Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Palestinian Arabs become more Islamist

In a new Near East Consulting survey of Palestinian Arabs (from Wafa):

57% identified themselves as Muslims first, 21% identified themselves as Palestinians first, 19% as human beings first and 5% as Arabs first.

This surprised me, as I would have swapped the "Arab" and "Muslim" categories. Certainly these numbers would have been much different before 1967. It indicates the increased Islamism of the Palestinian Arabs.

Indeed:

The increase in adherence to religious identity is also reflected in the system preferred by the Palestinian people.

About 40% of the respondents said that they believe that the Islamic caliphate is the best system for Palestinians, 24% chose a system like one of the Arab countries, and 12 % prefer a system like one of the European countries.

Again, this is in contradiction to previous polls that indicated that Palestinian Arabs admire Israel's democracy to any other system, but those polls probably didn't mention the caliphate as an option.

Put together, it looks like pan-Islamism has nearly replaced pan-Arabism in the minds of Palestinian Arabs, which does not bode well if their restless neighbors are also heading in that direction.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

The sham "unity" agreement (NewsRealBlog)

My latest post at NewsRealBlog puts together the fake signing ceremony in Cairo with other things I've been blogging about over the past day.

On Wednesday, Khaled Meshal of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah came together in Cairo and publicly signed a historic reconciliation agreement, in front of a room filed with supporters from the Arab world and the international community.
Didn’t they?
Actually, they didn’t.
Al Quds al-Arabi mentions, almost in passing:
Notably, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not sign the agreement, as expected, and neither did Mr. Khaled Meshaal of the Islamic Resistance Movement ‘Hamas.’
The New York Times noticed this as well:

In what appeared a sign of lingering friction, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal did not share the podium with Abbas and the ceremony was delayed briefly over where he would sit. Against expectations, neither signed the unity document.

That wasn’t the only weird thing that happened at the ceremony that was meant to signify a new chapter in harmonious intra-Palestinian Arab relations. There were actual public disagreements on stage, concerning who was to speak, where people were to sit, and how Mahmoud Abbas should be described (as the “president of Palestine” or as the leader of Fatah.) In fact, from all appearances, Hamas is not recognizing Abbas as the real president of the “unified” leadership!
Put all of this together and the real picture begins to emerge: the entire “unity” agreement is a facade meant to placate Westerners (as well as restive Palestinian Arabs who are eying the revolutions and demonstrations happening around them.) In reality, Hamas and Fatah hate each other as much as ever.
There are no indications that Hamas is giving up any of its security or political power in Gaza. Quite the opposite: Hamas yesterday brazenly executed an alleged “spy,” which according to Palestinian Arab law must not happen without presidential approval.
Also in Gaza yesterday, Palestinian Arabs celebrated this wonderful “unity” by showing posters depicting one of their other heroes:

Why is the Western world believing–and supporting!–this sham that is meant to ultimately create a terror state, one that will not compromise in the least on its major goal of destroying Israel?

Gazans celebrate "unity" - with posters of Osama

From Getty Images via Daylife:

Palestinians hold pictures depicting Osama bin Laden, as they march to celebrate the signing of a reconciliation deal between bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah, on May 4, 2011 in Gaza City.

The yellow flags are for Fatah.

Don't they look like they deserve a state?

Turkish foreign minister meets with Islamic Jihad

Palestine Today reports that Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with the leader of the Islamic Jihad terror organization yesterday.

PIJ leader Dr. Ramadan Shallah along with other top Ilamic Jihad officials were in Cairo to attend the Hamas/Fatah unity celebration, as was Davutoglu. They met at the residence that the Turkish minister was staying.

Unlike Hamas, Islamic Jihad does not even pretend to be anything other than an Islamist terrorist group.

Jerusalem Arabs again prefer to live in Israel than "Palestine"

From YNet:

A recent survey conducted by Pechter Middle East Polls, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, ahead of the possible Palestinian bid for statehood in September, revealed that given a choice, the majority of east Jerusalem residents would prefer to remain Israelis.

The survey sampled 1,039 Palestinians living in all 19 neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, and was supervised by Dr. David Pollock.

