Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Work accident!

Two terrorists were killed in the Deir al-Balah camp in Gaza, in what is an apparent "work accident" where the explosives they were working on blew up a bit earlier than they had intended. Their bodies were literally blown to bits, and they have not yet been identified, and we do not yet know which group they belonged to.

This makes at least ten terrorists killed this year so far in "work accidents."

Human rights officials rushed to condemn the fact that terror groups place innocent Gazans at risk by building bomb factories in densely populated areas.

Just kidding!

Quran ripped. Nobody rioted.

From the Gulf Daily News (Bahrain):

A female inmate faces an extra year in jail and BD200 fine for ripping up a copy of the Quran.

The Bahraini woman was already serving a one-month jail sentence for insulting police officers and trying to assault them.

However, she was seen ripping pages out of the Quran and throwing them into the bin by staff at the Dry Dock Detention Centre. The defendant, who has admitted desecrating the Quran in the Lower Criminal Court, said she did it without a reason and had no regrets. A judge yesterday adjourned the trial until April 27 to issue a verdict.

When a Muslim desecrates the Quran, the reaction seems to be a bit lighter than when a Christian is accused of doing so.

ElBaradei interview appears to have been faked

YNet reported on Wednesday:

Former IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is considering contending in Egypt's presidential elections next year, expressed his support for the "Palestinian resistance" while slamming Israel.

In a report published Tuesday, the experienced diplomat said that Palestinian violence was the only path open to the Palestinian people, because "the Israeli occupation only understands the language of violence."

According to the report from the UPI news agency, ElBaradei started the ball rolling with a meeting Monday with members of his movement, thus making it clear to Israel how relations between the states will be after the elections – if he wins. According to Ibrahim Nawar, a senior figure in the movement, ElBaradei also said, "The peace process has become a stupid joke which we talk about without achieving any progress."

The former International Atomic Energy Agency leader criticized the fence which Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak set up along the Gaza Strip border. The fence "hurts Egypt's reputation," he said. "It appears to be participation in the siege of Gaza, which has become the world's largest prison."

"The logical solution to the problem," he continued, "would be to close the tunnels and open border crossings while creating a free trade zone in Rafah where Palestinians can trade and then return to Gaza."

Where did this story come from? A search on the UPI website finds no such interview with ElBaradei.

As far as I can tell, the first place that this story was published was in the Al Qassam Brigades (Hamas) website, although it might have been first published by Iran's PressTV, whose story is identical to Al Qassam's.

If the story was true, it would be a bombshell - a Nobel Peace Prize winner saying that he supports terrorism, and someone who wants to be the Prime Minister of Egypt suggesting that Egypt's sovereignty be compromised by opening the border with Gaza?

However, it looks like it was made up. From Bikya Masr:

Upon further checking and a message received by Ali ElBaradei, the opposition leader’s brother and press contact, it appears the entire “interview” was made up.

“If you are referring to the interview with that Palestinian media agency, it is total bogus,” the brother told Bikya Masr. “He never gave such an interview.”

It begs the question as to why an organization would create a false interview with such a high profile Egyptian politician. According to Mohamed Latif, a Palestinian media analyst and blogger based in Ramallah, the idea was probably to create solidarity with the Palestinian cause, “after so much frustration with Egyptian political leaders.”

However, Latif believes that fabricating such interviews will do more harm than good to other Palestinian news organizations and agencies who seek proper news gathering.

“Now, it will be even harder for Palestinian reporters and organizations to deal with ElBaradei because there will be a lot of suspicion as to how the quotes will be used and rightfully so,” he added.

Here in Cairo, activists are dumbfounded, as the interview shocked many who wondered why ElBaradei would have said such comments in the first place.

So was it Hamas that made it up, or Iran?

And more importantly, why did YNet (and Arutz-7) believe the story without even checking with UPI?

