Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 05, 2010

Gaza fuel update

Last week, a total shutdown of Gaza's main power station was averted at the last minute by the PA agreeing to pay for the fuel, after the EU decided not to pay for Gaza fuel any more.

That fuel supply has run out, but today Israel is sending industrial fuel through the Kerem Shalom crossing. It is unclear who is paying for it.

PCHR, in an investigation, notes that the company that owns the power plant - one third owned by an American company - is making lots of money.

Goldstone and TAWTHEQ

I have previously mentioned the disturbing fact that the Goldstone Report relied in a large part on a Hamas organization called TAWTHEQ as a source on basic facts in Operation Cast Lead. The organization's entire purpose is to document alleged Israeli "war crimes."

Jonathan Dahoah Halevi has revealed that Hamas' legal defense of its actions during the war were written by the exact same people who head TAWTHEQ. Their legal arguments rest on assumptions such as Hamas has the legal right to shoot rockets to Israel; that all of Israel is "occupied territory;" that Israel has no legal right to defend itself; that Hamas rockets were not aimed at civilians; that Sderot and other towns near Gaza are "occupied" because it was supposed to be part of the Arab state in the 1947 partition that Arabs rejected; and that there are legally no legitimate targets in Gaza.

As Halevi concludes,

A declared terrorist organization, which adheres to the Islamic law (sharia) as the only source of legitimacy and promotes ideology of genocide, receives legal support from human rights organizations and internationally respected jurists in its lawfare waged against a democratic state. Even more peculiar is Judge Richard Goldstone’s decision to rely without reservations on Tawtheeq and its experts in preparing its report, while they publicly make a travesty of the international law and argue that Israel violated the Palestinians’ rights to kill Israelis in the armed struggle for the liberation of the land of Palestine and to destroy Israel.

Let's look into more detail as to what TAWTHEQ data Goldstone relied upon or quoted uncritically:

- The number of fatalities and the number of women and children killed (TAWTHEQ's numbers are higher than PCHR and Al Mezan; Goldstone gives them equal weight. Also, TAWTHEQ does not even attempt to distinguish between militant and civilian in its list of victims.)

- The number of "police stations" targeted by Israel (would TAWTHEQ define Al Qassam Brigades buildings as "police stations?)

- The size of material damage in various strikes, in dollar amounts;

- Most damningly, a large amount of "evidence" that supported the flawed testimony of witnesses to the commission, often the only corroborating evidence Goldstone cites (para. 788, 823)

Goldstone did not show the least amount of skepticism in reviewing the information given to him by an organization whose entire existence is based on bias and not on researching the truth.

And now, we see that Goldstone accepted "evidence" from people who believe, a priori, that Hamas can do no wrong and Israel is inherently evil.

Pakistani diplomat's name too suggestive for Arabs

From the Salem News:

A high level Pakistani diplomat has been rejected as Ambassador of Saudi Arabia because his name, Akbar Zib, equates to "Biggest Dick" in Arabic. Saudi officials, apparently overwhelmed by the idea of the name, put their foot down and gave the idea of his being posted there, the kibosh.

Foreign Policy Blog adds:

According to this Arabic-language article in the Arab Times, Pakistan had previously floated Zeb's name as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, only to have him rejected for the same reason. One can only assume that submitting Zeb's name to a number of Arabic-speaking countries is some unique form of punishment designed by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry -- or the result of a particularly egregious cockup.

The autotranslation of the Arab Times article is priceless, and while humor doesn't translate well, it appears that the author was having a good time with the story - all the while claiming that no one knows why the diplomat was rejected:

Diplomatic sources familiar with United Arab Emirates told the Arab Times that the current tensions between Pakistan and GCC can not be considered an extension of the tension between Pakistan and the United States, but one cause of tension made Pakistan reject the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council of accepting the credentials of (the biggest cock) a new Pakistani ambassador to several States of the Cooperation Council, without giving reasons ... .. The Pakistani government has decided to appoint (the biggest cock) ambassador in the UAE, but its request was turned down .. I tried to set in Bahrain, which was rejected request and receive instructions sent to Saudi Arabia in the possible appointment as ambassador to the Saud's rejection, such as Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates and Bahrain is not an excuse did not explain the reasons prompting the Pakistani government to Alaatqald that there is U.S. pressure to prevent the appointment of (the biggest cock) Ambassador to the Council states GCC.