Perhaps the most striking finding regarded the residents' citizenship preference, after a two-state solution is reached: When asked if they preferred to become citizens of Palestine or remain citizens of Israel, only 30% chose Palestinian citizenship. Thirty five percent chose Israeli citizenship and 35% declined to answer or said they didn’t know.

When asked if they would move to a different home inside Israel if their neighborhood became part of Palestine,40% said they were "likely to move to Israel" and 27% said they were "likely to move to Palestine" if their neighborhood became part of Israel.

What makes these numbers more amazing is that they reflect attitudes shaped by decades of media incitement against Israel and of generations being inculcated with an ethos of a fake historic Palestinian Arab nationalism.

The idea that 40% would actually pick up and move their families to live in Israel is in itself astonishing, and proves more than anything else that Israel treats its Arab citizens better than they expect to be treated in "Palestine."

(h/t Joel)

Did Abbas and Meshal sign the unity agreement? (UPDATE)

From Al-Quds al Arabi (Arabic), discussing the Hamas/Fatah unification ceremony in Cairo:

Notably, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not sign the agreement, as expected, and neither did Mr. Khaled Meshaal of the Islamic Resistance Movement 'Hamas'...

It may be possible that I am interpreting the autotranslation incorrectly, but I don't think so. The writer goes on to mention the other disagreements Abbas and Meshal had as far as protocol, seating, speaking and so forth.

I know that representatives from Hamas and Fatah signed the agreement a few days ago.

I cannot find any photos or videos showing Abbas or Hamas leaders actually signing anything, at a ceremony that was specifically meant to celebrate exactly that!

There's a story here.

UPDATE: ChallahHuAkbar tweeted George Hale from Ma'an this question after my blog entry (so did NGO Monitor), and he answered:

According to this report, no. It says assistants signed on behalf of both officials.

So why didn't Abbas sign....and why is no one asking him about this?

Iran says the Syrian uprising is "different"

Yesterday I noted, half-jokingly, that Iran supports and encourages all popular revolutions - except in Iran and Syria because those protesters are Zionist stooges.

Once again, one cannot satirize people who are already off the deep end.

From Now Lebanon:

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghandafar Roken Abadi said Thursday that Tehran “understand the basis of all the legitimate demands of all people of any region in the world, whether in Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya or Bahrain,” but added that “everyone knows the situation is different in Syria.”

“What is currently occurring in Syria is a political vendetta conducted by the US and Israel, and this is [a] clear and explicit [project] to separate Syria from the Resistance plan,” the National News Agency quoted him as saying.

In other news, Israel's Channel 10 uncovered a secret document showing that Syria's president is bringing in Hezbollah to quash the protests.

(h/t Joel)

Iran says revolutions will reach Europe

From Tehran Times:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has stated that the European nations will certainly rise up against their governments, which are blindly following the policies of the United States and the Zionist regime.

The Leader made the remarks during a meeting with thousands of teachers on Wednesday on the occasion of the National Teachers’ Day....

“People’s awakening in the Middle East and North Africa is the continuation of the Iranian nation’s great movement, and this awakening will certainly spread to the heart of Europe,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

He went on to say, “The European nations will certainly rise up against their politicians and leaders who made them submit to the cultural and economic policies of the U.S. and the Zionists.”

On the important role the teachers can play to push ahead the Islamic awakening, the Leader said the teachers should raise public awareness and strengthen unity and solidarity through developing talents and training strong-willed, faithful, insightful, committed, and knowledgeable students.

He also said that the most important obligation of the education system is training the people who are capable of safeguarding the principles of the Islamic system and promoting the Iranian nation’s great movement.

But when people rise up against Iran or Syria, they are just proving they are Zionist stooges.

Reagan wasn't the last actor in the White House

A fascinating look behind the scenes of Obama's speech to the nation Sunday night, from Reuters photographer Jason Reed:

This photo was not taken during the speech!

As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.

Obama's re-enactment

Poynter.org researched the history:

Doug Mills, New York Times photojournalist and former Associated Press staffer, says it has been done this way “always, always … well, as long as I have covered the White House, going back to the Reagan administration. We [still photographers] have never, never, never, ever been allowed to cover a live presidential address to the nation!”

