Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Gold boom in Gaza (updated)

Gaza's borders are closed and its economy in shambles, but the glittering alleys of the territory's centuries-old gold bazaar are packed with young brides to be.

The market has experienced an unlikely renaissance in recent years as Gaza's Hamas rulers have championed weddings and Israeli closures have crippled the local economy, making gold an attractive investment.

"Not only have we not been hurt by the Israeli blockade, but our business has actually gotten better," gold merchant Iyad Basal says as people cram into his crowded family-run shop.

"We have not stopped working since the blockade because the gold comes to us through smuggling and Hamas encourages marriage," he adds.

Israel and Egypt have largely sealed Gaza's borders since Hamas seized power in June 2007, but some merchants have survived and even thrived by importing products through smuggling tunnels beneath the Egyptian border.

Others have jewelry brought in through the Erez pedestrian crossing with Israel, which is usually open to foreign journalists, aid workers and Palestinians with special permits.

Hamas has encouraged marriage by holding mass weddings, running a matchmaker service for war widows and other poor girls and giving financial support to thousands of young men hoping to settle down.

Hassan al-Juju, a judge in the Islamic family courts run by the group, says the rate of marriage in 2009 was higher than any year in the last decade.

Zvi points out:
Starving populations do not import and purchase large quantities of gold. All around the world and throughout history, starving populations have sold what jewelry they owned to food traders in exchange for food to feed their kids. People who are seriously worried about starving in the future import and hoard large quantities of canned goods and staple foods. They don't import gold, which cannot be eaten.

For an example of a normal response, consider the Warsaw Ghetto. The Nazis issued the Jews ration books that allowed them only 200 Cal/day, which is a starvation diet. Jews who had a silver bracelet or a gold ring used it as currency to obtain extra food from outside the ghetto, or (if they could scrape together enough) to pay smugglers to hide their kids on the Christian side of the wall, where they were safer. Jewelry was rapidly flowing OUT, from the moment when the ghetto was reestablished until the Nazis liquidated the population.

Gaza is importing gold through its smuggling tunnels. Gold is an expensive luxury, purchased with disposable income.

The spokespeople of the Destroy Israel Movement frequently claim that Gaza is "worse than the Warsaw Ghetto." They claim that Israel is starving Gaza. They claim that this is why Gazan terrorists murder civilians across the border in Israel. Three things are clearly true:

1. The spokespeople of the Destroy Israel Movement don't understand the situation in Gaza at all.
2. They don't understand the Warsaw Ghetto at all, and don't want to.
3. They are happy to spout absolute ignorant nonsense as long as it's anti-Semitic ignorant nonsense.

Junk science used to claim Israel using WMD in Gaza

The "New Weapons Committee" has just released what appears, at first glance, to be a scientific study of Gaza children's exposure to dangerous contaminants during Operation Cast Lead.

The press release says:

Many Palestinian children still living in precarious situations at ground level in Gaza after Israeli bombing during "Cast lead" have unusually high concentrations of metals in the hair, indicating environmental contamination, which can cause health and growth damages due to chronic exposure. This is the result of a pilot study conducted by the New Weapons Research Group (Nwrg), an independent committee of scientists and experts based in Italy, who is studying the use of unconventional weapons and their mid-term effects on the population of after-war areas.
This research follows the previous one, published by Nwrg on December 17 last year, in which the group reported the presence of toxic metals in the areas surrounding the craters left by the bombing. Those tests had found abnormal concentrations of toxic metals in the craters, suggesting the possible contamination of the soil which, combined with precarious living conditions, particularly in refugee camps, might cause exposure, dermal, via inhalation and through food.

With the new study, the group set itself the objective of verifying whether people were actually contaminated. The result is alarming: even if the quantity of metals in excess, in fact, are only 2-3 times higher than those found in hair of controls, these levels may still be pathogenic in situations of chronic exposure.

