Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Why the silence over Arab persecution of PalArabs?

Khaled Abu Toameh touches on one of the major themes of this blog:

When was the last time the United Nations Security Council met to condemn an Arab government for its mistreatment of Palestinians?

How come groups and individuals on university campuses in the US and Canada that call themselves "pro-Palestinian" remain silent when Jordan revokes the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians?

The plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries in general, and Lebanon in particular, is one that is often ignored by the mainstream media in West.

How come they turn a blind eye to the fact that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and many more Arab countries continue to impose severe travel restrictions on Palestinians?

And where do these groups and individuals stand regarding the current debate in Lebanon about whether to grant Palestinians long-denied basic rights, including employment, social security and medical care?

Or have they not heard about this debate at all? Probably not, since the case has failed to draw the attention of most Middle East correspondents and commentators.

A news story on the Palestinians that does not include an anti-Israel angle rarely makes it to the front pages of Western newspapers.

The demolition of an Arab-owned illegal building in Jerusalem is, for most of these correspondents, much more important than the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon continue to suffer from a series of humiliating restrictions.

Not only are Palestinians living in Lebanon denied the right to own property, but they also do not qualify for health care, and are banned by law from working in a large number of jobs.

Can someone imagine what would be the reaction in the international community if Israel tomorrow passed a law that prohibits its Arab citizens from working as taxi drivers, journalists, physicians, cooks, waiters, engineers and lawyers? Or if the Israeli Ministry of Education issued a directive prohibiting Arab children from enrolling in universities and schools?

Ironically, it is much easier for a Palestinian to acquire American and Canadian citizenship than a passport of an Arab country. In the past, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were even entitled to Israeli citizenship if they married an Israeli citizen, or were reunited with their families inside the country.

Lebanese politicians are now debating new legislation that would grant "civil rights" to Palestinians for the first time in 62 years. The new bill includes the right to own property, social security payments and medical care.

Many Lebanese are said to be opposed to the legislation out of fear that it would pave the way for the integration of Palestinians into their society and would constitute a burden to the economy.

I would add that there a a couple of other major reasons why the Lebanese are almost all against granting Palestinian Arabs equal rights.

One is that there is still a legally mandated balance between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon. A new influx of hundreds of thousands of mostly Sunni Palestinians would upset the demographics, and Lebanon is very sensitive to demographics. In fact, Lebanon has avoided doing a census for that very reason - the fear that it will be discovered that the number of Christians has been shrinking and that Sunnis and Shiites have been growing.

The other reason is that there is still a lot of resentment over the PLO's role in the civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1970s and 1980s. For all the pro-Palestinian Arab rhetoric that Lebanon spews, in the end they really don't love their Palestinians at all - quite the opposite.

The Arab supposed support for their Palestinian brethren is pretty much limited to only how they can be used as pawns to hurt Israel. When it comes to concrete actions that would actually help the Palestinian Arab economy, or their quality of life, Arab nations are far less forthcoming.

And this answers Toameh's question of why Arab mistreatment of their Palestinians is muted - because it does not have anything to do with Israel, and that is the entire reason that the Palestinian Arabs exist as a people today. Practically their entire quasi-nationhood is a fiction that was foisted upon them by decades of abuse by their Arab neighbors, and if they would have been integrated into Arab societies the way that a similar number of Jews from Arab countries were integrated into Israel, there would be very few people identifying as "Palestinian" today - and the major weapon that the Arabs have against Israel would disappear.

Modern Palestinian Arab nationalism began as a purely anti-Israel movement (Fatah and the PLO were founded in the early 1960s, before any "occupation.") It is not an expression of hundreds of years of any sort of cohesive unity - there never was any, and there still isn't. Their peoplehood is from 62 years of being treated like garbage mostly by their Arab brothers, and those are the people who should take their fair share of the responsibility to eliminate the scourge of millions of fake "refugees" that they have hosted and persecuted for six decades.