Poynter’s Senior Faculty for Visual Journalism, Kenny Irby, explains, “The most obvious concern is noise. The 35mm cameras emit shutter noise, that would be multiplied by several photographers and increased by the echo which resonates off of the marble floors. The other visual distraction is the placement of the teleprompter that impedes the photographers’ line of sight to the president.”

That article concludes:

It is time for this kind of re-enactment to end. The White House should value truth and authenticity. The technology clearly exists to document important moments without interrupting them. Photojournalists and their employers should insist on and press for access to document these historic moments.

In the meantime, anyone who uses these recreations should clearly disclose to the reader the circumstances under which they were captured.

Apparently, wire service photographers will happily descend that slippery slope between news and acting.

This is of course not nearly as bad as the fauxtography and staged photos we are so used to seeing coming out of the Middle East. Even so, one would hope that the White House would not be acting like Hezbollah in even this small way.

(h/t PB)

Great article: "There's Something About Winning"

From the Jewish Journal, by David Suissa:

I’ll never forget sitting with a group of intellectuals several years ago, at the height of the messy war in Iraq, and discussing why President Bush and America had fallen so low in the esteem of the world. One great mind after another offered sophisticated analyses. My head was spinning.

Finally, someone piped up: “Everything would be different if Bush were winning the war.”

At which point a distinguished professor from Israel said: “This is brilliant! Bush’s real problem is that he’s not winning!” I sat there, slightly stunned, thinking: How can something so complicated lend itself to such an easy insight?

I reflected on that insight the other night when President Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden after a nearly 10-year pursuit. Here was a president who had suffered relentless criticism for his handling of foreign affairs. And now, as Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on his blog: “Our President, in the blink of an eye, has gone from a hyper-criticized, seemingly-swamped possibly-one-term leader to an American hero, a commander-in-chief who calmly oversaw the killing of the greatest mass murderer in American history.”

And why did he become a hero? Not because he made one of his inspiring speeches or announced a brilliant new policy.

He became a hero because he got a win. It’s as simple — and as complicated — as that.

We love to teach our kids that life is not about winning and losing but “how you play the game.” That may be true when you’re dealing with people of good faith. But when you’re dealing with people who are out for blood, it’s a good idea to know how to win.

Naturally, Jews and Israel have always been juicy targets for people out for blood. So, how should one deal with such aggression?

I found a wonderful answer last week in a shoe store, of all places, on trendy St. Denis Street in downtown Montreal. The French Canadian owner of the store, who has been there for 25 years, decided last year to carry a woman’s shoe line from Israel called Beautifeel. Well, wouldn’t you know it, within a few months, a vicious boycott campaign was under way against the store, led by a popular local politician, Amir Khadir.

To give you an idea of the tone of their campaign, one of the boycotters’ leaflets had an oversize image of a woman’s shoe stomping on a pile of buried naked bodies — reminiscent of those horror shots of emaciated bodies you see in Holocaust documentaries. Written on the shoe was “Beautifeel. Made in Apartheid Israel.” On top was the headline, in French, “Boycottons la boutique Le Marcheur” (“Let’s boycott the boutique Le Marcheur”).

Week after week, the boycotters recruited large and noisy crowds to hand out the leaflets and implore people not to enter Le Marcheur. Their mission was to pressure the owner, Yves Archambault, to stop carrying the Israeli shoe line so that the neighborhood would be “apartheid free.” But Archambault refused, out of principle. It didn’t seem right to him that he should be told how to run his business. His business suffered, but he held firm.

The story hardly ends there. The Jewish community in Montreal got wind of the boycott and went nuts. A “buycott” campaign was launched, and Jews from all over the city came to buy shoes at Le Marcheur. A woman bought a hundred pairs. Archambault became a local hero.

Meanwhile, creative minds went to work producing counter leaflets mocking the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement as “Boycott Derangement Syndrome,” explaining the discrimination and hypocrisy inherent in the movement. These leaflets gave people the Israeli side of the story. Archambault did his own research and found out that the Israeli shoe company (besides making great shoes!) hired women, minorities and Palestinians and treated their employees very well. The Quebec General Assembly drafted a unanimous resolution condemning the boycott and supporting the store.

And what happened to the initiator of the boycott, Amir Khadir? He went low-key and stopped coming to the demonstrations. Apparently, he concluded that the backlash might not be good for his political future.

