Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 26, 2010

Lebanese "flotilla" might sail this week

Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has a brief paper that analyzes the latest on the Lebanese women's and reporters' ships that were supposed to have sailed a month ago. They agree with my reporting that Hezbollah is behind the ships and that the purpose of these ships may be to provoke a deadly Israeli response:

1. Yasser Qashlaq, chairman of the Free Palestine Movement and organizer of the Lebanese flotilla to the Gaza Strip, said the ships would leave within a few days. Qashlaq asked Lebanese politicians not to make difficulties, but rather to cooperate so the flotilla might succeed (DayPress news website, July 20, 2010). His previous declarations about its sailing were not realized, but nevertheless it is possible that this time the ships will set sail, despite a large number of international objections.
2. The current situation of the flotilla is as follows:
A. The ship called Maryam reached Tripoli and is currently participating in the routine processes required by law before a ship set sail. Rima Farah, ship spokesperson, said that contacts had been made with a number of countries to acquire authorization for the ship to be received at their harbors, because it cannot sail directly from Lebanon to the port of Gaza. Samar al-Hajj, coordinator for the organizing committee, is the director of the ship's logistic activities. Note: The ship will carry only women passengers (Al-Diyar website, July 21, 2010).
B. The ship called Nagi al-Ali (formerly Julia) is ready to set sail, and according to the organizers all that remains to be done is to load the cargo. Most of the passengers will apparently be correspondents.
C. The organizers may have another ship, but they are not divulging any information about it.
3. Yasser Qashlaq said he did not rule out the possibility that Israel would try to halt the flotilla because "there is no limit to the crimes of the entity of the occupation." He also said that there would be peace activists aboard the ships and that the cargos would include humanitarian equipment, and that any attempt to stop them would be "a terrorist action" (DayPress news website, July 20, 2010).
4. In our assessment, the ships were purchased and the flotilla organized with the involvement and support of Syria and Hezbollah, although both do not want to expose their roles and use organizations like the Free Palestine Movement as fronts for their activities.
5. Qashlaq revealed his position in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on June 19, 2010. He said that "the day will come when the ships [which arrive at the Gaza Strip] will take the remainder of the European garbage which came to my country [i.e., Israel] back to their homelands, Gilad Shalit will return to Paris and they [the leaders of Israel will return to Poland. Let the murderers go home. After they return we will pursue them everywhere all over the world and try them in court for the slaughters they have carried out from Dir Yassin to this day."
6. Considering the stated positions of Qashlaq and some of those involved in the flotilla, and especially their close ties with Syria and Hezbollah, he apparently wants a violent confrontation between the passengers and the Israeli Air Force and Navy with a lot of media coverage. His intention is to defame Israel, even if his agenda is not necessarily that of the other passengers aboard the ships.
7. More proof that this flotilla, like that of the Mavi Marmara, is meant mainly to create a media circus and incite anti-Israeli propaganda, and not to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip was made public by an Al-Jazeera TV investigative report.
8. The Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza Strip correspondent, revealed that the Gazans responsible for the ministry of health of the de facto Hamas administration were resentful because 70% of the medicines which arrived in the Gaza Strip from the aid convoys from various countries, especially Arab countries, could not be used. They were either unfit for use or their expiry dates had passed by months and sometimes years. They said that one of the convoys had brought dialysis machines which could not be used. The report was also quoted by a daily paper affiliated with the de facto Hamas administration (Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010).

Left: Useless dialysis machines. Right: Drugs whose expiry dates have passed
(Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010).

(h/t Israel Matzav)

Gazans aren't paying their electric bills

Palestine Today reports that a new plan will be put into place to collect overdue electric bills from the tens of thousands of PA employees in Gaza.

The plan, announced today, involves garnishing up to 25% of Gaza employees monthly wages.

As we have mentioned before, Gaza's power plant suffers from a shortage of fuel - but not because of any Israeli policy that limits fuel distribution, but rather because they aren't paying for it.

This new policy will attempt to make a dent in the huge debt that the electric company is under - some 5.2 billion shekels ($1.3 billion.)

New PalArab computer training center

PalPress reports that a new computer training center was opened in Ramallah.

It was named after Mamdouh Sabri Saydam, "one of the most prominent leaders of the Palestinian revolution...who gave his soul the redemption of the homeland" on the 39th anniversary of his "martyrdom."