It looks like the El Bader flour mill bomb was planted

We have discussed the El Bader flour mill a number of times in context of the Goldstone Report and other NGOs.

The IDF report in January, 2010 concluded that there was no airstrike, as Goldstone had asserted (against his own evidence!) and that the mill was only hit by a tank shell during active fighting.

Since then, the UN asserted that it had evidence of a 500 lb. bomb, and HRW released a video (apparently the UN video) of the El Bader mill taken a few weeks after Cast Lead that seemed to show this bomb sitting on the floor of the mill:

According to The Guardian, this was the front part of an MK82 aircraft dropped bomb and was found on the first floor.

Because of this new evidence, the IDF reopened its investigation as to whether there was any aerial bombing of the mill.

After months of exhaustive investigation, a new IDF report concludes that it was right all along, and that there was no bomb dropped on the flour mill:

141. The case of the el-Bader flour mill was discussed in the January 2010 Update. It concerns allegations that the mill had been targeted with precision weapons in the course of a pre-planned air strike, as part of a systemic destruction of industrial infrastructure and with the purpose of depriving the civilian population of Gaza of food supplies. The IDF investigation into the matter concluded instead that the mill was been struck by a tank shell in the course of active combat activities, in order to neutralize immediate threats to IDF forces.

142. Following the publication of the January 2010 Update, various news media stated in February 2010 that the U.N. was in possession of evidence that contradicted the findings of the IDF investigation. Specifically, it was reported that an unexploded IAF bomb was found in the mill, even though the command investigation had concluded there had been no aerial strike.65

143. Upon reviewing these reports, the MAG requested and received additional evidence from the U.N. and ordered the IAF to re-open its investigation of the incident. The MAG also initiated a meeting with U.N. representatives, who had visited the site of the mill, to discuss their findings. The follow-up investigation confirmed the earlier finding that the mill had not been targeted by the IAF in the course of a pre-planned attack. The new reports, photographs taken by U.N. officials, and video footage examined appeared inconsistent with an airborne strike, particularly given the absence of entry holes in the roof of the mill; the lack of trace marks on the floor where the shell was allegedly found (such trace marks would normally be expected when such a munition penetrates a building); and the fact that the fire which damaged the machinery in the mill broke out on the second floor while the ordnance was found on the first floor.

144. Furthermore, the IAF examined every aerial attack in the vicinity of the mill in the course of the Gaza Operation and found that none of them could have resulted in a hit on the flour mill. Of the seven strikes conducted within a one-kilometer radius of the mill using the particular munitions identified, five had hit their precise target (the closest one being approximately 300 meters away from the mill). The impact sites of the two additional strikes were visible in the IAF aerial footage of the operation, and the closer of the two landed a full 350 meters from the mill.

145. After reviewing the findings of this additional investigation, the MAG could not affirmatively determine how the ordnance had found its way into the mill, but reaffirmed that the flour mill had not been intentionally targeted by the IAF. He was also unable to rule out the possibility that the ordnance had been deliberately planted in the mill. Accordingly, the MAG determined that there was no basis for additional proceedings in this matter.

It is noteworthy that the HRW/UN video shows no holes in the roof of the mill; the only hole is a relatively small one shown here on the side:

How exactly a 500 lb bomb could make it through this relatively small hole and end up on the first floor, without any pictures of a large hole in the floor, did not seem to occur to the UN, HRW or the Guardian.

Although the IDF is loathe to directly say that the bomb was planted there, it sure looks like that is what happened. And if evidence was tampered with here, who knows what other evidence was planted in the weeks after the war for the credulous reporters and NGOs that descended on Gaza to look for proof of war crimes?

Gaza Mall - the video!

Gaza, today.

Just like Darfur, East Congo, Haiti and Auschwitz.

(UPDATE: Added a great caption idea from Diane in the comments.)

