Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dual-loyalty watch: US Muslim fatwa against aiding troops

The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) issued a fatwa prohibiting offering aid to foreign troops in Muslim countries whether on the personal or the business levels.

The assembly, made up of jurists and scholars in charge of issuing fatwas for Muslims in the United States and headed by Sheikh Salah al-Sawy, received several inquiries about the stance of Islam on business deals with coalition troops in Iraq or NATO forces in Afghanistan, especially companies that transfer foodstuffs and other supplies to military bases.

The question was posted on AMJA fatwa bank, reads: “Is it permissible to participate in taking food to the American and foreign soldiers working in Muslim lands?” and the answer is, “That would not be permissible, for that would be helping others in sin and transgression.”

The fatwa, number 3062 to be issued by the assembly, stipulated that Muslims are not to help foreigners on personal or business basis as long as their presence in Muslim countries is linked to occupation.

Essentially, the fatwa is saying that it is forbidden for American Muslims to do anything that helps US troops.

Would this be an example of the kind of "dual loyalty" charges that are often hurled at American Jews?

Apparently so, when one looks at the AMJA website.

The website of the AMJA is most interesting in Arabic, as in that language it certainly tells US Muslims that America is not a country to be proud of.

One fatwa says not to celebrate Thanksgiving, but it is allowed to buy holiday turkeys on sale.

Another article says that while it is obligatory for Muslims to participate in the political process in America, this participation should not in any way be considered an endorsement for democracy - in fact, democracy is scorned.

Is this how patriotic citizens talk?

Then comes this, in the Al Arabiya article:

The statement was based on a verse from the Quran that said Muslims should only offer help in noble causes and should not take part in any kind of action that involves violence or damage.

Um, well, it might be OK if that violence or damage is aimed at Israeli Jews. (The website in Arabic definitely says that there is a distinction between terrorism and "resisting aggression." I don't think they are referring to non-violent resistance.)

A tragic accident - with an interesting detail

Firas Press quotes Israel Radio about a fatal car accident.

According to the report, a pregnant Israeli woman was killed in ahead-on collision with an Arab car near Ramallah. Five Palestinian Arabs in the other car were injured.

A real tragedy, but one that happens all too often in Israel.

However, note that this occurred on Route 60. Anti-Israel writers routinely describe this road as being for Jews only.

How did a car full of Arabs make it onto this so-called "apartheid road"?

Alleged Russian spies used forged British, Irish passports

From AFP:

Britain and Ireland are investigating reports that fake British and Irish passports were used by members of an alleged Russian spy ring arrested in the US, officials said Tuesday.London and Dublin said they were checking after US officials announced the arrest of 10 "deep-cover" suspects accused of infiltrating policymaking and reporting back to Moscow.

"There is a reference to a false Irish passport in an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the Russian spy ring," an Irish foreign ministry spokesman told AFP. "We are trying to get official clarification of this report," he added.

The Irish spokesman said "the firm position of the government in regard to the fraudulent use of Irish passports is a matter of public record."

Spies using fake passports? Who would've thunk it?

We'll see if any Russian diplomat gets expelled from Ireland or the UK in retaliation.

Erdogan: "Obama will ask Israel to apologize for flotilla"

From News.AZ:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday his gathering with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G20 summit meeting in Canada covered a wide array of issues, adding that the meeting was "very fruitful".

"I can say that our meeting opened a way for a useful perspective for our future bilateral relations as well as for regional and world peace," Erdogan told reporters upon his arrival in the Turkish capital, Ankara, from Toronto.

Erdogan said he discussed with Obama issues including Iran's nuclear program, a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid convoy, as well as Afghanistan and the Palestinian problem.

Responding to a question whether his meeting with the US president would make any contributions to the mending of Israeli-Turkish relations, Erdogan said Obama was in agreement with the Turkish premier that Israel should make an apology for the raid on the aid flotilla, Turkey's demand for redress and the lifting of Gaza blockade.

"Obama has expressed that he would convey these points to the Israeli prime minister who is set to visit to Washington on July 7," Erdogan said.

So is Erdogan telling the truth?

Hopefully, some reporter will ask this question in today's White House briefing.

Bald-faced lies by IHH

The IHH, the terrorist-supporting group that was primarily behind the violence on the Mavi Marmara, has released a glossy PDF file filled with lies about what happened on the flotilla. It doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny but the Free Gaza movement is publishing and disseminating it happily, because truth is apparently not a virtue to these virtuous "humanitarians."

