They just don't get it

From the Lebanon Daily Star:

US Central Command Chief General David Petraeus told Al-Hayat newspaper in comments published on Monday that the administration of US President Barack Obama considered Hizbullah a terrorist organization, adding that the party did not participate in fostering stability in Lebanon. "Hizbullah's justifications for existence will become void if the Palestinian cause is resolved. Reaching an agreement over a peace process in the Middle East will eliminate several groups' justifications for existence," he explained. Petraeus added that resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will pave the way for Arabs and Muslims to help the US in its war against terrorism.

The biggest single mistake that well-meaning Westerners make when analyzing the Middle East is when they assume that everyone thinks the way they do.

To a Westerner, it seems obvious that organizations that have no logical reason for existence would become irrelevant. In the Arab world, things are quite different.

Westerners look at problems and instinctively try to find optimal, logical solutions. They want to draw a straight line from point A to point B. They create project plans, hold conferences, debate issues, and attempt to make everybody happy - all with the underlying mindset that everyone is like them.

Arabs do not think like we do. Westerners have to stop trying to place the square Arab peg in the round Western hole and actually understand an entirely alien mindset.

(This is not to be judgmental. I am not saying that either way of thinking is superior, just that they are vastly different.)

Westerners need to understand the Arab attachment to symbolism, to pride, and to religion before making such wrongheaded analyses.

To Western eyes, Hezbollah has had no reason to exist ever since Israel withdrew to the UN-drawn Blue Line nearly a decade ago. Yet they do exist today, and they are more powerful than ever. This should be reason enough to look again at what Hezbollah is all about.

The direct method is often the easiest. This is from the Hezbollah Charter:

Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.

Experience has shown that when Arab terror organizations make statements like these, they never retract them.

From an Arab perspective, the "justification" for Hezbollah is crystal clear and explicit: they will continue to exist until Israel is destroyed. For a large number of Arabs, a peace treaty would be, by definition, between Israel and Arab traitors - a useless gesture whose only possible purpose would be to destroy Israel by stages. To them, Israel's very existence is an unpardonable affront to their honor as Arabs. Hezbollah is not Palestinian.

Even forgetting about Israel, Hezbollah has two other purposes that keep them relevant after any "peace treaty:" they aim to turn Lebanon into a fundamentalist Islamic state, and (more recently) they are enabling Iran to increase its influence in the Middle East. (Syria also finds Hezbollah useful to advance its own interests.)

Looking at things from this perspective - most of which Hezbollah says in very clear language - the idea that a Palestinian Authority peace treaty with Israel would weaken Hezbollah is laughably, and dangerously, naive.

UPDATE: Barry Rubin noticed the statement as well.

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Obama's deceptive Muslim advisor

The Arabic press is noting that one of the people who worked on Obama's Cairo speech is Dalia Mogahed, an American Muslim advisor of Obama's who wears a hijab "as she walks through the corridors of the White House."

While I have no problem with women wearing a hijab, I do have a problem with Dalia Mogahed.

Mogahed works for the Gallup organization, and last year co-wrote a book called "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think." As I noted in my Amazon review, the book is an opinion piece masquerading as science. She knowingly and deceptively cooked the numbers to make it appear as though a much smaller percentage of Muslims support terror and justified 9/11. She wrote articles claiming that her research showed that "only" 7% of Muslims were "radical" when her own numbers showed that over one third of Muslims found 9/11 to be either completely, mostly or partially justified.

Her reputation as an objective expert gives her all sorts of prestige and influence, yet she has been proven to be a fraud in interpreting her own data. The fact that she is Muslim, rather than validating her as a shining representative of her co-religionists, actually suggects the distasteful idea that Muslims cannot be trusted in reporting objective facts.

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NYT repeats an Egyptian journalist's lie

The New York Times surveys reactions to Obama's speech and quotes an Egyptian journalist's blog:

The US President emphasized the historical relationship binding the US & Israel, and condemned the “violence” of Palestinians “who fire rockets at sleeping children” and the “bombing of buses full of innocent civilians and elderly passengers.” It must be remembered that the last Palestinian suicide bombing took place in November 2004, and that their primitive home-made rockets usually don't kill Israelis.

The Times, of course, doesn't bother fact-checking what this "journalist," Jano Charbel, writes.