The study, which lasted several months, analyzed the hair for 33 metals by ICP/MS (a type of highly sensitive mass spectrometry). The hair is a good indicator of contamination and investigation of environmental contamination based on its analysis are recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Nwrg examined hair samples from 95 people resident in heavily bombed areas (as reported by UNEP on the basis of satellite maps), for the vast majority children. Among them also seven pregnant women and 4 wounded people. The results have established that the distribution of metal contaminants in the three locations where the tests were performed, Beit Hanun, Gaza-Zeitun and Laly Beith, is higher than the average, and more than double in about 60 of these individuals.

The research team is based out of Italy. One of the researchers is Paola Manduca.

Manduca had already determined the results of the research while Cast Lead was still happening, as this press release from January 9, 2009 shows:

Mounting evidence is emerging that Israel is experimenting new non-conventional weapons on civilian population in Gaza. "It is happening again what we saw in Lebanon two years ago", says Paola Manduca, genetics teacher and researcher at the University of Genoa and member of New Weapons Research Committee (NWRC), "where Israel used white phosphorus, Dense inert metal explosive (DIME), thermobaric bombs, cluster bombs and uranium ammunitions. Still today there are unexploded bombs and radioactivity on the ground".

So we already have an indication that some of these scientists had an agenda.

Now let's look at the methodology of the study itself. If one wanted to determine that some Gaza children were exposed to toxic metals from Israeli bombs, what would be a good control group?

I can think of a few:

* Compare the levels in children who live in heavily-bombed areas with those who do not.
* Compare the levels of Gaza children with those in Egypt.
* Compare the levels with those in Israel.
* Compare with the West Bank.
* Compare with hair samples from before Operation Cast lead.
* Compare with people who left Gaza recently, for example, those who are in medical treatment in Israel or Egypt.

The study, however, did no such thing. They compared the levels of Gazans with those of a single reference hair sample from China and a single control sample from Italy.

A careful look at the data also shows that, while in general the levels in Gaza were higher than those of the single sample in Italy, they were not usually that much different (most are less than 2x the Italian sample.) The Italian sample was higher in many metals than for some of the Gazans. The variation within Gaza was high, and it would be instructive to see the natural variation between control samples. Even more interesting was the fact that the differences between the Chinese hair and the Italian hair were much larger than between Italy and Gaza, which would indicate that the Gaza data might not be that significant to begin with.

Despite the control being a single sample, the press release represents the Italian sample as the "average," yet there is no indication that that sample is average in any way.

Let's come up with alternative scenarios that could account for allegedly high concentrations of metals in Gazan hair:

- Hamas weapons production probably does not have very good environmental controls.
- Gaza metal shops and factories do not have adequate safeguards against toxic waste.
- The water in Gaza might be contaminated for some other reason - and the aquifier is shared with Israel.

Despite the big words that the study uses, there is no evidence that there was any scientific peer review or even that it was submitted to any scientific journal. The methodology seems to show that it would be laughed out of any serious scientific journal.

On the contrary, the press release was released to the rabidly anti-Israel Uruknet.

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons had already determined last July that there was no evidence that Israel used depleted uranium weapons or DIME weapons in Gaza (but they did find evidence of tungsten cubes as sleeves on Spike missiles.)

The "New Weapons Committee" has already shown its bias from its previous press releases that convicted Israel without any evidence, their statements of Israel using DU in Lebanon with no evidence, and the very nature of the study itself. This is not research and this is not science: it is an attempt to smear Israel by hiding behind the fig-leaf of pseudo-science that the vast majority of readers will never bother to check.

Saudi cleric calls for destruction of Grand Mosque in Mecca

A hardline Saudi cleric, Youssef al-Ahmed, has called for the Grand Mosque in Mecca (which houses the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam) to be destroyed!

