Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Ancient Turkish church defaced with "Islamist graffiti"

Police have started an investigation after a suspected group of people defaced the façade of the 1,700-year-old Mor Jacob Syriac Orthodox Church in Nusaybin, in the southeastern province of Mardin, with pro-Islamic slogans.

The offenders allegedly defaced the stone walls of the church on Monday with various slogans, such as “Clear off, bastards,” “Clear off, Zionist dogs,” “Heretics, lay off,” and “Zionist powers, clear off,” in Turkish and, “Allah u Muhammed,” and “Prophet Muhammad, fight the infidels and hypocrites,” in Arabic.

The police will fingerprint the lid of a paint tin found on the ground at the site of the graffiti and will also fingerprint the wire fence surrounding the church, which is currently undergoing restoration.

The church reportedly dates from 313 A.D. and is currently being restored by the Mardin Directorate of Museums.

...[T]he graffiti could be removed without damaging the church’s historical texture.

The church is expected to re-open its doors once the restoration project is complete.

Isn't it interesting that graffiti that is anti-Zionist is described as "pro-Islamic"?

Sort of like protests filled with people calling to destroy Israel being described as "pro-Palestinian."

Is it a cheap shot to mention that this is sort of attack is a bit contradictory to the idea of Muslim tolerance?

Fatah pot calling Israeli kettle black

Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi accused Israel of using all of its political, economic and media might to keep Hamas and Fatah divided from each other, according to pro-Fatah Palestinian Press Agency.

His statement said that Israel's goal is to maintain the division to weaken the Palestinian leadership in preparation for the liquidation of the Palestinian national project.

I guess that Qawasmi is an Israeli agent, then, because he has a history of stoking those very divisions that he says comes from Israel!

He recently accused Hamas of lying during reconciliation negotiations, and he was the first to accuse Hamas of being behind the arson at the UNRWA camps.

Moreover, in April, Qawasmi went off on a long rant about Hamas, accusing it of every crime under the sun: collusion with Israel, and then he said that Hamas "looted institutions, stole from the banks, and imposed a tax in violation of the law, and divided the national territory, and suppressed the violent traditions of the community, and violated civil liberties and [citizen] privacy, and made of the resistance just a slogan, with talk of rockets only via satellite channels."

Good work, Agent Qawasmi! You are acting in service of your Zionist masters!

Extremist Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir held what appeared to be a peaceful demonstration in Gaza City yesterday, and Hamas went in with batons and live fire to break it up.

According to reports, Hamas injured a large number of demonstrators by beating them, and one 7-year old child is in serious condition, now in the intensive care unit of Shifa Hospital.

For some reason, there were no Code Pink or ISM or Viva Palestina activists on hand to witness or report on the brutal beatings of peaceful demonstrators by the Hamas forces. Nothing on their websites about this incident where they can rail against the violence of the security forces, and no vigils for the health of the injured.

I'm sure that it is only a matter of time, though, before these groups courageously call for an end to routine Hamas violence against Gazans.

Because, after all, they care about the welfare of Palestinian Arabs above all and they live to publicize all violations of Palestinian human rights.

I'm equally sure that Reuters and AP are now watching the situation carefully to make sure that they are on the scene to take photos and video next time this happens, and that they are kicking themselves over having missed the story while their photographers take it easy between the each Friday's Bil'in and Nilin demonstrations.

Stuff I don't have time to blog (updated)

Fantastic color footage of Israel from as early as 1947 just discovered. (h/t Daled Amos)

Is the Iranian scientist "defector" going back to save his family from being assassinated?

Check out this new, snarky blog.

Honest Reporting goes into a lot of detail about The Lancet's latest shenanigans, a topic I touched on here.

The Brothers of Judea blog gets threatened.

Wikipedia's Jewish problem.

Libyan ship close to El Arish

Latest position of the Amalthea:

Only 13 nautical miles from El Arish; it seems unlikely to try to veer to Gaza - but you never know.

