Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 05, 2010

Today's PalArab news (7/5/2010)

A Jordanian included a symbolic wooden key with his wedding invitations to remind party guests of how they really don't want to forget their homes in Palestine. One reminder of his status came from Mahmoud Abbas himself, who stressed that "Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians," in a speech that could one day result in Jordan revoking citizenship from many more of its citizens of Palestinian Arab ancestry.

All for their own good, of course.

Last week there was a war of words between Hamas' Mahmoud Zahar and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit concerning Hamas. This week, Egypt is attempting to mend fences, sending delegations to Gaza and Damascus. Egypt wants to make sure that its influence in negotiations between Hamas and Fatah is not damaged.

One way that Fatah and Hamas are battling is via issuing passports. The PA sends a limited number of (blank) passports to Gaza every month, far less than Hamas demands, and Fatah is now accusing Hamas of giving all of the passports to terrorists from the Al Qassam Brigades. Hamas is demanding another hundred thousand passports, presumably for Gazans to travel through Rafah.

Now, what could the Qassamis be doing with the passports?

The World Health Organization is warning that many of Gaza's beaches are contaminated with sewage, and that Gaza's dumping of raw or partially-treated sewage in the Mediterranean is a major health problem. It could start affecting Gaza's vegetables, fish, milk and meat. The mayor of Ashkelon is also complaining that the contamination is reaching his beach, and warns that it could ruin affect Cyprus and Turkey if not addressed. In the past, Hamas has used pipes meant for sewage treatment to build Qassam rockets.

Egypt intercepted another half ton of TNT, as well as mortar shells and old anti-aircraft missiles, on their way to Gaza.

Firas Press reports that a senior Al Qassam member used some of his thugs to torture his brother's wife, who is now being treated for her wounds. The torture included beating her with sticks and pouring olive oil into her nose. Nice to know that Hamas has ways to keep olive oil manufacturers in Gaza in business.

Islamic Jihad is awaiting the release of some of its members from prison. They say that some of the prisoners were tortured. The prisoners may be released this week - by Egypt.

Gaza economic news

Gaza manufacturers of sodas and other beverages are appealing to the Hamas government to intervene and not allow Israel to ship competing items into Gaza, warning that it will cause the loss of hundreds of direct jobs in their industries. They say that the traders who profit from these imports are only a handful of people and that Israel is using this as an opportunity to destroy the Gaza economy. They also point out that while the consumer goods are getting through, the raw materials they require to stay competitive are not, as of yet.

Meanwhile, prices on consumer goods in Gaza continue to plummet. Canned food prices have gone down by 50% in the past two months, and the clothing market is saturated from the combination of tunnel smuggling and goods from Israel. Window-shoppers are expressing astonishment at how inexpensive goods are. Consumers are not yet buying, though, as they wait for the PA salaries which are due by the end of the week. (The EU just sent millions of euros to pay this month's PA salaries, one third of whose employees are in Gaza.)

The retailers also expect to do much better next month at the beginning of Ramadan, which begins around August 11th.

Overnight open thread

I went on a day trip with the family and am a bit too tired to blog.

So....open thread time!

Egyptian columnist prays - can we have a siege too?

MEMRI translates an article in Egyptian daily Rooz al-Yousuf:

After the [Hamas] movement abandoned the real resistance and turned to resistance online and in the media, one of Hamas's many websites published an important report comparing prices of goods and produce in Egypt and in Gaza.

The report states: A kilo of watermelon in Gaza costs less than one Egyptian lira, while in Egypt it costs over two lira; a kilo of tomatoes in Gaza costs less than half a lira, while in Egypt it costs 1.5 lira; a kilo of potatoes in Gaza costs half a lira, while in Egypt it costs two lira; a kilo of onions in Gaza is one lira, while in Egypt a kilo of onions is 1.5 lira; a kilo of garlic in Gaza is 10 lira, while in Egypt it is 15 lira.

A kilo of chicken in Egypt is 20 lira, and in Gaza it goes for only 10 lira. The average price of a kilo of beef in Egypt is 60 lira – while in besieged Gaza it goes for five lira. A tray of eggs in Egypt is 19 lira, while in Gaza it is only 10 lira."

This comparison of prices between Egypt and Gaza, which has been under siege for three years, as they say, shows that life under siege is cheaper, more convenient, and easier...