Who was Saydam?

Mamduh Sabri Saydam [Abu Sabri]:

Former Fatah field commander. Refugee from ‘Aqr (al-Majdal) to Gaza; taught in Algeria and trained in its army in 1964. Recruited through Wazir, and moved to join Fatah field command in Damascus (1965). Member of first Fatah-CC, heading Fatah forces in Jordan in 1970. Died in Jul 71 of cancer.

I wonder if Jordan is happy that Palestinian Arabs are naming institutions after people who tried to topple its government.

Nasrallah continues to make Lebanon nervous

From Ya Libnan:

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech during a ceremony honoring children of the party’s martyrs.

He started out by defending the resistance and pointing out its achievements in 1982 , 2000 and 2006 .

He said :” [Lebanon's enemies] may bargain on gas and oil but they can never bargain on the Resistance.”

He concluded that the “Resistance is the most precious of what we have. We will not allow any small or big person in this world to touch any of its dignity. ”

Nasrallah used the occasion to attack the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the third time in 10 days.

He accused the UN investigation team of being formed from officers closely associated with Israeli Mossad spy agency :

“Should an Investigation Committee made of Americans and the British government where investigating officers are brought from intelligence services closely linked to the Mossad be entrusted with a big issue at this level?” , he said.

Nasrallah also attacked the March 14 leaders who were critical of his previous two speeches:

“Is the behavior of some political forces in Lebanon and the Attorney General and the International Tribunal the behavior of those who seek the truth?, he said

Nasrallah suggested setting up a Lebanese committee to investigate the issue of false witnesses, who he said “misled the investigation for 4 years.”

“Distortion of the Resistance, the dearest to us, will not be allowed,” he added.

As an editorial in Now Lebanon put it after Nasrallah's second speech attacking the STL:

On the face of it, Thursday night’s speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah marked another milestone in the party’s proud policy of intimidation. Those of us who lived through the attempted coup of May 7, 2008 know only too well what Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition March 8 bloc can and will do if they feel their agenda is under threat.

Nasrallah’s speech, the second in which he has sought to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon – the court formed to find the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others as well as the victims of subsequent political violence – targeted the March 14 bloc and urged its members to reconsider the “choices they made.” In short, as March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soueid said in an interview on Saturday with Radio Free Lebanon, Nasrallah was suggesting March 14 surrender the ideals forged in the heat of the 2005 Independence Intifada.

If we follow Hezbollah’s advice, we will have allowed threats and intimidation to derail justice, even if it is sold as a move to avoid civil violence. Nasrallah wants us to believe that the Resistance is more important than justice and that we should give up our pursuit of it because he will allow nothing to harm the Resistance.

Meaning what? That Hezbollah and its allies will take their gunmen onto the streets once again? That the government will be toppled and another more pliant cabinet installed to derail the tribunal? Both courses of action are hardly likely. They would not only be an admission of guilt to all but the most blinkered supporters, but would also once again prove that Hezbollah has no policy for advancing Lebanon as a modern state and no blueprint for building state institutions. It can only offer violence and conflict on behalf of its Iranian clients.

In fact, since 2005, Hezbollah’s contribution to the national whole has been one war, one downtown sit-in and one bout of murderous, civil violence. Let us also not forget the vast array of tools it has at its disposal for obstructing basic constitutional processes, such as elections, the selecting of a president and the forming of a government.

However, Nasrallah's threats may be masking his own nervousness:

But short of throwing out the tried and tested, but ultimately weary Zionist card, Nasrallah has few options. This has been demonstrated by the mixed signals he has sent in the previous 24 hours. He will not allow the Resistance to be harmed, and yet he will enter into talks on the matter, either within the cabinet or at the national dialogue table, but only on the condition that the talks do not start on the basis of Hezbollah’s presumed guilt. These provisos have all the hallmarks of desperation.

First female Arab combat soldier in IDF is proud to serve Israel

From the IDF:

“Look at the beret,” says Elinor, smiling from ear to ear, showing off the bright green beret that she earned after completing the trek which is part of her combat training in the Karakal Battalion. Her excitement is accompanied by a new historical precedent, since Elinor is the first Arab female combat soldier in IDF history.

