Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 04, 2009

Hamas turned Abbas home into Gaza prison?

Islamic Hamas movement Monday denied an Israeli report that the movement's security apparatuses turned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' house in Gaza into a place for holding Fatah activists.
A senior Hamas security source refuted the Israeli report, saying "The Israeli media always publish untrue reports to damage Hamas image and its government in Gaza. Our prisons are opened for rights groups who are always briefed on what goes on in these prisons."
"The places where the prisoners are held are well-known to Gaza human rights organizations, where their representatives had visited," said the source who declined to give his name.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Maariv daily quoted a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah as saying that Hamas security apparatuses turned the villa of the president in Remal neighborhood into a place for holding and questioning Fatah leaders.
The official told the Israeli daily on condition of anonymity that Hamas "arrested Fatah movement activists and leaders, and took them to President Abbas house in the city to interrogate them."
Hamas holds 20 Fatah leaders and activists in Abbas' house in Gaza, and Hamas hides this fact, he added.

As is usual, it is difficult to tell which set of liars is lying.

But here is a picture of Hamas militants making themselves at home in the house:

"Free Gaza" loses its Dignity

An "urgent email" to the Free Gaza mailing list:

It's with heavy hearts that we have to inform you that the Free Gaza ship, the DIGNITY, has been lost outside Larnaca port in Cyprus. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident.

On 30 December 2008 the DIGNITY was rammed by the Israeli navy while on a mission of mercy to deliver critically needed medical supplies and doctors to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. Thanks to the heroic efforts of its captain and crew, the DIGNITY was able to find safe harbor in Lebanon, later making its way to Cyprus for repairs. Early this morning we received a call from the Harbor Master in Larnaca, informing us that the ship was taking on water. While attempting to tow her to safety, the ship went down. An inquiry has begun into the circumstances surrounding her demise, possibly due to storm damage suffered during the night.

Maybe we should send this fake "humanitarian" organization some toothpicks to help rebuild the boat.

Their last boat had essentially no aid whatsoever.

PalArabs again protesting those who help them

From Ma'an:

Popular committees in West Bank refugee camps will close down the offices of UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, in protest of alleged reductions in aid.

Ibrahim Saqr, the director of Nablus refugee camps’ committees, said that that the decision to strike came after the UN once again rejected the committees’ demands.

He also said that the shutdown was a “first step” in a program of protest. On Thursday the committees will shut down the offices of UNRWA’s regional directors as well as warehouses.

Yes, yet again, the Palestinian Arabs addicted to handouts are protesting that the free food and medical services and schooling that they receive isn't enough for them - so they will shut down the aid to "protest."

This isn't the first time this has happened. A similar action occurred last August, and last April the protests turned so violent that the UNRWA workers were forced to go on strike to protest their very safety as they attempt to provide services for the people that were threatening them! Not surprisingly, the UNRWA hushed up that incident.

This is what happens when entire generations of people are brought up with two basic ideas:

1. They are entitled to everything they demand, forever, without having to work for it.
2. Violence is the most effective way to get things done.

Fatwas of the day

From the Daily Times (Pakistan):

LAHORE: It is un-Islamic for anyone to be photographed, Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Muhammad has said.

Talking to a private TV channel, he said any duplicated image of a person, whether a “still picture or video” was un-Islamic. Referring to the various systems of governance, he said democracy, communism, socialism and fascism were all un-Islamic. He also said there was no need for a constitution in the country in the presence of the Quran and Sunnah, adding these were the “biggest laws” available to humanity. Focusing on democracy, he said it was un-Islamic, as infidels invented it.

Sufi Muhammad said the sharia system of governance not currently in force anywhere in the world, not even Saudi Arabia or Iran. “Only the Taliban had enforced sharia when they were in power in Afghanistan,” he added.
On the status of women in a Taliban-run society, he said women were not allowed to come out of their house for any reason other than to perform Haj. However, he added, a female patient was allowed to visit a male doctor to seek a cure for her ailments.