There was still no statement from the GCC countries on the reason for refusing to accept the appointment (the biggest cock) ambassador to Pakistan. The Arab Times was not able to know the reason too, but after research and investigation shows that the Pakistani diplomat (the biggest dick) is one of the biggest specialists in the Pak-US economic relations and has held an important post in successive Pakistani governments will be responsible for US-Pakistan Economic Relations.

But the GCC do not want (the biggest cock) and object to the appointment and refused to give his reasons . But a fellow of the Arab Times said that acceptance of the appointment of Abu Dhabi, for example the biggest cock ambassador requires dissemination of news from the Emirates News Agency says: His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed today received the President of Pakistan's new ambassador to the State's largest cock ... Who presented his credentials to His Highness Sheikh Khalifa ... And His Excellency (the biggest dick) was pleased to meet His Highness Sheikh who carried (the biggest cock) presents his compliments to the people of Pakistan.

What do you think is the reason for the refusal to accept the largest dick in the GCC?

h/t Richard Landes via email

Buy from Costco!

There has been a few mentions in the JBlogosphere about a campaign to get Costco to stop carrying Israeli clementines.

From what I can tell, it isn't much of a campaign; an email that has been circulated for a few weeks doesn't seem to have gotten much traction. I see lots more pro-Israel postings about the campaign than anti-Israel postings.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't buy Israeli goods from Costco!

Last Sunday, before I heard about this campaign, I bought Jaffa Sweeties and also saw Carmel peppers being sold. And I wasn't even looking.

So, tonight, drop by a Costco, buy some Israeli goods and let the store manager know you are doing it.

h/t LGF

A Jewish Brooklyn website is advertising "the first ever Israeli Keffiyeh!"

Here is the rationale from Shemspeed's founder, Erez Safar:

My family originates from Yemen, where my ancestors had lived for close to 2,000 years. Nearly 100 years ago, my Grandmother’s side of the family decided to move to Adis Ababa, Ethiopia and then to Israel, in 1933 (Southern Syria/Mandate Palestine at the time). On my Grandfather’s side, our family emigrated to Israel in 1924. Jews indigenous to the Middle East, such as my family is, have worn some variation of the “kefyah” (cap/kippah) and keffiyah (head/neck scarves) for thousands of years. The original purpose of the scarves, was to provide protection from the sun and sand. We have had some Arab friends take offense to our new scarf-remix. In response to such, I thought it was essential to release this statement in order to clarify the historical facts on the ground and, to provide some context. I as a Jew am not offended by the Pope who wears a “kippah” and in the same respect, I don’t feel there is any reason for anyone taking offense to a Jewish person wearing a version of the Keffiyah which they identify with; especially considering the significance of this article of clothing in both of all of our histories. There are numerous variations of the Keffiyah today; the red and white Keffiyah is associated with Jordan and worn throughout the Middle East and Somalia and have been worn by Bedouins for centuries. The black and white Keffiyah, idolized in the 1960s by Yasser Arafat, has become the symbol of the Palestinian resistance movement. The way that symbols are politicized and used to divide people, rather than as common ground for discussion and dialogue is exactly the kind of thought-provoking topic that we at Shemspeed explore with our music, as well as our programming. Our Israeli remix of the Keffiyeh, available through Shemspeed, is just one more interpretation of a scarf worn by our brothers for thousands of years. We hope you enjoy them.

