Cleric on Egypt TV: "Heavy metal is Zionist"

A great clip from MEMRI, transcript here:

Interviewer: You like heavy metal music, but unfortunately, you have to deal with many misconceptions in our society, which views you, at times… Let’s be frank, people call you Satan worshippers. I am sure you’ve heard this. I was surprised to hear that some of your parties have developed into a national security issue.

[…]

Nirmin Magdi, fine arts student: Heavy metal is just music. It has nothing to do with Satan worshipping.

Bassem Ali, student of pharmaceutics: I would like to say something. It’s better to play guitar or have a hobby than watch porn films on the Internet.

Karim ‘Ammad, student of hotel management: Instead of accusing us of worshipping Satan or whatever, they should talk to us and try to understand the way we think.

[…]

Tuhami Muntasir, former advisor to the Mufti of Egypt: It has become clear that this is being funded, and that it is sponsored organized Zionist activity. They get money from various sources – maybe from Cyprus, maybe from Israel… What they do at their parties…

Interviewer: Do you get money from any source?

Karim ‘Ammad: If we did, would we be in such a poor state? What money? This is the first time I’m hearing this claim.

Tuhami Muntasir: I am talking about confessions of people who were caught…

Karim ‘Ammad: What you said sums it up. You’re talking about the past. Today there’s nothing…

Tuhami Muntasir: I am talking about confessions of people who were caught… I am not done yet.

Bassem Ali: Go ahead, finish.

Tuhami Muntasir: Let me tell you that the phenomenon that we are witnessing right now is a clear manifestation of a well-funded Zionist campaign, which is based on a “constitution” – The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. With your permission, I am not done yet. Protocols of the Elders of Zion – that founding constitution… What does Zionism want to accomplish? You are an intellectual, and you know this. It wants to rule the world.

Interviewer: Let’s be reasonable.

Tuhami Muntasir: It wants to rule the world. Let me finish. It wants to rule the world. Zionism has means to do so, and it has priorities. The Zionists say: We will establish clubs and we will draw people, who have certain characteristics and who are willing to collaborate, and we will bring them to the top of the pyramid…

Interviewer: But they are not spies…

Tuhami Muntasir: The third priority of the Elders of Zion is drug trafficking, and facilitating the spread of abomination, so that societies become enslaved to their desires and urges…

Interviewer: Let’s return to the heavy metal fans…

Tuhami Muntasir: That way, the countries will collapse with no need to resort to weapons. Ruling the world is the real and stated goal of global Zionism.

Interviewer: The question that needs to be asked is what this has to do with these young people, who like heavy metal music, wear these clothes, and perform these rites?

Tuhami Muntasir: How can they say they like heavy metal, if they haven’t listened to Umm Kulthum, Abd Al-Halim Hafez, Farid Al-Atrash, Amr Diab, and all the other singers? This is beyond the question of whether you like this music or not. This has become an ideology. There is an organized ideology aimed at alienating and dissolving one’s identity.

I am willing to share that the heavy metal branch of the International Zionist Web is active and thriving, but not nearly as much as the rap and hip-hop branches.

Although this goes without saying, Tuhami Muntasir is also on the Zionist payroll. In fact, we invent people like him just so MEMRI has a lot of wonderful clips of moronic Islamic clerics. I could show you a photocopy of his paycheck, but it might get him killed and he is a very, very valuable asset.

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White House looking to engage Hezbollah

A very scary article by Barry Rubin indicates pretty strongly that the Obama administration is looking to mainstream Hezbollah.

Can things get worse with the Obama Administration's foreign-and especially Middle East--policy? Yes, it's not inevitable but I have just seen personally a dangerous example of what could be happening next.

I have received a letter asking me personally to help with a research project. I have spoken to well-informed people who tell me that the statements I am about to quote are accurate. It is highly possible that the link with the Obama Administration is exaggerated, but this indeed does come from the White House's favorite think tank.

While not mentioning the names of those involved they are known for supporting the idea that Hizballah is really quite moderate. The letter says that this is a project for the Center for American Progress and that the results "will be presented to senior U.S. policymakers in the administration."