Hillary's wishful thinking

Here is part of what Hillary Clinton said yesterday at the dedication of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace:

I am one of those people who does believe that peace is possible, not out of any misplaced idealism or whatever remnants of naiveté may still pulse somewhere in one or two cells left in my body – (laughter) – but because it has to happen. It has to happen.

Is this the thinking of the Secretary of State of the United States? That the reason peace is possible is because "it has to happen??"

This sounds like the thinking of an abused woman who married her abuser because, after all, he has to change.

This is not only naivete - it is the triumph of wishful thinking over reality. This is not only a problem with this administration or even this nation, of course, but it has rarely been so succinctly and explicitly put.

To hear one of the most powerful people on the planet spewing such nonsense is a very frightening thought. The reality is that the current generation of Palestinian Arabs are not able to adhere to any real peace with Jews controlling what they consider Arab land forever. The peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, while wonderful in the sense of quieting down the borders, are very far from the real definition of "peace" - in fact, the level of hate for Jews in those countries are higher than in most Arab countries that do not recognize Israel. This is not a problem that can be solved in this generation.

Realizing that some problems are not solvable is not a failure; it is an acknowledgment of reality. Once this is understood, then problems no longer need to be solved - they need to be managed, which is a very different issue and requires a very different approach.

Unlike the illusory "peace," it also has the potential of being possible.

"Iran could produce missile that could hit the US"

From AP:

Iran could build a nuclear bomb in a year's time if it wants to, but would need more time to make the weapon usable against an enemy, U.S. officials told Congress on Wednesday.

Having said that Iran could amass sufficient highly enriched uranium to build one bomb in roughly a year, Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that a nation driving for a weapon generally needs three to five additional years to make the leap to a bomb it can field.

The timeline Cartwright cited Wednesday could be shortened if Iran pursued ways to deliver a weapon at the same time as it worked to build a bomb.

It seems that Cartwright is saying that Iran is 3-5 years away from having the ability to deliver a nuclear bomb on a missile. (The idea that Iran is not working on a delivery system in concert with building the bomb appears dangerously shortsighted to me as well. Why on earth would the systems have to be developed serially?)

He seems not to be concerned that such a bomb could be delivered easily over land or via a ship.

Imagine, for example, another Iranian weapons ship being discovered by Israel like last year's boat with thousands of tons of weapons. Israel took that ship into port to catalog the weapons. What if one of them was nuclear - with a remote trigger?

Or what about Free Gaza's upcoming flotilla of ships meant to go to Gaza - but with a high probability that Israel will intercept it?

Iran doesn't need a missile to deliver a nuclear bomb to its most likely intended target. It just needs a person willing to kill himself for jihad.

I don't think there is a shortage of such people.

Iran is also pursuing an aggressive ballistic missile program, and with outside help could produce an intercontinental missile capable of reaching the United States, a top intelligence official told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

It already has missiles that can reach much of Europe, as well as most of the Arab world. While I'm not a rocket expert, the fact that Iran has sent satellites into space seems to me to be an indication that they already have the know-how to build an ICBM even without outside help.

Hamas says yesterday's executions only the beginning

A Hamas politician, Khalil al-Hayya, has said that the executions of two "collaborators" yesterday is only the beginning.

He said that the spies in Gaza has only two choices: "Either to return to the warm bosom of their people to find forgiveness, or the alternative that was seen today."

Of course, those who seek forgiveness also get executed, so the upside seems a little murky.

There was a political aspect to these executions as well. They are a slap in the face of Mahmoud Abbas, as the PA law states that all executions must be approved by the president.

PalArab sources reveal latest evil Zionist plans

Once again, intrepid and unnamed Palestinian Arab sources have revealed in great detail the evil plans of the Zionists to further Judaize Jerusalem.

The latest report is that Israel plans to build a "Museum of the Temple" directly outside the Al Aqsa Mosque's western side, and also a synagogue that will be even larger than the recently re-opened Hurva. Even worse, this synagogue will be even larger than the Al Aqsa Mosque itself! The synagogue even has a name, "Holy Light."