The problem is that when Muslims go to Mecca to touch and circle the holy rock, men and women are there together. Even though this has been the status quo for decades or centuries, apparently that is not good enough. So to avoid the chance that something terrible would happen, al-Ahmed is proposing to destroy the mosque and replace it with a series of smaller structures that can allow the separation of the sexes.

al-Ahmed apparently put his opinion on YouTube. He claims that other clerics have called for the same action in years past.

He is no stranger to controversy and is not necessarily taken too seriously by the Saudis at large, but he does have a following.

Arab unity - ain't it grand?

Libya is upset that some major Arab leaders may not attend an upcoming Arab Summit scheduled for the end of March.

Six leaders might not attend. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has a good excuse, as he is recovering from surgery in Germany, but the others who are not expected to attend include leaders from Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Morocco, mostly for political reasons.

In addition, there is the fear that Libya leader Maommar Qaddafi will invite Hamas to attend as an Arab state, which may prompt Mahmoud Abbas to boycott the event as well.

Yet some Western "intellectuals" keep thinking that if only Israel would give up some land, the rest of the Middle East will turn into a peaceful oasis.

Major Muslim religious group calls for jihad against Israel

The International Association of Muslim Scholars, an organization founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi as a "moderate" alternate to Muslim extremism, has called on the entire Muslim world to start a jihad "in all its forms" to "defend" the Al Aqsa mosque from presumed desecration by the Zionists.

The "in all its forms" phrasing is meant to leave no doubt that he is calling for war. The photo illustrating the story in Palestine Today, showing coffins draped with Israeli flags, shows that the message is crystal-clear.

The statement specifically calls on Jordan and Egypt to sever relations with Israel and for the Muslim world to pressure their leaders to "do something before it is too late," i.e., start a war with Israel.

Qaradawi was considered by Newsweek to be a front-runner to take over as head of Al Azhar University after the death of Sheikh Tantawi.

The Land of Milk and Homer

From JPost (h/t Bubbe):

After 20 years of poking fun at American culture, the Simpsons are scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport to target Israel.

The episode set in the Holy Land, titled “The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed,” airs on March 28 in the US, coinciding with both Pessah Eve and Palm Sunday.

The plot involves Homer developing Jerusalem Syndrome and Marge interacting with an aggressive Israeli tour guide, voiced by Sasha Baron Cohen of Borat and Bruno fame.

“He’s trying to get Marge to give him good grades on the comment card, and she goes, ‘You people are pushy,’ and he goes, ‘What do you mean, you people? You try having Syria for a neighbor! What do you have – Canada?’” Simpsons producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly: “It’ll be a show that all faiths can come together and be offended by.”

Tamimi doesn't even pause in his lies and incitement

Sheikh Tamimi, the main architect of the lie that Israel was planning to lay the cornerstone of a new synagogue at on the Temple Mount last Tuesday and the man most responsible for the riots in Jerusalem, now has "revealed" the next fictional plan to take over the mosque.

Without a hint of apology for being so consistently wrong, Tamimi now is talking about a comprehensive Israeli plan of archaeology and tourism called "Jerusalem First" that is, of course, centered around the Al Aqsa mosque. He mentions 15 projects in this initiative, of which no less than 9 are aimed at Al Aqsa. He also mentions a new synagogue being planned to be built near or on the mosque.

As usual, I can't find any real mention of this purported plan. Jerusalem sees many plans for development, some of which work out and some which do not, like any vibrant city.

Tamimi seems to spend his day scouring the Internet to find any hint of such initiatives so he can grandly announce them to incite the Arabs to riot. He's been doing this for years. And not for a moment do the Palestinian Arabs seem to notice that 99% 0f these threats never materialize and that Tamimi is a clown. On the contrary, his statements consistently get major coverage in the Arabic press.

So, he keeps on inciting violence with his lies. When lies are an integral to the very fabric of one's culture, lying is not a shortcoming - it is an asset.

