Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 18, 2009

Honor killing in West Bank

The woman whose body was found stabbed to death last week was apparently the victim of an "honor killing."

Palestinian police said on Monday they arrested a 24-year-old who allegedly killed his aunt, whose body was found in the West Bank city of Ramallah six days ago.

According to Palestinian Authority security spokesperson Major Adnan Ad-Dimeiri, the alleged murderer of 30-year-old Halimah Ahmad Ash-Sheikh was arrested on evidence that he was responsible for the killing.

Ad-Dimeiri also said that the suspected confessed to the charges, and said that he killed her for reasons of so-called “family honor.”

Ad-Dimeiri said that, according to his affidavit, the suspect rented a car, drove his aunt to the city of Nablus, stopping in the village of An-Nabi Saleh to buy food, and stopped again to get out of the car to eat. He said the suspect stabbed his aunt and left the body in Ramallah, before driving home to the West Bank city of Qalqiliya. The suspect then went the same day to the police station with the victim’s husband to report her missing.

The spokesperson also said that, after finding the body and receiving information from the person who found it, police arrested the suspect 30 hours later with an estimated 4,000 Jordanian dinars (5,648 US dollars) in jewelry he stole from the victim, though he claimed that she had given them to him recently.

The victim, police said, was married six years ago and was a mother of seven.

Now, why would anyone think this was a true "honor killing" when the murderer was caught with the victim's jewelry? Do "honor killers" normally also act as "honor thieves?"

Either the murderer claimed it was an "honor killing" in order to be able to have a lighter sentence, or the hatred of women is so ingrained in the Palestinian Arab psyche that every case of femicide is, by definition, an "honor killing."

The husband also has some explaining to do...

NORPAC trip coming up Wednesday

The NORPAC trip to Washington is this Wednesday. My group is scheduled to meet one member of Congress and two Congressional aides. Altogether, the mission will meet with nearly every senator and congressperson.

The talking points are heavy on Iran as well as to talk about concerns about funding the PA.

I plan to Twitter things as they happen, although I will not get into details as to whom I am meeting. Blog visitors can keep track of things by reading my Twitter gadget on the right sidebar.

Cleveland Indymedia moonbats unhappy with free speech

It is no surprise that so-called "citizen journalism" sites like Indymedia are filled with anti-Israel screeds.

Something interesting has been happening at the Cleveland Indymedia site, however.

Someone has been taking pro-Israel blog posts, including mine, and posting them. This has had the effect of blunting the constant, hateful anti-Zionist propaganda that usually make up a large percentage of their articles.

One of the usual suspects at Indymedia has noticed, and is not happy about it:

Cleveland IMC Under Zionist Assault
by Sheepdog Sunday, May. 17, 2009 at 11:05 AM
This is the tactic: Inundate the newswire with spam, and Zionist propaganda by petulant, bitter reactionaries that border upon psychotic, who are dedicated and organized to conflate the theme of Zionism to Judaism, dependent on the cloak of ‘Jewishness’ to hide the blatant horror of occupation and genocide the leadership of Israel has perpetrated since the Zionist and the Nazis formed a partnership to seize the lands of the Middle East for a “Greater Israel”

Since Indymedia is ostensibly about free speech, this is more than amusing. (Not to mention the fact that I am apparently borderline psychotic.)

The incident also shows that it is possible to fight back against the haters without too much effort, even on their own home turf. So whoever you are doing this - good job!

Google still accepting ads from Nazis

Last month I mentioned that Google was accepting ads from a racist, neo-Nazi webstore called NSM88 Records. For a while the ads disappeared, but now they are back.

Since the references to Hitler didn't upset our lefty friends at Google, perhaps this lovely T-shirt will get their attention?

As I wrote then, Google's AdWords policy does not seem to have any real prohibition against these sorts of ads. The closest I could find was this section on "inappropriate phrases."

The best page I could find to complain to Google was this one.

Allah manifesting himself in odd ways

Allah works in mysterious ways.

Sometimes, he decides to reveal himself with strange natural phenomena:

In Dura, the Arabic word Allah (God) was found written in honeycomb.

The honeycomb with Allah apparently inscribed in it was found in an apiary owned by Akram Al-Arab.

