Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Moderate PalArabs beat up grieving family

PCHR looks at the circumstances of the death of Fadi Hosni 'Abdul Rahman Hamadna, a Hamas member who died in prison that I mentioned yesterday. They do not have enough information to determine whether he was tortured to death or committed suicide (which is why I have not yet added it to the self-death count) but one detail of their report shows that respect for human lives is not exactly a high priority in PA prisons:

It is worth noting that a debate took place in the morning between the victim's father and brother on one hand and security officers and guards of Junaid Prison on the other hand, as the latter refused to allow the family to enter the prison to see the victim's body. The debate developed and security officers fired into the air and beat members of the family. The victim's father sustained a fracture to the head; his brother Mohammed sustained a fracture to the left hand; his brother Hani sustained bruises to the shoulder and back; and two relatives were injured. The vicinity of the prison was then declared a closed military zone.

Sensitivity. Honesty. Truth. This is the Palestinian Authority.

UNRWA denies- and Hamas confirms- ambulances confiscated

From JPost: (h/t t34zakat)

Hamas on Monday claimed to have confiscated three ambulances that were imported into the Gaza Strip for UNRWA several weeks ago, backing up an earlier IDF claim that the ambulances had been seized.

The deputy director of UNRWA’s Gaza office, Christer Nordal, stands in front of ambulances in the UNRWA compound in Gaza. Spokesman Christopher Gunness said this picture, distributed yesterday, showed that recent media reports of stolen ambulances were false.

But UNRWA, which last week denied an earlier Jerusalem Post article quoting IDF claims that the ambulances had been confiscated, reiterated Monday that the reports were false, said that the ambulances were safe and sound in its Gaza compound, and even distributed a photograph of one of its officials, Christer Nordal, posing with what it said were the vehicles in question.
According to a statement released by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Crossings Directorate on Monday, the ambulances were confiscated in late July because UNRWA did not have proper documentation to import them into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
In an August 4 e-mail obtained by the Post, UNRWA official Jodi Clark wrote to Israeli defense officials to state that the ambulances had been "impounded by the authorities in Gaza." The e-mail was sent by Clark to several Israeli defense officials as well as to John Ging, the director of UNRWA, and Nordal, his deputy. The e-mail later circulated throughout the Defense Ministry.
"The three ambulances we imported into Gaza two weeks ago are still impounded by the authorities in Gaza and we continue to negotiate their release which is not going well at this stage," Clark wrote in the e-mail.
She went on to ask the Israeli defense officials for their assistance in coordinating the transfer of three new ambulances into Gaza, but through the Erez crossing, "to avoid the authorities having the opportunity to seize the vehicles from us."Asked about Clark's e-mail, and about the official Hamas-run Gaza Crossings Directorate's claim to be holding the ambulances, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said that the e-mail had been recalled by Clark immediately after being sent and that the story based on its content was untrue. The Post was able to confirm that the e-mail was indeed recalled.
"The e-mail was recalled within minutes because the information contained in it was wrong," Gunness said. "The story is a house of cards based on information that was wrong. We have circulated pictures which prove it was wrong."

Another picture of "Jewish extremists storming Al Aqsa"

Palestine Today has another exclusive picture of rabid, violent Jewish extremists storming the Al Aqsa mosque and causing all sorts of havoc:

Doesn't it make your blood boil to see such desecration? One can only imagine the vast damage they cause merely with their tzitzit, provocatively hanging from under their shirts.

Egyptian scientist claims Pepsi made from pig intestines

Palestine Press Agency reports:

Egyptian scientist Dr. Mustafa Shakaa, the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Supreme Council of Egyptian research, said that it has been proved beyond any doubt that through careful analysis that the content of Pepsi-Cola contains material from the intestines of pigs.

He goes on to say that the people who deny the story from Pepsi are Zionists and that they bribe officials to overlook the pig parts of Pepsi.

He goes on to say that Pepsi adds these components deliberately to help Pepsi get digested, but also that the Zionist Pepsi company has been laughing over the years from their plan to surreptitiously feeding pig meat to Muslims who drink the product.