UPDATE: Every ship in the area just disappeared from the Marine Traffic site. Hmmm....

UPDATE 2: The Amalthea is docked at El Arish.

Queen Rania refuses Hebrew version of her book - on tolerance

From Ha'aretz:

Queen Rania of Jordan has turned down several offers to publish a Hebrew version of a children's book she recently wrote. The book, which was published in the United States by Hyperion under the title "The Sandwich Swap" for children between 4 and 8 years old, was co-written with Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa.

During a promotional campaign for the book, the queen described it as the story of two girls who let the food they bring to school get in the way of their friendship. They disparage each other's food based on their own cultural preconceptions. The two main characters, Lily and Salma, have a lot in common, but not when it comes to their sandwiches: Lily prefers the all-American peanut butter and jelly, while Salma sticks to pita and hummus.

The two learn how to maintain their friendship, despite their cultural differences, but not without a food fight at school in which their classmates take sides. The confrontation ends, however, with a party at which the children exchange sandwiches. The book's message touches open such issues as getting to know others, openness and multiculturalism.

Queen Rania seems to be the poster child for Arab tolerance: it's real important until it comes up against a prejudice that is even more important. Then, of course, prejudice wins.

UPDATE: The Queen denies the story.

Palestinian Arab leaders reject Obama's call for talks. World media silent.

In another slap to the face of the Obama administration, two additional major Palestinian leaders have forcefully said that they will not enter into direct negotiations with Israel.

President Obama last week called for direct negotiations to start "well before" September.

A member of the PLO Executive Committee, Saleh Rafat, said in a radio interview this morning that the Palestinian leadership would not bow to any pressure from the US on the issue.

In addition, Fatah leader and commissioner Mohammed Dahlan gave a lengthy interview saying that the dominant Fatah party would actively fight against direct negotiations with Israel.

Yesterday, PA negotiator Saeb Erekat was equally intransigent on the issue, again rebuffing the US president.

For some reason, when Israel disagrees with the White House, it results in major headlines around the world, with commentators calling on the US to "get tough" with its ally. Yet the media is silent when the PA, heavily dependent on US aid to keep its economy barely above water, displays consistent and explicit arrogance against the US president.

Curious, isn't it?

PA hushes up attempted rape of American "peace activist"

From Ha'aretz:, a story dripping with irony:

The Palestinian Authority, as well as the leaders of the Palestinian popular protests in villages such as Bil'in, Na'alim, Umm Salmuna, have been trying to keep the following story away from both public knowledge and the media's eye: One of the more prominent Umm Salmuna activists – a village south of Bethlehem, long entrenched in a battle against the West Bank separation fence – is suspected of the attempted rape of an American peace activist who had been residing in the village as part of her support of the local protest.

Omar Aladdin, who had been arrested three months ago over suspicions he had attempted to rape the U.S. citizen, was subsequently released after agreeing to apologize to the young woman. However, Haaretz had learned that representatives of both the popular protest movement and the PA have since applied pressure on the American peace activist as to prevent her from making the story public.

The incident allegedly took place last April, as Aladdin, who had served a term in the Israeli jail in the past, arrived one evening at the guest house in which many of the foreign peace activists were staying. The European and American female activists reportedly agreed to let Aladdin stay with them after he had told them he feared the Israel Defense Forces were on his tail, adding that he had been severely beaten at an IDF checkpoint only a week before.

During his stay Aladdin allegedly attempted to rape a Muslim-American woman, nicknamed "Fegin" by fellow activists. The woman escaped, later accusing the popular protest man of the attempt. One villager who had encountered the American following the incident said she had been in a state of shock.

Aladdin then refused to apologize for the incident, when news of it reached the village's popular committee, the popular protests' governing body, allegedly saying that the incident had been marginal and normal. The American activist then asked the committee to notify authorities of the attempted rape, a request which resulted in the man being arrested by security forces in Bethlehem. After agreeing to apologize for the incident, Aladdin was released from custody by the PA police.