Glad he cleared that up!

Still finding new Gaza "civilian" terrorists

Thanks to the efforts of Suzanne, PTWatch, and t34zakat we are still finding more and more Gazan terrorists killed by the IDF that were called "civilians" by the PCHR.

Right now we are concentrating on the ones listed by ICT as being called "shahid fighters" or "Qassami shahids" or "hero shahids" in Hamas websites; I am not sure whether we should characterize plain "shahids" or plain "policemen" as automatically being terrorists at this time. Even so, we are on the verge of identifying more than half of the policemen killed as being members of terrorist groups! (119 out of 239)

Evil Zionist pigs feared to spread swine flu

We've seen many times Palestinian Arabs blame "settlers" for releasing wild pigs that are magically bred to attack only Arabs and Arab crops.

So this story was not only inevitable, but frankly overdue:

Boars set free by Israeli settlers on Sunday damaged sheep barns and beehives in the northern West Bank village of Salem, east of Nablus.

According to Ja’far Ishtayya, deputy mayor of Salem, “Boars attacked three homes and sheep barns, owned by Theib and Ziad Hasan, as well as 32 beehives owned by Taha Hamdan. The boars also attacked a car owned by Baha’ Hussein on his way out of the village.”

Ishtayya appealed to the Palestinian Authority to work out a solution for the boar attacks, highlighting swine flu fears, as well as physical damage caused by the animals.

Not yet as direct as I expected, but the accusation that Zionists are sending the pigs deliberately to spread swine flu among PalArabs is only a matter of time.

Allah doesn't like Medinah either

I mentioned a few days ago how many earthquakes occur in Iran.

Well, the second holiest city in Islam, Medinah, has reported some 1200 minor tremors in the past few days.

MADINAH: More than 1,200 tremors, most of which were very weak, have occurred in and around Madinah over the past several days, the National Center for Earthquakes and Volcanoes at the Saudi Geological Survey Authority said yesterday.
According to the center, the tremors had magnitudes of between 0.78 and 3.7 on the Richter scale. Some residents, especially in the village of Al-Ais, felt tremors on Thursday and Friday.
Hani bin Mahmoud Zahran, director of the center, said Bahrat Al-Shaqqah was the epicenter of the earthquakes, which began on April 18 and are still continuing.
He said the strongest tremors measured 3.7 degrees on the Richter scale.
He added that villagers in Hadmah, Al-Qarrasa, Al-Ameed, Al-Faraa and Al-Sahla felt six tremors. Zahran said the Civil Defense immediately dispatched specialized technicians to carry out thermostatic measurements at Bahrat Al-Shaqqah and install a monitoring station there.
He said the authority was monitoring the situation around the clock and was currently collecting data to understand the nature of the tremors and if they were connected to volcanic activity.

May 1921: Arabs kill Jews, Jews blamed

An article in the Jerusalem Post about the 1921 Arab riots in Jaffa gave me some incentive to research it myself, and I found a full copy of the British Commission Report on the incidents.

Here are some parts of the 64-page report.

The disturbances dealt with in this report began with a riot in
Jaffa on Sunday, the 1st May, 1921, followed by serious acts of violence
in the same town on the two succeeding days, and local attacks on
Jewish agricultural colonies on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
of that week. To the same group of events belong sporadic anti-
Jewish manifestations which occurred in Jaffa during June and as
late as July.

[The report details the antipathy between two Jewish socialist parties on May Day.]

The Arabs of Menshieh, who had resented the Bolshevik demon-
stration from the first, became aware that a disturbance was taking
place on the Tel Aviv side of the sandy space, and came out of their
houses to the western edge of the sandy space, where they could
observe what was happening on the Tel Aviv side. Many of them were
armed with sticks. At the same time Jews began to collect on the
eastern edge of Tel Aviv. It then became the duty of the police to
come between the two parties and prevent a collision if possible.
They occupied the sandy space, Mr. Cohen and his men keeping back
the Jews, and Tewfik Bey with his men keeping back the Arabs.