Cpl. Elinor Jozef was born and raised in an integrated neighborhood of Jews and Arabs in Haifa, but attended a school in which all her classmates were Arab. She later moved to Wadi Nisnas, an Arab neighborhood where she currently lives. Despite the fact that she would always wear her father’s IDF dog-tag around her neck from when he served in the Paratrooper’s Unit, she never thought she would enlist. “I wanted to go abroad to study medicine and never come back,” she said. To her father it was clear that she would enlist in the IDF, as most citizens in Israel do. This was something that worried her very much. “I was scared to lose my friends because they objected to it. They told me they wouldn’t speak to me. I was left alone.”

Despite their opposition, she decided to move forward and enlist. She explained her motive: “I decided to go head-to-head, to check who my true friends are, to do something in life that I have never done before. I understood that it was most important to defend my friends, family, and country. I was born here.” At the end of the day, she says she realized it was the right thing to do, “With time, when you do things from the heart, you begin to understand their importance.”

Al Arabiya has a lengthy and flabbergasted Arabic article on Jozef. When asked if she would kill Arabs if necessary, she answered that she would hardly be the first Arab to kill other Arabs.

She also said that while she doesn't celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut, she doesn't sit and cry either.

Jews don't visit holy sites - they "storm" them

Palestine Press Agency says,

Hundreds of extremist settlers stormed the Tomb of Joseph after midnight last night, in the eastern city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, in the latest attack in the province.

Witnesses said that approximately 700 settlers arrived in the area under the close protection of the occupation army, and entered the shrine, which is exposed to these sorts of incursions from time to time.

Witnesses added that the settlers performed religious rituals inside the place for about 5 hours before they withdrew in the early morning hours.

Keep in mind that under Oslo II, Jews have the right to visit Jewish shrines under Palestinian Arab control.

Invest in Gaza (new EoZ video)

Better ways to spend aid dollars

A fantastic new video from Free Middle East:

Stomach-turning deprivation continues at Gaza museum

The poor, deprived people of Gaza have yet another place to spend their free time.

Welcome to the Al Mat-haf Museum and Cultural Center.

This is Gaza's main archaeological museum. Overlooking the Mediterranean, it boasts impeccable landscaping.

It includes a full-service restaurant:

It includes a well-manicured indoor terrace, complete with fountains.

The wretched poverty is too much to bear. Just looking at these pictures makes one want to join the next flotilla to help these poor, poor people. In June, 2009, Jimmy Carter visited Gaza. Here is what he said at the time:

To me, the most grievous circumstance is the maltreatment of the people in Gaza, who are literally starving and have no hope at this time.

During that same trip, Carter visited this museum along with John Ging. Here is a picture of Carter planting a tree there, with Ging looking on:

You can see how Carter was grieving at the starving people in the museum. Wearing suits. It looks like Treblinka. The museum part seems to be incidental to the work that goes into the terraces and restaurant spaces. Looking at the pieces in the museum, at least according to their web page, they have not identified a single archaeological object that they have display:

The reason might be because of something that the New York Times mentioned when they profiled the museum in 2008:

His collection includes thousands of items, but some of the most extraordinary will not go on display now, including a statue of a full-breasted Aphrodite in a diaphanous gown, images of other ancient deities and oil lamps featuring menorahs. Asked why, Mr. Khoudary noted Hamas’s rule and the conservative piety of the population and said simply, “I want my project to succeed.”

Gazans can take pride in knowing that their most beautiful treasures are hidden away because of prejudice.

Good news from Sweden

From the Sweden, Israel and the Jews blog:

Sweden often gives the impression that it is blinded by hatred of Israel. However in the last couple of weeks following the Ship to Gaza event, some signs of hope have appeared showing that not everybody refuses to see both sides of the story.
In a public statement, the student union of the ruling Moderate party (Fria Moderaternas Studentforbund) writes "We can unload the ships".

The statement refers to the boycott that the Swedish Dockworkers Union currently is imposing on Israeli cargo arriving to Sweden as well as Swedish cargo destined for Israel. In response to the Dockworkers Union’s boycott, the young Moderates offered to offload and load those ships which the dockworkers refuse to handle.