Previous Gaza Mall posts here and here.

h/t Jed for the original Channel 2 report

Terrorists brag that they can defeat "Iron Dome"

Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed claimed that Israel's deployment of the anti-missile Iron Dome system will be defeated.

On Monday, Israel successfully tested the Iron Dome system, and the first two batteries are planned for November.

Ahmed said that the announcement was mere "psychological warfare" and that Islamic Jihad has "new tactics" to defeat the system.

He claimed that the system cannot handle two rockets at once (although the Monday test proved that it could.)

It sounds more like Islamic Jihad is engaging in psychological warfare than Israel.

The Christian Science Monitor warns that the system is no "silver bullet" as a single system cannot defend large cities, and it can still be "overwhelmed" by multiple launches. It also characterizes the 44 Israeli civilians who were killed by Katyushas in 2006 as a "handful of civilians."

Israeli media catches up on the Gaza mall

Arutz-7 and YNet finally caught up with the story of the Gaza Mall that I reported on Saturday night.

YNet notes that it is getting large crowds due to its air-conditioning. I wonder if the many Gaza homeless that we hear so much about will try to sleep in the mall, the way they do in American malls - and when they are kicked out, if the media will blame Israel?

Fox News blog also has a story about the mall - but, quoting UNRWA's Chris Gunness, it stresses that few Gazans can afford to buy anything there. I guess that the people who built it and the store owners are really stupid for not realizing that they would have no customers for their "Fila sneakers, knock-off Barbie dolls, and even Italian chocolates."

Tisha B'Av 5770: A reason to cry

Monday night and Tuesday is Tisha B'Av, the most mournful day of the year. This is the traditional anniversary of the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, among other tragedies.

It was not that long ago that Jews cried real tears for the Temple - and not only once a year. Countless Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem chronicled the heartbreaking sight of Jews gathering at the Kotel, then known then as the Wailing Place of the Jews, every Friday.

From Dwight's American Magazine, Volume 3, 1847:

I have said how proud and prosperous looked the Mosque of Omar, with its marble buildings, its green lawns, and gaily dressed people, some at prayer under the cypresses, some conversing under the arcades ; female devotees in white sitting on the grass, and merry children running on the slopes; all these ready and eager to stone to death on the instant, any Christian or Jew who should dare to set his foot within the wails. This is what we saw within. Next we went around the outside till we came by a narrow, crooked passage, to a desolate spot, occupied by desolate people. Under a high, massive, and very ancient wall was a dusty, narrow space, enclosed on the other side by the backs of modern dwellings, if I remember right. The ancient wall, where the weeds are springing from the crevices of the stones, is the only part remaining of the old Temple wall; and here the Jews come every Friday, to their Place of Wailing, as it is called, to mourn over the fall of their Temple, and pray for its restoration. What a contrast did these humbled people present to the proud Mohammedans within! They were seated in the dust, some wailing aloud, some repeating prayers with moving lips, and others reading them from books on their knees. A few children were at play on the ground; and some aged men sat silent, their heads drooped on their breasts. Several young men were leaning against the wall, pressing their foreheads against the stones, and resting the books on their clasped hands in the crevices. With some, this wailing is no form; for I saw tears on their cheeks. I longed to know if any had hope in their hearts, that they or their children of any generation should pass that wall, and should help to swell the cry, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that the King of Glory may come in!" If they have any such hope, it may give some sweetness to this rite of humiliation. We had no such hope for them; and it was with unspeakable sadness that I, for one, turned away from the thought of the pride and tyranny within those walls, and the desolation without, carrying with me a deep felt lesson on the strength of human faith, and the weakness of the tide of brotherhood.

