Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 18, 2010

Easing the blockade does not make much a difference.

An interesting article on the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip was published today in Commentary Magazine:

Preventing Hamas from importing missiles and other sophisticated weaponry from Syria and Iran is the blockade’s primary function. There’s a secondary goal, as well, and it’s this one that has drawn the most criticism from the United Nations and Western activists. Israeli blockade-enforcement authorities have not only blocked construction materials such as cement, they’ve also been prohibiting seemingly random items like coriander, nutmeg, and musical instruments, while allowing in cinnamon, frozen meat, and medical supplies.

Critics describe the Israeli blockade as “collective punishment” against Gaza’s entire population, and it does look that way when perusing the list of prohibited items, but the items on that list aren’t outright banned. Aid organizations can import all the cement and coriander they want for reconstruction and food distribution. The restrictions only apply to private-sector importers, and even then, only “luxury” items and construction materials that can be used for military purposes are blocked.

“Humanitarian products are delivered on a daily bases to the Strip,” said the spokesman for COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. “Food products are delivered almost without restriction—with the exception of luxury goods, which the average Gazan cannot afford, but which are purchased by the wealthy and corrupt leaders of Hamas.”

“Why would we want to transfer items that only Hamas members could afford?” said an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson I contacted. “International aid organizations basically get to bring in whatever they want. So if there are certain luxury food items that we wouldn’t transfer to the private sector in Gaza, the aid organizations will get them. The same applies for construction materials, which we won’t let in unless it is going to aid organizations, since we are able to know where they end up (for building houses rather than bunkers, kassams, etc.) with a higher likelihood than if they were sent in privately.”

Michael J. Totten concludes:

As most Palestinians in Gaza are dependent on aid organizations for their basic needs, they are not adversely affected by the blockade. So easing the blockade won’t help much, if it will help them at all.

UPDATE: the link to the Commentary Magazine was incorrect and directed you to an also interesting article by Evely Gordon: New Poll Shatters Myths on Gaza Blockade and Settlement Freeze. I fixed the link and it will now direct you to the right article by Michael Totten.

IHH leader tells members to throw soldiers overboard, plus more (VIDEOS)

A new video of IHH leaders exhorting members to throw the Jews into the sea: (Suzanne beat me by minutes, but graciously deleted her post when she saw mine.)

Peaceful humanitarians!

Here is another new video, taken from Israel's ITIC website, showing IHH preparations for battle, including their cutting the metal bars with specialized tools smuggled on board the ship and dividing members into teams.

Remember, the equally peaceful humanitarians from Hezbollah are planning to send ships to Gaza in the next couple of days as well.

A handy-dandy list of banned "settlement" goods

The Palestinian Authority, through a group called Karama, has a webpage that lists all known products that they are boycotting because they are supposedly manufactured by Jews on the "wrong" side of the Green Line.

The PA regularly stages public burnings of these products.

The irony, of course, is that the same factories that create these products employ thousands of Palestinian Arabs. The Barkan Industrial Area, for example, employs some 2500 Palestinian Arabs alone. (It also explodes the myth of settlers all being religious fanatics from Brooklyn: the Barkan settlement was founded and is run by secular Israelis, and it is only 25 km from Tel Aviv.)

If you want to support the right of Jews to live with full rights in their historic homeland, you should purchase these items - and we should thank the boycotters for making it easier for us to find these products.

Karama's page of banned goods is here. An English list of products, including where you can buy them in Europe, is here, courtesy of a Shiite website.

And now that Israel is adding items that can be sent to Gaza, there's a whole new market for many of these goods!

Hezbollah rejects singer's desire to join women's Gaza ship

As we mentioned yesterday, a ship of women is scheduled to go from Lebanon towards Gaza in the next couple of days, supposedly to bring aid to Gazans.

The person behind the ship denies any Hezbollah connection but, frankly, she is lying.

If you need any more proof of that, a Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that hugely popular Lebanese singer and actress Haifa Wehbe heard about this ship and wanted to join. She would be a very high-profile passenger and the sort of person that Free Gaza would kill to have on board one of their ships.

Her request was rejected, though - by Hezbollah.