I am asked to participate by giving my opinions on how the United States can deal with Hizballah "short of engagement" and "would Israeli leaders see benefit in the U.S. talking with Hizballah about issues which are of crucial importance to Israel?"

Answer to first question: Oppose it in every way possible.

Answer to second question: What the [insert obscene words I don't use] do you think they would say!

The letter continues:

"As you've noted, some like John Brennan [advisor to the president on terrorism] is already thinking about a more flexible policy towards Hizballah and it would be extremely useful to get your views on this to ensure anything decided is done properly."

I read this letter-and that impression is confirmed by those knowledgeable about this project and those involved-as saying that the Center for American Progress is going to issue a report calling for U.S. engagement with Hizballah, and that it has been encouraged to do so by important officials in the Obama Administration.

The phrase "to ensure anything decided is done properly," I take as a give-away to the fact that they are going to push for direct dealing with Hizballah but want to be able to say that they had listened to alternative views.

They merely, I am told by those who know about this project, intend to talk to some who disagree for appearances' sake and throw in a sentence or two to give the report the slightest tinge of balance.

The person heading this project has already endangered the lives of brave Lebanese. For example, he claimed without foundation that Christians were planning to launch a war on Hizballah, providing a splendid rationale for Hizballah to murder opponents on the excuse of doing so in self-defense. Accepting Hizballah rule is defined as the Christians recognizing they are a minority and trying to get along with their Muslim neighbors.

In other words, those opposing Hizballah are presented as aggressors while Hizballah is just the reasonable party that wants to get along. Moreover all this leaves out the community, about the same size as the Christians and Shia Muslims, that has been leading the resistance to Syria, Iran, and Hizballah: the Sunni Muslims.

In short, the person directing the project talks like a virtual agent of Hizballah and its allies, basically repeating what they tell him.

Read the whole thing.

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Incredible Reuters bias in article on Easter in Jerusalem

From Reuters:

As a boy growing up in Jerusalem, Yacoub Dahdal saw Christians from all over the Middle East converge on the city at Easter time to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

Thousands would be hosted in the homes of the city's residents. Many would depart the city as godparents to newly born Jerusalemites baptized during the pilgrimage season.

"It was a festival with every meaning of the word," said Dahdal, now aged 72 and a senior member of the Palestinian Christian community in Jerusalem. "The Egyptians would come by train, the Lebanese and Syrians by bus," he said.

"Imagine when you were down in the Old City, you would hear all the different accents: Lebanese, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian, mixed together," he said. "It was a real joy."

Today, he reflects on a very different Easter atmosphere in a city where tension is often more apparent than spirituality.

OK, let's see how things are different:

The home where he was born in the Old City's Muslim quarter, just a short walk from the First Station of the Cross, is today adorned with Israeli flags and houses settlers who have moved in since Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.

So the existence of Jews in a city that they had lived in for centuries is a major problem for people who celebrate Easter?

What else?

Since that conflict, the flow of pilgrims from neighboring Arab states has dried up. Syria and Lebanon remain in a state of war with Israel. Few Egyptians or Jordanians make the trip, though their governments have made peace with the Jewish state.

And who, exactly, is stopping them from making this trip? It certainly isn't Israel, which would welcome them. Yet the tone of the article, especially the previous paragraph non-sequitor, implies that it is Israel.

Christian pilgrims still fly in for Easter, from Germany, Peru or Russia, as tourists on a once-in-a-lifetime visit who are largely unaware of Israeli restrictions -- apart from the obvious fact that police seem to be around every corner.

Reuters has not as of yet mentioned any restrictions. And, in fact, thousands of Christians do fly in from other countries - Christians who would have had much more difficulty in visiting Jerusalem before Israeli rule.

But the number of Palestinian pilgrims has fallen to a fraction of its former level. Local Christians warn that centuries-old traditions are at risk of dying out.

Israeli security measures, they say, have obstructed their access to Jerusalem and its holy sites, chief among them the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered as the site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Ah, so Israeli restrictions are supposedly keeping the Palestinian Christians out. Of course, Israeli restrictions apply to Jews and Muslims as well as to where they could safely go in Jerusalem, and security is a real issue, as there were riots in Jerusalem a mere couple of weeks ago. But Reuters can't be bothered to believe that Israel is justified in what is clearly an injustice, even one that Reuters cannot quite define.