I can't do a word-for-word fisking because the IHH did not save the file in such a way that the text can be copied, and optical character recognition is pretty much useless. But here are some lowlights:

"The sole aim of these ships was to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza and break the siege"

Well, that's two aims! And as we know from Free Gaza, humanitarian aid is used a cover for the political goal of delegitimizing Israel. In fact, the Mavi Marmara contained no humanitarian aid whatsoever.

The IHH claims that Israel blocked their communication to the Turksat satellite at 22:30 at the same time that the Israeli boats began to follow them. However, live broadcasts continued up until IDF soldiers boarded the ship, as the initial video of beating and stabbing Israeli soldiers was broadcast in real time.

IHH claims that two Israeli submarines were involved in the operation. This is the first I have heard that claim, and so far no evidence has been found to that effect. I am not sure what a submarine would accomplish, unless IHH is implying that Israel was ready to torpedo the boats.

The videos show that the IHH attackers had finished their morning prayers some time before the IDF arrived, and that they had plenty of time to prepare their iron batons, slingshots, and broken bottles to attack the soldiers. The IHH also does not say a word about the IHH throwing items on the soldiers alongside the boat, including one percussion grenade. All of this is on video.

Machine-gun fire? We don't hear that on any of the videos smuggled from the ship.

Shooting as they were descending? Unless the soldiers had three arms, that is impossible.

Geared directly towards killing? Then why were there no deaths on the other boats?

People defending themselves only with items they could find? Um, no, they were prepared a bit ahead of time (especially second video on that link.)

The IHH report goes on to detail more lies, each more fantastic than the one before (for example, that an IHH doctor handed over the injured Israeli soldiers - and then they shot him!) but those lies cannot be refuted with video evidence, merely common sense. Obviously, IHH is not going to mention their own exhortations to throw the soldiers overboard.

Then again, if a "humanitarian" organization has no compunction about preparing to attack humans with iron batons, why would one thing that they have any problem with lying to the world about it?

Alarab Online op-ed praises Holocaust deniers

When an op-ed in an newspaper starts off with "No one dares to criticize the Zionist entity, or talk about its crimes, for fear of being accused of anti-Semitism," you know that you are entering an alternate universe.

Welcome to Al-Arab Online, a British pan-Arab newspaper.

The op-ed, written by Shaheen Zakaria, goes on to describe exactly what kinds of anti-Zionism is being silenced.

His first example? Roger Garaudy, the famous French anti-Zionist - and Holocaust denier.

His next example is Paul Findley, who parlayed his anti-Israel positions into bestselling books and a hero's status among Muslims.

Another example of someone he feels has been muzzled is Holger Apfel, who said in German parliament last week "Stop cooperation with the… Jewish scoundrels, don’t give in to the thriving Holocaust industry." He was suspended until the end of the year for these "anti-Zionist" remarks.

Ironically, Zakaria is claiming that Jews claim antisemitism for speech that is merely anti-Zionist, but two of his three examples are unquestioned antisemites that he considers merely "anti-Zionist."

Which means that to some in the Arab world, Holocaust denial and Jew-hatred is simply a manifestation of legitimate Israel bashing.

In the end, he does more to prove that Arabs are anti-semitic than he intended!

Israel formally complains about Egyptian anti-semitic cartoon

From YNet/Reuters:

The Israeli embassy has sent a complaint to the newspaper of Egypt's ruling party about a cartoon that linked Israel and Nazis, an unusual step from a mission that tends to ignore its Egyptian media critics.

Al-Watani al-Youm (the National Today) published a cartoon on June 15 showing an aid ship apparently bound for Gaza being grabbed by an octopus carrying an Israeli flag with a Nazi swastika in place of the Star of David symbol.

Here is the cartoon from that newspaper (which responds that it is not anti-semitic because they are semites too; that for Israel to claim that something is an insult to humanity is absurd because Israel is the worst insulter of humanity on the planet; and that Israelis pretty much are Nazis.)

This cartoon is hardly worse that cartoons printed daily in the Arab press.

Apparently, Zionists corner the market on illegal drugs as well

Apropos to my earlier item on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying that Israel has a monopoly on pharmaceuticals, one of his generals is accusing Israel and the US of being behind the world's illegal drug trade as well:

A senior Iranian commander took the US and the Zionist regime of Israel responsible for the spread of drug addiction in the world, stressing that they use drugs as a biological weapon against the freedom-seeking nations.