The dispute between the Jewish Labour Party and the M.P.S.
was now at an end, and demonstrators were beginning to disperse
towards Menshieh. Had it not been for outstanding grievances felt
by the Arabs against the Jews, the police would have had little difficulty
in keeping the peace. The Arab population is ordinarily very obedient
to authority, and it is only when some religious or racial emotion is
aroused that it becomes difficult to manage. The Jews are less obedient
to authority and more difficult to control : on the other hand, they are
less prone to that sudden access of violence which characterises the
Arab when aroused to anger by some actual or supposed wrong or
provocation.

It became evident that the situation was growing critical, and
shortly after noon Abdin Bey joined Mr. Cohen, and Reserve Inspector
Atkins joined Tewfik Bey. Neither party was willing to return into
its own quarter until the other had done so first. Some police in the
sandy place fired their rifles into the air by order of Mr. Atkins. This
was the first firing that was heard. It appears that most of the people
who heard it were ignorant as to where the shots came from or who
had fired them. It must have been almost immediately afterwards
that somethuig occurred in the Moslem quarter to draw the poHce
and the Arabs back into the streets of Menshieh. Mr. Cohen says that
reports were brought by Jews of their shops having been broken open
and of shooting. That shooting was probably the firing by the police
in the air by order of Mr. Atkins, as no persons appear to have been
killed or severely wounded up to that moment. Mr. Cohen goes on to
say that later he heard a noise in the Menshieh quarter, left his place
at the sandy space, rode to the spot, and found Arabs breaking windows.
It seems clear that at that moment police and Arabs left the sandy
space, and poured into the Menshieh quarter, where a general hunting
of the Jews began. We are of opinion that both Mr. Cohen and
Tewfik Bey did their best to keep the peace, but the police lost control
of the situation altogether.

At this time Mr. Miller was sent by the Governor to Tel Aviv on a
report that the quarter was being attacked by Arabs. On arriving
he found that firing was coming from the Menshieh quarter towards
Tel Aviv, and being replied to from houses on the edge of the latter
quarter, but that Tel Aviv was not being attacked. He proceeded to
Menshieh and found that the police had lost all authority, and that there
was a great deal of fighting going on.

On reaching Menshieh main street they found the Jewish
market there entirely looted, and looting was going on elsewhere.
The presence of Mr. Miller and the notables, especially that of the
Mayor, had the effect of stilling tumult at any spot where they appeared,
but so exasperated had the two parties become by that time that this
effect was only momentary, and fighting began again as soon as their
backs were turned. At that time all the men in the streets were armed
with sticks, iron bars, knives, anything that came to hand.

The [Arab] civil police in general were now wholly
inefficient, either because they felt themselves unable to cope with the
tumult, or because racial passion had become infectious and they were
unwilling to make an effort to stem the rage of their own peoples.
It is difficult to rely on the evidence of individuals engaged in the
melee, but we liave formed the view that from this time the police
became partisan, a view that is confirmed by subsequent proceedings.

..The door [of the Jewish Immigrant House] had been broken open by an angry crowd, a bomb had been thrown with fatal results, blood was flowing and the Inspector of Police, the only officer then present, went home to lunch.

We are satisfied from the evidence of the Reverend A. C. Martin,
of the London Jews' Society, who saw much of what happened from a
window on the opposite side of the main street, that the police in the
street broke through the door and led a part of the mob into the yard.
They broke into the ground floor of the main building and into the
other buildings. Men who sought refuge by running into the street
were beaten to death by the crowd. Others were killed inside the
courtyard. The invaders came in from all the entrances when the
defence had broken down. Only one woman was killed, namely by a
shot fired through a window. Those women who escaped into the street
were roughly handled by the crowd, but not killed. They were wounded,
but not dangerously, and were sheltered from further harm by an
Arab neighbour. Perhaps the most revolting incident was the conduct
of one of the Arab policemen. He was at first regarded by the women
as a protector, but he took advantage of the prevailing terror to rob
them of their small possessions, and to two he made indecent advances,
telHng them that he was a Jew, with threats of violence if they refused
to comply with his demands. They appear to have avoided this
crowning act of brutality by escape. This man was convicted by a
special Court for the trial of offences committed during the riots, and
was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment. It must not be supposed
that no resistance was made by the Jews. The toll of dead and
wounded in the gruesome episode of the Immigration House was as
follows :

