Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

UNRWA commissioner decries Egyptian wall

You know how people like to say that their problem with Israel building a security fence is because it is a "land grab" and that if that wall would be built on the Green Line, they would have no objections? Do you also notice how those same people seem to criticize every single other action that Israel does to defend itself?

Well, Egypt is building a wall now on its border with Hamastan, and Karen Abu-Zayd, the outgoing Commissioner General of UNRWA, is apparently not happy.

According to Palestine Today, she confirmed that the wall is being built (Egypt is still denying it.) She is claiming that the idea for the wall actually came from the despised George Bush administration.

She broadly implied that the purpose of the wall is for Israel to be able to attack Gaza. I'm not quite sure how that helps Israel except for making it more difficult for Hamas to bring in rockets and bombs. She specifically called the wall "notorious" and said that it "serves only Israel," which is an interesting thing for a UN leader to say.

Evidently, if Egypt wants to build a wall on its own territory, it can and is going to be castigated by the UN. And the reason is because it is perceived as helping Israel, which is automatically bad in the eyes of some UN agencies.

Yesterday, I met a fascinating woman who works for the UN, who is Jewish and was born in the Ivory Coast. She had some very interesting stories about anti-semitism at the UN that she sees up close because her coworkers do not know that she is an observant Jew. (One story even involves an attempt on her life in an area far away from Israel.) One thing she mentioned was that when Karen Abu Zayd became head of UNRWA, she asked her for a job. Abu Zayd answered that she was only going to hire Palestinians.

This explains a lot.

Travel blog day 1

Experiencing the usual travel problems... So no real blogging for a bit.

It's not like I can't find other things to do.

Meanwhile, the Chanukah party I went to last night was a blast, and I even met a frequent commenter, whom I didn't know is actually a "cousin in law."

One of the things I love about Israel is seeing how Judaism is integrated into everyday life. It may seem trivial, but to know that I can order kosher room service at my hotel, or to see the words "chag sameach" on a bottle of Coke, just makes Israel feel more like a home than anything in America in a very fundamental way.

It is a nice feeling.

Another open thread

Arrived in Israel safely but attending a Chanukah party and don't see myself blogging tonight, as I am going on no sleep.

So keep on doing what you do so well....

We've seen this happen before, but the Arabic Al Quds newspaper recently published the most provocative model picture yet, showing women at what is apparently an underwear fashion show in Mumbai.

The readers aren't amused. More than one mentions that a newspaper named after Jerusalem should stay away from such filth.

Purely in the interests of properly informing my readers, you can gaze at the offending picture and form your own opinion.

Great moments in autotranslation, Hamas edition

Hamas is planning to celebrate its 22nd anniversary on Monday. Its Al Qassam Website headlines its article on the occasion this way:

ذكرى انطلاقة المارد الحمساوي الأخضر تتزين غزة بثوب العزة
Anniversary of the establishment quality porn giant green gown festooned with Gaza Dignity

Usually when this happens, I'll try to isolate the specific Arabic word that seems to have been mistranslated; often without context one can determine what the real word was meant to be. But in this case, I came up empty. Google translates the exact word الحمساوي to "High-quality porn."

Well, let no one accuse Hamas of pushing low-quality porn!

Just another data point for the many Hamas apologists who manage to twist Hamas leaders' words into something that can possibly be construed as approaching a slight semblance to moderation:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Friday again vowed not to compromise on a single inch of "Palestine".

He spoke at a rally that featured a motocade of hundreds of motorcycles, proving once again the major fuel shortages Gazans are suffering.

In another rally, Hamas displayed a coffin symbolizing the death of Israel, pictured to the right.

Travel open thread

As I pray that I and my luggage don't miss our connection to the Holy Land, here is an open thread.

I think I have three posts queued up for while I am in the air. No idea about how much I will blog once I arrive.

Oh, and a freilichen Chanukah!

Hamas' West Bank ambitions alive and well

From Ma'an:

The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, says it is attempting to regroup in the West Bank and resume its resistance of the Israeli occupation.