The U.S. citizen was then convinced to retract her complaint, as to avoid tainting the image of the popular protest, which had attracted praise from around the world in recent months.

However, the Umm Salmuna case is not the only one. Separation fence activists know of other incidents in which Palestinians molested and sexually assaulted foreign peace activists, a subject which was apparently raised in the discussions of the various popular committees.

Foreign female peace activists regularly participate in protests in the villages of Bil'in, Na'alin, and others, where the activists stay in separate houses. Some villagers do not agree with these housing arrangements, claiming that the villages' youth, who frequently visit the activists, are corrupted by the young women.

One villager said the female activists bring a different "culture with them, western, too open. The young people, especially from the villages, aren’t used to stay near other girls, they do not know their culture, certainly when it’s a young woman staying with other women in a strange house. They misinterpret it."

So now we have liberal Westerners agreeing to hush up stories of sexual abuse - tacitly supporting a repressive, patriarchal society.

Notice also how easily these female Western activists agreed to shield a man who said he was wanted by Israeli authorities. This sounds a lot like when the ISM shielded a Palestinian Jihad terrorist:

In March 2003, Israeli troops raided ISM’s West Bank offices in Jenin and captured a suspected member of the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad. The Israeli army identified Shadi Suqiyeh, who was hiding in the ISM office, as a senior member of Islamic Jihad who had planned a number of foiled attacks on Israelis. A statement released by ISM soon after the incident explained that Suqiyeh was brought into the apartment by an ISM volunteer "concerned about his welfare" because "under Israeli military curfew, Palestinians spotted in the streets are shot on sight."

Finally, isn't it interesting that in this case the young man specifically chose the only Muslim American activist to be the victim?

One more point: this is hardly the first clash between Palestinian Arab culture and so-called "peace activists." In fact, Rachel Corrie may have been trying to ingratiate herself with Palestinian Arabs who were threatening the Westerners when she decided to become a human shield:

[Corrie] was propelled, in part, by frustration. During the past few days she and the nine other ISM activists had become preoccupied with an anonymous letter circulating through Rafah that cast suspicion on the human shields. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked. The letter referred to Corrie and the other expatriate women in Rafah as "nasty foreign bitches" whom "our Palestinian young men are following around." It was a sobering reminder that outsiders -- even international do-gooders -- were untrustworthy in the eyes of some Palestinians.

That morning, the ISM team tried to devise a strategy to counteract the letter's effects. "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military," Richard "Fuzz" Purssell told me by phone from Great Britain. ...That morning, team members made a number of proposals that seemed designed only to aggravate the problem. Purssell, for instance, suggested marching on a checkpoint that had been the site of several suicide attacks. "The idea was to more directly challenge the Israeli military dominance using our international status," Purssell told me.

Follow the Libyan ship - live! (Update)

Will the Amalthea ship from Libya try to run the blockade to Gaza or will it go to El Arish, Egypt?

You can follow its movements, minute by minute, from the Marine Traffic site!

Here's the most recent picture of its route:

As you can see, it seems to have turned more towards Egypt since the Israeli navy made contact a few hours ago. And Egyptian officials say that it is headed towards El Arish. But the captain might still change his mind....

UPDATE: The ship disappeared from the site - its GPS apparently turned off. No idea why.

I heard via email that Israel Radio reported that he main engine was damaged.

The captain had denied that he had changed course to Egypt.

And, at least one passenger on this ship craves "martyrdom," which may be part of the problem: (h/t Mere Rhetoric)

1:00 AM Israel time: Israel Matzav says: Israel radio just reported that the ship claims that its main engine is damaged and that it will take several hours to fix.

To me this sounds like the captain might be feigning damage and going to go for Gaza in daylight - or else why would he turn off the GPS?

UPDATE 2: It has re-appeared at the MarineTraffic site, still going 1.4 knots towards Egypt.
UPDATE 3: It is gone again. (3:35 AM Israel time)
UPDATE 4: Back online, going almost due south for some reason at 1.6 knots (4:05 AM) At this slow rate it wouldn't make it to El Arish until Thursday, but earlier in its journey is was going at 8 knots.
UPDATE 5: 6:00 AM, and the ship disappeared again, after being oriented at about 142 degrees, still towards El Arish. At this point is would have to go to 90 degrees to make it to Gaza.