13 Jews killed or mortally wounded and 24 wounded ; one Arab killed and four wounded.

[May 2]

A horrible murder was disclosed during the afternoon. Mr.
Brenner, a Jewish author of some repute, was living with five other
Jews in an isolated house off the Kamleh Road. The women of the
house were absent. A motor lorry was sent to bring them away,
and the house was found to be closed and empty. Some distance away
five bodies, those of Brenner and four others, were found lying in a
footpath, beaten or stabbed to death. The sixth body was found about
100 metres away with the hands tied behind the back. When the
searchers returned to remove the bodies the sixth was not discovered,
and has not been seen since.

A group of Jewish houses near the German Colony was entirely
looted on Monday. The inhabitants had fled and there was no loss of fife.

[May 4]

The general situation had improved, but the state of feeling was
obviously still acute. Popular unrest had spread to the surrounding
country, and by Friday night there had been* attacks by Arabs on five
Jewish agricultural communities. All parties were looking to the
Government for some distinct declaration of policy. Colonel Byron
says : "As far as the Moslem population were concerned, they were
very anxious to receive some declaration on the question of immigra-
tion. I gathered such information from both parties, i.e., the notables
here, and Mr. Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv." He had already
issued an order under his general authority that no immigrants should
be landed at Jaffa for the present. On the morning of Saturday, the
14th May, a telegram was received from Government House confirming
the temporary prohibition of immigration, and, when made known by
the town crier in the square, was received with acclamation.

[May 6, Hadera]

During the night of the 5th and the early morning of the 6th,
people were coming in from neighbouring villages, and a considerable
number must have collected in Tulkeram. They were rudely armed,
and not a serious force if encountered by a small number of experienced
troops ; but a formidable mob for the police to deal with..../

When the airman returned at 12.35 p.m. the attackers had already
entered the village from the south-east under the cover of a grove of
eucalyptus trees. They had burned, ransacked, destroyed and looted
at will in that quarter of the village. They had encountered for a
moment three mounted scouts, who retired on their approach, but no
collision had occurred as yet between them and the inhabitants of the
colony. Mr. Flynn circled round the village at a low altitude, and
ascertained the condition of affairs. On the occasion of his former
flight he had been unable to turn the Arabs from their attack by a
demonstration of force without actual violence. On the second occa-
sion his return created a panic among the invaders, which caused them
to hurry from the village, carrying in their flight what loot they could.
As they fled, the Arabs were hurried in their retreat by bombs and
machine-gun fire. Their casualties were not so great as might have
been expected. Three Arabs are known to have been killed and three
wounded. Among the retiring Arabs, whom Mr. Flynn estimates as
a crowd of between 400 to 500 persons, were the 10 mounted policemen.
The Sergeant-Major asserts that he arranged his men in military forma-
tion so that the airman might observe that they were not a part of the
mob, and avoid bombing them. Mr. Flynn observed that these were
police, but from the fact of their retreatment with the raiders, regarded
them as participating in the raid, and took no pains to discriminate
between them and the rest of the crowd. Four of these were wounded,
the Sergeant-Major severely, and three police horses were killed.

The lives of the colonists were saved. They had been in great peril,
and we have no doubt that had the raid not been interrupted, the
colony would have been destroyed.

In this case it is clear that the colonists had done nothing whatso-
ever to provoke an attack. The armed crowd that proceeded to raid
them intended to kill and loot, and it is a pity that they were not firmly
handled before they had the opportunity of doing damage.