Here's the holy honeycomb:

And here's Allah's name:

Other miracles have included the Allah fish:

And the Allah ear:

Not only that, but Muslims have discerned Allah's name in clouds:

And, Allah be praised, in the waves accompanying the horrific tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands:

Other examples include anthills, cantaloupes, watermelons, tomatoes, outer space, the human hand. And for each occurrence, there is much rejoicing at Allah's munificence.

Yet for some reason, when Allah's name miraculously appears on an ice cream logo or a sneaker logo, that is not cause for rejoicing, but for seething.

AP propaganda in overdrive for PalArabs

AP brings us this absurd staged picture:

A Palestinian passed out from tear gas fired by Israeli troops, holds a key symbolizing the keys to houses left by Palestinians in 1948, during a demonstration marking the 61st anniversary of "Nakba," Arabic for catastrophe, in the West Bank village Bilin, near Ramallah, Friday, May 15, 2008.

Wow - a Palestinian Arab man tragically passes out from Zionist tear gas and yet manages to heroically hold his fist in the air, maintain his grip on a fake key shoved towards the cameraman, all in front of dramatic barbed wire.

What are the odds that the photographer would be so lucky?
(h/t LGF)

A fake academic questions the Holocaust

The top story in the "Palestine Telegraph," and English Gaza-based publication, is a little piece of Holocaust denial, by "Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore."

If the number of Ashkenazi Jews that died in any circumstance whatsoever, so long as these deaths were unquestionably linked to the actions of the Third Reich and those of its associates, when added to those that are known to have been slaughtered in the many concentration and death camps throughout Europe, comes to six million or more I'll be the first to publicly abandon my scepticism and wholeheartedly embrace that figure; but over the years the overt posturing and highly intimidating conduct of those that have set themselves up as the sole guardians of this contentious issue, and doing a rather poor job of it I must add, and when legitimate issues are raised have nothing to contribute and can only resort to hectoring, using the worst kind of disparagement they can think of and back this up in the most infantile way by employing the old and disingenuous chestnut of anti-Semitism in respect of a faith sect that isn't even Semitic: Ashkenazi Jews are the direct descendants of white (Caucasian) Europeans that converted to Judaism in the 10 century in the same way that their white Christian counterparts did in relation to their religion - and dishonestly using the legal process and questionable laws to get their way and silence critics or even those whose only purpose it is to impartially seek out the truth, only serves to reinforce my reservations about the iconic figure of six million Ashkenazi Jews being killed at the time of Europe's holocaust, as those that would like for everyone to slavishly believe and accept this version of events, because they say so, hope for and even demand.

...if this malicious falsehood is to be believed about the Nazis wanting to eradicate all Jews from the earth, how come that not a single Falasha or Sephardic Jew ended up in concentration or death camp anywhere while allegedly six million of their European counterparts were being toasted on a regular basis? The truth is Adolf Hitler and his Nazis had it in for white, European Jews but the post-war white spin doctors along with their propagandists can bring themselves to accept that no Falasha or Sephardic Jews were on the Nazis' death list.

If, in that amazingly run-on sentence that takes up the entire first paragraph, the "professor" is trying to say that the actual number of Jews killed in World War II was closer to 5 million than 6 million, that might be a defensible position - some Holocaust researchers do believe the number is closer to 5 million, and the proof that he craves for that somewhat lower number can be found here. The implication of the article is that he believes the number is far, far less.

He is on less sure ground in his other claim of not a single Sephardic Jew being killed or imprisoned in the Holocaust. While European Jews took the brunt of Hitler's Final Solution, thousands of Jews from Northern Africa were rounded up and placed in concentration camps and truckloads were sent to Europe for their deaths.

Not that we need any more proof for the most documented crime in history.

More interestingly, for someone who is so interested in the truth, "Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore" seems to be a fiction. The only place he exists on the Internet is in articles and emails; there is no indication of any professor at any university with that name, and no real academic would refers to himself as "Professor Doctor".

Which just goes to show the level of scholarship and veracity one can expect from "The Palestine Telegraph."

Three more PalArabs killed - none by Israel

Over the weekend, a Gaza man's body was found in the smuggling tunnels under Rafah.

A woman in her 20s was found stabbed to death near Ramallah.

