their "naqba." Palestinian Arabs continue to wallow in self-pity and self-destructive whining six decades after theirs.

Imagine how different their lives would be if they could show a little empathy, a little understanding of their Jewish neighbors! Imagine how different things would be if they took responsibility for their own actions! There is no shortage of Jewish organizations who work tirelessly to help Palestinian Arabs solve their problems, whether real or imagined. But how many Arab organizations could even make a slightly conciliatory gesture towards Jews without being insulted, vilified and shut down?

This incident is an accurate microcosm of the entire problem.

(h/t Mohammed the Teddy Bear)

Israel hit Fajr-3 rockets in Sudan

The more details that leak about the Israeli airstrikes in the Sudan, the more impressive it appears.

The Sunday Times reports that Israel used unmanned drones and UAVs to perform the strike:

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) attacked two convoys, killing at least 50 smugglers and their Iranian escorts. All the lorries carrying the long-range rockets were destroyed. Had the rockets been delivered to Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, they would have dramatically raised the stakes in the conflict, enabling Palestinians to wreak terror on Tel Aviv.

The raids were carried out by Hermes 450 drones. One source claimed they were accompanied by giant Eitan UAVs, which have a 110ft wingspan, similar to that of a Boeing 737. The drones, controlled via satellite, can hover over a target for 24 hours.
According to sources, the convoys were carrying Fajr3 rockets, which have a range of more than 40 miles, and were split into sections so they could be smuggled through tunnels into Gaza from Egypt. “They built the Fajr in parts so it would be easy to smuggle them into Gaza, then reassemble them with Hamas experts who learnt the job in Syria and Iran,” said a source.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards masterminded the smuggling operation. “The Iranians arrived in Port Sudan and liaised with local smugglers,” said a source. The convoy was heading for the Egyptian border where, for a fat fee, local smugglers would take over.

More details (via Ha'aretz):

The Israel Air Force carried out three air strikes in Sudan, not two, according to a report yesterday by ABC News. The TV network report said the attacks were carried out during the latter part of January and in February, targeting arms shipments from Iran destined for the Gaza Strip.

The ABC report, which was based on U.S. officials, reiterated earlier reports that the first air strike had targeted a convoy of trucks carrying arms, while the second sunk a ship. No details were given about the target of the third strike, which was probably another convoy of trucks.
The report of the American news network was also based on statements by Sudanese officials, who confirm that Israel had sunk a ship carrying arms.

Note that this all happened after the Gaza operation was finished.

If Hamas had hit Tel Aviv with rockets, Israel's response would have dwarfed that of Operation Cast Lead. Many more civilians would have been accidentally killed. So all of the world's "peace activists" must be thrilled that Israel's pre-emptive strike was so successful, right?

By the way, the Sudan is roughly the same distance to Israel as Iran. Just sayin'.

Hamas again rejects moderation. World ignores it.

One of the recurring themes coming from the wishful-thinking anti-Israel liberal crowd is that Hamas is really not that extreme, that it needs to be included in the "peace process," and that its "moderate" leaders can and should be encouraged and rewarded by the West.

There is a good reason we are seeing so much of this lately. The reason is that they want peace, and they project this desire onto everyone else. Peace is so obviously preferable to war that they cannot conceive that anyone really doesn't want peace deep down. In this mindset, people are the same no matter who they are, and everyone is reasonable, and if people would just talk in an atmosphere of tolerance and empathy, all problems can be resolved fairly.

This thinking is so ingrained that counterexamples - and counterproofs - are downplayed. The idea that people could be evil is simply not a possibility. If a Westerner says anything that could be vaguely perceived as anti-peace, he is vilified and shamed to be brought back into line. But if a non-Westerner says anything that is completely antithetical to peace, he is ignored or contextualized. His words are only meant for local consumption, we are told; he doesn't really believe it. Or perhaps he has been pushed into his extreme positions by the evil actions of the West and if we would only treat him better, he would reciprocate.

The media has embraced the meme so thoroughly that it will highlight any story that supports it and will downplay or ignore any story that disproves it.

The latest incarnation of this twisted bit of fatal wishful thinking has been the idea of a Palestinian Arab unity government as a way to save the moribund "peace process." Unifying Hamas and Fatah, the thinking goes, will force Hamas to moderate its positions. Of course, these same people thought that winning an election would force Hamas to moderate its positions as well, and that didn't work out, but hope springs eternal.

As a result, we are unlikely to see much of this story in the Western press:

The Hamas movement said on Saturday that accepting the unity government's positions on prior commitments would harm the Palestinian cause, and refused to do so.

According to Senior Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardaweel, accepting the agreements, such as the Oslo Accords or other signing documents, would be impossible, although he said the movement made a number of other concessions.

"Hamas does not agree on such formulas, for the betterment of the Palestinians, and Fatah," he went on to say. "The aim is forcing Hamas to commit to the agreements," which he described as "unfair."

In other words, Hamas has said, for the umpteenth time, that they will never accept a peace agreement with Israel, even if they join a quasi-government that has already made such an agreement.

But - but - Roger Cohen has assured us that Hamas is a viable peace partner! But the New York Times has insisted that Hamas needs to be brought into the peace process! But Richard Falk keeps saying that Hamas offered a near-permanent truce with Israel!