I have no idea is any of this has the slightest relationship with reality, as apparently Palestinian Arabs manage to find out about Jewish plans before the Jews do.

Although it would be nice.

Uproar in Saudi Arabia over donkeys on textbook cover

PalTimes reports that a math textbook in Saudi Arabia is causing a furor.

The cover shows a cartoon image of two donkeys, one large and one small, that seem to represent a teacher and student. Saudi teachers are very upset that they are being represented by a donkey.

Teh undersecretary of education agreed to discuss this serious matter with officials.

PalArab scholar upset at Hebrew-named sites in Jerusalem

I saw variants of this article in a few Palestinian Arab publications over the past few days; this one is from PalTimes.

An Arab researcher has discovered that Jews have been naming many Jerusalem sites with Hebrew names over the past 125 years!

The reason, according to him, is obvious. It is to obliterate those many years of Palestinian Arab history and identity. Because, you see, the idea that Jews really have a historic and emotional connection to Jerusalem is too absurd to even contemplate - every Palestinian Arab knows that everything that Jews do is purely for the purpose of ethnic cleansing.

Naturally, he is calling on the Arab League and the related bodies known as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to take action against this crime of using Hebrew place names in the city whose Hebrew name of Yerushalayim pre-dates Islam.

This week's Al Ahram insanity

Every week, Egypt's English-language edition of Al Ahram Weekly has a sampling of lengthy, virulently anti-Zionist articles, usually written in impeccable English.

This week's example is typical. Galal Nasser attempts to prove, with astonishingly weird logic, that Israel (and the US, of course) is behind the troubles in Yemen, as Israel apparently believes that it is in its strategic interests to use Al Qaeda to foment unrest in Yemen.

Here's but a small sample of the Nasser's intellectual ravings:

The chaos in Yemen elevated this country to a cornerstone in US and Israeli plans to dominate the southern portion of the Middle East, which were moved into high gear at the turn of the millennium when the first Bush administration unveiled its project for a "New Middle East". An easily accessible country, it overlooks the Bab Al-Mandeb, the strait linking the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. This strategic international water is extremely vital to Israel, which is why Israel has done all in its power since 1973 to secure control over it. Its efforts towards this end include:
- Expanding its naval presence in the southern portion of the Red Sea off the coast of Eritrea in order to intercept Iranian naval vessels and monitor the Sudanese coast.

- Stimulating Al-Qaeda activities in Yemen in order to hasten the dismantlement of the state and to be able to use the "war on terrorism" as an excuse to secure a military presence on Yemeni territory.

- Unleashing piracy along the Somali coast and in the vicinity of the Bab Al-Mandeb in order to justify a direct US-Israeli military engagement in the area.
THE RISE OF AL-QAEDA: Before examining this aspect of the Yemeni question, I must first register my belief that the so-called Al-Qaeda organisation was born as and remains a kind of CIA unit....A decade after it was founded, Al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center in New York, setting off a chain of events that struck the Arab and Islamic worlds harder than anywhere else. The military pursuit of Al-Qaeda beat a path of destruction through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and, most recently, Yemen. These were the names that topped the list of countries designated for the project of the New Middle East, the map for which was captioned by its architects, "Blood borders: How a better Middle East would look". It was precisely in this spirit that former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice remarked, "This project will not succeed without great sacrifices such as a torrent of blood."
...There are other curious aspects to the Somali pirate phenomenon. One is especially struck by the fact that certain major powers seem to be controlling it and regulating its pace. The prime candidates for this role are those with a strategic vision for this region, namely the US, and Israel above all. Piracy in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab Al-Mandeb has the charm of appealing to international intervention in the area on the grounds that it threatens the security of one of the most important maritime routes in the world.
...According to the latest estimates, the pirates have raked in between $25-30 million up to now. Regardless of how they began their operations, they are no longer petty opportunists driven to maritime crime by the civil war and destitution that have ravaged their country; they are big business. It is not surprising that certain powers would seize upon the opportunity to turn the phenomenon to their advantage. Chaos on the high seas serves the schemes of the US administration and Israel to assert their control over strategically sensitive areas. The US-Israeli cordon around the Bab Al-Mandeb is now complete.