This rumor has been around for years, as this interesting Muslim site points out:

Nevertheless, this rumor isn't sort of confined to weirdos and fringes, even Egyptian government sponsored websites or chatsites or whatever report it (in Arabic) here. What is most interesting about this latter post, as well as numerous similar posts out there in the blogosphere, is that they begin with the following title: "Have the Americans truly succeeded in ridiculing 2 billion Muslims and Arabs and caused them to drink all of these years carbonated beverages made from pig intestines?" Arabic readers:
هل نجح الأمريكيون بالفعل في أن يضحكوا على 2 مليار مسلم وعربي وجعلوهم يشربون طوال السنين مشروباتهم الغازية المصنعة من أمعاء الخنزير؟؟؟

So the rumor out there that has spread pretty far and wide is that Pepsi Cola, this huge ubiquitous presence in the Middle East (everyone has a Pepsi with dinner) with I would guess I don't really know billions of dollars of revenue per annum from the Muslim world is going to risk all of those substantial sums and a potential catastrophic drop in share price, for a laugh. I should note the piece gives other potential reasons they do this, relating to digestion and whatnot but the title provides the most prominent and important one. The posts explain if you drink Pepsi, you're participating in the humiliation and the ridicule of Islam and that more experiments will confirm this, at which time a decision will be made on the permissibility of Pepsi under the shari'a. These folks seem to suggest the conspiracy is partly proven by Pepsi's insistence on shipping the basic ingredients as a powder to its bottling plants, and not to disclose the ingredients of the powder when asked. apparently in this part of the cyberworld the only reason to protect a trade secret is to hide the distribution of pork to Muslims.

In a few of the blogs, the rumor gets sillier. Pepsi is an acronym for "Pay every penny to save Israel", they say. Pepsi was created 1898. The Balfour Declaration came in 1917. Herzl had only written the Jewish State two years earlier, the first Zionist Congress met in 1897. You've got to get pretty thick into anti-Semitic conspiracies to make Pepsi that prescient.

I guess that the rabbis who certify Pepsi kosher are also part of the conspiracy.

More rapes in Iranian prisons

From Al Jazeera :

One of the defeated reformist candidates in Iran's disputed presidential election is calling for an investigation into claims that anti-government protesters were raped while in custody.
Mehdi Karroubi said in a letter, made public on Monday, that a number of detainees had claimed that several women and men, arrested amid violent demonstrations, were repeatedly abused by their jailers.

"A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely," Karroubi said in the letter to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential religious leader and former president.

"Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped," he said, adding they were suffering from depression and serious physical harm after the alleged attacks.

Even Iran's PressTV could no longer ignore the accusations of rape in Iranian prisons.

Islamization of Gaza? Israel's fault!

Backspin notices a Guardian Comment is Free column by Ben White that rightfully exposes many recent Hamas abuses, as it turns Gaza into Taliban-era Afghanistan:

This context includes a young woman accosted by Hamas police on the beach, who then roughed up her male companions. It has also meant the harassment of shopkeepers displaying mannequins and lingerie packets. The background is a "virtue campaign" organised by the religious affairs ministry, which, in the words of the Hamas deputy religious affairs minister, is intended to "keep [people] away from sin".
While the rare incidents of physical violence are condemned by senior Hamas leaders, there is no doubting the pervasive atmosphere and policy direction. Government ministers from different departments have met to discuss a list of regulations to be implemented. As a piece in al-Akhbar noted two weeks ago, "women and the uses of technology seem to be the focus of the 'yes for virtue' campaign" whose purpose "according to Yousef Farhat, the general director of the public administration for preaching and guidance in the ministry, is to 'fight the non-ethical occurrences in Gaza'."

So when Islamists impose their misogynist and extreme interpretations of Islam on the general, suffering population, who is to blame?

Do you even have to guess?

But why is this happening now? One answer is that these developments in Gaza are a consequence of the state of siege that the tiny territory has been under – a society that has been fenced-in, starved, and seen its very fabric torn apart by unemployment and wanton military destruction. In the words of a Gaza human rights worker, isolation bred "extremism and dark ideas".