Hamas has been nothing if not consistent. There is nothing that it has done in the past two decades that has contradicted its radical, anti-semitic, hateful founding charter in the tiniest detail. Yet 22 years of fierce rhetoric, of terrorist actions, of uncompromising hate are just so inconsistent with the liberal ideas of everyone being the same as us, of underdogs being simply misunderstood, that stories like these must be ignored - they don't fit the meme. The tiniest wisp of hope gets overblown and the most radical examples of hate - like the "Pioneers of Tomorrow" children's TV show still being shown on Hamas TV - get swept under the rug.

And Israel - a nation that truly is liberal; a nation that has given up land, uprooted people and paid dearly for peace - gets demonized instead as being "intransigent" or worse.

Saudi lingerie sold by - men

From the Times of India (h/t Jihad Watch):

RIYADH: Before her wedding last year, Huda Batterjee went abroad to buy her bridal lingerie she just couldn’t bear the humiliation of discussing her most intimate apparel with a man.

She had little choice: there are almost no saleswomen in Saudi Arabia.

Now a group of Saudi women sick of having to deal with male sales staff when buying bras
or panties, not to mention frilly negligees or thongs have launched a campaign this week to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. It’s an irony of the kingdom’s strict segregation of the sexes. Only men are employed as sales staff to keep women from having to deal with male customers or work around men.

But in lingerie stores, that means men are talking to women about bras or thongs, looking them up and down to determine their cup sizes, even rubbing the underwear to show how stains can be washed out.

The result is mortifying for everyone involved shoppers, salesmen, even the male relatives who accompany the women.

“When I buy underwear in Saudi, some salesmen say, ‘This is not the right size for you,” said Batterjee. “You feel almost taken advantage of. Why is he looking at me in this way?” So for her wedding trousseau, she went to neighbouring Dubai to shop. She now lives in Virginia with her husband.

Heba al-Akki, a businesswoman who supports the boycott, said when she shops for underwear, “I go to a store, pick this, this and that and leave quickly. It’s as if I’m buying illegal stuff.”

It turns out that women are allowed to work in Saudi lingerie shops - but no one lets them:

Re'em As’ad is leading a Facebook campaign to boycott lingerie shops that employ men and she is aiming at the whole lingerie business in Saudi Arabia since women are not allowed to work in such shops.

As’ad hopes that her campaign will force storeowners to rethink the option of hiring women; she hopes to breathe life into a never-enforced law that allows women to be employed in lingerie shops. The law has been lying in a drawer somewhere for two years now. As’ad’s campaign started a few months ago with posts on websites and through e-mails asking people to show their objections to employing men to sell women’s lingerie.
Hiring saleswomen is difficult despite the Ministry of Labor’s approval. This is due to conflicting views on the subject between the ministry and the religious establishment. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh recently said, “Women are entrusted to us, we should not involve them in matters far from their nature.”

That explains everything!

Hezbollah smuggling through Mexico to the US

From the Washington Times:

Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S.

Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael Braun, who just retired as assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"They work together," said Mr. Braun. "They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected.

"They'll leverage those relationships to their benefit, to smuggle contraband and humans into the U.S.; in fact, they already are [smuggling]."

His comments were confirmed by six U.S. officials, including law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism specialists. They spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the topic.

While Hezbollah appears to view the U.S. primarily as a source of cash - and there have been no confirmed Hezbollah attacks within the U.S. - the group's growing ties with Mexican drug cartels are particularly worrisome at a time when a war against and among Mexican narco-traffickers has killed 7,000 people in the past year and is destabilizing Mexico along the U.S. border.

So the "Party of God" has no ethical problems with drug smuggling.

And Iran has easy entry into the US.

Sleep well.

Rule 5 Sunday (early edition): A corporal Miss Israel

Continuing Rule 5 Sundays, as suggested by The Other McCain....

From the IDF website:

Without a doubt, the most presentable Corps in the IDF is the Navy. White uniforms, impeccable ceremonies reflect an impressive sense of duty. It was therefore not surprising to discover that Miss Israel 2009 Adi Rodnitzki is also a corporal in the Israel Navy. Even less surprising is the fact that she serves as the secretary of the head of the Foreign Relations, whose job it is to present the Navy to the world. “This is an important role that represents the unit. In addition to office work, we participate in meetings with senior personalities from abroad,” commented Rodnitzki, “I enjoy my service and I am happy to be in the place I am.”
Adi, single, 20 years old and from Tel Aviv, has completed one and a half years of her service. She arrived to the Navy after finishing her basic training and notes that even at the time of her draft into the IDF she wanted the position that she now holds. “There are high quality people. Some of them speak foreign languages, which raises my interest level.” Adi was born in Israel and completed high school at the Alianz School in Tel Aviv, where she chose to study economics, psychology and French.
One of the things that surprised Adi the most was the support she received from the IDF, particularly her direct commander. “Normally, commanders don’t want their soldiers to leave and because of that I was afraid to ask her, but from the moment I did she was more excited than I was and that convinced me to do it.” She says her commander understood her need to leave the office for several months. “She called me during these months and also after I won, I received a phone call from her,” she remembers with a smile. Adi also received many calls of support from her friends in the Navy: “From the beginning of the competition until the end I got a lot of support from them.”

10 months of military service remain for the beauty queen and she fully intends to complete them even if things may have changed slightly. “I will not be in the army for a large number of hours, things will change. I do what I can.” Beyond the days where she is busy with interviews she is planning to compete in the Miss Universe competition in a few months. “The army will release me, I am not worried”, she stated. “It really doesn’t bother me, they release me every time I need to and when I don’t then I’m in the army. It is not contradictory,” she stresses. “I continue to do regular service as needed.”