From Home Life in the Bible, 1881:

Among the impressive sights of Jerusalem for the traveller, none perhaps is sadder than the Wailing-place of the Jews, which affords probably the only example of national ceremonial mourning in the world. The resident Hebrews assemble every Friday at the base of the wall of their ancient Temple in the Valley of the Tyropean, and with prayers and tears bewail before God the fallen glory of his chosen people. The formal lamentation consists of chanting certain appropriate portions of Scripture, such as the words of Isaiah: "Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste" (Isa. lxiv. 9—11); and those of the Psalmist: "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; thy holy temple have they defiled ; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us ; for we are brought very low" (Ps. lxxix. 1, 6-8). This touching custom is very old; and during periods of foreign oppression the Jews maintained it only by paying a heavy tax for the precious privilege of touching and kissing the stones of their once glorious sanctuary. In the reign of Constantine the expelled race were allowed to enter the city only once a year to wail over the ruined Temple.

From The Church of England magazine, 1869:

A very striking sight is the wailing ot the Jews at the Temple wall, which any traveller may witness on a Friday afternoon about four or five o'clock. There is a narrow passage along the west side of the Temple area between what are known as Robinson's and Wilson's arches. The wall rises to a considerable height, and the lower part is formed of very large stones, which are supposed to bo remains of the Temple. They are much ruined, and the grass and herbage grow in the shattered crevices of the once neatly-joined masonry. In these crevices the Jews place little scrolls of parchment, on which are written prayers to the messiah to come and deliver them. Before this wall are gathered a throng of Jews: most of them are women, who wear long mourning veils of linen over their heads. Some are close to the wall, kissing the sacred stones and watering them with their tears. Others are seated on the ground, reading passages of scripture to one another from the Lamentations of Jeremiah and penitential psalms. All seem to be absorbed in deep and genuine grief. At one end may be seen a party of rabbis rocking themselves backwards and forwards in almost frantic grief, reciting in a wild chant psalms and passages of holy scripture, which are responded to by several boys in a sort of chorus.

A mere century ago, Jews keenly felt a personal bereavement of the loss of the Temple. They sobbed and wailed over the fact that the beautiful Temple, the symbol of their nationhood as well as their faith, was being desecrated daily, that the Holy of Holies was being treated like a playground, or worse. The Wall symbolized the loss of Jerusalem and the millennia of exile of the Jewish people.

We should be crying today as well - for the fact that we no longer cry.

The triumphant words of Colonel Motta Gur, exclaimed in 1967, that "הר הבית בידינו" -"The Temple Mount is in our hands!", seems like a cruel joke today. It was in our hands - for only a matter of hours. In what can only be regarded as a modern Jewish tragedy, Moshe Dayan decided to hand the keys of the Temple Mount to the Waqf of Jordan.

Now, as before, Muslims continue to do whatever they want in Judaism's holiest spot - but the tragedy is multiplied, because now it is Jews who are stopping other Jews from ascending and it is Jews who are allowing the defilement of our holiest space to continue.

The Kotel, formerly a bitter symbol of destruction, now is characterized as a plaza of victory. Yet it is merely a retaining wall for a platform upon which is found Judaism's holiest spot. The focal point of Jewish yearning has never been the Wall - the Wall has always been, and remains today, a stark reminder of the loss of the Temple. The focus is only a few meters beyond the Wall, to a place that continues to be desecrated every minute of every hour of every day. The Kotel is not a place to celebrate - it is a place to mourn that continuing desecration..

We used to gather three times a year at that location. All personal differences dissolved during each Chag. The festivals were national celebrations, a family reuniion, the happiest times of the year. That has been lost.

Why aren't we crying? Why have we lost sight of the tragedy that still exists, today, in the Har HaBayit? At the very moment of the culmination of Jewish national aspiration for 1900 years, during the giddy and emotional high of finally returning to the epicenter of our forefathers' yearnings, we faltered. We acted as if we really were not masters of our own land. We failed the generations before us. The millions of tears of those who cried at the Kotel for hundreds of years are wasted.

Giving up the Temple Mount was not an act of peace. Instead, it was a guarantee for perpetual war. Because we did not take control of this supremely important place, we now are in a position of bargaining for our own capital - as if it doesn't really belong to us. Even with political sovereignty, we are still acting as if we need to get permission from others in order to assert our rights.