Well, he's only off by four years and 12 suicide bombings. Since November 2004 we have:

Jan 18, 2005 - An ISA officer was killed, an IDF officer seriously wounded, and 4 IDF soldiers and 3 members of the ISA were lightly wounded in a suicide bombing attack at the Gush Katif junction in the central Gaza Strip. While search procedures were being carried out, the suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body detonated himself. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Feb 25, 2005 - Five people were killed and 50 wounded Friday night, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Stage club on the Tel Aviv promenade at around 11:20 P.M., on the corner of Herbert Samuel and Yonah Hanavi streets. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

July 12, 2005 - Five people were killed and about 90 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside Hasharon Mall in Netanya. The bomber was identified as Ahmed Abu Khalil, 18, from the West Bank village of Atil. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Aug 28, 2005 - A suicide bomber detonated himself outside the Beersheba Central Bus Station. Two security guards who stopped the bomber were severely wounded and about 50 people were lightly wounded or treated for shock. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Oct 26, 2005 - Six people were killed and 55 wounded, six seriously, in a suicide bombing at the Hadera open-air market. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 5, 2005 - Five people were killed and over 50 wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Sharon shopping mall in Netanya. The terrorist detonated the bomb when he was stopped by security guards, one of whom was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 29, 2005 - Lt. Ori Binamo, 21, of Nesher was killed when a terrorist en route to carry out an attack in Israel detonated himself at roadblock set up near Tulkarm following an intelligence tip. A second intended suicide terrorist was also killed in the blast as well as the taxi driver and a third passenger. Three soldiers and seven Palestinians were wounded.

Jan 19, 2006 - Thirty-one people were wounded in a suicide bombing in a shawarma restaurant near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem Battalions of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mar 30, 2006 - Four people were killed when a suicide bomber hitchhiker disguised as an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student detonated his explosive device in a private vehicle near the entrance to Kedumim.

Apr 17, 2006 - Eleven people were killed and over 60 wounded in a suicide bombing during the Passover holiday near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, at the Rosh Ha'ir shawarma restaurant, site of the Jan 19 bombing. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Jan 29, 2007 - Three employees of a bakery in the southern city of Eilat were killed in a suicide bombing. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

Feb 4, 2008 - Lyubov Razdolskaya, 73, of Dimona was killed and 38 wounded - Razdolskaya's husband critically - in a terror attack carried out by a suicide bomber at a shopping center in Dimona. A police officer shot and killed a second terrorist before he detonated his explosive belt. A Hamas statement from Gaza praised the attack, calling it an "heroic act".

And of course there were other fatal terror attacks that were not suicide bombings.

Normally, a lying, terror supporting Egyptian blogger is not worth much attention, but when the NYT uncritically quotes him saying something factual, people will believe the fact.

(The rest of the posting by Charbel also praises terror attacks and pretends that the right to terrorism is enshrined in something called the Common Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights - which he quotes, showing it says no such thing.)

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More Gaza culture, kids' edition

At the very same place as yesterday's Islamic Jihad Arts Festival came the end-of-year ceremonies for the Dar al-Huda School.

Here is a dramatization of "What I Want To Do When I Grow Up":


The evil Israelis don't only attack people, but also adorable teddy bears!

"And after we kill the Jews, we can start killing each other! Allah Akbar!"

The 70 virgins start preparing for their weddings:
The future terrorists in the audience weren't impressed with the quality of virgin:

The audience, however, seems just as bored as they are at any other commencement exercises.

Which just goes to show that children wielding rifles, simulated murders and animal abuse just can't excite jaded audiences like this.

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Some reactions to the speech from Commentary

Commentary has some nice articles.

Jonathan Tobin:

Speaking of the Arab-Israeli conflict, he says: “If we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth.”

But there is more than one type of blindness. The search for the truth is not merely an exercise in which all grievances are considered the same. To assert the truth of the Holocaust is appropriate — if unfortunately necessary when addressing an Arab audience — as is calling on the Palestinians to “abandon violence” and to cease “shooting rockets at sleeping children” or blowing up old women on buses.

But the problem with this conflict is not that both sides won’t listen to each other or give peace a chance. That might have been a good point to make prior to the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993 when Israel recognized the legitimacy of Palestinian aspirations and began the process of handing over large portions of the area reserved by the League of Nations for the creation of a Jewish National Home for the creation of a Palestinian equivalent. But Israel offered these same Palestinians a state in virtually all of the West Bank and Gaza as well as part of Jerusalem in 2000 and again in negotiations conducted by the government of Ehud Olmert just last year. So, the problem is not that the Israelis don’t want the two state solution that Obama endorsed in Cairo. Rather, it is, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in Washington only a week ago, that the Palestinians aren’t interested in negotiating with Israel.

