Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Why are there still "refugee camps" in the PA?

The culture of entitlement that pervades the Palestinian Arabs continues unabated.

Yesterday, leaders of a Nablus "refugee" camp declared a series of escalating actions protesting the reduction of some services by UNRWA, including forcing UNRWA not to be able to work at all.

Today, UNRWA in Nablus responded - by shutting down almost completely, except for three health clinics. UNRWA stated (in Arabic only, these events never make it to the Western press) that they none of their workers would "put their lives at risk," meaning that the threats were much more serious than they were portrayed.

The question that no one asks is - why are there still any "refugee camps" in areas administered by the PA? They have been effectively under PA authority for well over ten years now. In that time period, real villages and towns could have been built. Businesses could have started. Plans could have been made to move camp residents out into the many West Bank cities and villages and eliminate these bizarre, decades-old anachronisms.

The truth is that the population in the West Bank camps has increased by over 33% since 1997.

If the Palestinian Authority wants to truly govern their people, why do they allow these semi-autonomous camps to exist? Why aren't they working overtime to give their people the dignity of living on their own?

The reason is that the PA has no intention of building a nation. Its leaders have no sense of responsibility. They don't care about their people. And, even more importantly, the camps are a symbol of Palestinian Arab suffering that they do not want to lose.

Once there are no camps, how can Palestinian Arabs claim that their lives are so terrible? The camps are emblems of suffering and they must remain forever as long as Israel exists. The PA makes a false impression that Israel is responsible for any Palestinian Arabs who are in dire straits today and the camps are their Exhibit A.

There is another side of the equation. Entire generations of Palestinian Arabs have been brought up in these camps with the mentality that the world owes them, and this week's strikes in Nablus prove it again. When people think that way they are not likely to want to actually work to make their lives better. There is nothing stopping UNRWA camp residents from moving out on their own - many have over the decades. The people that remain in the camps are the ones who are the laziest and most likely to be radicalized.

These camps have been there for sixty years. Where is the plan, drafted by UNRWA and the PA, to get rid of them? There is none, and won't be one, as long as the camps fulfill the dysfunctional yet real wishes of the PA and of their residents.

Egyptians refuse Jewish references in music festival

From the Forward:

Wendy Sternberg was thrilled when the organization she founded, Genesis at the Crossroads, was invited to perform at the eighth annual International Music Festival at Egypt’s Alexandria Library.
She looked forward to achieving the goals of her group, which seeks to bridge cultures in conflict through the arts and prides itself on stellar musicianship and cross-cultural dialogue.
Yet, despite her dream of the festival as a perfect fit with Genesis’s aims, Sternberg pulled out on June 4, after her group was barred from performing in Hebrew and from describing the religious backgrounds of its members in festival literature.
Sternberg said Genesis was informed a year ago that performing songs in Hebrew would be viewed by the Egyptian public as an extension of a Zionist agenda.

“You can love music and not be a Zionist,” Sternberg said. “The arts are safe. To really embrace the diversity is our greatest asset.”

Even at that, the situation was acceptable but not desirable, Sternberg said. Though the group’s Jewish members were upset, GATC decided to replace Hebrew songs with others in Ladino and Arabic.

The real trouble arose when Sternberg received an e-mail May 24, informing her that GATC would be required to eliminate biographical references to members’ religions. This meant that Alberto Mizrahi, cantor of Chicago’s historic Anshe Emet Synagogue, could not refer to himself as a hazan, and GATC could describe itself as comprising only “different musical trends,” not different religious backgrounds.

That demand, Sternberg says, struck at the core of her group’s purpose and identity.

When Sternberg asked American University Islamic studies professor Akbar Ahmed for advice, she said he told her, “Walk away.”

Ahmed told the Forward he reminded Sternberg that moderate Muslims must speak out for dialogue among the three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“But if one party or another is not involved, the notion of an Abrahamic dialogue is not realized,” he said.