(In that same vein, the Al Qassam website has a memorial of a terrorist killed seven years ago, and in that context quotes Mohammed as saying "War is deceit." This is not in the Quran but in a hadith.)

Man murdered by Qassam

From YNet:

A 30-year-old Thai foreign worker was killed Thursday after a Qassam rocket hit the hothouse area in Netiv Ha'asara in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, north of the Gaza Strip. Magen David Adom emergency units tried to resuscitate the man, however were eventually forced to pronounce him dead.

The attack marks the third time rockets have been fired into Israeli territory in the last 24 hours. On Wednesday night a rocket exploded in an open area in Sderot. Several hours earlier another rocket landed in the region causing two people to suffer from anxiety.

The al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al-Suna Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack from the Gaza Strip.

The Al Qassam website is filled with articles that talk about how the opening of the Hurva synagogue is a great reason to kill Israeli Jews. The fact that there has been such an escalation of attacks from Gaza recently is no coincidence. Hamas maintains its hardly-plausible deniability by saying that it came from a splinter group but in fact all of the terror groups have a history of working together; not to mention that explosives cannot enter Gaza without Hamas knowing about it and approving it.

The Palestine Today website calls the victim a "settler."

(h/t Yehudit for headline)

Bizarro world: Herzl a terrorist, Arafat a statesman

From Arab News:

Brazil's president placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded.
Making the first visit by any sitting Brazilian president to Israel and the Palestinian territories, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has termed the trip a mission of peace.
Lula laid a yellow and green wreath on Arafat's mausoleum on Wednesday, following protocol for visiting leaders. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Lula because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.

JPost adds:

Foreign Ministry officials were fuming on Wednesday that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who refused to lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem, contrary to new Israeli protocol measures recently instituted, donned a keffiyeh around his shoulders and laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

“This is an insult,” one senior Foreign Ministry official said. “It is offensive that he laid a wreath at the grave of a terrorist, but not at the tomb of Zionism’s visionary."

That pretty much sums it up.

Hamas puppet show shows its love

From MEMRI (h/t The Vicious Babushka):

The following are excerpts from a Hamas TV puppet show, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 11, 2010.
'Alloush: Uncle Hassan! Uncle Hassan!
Uncle Hassan: My God, why are you so happy, 'Alloush?
'Alloush: I am like the grown-ups, watching the news.
Uncle Hassan: Good, I hope it will be a good day to watch the news.
'Alloush: I've heard a very good report. Very good.
Uncle Hassan: That good?! This report will make us happy?
'Alloush: Yes! Do you know the Ibrahimi Mosque [in Hebron]?
Uncle Hassan: Who doesn't know it? We all do.
'Alloush: Well, they have turned it into a museum.
Uncle Hassan: What?!
'Alloush: So the people – all the Jews and the Christians – can visit it.
Uncle Hassan: Are you sure that's what you heard? Are you sure?
'Alloush: Yes.
Uncle Hassan: And you are still happy?!
'Alloush: Yes, this way they will protect it and stop destroying it. People will be able to see it, but not to touch it.
Uncle Hassan: Are you out of your mind, 'Alloush?
'Alloush: Why? What's wrong?
Uncle Hassan: Do you know that this mosque, at the Cave of the Patriarchs...
'Alloush: What about it?
Uncle Hassan: It dates back to the days of Ibrahim. This is our legacy, and part of the Islamic waqf. How can you possibly be happy when a mosque – where we would worship Allah and pray to Him night and day – is turned into a synagogue and an archeological site, and the Jews come to defile it?
'Alloush: I didn't know this. What, they're making fun of us in the news?!
Uncle Hassan: No, they are telling the truth in the news, but as you can see, the whole world is in turmoil over this. This is sad news, a real catastrophe for the Arab and Islamic world, 'Alloush.
'Alloush: Those Jews want to steal the Ibrahimi Mosque?
Uncle Hassan: Yes, they want to steal it, and then make it like their false temple. They want to add it to their legacy for their future generations, 'Alloush.
'Alloush: Okay, so what should we do about this sad thing?
Uncle Hassan: Unfortunately, 'Alloush and dear children, the Arab and Islamic nation is in a slumber. A deep slumber. We must stand up. We must awaken. 'Alloush and dear children – each one of you must tell his father, his grandfather, and the rest of his family that they should all arise as one. They must rise up against the criminal Zionists, who are planning to destroy Jerusalem, and to turn the Islamic waqf into something bad. We must rise against the Zionist criminals, the enemies of Allah, and liberate Jerusalem and all the holy places. We should liberate them. Do you hear, 'Alloush?
'Alloush: Ah, now I get it. I thought the Jews wanted to enable people to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque, but it turns out that they want to steal it.
Uncle Hassan: That's right, 'Alloush. It's a good thing that you got it. Did you tell this to anyone else, or just me?
'Alloush: Just you.
Uncle Hassan: Very good. You didn't make us look bad. Do you know what people would accuse you of, if you said this in the street?
'Alloush: Of what, Uncle Hassan?
Uncle Hassan: They would accuse you of being a collaborator. They would think that you are a Zionist collaborator. I would like to tell you two things, in conclusion: We must think before we speak. Get it? We should be familiar with all our Arab and Islamic holy places, okay?
'Alloush: Okay.