It seems that she does not always dress modestly enough for Hezbollah standards, and they do not want a sex symbol like Wehbe to be on board. Hezbollah said that it doesn't want anyone known for her "nudity" and "degrading appearance" to be associated with the ship as it would detract from what they want to accomplish.

Which is possibly to provoke a massacre against the women.

Flotilla fallout (Neville Teller)

A British author and blogger, Neville Teller, does a very nice job updating the last few days of flotilla news in one nice package, including some things I was not aware of. For example, after detailing a large number of announced new flotillas this coming summer, he writes:

It seems as though the Mediterranean will be crowded with flotillas this summer, though one Israeli official is reported as saying: “We don’t know how much of the threats are real and how much are bravado.”

One factor apparently overlooked or discounted by all these enthusiastic potential blockade busters is that Gaza’s port is not large enough to accommodate cargo ships. Even before Israel imposed a naval blockade on Gaza, no cargo ships sailed there. Historically, all goods that entered the Gaza Strip in bulk did so by land.

The head of the Palestinian Federation of Industry in Gaza, Amr Hamad, is reported as saying that the business sector has separately proposed a plan by which, should the shipping lanes be opened, ferry boats would meet the cargo ships close to the shore, and bring the cargo into the port. He said that such a plan was discussed this week with Quartet special envoy Tony Blair, who was in the region.

He stressed that the business community in Gaza at present preferred the goods to head first to Ashdod, so as to maintain a relationship with Israeli customs. The business sector in Gaza, he added, is not ready to break its economic ties with Israel.

Definitely worth reading.

Latma presents: The Three Terrors

Latest from Latma:

(h/t Bubbe and The Jawa Report)

I'm nominated again

Once again I am honored to be nominated for the weekly Watcher of Weasels award for best (non-Council) blog post.

I was nominated by The Watcher himself, the mysterious character who changes his or her appearance every couple of years, not unlike Doctor Who. At the moment, he closely resembles Soccer Dad.

The nominated post actually has a shot, I think: "The Staggering Quality of the Very Ordinary." It was one of my better posts of the week, although I was proud of a few.

By the way, for those who are wondering how well my foray into the money-making side of blogging goes, I am now up to having earned $4.37. If you are in the mood to order a book right now and let me have a cut, just do the Amazon search here:

Books ordered through this webpage include A Clockwork Orange, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Six Days of War, and someone who found an amazing bargain and ordered 10 copies of Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East.

I guess this is now an open thread....

"Moderate" Arab News says Helen Thomas was "ambushed"

When the Saudi Arabian-based Arab News wants to publish a bizarre conspiracy theory, they are careful not to use Arabs in the byline. They find one of the many nutty conspiracy theorist Westerners who write for far-left blogs and simply republish their rants, to make Arab conspiracy theorists look a bit less nutty.

A case in point: this bizarre, paranoid, anti-semitic rant by James Rockefeller:

Zionist operatives ambushed veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas, a friend and a great American. When they won, America lost.

When reviewing the unedited video of her “interview,” what you see is a rabbi rephrasing her answers to a question about Israel. Her response: “They should get the hell out of Palestine.“ The United Nations long ago endorsed that stance.

It was not Thomas but the rabbi that offended the Jewish community. Language cited as “anti-Semitic” came not from her but from responses that the rabbi restated as leading questions. She simply spoke the truth: Jewish settlers should leave the occupied territories and, as she rightly said: “go home.”

The rabbi, an operative for the Anti-Defamation League, knew what he was doing when he ensnared this frail and distinguished 89-year-old journalist. The ADL and other Zionist strategists have long sought her removal from this influential position.

This operation was carried out as part of Jewish Heritage Week, a first in White House history. Nothing was said about the perils to which America has long been subjected due to its entangled alliance with the Jewish state.

The campaign to force Thomas’ removal was led by former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Recall that Fleischer is the Zionist insider who repeatedly insisted that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

How did those seeking recognition for their “Jewishness” repay the trust of a nation and its people? Zionist operatives targeted the only reporter who challenged Israel’s nuclear weapons program. By bushwhacking her on the White House lawn, Zionists reconfirmed that they are, in fact, in control.