It was evident from the tone
and substance of what the Mayor of Tulkeram said to us, that he con-
sidered the raid as an act of war against the Jews, if not justifiable,
at any rate excusable. He had done his best to keep his people quiet,
but after the raid was over he was clear in his determination not to
allow any person or village to suffer for it through his instrumentality.
So unanimously is public opinion on one side of this controversy that
evidence to ^x responsibility is practically unobtainable, the more so
as the colonists saw little or nothing of the raid.

[The report also details attacks on Jews in Kfar Saba, Petach Tikva, and Rehovot.]

...This was no ordinary riot. The disturbance raged for several
days with intensity wherever Arabs came into contact with Jews, and
spread into the surrounding country, where Jewish colonies, having
nothing whatever to do with Bolshevism, were attacked with ferocity.
The Bolshevik demonstration was the spark that set alight the explosive
discontent of the Arabs, and precipitated an outbreak which developed
into an Arab-Jewish feud.

....We are persuaded that it is due partly to the Government policy with
regard to a Jewish National Home in Palestine, partly to Arab mis-
understandings of that policy, and partly to the manner in which that
policy is interpreted and sought to be applied by some of its advocates
outside the Government. It culminates in a suspicion that the Govern-
ment is under Zionist influence, and is therefore led to favour a minority
to the prejudice of the vast majority of the population. We have been
assured, and we believe, that had there been no Jewish question, the
Government would have had no political difficulty of any importance
to deal with so far as its domestic affairs are concerned.

...We have no doubt that the Arabs were the
first to turn this quarrel into a race conflict, and, when once this issue
was joined, they behaved with a savagery which cannot be condoned.

Dr. Beadles, the Principal Medical Officer, Jaffa, thus speaks of his
examination of the dead bodies on the 1st May :

" I was struck most with the number of wounds on each body,
and the ferocity of the wounds. I am speaking particu-
larly of broken skulls. Some of the victims had dozens
of wounds."

The last expression may be an unconscious exaggeration, but it shows
the impression produced on the mind of a man who had practised his
profession during the war, and was not unaccustomed to the sight of
wounds. The killing was accompanied and followed by an orgy of
pillage which was a disgrace to a civilised community.

When we come to consider the raids on the agricultural colonies
we find the immediate cause to be the reports of Jews having killed
Arabs in the Jaffa riots. They were all the outcome of the general
rage against the Jews aroused by these reports. In some cases there
were local causes which stimulated this feehng. The Khedera raid
was immediately prompted by a false report of the imprisonment of
Arab labourers. The raid on Rehoboth was the immediate result of a
story about the Jews of that colony having attacked a neighbouring
Arab village. There is no evidence to show the responsibility of any
particular village for the raid on Rehoboth, but Mr. Miller and Mr.
Wainwright think that the false report was concocted on that day
by persons at Ramleh who wished to promote an attack on the Jews.
It is, however, only fair to add that two notables, who were tried in
this connection, w^ere acquitted. In the Petach Tikvah case only the
Abu Kishk tribe can clearly be saddled with responsibility. The
Yahoudieh men never actually raided the colony. They would have
done so had they not been caught in time by the military, but they were
stopped and soundly punished. There is no evidence to show by whom
Kefr Saba and Ain Hai were raided. The raiders found no one to kill,
but looted and destroyed. In none of these five cases can the conduct
of the Arabs be excused or condoned. Most of the colonists had lived
for years on quite friendly terms with their Arab neighbours, and had
in many cases given them regular employment on a large scale. The
bloodthirsty attacks on these peaceful settlements, which had been
guilty of no provocation whatever, are among the worst features of the
disturbances.

Although the report does mention retaliatory attacks by Jews, it makes it very clear that every incident was initiated by the Arab side, with uncommon savagery.