Palestinians who live in the West Bank, including Bethlehem, and the Gaza Strip -- also occupied by Israel in 1967 -- need a permit to get into Jerusalem.

Israel says it has issued 10,000 permits to West Bank residents this year as an Easter goodwill gesture. Five hundred were issued to Christians in Gaza, who number several thousand.

Israel has given out over 10,000 permits for Palestinian Christians to come to Jerusalem. The implication is that this is a huge reduction from the number that came in the 1940s. We'll see if that is true.

As a result, there has been a big drop in local participation in Easter week ceremonies, say Christian figures. Last year, for example, no more than a few hundred Palestinians made it to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the ceremony of Holy Fire, when believers gather to witness the emergence of candles lit by a miracle in the tomb of Jesus.

Though it falls on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, local Christians of all denominations have attended the ceremony for generations in what has always been a major community event.

But how many?

"There used to be thousands, or tens of thousands," said Qupty. "Today, last year, if I said hundreds, I'd be exaggerating," he said.

If tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians descended on Jerusalem in the good old days, it should have been mentioned in the newspapers.

Here is a report from 1955, when Jordan controlled the Old City of Jerusalem:
So in the good old days, some 5000 pilgrims from all nations managed to get to Jerusalem for the festivities - half of the number of permits that Israel gives to Palestinian Christians alone this year!

Palestine Post archives from the 1930s and 1940s mirror the same facts - a few thousand pilgrims would come every year.
Some years the turnout would be worse than usual for various reasons - construction, or war, or riots.

In 1938, for example, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was closed due to to public safety concerns over the danger of parts of ot collapsing. That year they had expected 4000 Copts and 700 Orthodox pilgrims.

(Before the British took control of Palestine, the annual Easter services would often turn violent as the competing Christian sects would fight over who has ownership and precedence of various holy sites.)

In other words, contrary to what Reuters writes, the number of pilgrims attending Holy Week services has increased significantly under Israeli rule. And even the number of Palestinian Christians allowed to participate is higher than the number that attended when Jerusalem was under British or Jordanian rule.

All of this is happening at the same time that the number of Christians in the Palestinian Arab territories has been reduced significantly in recent years because of Islamic persecution. This little fact was also omitted by Reuters.

Reuters has put together a hugely inflammatory and biased report that uncritically parrots the complaints of Palestinian Arabs without even bothering to check the most basic facts.

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Revisiting the elephants in the room, plus one more

PA prime minister Salam Fayyad was interviewed in Ha'aretz where he went into some detail about his plan to unilaterally declare a Palestinian Arab state next year.

His plan has dovetailed with noises coming out of the White House and the EU, and there seems to be growing enthusiasm for this move.

A couple of times over the past two years I published lists of "elephants in the room" that the wishful thinkers like to ignore. Fayyad is saying all the right things for Western consumption, but how do his statements hold up against the elephants?

Elephant 1: Hamas controls Gaza
Fayyad dismisses this in two paragraphs that don't say anything of substance:

People in Gaza are looking at us as well, and saying they also want to have a better life. Look at how fragmented we are in the West Bank, but Gaza you can cover from north, south, east, and west 10-20 times a day. What took us a year to do in the West Bank can be accomplished in two months in Gaza.

"Who would have thought a couple years ago there would be this transformation in the mind-set? Not many thought that possible. All you have to do is travel beyond Ramallah and see for yourself. It's a changed reality.

He is ignoring Hamas completely, implying that a declared state will magically make Hamas disappear and melt into the PA. The only problem is that there is no basis to believe that in reality. His declared "state" would include a territory that is ruled by terrorists, and he would demand that the world recognize it as if it was under PA control.

In addition, the only change in PalArab West Bank mindset, as far as I could tell, is economic, not political. I have yet to see a single example of Arabic comments on stories about Gaza aggression that are remotely peaceful. Plenty of people hate Hamas but no one is against killing Jews to the extent that they would say so publicly.