Sternberg outlined her position in a May 25 e-mail to five staff members of the Alexandria festival: GATC had accepted the restrictions on Hebrew songs out of respect for the current political climate, but would not agree to omit all religious references.

“We welcome a conversation with you to either further pursue this summer’s opportunity with you without diluting Genesis at the Crossroads’ mission and message, or to close this chapter without our involvement in your 2009 festival,” Sternberg wrote in the message.

Eldin’s reply came a few days later, Sternberg said, in just three words: “Thank you. Goodbye.”

The Egyptians didn't reject the group because of perceived Zionism, but because they wanted people to know they were Jewish.

Thank you open thread

With the year half over, I have well over 300,000 page views - more than I had in all of 2008.

So thanks for visiting!

Here's an open thread for the sheer hell of it.

(Sometimes, Yahoo News links to this blog, but the stories they choose are not always the ones I think should be publicized. Open threads have been known to pop up there as well. Very weird.

(On the other hand, CNN is now linking a Shmuley Boteach/Michael Jackson story to one I wrote yesterday.)

UPDATE: Sure enough, this is the posting of mine that Yahoo chose in it Mideast Roundup blog listings. Sigh.

HRW report on IDF - one sided and deceptive

I just looked a little at the Human Rights Watch report on Israeli drones killing civilians in Gaza.

The report was mainly written by Marc Garlasco, who had famously blamed Israel for the very ambiguous Gaza beach blast in 2006 and whose credentials as an expert are equally ambiguous.

I didn't have time to look at the report too carefully, but it follows the normal HRW playbook of doing everything possible to blame Israel for not being perfect.

The main example was the famous case of Israel bombing what appeared to be a group of men loading a truck with missiles.

To support its statement, the IDF released video footage of the attack, made available online, probably taken by the drone that launched the missile. It showed a group of at least one dozen men casually loading cylindrical objects crossways onto an open truck immediately before the missile struck. At least five more men are seen standing around the vehicle.
The IDF video does not show any secondary explosions, which would have indicated the presence of weapons-grade explosives or propellants at the site. Nor was the destruction at the site consistent with the presence of rockets. Had the truck been carrying Grad rockets with warheads, the truck and adjacent buildings would have been destroyed. Even without warheads, the propellant in the rockets would have destroyed the truck.

Credible doubts about the attack arose on December 31, when the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem released an interview with the owner of the truck, Ahmad Samur, who said that he was transporting oxygen canisters used for welding, and not Grad rockets. According to Samur, his family was trying to move the canisters from the metal workshop he owns to protect them from looters. He denied any connection to Hamas or any other Palestinian armed group. Eight civilians died in the attack, Samur said, including three children and Samur's son 'Imad, age 32. Two others were severely wounded.

As HRW mentions, the video was widely available and can be seen here:

While HRW is probably right in that the cylindrical objects were probably not Grad missiles as they appeared, its only advice to the IDF was to notice that the objects were smaller than Grad missiles are and try to identify them better before firing. (As it was, the video shows that the IDF watched the activity for over two minutes before firing.)

However, the objects were being taken from the vicinity of a metal workshop - the places that Qassam rockets are typically built. It is a very reasonable assumption that these were weapons of some sort. HRW doesn't even consider that the IDF might have a case in targeting these men. Would an average soldier looking at this video be able to make such an assumption that these are oxygen tanks, knowing that at that very moment there were dozens of rockets being fired at Israeli communities daily? I cannot blame the IDF for their decision - but HRW, of course, does.

One other interesting fact. HRW lists the names of those killed during the attack, and says that eight civilians were killed and none had any connection with any terror group. However, one of them, Ashraf Sayed Khamis al-Dabbagh, was identified as a "militant" by the PCHR. (#366.)

One other person I noticed from the report, Adham Hamdi al-'Adani, killed when the IDF hit near a Gaza school, is this person depicted in an Al Qassam Brigades martyr poster, #33 in the PCHR list:

He is identified here as a member of the Al Qassam Brigades Deir al-Balah Battalion.