"The US and the Zionist regime are pioneers of drug distribution in the world and the world arrogant powers use drugs as a biological weapon against the freedom-seeking nations," Commander of Iran's Basij Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said on Monday.

The arrogant powers want to pocket the money earned through the production and trafficking of the drugs, which is the second profitable source of capital after weapons smuggling, and spread addiction among target populations, he added, reminding that most of the American addicts are from the Blacks.

The drug problem will not be uprooted in the world until arrogant powers are annihilated, the commander underlined.

He described Afghanistan as the main source of drug production in the world, and underlined that NATO forces in Afghanistan are currently in control of 8,000 tons of drugs which they aim to smuggle into other countries to captivate their nations through addiction.

It looks like this guy might have been on something himself when he said this. Must've been good stuff.

(FARS writes the bolded part above as "until the arrogant powers are not annihilated" but that doesn't make sense, so I assumed that the "not" was a mistake. I couldn't find the article on their Arabic,Turkish or Persian sites.)

Retired Jordanian generals call to strip PalArabs of their rights

From The Media Line:

A recent statement made by a group of retired Jordanian army generals, which calls for Palestinian refugees to be stripped of their Jordanian passports, has sent shockwaves across the kingdom.

The unprecedented statement was provoked by the haunting fear of the so-called “Jordan option” to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at the expense of the kingdom by establishing a Palestinian state in Jordan.

The previously negligible group touched on sensitive issues that have been, until lately, considered taboo in the country’s political dictionary, namely Palestinian-Jordanian relations and the future of Palestinians in the kingdom.

The statement said efforts by Israel and its supporters to settle Palestinians in the kingdom are succeeding, pointing to the fact that the kingdom is home to 4.5 million Palestinians, some holding Jordanian citizenship and some not.

“The worst part of the conspiracy is that it has supporters in the kingdom who call for settlement of Palestinians and granting them equal political rights under support from Israel and the US,” said the statement, calling for drastic measures to control the swelling effect of these lobby groups.

There is no reliable information on the exact number of Palestinians in the kingdom. Authorities claim they are half of the population, although independent figures have given 65 percent of the kingdom’s 6 million population as a number. The Palestinian population is mostly concentrated in major cities including Amman, Irbid and Zarqa as well as refugee camps around these cities.

But they are far from being fairly represented in the parliament. With seats being elected on the basis of geographical region rather than the size of the overall vote, power has been disproportionally granted to ‘East Bankers’ from Jordan’s desert areas in the north and south.

The statement’s shocking content did not come out of vacuum, with many eastern Jordanians lobbying to add to the constitution the decision made by King Hussein to disengage from the West Bank in 1988.

The decision by the late king was meant to pave the way for the Palestinian Liberation Organization under the leadership of Yasser Arafat to negotiate the Oslo agreement, which the PLO signed a few years later.

Prominent columnist Nahid Hattar is one of the promoters of the plan to put the disengagement decision in written law in order to sever all ties created between the Palestinian state and Jordan since 1951.

...
A group of intellectuals and political leaders from around the country have come together to counter the suggestion of the retired generals.

In mid-May, around 360 prominent Jordanians joined a movement to push for dialogue and political reform to confront efforts to settle Palestinians in the kingdom. The statement called for a “comprehensive” reform that guarantees all the kingdom’s citizens – both Jordanians and Palestinians – full political and civil rights to strengthen the country’s “internal front” against what they described as attempts to transform the struggle with the “Zionist enemy” into a domestic conflict between “East Bank Jordanians” and Jordanians of Palestinian origin.

Until early 1970, Palestinians who fled their homeland in the aftermath of the 1948 war with Israel enjoyed full political privilege, including joining the army.

But following the civil war, there has been a systematic policy to uproot Palestinians from key political institutions in favor of Jordanians in the East Bank.

The Palestinians moved to control the economy through prominent families that owned banks and major enterprises.

But with talks over final issues including the future of refugees and borders, the possibility of permanent settlement of Palestinians as well as a desire for a larger piece of the political cake pushed conservative Jordanians to sound the alarm over the “Jordan option,” according to a former minister who did not wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Last year, Jordan started stripping Palestinian Arabs of their citizenship in an effort to make Jordan less Palestinian and therefore to forestall the idea that Jordan is already a Palestinian state.

Who is funding the Lebanese ships?