No one dared mention how Zionist Heritage has ravaged America from within. Or how Zionism was aided by a series of pathetic presidents and advisers offering their unflinching support for an increasingly unstable Israeli leadership.

....[Thomas] was the last mainstream American journalist who dared question a US president about Israel’s nuclear weapons. That’s why she was ambushed. [I reversed these last two sentences to make the excerpt clearer - EoZ]

Had Zionists not removed her, they knew she would have asked President Obama: “When is the US going to pressure its ally to give up a nuclear arsenal estimated to be in excess 200 nuclear warheads?”

Zionists won this round. No remaining White House correspondent is likely to ask the hard questions about Israel’s impact on America’s national security interests. ADL operatives, acting on behalf of a foreign government, made sure of it.

Meanwhile, Obama’s love fest with the Jewish state continues while Zionist policies persist in undermining America’s credibility and endangering US troops abroad.

Yes, Rabbi Nesenoff took his Flip camera to Jewish Heritage Week knowing that Helen Thomas would be hanging around so he could "ambush" her, and knowing that she would answer his open-ended question "Any comment on Israel" with a bigoted, ignorant and hateful rant.

Rockefeller probably thinks that Monica Lewinsky was a Mossad agent, too.

Children: When we die as martyrs

Palestinian children sing about their future: "When we get martyred we will go to Paradise" and "I am willing to sacrifice my blood for my country."

This martyrdom indoctrination song with its catchy melody was also shown on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV during the children's show 'The Pioneers of Tomorrow', April 2, 2010.

Nassur the Teddy Bear: "Dear children, when we grow up, we will become martyrs, God willing. [...]
"Yes, Saraa, the pioneers of tomorrow will liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The children, the pioneers of tomorrow, and not only in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but all over the world, my dear Saraa and dear children." [...]
"Go ahead, the audience is waiting..."
Caller: "I'm from Holland."
Nassur: "From Holland. Wow!"
Child host Saraa: "Welcome. "
Nassur: "Where in Holland, my dear?"
Saraa: "Greetings to our people in Holland. [...]
"What would you like to sing for us?"
Caller: "When We Become Martyrs."
Nassur: "Go ahead. Come on, cheer her on. Clap your hands."
Saraa: "Come on."
Nassur: "Come on."
Caller (singing): "When we get martyred we will go to Paradise.
"When we get martyred we will go to Paradise.
"No, don’t say we are too small. This life has made us grown-ups.
"Without Palestine our childhood means nothing.
"Without Palestine our childhood means nothing.
"Even if they gave us all the money in the world, it won't make us forget.
"I am willing to sacrifice my blood for my country.
"Without Palestine our childhood means nothing.
"Without Palestine our childhood means nothing."
Saraa: "Thank you very much."
Nassur: "Warm applause."

UPDATE: Reader Happy and Proud informs us that there are many versions of this song on YouTube and other sites and that this song is extremely popular in the Arab world. The Investigative Project reported on it:

This is not a song from Hamas television in Gaza, nor is it a Hizballah anthem. "When We Seek Martyrdom" is the latest hit from a production house called Birds of Paradise. It is racking up millions of hits on Arabic and worldwide websites. Birds of Paradise, which appears to be based in Jordan, is quickly becoming one of the most popular children's groups in the Arab world.

Referring to the version which you can watch above the Investigative Project explains:

"Birds of Paradise" represents a new wave in Jihadist youth indoctrination. It is far more professional, better edited, and presented in a much more kid-friendly style than previous Jihadist children's programming. The themes are easily digestible even for toddlers. Child actors portray Israeli soldiers, all wearing yarmulkes, who ruthlessly gun down other children shown playing and dancing. Minutes later, the kids exact revenge and kill the soldiers.
"When We Seek Martyrdom" encourages children not simply to throw rocks, but to carry out militant attacks and to ambush Jews. It even broadcasts clips of the children carrying out practice attacks. Violence is not only the answer for children, but it is framed in a cute, kid-friendly way.