Yet the conclusion has the same kind of disgusting "even-handedness" that we see daily at the present time:

...It has been impossible to avoid the conclusion
that practically the whole of the non-Jewish population was united in
hostility to the Jews. During the riots all discrimination on the part
of the Arabs between different categories of Jews was obliterated.
Old-established colonists and newly arrived immigrants, Chalukah
Jews and Bolshevik Jews, Algerian Jews and Russian Jews, became
merged in a single identity, and former friendships gave way before the
enmity now felt towards all. On the 27th June, nearly two months
after the first outbreak, two members of the Commission of Inquiry
chanced to meet a band of decently dressed Arab children, whose
average age could not have exceeded six or seven, marching in proces-
sion along the Ajami quarter, brandishing sticks and branches, and
shouting the words, " We want to fight the Jews." The incident was
small, perhaps, but not without significance, and it was noted by the
members of the Commission who saw it that no attempt was made by
several policemen present to interfere with it in any way. So long as
the popular feeling described above continues it will not be possible
to maintain law and justice effectively, because the mass of the people
cannot be trusted to do justice where a Jew is concerned.

[Many other examples are given of anti-Jewish feeling by the Arabs of Palestine, and yet...]

...But for the considerations set forth above we feel convinced that
there would be no animosity towards the Jews as such ; that there is
no inherent anti-Semitism in the country, racial or religious. We are
credibly assured by educated Arabs that they would welcome the
arrival of well-to-do and able Jews who could help to develop the country
to the advantage of all sections cjf the community. Zionists, for their part,
dwell freely on the theme that the realisation of the policy of the
" National Home " will benefit Arabs as well as Jews ; but we feel
bound to express the opinion, arrived at in the course of the inquiry,
that the Zionist Commission, which is the representative of the Zionist
Organisation in Palestine, has failed to carry conviction to the Arabs
on this point. So far as we can judge, the only sentiment it has
inspired in them is one of profound distrust.

...
Much, we feel, might be done to allay the existing hostility between
the races if responsible persons on both sides could agree to discuss
the questions arising between them in a reasonable spirit, on the basis
that the Arabs should accept implicitly the declared policy of the
Government on the subject of the Jewish National Home, and that the
Zionist leaders should abandon and repudiate all pretensions that go
beyond it. The immigrants should be made to understand that,
whatever their historical and religious claim, they are after all seeking
a home in a country at present overwhelmingly Arab, and that it
behooves them to adopt a considerate attitude towards the people
among whom they must wish to live in peace and friendship. The
Arab notables, on the other hand, should make it clear to the Arabs
that in no case can they expect murder, violence and pillage to be
condoned.

See how even handed it is? Tell the Jews to be more considerate and friendly towards Arabs so as not to anger them - and ask Arabs nicely not to murder Jews.

Weekend open thread

Sorry I haven't been able to post today.

L. King suggested in the comments an open thread about the challenges to Zionism in academia, a theme for my last two posts. He brings up some good points.

I started looking at the list of Hamas members from ICT. I am uncomfortable right now counting anyone who is simply called a "shahid" in the Hamas lists they looked at; even though there is strong evidence that when they call someone a "shahid" they are a terrorist (for example, they didn't list any women,) I can still imagine Hamas using that same word to describe a theoretical policeman who was not affiliated with the Qassam Brigades. I just added a "heroic shahid" to my list, making it 227.

Even so, the ICT list is difficult because it lists a lot of people by their terror names only ("Abu JIhad") that don't correspond to anyone in the PCHR list. Anyone who wants to tackle that process, feel free to volunteer!

Anyway, let this be an open thread so you can all discuss things and find cool links to share....

Professor's "Israel=Nazi" comparison worse than reported

A university professor in Santa Barbara sent out an email message to his students equating Israel with Nazi Germany and Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto.