So what siege are they talking about? Does the siege cause prices to drop? And how are goods flowing into Gaza despite the siege? ...

These questions are not being raised [here] in expectation of an answer from Hamas, but they are directed at all Hamas supporters in Egypt who see nothing wrong with accusing their own country of betraying the Palestinian cause and of starving the helpless Palestinian people with the oppressive siege on Gaza.

If this is what it's like in Gaza under siege, then the Egyptian people, who have been burned by the fire of prices and who peel off part of their limited income to save the besieged Gaza residents, [should] pray to Allah to smite them with [such a] siege, if the siege will lead to lower prices and make it possible for every common citizen to buy eggs, meat, and poultry like the Gaza residents do.

(h/t Islamo-Nazism blog)

Gaza homes destroyed by - Hamas

From Al Jazeerah:

The reporter still manages to blame Israel in the end....

(h/t Jed)

Amazing article by a Muslim woman physician

Qanta Ahmed writes a long piece in the HuffPo about the flotilla and how hatred of Israel in the Muslim world - and beyond - warps perceptions. Excerpts:

For a long time, the portrayal of Israelis has been universally monolithic: oppressive, brutal, inhuman and heartless. The parallels between Israeli and Jew; military engagement with national identity; state policy with individual responsibility are conveniently blurred into one homogeneous, maligned, dislikeable edifice. Evidently we, the viewers, the invisible media auteurs, have lost all powers of nuance and discernment. In every report, Israeli brutality, whether on the ship, or in Gaza has been emphasized, both implicitly and explicitly.

At no point have I heard a sane discussion on the complex reasons why a blockade was in place or indeed why Egypt had for years cooperated in maintaining the blockade through the closure of Rafah. Rafah remained firmly shut throughout the entirety of Operation Cast Lead, immutably so, even in the face of pleas from the Arab world. Egypt's collusion in Operation Cast Lead was an acutely felt betrayal which resonated globally.

I was in Riyadh in those first days of what would become known as Operation Cast Lead, watching the episode unfurl from within the region. Within the first week, Saudi Arabia had gathered massive humanitarian aid at the behest of apical leadership. Despite the military incursion on Gaza, passage of aid was categorically and absolutely obstructed. It wasn't the Israelis refusing access to regional Arab aid - no the deniers of the Saudi appeals were not Jews, they were Muslims. It was Muslim-majority Egypt which refused to allow Saudi Arabia access to an open border even to deliver medical aid and supplies. Quite uncomfortable for Muslims to think about, wouldn't you agree?

And was Egyptian denial due to fear of Israeli retaliation? Perhaps -indeed that is a convenient construct, which does likely contain kernels of reality. However, more significant, the borders remained closed because, simply put, Egypt doesn't want to face a mass migration of Gazans.

These and other such details are irritating distractions, messy deviations, from a chiseled, binary portrayal which both the media, its bipolar audience and master media manipulators seek to display when we think about Israel and Palestine, Muslim and Jew. As world media becomes ever more comfortable with the portrayal of Israel as monolithic villain devoid of conscience, anti-Israeli criticism begins to ascend in volume, and commentary further deteriorates. This is a frightening descent and should concern all of us, irrespective of one's politics, faith or relationships.

At one stage, a spokesperson for Hamas appeared on the BBC citing that Gazans have no need for aid, adding " we do not need to fill our bellies". Well, the world thinks otherwise. In his astonishing defiance revealed by a casual, throwaway comment, the spokesperson revealed the prime goal of the Flotilla's mission, as he perceived it: to run the gauntlet against the blockade, not to alleviate material needs of his suffering electorate. The Flotilla was a bald and blatant political move designed to humiliate and provoke.

His remarks reveal the extent to which Palestinians are now objectified political pawns, rather than a people. While we are comfortable with the longstanding objectification of Palestinians by Israelis as the 'other' in the form of a security threat (after all Israel must balance a constant struggle to determine the needs of a terrorized Israeli citizenship over the needs of an exploding ever-younger ever impoverished, increasingly radicalized Gaza population) we fail to encounter our own sinister objectification of the Palestinians which we accomplish so effectively all by ourselves. This objectification is not only held by their revolving, corrupt leadership, but also by an objectifying Muslim world. We the Muslims need the Palestinians to remain locked in their plight so that they might continue to serve as the Ummah's scotoma (a blindspot) which literally prevents us from seeing our own more immediate distresses, distresses which might demand our attention and perhaps even require societal interventions . We would be lost, disarmed, and stunned without an external locus for our rage which is so piercingly trained on Gaza and the West Bank, so piercing in fact that Darfur barely warrants a sidelong glance.