And not everyone is amused. After the UAE National newspaper picked up on the story from the Jerusalem Post, the Kipp Report whines:

Safar knows exactly what he’s doing. The ‘Israeli’ keffiyeh has not been created to keep off the notoriously hot sun or blinding sandstorms that hit Brooklyn at this time of year. It’s an attempt to make a mockery of this symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

As The National points out today, the likely row over a ‘Jewish’ keffiyeh will be the latest in a series of clashes over cultural symbols in the Middle East. In 2008, for example, a group of Lebanese businessmen announced plans to sue Israel to stop it from marketing hummus and tabouleh as ‘Israeli’.

But the creation of the ‘Israeli’ keffiyeh has somewhat raised the stakes. Safar has taken direct aim at this instantly-recognizable Arab symbol, and personal trademark of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Are these “young, hip US Jews” simply deluded, or are they being consciously antagonistic?

There is some deja vu here. A British company has been marketing the Keffiyeh Israelit (pictured, right) for years - and the Arabs have been complaining about it for just as long. (The British manufacturer used to visit and comment here.)

And the reason that Palestinian Arabs don't like Jews co-opting their keffiyeh? Because it symbolizes PalArab "resistance" - terrorism!

Meanwhile, in Nablus, the PalArabs are trying to set a new Guinness world record by creating the world's largest keffiyeh, 500 meters long. The Friends of Palestine group, which is sponsoring it, plans to complete the project in March and then will bring the scarf to refugee camps to cheer people up.

Egyptian editors punished for talking with Israelis

From the Huffington Post:

Two senior Egyptian editors – one a member of the country's ruling party and the other an expert on Jewish affairs – have been punished by Egypt's Journalists Union for violating its ban on contacts with Israel, in a case that underlines the country's ambivalent policies toward its neighbor.
Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but relations have remained cool since, with government-to-government contacts dominating links between the two nations.

Cultural exchanges and travel to Israel are officially discouraged by the government, while popular sentiments remain mostly hostile toward Israel because of its perceived oppression of the Palestinians.

Egypt's Journalists Union issued the ban on contacts with Israel in 1985. Yet, many Egyptian journalists have traveled to Israel since and escaped punishment.

On Tuesday, however, the union reprimanded Hala Mustafa, editor in chief of the state-run weekly Democratiya, or Democracy, for meeting with Israel's ambassador in Egypt. Hussein Serag, the expert on Jewish affairs and deputy editor of the weekly magazine October, was suspended from writing for three months.

Asharq Alawsat adds:

The committee "took into account" that Mustafa had "given assurances she was not familiar with the details of this ruling on normalisation. She thought it only applied to travelling to Israel."
He added that Mustafa had agreed to respect the 1981 ruling, something she would neither confirm nor deny.
However, she said she "totally" rejected the warning, telling AFP she might even turn to the courts for redress of what she said was a "moral injury."
"It goes against freedom of expression ... which the union should protect," she added.

Thursday links

Pajamas Media: Anti-Israel Bias Infects Medical Journals

Jawa Report: Daughter of top CAIR official met with HAMAS leaders with father's support and approval

Media Backspin: Fishermen's Tales at the BBC

Potential convergence

Hamas says it has sent a "barrage" of floating bombs into the Mediterranean with the hope that it would hit Israeli targets and explode.

The Free Gaza movement is planning to send a flotilla of 10 boats to Gaza this spring.

Hmmm.

Gazans don't think they benefit from tunnels

A new poll of Gazans by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion shows a number of interesting trends.According to this poll, oOrdinary Gazans tend to be more pragmatic and less extremist than Hamas, and in general they support Fatah more than Hamas.

One answer was intriguing: when asked who benefits most from the smuggling tunnels, 49.7% said "Hamas" and only 26.4% said "the people." Sounds like the "human rights" organizations that keep calling the tunnels a "lifeline" are out of step with what ordinary Gazans think.

According to the poll, Gazans also overwhelmingly support a "one-state solution," probably because of how the question was phrased. (A different poll from another organization found overwhelming support for the opposite.)

And 40% of Gazans would jump at the chance to emigrate to a Western country if they had the chance.

Unlike others, this poll did not ask whether Gazans support terror attacks against Israeli civilians. That number seems to have gone down slightly in the most recent PCPO poll: it is now "merely" 43%, with 57.4% of Gazans supporting terror.