The way it is being reported, it sounds like perhaps the professor was simply sending out some source material for his course:

Two students at the University of California-Santa Barbara say they were shocked when a professor compared Israeli actions to those of German Nazis.
University of California-Santa Barbara senior Rebecca Joseph said sociology Professor William I. Robinson acted inappropriately when he sent students a message comparing Israel's Gaza offensive to the Holocaust, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

And Robinson characterizes it the same way:

“My right in accordance with the Code ‘to present controversial material relevant to a course of instruction’ is being flagrantly violated and I am under harassment,” Robinson said in a makeshift press release. “The essence of the students’ complaint, as they themselves state it, is that my introduction of material into my course critical of Israeli state policy constitutes anti-Semitism, and this is the only argument made by the complainants to substantiate their charge of anti-Semitism.”

But when you look at the details, it is much, much worse:

The contents of that e-mail, which Robinson reportedly sent to students on Martin Luther King Day and ran under the heading “Parallel images of Nazis and Israelis,“ included 42 side-by-side photos (like the one at left) that have made Robinson the focus of an academic investigation.
Here’s a portion of what he wrote:

I am forwarding some horrific, parallel images of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. Perhaps the most frightening are not those providing a graphic depiction of the carnage but that which shows Israeli children writing “with love” on a bomb that will tear apart Palestinian children.

Gaza is Israel’s Warsaw - a vast concentration camp that confined and blockaded Palestinians, subjecting them to the slow death of malnutrition, disease and despair, nearly two years before their subjection to the quick death of Israeli bombs. We are witness to a slow-motion process of genocide (Websters: “the systematic killing of, or a program of action intended to destroy, a whole national or ethnic group”), a process whose objective is not so much to physically eliminate each and every Palestinian than to eliminate the Palestinians as a people in any meaningful sense of the notion of people-hood.

Do professors normally send out 42 pictures of something to prove a point? Robinson didn't find these pictures himself; he was clearly copying things from anti-Israel websites on the Internet - probably from here.

If extreme and sickening opinions are acceptable under the name of "academic freedom," how about lies?

Robinson refers to this picture as "Israeli children writing “with love” on a bomb that will tear apart Palestinian children."

What the picture actually depicts is Israeli children, who had been stuck in underground shelters for weeks because of bombardment from Hezbollah, writing a message to Hassan Nasrallah (you can see it spelled it as "Nazrala") and his army. It had nothing to do with "Palestine" nor "Palestinian children."

It is the type of mistake or willful lie that one would expect from a blogger - but when it comes from a professor, whose standards for truth should be at least that of a newspaper reporter, this indicates a much bigger problem.

I would argue that the opinions that Robinson expressed indeed are anti-semitic. Objectively, the comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany is absurd (and the photos show that he wasn't only comparing Gaza to Warsaw, odious enough as that is.) The only reason it resonates with Israel bashers is because of the perceived irony that Jews could act like their tormenters. I could take photos from Robinson's family album and juxtapose them with pictures of smiling and laughing Nazis at home with their kids; it would be about as accurate a comparison.

A university doesn't necessarily have to be concerned merely if a professor has controversial opinions. The problem here are much deeper:

1) Robinson is writing lies as facts and not distinguishing them from opinion. He's not saying "I believe Gaza is like Warsaw" - he is asserting it is.

2) Robinson is copying and pasting from websites without even knowing the details about the pictures. There are other picture comparisons there that are even more disgusting, especially when you know the context of the "Palestinian" picture.

3) The opinions themselves are, effectively, anti-semitic for the reasons I gave above.

4) Robinson is also directly lying when he refers to Israel as "a state founded on the negation of a people" - a neat projection of what the mythical Palestinian state is. This is besides the lie I mentioned above about "a bomb that will tear apart Palestinian children."

5) The entire email is intellectually lazy and betrays more that Robinson was looking for an excuse to promulgate his views among his captive student audience rather than inform them about anything relevant to the course. It is beyond a controversial opinion: it is advocacy, which is a questionable pursuit in academia.

Campuses continue their anti-Israel activities

A couple of stories from US universities:

Seattle Pacific University hosted an Anglican pastor who railed against Christian Zionism.

The United States' support of Israel is built on faulty principles and is hurting the country's foreign policy, evangelical Anglican pastor and London author Stephen Sizer said.
Yesterday afternoon, Sizer spoke in Demaray Hall 150 at an event called "Christian Zionism: What is it? Its history, theology and political impact on the world today."