This is not to say that these bombings weren't mistakes. Most of the victims do not appear to have been terrorists, and the IDF should - and does - do everything necessary to avoid killing civilians. There are articles and video that show the IDF aborting bombings when they see civilians in the area, evidence that the HRW seems to ignore in its reckless quest to damn Israel as being indiscriminately violent.

However, HRW either ignored evidence that some of the "civilian" victims they are talking about were actually terrorists or it didn't do any reasonable research (typing the names into Google should have been enough.) This is either sloppy work or it is purposeful deception on HRW's part.

Sinai poor people "looting" expired Gaza aid

An enlightening article in Al Quds reveals two interesting phenomena.

There are tons of aid, sent by Arab countries and meant for Gaza, that Egypt let rot for months in a stadium in El Arish. Rice, oil, blankets, flour and clothing have been sitting there.

Until it starts going bad.

Then, the Egyptians burn it.

When the poor people of El Arish got wind that this was happening, they started taking the doomed goods for themselves, overwhelming the guards.

People in the Sinai have always been resentful that they are poorer than Gazans are and yet the Gazans get free food and clothing while the Egyptians just get poorer. This is one way they feel they can get a little bit.

Hamas announced the death of field leader Ali Mohammed Tayeh, who was killed during a "special Jihad mission" in Gaza. In other words, a "work accident."(They only used the words "jihad mission" in Arabic.)

Some Palestinian Arabs are touting one benefit of being imprisoned in Israel: learning Hebrew. Their knowledge of the language helps them to understand the enemy and write letters to Hebrew newspapers that are more likely to be published. One former prisoner mentioned that he managed to take correspondence courses from Hebrew University while in prison.

Palestine Today quoted Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner general of UNRWA, as saying that Israel has set Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Keep in mind that this was being quoted in a website for a newspaper in Gaza which also publishes photos like this one, from a conference on youth in media. Look how primitive these people's lives are!

An Islamic Jihad site has a headline that a group of 30-40 radical Zionist Jewish extremists stormed the Al Aqsa compound (Temple Mount.) This "storming" consisted pretty much of...walking. Here's their picture:

Looks really violent!

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 109.

June 2009 rocket calendar

Q=Qassam (may include Katyusha-style rockets)
QS=Qassam landing short in Gaza
M=Mortar
F=Fatality (F=Gazan, F=Israeli)
(G)=Grad (included in Qassam count, not consistent yet)

MS=Mortar landing short
P - unnamed "projectiles"
(Paren) indicates unconfirmed Palestinian claims

* - Fatal non-rocket attack

K=Katyushas from Lebanon

June 2009

All earlier rocket calendars here.

7/1 2M
7/16 1Q
8/9 1Q, 2MS

"Obama changed his tune due to Zionist pressure"

Iran's Press TV is just so much fun to read:

A senior advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says US President Barack Obama's recent remarks about Iran's election show that he is under pressure from the Zionists.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Tuesday night, Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi said that Obama originally took a soft stance on the results of Iran's presidential election but then was forced by the Zionists and the US neoconservatives to make tough comments about Iran.

And next we are going to force him to support building new Jewish towns in the West Bank!

Ramadan in Israel, 1949

I just came across this from the Palestine Post of June 30, 1949, describing how hard the new state of Israel tried to accommodate its Muslim citizens - and even its Muslim enemy POWs.

In 1949's Ramadan, Israel went out of its way to give extra rations to Muslims for their break-fast meals, mosques were repaired, special Muslim programs were broadcast on Kol Yisrael, and Muslim POWs were given access to extra food and religious articles.

Notice also that one of the reasons that there was a shortage of sheikhs and imams - because they fled their communities during the war, leaving their followers behind. The story of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who voluntarily fled in 1948 has still not been adequately written, and this would be an interesting chapter of that book.

Rabbi Boteach trying to turn Michael Jackson's kids Jewish?

Apparently, if you believe Al Arabiya in Arabic.