"Today, the Swedish Dockworkers Union has initiated a blockade of goods to and from Israel. The reason is that Israel did not let through a number of ships which were aiming to break their naval blockade of Hamas. To so clearly take a stance for Hamas and their unlimited naval access to accept all the goods they wish, including weapons, is a manifestation of hate towards Israel, not a support for the suffering population. Those who really want to have peace in the Middle East should instead take a stance against the terror group Hamas and the horrible suffering which it has caused Gaza’s population. It is Hamas's fault that people are suffering in Gaza, not Israel’s."

As a sign of their support of Israel the students have consequently decided to act in order to break the Swedish blockade against Israel and load and unload those ships which the dockworkers refuse to handle.

UPDATE: I didn't realize that this story was from a month ago. Still interesting.

Aw, shoot

From Ma'an:

A Bedouin man died Saturday of wounds sustained at his own bachelor party, when guests opened celebratory gunfire in the air to mark the occasion.

The 22-year-old groom sustained several gunshot wounds to his upper body at the bachelor party in the southern Negev town of Al-Kseifa and was evacuated to the Soroko Hospital in Beersheba for treatment. He was pronounced dead after several medical procedures.

Abbas unclear on definition of "violence"

Over the weekend, four rockets an two mortar shells slammed into Israel from Gaza.

At the same time:

President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israel’s continued settlement building on what would become a future Palestinian state was impeding a two-state solution and renewing the cycle of violence.

This is a recurring Palestinian Arab theme: When Jews do something that upsets them, it is "provocative" and it causes them to react violently. This applies to building houses, visiting holy sites, or making municipal plans in their capital.

In the twisted worldview that Palestinian Arab leaders have, anything that makes them upset is considered "violent" and when they use actual violence, they are merely "reacting" to Israeli "violence."

The corollary is that Palestinian Arabs have no self control, no free will, no ability to retrain themselves. Their violence is natural, Israelis living their lives is "provocative."

It would be comical if the repetition of this inanity - that Jews living normal lives on their homeland is inherently "provocative" - had not been accepted as undisputed fact by most of the world.

Don't believe me? Here's a short list of terrorist acts that have been declared "natural reactions" by Palestinian Arab leaders:

Butchering a 13-year old boy with an axe
Murdering an 86 year old man
Running over a Jewish woman with a bulldozer
Massacring teenagers at a school

See? It's only natural!

Another day, another announced flotilla

From the Yemen News Agency:

A broad campaign has started in the capital Sana'a for collecting donations for preparing and sending a four-ship flotilla to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The campaign was officially inaugurated by Rashad al-Alimi, deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security Affairs.

MP Mohammad al-Hazmi, who participated in the Freedom Flotilla and who was arrested by Israel along with two other MPs and a Yemeni activist, said: "Since we returned to Sana'a and were received by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, we have proposed the topic of sending Yemeni ships for breaking the Gaza blockade to President Saleh. So he accepted this, and the Yemeni Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian People has adopted this very strongly and enthusiastically."

"The official position is in harmony with the popular position, and the Palestinian cause is the uniting cause for all Yemenis. Therefore, we find that Yemenis - on the official and popular levels - support the Palestinian cause, the right to resistance, and the right of return, the liberation of Palestine, and the establishment of an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital", Al-Hazmi added.

On the number of participants in the flotilla, Al-Hazmi said: "I would not be exaggerating if I said that tens of thousands of Yemenis want to participate in the Yemeni ships to break the Gaza blockade. Even women have demanded that there should be a place for them in the flotilla. Men and women are greatly yearning, and, in fact, some people are begging to take part in the flotilla, and some other people are collecting money for the flotilla on condition that they should participate in it."

For his part, Abd-al-Qawi al-Shumayri, general coordinator of the Yemeni flotilla, said that the Yemeni flotilla is in the context of international moves to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip. These moves have emerged and grown since the Israeli aggression against the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010.

Al-Shumayri added that "what is required is to purchase four ships, and not to lease them. The cost of each ship, with a capacity 1,000 tonnes, is around $1 million. Therefore, we mainly depend on collecting donations from the members of the Yemeni people, who interact with any matter of concern to Palestine and Gaza and who sacrifice everything precious to champion their Palestinian brothers."

He noted that the flotilla has set 1 August 2010 as the date for its departure to the Gaza strip. He said that the participants in the Yemeni flotilla will represent all groups of the Yemeni people, including political, ideological, and social parties and trends, including officials and party figures.