Why a "state of siege" naturally forces Hamas to impose Islamism on Gazans - something they promised not to do when they took over - is very unclear. But in the Guardian's universe, there is no path from A to an undesirable B that doesn't go through Israel.

In fact, White does have another reason why Hamas is subjecting Gazans to Islamic extremism. You see, Hamas is too moderate!

Already hit by criticism in Gaza by Islamic Jihad about a theoretical willingness to negotiate with Israel, it is possible that Hamas's leaders are seeking to safeguard its credibility and among the radical jihadist groups by off-balancing improving international relations with a domestic hard line.

The only reason Hamas has improved its international relations is because of idiots like Ben White who bend over backwards to find evidence of Hamas "moderation" even in an article about its extremism.

Way to go, Guardian!

Fatah still calls to "liquidate the Zionist entity"

From the BBC:

International observers have been watching to see if Fatah, which committed itself to peace negotiations in the early 1990s, would rule out armed struggle.
But according to conference delegates, most of the movement's old charter was maintained, including its call to "liquidate the Zionist entity".
A commitment to "two states for two people" was added, specifying that a Palestinian state be established on the basis of 1967 borders - meaning all of the West Bank and Gaza, delegates said.
Fatah members said a clause was also included stating that "peace is a strategic choice", but Fatah "maintains the right of resistance... by all means possible", in line with a statement made by Mr Abbas on Tuesday.

How can these be reconciled?

The 4th Fatah conference in 1980 was one time that Fatah used the terminology "liquidate the Zionist entity," and it made no doubts about what it meant then:

“Al-Fatah is an independent national revolutionary movement, whose aim is to liberate Palestine completely and to liquidate the Zionist entity politically, economically, militarily, culturally and ideologically.

The battle for liberating Palestine is part of the nationalist (pan-Arab) struggle and, therefore, it is the duty of the entire Arab nation to support this battle with all its moral and material means.

“The only way to achieve our aim is through the armed popular revolution. The armed revolution of the Palestinian Arab people is a decisive factor in the battle of liberation and the liquidation of the Zionist presence.

“This struggle will not stop until the Zionist entity is liquidated and Palestine is liberated.”

Its call to merely liquidate the Zionist entity seems positively moderate by comparison!

So one needs to be very skeptical when Fatah supposedly also says it supports "two states for two people[s]." It has made very clear that the idea of a Jewish state is anathema, so it cannot possibly mean a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. More likely, it would be a Palestinian Arab state within the Green Line - created by a massive forcible "return" of Arabs to Israel - besides the Palestinian Arab state in the territories. The words "two states for two peoples" does not mean that it cannot be 40% of a state for one people and 60% of a state - plus another 100% of another - for the other.

Which fits in with the idea that "peace is a strategic choice" - one that they hope, via demographics and the cynical "right of return," would lead to the destruction of Israel.

The only modification from the 1980 platform is the third paragraph shown above: they see that a fake "peace process" is an additional way to achieve the aim of liquidating Israel, not only "armed popular revolution."

Another Hamas prisoner "commits suicide" in PA prison

In February, a Hamas member died in a PA prison. Hamas accused the PA of torture; the PA claimed that it was a suicide, by hanging. The PA investigation found - surprise, surprise - that this religious Muslim did indeed commit suicide, and there were no signs of torture on his body (even though other witnesses said they had seen evidence of torture.)

Now we have an incredible case of deja vu:

A Hamas-affiliated detainee died while in the custody of Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces at Juneid prison in Nablus, a security official told Ma'an on Monday afternoon.

Hamas said his death was the result of torture.

According to the PA's version of events, Hamarna was found dead after he hung himself with a bed sheet tied around his neck.

What a coincidence!

Bias

Everyone is biased.

This statement seems self-evident, but some people seem to insist that their favorite sources - whether it is CNN, the New York Times, the BBC, Amnesty International, the IDF, the PCHR or Pakistan Daily - are above such things, and truly look at things with an unbiased eye.

This is absurd and dangerous.