Does this exonerate Israel? No. Does this implicate Muslims? You bet.

It gets better. Read the whole thing.

Interesting comment links

EoZ commenters have posted some noteworthy links over the weekend:

Jacobson brings us Jonathan Kay of Canada's National Post. A Gay Pride Parade is scheduled for today, and a group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is participating. It turns out that they don't only hate Israel for its "colonialist" policies - but they hate Canada too!

Jacobson also notices a link to a MEMRI translation of a debate on Pakistan TV concerning concubines; they tackle the important issue of whether Muslims, upon conquering Israel can take Jewish women as their concubines. (The answer: only if the conquering Emir distributes them as such.)

Margie notes that the Hezbollah-backed "Journalists to Gaza" group webpage has been inactive lately, but one of its members commented back that the group is still working to get their boat to Gaza. He writes "Our motivation is totaly humanitarian, and as journalists its our Duty!" Funny - I always though that journalists were supposed to report the news, not participate in making the news.

Yerushalimey points us to Latma's noticing that some of those who are protesting for Gilad Shalit's release are possibly not being as altruistic as they make themselves out to be.

Sshender links to the latest Krauthammer piece about those troublesome Jews.

"1 in 4 Palestinian children goes without breakfast"

The Lancet is about to publish another study of how things are really, really, really bad in the Palestinian Arab territories.

They find out the shocking truth that 26% of Palestinian Arab children and adolescents did not eat breakfast - which, they helpfully note, is the "main indicator of healthy eating habits." Also,6% of 1883 children who were assessed were stunted, less than 1% had wasting, 2% were underweight, and 11% were anemic.

Commenter Folderol notes that these numbers are not too far off from Western adolescents and children:

14 percent of lower income children in the US did not eat breakfast and 16% in higher income children

prevalence of IDA in Canadian children is between 3.5% and 10.5%

6 percent are underweight (BMI less than 18.5).

The reason that PalArab kids skip breakfast? Well, either they wake up late (preteens) or they don't have the appetite (adolescents.)

Not only that, but the Lancet survey also shows that 15% of Palestinian Arab children are overweight or obese!

The Lancet now has an entire section of their website dedicated to Palestinian Arab health issues, with no fewer that 16 articles about this issue. Their other "themes" are about things like tuberculosis, diabetes and malaria, but even those sections do not have as many articles as the "Health in the occupied Palestinian territory" section.

The full article is not yet online at the Lancet website, and from the abstract it does not appear that they are specifically blaming Israel for these issues. Nonetheless, the amount of coverage they are spending on health in the territories is way out of proportion with their importance on the world health scene, and there can only be one reason why the Lancet feels that these issues are so vital to their readers.

Restoration of Beirut’s only synagogue will be completed in October and religious services will be held there in 2011 for the first time in more than three decades, the leader of the country’s Jewish community said.
...
The Maghen Abraham Synagogue in Wadi Abou Jmil, the city’s historic Jewish quarter, opened in 1926 and once hosted a thriving community that has been eroded by decades of civil war. Prospects for stability have improved since elections a year ago were won by the pro-Western coalition of Saad Hariri, which formed a national unity government with rival Hezbollah and the Muslim group’s Christian allies.
...
About 100 Jews now live permanently in Lebanon, while there are some 1,900 living abroad who still own property in the country and visit regularly, according to Arazi, who owns a food-machinery business. In the mid-1960s, there were as many as 22,000 Lebanese Jews, he said.

Read the whole article

CNN reporter mourns a terrorist

Octavia Nasr is CNN's Senior Editor of Arab Affairs and appears often on that network as an expert and commentator.

Here is what she tweeted upon hearing of the death of Hezbollah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allāh:

Fadlallah was a supporter of the Iranian Islamic revolution and wanted the same to be repeated for Lebanon. He also is on the record as saying that Jews have exaggerated the number of Holocaust victims "beyond imagination."