By the way, it is carrying about the same amount of aid that Israel trucks in every day.

AP reported at 5:30 that the Libyan captain claimed to have been surrounded by for Israeli ships.

UPDATE 6: GPS still winking in and out, but the ship picked up speed and seems to be headed for El Arish - 115 degrees, 7 knots. (12:15) Gaddafi Foundation still saying it is going to Gaza, though.

Saudis moving forward, Jordanians backward (maybe)

The good news: Saudi Arabia is planning to pass a law in the near future to make it illegal for a girl under the age of 17 to get married, in a bid to eliminate the many child marriages (legal statutory rapes) that have been embarrassing the kingdom, especially when little girls are forced to marry old men to their parents can get paid.

The bad news: Islamists in Jordan are pushing to change the age at which girls can marry without parental consent from 18 to 15. A feminist activist retorted that even 18 is too young for girls to get married - unless they are pregnant and need to ensure that the child would be legitimate. (She is against girls being forced to marry their rapists.)

(h/t Ali)

Quickies

Some news you almost certainly missed:

France 2 might actually apologize for the Al Dura hoax?

A Lebanese court sentenced an alleged Israeli spy to death. Let's see how many human rights activists rally against this sentence.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was chided by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami for saying that neckties are not forbidden by Islam. Indeed, according to Khatami, they are.

An Arab League employee was fired for writing a book review about the League on her blog.

After Mayor Bloomberg rejected Muslim requests to add five days of Muslim holidays to the school calendar, the New York Muslim community is going to the state senate.

Follow-up: Does support for Israel put the US at risk?

After I blogged about Thaddeus Russell's article that claims that US support for Israel puts Americans at risk, The Investigative Project also takes it apart. (It also links back to my post.)

After echoing my point that Bin Laden's fatwa against America mentioned Israel as, at best, a tertiary reason to kill Americans, TIP concludes:

Arguments like Russell's fail to address the threat posed by Islamic terror to Western countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Australia, Canada, Bosnia, India, and so many others that do not significantly support Israel. It also ignores the threat of terrorism faced by the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf and to Somalia by al Shabaab—a violence that is unrelated to Israel but shares a foundation of Islamist extremism.
Then there are the global aspirations for many hardcore Islamists. They want a Caliphate, a world ruled by Islamic law, and will do what it takes to create that. Take Abu Hamsa al-Masri, an imam jailed in England for inciting murder, and wanted by the U.S. for terror charges. In addition to coveting global sharia law, al-Masri's interpretation of Koranic verses allows for open season on non-Muslims, or the Kaffir.
"Killing of the Kaffir for any reason you can say it is OK, even if there is no reason for it," he has said, advocating a variety of means from poisoning to ambushes. "You must have a stand with your heart, with your tongue, with your money, with your hand, with your sword, with your Kalashnikov. Don't ask shall I do this, just do it."
Does such a blood lust die if America abandoned a long-standing ally? Not likely.

The argument can be strengthened - because not only is Israel not a real liability to the US, it is a huge asset.

Israel shares intelligence, technology and methodology in fighting certain types of battles that the IDF has more experience in. Israeli technology has already changed the game in aerial warfare, by pushing forward drone technology in the past decade to minimize the risk to real pilots and minimize the need for expensive fighter jets. It also has made great strides in active defenses against IEDs, one of the major killers of US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Even beyond that, there is a much more compelling reason why the US should stand by Israel. If the US would abandon Israel, it would call into question US commitment to the security of every country that now relies on a strong America. In the case of so-called moderate Arab states like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, this would make it far more likely that they would go into the Iranian orbit for their own security purposes, as Syria has.