When testing the veracity of someone's reporting or claims, there are a number of things to take into account: what their bias might be, whether they ignore any facts and highlight others, and how the facts inform their opinions.

NGOs have a vested interest in appearing unbiased, but they also have a vested interest in pushing their agendas. Above all, "human rights" organizations need to justify their existence. The main reason is in order to continue to receive funding, often from governments. A highly important secondary reason is that there is no value to them of investigating alleged abuses and finding that things are not so bad, or can be put into context. From their perspectives, their job is to find human rights abuses, not to expose context or nuance.

A clear result is that they will have a bias towards believing the claims of those who allege HR abuse and a bias against those who deny it or contextualize it. If they throw enough resources at an issue, they'll find things to report, no matter what, and in the absence of facts they will rely more on shaky testimonies or "experts" who have little real experience.

Of course, governments and armies have biases as well. In order to find the truth, one must look at what both parties have to say and see which one has more facts on their side. Looking only at parties who have a clear agenda to find abuse is not only inadequate but fallacious.

When looking at the Gaza operation, it is easy to fall in the trap of saying that Amnesty International or HRW or Physicians for Human Rights are unbiased, and that anything that the IDF says in response is by definition biased. How can you possibly find an unbiased human rights organization that would place the same weight on what the IDF says as to what a seemingly homeless old man says?

I am biased as well, obviously. But when looking at the competing claims of the human rights groups and the IDF, along with their supporting evidence, it is clear that the HR organizations allow their biases to push the directions of their reports. It is also clear that they haven't the foggiest notion of how wars are fought. For Amnesty to make blanket statements that the IDF killed hundreds of unarmed civilians, with the clear implication that somehow they could have fought a war without that happening, borders on the irresponsible even as it is factual. To them, every single civilian death is somehow a human rights abuse on the part of Israel, and the millions of dollars and thousands of hours Israel spends to minimize those deaths (as well as to help the injured) is irrelevant.

That is not an unbiased view; that is slander. Not to mention ignorant of the realities of war.

Today, the IDF responded to a PHR report on Gaza. It pointed out that many of the PHR claims were, simply put, lies. Similarly, the IDF report on Cast Lead showed that many of the claims made by the media and human rights organizations were inaccurate or false.

If the human rights groups were truly unbiased, they would go through each of the IDF claims one by one and try to prove them wrong as well - and, when appropriate, admit their own mistakes and shortcomings. But they never do, because they already have their "comprehensive" reports and if they would admit mistakes it would impact their fundraising efforts.

Truth is not their goal. Those who think otherwise are just fooling themselves.

(In the case of some NGOs, like PCHR, of course the bias is far deeper and simply anti-Israel to begin with. And one cannot discount the inherent anti-Israel bias that the people who gravitate to these sorts of organizations tend to have. But even without that, the bias is there and must be examined just as critically as the bias that the IDF has towards its own people.)

Fatah Follies, day 6

The Fatah conference continues, having been extended from its intended conclusion on Thursday to this coming Tuesday. And the stories leaking out indicate that Fatah is still a corrupt, terrorist, disorganized mess.

Early in the conference there was controversy about allowing a leader of the supposedly-defunct Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades from attending, probably just a snafu. He told the conference on Thursday that Palestinian unity is important - even if they have to use violence to get it. Of course, he added, Fatah should use terror against Israel as well.

Serious procedural problems emerged, as the printed lists of candidates for the two major committees (the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council) were inconsistent, sometimes with leading candidates missing and some with candidates listed twice. Marwan Barghouti's name was missing in three of five lists distributed. Slates of candidates who hate each other were presented as if they were in the same sub-party. People spread false rumors that candidates had withdrawn their names hours before voting, affecting their chances. The Lebanese contingent suffered a serious split as two competing leaders ran for major positions. Conspiracy theories abound.

Another Fatah leader accused the conference of "rigging the vote" against the Gaza attendees.

On the other hand, there were moves to heal the rift between Mahmoud Abbas and Farouk Kaddoumi, his Tunisian-based terrorist rival and secretary-general of the PLO, who accused Abbas of conspiring to assassinate Yasir Arafat. It appears that Kaddoumi got some of his candidates running for major positions.