Even more obnoxious than this refusal to see that the truth about the conflict isn’t to be found through an even-handed “plague on both your houses” approach is his comparison of the Palestinians’ plight to that of African-Americans in the United States before the civil rights era. Israelis have not enslaved Palestinians. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians rests on the latter’s unwillingness to come to terms with the former’s existence. The plight of Palestinians in Gaza is terrible but it is a direct result of their own decision to choose war over peace, not a lack of understanding on the part of the Jews. By going to the Middle East while ostentatiously avoiding Israel and picking a fight with its leadership sends a message that will resonate throughout the Arab world. His signal that America is now an impartial broker rather than Israel’s ally can only encourage a Palestinian people that continue to reject peace.

Jennifer Rubin:

So where does Obama go now? Back to broadcasting his complaints about Israel and insisting on a settlement concession, which is unacceptable to the wide political spectrum in Israel? Or does he declare the whole trip a grand success and go on his way? All of the grand talk and gestures are not simply useless. They convey to our friends and enemies that the administration does not think more than one move ahead, over-values the president’s personal charisma, and is so stymied by the real issues (e.g. Iran’s acquisition of nuclear arms) that it must spend its time excoriating its one true ally in the region. It is an embarrassingly naive episode which, I am sure, will not go unnoticed by foes and allies alike.

David Hazony:

More important, is the weird language about settlements:

The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

What is unclear here is whether he is referring to new construction, new settlements, or the very existence of settlements at all — meaning, are the homes of a quarter million Jews in cities and towns, including throughout Jerusalem, now illegitimate? This would mean a radical break from previous American policy. What on earth could the phrase “It is time for these settlements to stop” mean? Stop what? Existing? Expanding? In so carefully crafted a speech, the ambiguity here seems deliberate.

Rubin again:

The next long section of the speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tour de force of moral relativism — one of the least honest parts of the speech. He is in the even-handedness business so he must distort and shade history to make it all come out even. No mention of the wars against Israel, no mention that Israel offered up the Palestinians a viable state in 2000. No, it’s some sort of weird replay of the American civil rights movement. And sometimes it is downright incoherent...

The Palestinians are enslaved American blacks? Well, we fought a civil war about that for starters so it’s not helping his pacifist theme. Moreover, the analogy is offensive and inapt in multiple ways.

The moral equivalence festival continues: yes, the Palestinians must give up violence and the Jews need to give up the settlements. It’s all one and the same.

Max Boot:

There were other examples of attempts to build false equivalence between the Western and Muslim worlds. For instance, he said: “Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s.” Of course most Israelis don’t deny Palestine’s right to exist as a Muslim state as long as it is willing to live in peace, whereas Palestinian leaders have shown no comparable willingness to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Another example of moral equivalency: “In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians.” That is accepting the (false) narrative of the Iranian Revolution, which holds that America’s role in overthrowing Mossadeq more than half a century ago — a development that would not have been possible had the leftist prime minister not lost support in the Iranian street — is just as bad as the campaign of mass murder and kidnapping that Iran continues to support at this very moment.

Obama also twisted history when, for example, he mentioned how “Islam has always been a part of America’s story.” He said: “In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, ‘The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.’ ” That made the treaty sound like a celebration of American-Muslim partnership when in reality it was a treaty whereby the U.S. paid substantial bribes to the ruler of Tripoli in return for a cessation of attacks on American shipping by his corsairs. Tripoli didn’t keep its promises, and the result was America’s first overseas conflict — the Barbary Wars fought against the Muslim states of North Africa.

Ira Stoll:

During the campaign I had actually defended Obama against those who felt he would be a disaster for Israel. This speech makes me think that may have been a mistake. The only chance now is that this speech will be mere rhetoric, like so much in the Middle East, intended only for public consumption. But if Obama really means it, it is bad news for the Jews in Israel and America, not to mention for American national security.

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Carter acting as Obama emissary to Hamas?

It doesn't sound likely, but there are Palestinian Arabic reports that Jimmy Carter's upcoming visit to Gaza in the middle of June will include him bringing a letter from President Obama to deliver to Hamas.

Another article in an Egyptian newspaper claims that Obama met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Washington two months ago:

Special sources reported to Al Masry El Youm, that a delegation from the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Association met with US President Obama, in Washington, two months earlier. This meeting was arranged in response to a request made by the MB's leaders in regards to the MB wanting to express their views concerning a number of current political issues.