And the economic boom in the West Bank is because of Netanyahu, not Fayyad.

Elephant 2: Palestinian Arabs elected a terror government
Elephant 3: The current PA government was not elected
Elephant 4: The current PA government has almost no power
Elephant 5: The PA is being kept alive by artificial methods

All of these issues are continuously ignored. There are no elections on the horizon. The last elections not only chose Hamas for a national government but also for practically every local government outside Ramallah. The legality of the current PA is questionable even within the PA's own laws. And the PA still gets the bulk of its support from the West, not from its own people.

Fayyad has been working on building institutions, a move that was decades overdue. But he has no political support from within. He has no following. He is not a member of Fatah, and in the end, Fatah is the power behind the PA - and the PA is not independent but it answers to the PLO, another little fact that the West is unaware of or ignores.

Elephant 6: Fatah remains a terrorist group paid by the PA

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has been keeping a lower profile but it has not been dismantled. In Gaza, Hamas has arrested much of its leadership, but in the West Bank it is simply waiting for the opportunity to re-emerge.

Elephant 7: The first - and second - stages of the roadmap were never implemented

Fayyad's plan is explicitly rejecting the roadmap and is a unilateral action. This means, of course, that Israel could do the same. If Israel annexes the large settlement blocs - a move that the vast majority of Israelis support - then the declared Palestinian Arab state would start off without any borders.

Elephant 8: The PA's goal remains the destruction of Israel

I don't believe that this is Fayyad's goal, but it is Abbas' goal, as can be seen by his actions. It is Fatah's goal and it is the PLO's goal. And in the end, Abbas is Fayyad's boss.

Elephant 9: Jerusalem

It might have moved to the forefront, so it is not as ignored as it was, but it remains the major point of disagreement. The PA's requirements on Jerusalem is an indication that a state is not its goal, as a state could function just fine with Ramallah as its capital. Their insistence on Jerusalem is simply meant to disassociate Jerusalem from Judaism.

Elephant 10: What happened to Gaza when Israel withdrew

Gaza could have become a Singapore when Israel left. Instead, it became Afghanistan. The only thing that has kept the West Bank relatively stable over the past few years has been the presence and threat of the IDF - but the world has forgotten what the West Bank was like while the intifada raged and the "peaceful" PA was in charge.

Elephant 11: Palestinian Arab "unity"

Unless the PA gives up on Gaza, Hamas has effective veto power over any moves made by the PA. Any "unification" agreement - which is no closer today than it was last year or two years ago - would inevitably mean that the PA positions would harden to accommodate Hamas. And Hamas is never going to give up on its desire for destroying Israel sooner rather than later. Just they would then have access to more American weapons.

Elephant 12: The Palestinian Arab "diaspora" and Arab intransigence

Fayyad states that his state would welcome Palestinian "refugees." This means that the Arab policy of not granting statehood to those who choose not to move to "Palestine" would become untenable. This would mean that Arab nations like Syria and Lebanon would have a choice: offer citizenship to the hundreds of thousands of "Palestinians" who live within their borders, or force them all to move to "Palestine" where they would quickly overwhelm the existing infrastructure.

And very possibly radicalize the minority who really does accept Israel.

This elephant will grow large indeed.

Elephant 13: Economics

This is something that has improved. Even so, the Palestinian Arab economy is far from self-sustaining and the attitude of entitlement is still there, especially in the camps that many still live in - even under PA control. Add the thousands of new residents and we have a big problem.

Elephant 14: Gaza demographics

Gazans are still having lots of kids, and nowhere to put them. Most will not want to move to the West Bank, where the culture is different, and Egypt won't take them. they will continue to use this to pressure Israel even if somehow Gaza comes under the PA.

Elephant 15: Palestinian Arab leaders never showed interest in independence

If we take Fayyad at his word, then exactly one has. As mentioned, he has no constituency within his own people. He was never even elected.

And it is hard to take Fayyad at his word, when he answers a question this vaguely:

Q: What are you doing to stop incitement against Israel?

A: Incitement can take the form of many things - things said, things done, provocations - but there are ways for dealing with this. We are dealing with this.