An 11-year old Gaza boy was killed in one of those "mysterious explosions" we hear about every so often.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 79.

Erekat shows his hatred for his people

From The Tehran Times:

AMMAN -- Israel is promoting Iranophobia in the Middle East, but the Zionist regime is the real threat to the region not Iran, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Saturday.

“I have come to the World Economic Forum to say that Israel is behind the Iranophobia plot and is seeking to depict Iran as the main threat to the security and economy of the region. Everybody should be aware that the only threat in the region is Israel’s occupation and not Iran,” he told the Mehr News Agency correspondent in Shuneh, Jordan.

“Although this meeting is an economic event, as you see, the dispute between Israel and Palestine is the focus of the discussions,” he added.

The 2009 World Economic Forum meeting on the Middle East opened at the Dead Sea port of Shuneh, Jordan on Friday.

He also said, “One might wonder what a Palestinian is doing among businessmen at a meeting on economy. We are here to deliver a message, and that is peace, security, and economic development in the region can only be realized after the end of the Israeli occupation.”

Before the end of the occupation of Palestine, any economic development in the region would be unreal, he noted.

Here we have a classic example of how little Palestinian Arab "leaders" care about their own people, and indeed how "hawks" such as Binyomin Netanyahu care more about ordinary Palestinian Arabs than people who claim to represent them.

Erekat, an accomplished hypocrite and liar, is showing his love for Iran even as many Arab leaders (including Abbas) are increasingly skittish about the mad mullahs who openly support Islamic radicals like Hamas and Hezbollah and oppose obstinately secular movements like Fatah.

Moreover, he is telling his people that they should sit still, continue to take money from the West and do everything they can to avoid prosperity and economic growth because his concept of "peace" is more important than their everyday lives.

This, of course, is all happening at the same time that PA leaders and their relatives grow rich at the expense of these same people with their corruption and nepotism. Apparently, some Palestinian Arabs can take advantage of economic opportunities, as long as they are the right ones in high places. The ones who inexplicably still live in so-called "refugee camps" as well as those who try to make a decent living in Bethlehem and Ramallah must remain patsies of people like Erekat forever, because to him and the rest of their so-called leadership these people are far more valuable as pawns and statistics whose entire purpose is to be used as photo-ops to pressure Israel.

Netanyahu wants to improve the lives of Palestinian Arabs before tackling issues like statehood. One could naively make an argument that the two issues should go forward simultaneously. Erekat's position, however, is that the 61 years of enforced Palestinian Arab misery is an optimal situation and must be prolonged, and his people are only there to be used so he and his fellow "moderate" leaders can continue to make asinine statements like these and still retain the respect of the world.

Some research avenues for Gaza "civilians"

Some notes on Gaza alleged victims, if anyone wants to follow these avenues of inquiry, please let me know:

#387, Ayman Yousif Khalil al-Majayda, was apparently a cook for the Al Qassam Brigades. He was killed along with a terrorist at a al-Qassam site in Khan Younis on December 27th, 2008. No one on his memory page calls him anything but a martyr. Are support personnel for military targets legitimate targets themselves under Geneva?

#659, Kamla Ali Mustafa al-‘Attar , an 82-year old woman who died in an alleged Israeli attack in the 'Alatatra area on January 5th. No one else was killed at that time in that area - could she have died from natural causes?

There is a list of 1278 "martyrs" that was widely circulated; one of the Arabic lists can be seen here. In the space of a few weeks the number of "martyrs" that the PCHR said died in Gaza went from roughly 1250 to over 1400. Can anyone try to line up this list with PCHR and see if there are any patterns of the ones who don't match up? If they were mostly males 20-30, it might indicate Hamas trying to hide its casualties; if they are disproportionalty elderly or very young it might indicate that the PCHR was counting natural deaths as victims.

It seems worthwhile to go through the PCHR list based on the location the people were allegedly killed. It can indicate who is a likely militant (if someone was killed at the same time/place as many terrorists) as well as other anomalies, especially people who died in a place/time that no one else died.

#6000

This is my 6000th post published on this blog.

Cool!

Some more about Gaza deaths

Isaac's Dad brings up some very good points in the comments, and while they have been said in passing, they are important to mention explicitly:

1. Excuse me if I missed it, but can you put a permalink to the PCHR study in a prominent place on your sidebar?

I was thinking about doing something similar to the self-death count. When I find some time....