The sources added that the delegation was joined by an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood member who was living in the United States of America, as well as an Egyptian political leader who was living in a European country.

The sources referred to the fact that "The Muslim Brothers had requested that this meeting be confidential." In their talks with Obama, the MB delegates informed the US Presidents that the Muslim Brotherhood Association is a moderate association that was developed to fight against extreme religious ideas and who base their beliefs strongly on democracy, power circulation and fighting against terrorism, stated the source.

Both stories need to be taken with a large grain of salt, but they are interesting nonetheless, especially in combination.

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2 Hamas men killed in today's infighting

Besides the PA policeman killed by Hamas this morning, the PA has killed two of the three Hamas men holed up in a Qalqiliya building:

A daylong standoff between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas gunmen has ended with three people dead in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya on Thursday.

PA security officials said they moved into the building where the clashes took place to find the dead bodies of two men, and a third injured, believed to be members of Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. The two were apparently gunned down.

The [PA] spokesperson did not confirm reports that the Hamas fighters were killed by waste water pumped inside a tunnel the men were hiding in, nor that poisonous gas was used against them.

Well, that's one way to recycle.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 95.

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Quick notes on Obama's speech

No time for a full dissection but here are some troubling parts:

More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims...

Is he including Israel as one of those colonial states?

So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed.

Revealed is a deliberate word choice to make it appear that Islam is the true religion! "Founded" would be more accurate.

And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

Worldwide? Is that the American President's responsibility? I don't think he is too concerned about most other kinds of stereotyping worldwide.

Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President.

Now he uses his name to score points; he sure downplayed it during the campaign.

In Ankara, I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.

A majority of Muslims seem to think that killing Israeli women and children are justified. They like to point to imams who decried 9/11 but how many condemned theMercaz HaRav massacre? I'm not aware of a single one.

...it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead.

And why exactly are there still "refugee" camps in Gaza and the West Bank? Is Israel somehow stopping Palestinian Arabs from leaving these camps and buying homes?

That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest.

This may be the first time a sitting American president referred to the Palestinian Arabs as if they already have a country.

Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding.

Is he comparing Palestinian Arabs to slaves???? And Israelis to white slaveowners????

At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's.

See above. How exactly this "right to exist" came about is a bit....murky.

All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.

PBUH....this is dangerously pandering.

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.

Oh, please. That tradition is exclusively when Islam is dominant and they are "tolerant" to people who explicitly accept second-class status.

For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

I'm not sure what he is talking about here, but it appears that he will loosen up the US rules of what a charity is to include what Muslims consider charity. Holy Land Foundation, anyone?

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Hamas kills another PA cop; PA uses human shields

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian Authority (PA) security officer was shot dead in clashes with gunmen believed to be affiliated to Hamas in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya on Wednesday morning, witnesses said.

According to Ma’an’s correspondent in the city, PA forces have surrounded Hamas men stationed inside a building in the vicinity of the local Bank of Palestine branch.

Witnesses said that one of the PA security members was killed when a Hamas fighter threw a grenade at him.

Qalqiliya Governor Rabih Al-Khandaqji said that the armed men are hiding in a bunker inside the building, confirming that the PA officer was killed when he reached the bunker. He added that the PA brought the mother and the brother of one of the Al-Qassam Brigades members to the building to convince him to surrender peacefully.

What exactly is the difference between bringing a relative of the fighters to a violent clash - while Hamas is shooting at the PA and a couple of days after Hamas killed 3 PA officers - and the use of "human shields"?

So far this week, in the West Bank, the score is Hamas 4, PA 2, with one (Hamas-member) civilian killed. And it appears that today's clash isn't over. All that highly touted American-funded training of our moderate friends in the PA is sure paying off!

Hamas had threatened to violently take over the West Bank last July, in a story that no one else seems to have noticed.

UPDATE: Of course, Hamas uses human shields too:

Meanwhile, PA security sources said on Wednesday that the two Hamas militiamen killed earlier this week by Palestinian Authority policemen in Kalkilya initially used a local woman as a human shield during the seven-hour gun battle before she herself threw a grenade at the policemen.

The woman, Amal, is the wife of Abdel Nasser al-Basha, the owner of the house where the two Hamas men, Muhammad Samman and Muhammad Yassin, had been hiding.