European and other allies would get equally skittish at seeing such a turnabout in US policy. A good part of the security of the civilized world is based on the idea of a strong US, and the thought of the US throwing Israel to the wolves would make even America's strongest allies nervous about depending on an unreliable partner. This would, at the very least, spur a huge worldwide arms race as nations decide to go it alone.

This would inevitably mean a nuclear arms race as well.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the US sloughing off Israel is not only a dangerously shortsighted idea, but it could conceivably endanger the entire planet.

Follow-up on Defensible Borders

I blogged about the book Israel’s Critical Security Needs for a Viable Peace recently. It turns out that the JCPA's new book on "Defensible Borders" is downloadable. The download is not working at this moment, but a great executive summary is available, which in seven pages pithily puts all the main points together. For example:

Until now, the Palestinians have only been asked for a “top-down” peace process, throughout which their leaders have held meetings, shaken hands, attended peace conferences, and even signed agreements with Israeli leaders. But when a peace process does not sprout from the grassroots of a society, it is both pointless and useless. Until three year- old children in Ramallah stop being taught to idolize “martyrs” who blow themselves up for jihad against Israelis and Jews, there will only be a “peace process” in the imaginations of the self-deluded.

If the West Bank were to fall into hostile hands, the resulting situation would pose a constant threat to Israel’s national infrastructure, including Ben-Gurion International Airport, the Trans-Israel Highway toll road, Israel’s National Water Carrier, and its high-voltage electric power lines.

A major problem Israel faces in dealing with a non-state actor such as the Palestinian Authority is that, unlike state actors such as Egypt or Jordan, classic principles of deterrence and punishment are far less effective, as there is no unified government that asserts control over people, weapons, and terrorist groups. This is illustrated by the split between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

In the past, prior to a planned Iraqi mission to carry out an aerial attack on Israel’s nuclear research compound in Dimona, Jordan permitted Iraqi combat planes to use its airspace and to fly on a route parallel to the Israeli border in order to take aerial photographs of Israeli territory. Thus, despite the current relative calm, Israel cannot entrust its security to the goodwill of the Jordanians or the Palestinians.

A Palestinian entity located on the central mountain ridge enjoys a topographical advantage compared to largely coastal Israel. A small Palestinian transmitter station on Mount Eival, near Nablus, for example, could jam virtually the entire communication system in Israeli areas broadcasting on the same frequencies.

It would be a serious mistake to believe that Israeli requirements for verifying complete Palestinian demilitarization could be guaranteed by international forces operating in the West Bank. International forces have never been successful anywhere in the world in a situation where one of the parties was ready to ignore the fulfillment of its responsibilities.:

Just before the 1967 Six-Day War, UNEF, the United Nations Emergency Force in Sinai, retreated from the area just before hostilities broke out. European monitors stationed along the Egyptian border with Gaza in accordance with the 2005 agreement brokered by Secretary of State Rice fled their positions when internecine fighting between Hamas and Fatah heated up.

UNIFIL in Lebanon has never caught any Hizbullah terrorists. When Hizbullah moved its artillery positions to within 50 meters of a UN position and then fired on Israeli targets, UNIFIL did nothing. But if Israel employed counter-fire against the very same Hizbullah artillery, then the UN Division for Peacekeeping Operations would issue a formal diplomatic complaint.

Yaacov Lozowick sums up his skepticism nicely:

Since 1993 Israel has performed a series of concrete actions on the ground, changes in the reality, which have weakened its control over the Palestinians. Not one of them resulted in any advantage durable enough to survive two days of violence in September 2000, when the Palestinians launched the 2nd Intifada. Since 2000 the pendulum has swung both ways, with Israel reconquering the West Bank in 2002, and slowly lifting its hand since 2004; with Israel fully evacuating Gaza in 2005, then reconquering less than a third of it in 2009 and again relinquishing direct control and now, slowly, also indirect control. The wary recognition of having an independent Palestine next door, which was the expression of Rabin's position, has been replaced by a Likud prime minister publicly accepting the goal of a sovereign Palestine.