Al-Arabiya seems to have taken some relatively obscure news stories: one about Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's friendship with Michael Jackson, and one about MJ's ex-wife Debbie Rowe considering herself Jewish and seeking custody of her two kids.

Putting the two together, and you get Arab journalism at its finest.

Al-Arabiya is saying that Debbie Rowe seeking custody to raise the kids Jewish at Rabbi Boteach's urging. It also says that Botech hired lawyer Gloria Allred, who filed a complaint against Jackson in 2003 after he dangled his baby from a hotel window, to help Rowe gain custody.

They have a video that supposedly shows this, but it is only a video of Rabbi Boteach being interviewed on Fox News about Jackson the day after his death.

Usually, mainstream Arabic news tries to be somewhat accurate if slanted. Apparently as soon as the word "Jew" shows up, their few journalistic standards go out the window.

Of course, neither this story nor yesterday's story about how Arabs shouldn't sell Jewish souvenirs in Jerusalem were never translated into their English language site.

UPDATE: Boteach seems quite happy leaving MJ's kids with their grandmother.

Another Free Gaza lie

The Free Gaza publicity boat that was intercepted by Israeli authorities on the way to Gaza had declared upon its leaving Cyprus that the intended destination was - Egypt:

The Cypriot Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement following the incident, saying "The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Israel would like to inform that the "Spirit of Humanity" boat, sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement, that attempted in the early hours today to reach Gaza was given permission by the competent Authorities of the Republic of Cyprus to sail off the port of Larnaca in Cyprus on the basis of its declaration that its intended destination was the port of Port Said in Egypt."

So while they are whining that they are doing nothing wrong, they are in fact deceiving their Cyprus hosts and gained permission to leave Cyprus by doing what they do best - by lying.

"Free Gaza" deja vu

Once again, the "Free Gaza" movement is claiming that Israeli naval vessels are threatening their lives, and once again they are lying.

It will be recalled that last December a Free Gaza boat tried to get to Gaza. The Israeli Navy intercepted them and stopped them. They claimed that they were fired upon, that they were surrounded by six boats, that they were rammed by the Israeli boats and lots of other things. Yet the journalists on board and all the terror supporters with cameras and video could never show any video that corroborated any of their outlandish claims.

Today's edition follows the same script. From the Free Gaza mailing list:

We just spoke to the passengers. Everyone is OK, but the situation is still very tense. They continue to be surrounded by Israeli warships which are threatening to open fire. The Israeli Navy is actively jamming all navigation systems in violation of international maritime law, endangering the people on board.

Huwaida Arraf, one of the delegation leaders, was on the phone with the Israeli gunboats, and we could hear her saying, "You Cannot Open Fire on Unarmed Civilians" several times.

Of course they are now choosing claims that could never be disproven - and of course we will never hear any recording of the radio or loudspeakers threatening to open fire on them.

From Reuters:

Overnight, the activists -- in a small ferry boat sailing from Cyprus to Gaza -- said they had received threats they would be fired upon unless they turned back.

Yigal Palmor, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters no such threats had been made. He said the boat's declared destination was Port Said in Egypt and that the boat appeared to be heading in that direction.

"If it changes course and tries to go to Gaza or declares that it intends to do so, the navy can take action, although they would definitely not fire at the boat," Palmor said.

The activists from U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement have publicly said their destination was Gaza, which is under an Israeli blockade, and activists on board the boat earlier told Reuters an Israeli patrol boat had approached them.

"We were told that if we did not turn back they would open fire," said Derek Graham, an Irish activist.

"We are continuing our course to Gaza," he said.

Keep in mind that Free Gaza is not interested in humanitarian aid - they are only interested in publicity. They want confrontation. They define themselves as a "resistance group," not an aid group. They support and encourage Palestinian Arab violence. They came out publicly against any humanitarian aid to Gaza going through Israel. They've shown reckless disregard for Gazan lives (if you believe their statements.)

Oh, and all that cement that they tell journalists they are bringing to Gaza? From their Twitter account:

We left this morning, one boat, 21 passengers, 20 olive trees, one symbolic bag of cement.