The sources claimed that an investigation by the PA security forces into Sunday's bloody standoff showed that the three PA security officers who died were killed by a hand grenade that the woman lobbed at them as they tried to enter the house.

"The Hamas gunmen were hiding behind the woman, who surprised the police officers by throwing a hand grenade at them," the sources told The Jerusalem Post. "This is not the first time that Hamas has used women or children as human shields."

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Presenting - the Islamic Jihad Festival of the Arts!

Palestine Today has a photo essay of the Islamic Jihad Arts Festival, held in the Rashad Shawa Center in Gaza today.

Clearly, this is a much-anticipated event, and the crowd was not disappointed:
The centerpiece of the festival was a dramatic rendition of events that are near and dear to the hearts of all Palestinian Arab terrorists and their rabid fans:

Discerning readers may notice some recurring thematic elements in the different scenes of the play.
No expense was spared on the set design.
Luckily, the props were cheap and easy to procure.

All in all, the Islamic Jihad Arts Festival was an explosive success!

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I never get boared with Zionist Pig stories

Sorry, I can't help myself:

Palestinians in the West Bank town of Salfit said that Israeli settlers sent wild boars to attack them on Wednesday afternoon.

Resident Nasser Khader Eshtayeh, of the Wadi An-Najjar neighborhood of the town, told Ma’an, “A flock of wild pigs attacked the neighborhood and searched in the baskets looking for food, adding that little kids in the roads were terrified when they saw the pigs and families were afraid that these animals could break into their houses.”

Eshtayeh said the boars are owned by Israelis living in the nearby settlement of Ariel.

This was not the first time settler-own boars have been reported in Salfit. On 25 May officials from the Palestinian Agricultural Trade Union reported that Boars damaged crops planted in the area.

Yup, religious Zionist Jews domesticating wild boars and training them to attack Palestinian Arabs exclusively. After successful reconaissance and attack, the pigs return to base to report on their progress.

And why do Jews do that? Because they can!

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America, the Muslim nation

The blogosphere is abuzz over President Obama's comment to a French interviewer:

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”

...“And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world,” Mr. Obama said. “And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”

Roger Simon notes:According to Wikipedia, the US ranks thirty-eighth with a Muslim population of some 4.5 million (about one and half percent of our population - others, such as Pew, see it as even smaller [Much smaller - 1.6 million - EoZ]). Indonesia is first at over two hundred and seven million. A slip of the tongue? A meaningless statement? Perhaps.

But could you ever imagine President Obama saying that the United States, with probably double or triple the number of Jews than Muslims, could be considered the second-largest Jewish country in the world? Can you imagine the firestorm that would result at such a statement?

For that matter, imagine the outcry if Obama more accurately characterized the US as one of the largest Christian countries in the world?

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Trusting instincts over facts

2001:

Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin have met for the first time and appear to have hit it off.

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

"I was able to get a sense of his soul.

"He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said.

2009:

In brief remarks to reporters prior to the meeting, [Obama said] he'd come to "seek His Majesty's counsel" and stressing the importance of visiting the birthplace of Islam ahead of the Cairo speech. "This is my first visit to Saudi Arabia, but I've had several conversations with His Majesty. And I've been struck by his wisdom and his graciousness. Obviously the United States and Saudi Arabia have a long history of friendship, we have a strategic relationship,"

I guess that dictators can violate human rights as much as they want as long as they have good social skills with American presidents.

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Questionable statistic from the UN

Ma'an reports:

Israel’s military “buffer zone” along the eastern and northern edge of the Gaza Strip eats up 30% of the territory’s arable land, the United Nations said this week.

Fieldworkers with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) told the Christian Science Monitor that they have been unable to verify conditions in this 300-meter-wide band of land along the Green Line.

A quick calculation shows that 300 meters along a border 6 miles wide and 25 miles long is roughly 10 square kilometers. Gaza itself is 360 square kilometers. This means that Israel's buffer zone takes up less than 3% of Gaza land.

If that is 30% of Gaza's arable land, that means that Gaza has really very little arable land to begin with - some 33 square kilometers, less than 10% of the area. Satellite pictures of Gaza look like at least half of Gaza is "green," however.

This statistic seems unreliable, to say the least.

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Moonbattery masqerading as statistics - 2009 edition

Yesterday a group called the "Economist Intelligence Unit" came out with a ranking of world countries based on how "peaceful" they are The US came in 83rd out of 144 countries, and Israel came in 141st. (Libya was #46, Egypt #54.) It was heavily covered in newspapers worldwide.