Too bad he cannot give a single example.

Fayyad points to another very large elephant that hadn't been mentioned:

Elephant 16: A unilateral Palestinian Arab state would be militarized

In the interview Fayyad says the Palestinians want an independent and sovereign state, emphasizing they are "not looking for a state of leftovers - a Mickey Mouse state."

This is a codeword for a full army and full control over airspace. Fayyad's state would allow him or his radical successor to invite Syria to position anti-aircraft weapons within its territory; to shoot missiles at El Al planes landing a few miles from the Green Line, or to get a few thousand tanks poised to cut Israel in half.

Iran already effectively controls Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. They would use the nascent state of Palestine to position themselves on the West Bank as well. Just like the PA ran away from Gaza at the first sign of trouble, so would they abandon their state to Iranian proxies and Islamic terrorists.

Their will to defend themselves is not nearly as strong as their will to destroy Israel, a desire that has been inculcated in them for generations. Palestinian Arab nationalism is a fundamentally weak and externally-imposed construct. Iran is poised and anxious to take advantage of the chaos that would follow a unilaterally declared state.

But the West is ready to risk Israel for that elephant as well.

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Malaysians freak over alleged super-indirect ties to Israel

For the past 18 months, the Malaysian government has been waging a campaign to increase pride and unity among citizens. This campaign is called "1Malaysia."

Two weeks ago, an opposition leader accused the government noticed the slogan "One Israel," and made an assumption that the consultants that helped come up with the 1Malaysia campaign were also behind the One Israel campaign (which was, in fact, a short-lived political party as well as the name of a charity in Israel.)

Now the government is in an uproar, with lots of articles about these accusations and the denials both by the government and the alleged PR firm.

Wow, the Malaysian branch of the Elders has been working overtime!

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Bahraini football team criticized for planned PalArab game

From The National, in an episode that is mirroring what happened with Egypt recently:

A friendly football match between Bahrain and Palestine that is set to take place in the West Bank next month has drawn criticism from parliament, civil society groups and some of the players who say the match amounts to a step towards normalisation of relations with Israel.

Bahraini players and team delegates would have to be approved and have their passports stamped by the Israeli authorities – who control the West Bank’s entry and exit points – and that has been at the heart of the controversy.

“Even if the passports of the players were not stamped by the Israeli authorities, the BFF should not justify the normalisation policy because such a visit would still count as complicity [with Israel],” the Islamic Brotherhood MP Naser al Fadalah said in parliament on Tuesday.

He also criticised the foreign minister for pushing ahead with what he described as efforts to normalise relations with the “Zionist entity”, which continues to “desecrate” Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site to Muslims, and kill Palestinians.

The Bahrain Society Against Normalisation with the Zionist Enemy also criticised the move, describing it as an obvious attempt to normalise relations with Israel, and called on the players to refuse to participate in the match.

“The support for holding the game clearly reveals continued plans by the Bahraini government to impose normalisation with the Zionist enemy on the Bahraini people,” the society’s spokesman, Abdulla Malik, said. “The Arab governments that continue to march into the quagmire of normalisation and surrender to US and Zionist conditions are trying under various means to convince their people and encourage them to normalise relations with the Zionist entity and fool them by alleging that holding sporting, cultural or technical events in the occupied territories does not reflect normalisation with the Zionists.”

Mr Malik also appealed to the players to refuse to participate in the game as other Arab players and coaches have done before, calling on Islamic leaders here to issue edicts in line with those issued by Palestinian Islamic scholars that say any visits to the occupied territories that involve Israel’s stamping of the visitor’s passport is considered normalisation.

Many of the players have also publicly announced that they oppose taking part in the game.

“The team is against playing in the occupied territories. It is against our morals and beliefs, which oppose the occupation and the Zionist entity,” said Hussain Ali, one of the team’s strikers, who is nicknamed “Bilay” after the Brazilian legend, Pele.

“Even if a decision is taken to send the team I will decline to participate. I refuse to have an Israeli stamp in my Bahraini passport.”