Even Arab journalists who are known for their hatred of Israel are getting uncomfortable with the Hezbollah-backed "flotilla" of a women's ship and a reporters' ship that have been announced to leave from Lebanon. From Asharq al-Awsat's Diana Mukkaled:

Initially I believed that the mechanisms used to publicize the Freedom Flotilla in support of the Palestinians in Gaza were justified because of the nobility of the cause of breaking the blockade. The cause deserves our efforts to be creative in mobilizing public opinion....

However, with the increase in Arab and international division over the Palestinian cause and in light of the extent to which this cause is being exploited, it is difficult to turn a blind eye to the ambitions of local and regional parties that explicitly expressed their positions and their superficial ambitions – something the organizers of the “Mariam” and “Naji al Ali” freedom flotillas could not distance themselves from.

The Journalists Without Limits organization paid $100,000 US dollars in outstanding fines to the Lebanese government so that it could lift the restraints on the "Naji al Ali" ship and the organization could set sail [for Gaza], although the ship has a seating capacity of only 16 persons.

An organization in possession of this sum should reveal the source of this money to journalists as it is an organization that speaks on their behalf. The transparency of NGO activity requires disclosure of financial sources especially as this organization is new and this sum of money may raise questions that might harm the enthusiasm, zeal and sincerity of many of those who are part of it.

[E]very time I saw the organizers of the two voyages on television or heard their statements and read about their positions, I realized that some former journalists fell into the traps sets by others who have achieved nothing in supporting the Palestinian cause but have achieved other feats that I do not want to be part of.

She doesn't want to say the word "Hezbollah" but it is obvious that she knows who is paying the bills for these ships, and even she sees that these ships have nothing to do with aid or even helping Gaza but everything to do with politics.

Iran:: "Break Israeli monopoly on medicines"

From Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's webpage:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran and Turkey are capable of developing medical methods in order to overcome Israeli monopoly of the global pharmaceutical industry.

Speaking in a meeting with Turkish Health Minister Rajab Akdagh on Saturday, President Ahmadinejad referred to the significant progress made by Turkey and Iran in the field of health and medical treatment, said: "Iran and Turkey should brush aside the Israeli monopoly on major pharmaceutical companies and work together to present the world with new health and medical treatment methods."

Pointing to the plight of nations in different parts of the world and in particular in the less developed countries and the Islamic states, President Ahmadinejad said it was a humanitarian duty to administer health and medical treatment justice across the globe.

For his part, the Turkish health minister, praised Iran's progress in the field of health and medical treatment.

"Turkey seeks to increase the level of cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran and will start the exchange of medical experiences with this country," Akdag said.

"Health and medical treatment is one of the most important issues in life, but unfortunately it has somehow been neglected even by certain developed countries. Today, more than 50 million people in the United States are currently without insurance," the Turkish official explained.

Israel's largest pharmaceutical company, Teva, was ranked 18th in revenues of all pharmaceuticals in 2008. It is the only Israeli company listed in the top 49. Its revenues represent about 1.7% of the total of all of the top 49.

Not exactly a monopoly.

However, if you interpret Ahmadinejad's words as meaning "Jewish/Zionist" rather than Israeli, and you consider the West to be "Jewish/Zionist," then that share of pharm revenues goes up to 90%. (The only non-Western nations of the top companies are from China and Japan.)

The West needs to realize that when Iran talks about Zionism and Israel, it really means the entire Western world of which Israel is merely representative. Remember, a year before the famous "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran, Iran hosted a much-less noticed "World Without America" conference.

Iran recognizes the strong anti-Israel current among the fashionably idiotic leftists in the West and has been toning down its anti-Western rhetoric in order to widen the schism within the West concerning Israel. One only has to read Iran's statements a little more critically, as in this case about the pharmaceuticals, to be able to see through the charade.

Too bad that so many Westerners don't have the ability to look beyond their own noses.

Reuters' lying caption

Over the weekend, Gazans were dismayed about the shutdown of the Gaza power plant. Hamas and Fatah pointed fingers at each other about this, and so far the plant is still not on line. Israel is willing to send the fuel needed but no one is paying for it.

So, Gazans protested the shutdown on Friday night. From Getty Images:

Palestinian girls hold candles during a march in protest against the lack of fuel to Gaza's power station, and the continued power outages in the city, on June 25, 2010 in Gaza City.

Reuters has pictures of the very same girls at the very same protest - but it represents the protest in far different terms:

Palestinian children hold candles during a protest in Gaza City calling for an end to Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip June 25, 2010.