On fears that the flotilla and those onboard it will face an Israeli attack, Al-Shumayri said: "We are ready to sacrifice blood, and not only money."

By virtually any measure, Yemen is in much worse shape than Gaza. Yemen's infant mortality rate is triple that of Gaza; its life expectancy is ten years lower than Gaza's, and Yemen ranks 151 out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index. It is the poorest Arab country.

Chances are, the flotilla will never get off the ground. If they don't even have the ships yet, it seems unlikely that they can launch a flotilla next week! This announcement appears to be simply a way for Yemeni authorities to distract their people from their own real problems.

(h/t Ruthie)

Hamas' new tourist resorts

Will the horrors of Gaza never end?

The new Hamas-linked tourist destinations in Gaza that I reported on last Thursday has been noticed by AFP, although relatively few news sites have picked up on it:

The tranquil lawns of the seaside Garden Resort are a high-end oasis in the impoverished Gaza Strip -- and a new source of income for the Hamas-linked charity that owns it.

The beach club, one of several commercial ventures recently launched by groups and individuals linked to Hamas, illustrates the Islamist movement's growing dominance of an economy crippled by a four-year-old Israeli blockade.

The 1.25 million dollar (one million euro) resort is owned and operated by the Islamic Foundation, a charity established by Hamas's spiritual founder, Ahmed Yassin, that has long provided aid to poor families and orphans.

Some 2,000 people have visited each weekend since the foundation established the club and an adjacent fish farm earlier this year, with most paying the eight dollars per family admission fee and many dining at its restaurant.

The Islamic Foundation has launched eight projects in all, including bakeries, farms, a supermarket and a restaurant, and had a nine million dollar budget in 2009, according to Shihab.

"Fifty percent of the revenues of these projects go to establishing new projects to serve the people," he said. "Any for-profit project must advance the goals of the association and its expansion and continuation."

Just down the beach another Hamas-linked charity, whose headquarters were destroyed by an Israeli air strike during the 2008-2009 Gaza war, has established the Freedom Resort, which includes a new 250,000 dollar wedding hall, according to its director, Saber Abu Kirsh.

Hamas is also widely believed to be behind a new shopping mall that opened this week in Gaza City with a ceremony attended by several Hamas ministers and professors at the Hamas-linked Islamic University.

The mall's manager, Siraj Abu Selim, denied Hamas was involved in the three million dollar (2.3 million euro) project, but refused to give the names of any of the mall's owners or chief investors.

Zaza said the government had encouraged the establishment of several commercial projects but had not provided any funding for them.

It plays a more direct role in other projects, however, including the Bisan City tourist village on the northern edge of the territory.

The sprawling facility, which includes gardens, playgrounds, football fields, a petting zoo and restaurants, attracts some 6,000 people every weekend, many of whom are brought in on government-subsidised buses.

And despite the fact that almost all building materials have to be smuggled into the territory, the park includes a new wedding hall and work is under way on what managers say will be an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The 1.5 million dollar project, built on government land under the supervision of Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad, charges 75 cents for adult admission, with children entering for free.

The 270 dunam (67 acre, 27 hectare) park abuts an 84 dunam cattle and chicken farm as well as food processing facilities, also operated by the interior ministry.

The high-end beach resorts have also proven popular, but many wonder how Hamas-linked groups can build new facilities when thousands of homes severely damaged or destroyed during the war remain in ruins.

Abu Kamal, a 53-year-old man whose home was destroyed during the Israeli assault launched in December 2008 in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket attacks, grumbled at the eight dollar admission fee at the Garden Resort.

"The priority should be to rebuild Gaza and build new homes for those of us who had ours destroyed by the occupation during the war," he said.

Just like Darfur!

The Arabic articles about the resort said that rather than the buses being subsidized by Hamas, they were actually a moneymaker for the group.

I didn't quote it, but AFP also uncritically quotes Hamas leaders as saying that they are awash with cash - without asking about the clear cash crisis that Hamas had only a few months ago.

In the comments on my Gaza Mall video, many of the pro-Arab idiots simply deny that the mall exists and swear that this mall is in Jordan or Egypt. I'm sure that they would say the same about this resort.

(h/t Yerushalimey)