Meanwhile, Hamas not only stopped Fatah leaders there from attending, but they even confiscated their cell phones to stop them from voting! Some articles have assumed that Iran is behind Hamas' actions to try to sabotage the conference.

All in all, Fatah has proven it cannot even govern itself. Why do people still think they can lead anyone else?

Saudi Arabia closes Lebanese TV outlet for sex talk show

From the BBC:

The Jeddah offices of a Lebanon-based TV station which broadcast an interview with a Saudi man boasting about his sexual conquests have been closed.
Saudi Arabian authorities said the offices had been shut by order of the country's deputy prime minister.
The 32-year-old Saudi man's interview shocked conservative Saudi society, prompting calls for him to be punished.
Mazen Abdul Jawad talked about his sexual conquests and how he picks up women in the kingdom.
A spokesman at the information ministry confirmed the decision to close the offices of the LBC TV station in the kingdom's commercial capital.
"It was because of the interview with Mazen Abdul Jawad," Abdul Rahman al-Hazzaa said, according to AFP news agency.
Saudi media say officials are considering whether to charge Mr Abdul Jawad over the interview, which appeared on a programme called Red Lines and challenged Saudi taboos.
The Saudi daily newspaper al-Watan said authorities had also closed other offices of the channel, which is mainly owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Pre-marital sex is illegal in Saudi Arabia and Mr Abdul Jawad could face imprisonment or flogging.

Officially, it was closed for "operating without a license."

Baitullah Meahsud - Zionist?

If you want to know how completely nutty much of the Muslim world is, read Pakistan Daily. There you will find no shortage of conspiracy theories, naked Jew-hatred, and an endless supply of baldfaced lies that get believed by tens of thousands of credulous morons.

Today's idiocy is claiming that Taliban leader Baitullah Meahsud, recently blown to bits by a US drone, was really killed because he was a Zionist who knew too much:

Yesterday, the Zionist top media outlets, CNN, BBC, and FoxNews, etc. gloated that Pakistan’s most wanted Taliban leader, Baitullah Mahsud, has been killed by a US missile. It suppose know that could be used an excuse to prove that Baitullah Mahsud was not a CIA, MOSSAD and RAW asset, as claimed by Mahsud’s former close aid, Haji Turkistan Betani on Pakistan TV Geo News. Haji also claimed that Baitullah Mahsud got Benazir Bhutto assassinated for his American, Israeli and Indian masters.

Previous insanity and lies from that newspaper have been discussed here , here and here.

A few times a week, our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrest practitioners of a truly horrible crime: magic.

Magic, of course, is not allowed under Shari'a law. What is strange though is how many Saudi Muslims seem to believe in magic anyway.

Here are some articles from just the past couple of weeks in the Saudi Gazette:

An Arab-African male accused of “conning clients” with his claims to magic powers enabling him to “break spells, win over hearts, and divide couples” [was arrested by] the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) in Makkah Tuesday.

The Makkah Hai’a spokesman said that the detained man managed to obtain “large sums of money” from “women and innocent people” through his claims to have superhuman powers. The spokesman thanked the public for their help in detaining the man and their “understanding of the role of the men of the Hai’a in containing unwanted phenomena”.

Here was a sting to catch the criminal in the act:

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) in Jeddah arrested an African man and handed him over to police in the Al-Jami’a district of the city Sunday on accusations of practicing magic. A Hai’a official was sent to the man, who claimed to be able to break spells, posing as a client seeking a solution to a marital problem in order to expose his activities. Hai’a spokesman Salim Al-Sarawani said the magic practitioner extracted prayer beads from his pocket and muttered unintelligible phrases before asking his client for his name, the name of his wife, and 1,000 riyals. He then promised that the issue would come to an end within three days. As the fees for his services were being handed over Hai’a officials made the arrest and transferred the man to police authorities.