Good thing that we Elders created no less than sixteen layers of obfuscation around our real plans for world domination, and Galal has only penetrated to number two. (Kudos for making up a nice Condi Rice quote, though.)

We are amused.

Full text of open letter from Ronald Lauder to Obama

From the WJC website, the text of the full-page ad in today's Wall Street Journal and Washington Post:

15 April 2010

Dear President Obama:

I write today as a proud American and a proud Jew.

Jews around the world are concerned today. We are concerned about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel. We are concerned that the Jewish state is being isolated and delegitimized.

Mr. President, we are concerned about the dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel.

The Israeli housing bureaucracy made a poorly timed announcement and your Administration branded it an “insult.” This diplomatic faux pas was over the fourth stage of a seven stage planning permission process – a plan to build homes years from now in a Jewish area of Jerusalem that under any peace agreement would remain an integral part of Israel.

Our concern grows to alarm as we consider some disturbing questions. Why does the thrust of this Administration’s Middle East rhetoric seem to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks? After all, it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who refuse to negotiate.

Israel has made unprecedented concessions. It has enacted the most far reaching West Bank settlement moratorium in Israeli history.

Israel has publicly declared support for a two-state solution. Conversely, many Palestinians continue their refusal to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

The conflict’s root cause has always been the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Every American President who has tried to broker a peace agreement has collided with that Palestinian intransigence, sooner or later. Recall President Clinton’s anguish when his peace proposals were bluntly rejected by the Palestinians in 2000. Settlements were not the key issue then.

They are not the key issue now.

Another important question is this: what is the Administration’s position on Israel’s borders in any final status agreement? Ambiguity on this matter has provoked a wave of rumors and anxiety. Can it be true that America is no longer committed to a final status agreement that provides defensible borders for Israel? Is a new course being charted that would leave Israel with the indefensible borders that invited invasion prior to 1967?

There are significant moves from the Palestinian side to use those indefensible borders as the basis for a future unilateral declaration of independence. How would the United States respond to such a reckless course of action?

And what are America’s strategic ambitions in the broader Middle East? The Administration’s desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known. But is friction with Israel part of this new strategy? Is it assumed worsening relations with Israel can improve relations with Muslims? History is clear on the matter: appeasement does not work. It can achieve the opposite of what is intended.

And what about the most dangerous player in the region? Shouldn’t the United States remain focused on the single biggest threat that confronts the world today? That threat is a nuclear armed Iran. Israel is not only America’s closest ally in the Middle East, it is the one most committed to this Administration’s declared aim of ensuring Iran does not get nuclear weapons.

Mr. President, we embrace your sincerity in your quest to seek a lasting peace. But we urge you to take into consideration the concerns expressed above. Our great country and the tiny State of Israel have long shared the core values of freedom and democracy. It is a bond much treasured by the Jewish people. In that spirit I submit, most respectfully, that it is time to end our public feud with Israel and to confront the real challenges that we face together.

Yours sincerely,

Ronald S. Lauder

President

World Jewish Congress

World Editors Forum to welcome Hezbollah

From Forbes Biz Blog:

What Are They Smoking at the World Editors' Forum?

The upcoming World Editors Forum, which rarely sparks controversy, may break from tradition this year. Its lunch speaker is Hassan Fadlallah, a fiercely anti-Israel figure and Hezbollah member of Parliament. Fadlallah is a strange choice of talking head at a confab which typically debates changing economics of news and how to enhance global press freedoms.