Of course, Reuters cannot fathom that any Palestinian Arab protest would be against anyone besides Israel. Besides, Reuters has spent years making Israel look as evil as possible while minimizing Hamas and Fatah crimes against their own people; why dilute the narrative with facts?

Law and order, Hamas style

Yesterday, Hamas police forcibly took money from the Islamic Bank in Gaza City, claiming that they were enforcing a court order.

All Gaza banks are closed today in protest.

Meanwhile, Hamas had arrested Dr. Juma Al Sakka, director of public relations at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, five days ago without charge. Dr. al-Sakka's wife and children protested, with his wife - a lawyer named Hanan - going on a hunger strike in front of Hamas' headquarters.

So Hamas beat her and arrested Hanan and the rest of the family.

Good luck finding any outrage among the Western intelligentsia about these stories, the types of which happen pretty much every day.

Hamas: "Four years on, we still have Gilad"

Hamas "celebrates" the caputre of Gilad Shalit with a new animation:

A commenter below this video correctly says:

"goody....supporting a war crime".

He received the following reply by the one who published the animation:

"As a non-state actor, Hamas is not obligated under international law to allow representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, a senior ICRC official was quoted as saying on Friday." "Pierre Dorbes, the deputy head of the ICRC's mission in Israel and the occupied territories made this remark in the course of a lengthy interview with Haaretz reporter Amira Hass.""

I do not know where he got this quote from, but I found the original article in Haaretz:

Pierre Dorbes:

"We remind Hamas of its humanitarian obligation to dignified conditions. In order to evaluate this, we suggested a number of times that we visit Shalit. We also suggested that he be allowed to communicate with his family via letters. They refused. Hamas is a non-state party to the conflict. As such, it is not obligated to allow family visits or visits by the Red Cross, but it is obligated to make family ties possible."

If Pierre Dorbes is right, then neither Israel has to treat non-Israeli Arab prisoners as POWs. But is Pierre Dorbes correct when stating that Shalit cannot be entitled to the status of POW?

BtSelem states:

"Regardless of the question of the legality of the seizure or status of the person who is seized, international humanitarian law states that every person is entitled to be treated humanely and in a dignified manner by the opposing side, whatever the circumstances. Prisoners of war are entitled to a variety of other rights, among them to right to receive visits by the ICRC. Given that Shalit is entitled to the status of POW, denial of his right to these visits also constitutes a flagrant breach of international law. Moreover, the refusal to allow visits and cutting Shalit off totally from the outside world raise the grave suspicion that he is being treated improperly, in particular regarding the medical treatment he has, or has not, received for his injury.

For these reasons, the Hamas leadership, as the persons holding actual control of the security apparatuses in the Gaza Strip, has the duty to act order to bring about Shalit's unconditional release immediately. Until his release, the persons holding him must treat him humanely and enable representatives of the ICRC to visit him."

Although it is still unclear to me on which grounds Gilad Shalit is entitled to a POW-status (as Hamas is a non-state party), for sure the way he is being treated now is a war crime:

"seizing a person (civilian or combatant) and holding him forcibly with the objective of pressuring the other side to meet certain demands is absolutely prohibited, and is considered hostage taking. This act is much more grievous when it is accompanied by a threat to kill or injure the hostage if the hostage-takers' demands are not met. Furthermore, breach of the prohibition is deemed a war crime, for which everyone involved in the act bears criminal responsibility. The circumstances in which Shalit was abducted and has been held clearly indicate that he was taken hostage."

"Masked men" again set UNRWA camp on fire

From Ma'an:

A second UNRWA summer camp facility was burned Monday morning, with camp officials saying some 25 masked men entered the An-Nusseriat camp and assaulted the guards.

A statement from UNRWA said the summer camp's guards were "physically assaulted and handcuffed," but not injured

Eyewitnesses accounts confirmed the UNRWA report, with locals saying vandals broke into the camp and tied up security guards, then setting fire to equipment inside the facility. "It looks like serious damage," one resident said.

The UNRWA statement did not comment on the extent of the damages caused by the fire, but the agency's Director of Operations in Gaza, John Ging noted that "the overwhelming success of UNRWA’s Summer Games has once again obviously frustrated those that are intolerant of children’s happiness."

Other reports put the damage at 30% of the camp.

Hamas considers UNRWA summer camps to be way too liberal, as they do not explicitly incite campers to hate nor are they paramilitary training for a future terrorist career. That's why they set up their own alternative camps based on the Quran and paramilitary training.

UNRWA is never going to accuse Hamas of being behind these acts of arson, though.