The match is set for May 28 and will be played at the Faisal al Husseini stadium in Al Ram, near Jerusalem, and while no final decision has been made yet on whether it will take place, it remains highly unlikely that the BFF would be able to convince the players to take part in it.

More evidence, as if any was needed, that the people who pretend to support Palestinian Arabs the most are the ones who do the least for them, and that hate for Israel is much stronger than any love they have for "Palestine."

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In Turkey, NGOs and terrorists are indistinguishable

On March 19th, there was a large rally in Istanbul to protest Israeli actions and rumors of Israeli actions in Jerusalem.

As the World Bulletin writes, the rally was organized by "several NGOs."

AHN reports that the organizations that organized the protest included "AKDAV, Aqaba, Civilization Foundation, Human and Civilization Movement, IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, Mazlum-Der, Ozgur-Der, Research and Cultural Foundation and Wisdom Foundation."

These all sound like they care a lot about human rights, don't they?

The photos of the rally from the World Bulletin include Hezbollah flags.


Palestine Today is now publishing photos that show that protesters were also showing their support for Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups:

Flags for Islamic Jihad, the PIJ Al Quds Brigades and Hezbollah.

The photo on the T-shirt is of Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shaqaqi.

Al Quds Brigades flag.

IHH is recognized by the UNHCR as an NGO. It is also one of the groups supporting the Free Gaza organization, and it has been banned by Israel.

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Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza? Um, no.

Ma'an breathlessly reports:

Israeli planes threw thousands of leaflets onto border areas of the Gaza Strip overnight, residents reported, as they woke up to read a paper saying "Await the response tomorrow." statements during the night on different areas on the borders between Gaza and Israel.

The paper pictured a child carrying a flower, with the Arabic phrase, Intdhar al-rud ghada in script over top.

Witnesses said the warnings were dropped in several places, including east of Khan Younis where Friday violence killed two resistance fighters and two Israeli soldiers. Other pamphlets were reportedly dropped in the Johr Ad-Dik area on the eastern border of the central Strip.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was unfamiliar with any such action in Gaza.

The story is illustrated with a picture of a leaflet dropped during Cast Lead.

So, does it make any sense that Israel would drop leaflets with such vague threats? The only way one can believe this is if one is already predisposed to the idea that the IDF's main job is to terrorize Gazans for fun.

And, in fact, the story is completely unfounded. The Islamic Jihad-aligned Palestine Today investigated the rumors and found them to be false.

The Palestinian Arab press is quick to publish false rumors and lies as facts, as I have documented dozens of times. As in this story, these rumors are very often said to be corroborated by "witnesses."

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Egypt finds another weapons cache destined for Gaza

From Ma'an:

Egyptian security sources said officers discovered a large arms warehouse in the country's north, containing some 100 anti-aircraft missiles, 45 missile launchers, 40 bombs and an RPG missile.

The northern Sinai cache was reportedly discovered east of Nakhel city, one day after a smaller arms warehouse and two smugglers were detained. Inteligence on the first find was allegedly gathered from the interrogation of 12 children who fled Gaza via the tunnels earlier in the week.

If the allegations are true, the children of Gaza would appear to know more about the weapons smuggling than any Western media agency - that employs Gazan adults.

That is, if you believe that the Gazan reporters actually do any real reporting, as opposed to what Hamas allows them to say.

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Muslims warn against April Fools Day

Firas Press publishes a long missive detailing the history of April Fools pranks, and concluding that it is a major Islamic sin to act like the non-Muslims in this day dedicated to "lying."

It warns Muslims not to imitate the infidels who celebrate April Fools Day. It quotes Mohammed as being against jokes, saying "Woe for the one who talks to make people laugh and tells lies, woe to him, woe to him."

It would be funnier if I was making this up, but I'm not.

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Hamas celebrates two female "martyrs"

The Al Qassam Brigades website has added two female "martyrs" to its ever-growing list.

Here's a picture of the first one:
And here's what the second one looks like:


The resemblance is striking!

Both women were allegedly killed on October 27, 2007, by a "Zionist shell" as they were doing some "charity" work for Hamas.

The only problem is, the PCHR lists no women killed by Israel that week, nor the week before and not the week after, in Gaza.