The Lebanese AK-47 Index

A fascinating article in The National:

Abu Mahdi spends most of his day sitting in a plastic chair in front of a dilapidated concrete block shack on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs puffing on a water pipe and pouring coffee for a steady stream of visitors and customers that have come to examine his inventory.

Two of his first customers on a cold winter morning are young fighters in their late teens from the militant Shiite movement Hizbollah who are enraptured with a selection of gleaming new 9mm handguns from Belgium, the United States and the Czech Republic.

But these young fighters make only about US$400 (Dh1,500) a month for their work in “The Resistance”, putting the sleek automatic pistols, listed at $2,000 each, well outside their price range.
Although Hizbollah obviously issues military-grade weaponry to its fighters, the boys say only the highest-ranking members – leadership, undercover operatives, bodyguards and security teams – are given pistols, making them a critical, if expensive, status symbol among the youngest fighters, who have been known to take second jobs or save for years just to add private weapons to their inventory.

The group does not buy its weaponry on Lebanon’s back market, according to people familiar with its acquisitions process, but from the international black market. Hizbollah’s arms also come direct from Iran and Syria.
A few minutes after the Hizbollah gunmen arrive, a jeep from the Internal Security Forces, Lebanon’s federal police force, pulls up outside the shack but neither Mr Mahdi nor his militant customers seem worried. The police officers have arrived to pick up two assault rifles that they ordered a few weeks earlier. They seem to know the fighters and all start happily chatting and playing with the dozens of weapons stuffed in the back of Mr Mahdi’s truck.

...“I am exhausted,” [Mahdi] says, thanks to non-stop business demands. “I am making a lot of money but I have no time to sleep. Anyone who tells you that Lebanon is peaceful and stable is lying. Everyone is buying weapons; I can’t keep up.”

.... Arms dealers have used an interesting metric for judging the stability of the country: the price of the ubiquitous AK-47 assault rifle.
“There were so many AKs in the country at the end of the war that it’s almost pointless to import them, everyone just sells the same guns back and forth,” Mr Mahdi says. “So I can tell you, according to the price of one gun, how Lebanon is looking. And things are not good.”

Just before the death of the former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, whose assassination ushered in Lebanon’s longest period of chaos since the end of the civil war, a new model AK-47 in very good condition could be bought for $300. A month after his death, the price had doubled to $600. By the outbreak of the July 2006 war between Hizbollah and Israel, it had tripled to $900 as people expected either an occupation by Israel or ongoing civil strife in the aftermath.
“The war was terrible for Lebanon but I made $10,000 profit in just a few weeks,” Mr Mahdi admits. “But prices just kept rising.”
He says the high point for the price of the AK-47 was in the period of major Sunni and Shiite sectarian tension that preceded the May 2008 clashes between Hizbollah and its allies against groups of Sunnis loyal to the government.

“In the days before the action, I knew that something was going to happen because prices jumped to $1,300 per AK,” he said. “It’s come down just a little but business is too much for this peace to last. Everyone is walking the streets acting all good, but they’re lying.”
This prediction is based on several factors, according to Mr Mahdi. The first is a widespread concern by Hizbollah that al Qa’eda-style groups, who cannot resist having their biggest enemies – the Shiite and Israel – in such close proximity, will target Lebanon. The second problem is a lack of faith in Lebanon’s government.
“There is no government, those people are useless,” says Mr Mahdi. “No one trusts them to keep the peace, so everyone buys weapons to protect their homes and families. Normally I sell about 30 to 40 machine guns a month but right now, it’s double that. And the price is $1,200 for a gun in good condition, almost as high as May 2008.”
“But I know there is a real problem on the streets right now not just because of the machine guns but because I am selling so many RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launchers. People only buy grenades when they think war is coming. An RPG isn’t really a weapon you use to protect your house, but everyone is buying them anyway. Not good.”

Facebook Fatwa?

A recent study found that Facebook was cited in 20% of recent divorce petitions.