I tell you this story not to remind you of the insidious global movement to demonize the Jewish state. That’s old hat by now. I’m telling you this story because it’s a tribute to the noble virtues of fighting back and winning.

Too often, we recoil at the idea of fighting. It leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We dread the thought of “lowering ourselves to the level of mudslinging.” We prefer notions like “engagement” and “bridge building.”

But the nasty boycotters of St. Denis Street who used Nazi imagery to malign an Israeli shoe company were not looking for engagement or bridge building. They were looking for blood — and a victory.

Faced with such aggression, how else to respond but to fight back?

Yes, in such cases, life is a zero sum game. One side wins, and the other side loses. The Jewish community of Montreal, with the support of a brave French Canadian shoe merchant, fought back ferociously and smartly against what it perceived as a grave injustice to the State of Israel. And, guess what — they won.

It’s not as dramatic as taking down bin Laden, but we’ll take it.

(h/t Max)

The fruits of "unity:" Hamas terror TV being broadcast in West Bank

Palestine Today reports that in the wake of the Hamas/Fatah agreement, Hamas' "Al Aqsa TV" is now resuming broadcasts from Ramallah.

That station is known for showing blatantly anti-semitic shows as well as the famous "Pioneers of Tomorrow" children's show inciting hate against Israel. I once made a humorous video about that show:

Here's MEMRI's page for the station you you can see the fine quality of Hamas Terror TV for yourself.

Afternoon links

Human Rights Watch head Ken Roth tweeted "Ban Ki-Moon wrong on #Osama bin Laden: It's not "justice" for him to be killed even if justified; no trial, conviction.

Cluelessness defined: The National Jewish Democratic Council wrote, in response to the Fatah/Hamas unity agreement:

We are hopeful that President Obama will show continuing strong leadership; that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not see this as a reason to be deterred from presenting bold steps towards a lasting peace; and that this reported accord will put pressure on the most extreme elements of Palestinian society to lay down their weapons and end this generation’s old conflict.

YNet must-read op-ed by Manfred Gerstenfeld on the nypocrisy of world leaders praising Bin Laden's execution when they vilified Israel for doing the same to Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004.

Khaled Abu Toameh asks if Hamas will take over the PA.

A good (subscription-only) article by Noah Pollak about B'Tselem.

Ma'an lists the likely candidates for new PA PM.

Israel Matzav notes that the fawning Vogue story about the Assads of Syria has mysteriously disappeared from their website.

A new Israeli technology can help map archaeological treasures in 3D up to 150 meters underground.

(h/t Noah, Gerald)

"CIA, Mossad set up drug labs on Iran's borders"

Today's bit of paranoia out of Iran from FARS News:

CIA and Israeli spy agency, Mossad, have set up a number of drug laboratories along Iran's Eastern borders to produce and smuggle hallucinogenic drugs to Iran, sources reported.

"The CIA-Mossad Joint Staff has started setting up hallucinogenic-drugs production centers at Iran's Eastern borders (with Afghanistan) to produce and smuggle huge drug cargos to Iran through collaboration with the drug mafia operating on the other sides of Iran's Eastern borders (in Afghanistan), " Researcher and investigator Majid Abhari told FNA on Wednesday.

The source said this joint staff has embarked on encouraging drug-traffickers to smuggle these cargos to Iran through odd methods like credit transaction, because drug dealers and traffickers do all their transactions in cash, and credit transaction is meaningless as far as drug deals are concerned.

Earlier, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar had warned that the Zionist and CIA agents are seeking to boost drug-trafficking in Iran.

"Zionists and CIA's intelligence and security agents stationed in the region are helping drug-traffickers to cross Iran's shared borders with Afghanistan," Mohammad Najjar said last month.

He added that the so-called human rights advocate (the US) is so furious at Iran that it has made large investments to replace traditional drugs with industrial drugs to change drug addiction habits in Iran.

The destructive effects of industrial drugs, like crack and Morphine, is more than the traditional ones and the enemy has planned to spread drug addiction, specially addiction to these industrial narcotics, in Iran, Mohammad Najjar warned.

I think we have proof positive that some Iranians are on crack, from just this article.