It is of course a wonderful thing to see Zechariah's prophecy come true, with children playing on the streets of Jerusalem again, to see the Hurva resurrected, to see Jews return to the center of their universe - but today's Jerusalem has a cancer in its very heart. A cancer that is spreading.

The tragedy is even keener than it was before 1948, before 1967. The tragedy today is our own fault. The Psalmist asks, "?מי יעלה בהר ה' , ומי יקום במקום קדשו," "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? and who shall stand in His holy place?" How can we answer that question today without tears?

Yet we have forgotten how to cry. We have masked our bare, painful emotions with intellectualism and secularism. We have discarded our hearts and act as if we can survive with only our brains.

We cry at movies, at sports events - but we don't cry on Tisha B'Av. As much as we should be weeping for the loss of the Temples, we should also be weeping at the loss of our ability to internalize that loss.

We need to look at the tears of the Yerushalmi Jews of old and understand their source. Because the tears of loss are necessary to give us the strength to win.

I wish my Jewish readers an easy and meaningful fast. May this be the last Tisha B'av we observe as a day of mourning.

Welcome to the impoverished Gaza Strip Mall!

Here is where you can see how the evil Zionists have stolen all our water.

Medical equipment like wheelchairs can only come from ships who break the blockade.

We also need help from the West in getting basic clothing into Gaza.

Our children suffer the most. Here they are playing videogames that are over three years old.

Amenities that are taken for granted in the West, like 65 inch flat screen TVs, are exceedingly rare and must be shared by many of our impoverished citizens.

We are forced to squirt Zionist ketchup onto our French fries, showing that we are still under colonial occupation.

Our children are forced to suffer while their parents eat measly portions in the "Starving Food Court."

PalTimes has dozens of other photos of the ruins, in three photo albums: 1 2 3

And now we have the tragic video of the mall.

"Muslims need to tackle Jewish Islamophobia"

The ignoble Khaled Amayreh, whose love for conspiracy theories spans from Jews to UFOs, has a new article out all over the Arabic and loony left sites called "Muslims need to tackle Jewish Islamophobia."

You see, this pseudo journalist is concerned for anti-Muslim bigotry among Jews.

Just for fun, here are some examples of how he refers to Jews through this article - all while railing against supposed Jewish bigotry:

From Sydney to California , Zionist Jews are spreading venomous hatred against Islam.

sick supremacists

Jewish supremacists

virulent Jewish Islamophobia

the Jewish-controlled media and show biz have been inciting against Islam for ages.

Zionist agents fabricated anti-Semitic incidents, like scrawling anti-Jewish epithets or even setting Jewish property on fire, and blamed it on Muslims

The ultimate message they are trying to communicate is "kill the Muslims"

Nazi-like Israeli policies in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and South Lebanon

duplicitous, dishonest and disobedient Jews who views the rest of mankind as cattle.

This satanic calf has effectively morphed Jews, or most Jews, into mass murderers, certified war criminals, child killers, land thieves and pathological professional liars.

a real alliance is being forged between Zionism and European neo-Nazism

Israeli Nazism has a fixation, namely controlling the world by controlling governments and regimes, as is already the case in the United States, Canada and several other western countries.

As they say in Arabic, "The camel cannot see the crookedness of its own neck."

More posts about this hateful joker here, here, here, here.

LOL

My post on the Gaza Mall has been getting tons of hits from all over - it is as close to going viral as anything I've ever written.

One great link is from The Roadkill Diaries, which titles its post about the mall

Free Gaza

....with every $100 purchase.

And that's only the first joke.

Guess who bans the burqa?

Recently, France's lower house of Parliament voted to ban women from wearing the full veil, or burqa. The vote was 336-1, with 200 abstentions.

The reaction from Muslim leaders was predictable:

Ibrahim Hooper is a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. He says that the French vote is a thinly-disguised attempt to discriminate against all Muslims, not just those who wear the burqa.