Besides the obvious anti-semitism, notice the subtext - Hamas is telling kids to be careful about what they say out loud, because if they say the wrong things, they could be branded "collaborators" - and therefore killed.

Other people want their kids to ask questions, to learn, to have their own opinions. Hamas, on the other hand, warns their children not to stray from the party line at the risk of their very lives.

This is the Islamic implementation of Orwellian newspeak. Limit what people can say and you therefore can control their thoughts.

What a great message for children's TV!

Register for NORPAC MIssion to Washington

For the past two years, I attended the NORPAC Mission to Washington, speaking with members of Congress and Senators and their aides about issues of vital importance to Israel and the US.

The trip is enormously rewarding. The opportunity to speak one-on-one with elected officials is too rare for the average citizen, and they take definite notice when such a large group comes down to speak with them, and it makes an impact. Everyone who visits in person is worth a thousand phone calls or emails.

Unfortunately, I cannot attend this year, but if you live in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area I urge you to register and attend.

Trust me, you will not regret it.

Convicted felon in Gaza - pretending to be a US congressman

From Ma'an:

US Congressman Jack Shepherd entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the de facto border commission said.

Shepherd was received by members of the A'tta Mother and Child Society upon his arrival. The congressman will be in the coastal enclave for a two-day visit organized by the society.

The visit will include tours to hospitals, schools and other areas destroyed by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008.

The A'tta Mother and Child Society is the first of its kind in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Firas Press reports on this visit by this member of Congress as well.

Unfortunately, there is no representative with that name in Congress.

Thank God for the Internet, though, as I was able to find exactly who this important official is. In fact, Jack Shepard has run for the Senate in Minnesota, not to mention governor - and President!

Jack Shepard (Italy / Minnesota)

STATUS: ANNOUNCED CANDIDATE. Dr. Jack Shepard is a USAF veteran and dentist ... and a convicted felon (narcotics possession) who fled as a fugitive to Italy to avoid trial in Minnesota when he became the suspect in the arson of his dental office. Claiming he was wrongly convicted in the drug case and wrong accused in the arson, Shepard continues -- from Rome, Italy -- to run as a candidate for federal political office in Minnesota to bring attention to his demand that the conviction be overturned and the arson charge dropped. He says the drug conviction should be overturned because dentists can have narcotics in their offices and that he is innocent on the arson charges. "I never broke the law," Shepard posted on one political website. The US government has never formally requested his extradition from the Italian government, although then-prosecutor Amy Klobuchar -- now US Senator -- requested the Feds seek his return. Shepard lost a GOP primary run for US Senate in 2002 and Congress in 2004 and 2006. In his campaigns -- waged on his websites and in emails to Minnesota newspapers -- accused various Democrats of either being tied to encouraging "the Terrorists" or being "owned" by "the Israel Lobby." Related links: Shepard for President (official site), ShepardUSGov.com (Congressional campaign site), and People for Peace Group (Shepard's organization).