The vigilance against magic extends to the regular police, who call the Muttawa for backup:

Police patrols attending the scene of a minor accident in the north of Qassim Saturday called in the Hai’a after finding one of the driver’s cases to be “full of talismans and items used in acts of magic.” Officials conducted a search after noticing the driver’s “nervous behavior” and took the man to Qasiba’ Police Station where the Hai’a were summoned to “take a look at the contents of the case and check if they were used for practicing magic.”

The magicians manage to penetrate the highest levels of Saudi society:

The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) in Jeddah detained Monday an African man charged with conducting acts of black magic and sorcery on over 50 persons, among them businessmen, local officials and scholars. A Hai’a raid uncovered a long list of names, among them women, of persons who he would contact exclusively via mobile telephone text messages in order to maintain secrecy. Also found were numerous books on magic arts and some strange inscriptions. The man was found upon investigation to have been involved in a similar case two years previously.

Plus one more incident that I already posted about.

We are truly fortunate that the Muttawa is vigilant in eradicating the scourge of magic from the Kingdom. But it is an uphill battle...it appears that the number of sorcerers are increasing.

But that couldn't be because these arrests give the magicians and their acts more legitimacy in the eyes of the average Saudi Muslim, and therefore increase the number of potential customers. No, that couldn't be the case.

Fatah conference officially endorses terror

Even though we have seen Fatah speakers and attendees insist that terror is desirable, they have now made it official.

Al Quds reports that the political platform of Fatah was ratified on Saturday night:

1 - Fatah stands as a national liberation movement aimed to eliminate and defeat the occupation and achieve independence for the Palestinian people, which is part of the Arab liberation movement from the world powers seeking freedom and independence of peoples.

2- The Fatah movement stresses its opposition to the Israeli occupation and that any inconsistencies are minor discrepancies resolved through [internal] communication and dialogue with the retention of the right to use all available means to defend the national unity and Palestinian legitimacy and the independent Palestinian national decisions.

3- The Fatah movement will remain faithful to the martyrs and the sacrifices and struggles for the freedom of prisoners, and reaffirms its adherence to the parameters of the Palestinian people on the land, Jerusalem, editors [?}, the removal of settlements, and the refugees and their return.

4 - In spite of our choice of just peace and the quest for completion, we will not disregard any of the choices, and we believe that all forms of resistance are a legitimate right of the peoples of territories in the face of occupation.

5- This declaration is an integral part of the political program of the Sixth General Conference of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement "Fatah".

And in case you want to minimize the fourth paragraph, Al Quds headlines the article:

Fatah approves political platform which emphasizes the right of all forms of resistance

No doubt, apologists for Palestinian Arab terror will mention that the 1988 conference explicitly mentioned "armed struggle" so will point to the more general "all forms of resistance are a legitimate right" as proof of "moderation."

They just cannot accept the simple fact that the mainstream of Palestinian Arab political thought celebrates and endorses the murder of Jews.

Fatah's token Jew

Believe it or not, a Jew attended the Fatah conference as a delegate and was nominated to Fatah's very peaceful sounding Revolutionary Council.

Uri Davis is exactly what you would expect: a far left, socialist British academic and professor of "peace studies" who passionately hates Zionism and Judaism (he just married a Muslim woman, his fourth marriage.)

Davis rejects Zionism as "racism."

Yet his position in Fatah is as an observer member (non-Palestinian) of the Palestinian National Council, to which he was appointed by Arafat in 1984.

Note the "non-Palestinian" part of his observer status. It just so happens that Davis was born in Jerusalem in 1943 - so he is a Palestinian by any reasonable definition of the term. The only possible reason that Fatah considers him "non-Palestinian" is because he is...drumroll, please....Jewish!

Apparently, this is not "racism" and not worthy of being criticized. One, because it is not against Israel, and two, because it could lead to his being assassinated. Besides that, Fatah is obviously very inclusionary.

The cluelessness of Israel bashers truly knows no bounds.

UPDATE: Davis converted to Islam in 2008. (h/t Israellycool)

UPDATE 2: His chances are slim. The Revolutionary Council has only a couple of dozen seats, and there are 617 candidates.