"Nobody will be able to uproot resistance, and if they affect us, that will not last long … The Mujahidin [religious combatants] of Al-Qassam Brigades will remain positioned in their bunkers, protecting the Gaza borders during the central festival commemorating Hamas' 22nd anniversary," the group's spokesman Abu Ubayda also told reporters on Sunday.

Meanwhile, another Hamas member has managed to get himself killed in Gaza last Friday while doing a "Jihad task."

Iranian leaders meeting terrorists - discussing nukes?

Iran continues to show its unparalleled and unapologetic support for terrorism.

Recently, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili met with not only Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus, but also leading representatives from the PFLP and Hezbollah. Now, why should Palestinian Arab and Lebanese terrorists be interested in Iran's "peaceful" nuclear program supposedly meant purely for energy? Do they also discuss Iranian sewage utilities and train service?

Today, Iranian officials in Damascus met with Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah, and there were many other similar meetings in the past week as Syria[!] celebrates "Iranian-Palestinian Cultural Week."

Additionally, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal is visiting Tehran this week.

Is there a pattern emerging? And are these types of meetings even on the UN's and EU's radar when discussing Iranian nuclear ambitions?

Evil extremist Zionists to visit torched mosque

From YNet:

Dozens of rabbis and activists from the Religious Zionist camp will visit Sunday the West Bank Palestinian village of Yasuf to protest against the torching of the village's main mosque and to send a message of reconciliation to the Muslim population, Ynet has learned.

During their visit, they will lend a hand in the clean-up and refurbishing efforts at the mosque. They will also donate a number of Korans in place of those that were burned in the fire.

Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, who heads the yeshiva on the religious kibbutz Maale Gilboa, initiated the event together with Rabbi Avia Rosen from Ein Hanatziv and Rabbi Shmuel Reiner. Rabbi Gilad said, "We came to expel darkness, especially during the days of Hannukah. Light is not added by hurting our brothers, the Muslims, who are the servants of God just as we are. This is an important message to relay."

According to Rabbi Gilad, rabbis from across the spectrum of Religious Zionism and from areas throughout Israel are expected to partake in the event that was put together just Sunday morning. "This is not a political protest, but a humanitarian, moral, and religious issue. We have seen and heard condemnations (of the mosque arson) from both ends of the political spectrum," said Rabbi Gilad.

These are the very types of Jews who are almost invariably portrayed in the world media as "extremist," "ultra-religious," "and "fanatics." They are vilified as venomously hating Muslims and Arabs. They are the ones who are either settlers themselves or support the settler movement wholeheartedly.

JPost adds:

Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, condemned the attack as "outrageous" and "morally wrong."

I have yet to see, ever, a single Palestinian Arab leader publicly call any of thousands of terror attacks on Jews in Israel to be "morally wrong." Their English-language condemnations are invariably leavened with the explanation that the attacks are bad for their cause, but never that they are immoral.

So far I have counted 340 stories in Google News that have mentioned the attack. It will be instructive to see how many will bother mentioning this extraordinary protest.

I predict that it will be significantly fewer, or a wire service that mentions it will spin it so as to make the arsonists look like the mainstream and the outraged leaders the tiny minority.

The main reason is that this story directly contradicts the "extremist settler" meme that that the mass media has relied upon to "explain" the conflict to ignorant Westerners. Reporters will usually choose to ignore a story rather than report on facts that contradict their lazy shorthand that they pretend represents a higher truth.

Comparing two attacks of holy places

In the past couple of days there has been quite a number of news stories about the arson done at a mosque in Yasuf on the West Bank, apparently by Jewish settlers. The act has been rightfully denounced by settler leaders, by the Israeli government, by the opposition, and by the UN.

I am reminded of a similar vandalizing of a holy place that whose damage I witnessed and photographed the last time I was in Israel, at the burial place of Shmuel Hanavi near Jerusalem.

The Aron HaKodesh (ark) was pried open, the Torah was stolen, the place was ransacked and there was much damage to furniture, the walls and many holy books. The worshipers there described it to me as a "pogrom."