Throughout the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the United States has offered unwavering support to Israel, Sizer said. Much of this is due to the prevalence of Christian Zionism, or Christians who support the modern political state of Israel, established in 1948, he said.

There is an antipathy toward the Arabs and Palestinians within Christian Zionism, Sizer said. He countered that the Bible calls us to reconciliation and tells us to love our enemies, he said.

"This theology is impacting attitudes and opinions in the Middle East," he said. There is a view that God is blessing America because the nation is helping Israel, he said, resulting in the demonizing of Islam and the characterization of Arabs as dogs and liars.

Giving Israel a geographic homeland in Palestine may not be the correct fulfillment of God's Old Testament promise to Israel, he said.

And here is a neat bit of cause-and-effect reversal:

"So much of our taxpayer money does go to the state of Israel," said Professor of English Doug Thorpe. This makes U.S. Christians deeply invested in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, he said, and people are suffering because of how American foreign policy supports Israel.

So it isn't that Americans support Israel and therefore give it money; it is that taxpayers are forced to give Israel money and therefore support it! This is the state of academic insight today.

At the University of Illinois:

Students join together to promote peace in Palestine
A group at the University hosted a series of events this week to draw awareness to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as part of Palestine Awareness Week.

The events, which included a talk, documentary, coffee hour and graffiti wall, were sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, a registered student organization.

On Thursday, students stopped by the Quad side of the Illini Union to write on the graffiti wall to show their support for peace in Palestine.

Of course, to the "Students for Justice in Palestine," the definition of "peace" is the destruction of Israel (in their case, via demographic means.) Some chapters are also associated with the ISM/PSM.

Sure sounds like the Zionists are supressing freedom of speech, doesn't it?

Saudi king upset over scandalous rumors

From the Saudi Gazette:

An official source has categorically denied some news agency reports quoting US Foreign Ministry Undersecretary William Burns that King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, had greeted Israeli President Shimon Peres on the sidelines of the UN Cultures for Peace Conference in New York last November.

The statement made by Burns was false, baseless and untrue, emphasized the source.

The source also demanded the US Foreign Ministry to deny the news and issue an explanation and clarification to this misleading news report which will not serve the good relations between the two friendly countries.

From the vehemence of the denials, one would think that he was denying rumors that Abdullah raped a small boy.

Apparently, to the Arabs, greeting an 85-year old ceremonial leader of the Jewish state is just as bad.

And, yes, the name of the conference was indeed the Cultures for Peace Conference.

By the way,

Peres and King Abdullah did not shake hands or speak privately at the conference, though much ado was made in the press about the fact that they sat in the same room. This was the first time Abdullah remained in his seat while an Israeli leader spoke.

Mother of all work accidents watch

Iran has an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale today.

As we've noted before, Iran is one of the most seismologically active areas on the planet. Over 7000 earthquakes have been recorded there. Here is a map showing where some of them have occurred, and when:

Is this the smartest place to build nuclear reactors, even for peaceful purposes?

Britain calls Richard Falk's UN report "biased"

A rare moment of diplomatic candor and truth:

Britain criticised Wednesday a report by a UN human rights investigator on Israel's Gaza offensive as "unbalanced", but insisted it was extremely concerned by the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Last month, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a report that there was "reason" to conclude that Israel's massive military offensive on Gaza in December and January was a war crime, but the Jewish state slammed the report as "one-sided".
"The report of the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur is unbalanced and contributes little," junior foreign minister Bill Rammell said in a written reply to a parliamentary question published Wednesday.

Of course we already knew that. Nevertheless, this is a very good step towards discrediting the UN's serial liar and inveterate Israel hater Richard Falk.

More self-deaths

Two Palestinian Arabs were killed in another collapse of a smuggling tunnel today. Three others are missing.

There was also a stabbing death in Jenin on Tuesday night.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 72.