Sounds like last time, when they claimed to be bringing "60 tons" of aid - and it was all a lie.

Like everything else they say.

Today's PalArab news roundup 6-30-09

A 'breakthrough" was announced in the Hamas/Fatah negotiations.

But even as that was happening, Hamas arrested some 150 Fatah members in Gaza. And the PA arrested seven more Hamas members in the West Bank.

Even more bizarrely, the PA announced that they foiled a Hamas plot to assassinate senior PA officials, apparently to torpedo these very Fatah/Hamas negotiations. It is possible that Hamas has some infighting going on, of that the Damascus leadership is trying to stop the Gaza leadership from compromising with Fatah.

Eight other Palestinian Arab factions including the PFLP and DFLP announced that they would not be bound by any Hamas/Fatah agreement. They are particularly upset over the reported provision that any new elections would not count votes for parties that receive less than 5.1% of the vote.

Meanwhile, Hamas arrested and allegedly tortured members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist group in Gaza.

Morocco hosts a beauty contest - for "most beautiful ass"

Remember Saudi Arabia's beauty contest for camels?

Well, Morocco has one...for donkeys.

Al Arabiya (Arabic only, alas) has details on the competition. It describes a number of competitions - most beautiful ass, fastest ass, and slimmest ass. (Hey, I'm not making this up.)

Part of the reason is to promote the donkey as a beautiful animal, and not as a butt of jokes.

The festival also includes some talks on donkey topics, such as "The donkey in human thought and creativity," and "The donkey in rural society and its roles", in addition to participation of a representative of the U.S. Democratic Party on the reasons for their choice of a donkey logo.

And the story really is illustrated with the photo and caption shown above.

Arabs upset at selling Jewish souvenirs in souk

Al Arabiya (Arabic) just discovered the shocking truth that every visitor to Israel knew already: Arab shopkeepers sell items to tourists that include things that tourists might want to buy, including Jewish-themed jewelry!

The newspaper is upset:

At a time when the Palestinians are struggling to preserve the identity of the city of Jerusalem and the stabilization of the right to be the capital of the State of Palestine, some of the Palestinians are promoting Jewish religious symbols within the walls of the Old City in East Jerusalem.

In the old city of Jerusalem, which contains Islamic and Christian significance, one can find the Star of David flag of Israel and the menorah (which is the logo of the Jewish State) and other Jewish symbols, taking considerable space in stores of some Palestinian merchants in Jerusalem.

These are the symbols to denote the "holy land" and the Zionist concept of the "Promised Land", with this inscription on some gifts and souvenirs, which means that the Palestinians are promoting goods that serve the idea of a Jewish Jerusalem.

Khalid Salfiti, a storeowner, justified that traders sold some of the symbols of Israelis. "These are tourists we are dealing with. Unaware of the political consequences, there are tourists from foreign countries and Jews wandering in the market and looking for some of these symbols and, therefore, it must be made available to them in our stores. "

For his part, Abu Muhammad, who declined to disclose the full name, said this work is forbidden, and therefore "we must refuse to deal with it because it was contrary to religion and conflict with the rights of the Palestinian people."

Clerics urged Muslims and Christians not the promote these goods.

Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, mufti of Jerusalem, told Al Arabiya, "that we may promote the symbols which are not recognized by the Islamic faith. We consider the symbols of the Islamic faith as true...What is happening in the markets of Jerusalem is forbidden to the traders, the same way we would outlaw the sale of alcohol, pork and Satanic symbols and other taboos."

The article, in the mainstream London-based Arab newspaper, makes it clear that Muslims cannot even countenance the idea that Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - have any historic or religious ties to Jerusalem.

They have no problem promoting Christian symbols, only Jewish ones, so it is not a pro-Islamic position - it is pure Jew-hatred, to the point of falsifying history to exclude Jews from Israel.

It also makes clear that the Arab goal is to make Jerusalem Judenrein again, the way it was when it was under Jordanian rule.