They have a very elaborate methodology, taking into account many different factors. The factors themselves seem to be the product of an interesting mindset. First they try to make it sound like it is entirely the result of rigorous statistics, but then they go into the specific indicators, which sound sort of reasonable until you dig in a little bit. They measure things like:

Number of external and internal conflicts fought: 2001-06

• Estimated number of deaths from organised conflict (external)
• Number of deaths from organised conflict (internal)
• Level of organised conflict (internal)
• Relations with neighbouring countries
• Level of distrust in other citizens
• Number of displaced people as a percentage of the population
• Political instability
• Level of disrespect for human rights (Political Terror Scale)
• Potential for terrorist acts
• Number of homicides per 100,000 people
• Level of violent crime
• Likelihood of violent demonstrations
• Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
• Number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people
• Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP
• Number of armed services personnel per 100,000 people
• Volume of transfers (imports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
• Volume of transfers (exports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
• UN Deployments 2007-08 (percentage of total armed forces)
• Non-UN Deployments 2007-08 (percentage of total armed forces)
• Aggregate number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people
• Ease of access to small arms and light weapons
• Military capability/sophistication
• 
  

Then they weight it according to various factors.

The problem is that many of these "indicators" are purely subjective, and when subjective criteria are used to come up with objective data, the results are anything but objective.

In the case of Israel, their breakdown shows exactly where they go wrong. For example, here are some rankings where Israel did poorly according to the EIU:

Perceptions of criminality in society
Qualitative assessment of level of distrust in other citizens. Ranked 1-5 (very low-very high) by EIU analysts

Israel got a 4, on a purely subjective guess based on little knowledge.

Similarly:

Ease of access to weapons of minor destruction
Qualitative assessment of the ease of access to small arms and light weapons. Ranked 1-5 (very low-very high) by EIU analysts.

Israel got a 3 (out of 5). Unmentioned are any controls around the access to these weapons or training in their use, as Israel's handgun deaths are quite low.

Level of organised conflict (internal) - 4
Qualitative assessment of the intensity of conflicts within the country. Ranked 1-5 (very low-very high) by EIU analysts

Respect for human rights - 4
A qualitative measure of the level of political terror through an analysis of Amnesty International's Yearbook.

Potential for terriorist acts - 3.5
Qualitative assessment of the potential for terrorist acts. Ranked 1-5 (very low-very high) by EIU analysts

Political instability - 2.25
Qualitative assessment of level of political instability. Ranked 1-5 (very low-very high) by EIU analysts

Any time it says "qualitative assessment" it is using a fancy word for "guesses based on reading newspapers and Amnesty International reports."

Number of armed services personnel per 100,000 people - 5
Active armed services personnel comprises all servicemen and women on full-time duty in the army, navy, air force and joint forces (including conscripts and long-term assignments from the Reserves)

Aggregate number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people - 5
Source: Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC)

Military capability/sophistication - 5
Qualitative assessment of the grade of sophistication and the extent of military research and development (R&D) Ranked 1-5 (very low-very high) by EIU analysts

See the problem here? This august group makes an assumption that any country that has a large and sophisticated military must be, inherently, non-peaceful. The logical fallacy of these assumptions are staggering, yet escape this think-tank.

The basic thinking of this group is that armies are inherently evil. This is breathtakingly stupid.

But there is a patina of objectivity around this extraordinarily flawed, and simply wrongheaded, analysis. The media is quick to lap these sorts of things up as if they have any real value.

Even more ironically, the EIU says that one of the biggest reasons for having such an index is to help businesses decide where to set up shop:

Business benefits greatly from an environment of peace. Understanding the attributes of peace allows governments to better understand what they can do to improve the business environment This knowledge allows business to make more confident investment decisions on the basis of actual and predicted stability in a community or nation.

They are pretty clearly saying that companies that choose to do business in Israel are idiots, because of their pseudo-scientific rankings.

Now, who do you trust more to make business decisions: a group that includes Google, IBM, Motorola, Microsoft and Warren Buffet, or the EIU?

The EIU has been doing this sham for a few years now, and one would think that they would adjust their sacred methodology to account for what is obviously a ridiculous conclusion, that Israel is less peaceful than most African nations where tens of thousands die monthly. But they get lots of press, and no one calls them on their basic methodological flaws, so why not keep it going?

(This post is an update of one I wrote last year on the same topic.)

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