"It's really a new type of law targeting a particular minority faith based on the prejudices of the majority. And my religious rights should not be dependent on a majority vote,” said Hooper.

The interesting thing is that France was not the only government to restrict women from wearing the veil.

From AP:

Syria has banned the face-covering Islamic veil from the country's universities.

An official at the ministry says the ban affects public and private universities and aims to protect Syria's secular identity. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The niqab is not widespread in Syria, although it has become more common recently. It's growing popularity has not gone unnoticed in a country governed by a secular, authoritarian regime.
Last month, hundreds of primary school teachers who wear the niqab were moved to administrative jobs, local media reported.

Is Ibrahim Hooper saying anything negative about Syria?

Last January, an Egyptian court upheld a ban of the veil during university exams. And last year Al Azhar University's religious head banned the veil at all Al Azhar schools altogether.

Is Ibrahim Hooper saying anything negative about Egypt's respect for Islam?

It seems that Syria and Egypt are nervous about growing Islamic fundamentalism, as shown by a custom that is not legally sanctioned in Islam. In the words of another Al Azhar scholar, ""We all agree that niqab is not a religious requirement. Taliban forces women to wear the niqab. ... The phenomena is spreading and it has to be confronted. The time has come."

So France does not seem to be exhibiting any Islamophobia. French politicians are merely following in the footsteps of two nations whose very constitutions invoke Islam as the major source for their laws!

New hysterical PalArab complaints about Jaffa Gate

I mentioned last April that Israel had re-opened Jaffa Gate after a two-month renovation project. Andm of course, Palestinian Arabs objected.

They knew that it had to be evil, because the hated Jews were doing it, but they couldn't quite figure out the reason that they should seethe. The best reason they could come up with was:

“It is an attempt to hit hard at commercial life in the Old City, especially the Muslim Quarter,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

That reason made no sense at all, and it showed how infantile Palestinian Arab leaders are in reflexively attributing anything Israel does as being aimed purely at hurting them.

Well, three months later, the Al Aqsa Foundation finally came up with more reasons to be upset at Zionists renovating a Muslim-built gate: because the Jews are trying to redirect people from the Damascus Gate (which abuts the Muslim quarter) with Jaffa Gate.

Of course, Israel is planning to renovate Damascus Gate too, so that logic doesn't quite fly.

Even so, the Al Aqsa Foundation - which comes out with hysterical press releases about the "Judaizing" of Jerusalem every day - adds a few more problems. They say that the Jews are putting Biblical and Talmudic sayings around Jaffa Gate, that Israel is working to help tourists enter the Old City in opposition to local Arab Jerusalemites, that Israel is trying to "blockade" the Old City.

One gets the impression that the Al Aqsa Foundation spends all its time flinging mud and hoping that some of it will stick to the wall. The entire organization is one giant incitement factory.

The problem is, even though they have a track record of making predictions that never come true, they are still treated with respect and their press releases still get prominent coverage in the Arabic press

Terrorist kills after daughter is saved by Jews

Remember the story about the Palestinian Arab mother who declared, in an Israeli hospital where her son's life was being saved, that she hopes he grows up to kill the very Jews that were saving his life?

Well, that attitude is not exactly an aberration.

From YNet:

Policeman's murder solved. The Shin Bet has arrested a Hamas cell believed to be behind the shooting attack in which Yehoshua Sofer was killed in June, it was cleared for publication on Monday.

Two other policemen were injured in the attack when terrorists fired at their patrol car driving near the settlement of Beit Hagai, south of Hebron.

One of the cell's heads said in his interrogation that just two weeks before he embarked on the attack, his six-year-old daughter was hospitalized in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, where she had a tumor removed from her eye. The operation was funded by an Israeli organization.

Jameel at The Muqata adds:

Walla reports that some of the terrorists in the cell were released from Israeli prisons just weeks before the terror attack.