The incident barely rated a tiny mention in Arutz-7 and was ignored by the major Israeli papers. There were no condemnations by Arab politicians, by the EU, by the UN, or even - tragically - by Israeli leaders.

Is it that these sorts of incidents are so widespread that they fail to even make the news, or that Jews are not nearly as concerned about their own honor as they are about the honor of Muslims?

Why don't we hear about the Egyptian blockade of Gaza?

Despite denials, it appears that Egypt is building a huge iron wall on its borders with Gaza that will go deep underground specifically to stop smuggling tunnels.

Notice how the Independent newspaper describes the situation:

Leaders of Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, are believed to have been greatly dismayed by Egypt's willingness to implement the project while the Israeli blockade continues and while Egypt keeps its own crossing with the Strip closed.

Israel blockades, but Egypt merely closes crossings.

Reuters even goes further:

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported Egypt was installing an underground metal wall about 20 to 30 metres (70-100 feet) deep along the short border strip where Palestinians have dug a warren of tunnels to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

You see that Reuters says that the Rafah tunnels between Egypt and Gaza are meant to break the Israeli blockade.

To be fair, in a little noticed story from almost one year ago, Reuters UK did manage to write a story that talks about Egypt's blockade. According to its archives, however, it has used the phrase "Israeli blockade" 449 times and "Israel's blockade" an additional 220 times. In contrast, Reuters has used the phrase "Egyptian blockade" 20 times, and each time it said either "Israeli-Egyptian blockade" or similar, as it did in the article linked to above. That makes it even-handed! (h/t HB)

(AP' s Sarah al-Deeb, surprisingly, is a bit better, saying "Egypt has been harshly criticized by Arab and Muslim groups for cooperating with Israel in blockading the 1.4 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip for more than two years.")

In other blockade news, Israel allowed an export of flowers from Gaza yesterday, the first such export in months.

(h/t an emailer)

Do pacifists sing "Ma'oz Tzur"?

The Ma'oz Tzur song, universally sung after lighting the Chanukah candles every night, is hardly compatible with today's leftist conventional wisdom as to how Jews should act and what we should pray for.

The translated lyrics of the first stanza are:

O mighty stronghold of my salvation,
to praise You is a delight.
Restore my House of Prayer
and there we will bring a thanksgiving offering.
When You will have prepared the slaughter
for the blaspheming foe,
Then I shall complete with a song of hymn
the dedication of the Altar.

It is a pretty explicit call for God to destroy Israel's enemies and then go on to build the Temple. These ideas are mainstream Jewish concepts but hardly similar to Western thinking of the past few decades. Too violent, too controversial, too supremacist to actually want to ask God to help you win a war and to ascribe holiness to a mere place.

I wonder if the Tikkun and J-Street supporters have changed the lyrics.

The Hamas "Ministry of Women's Affairs" has denounced the planned Miss Palestine competition, scheduled to be held December 26 in Ramallah.

The ministry called the competition an indication of "moral collapse" and it demanded that the Ramallah government, which supports the contest, to "stop this farce that harms the reputation of our pure and honorable history."

The Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir party in Gaza also condemned the contest:

The Islamic party said that “the honor of Muslim women is not for trade or pleasure”, and accused the Palestinian Authority of being shameless and of aiming at spreading corruption and obscenity among the Palestinian people.

The party also said that such festivals were created by “corrupt western cultures that treat the women as products to be hold and bought”, and added that Palestinian women are mothers of sisters of courageous fighters and martyrs.

The party added that the Palestinian Authority should not sponsor foreign activities that reflect western traditions that are unacceptable to the Palestinian people. It also considered the contest as an attempt to bury the values of Islam.

It demanded the P.A to cancel the contest without any delays and to stop “spreading immoral principles among the Palestinian people”.

It is always illuminating to hear what Hamas and other Islamist parties consider "immoral."

The joys of being spontaneous

Actually, I am not a very spontaneous person, but it struck me today that right now is the best time for me to visit Israel, and that if I don't go now I won't have an opportunity to go for a couple of years.

So, I'm leaving on Sunday, for ten days!