Firas Press reports that in reaction, the Fatwa Committee of Al Azhar University in Cairo is banning Facebook for all Muslims, saying that entering the social networking site is forbidden and that the visitors are sinners.

Maybe I'll start a similar rumor about YouTube, and then all the jihadi videos will be removed...

Work accident!

The Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades announces the martyrdom of Dujana Abdul Rahman, who was killed in a "jihad" mission in Gaza City.

By my count, this is the fifth Hamas victim of a "work accident" this year.

PA prime minister Salam Fayyad has controversially attended the Herzliya conference on Israel's security. In his speech, he stated the oft-cited position that the Palestinian Arabs "only want to live in dignity on 22% of historic Palestine."

We have gone into detail a number of times about the fact that "historic Palestine" certainly includes significant portions to the east of the Jordan river.

But to make it easy for Fayyad, I would like to ask him which tribes were part of "historic Palestine" and which were not?

According to Robinson and Smith in their survey of Palestine in the 1830s and 40s, the tribes around the Jordan Valley at the time included the the Ka'abineh, the Rashaideh, the Ta'amirah, the Mas'udy, the 'Abbad, the Amir, the 'Abbadin, and the Mushalikhah, the ' Adwan, Ibn Ghiiniim, Beni Hasan, the Baharat, the 'Ajarimeh, Beni Sukhr, and Beni Hamideh. Some were to the east and some to the west. Which ones are "Palestinian?"

The Palestine Exploration Fund's survey of eastern Palestine in the 1880s mentions that the Adwan tribe is the strongest tribe east of the Jordan, along with their rivals the Beni Sakhr, and the Hameidi (who would sell their corn in Jerusalem.)

However, the Adwan clan is mentioned in a recent study as being "Palestinian." And the earlier Robinson/Smith study talks about Adwan members who were in Jericho.

So a reasonable person would conclude that the Arab tribes from a mere 150 years ago often fought with and allied with each other depending on the political atmosphere of the day, were often nomadic (many tribes had originally come from as far away as Yemen,) did not think of the Jordan as any sort of political boundary, and did not consider themselves "Palestinian" in the least (the Beni Sakhr stretched up from the eastern part of the Jordan valley to the Hauran area of today's Syria.)

So, Mr. Fayyad, which tribes were "Palestinian"? Specifically, are the Adwans your people? And if they are - why do you say that "historic Palestine" is strictly to the west of the Jordan, using a country boundary that simply didn't exist until the 20th century?

If you care so much about your historic rights, why do you ignore the illegal Jordanian usurpation of your "historic" land?

More to the point - why is the definition of "Palestinian" land, since 1964, always exactly congruent with land controlled by Jews?

More on the 12-year old bride of the 80-year old Saudi

Some more details on the 12-year old bride married to the 80 year old man in Saudi Arabia, partially explaining why the case was dropped. From the Saudi Gazette:

A Buraidah girl, 12, sent shockwaves through the courthouse here when she said that she accepted her marriage to an 80-year-old man because she wanted to obey the wishes of her father.

The marriage has caused a great deal of controversy in the Kingdom and resulted in widespread condemnation from local and international human rights activists. The elderly man paid SR85,000 dowry which the father claims he is holding for his daughter.

The decision surprised Ibrahim Al-Amr, the judge of the General Court in Buraidah on Monday. Al-Amr was expected to issue a verdict in the matter when the girl made the announcement.

During the court session, she said: “The marriage took place with my consent and I accept him as my husband in obedience to my father.”

The child’s statement was not the only surprise of the day. The girl’s divorced mother also dropped a bombshell by withdrawing the lawsuit she had filed to annul her daughter’s marriage to the 80-year-old man.

The girl’s mother has now added a condition to the marriage, that her daughter must be allowed to complete her education and that her former husband should drop previous cases he had filed against her. Also, she stipulated that she be given custody over her son.

So the mother, who previously appeared to be defending her daughter, now looks like she was just using her as a bargaining chip; she willingly sacrificed her daughter to be in a better legal position vis-a-vis her ex-husband.

Truly sick.