This material has not gone unnoticed in the Arab world, where despite its popularity it is beginning to sound alarms. Saudi writer Fawzia Nasir al-Naeem expressed her concerns about the video:

"It encourages the use of arms, killing, explosives, shedding blood and terrorism with all its synonyms. Our children parrot what they hear, and it enters their minds. This data is filed away, and over time it ripens into beliefs and principles which they believe in whenever the intensity is strong, so that when the dream is achieved, an explosive belt is put on, and he begins to proclaim the Jihad, which Allah revealed as his mandate…So, mother, open your half closed eyes to the bitter reality. Look at those who share with you in educating your children, and divert them from the right path. Lose the "Birds of Paradise" and other birds you and your sons are the 'firewood of hell.'"

Muslims lobbying Google for a Ramadan doodle

Muslims have launched a Facebook campaign to convince Google to create a doodle for Ramadan this year, something that Google has not done as of yet. Here is one of their proposed doodles:

According to Al Quds al Arabi, they aim to have ten million members of the Facebook group. There are thousands on this group now.

What is ironic is that they are using Facebook to build the campaign - because only a couple of months ago Muslims were talking about boycotting Facebook for hosting the "Draw a Mohammed Day" group.

In fact, Pakistan created its own Facebook ripoff, called MillatFacebook, which immediately drew hundreds of thousands of Muslim members. Its interface was an exact copy of Facebook's, and when I joined it a month ago it was horribly slow.

I just returned to it and saw that MillatFacebook was down - and they are, of course, blaming the Zionists (including the obviously Zionist founder of Facebook with that "Zionist" name,) as well as infidels and Crusaders, for combining to defeat the Muslim version of Facebook:

USA Hosts- They are causing trouble, they everytime get under pressure of FB and technically block our bandwidth and services without any legal reason.

We have decided to move to any Islamic Country , If they provide us reliable hosting, otherwise we will move to Russia or China to get rid of FB cheap tactics of pressurizing our service providers.

FB's attempts to stop MiLLat FB

Ø Constant DDOS Attacks on Millat including from Israeli and CIA owned IP’s (YES ……… We have them logged and the proofs)

Ø Subversion Attacks on Millat

Ø Personal Threats to the Millat Administration

Ø Partnership with Yahoo resulting in YAHOO refusing to deliver any emails containing MILLATFACEBOOK.COM (YAHOO and FB recently entered in a business deal and this explains YAHOO’s actions to help FB)

Ø Yahoo Mail is BLOCKING MFB emails ....................... Yahoo is blocking our emails stating that "your website contain offensive content" They think uniting Muslims is offensive, this is their double standards. Pray that we succeed against these evil enemies and unite our Ummah as One Millat and show them "Yes We Can"

Ø This is very strange that Mark’s Facebook which allow and supports RIDICULE of Holy Prophet (SAWW) is not objectionable but Millatfacebook.com which prohibits the ridicule of any faith and offers a very decent environment is” Objectionable” ………….

Ø “Objectionable” …………. Because www.millatfacebook.com is by Muslims and is uniting them on one platform????????

But Alhamdurlillah they have been constantly DEFEATED successfully.
All this has been phenomenal and miraculous. It is no ordinary feat and cannot
be explained just by any traditional logics.

All this is Allah’s blessings and YOUR support. So our heartily and deepest gratitude and CONGRATS goes to YOU.

AND NOW THE ENEMY HAS GONE DESPARATE

Mark’s FB has gone to further lows by putting pressure on our service provider
BUT
WE HAVE ALREADY MADE ARRANGEMENTS WHERE THEY HAVE NO INFLUENCE AND WILL CONTINUE OUR MISSION OF UNITING MUSLIMS….INSHALLAH.

TOGETHER ……. WE WILL AGAIN DEFEAT THEM LIKE WE HAD CONSTANTLY.

LET US ALL STAY UNITED AND DEFEAT THIS LAST DITCH DESPARATE ATTEMPT BY THE PATHETIC FB ADMINISTRATION.

We will show them that we are united and together we CAN and we WILL WIN (InshAllah)

Sorry, but I find paranoia amusing. I can just imagine that joint Mossad/CIA operation meant to bring down this Facebook clone.

Arabs renege on Jerusalem pledges to PA

Once again, Arab nations have promised much to their Palestinian Arab brethren - and delivered nothing.