It looks like it is time for martyr inflation!

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Pig blood in cigarette filters?

Al Arabiya reports:

A new study reveals cigarettes may contain traces of pig's blood which could be “very offensive” to Muslims and other religious groups, Australia’s The Australian reported on Tuesday.

University of Sydney Professor Simon Chapman referred to a “recent Dutch research which identified 185 different industrial uses of a pig - including the use of its haemoglobin in cigarette filters,” The Australian said.

"I think that there would be some particularly devout groups who would find the idea that there were pig products in cigarettes to be very offensive," Chapman.

The discovery places more than 100 million Muslim Arabs in an extremely awkward situation, especially considering that several fatwas have already been issued prohibiting smoking altogether. This new information would make the previous prohibition all the more valid for Muslims.

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Report that Hamas robbed Gaza bank (updated)

Palestine Today reports:

Armed elements from Hamas today took control of a branch of the Bank of Palestine in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, and confiscated a million shekels.

Local sources reported that, in the wake of this incident, the management of the bank decided to close all its branches in the Gaza Strip.

In a completely different news story, the PA announced a $3.9 billion budget for 2010, of which some $1.5 billion will go towards the Gaza Strip.

All the money that the PA gives Gaza is money that Hamas can free up to buy weapons and to avoid any responsibility for the people under its direct control.

And, as we see, Hamas has some rather novel ways to raise money itself.

UPDATE: More details from Al Arabiya:

Hamas security forces took $400,000 from a bank in the Gaza Strip on Monday, in a direct challenge to Palestinian authorities in the West Bank who had frozen the money to comply with money laundering regulations.

Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, said the men were executing a court order to seize the assets of a medical organization, the Patient's Friend Association.

Seeking to apply global regulations against money laundering, the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) froze the association's account after its board fell under Hamas control, banking sources said.

The PMA described Monday's seizure, the first time Hamas had challenged the authority, as a "sinful attack".

Ehab al-Ghsain, spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said Monday's move was "the implementation of a judicial decision." The association had "resorted to court after the Fatah government froze its account in the bank," he said.

One employee of the Bank of Palestine, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the Hamas policemen had forced the staff to open the bank's vault and acted "aggressively".

"They took 1.5 million shekels ($400,000) and signed a paper showing the amount of money they had taken," the employee said.

It was the first time Hamas had challenged the PMA, which functions as regulator of the Palestinian banking system in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"This is a serious development. We are investigating the matter and then we will take the appropriate action," Jihad al-Wazir, the governor of the PMA, told Reuters. He declined to give details about the raid.

In a statement, the PMA called on Hamas to "abide by the rule of law to safeguard the soundness of the banks so that they can keep providing services to the people."

Banks in the Gaza Strip would stage a strike on Tuesday to protest at the raid, Wazir said. Around a dozen banks, Palestinian- and Arab-owned, still function in the Gaza Strip, though their headquarters are in the West Bank.

Well, bank robbing is pretty easy for Hamas. They already have the masks.

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Must read: "The Future of an Illusion"

By Elliott Abrams:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned, it seems, to direct the Middle East policy of the Obama administration.

Since the Oslo Accords of 1993, 17 years of efforts under three American presidents and six Israeli prime ministers have taught five clear lessons. Each of them is being ignored by President Obama, which is why his own particular “peace process” has so greatly harmed real efforts at peace. Today the only factor uniting Palestinian, Israeli, and Arab leaders is distrust of the quality, sagacity, and reliability of American leadership in the region.

What are the lessons the Obama team is ignoring?

1. Israel’s flexibility is dependent on its sense of security.

2. The failure to set standards for Palestinian conduct hurts the cause of peace.

3. Israeli withdrawals do not lead to peace unless law and order can be maintained by responsible security forces.

4. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is not the center of world, Arab, or Muslim politics.

5. The ‘peace process’ retards peace.

Read the whole thing.

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick in a great essay of his own)

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Another picture of Jews "storming" the Temple Mount

In a story about alleged Jewish plans to storm the Temple Mount on Passover, Palestine Today illustrates the article with another image of Jewish desecration of the Temple Mount:

Shocking!

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