2. With regards to that study, it struck me that the IDF's explanation for the discrepancy on the total number dead (natural deaths) was insufficient, leading to some further questions:

a. How does the PCHR treat "friendly fire" deaths? It strikes me as odd that I have not seen any reporting on how many Palestinians were killed by Hamas fire during the conflict.

We of course have no evidence either way. The PCHR's methods are to interview families of the dead. The families have incentive to say that their loved ones were "martyred" by Israel because the dead become heroes and the families get money from Palestinian Arab leaders for the rest of their lives. The PCHR also has incentive to demonize Israel. Without being there, we cannot prove that there were friendly fire incidents, but it seems certain that such incidents occurred.

b. How does the PCHR treat casualties as a result of "secondary explosions." We know that Hamas, and other factions, hid reams of explosive material that were targeted by the IDF and have seen the secondary explosions. I assume the IDF does not count deaths as a result of secondary explosions (intentional and unintentional) as their responsibility, and rightly so.

We've mentioned that as well, and it is equally certain that there were deaths from such explosions (not to mention Hamas booby traps that were accidentally tripped by Gazan civilians.) Unfortunately, we don't have anything to prove it. The PCHR says it uses "customary humanitarian law" to determine human rights violations and I don't think secondary explosions are mentioned. Most human rights organizations would lay the blame on the people who caused the initial explosion, not distinguishing between bombing a weapons depot and a fuel depot when assigning blame for deaths. Of course, the weapons depot is a legitimate target but HR activists would probably say that the expected civilian damage has to be proportionate to the miliitary advantage of the attack. It is one of the grey areas that need to be clarified.

3. With regards to Rayyan and his family, I understand that they are counted as civilian casualties by PCHR and that you and the IDF have said Rayyan was a legitimate target (I agree), but the argument should not end there. It was acknowledged in the Palestinian press that Rayyan and his family were aware his compound was to be bombed and had time to leave. It was alleged, and has not been denied by the Palestinians, that his compound was used to store weapons and explosives. Consequently, his home, and those that would protect it were combatatants, but, more importantly, even if his home was mistakenly targeted, Rayyan, and his family members who chose to remain, are responsible for their own deaths, because they chose to stay. In essence they performed a suicide mission by staying, with the media as the target. It should be noted on this point that, unlike many Palestinians in camps who may have had some difficulty finding a place to stay, the Rayyan family is a very large clan with multiple homes, and at least one family member stayed away.

To me, the Rayyan case was a classic case of human shields. Israel dropped leaflets and "knocked" on the roof, and Rayyan pretty much forced his wives and children to stay with him. If we ever get to phase 2 of the analysis of the PCHR figures, we would try to identify human shield cases by comparing last names of militants and last names of women and children killed at the same place on the same day. It would be interesting to know how the IDF classified Rayyan's family, however.

Egypt to check Obama delegation for swine flu

I couldn't find the original story, but Palestine Today quotes an Egyptian newspaper saying that President Obama and his delegation will be "checked" for swine flu upon entering Egypt.

The report by «Egypt Today» Wednesday quoted an anonymous Egyptian official saying that Obama, and the accompanying delegation, which is estimated about one thousand people, would be subject to the procedures established by the Presidency of the Republic. The newspaper did not mention the nature of the checks, but it quoted an Egyptian expert that they will pose questions regarding the extent of the seriousness of the visit and the entry of the virus causing «swine flu» to Egypt as the United States as the top of the list of countries hit by the virus.

UPDATE: Here's the story (h/t A.L.)

Hamas prevents "Nakba" rallies

In a little-reported story even among the Palestinian Arabic press, Hamas has prevented groups from holding rallies to mark "Nakba day" in Gaza.

The Popular Struggle Front put out a statement saying

Such practices by the security forces of the Hamas movement of preventing the national marches to commemorate the Nakba show the state of division in the Palestinian street, which has overshadowed the work on national unity.

The decision is blow to all efforts to end the division and reconciliation and the restoration of unity.

Leftists across the world denounced Hamas' anti-democratic and anti-freedom actions.

And if you believe that one...