As news director at Al Manar television, the propaganda arm of Hezbollah, Fadlallah reportedly referred to CNN as "the Zionist news network" and expressed his desire to kill the Israeli prime minister. The station, which Fadlallah still represents, denies the Holocaust and runs music videos inspiring suicide attacks in Iraq, the West Bank and Gaza. Al Manar, run by Hezbollah and delivered by satellite, is banned in the US, Germany and France.

The WEF, whose convention is being held in Beirut this year, is not trying to downplay Fadlallah's credentials at all - in fact, they are celebrating them, as they write in their program:

12h30 - 14h00:
Exclusive WEF lunch
WEF meets MP Hassan Fadlallah, chairman of the Parliament Media Committee and one of the most prominent Hezbollah leaders
Attendance limited to pre-registered participants.
At the Colombian Coffee House of the Convention Centre (close to the entrance)

British media ignores Malam report against Goldstone

From Just Journalism:

Last month (March 2010), Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Malam) released a report that sought to challenge many of the findings in the Goldstone report. In particular, it marshalled evidence that Hamas had repeatedly used civilians to shield its fighters – an allegation the Goldstone report specifically claimed to have found no evidence of. The Israeli organisation, however, produced footage purporting to show children being used to shield a Hamas fighter as he exited a residential building from where he was firing at Israeli forces.

Despite the fact that these findings cast doubt on the veracity of the Goldstone report’s claim not to have found evidence of Hamas using human shields during the 2008/9 Gaza conflict, they have not been reported by any of the UK broadsheets or on the BBC News website since it was published. This is even more notable since all three mainstream English-language Israeli news websites (Haaretz, Jerusalem Post and YNet) featured articles on the Malam report, and its implications for the Goldstone report. YNet, for example, noted that it ‘largely conflicts with the findings of the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead’, while the Jerusalem Post described it as documenting ‘how the Goldstone Commission whitewashed the way Hamas waged its battle against Israel’. The video footage was posted at the top of the Jpost article.

I had missed that footage of children as human shields when the report was released, so here it is:

Did Hamas close the tunnels because of Egyptian threats?

Elder Brother of Ziyon yesterday pieced together two of my items, one about the rumors that an Israeli had been kidnapped in the Sinai and another one about reports that Hamas inexplicably had closed the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. He wrote "This makes sense if a kidnapping indeed took place and Egypt is trying to intercept. "

It looks like the two items were indeed related. The JPost wrote, "A senior Hamas government official said the cross-border tunnels were closed at the request of Egypt. "

Moreover, Maariv is reporting (quoted in PalPress) that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman threatened Hamas explicitly, saying that "If it is determined that there has been the abduction of an Israeli citizen in the Sinai and that the victim had been smuggled into Gaza, [Hamas] will pay a high price."

The article went on to say (quoted in PalToday) that Hamas went along with this to send a message to Israel that any kidnapping on Egyptian soil was not at Hamas' initiative.

When Egypt has to act to defend its interests, it doesn't mess around. And Hamas knows that Egypt would not be deterred from any actions by worries of an Arab equivalent of Goldstone.

Meanwhile, Israel's Channel Two reported (via PalToday) that Hamas is actually stepping up its desire to kidnap an Israeli soldier, but it wants to do it in the West Bank, not Gaza, so as to avoid any direct consequences to Gaza.

Hamas executes two "collaborators"

From Ma'an:

Two men found guilty of collaboration with Israel were found killed Thursday morning, in circumstances deemed suspicious by Gaza rights organization Al-Mezan.

Military justice chief in Gaza Colonel Ahmad Atallah said the two were executed in accordance with their sentence of death, conferred earlier in the year, despite calls from international rights organizations urging a continued stay of the death penalty.

An Al-Mezan official said the two men who were in de facto government police custody, were shot dead and taken to the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Amnesty International strongly protested when Hamas announced this policy at the end of last month.