And now he is scamming Palestinian Arabs!

The exaggerated refugees

I just came across this interesting article from the Milwaukee Sentinel, February 19, 1971. Click to enlarge.

The more things change....

BDS loses another one at Davis

From the Divest This! blog:

On Monday evening, the forces of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) were handed a major defeat when the Davis Food Co-op, located in Davis California, turned down demands by BDS activists to put a boycott of Israeli goods to a Co-op wide vote.

While this story may not be big enough to hit the national press, the details surrounding the decision make this as significant an event in the continuing annals of BDS failure as the Presbyterian Church’s 2006 decision to abandon divestment altogether (a decision which changed the threat level of BDS from “potential issue” to “serious loser”).

Read the whole thing.

Gunbattles, kidnappings, rocket fire in Gaza. The usual.

PCHR reports that there was a gunbattle in the Jabalya camp in Gaza yesterday, in which hand grenades were used. One was injured.

Also yesterday, there was the usual kidnapping and beating of a man in Gaza:

At approximately 21:30 on Sunday, 14 March 2010, Salah al-Masri, an n employee in the Palestinian National Authority, was in a shop near his house in al-‘Oyoun Street in al-Nasser neighborhood in the north of Gaza city. In the meanwhile, a Golf car stopped, an three masked gunmen stepped down from it. At gunpoint, the gunmen forced al-Masri to get into the car. They blindfolded him with his sweater and drove him to an unknown destination. Al-Masri told PCHR that the gunmen took him into a building in an area that he does not know and questioned him about his relationship with the government in Ramallah. They tied his hands behind his back and forced him sit in a painful position, known as "Shabeh."They then violently beat him. They questioned him for several hours. During questioning, the beat him with an iron chain on his head and they tortured him with electrical shocks to his feet. At midnight, they drove him to the currency market in the east of Gaza city. They left him there and drove away.

During the last three weeks, PCHR documented two similar attacks in Rafah and in Deir al-Balah town in the southern and central Gaza Strip respectively. In Rafah, Hammad Mohammed Abu Jazar, 42, was kidnapped and tortured by masked gunmen. According to Abu Jazar, on Saturday evening, 13 March 2010, a Hyundai car intercepted him while on his way to his house in al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah. Two gunmen in civil clothes stepped down from the car and forced Abu Jazar to get into the car at gunpoint. They drove him to an unknown destination. Abu Jazar stated that the gunmen who were in the car beat him with their hands and gun butts throughout his body. They accused him of insulting Mohammed Shamali, a member of the Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas, who was killed on 14 August 2009 in armed clashes that took place in the vicinity of Ibn Taymeya Mosque. Fifteen minutes later, the gunmen dumped him near the border area. Abu Jazar then called one of his friends who came and transferred him to the hospital for medical treatment.

On 02 March, Yousef Fu'ad al-Ma’ni, 21, from Deir al-Balah, was kidnapped and tortured by unknown gunmen. According to statements given by al-Ma’ni to PCHR, he was tortured by unknown persons who pressured him to sign and fingerprint documents that he does not know what they were for. They then drove him to an unknown destination, hit him on his head with a sharp tool and dumped him in the street.

PCHR is loathe to accuse Hamas outright of these kidnappings, of course, but most of them indeed seem to be done by Hamas security forces.

You know, those freedom fighters that people like George Galloway love so much. I don't know about the freedom part, but they sure love to fight!

Also, a Qassam rocket exploded immediately after launch near Beit Lahiya today.