Last March, the Arab League very publicly pledged to give a half billion dollars to the Palestinian Authority to combat the "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

It was always unclear exactly what the money would do, exactly. Chances are the PA would have used it for whatever it wanted to. However, a Jerusalem PA official says that $50 million is needed monthly to effectively combat this "Judaization."

That is a moot point, however = because yesterday's Al Quds al Arabi (quoted by Firas) reported that exactly zero has been distributed to the PA so far by the members of the Arab League.

As usual, the supposed Arab love of Jerusalem doesn't extend beyond the anti-Israel slogan stage.

Israel blamed for jamming Arabic World Cup matches

Arabs are still upset over the problems with the Al Jazeera broadcast of the opening day of the World Cup, especially over Egypt's Nilesat satellite network, as well as continued problems during a Tuesday match.

Some Egyptians and Palestinian Arabs are accusing Israel, of course, for jamming the signal. From the Al Quds al Arabi article it appears that there is no evidence whatsoever for this charge, except for the conviction that they have that Israel wants to drive a wedge between different Arab countries and, apparently, jamming the World Cup would get Egypt and Qatar upset at each other.

While most officials are making these accusations by saying "we cannot rule out the possibility that Israel is behind the jamming, " Egyptian MP Mohsen Radi, who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, made the accusation against Israel jamming the broadcasts explicitly.

Out of sheer spite, apparently.

"Don't send medicine to Gaza"

A letter written by a Gazan to PA prime minister Fayyad was reproduced in Firas Press.

The anonymous citizen asks Fayyad to stop sending truckloads of medicines to Gaza. According to him, Hamas takes these medicines that are meant to be freely available to Gazans who go to hospitals and clinics and instead redirects them to Hamas-owned pharmacies where they charge exorbitant prices.

The letter-writer also charges individual members of Hamas of taking the medicines and selling them privately.

He ends off begging Fayyad to stop sending the medicines, which have only increased theft and corruption in Gaza.

Egypt quietly and severely restricting travel from Gaza

Hamas' interior minister is complaining that while Egypt claimed to open the Rafah crossings, it is only allowing a limited number of people (medical cases, students) to cross. People, even if they have valid papers, are not being allowed to go into Egypt.

Hamas is requesting clarification from Egypt as to the reasons for the new restrictions.

Lebanese parliament debates giving PalArabs basic rights

MEMRI quotes Arab newspapers Al-Hayat and Al-Safir:

A stormy argument broke out yesterday, June 15, in the Lebanese parliament over several bills calling for expanding the civil rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. One bill concerned the refugees’ right to purchase property in Lebanon.

The dispute was between Muslim MPs, who supported the bill, and Christian MPs – from both the opposition and the coalition – who vehemently opposed it, claiming that it would promote the naturalization of the refugees in Lebanon.

During the meeting, Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'd Al-Hariri, who supported the bill, called the issue a humanitarian one.

Al-Hariri warned that the day would come when the entire world would come to Lebanon to remove the siege on the Palestinians in Lebanon,just as today they are sending flotillas aimed at removing the siege on Gaza.

In the end, it was decided to postpone the vote for a month.

In fact, the Lebanese treat Palestinian Arabs far worse than Israel ever did. The Lebanese literally keep the Palestinian Arabs in camps, they allow paramilitary groups to rule over the PalArabs there, they severely restrict their civil liberties and rights, and they steadfastly refuse to allow generations of Arabs born on Arab soil to become citizens of the only country they have ever been in.

In Lebanon, however, party politics are incredibly complex, and the people who vote for or against rights for PalArabs could easily switch sides in an instant based on other alliances and considerations. Chances are, in this case, that the Christians are most concerned over the possibility of hundreds of thousands of new Muslim citizens further diluting the balance of power in Lebanon between different religious groups more towards Sunnis.

All Lebanese political parties agree that naturalizing Palestinian Arabs is anathema to the country, but some seem to be realizing that one day the West will wake up to their institutionalized bigotry. Right now they use Israel as a misdirection to keep the heat off, but all the world needs to do is ask a very simple question: Why do the Lebanese treat their Palestinian Arab brethren worse than Israel does? Exposing that hypocrisy is one of the many dangers to Lebanon.

(h/t Islamo-nazism blog)