(h/t DeJerusalem who provided the screenshot; Nasr's tweets are not public)

One bad guy dead, another close

The architect of the Munich Olympic massacre, Mohammed Odeh, died in a Syrian hospital from kidney failure.

The spiritual leader of Hezbollah, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, was in a Lebanese hospital suffering from internal bleeding. Early rumors of his death proved to be premature, unfortunately.

UPDATE: Circumstances have caught up with the rumors - Fadlallah is dead. And he has an interesting mourner.

Today's PalArab news (7/3/2010)

Hamas has summoned over 100 Fatah members in Gaza - which means that they have been arrested. It is said that this is in response to the PA arresting some Hamas members in the West Bank. Hamas also confiscated their passports.

Saeb Erekat has denied news reports that Mahmoud Abbas made an offer to allow Israel to keep the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter, in exchange of cutting Israel in half for a land corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.

After Netanyahu said that he offered the release of 1000 Arab prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, relatives of the Arab prisoners held a protest outside Mahmoud Zahar's house in Gaza to tell him to hold strong and try to get as many prisoners as he can for Shalit. (corrected)

Egypt denied rumors that it was closing the Rafah crossing.

Huge Hamas corruption reported

The anti-Hamas news service, Palestine Press Agency, publishes details of a supposedly confidential internal Hamas report about the endemic corruption that Hamas members and subsidiaries are spreading throughout Gaza.

A number of details are given:

- Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has been going on a real-estate buying spree, buying up property and businesses through his children.

- Another of Haniyeh son was caught at the Rafah border trying to smuggle in millions of dollars.

- A number of real-estate scams are detailed, such as selling government land to Hamas members only.

- A Hamas major has stolen a quarter of a million dollars worth of drugs and sold them.

- Another member extorted money from people who went on Hajj last year.

- Members of the Qassam Brigades are getting double salaries, both from that terror group and from Hamas itself.

- Also revealed is that a number of Hamas investments in Gulf real estate, meant to help cash flow, have gone bad, losing tens of millions of dollars. As a result of the cash crisis, Hamas has resorted to stealing money from banks.

- There may also be infighting within Hamas, as one episode is detailed where a leader of the Al Qassam Brigades broke into Ismail Haniyeh's office to take hundreds of thousands of dollars given to him by George Galloway earlier this year!

You mean Turkish goods can get into Gaza?

From Reuters:

Trucks carrying supplies are pictured at Kerem Shalom crossing, just outside the southern Gaza Strip, before the shipment's transfer to Gaza June 30, 2010.

Does this mean that there is a way for Turkish goods to get into Gaza?

Or is this from the flotilla?

Hascelik makes steel cables.

Egypt puts police killers of Khaled Saeed in custody

From Gulf News:

Egyptian authorities' decision to jail two policemen accused of "using harsh treatment” to an activist is a victory for protest groups, activists said on Friday.

"Jailing the two detectives accused of beaten Khaled Saeed to death is a victory for the pressure mounted by the protest groups, who have called for uncovering the truth in this case through street and Internet protests,” said the opposition movement April 6 Youth.

The death of Saeed, 28, due to alleged torture by two plainclothes policemen in the Egyptian port of Alexandria on June 6 has angered opposition and human rights groups who accuse police of abusing the 29-year-old Emergency Law to stifle freedom.

On Wednesday, prosecutors ordered the jailing of the two detectives Mohammad Salah and Awad Esmail for four days pending further questioning.

I found this part interesting:

The European Union has expressed concern about Saeed's death, a move that drew an angry response from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry that denounced it as an "unacceptable interference” in the country's affairs.

Unlike Israel when it is accused of various crimes, Egypt didn't try to explain, apologize, offer concessions, send out PR ambassadors, create YouTube videos or contextualize. They just told their critics to butt out. In fact, they told it to them very emphatically:

Egypt Wednesday summoned ambassadors of the European Union countries to protest against a recent statement, which expressed concern about the death of a young Egyptian whose family say was beaten to death by police.

"Regardless of the content of the statement, this move constitutes a glaring violation of the diplomatic norms and an unacceptable interference in Egypt's internal affairs," said the spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, according to the official Middle East News Agency.

And you just know that the EU didn't push back on this criticism.

You also know that if Israel would act like Egypt did, it would be the subject of withering diplomatic and media attacks for weeks thereafter.