Much of the "peace process" is based on the idea that "goodwill gestures" would, invariably, be reciprocated by the other side. That is, after all, how normal human beings function - they show appreciation for any good that is done to them.

Here we have two examples of "goodwill gestures" - one, a private Jewish organization that funds and facilitates expensive medical procedures for Palestinian Arabs. The other, where Israel releases prisoners - even without a swap. (In fact, Israel has released thousands of Palestinian Arab prisoners in the past couple of years.)

Both goodwill gestures were reciprocated - but with murder.

It is not racist to realize that the mentality of Palestinian Arabs is fundamentally different from that of most Westerners. It is a result of the culture they were brought up in; it is the result of decades of the most disgusting incitement imaginable - it is hardly genetic. The differences are there and they should not be papered over with wishful thinking. The assumption that "we are all the same under the skin" is a fatal error. The ugly truth is that, in some cultures, "goodwill gestures" are interpreted as weakness, not goodwill, and the obvious response to kindness by an enemy is violence.

Just ask the family and former fiancee of Yehoshua Sofer.

YNet: Hamas brags that it swaps fake shekels to Israel for real ones

From YNet:

The Bank of Israel is about to transfer tens of millions of shekels to the Gaza Strip this week. It has been less than six months since the last time this occurred. Hamas' website claims that the amount to be transferred is NIS 81 million (about $21 million).

A senior official in Israel's banking system claimed that the sum will be smaller than what Hamas claims, but confirmed that tens of millions of shekels will be cashed for residents of the coastal enclave.

The Hamas website asserts that the Bank of Israel is cashing money of two kinds for banks in the Strip. Firstly, it is exchanging worn-out banknotes for fresh ones, and, secondly, it is cashing money that Salam Fayyad's government in the Palestinian Authority transfers to Gaza as part of its aid program to the Strip.

Officials in the Israeli and Palestinian banking systems confirmed Hamas' claims.

The Bank of Israel declined to comment.

Deputy finance minister in the Hamas government Ismail Mahfouz boasted on the movement's website, "We are transferring counterfeit money to Israel, and they transfer real money to us in exchange."

I'm not sure if this is true. The screenshot that accompanied the story was not a Hamas website, but rather the PA Ministry of Finance site, in a story from a few weeks ago about paying salaries and quoting Mahfouz about the possibility of a new Palestinian Arab currency, plus a few other topics, but nothing about counterfeiting.

The YNet story is mentioned in a number of Arabic media, but without attribution, so it might be that YNet got it from a Fatah site, or vice versa. At any rate, I cannot find any Hamas site that says this.

On the other hand, the Hamas-linked Felesteen site says that Hamas denies the charges that it sends counterfeit money, saying that Israel checks the worn-out notes. It also has a story about Hamas itself busting a counterfeit money operation over the weekend - where someone was printing out US currency on his laser printer.

YNet might be mistaken in this case.

(I updated this with new information about the YNet screenshot.)
(h/t Jed and Ali)

Swastikas in Lebanon. Germany not amused.

My apologies for not mentioning this earlier. It was all over the Lebanese blogs and I simply missed it before.

Before the FIFA World Cup started in June 2010, a German flag with a swastika was seen on a house in Bteghrine, Lebanon (Germany prompted the Lebanese authorities to take these flags and swastika's down):

Unfotunately it's not just one incident.

Another Lebanese blogger shows us this picture of a guy wearing a shirt with a swastika on July 3rd:

and comments:

"While having dinner at Napoletana in ABC Dbayyeh, a guy walked in wearing the Swastika symbol on his tshirt. If i were the manager, i would have definitly kicked him out of the restaurant. Surprisingly, he turned out to be friends with the manager who sat with him for a short while.