And in all that time, I dare you to find one single concrete step taken by the Palestinians to assure us they, too, are ready for partition. Not words, which can be uttered in English today and denied in Arabic today. Actions. Find me one. Because I could easily write a 10,000-word article about all the things they've done which prove the opposite; actually, I expect I could limit myself to the first half of 2010.

This is of crucial importance. Reaching peace with the Palestinians will mean Israel gives up all those essential security measures spelled out by the JCPA. It will require a gamble with our lives, in the immediate meaning that people we know will die if it goes wrong, if not we ourselves. There's nothing theoretical or hypothetical about this: it will be real people, really dead, just as it already has been. For this to happen the Palestinians need to convince us they can be trusted with our lives. At the moment, nothing comes to mind - nothing - to indicate they can be trusted.

Freedom of the Press, Jordanian-style

Al Quds al Arabi reports that Jordan has banned the publication of any information about its army and even its military retirees, under threat of legal action.

What prompted this move? Was it a major leak of Jordanian military secrets? Was there an embarrassing scandal they want to hush up?

The answer, apparently, lies in the expansion of the ban to include stories about retired soldiers.

Last month, as we reported, a group of retired Jordanian army veterans came out with a call for Jordan to strip the citizenship from its Palestinian Arab population.

They were concerned that Israel might succeed in re-opening the "Jordanian option" giving Jordan responsibility for helping solve the Palestinian Arab "refugee" problem, by wither declaring Jordan to be Palestine or to ask Jordan to take over parts of the West Bank. To forestall this threat, the generals suggested to sever all ties with the majority of Jordanians who are considered Palestinian and to leave Jordan for "Jordanians" (another artificial construct) and "Palestine" for "Palestinians."

The group is hardly a tiny fringe organization. According to its website, it represents some 140,000 retired veterans. The statement to strip Palestinian Jordanians of their rights was generally applauded by members.

This was deeply embarrassing to Jordan, which is trying to walk the line between ensuring that its Palestinian majority keeps their rights but also not to effectively become the de facto caretaker of the entire Palestinian Arab population.

(The counter-petition, signed by thousands, calls on Jordan to keep civil rights for Palestinians but also to use Jordanian-Palestinian Arab unity to fight Israel, sever all relations with Israel and, by implication, move more towards Hamas' vision. )

So the easiest thing to do is to shut up the people who are proposing to do what Jordan has already begun on a small scale - separating Palestinian Jordanians from other Jordanians.

Since they cannot ban a group of retired officers, it does the next best thing - it bans any of their statements from being publicized.

As of this moment, there is nothing on the website about this ban.

Today's PalArab news (7/13/2010)

There are reports that the Shin Bet is meeting directly with Hamas representatives in prisons in the Negev to negotiate a prisoner swap for Gilad Shalit. This comes from Palestine Press Agency, which uses reports like these to discredit Hamas' credentials as being jihadist, as this indicates that Hamas is more pro-Israel than Mahmoud Abbas. Of course, at the same time Hamas is slamming the PA for reported meetings that the Shin Bet had with them!

Palestinian Arab and Israeli journalists met in Cyprus to discuss their competing narratives. The Arab journalists "took part at their own risk," as the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate bans such meetings as "normalization."

Hajj is coming up, and pilgrims from Gaza are trying to iron out their passport issues to be able to travel to Saudi Arabia. In the past, Hamas terrorists often used Hajj as a means to travel to Iran to get cash and weapons training.

The Libyan ship meant to break the blockade is scheduled to arrive in Gaza on Wednesday afternoon, according to a Hamas spokesman.

The Al Aqsa Foundation not only makes a stink when Jews peacefully visit the Temple Mount, but also when they stay outside the gates.

German journalists were given tours of the Hamas Koran-based summer camps.

Palestine Today has another news story about Islamic Jihad summer camps, where the kids are taught "the culture of resistance and resilience, and links to the land and holy places which are being Judaized and raped by gangs of Zionist terrorism."

Kumbaya!