Ignorance is indeed a virtue"

A day later a Lebanese (?) blogger wrote the following:

"One thing that really bothered me during the World Cup in 2006 was the occasional German flag with a swastika painted on it, mostly flown from passing cars. So you can imagine my disgust to see this banner flying in Bourj Hammoud, a predominantly Armenian Christian neighborhood east of Beirut today:"

(In German it reads: Germany (though misspelled) and "we live together, we fall together")

The blog Now Lebanon did some investigation and found out that the guy who hung the German flags with swastika-banners in the streets of Bourj Hammoud in Beirut is not an ignorant fool, but one sick dude:

Self-described “ferekh teis” (“stubborn bull”) Carlos Demien is celebrating Germany’s World Cup presence in a manner many around the world would find appalling. For the past few weeks, the 38 year-old Bourj Hammoud resident has displayed huge Nazi banners – swastikas and images of internationally-reviled Adolf Hitler included – across the Armenian district’s Zanco Street.

“I would not take [the banners] down if I was asked to,” said Demien, a Lebanese antiques dealer. “If anyone were to get upset, then for sure it is someone passing by. And, if this is the case, then he should just change his route.”

Demien insisted that he was not part of a neo-Nazi movement, but was simply praising what Hitler “had accomplished historically.” He claimed that the Nazi leader improved Germany’s standard of living, economics and agriculture. His reasoning took some sinister turns.

Demien lamented that Hitler was not allowed six more months in power. He also expressed no sympathies for the victims of the Holocaust and said he approved of the genocide. “Just look at the world and what is happening, and you would know why Hitler was right,” he said.

and..

“I make them myself,” said Demien of his signs. “I buy the material, design them and oversee their sewing.”

The German ambassador Birgitta Siefker-Eberle told The Daily Star that although the embassy didn't wish to cause a stir, she had been disturbed by the phenomenon:

“I find it very sad when this sort of thing happens,” the ambassador said. “Hitler is an extremely difficult legacy for Germany, and we have worked hard to atone for the crimes of the past – these flags simply negate that.”

Combining the current German flag with a swastika is also “historical nonsense,” she said, as the two have never coexisted. Although she put people’s fascination with Hitler largely down to ignorance, the ambassador stressed that the swastika was the symbol of a dictatorship for Germans, and one that reminded them of the darkest chapter in their history.

Update:
Zvi quotes part of the Daily Star in the comment section which I overlooked in the first place, but is important to mention:

"According to Nabil Dajani, a professor of media studies at the American University of Beirut, hostility to Israel also plays an important part in the endorsement of Nazi insignia.
“Most Arabs conceive the Israeli treatment of Palestinians as similar or worse than what the Jews faced in Nazi Germany,” he told The Daily Star.
“What the Germans feel today has nothing to do with how Arabs conceive of Germany. They still want to remember Germany as the country that [achieved revenge] for them from the Israelis,” despite the anachronism, he said.

I wonder if the German ambassador is aware of this.

Zvi also reveals some extra info on the Syrian-sponsored SSNP and wonders whether Demien is a member of this party rather than just a Nazi-obsessed nut-case:

"The SSNP has strong historical ties to the Nazis. Its anthem, for example, used to be Deutschland über Alles, its symbol is a reversed, swollen red swastika and its colors are black, white and red (reverse of the Nazi RWB). Those associated with the party tend to revere the Nazis."

New papers discovered from John Roy Carlson

John Roy Carlson, the pen name of Avedis Boghos Derounian, made a name of himself by infiltrating and exposing a number of Nazi and other groups in the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1948, he pretended to be an Arab fighter and observed Israel's War of Independence - from the Arab side. His observations were published in 1951 as "Cairo to Damascus." You can read most of the book online here, and it is fascinating. For example, he writes about dinner with London anti-semite, Nazi admirer and Arab supporter Robert Gordon-Canning:

Similar anecdotes about Arabs in 1948 abound. Here is one right after the Arabs captured Castel, but at the cost of losing their commander, Abdel Kader Husseini:

It turns out that Carlson has an unpublished manuscript from right after the war, and JStreetJive has part of it. Here is some of what they have published so far, from his interviews of Arab refugees in UNRWA camps: