Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Send in the clowns: Durban III counter-protest September 22

A StandWithUs-sponsored “circus” will expose the shocking hypocrisy of the United Nations when the UN puts on its third “Durban conference” against racism on September 22 in New York City. The circus and clowns StandWithUs is sponsoring will appear in front of UN headquarters on Sept. 22 from noon until 2 PM, just when the three-ring circus known as the Durban III conference is under way. Leading democratic nations have severely denounced the previous two Durban conferences, held in 2001 and 2009, for demonizing Israel and for flagrant anti-Semitism.

“One good way to counter the Durban conference’s hypocritical travesty of human rights is with parody. Sometimes humor reveals the deepest truths. There is no possible rational response to the Durban conference’s perverse distortions. They are too divorced from any reality. In fact, they turn reality upside down. We plan to fight the UN ‘clowns’ with actual clowns that expose their hypocrisy and perversity,” explained Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs.

Durban I, the first conference against “racism, xenophobia, and other forms of intolerance,” held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa, was a travesty of its stated goals that shocked the world’s democracies. The conference turned into an anti-Semitic hatefest that singled out democratic, multicultural Israel as the most racist country in the world, while ignoring discrimination and human rights crimes rampant in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere in the world. The conference allegedly against racism had turned into a hotbed of racism. Canada, the U.S., and Israel walked out of the conference and condemned Durban I for fomenting the world’s oldest racism, anti-Semitism.

Indifferent to these widespread denunciations of Durban I, the UN attempted to reaffirm the Durban I declaration in a second conference in 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. ...

At the demonstration in New York, clowns will wear Ahmadinejad masks and hold balloons that correctly label Durban III as a forum for hypocrisy, racism, and lies.

“The balloons are symbolic but accurate. The Durban conferences cast all decent values to the winds. Hopefully, our demonstration will encourage the world to demand that the UN finally live up to its original ideals,” concluded Rothstein.

You can join the protest yourself; just show up in a clown costume!

StandWithUs is a partner of EoZ.

Zionist pigs return to torture Palestinian Arab farmers!

It's been over a year since the last story about Zionist-bred and trained wild boars attacking poor Palestinian Arab farmers - but the Zionist Pigs are back!

Farmers say Israeli settlers unleashed pigs overnight Saturday to destroy their land in Salfit in the northern West Bank.

Farmers told Ma'an that the pigs destroyed a fence and broke branches of fig trees. They said they were afraid to remain on their land and appealed for help to protect their property.

This has been a recurring theme since at least 2007.

Ma'an used to routinely report the accusations that the Jews of Judea and Samaria were raising these pigs and releasing them to only attack Arab crops, often during prayer times, spreading swine flu, while leaving Jewish agriculture alone.

At least now they are reporting it as "farmers say" than as fact.

British Muslims burn American flag outside US embassy for 9/11

From The Telegraph:

A number of radical Islamic groups including Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) gathered outside the embassy on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The group of around 100 men shouted "USA terrorists", brandished anti-American placards and chanted through a loudhailer.

Several members of the Muslim groups made anti-American speeches following the flag burning. One said: "You will always face suffering, you will always face humiliation, unless you withdraw your troops from Muslim lands."

Another declared that America had been "defeated in Iraq and defeated in Afghanistan".

However, a small opposing group of Muslims - some of whom had travelled hundreds of miles to rebut the extremists - staged a counter-demonstration nearby, holding up placards reading "Muslims Against Extremism" and "If You Want Sharia, Move To Saudi".

(h/t SSR)

Anti-Israel group encourages lying to security at Ben Gurion Airport

The Middle East Fellowship and Holy Land Trust have a booklet where they describe, among other things, how anti-Israel activists should act when they try to enter and leave Israel. It also describes Palestinian Arab bigotry against Westerners, women and Jews, but it contextualizes and minimizes it. Here are some of the interesting parts:

Palestinians are very traditional when it comes to romantic relationships. We urge you to refrain from romantic relations with Palestinians or members of the program for the duration of your stay in Palestine.

Safety

Israel and Palestine have admittedly had a bad international profile when it comes to danger from within the country. Stories of bombings, shootings, demonstrations and uprisings are common enough through the images we see in the media. As a result many would-be visitors stay away from the region. The reality is much different from the perceptions that are manufactured on most media outlets.

Traveling within Palestine and Israel is essentially a safe venture. Bethlehem, where the summer program will take place, is a relatively safe place to reside in comparison to other parts of the West Bank. With the Holy Land Trust staff ’s presence on the ground, traveling in and around Bethlehem can be very comfortable.

Visitors are never deliberately targeted within Palestinian areas in the West Bank. Many travelers frequent the West Bank throughout the year and rarely experience anything that suggests violent backlash. To avoid scrupulous attention from Israeli security and Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF), avoid wearing Palestinian keffiyahs in Jewish areas and, conversely, do not wear a Jewish kippa or other Jewish items of clothing in Palestinian areas. Use your common sense when traveling and stay safe.

Do Not Pack:

Any explicit materials about your travel plans or itinerary in the West Bank (including this orientation packet).

Materials that could be seen as inflammatory by Israeli security forces if they search your bags.

Addresses of friends, family or others in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Objects that are restricted by Israeli or airport security.

Female Travelers. Middle Easterners are generally conservative, especially about matters concerning sex and women. It is very important that female visitors make an attempt to be sensitive to local cultural norms. This does not necessarily mean that women are treated with disrespect, but expectations about how women should dress and behave in the Middle East differ from many Western countries. Unfortunately, some Middle Eastern men have a twisted view of Western women. Western movies and TV give them the impression that all Western women are promiscuous and will jump into bed at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t actually take much on your part to perpetuate this belief– bare shoulders or shorts on a woman are “proof ” enough, as well as, a little flirtation or even simple friendliness can quickly be misconstrued as something more.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Western women travelers are guaranteed to be free of harassment if they dress modestly or conduct themselves in a businesslike manner. Prepare yourself for little things to avoid harassment: for instance, we recommend female travelers not to sit in the front seat of a taxi. This might sound trite, but it can prevent a very uncomfortable moment. Politely but firmly turn down whispered invitations and completely ignore come-ons. Accepting the minimum of attention will usually invite more. If ignoring come-ons doesn’t work and the attention starts to get out of hand, seek out a person of authority, or a local woman if possible, to intervene on your behalf. Usually the specter of community shame is enough to put someone back in line.

...Needless to say, many Palestinians have had traumatic experiences with Israeli settlers and soldiers. Because many believe that Israel’s current military policies are supported by all or most Jews, you may, unfortunately, hear the terms “Jew,” “Zionist,” and “Israeli” used interchangeably.

Entry Approaches

Limit Information. By limiting information, you are just a tourist who stayed at a hotel or with friends or hostel within Israel; who didn’t or doesn’t plan to meet with Palestinians, didn’t participate in our summer program in Bethlehem. Use this entry approach and your chances of getting through airport security will be higher and smoother, but never guaranteed.

Some things to keep in mind in using this approach:

You are not indicating that you are participating in Palestine Summer Encounter.

You are not mentioning either the Holy Land Trust or Middle East Fellowship organizations.

You are not indicating that you plan on traveling to the West Bank or Gaza.

You have not packed anything that could label you a “Palestinian sympathizer,” in case you are singled out for a search.

You have prepared a story for why you chose to travel to just Israel and you have contact information and material to support that story.

We often suggest people to “limit information” but the decision and what you feel comfortable with is ultimately yours.

The booklet also talks about how to go to the media afterwards with everything the activists have learned about how awful Israel is - and presumably not to discuss any sexual advances or bigoted statements made by Arabs.

(h/t Anne)

Arabic media is reporting that Jordanian groups plan to copy what happened in Egypt and break into and close down the Israel embassy in Amman, Jordan this Thursday evening.

The Facebook invite page already has a thousand people who say they will attend.

It appears that this is being organized by the Islamic Action Front, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is obliquely warning that any actions by Jordanian authorities to stop them will indicate their collusion with the hated Zionists and will result in their fall.

YNet adds:

Meanwhile, the official Egyptian news agency reported that Israel's embassy in Jordan was reinforcing security measures. Eye-witnesses claimed that they saw armored vehicles and a large number of security forces on the streets leading to the embassy.

(h/t Dan)

Details on the Egyptian riot: Embassy breached, journalists brutally attacked

Al Ahram reports that the Egyptian mob did manage to penetrate the Israel embassy and steal sensitive files:

As I could not see exactly what was happening near that entrance because of crowd numbers, I had to rely on reports from those closer to the building to find out what happened then. Most reports confirmed that an army officer or two in charge of the unit did very little to stop the crowds.

I was able to confirm later that 100-200 people occupied the building and that tens managed to break into the embassy.

Suddenly, around 9pm or so, a small unit of Central Security Forces (CSF), the notorious Egyptian riot police, showed up in the area but did not head towards protesters and instead, made its way 50 metres away from the crowd, leaving soldiers in full riot gear to block the entrance of the Saudi Embassy just around the corner.

At this point, hundreds of young people clashed with riot police up and down the Saudi Embassy side street for about half an hour. Protesters most likely set ablaze two CSF trucks, while a couple of trees also caught fire.

Some walked back from the fresh clashes with several "Made in USA" canisters of tear gas that they snatched from soldiers, and displayed them to the larger crowds.

As a firetruck worked to put out the fire on the Saudi street, CSF soldiers disappeared from the scene and things seemed to calm down in that part of the arena.

Suddenly, at around 10pm or 10:30pm, the skies filled up to a saturation point with thousands of 8” by 11” sheets of paper coming down from the top of the embassy building.

As the papers made their way down slowly onto the pavement, the crowd and I included were first under the impression that the revolutionaries were sending us a photocopied political statement of some sort.

We caught the papers and examined them. It took hundreds of people a few minutes of sorting through them before we realised that we were looking at Israeli Embassy records in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

It began to slowly dawn on us that the people upstairs in the building managed to actually break into the embassy. At this moment the crowd went wild and started pushing and shoving to catch whatever papers were coming down from the heavens.

Those who could not catch fallen documents gathered in hundreds of small groups to read what others caught, and took pictures with mobile phones. I walked from one group of “examiners” to the other trying to look at as many documents as possible.

There were records of phone deals between major Egyptian private and public telecommunications firms and Israel. I also saw documents that listed names of business transactions between the embassy and all sorts of Egyptian authorities, from customs officials to CEOs of tourism firms, bringing Israeli travelers to Egypt, and on and on.

Much of the confetti that was dropping on us dated back to the 1990s and even the 1980s, as its typeset indicated.

The revolutionaries upstairs sent at least six or seven separate sets of documents on us every 10 minutes or so for a whole hour. TV cameras hustled to interview dozens of people with documents that they believed showed the depth of the embassy’s penetration into the economic and political scene in Egypt.

... At this point I lucked out as a “journalist”, you could say. A man in his early 20s, wearing a sleevless T-shirt, and drowned in sweat asked me for a cigarette. He listened to the conversation people were having about the documents and announced to us in a matter of fact manner that he had just come down from the 22nd floor.

He said that it took over two hours for a group made up of dozens of revolutionaries using hammers to demolish the walls and steel entrances to the embassy floor. I asked him to describe to me what the embassy looked like on the inside as a way of vetting the authenticity of his story. Instead, he pulled out a stack of 10 or so plastic-laminated Israeli embassy employee identification cards, with what appeared to be pictures and names of locals who worked in the compound, and said: “See this. That proves I was one of those who stormed the enemy’s house."

Around midnight or so, as thousands were still poring over the documents, battles erupted in a few seconds between a group of protesters and CSF units around the Giza Security Directorate headquarters yards away.

In less than 10 minutes, smoke from tens of tear gas bombs and sounds of bullets filled the air and ended the festive atmosphere. Egypt’s Berlin Wall moment did not last more than a few hours.

Long standing hatred between Egypt’s still intact and widely despised CSF and Cairo’s revolutionaries and poor ushered into one long bloody night of street fighting.

The night of 9 September will go down as the bloodiest few hours that Egypt witnessed since Mubarak’s police rained hell on peaceful protesters on 28 January, three days after the outbreak of this unfinished revolution.

And CNN tells a harrowing story of what happened afterwards:

An angry crowd lingering near the Israeli embassy in Cairo after an attack on the building a day earlier turned on journalists reporting the incident Saturday, accusing at least one of being an Israeli spy.

As a CNN crew filmed the embassy from across the street, another crew from American public television -- led by Egyptian television producer Dina Amer -- approached the building. The crew's Russian cameraman was preparing to film the embassy when a woman in the crowd began hurling insults at the TV team, Amer said.

"There was this older lady who decided to follow me and rally people against me," Amer recalled. "She said 'you're a spy working with the Americans.' Then they swarmed me and I was a target." A growing crowd surrounded Amer and her colleagues, as they tried to leave the scene.

Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a producer working for CNN, rushed to help escort Amer through the angry crowd. But suddenly the two reporters were pinned against the railing of an overpass by young men who were accusing Amer of being an Israeli spy.

Yelling "I'm Egyptian," Fahmy managed to pull Amer another 10 meters down the road, until the pressure from the mob overwhelmed the pair.

Amer screamed as she and Fahmy were knocked to the ground and the crowd started to trample them. Other CNN journalists tried to reach in to help, but were pushed back by a wall of angry men. Fahmy lay on top of Amer, shielding her with his body.

"I was thinking, how powerless I was because there was no police to save us," Fahmy said. "I was worried that they were going to rape her."

At that moment, a student bystander named Mohammed el Banna called out to the journalists and pointed out a nearby car.

Somehow, Fahmy managed to carry Amer to the open door of the public television crew's car, where two of her female colleagues were waiting just a few feet away.

The mob pounded on the windows and tried to reach into the vehicle as the panicked reporters fumbled and struggled to get behind the steering wheel.

When Margaret Warner, a correspondent with the PBS program "Newshour" managed to get the vehicle moving away from the crowd, men threw stones at the departing vehicle.

Amer had few words to describe the terrifying ordeal.

"They were animals," she said.

Other Egyptian journalists told CNN they were also attacked Saturday while trying to report near the Israeli embassy.

Ahmed Aleiba, a correspondent with Egyptian state television, said he was pursued by civilians and soldiers.

"I had to run because obviously they were targeting journalists," Aleiba said in a phone call with CNN. "They attacked two other TV crews."

"I was in the car getting ready to film. A soldier knocked on the window with his stick and said 'if you don't leave by midnight your car will be destroyed,"" said Farah Saafan, a video journalist with the English-language newspaper Daily News Egypt.

Nothing about journalists being attacked is being reported at The Daily News Egypt, or anywhere else as far as I can tell. (h/t Muqata)

Large Belgian trade show disinvites Israeli diplomat after Saudi request

Accenta is a large annual trade fair held in Flanders, Belgium. Over 100,000 people are expected to attend this year's fair, running for the next week.

The main sponsor this year is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And after they found out that the Israeli ambassador to Belgium, Tamar Shamash, was invited, they complained to the fair organizers.

Accenta organizers gave in, and un-invited her.

Kirsten Karlsson, the communications officer of Accenta confirmed to the Jewish News the withdrawal of the invitation: "That is true, the ambassador is not welcome ... Saudi Arabia is the host this year ... and her presence is too sensitive".

Interestingly, however, the fair features Israeli company Soda Stream.Until the Saudis make another polite demand, I suppose.

(h/t Philosemitism blog)

Link to 9/11 hijackers in Sarasota, FL

Great investigative journalism from The Miami Herald:

Just two weeks before the 9/11 hijackers slammed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, members of a Saudi family abruptly vacated their luxury home near Sarasota, leaving a brand new car in the driveway, a refrigerator full of food, fruit on the counter — and an open safe in a master bedroom.In the weeks to follow, law enforcement agents not only discovered the home was visited by vehicles used by the hijackers, but phone calls were linked between the home and those who carried out the death flights — including leader Mohamed Atta — in discoveries never before revealed to the public.

Ten years after the deadliest attack of terrorism on U.S. soil, new information has emerged that shows the FBI found troubling ties between the hijackers and residents in the upscale community in southwest Florida, but the investigation wasn’t reported to Congress or mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who co-chaired the congressional Joint Inquiry into the attacks, said he should have been told about the findings, saying it “opens the door to a new chapter of investigation as to the depth of the Saudi role in 9/11. ... No information relative to the named people in Sarasota was disclosed.”

The U.S. Justice Department, the lead agency that investigated the attacks, refused to comment, saying it will discuss only information already released.

(h/t TNR via Silke)

Egypt belatedly protects Israeli diplomats - but how did three rioters die?

Two weeks after the Egyptian government and media made heroes out of the rioters that stormed the Israel embassy in Cairo, the Egyptian police stood by and let thousands more destroy a wall meant to protect that embassy. They only seemed to react when things got really out of hand.

From JPost:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with guards at the Israeli embassy in Cairo as they were besieged by an Egyptian mob on Saturday, reassuring them they would be rescued, aides said.

They said that after demonstrators penetrated the tower block housing the mission, some of the six-member staff on overnight security detail told Netanyahu they feared for their lives and asked him to pass farewells to their families.

"All that separated them from the mob, at that point, was one wall. We were very concerned, and so were they," said an aide.

After telephoned appeals by Netanyahu to Cairo's interim military rulers and the Obama administration, Egyptian security forces extracted the guards before dawn. Another Netanyahu aide said the Israelis' heads were covered to throw off the crowds.

It should never have gotten to that point. The simple fact is that the Egyptian police and military allowed the sovereign territory of the Israel embassy to be at the mercy of Egyptian mobs.

The Daily News Egypt adds:

Three were killed and 1,049 were injured in clashes outside the Israeli embassy late Friday and early Saturday, the health ministry said.

On Friday, the police made no attempt to intervene as protesters were tearing down the wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands.

At night, about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building throwing documents from the windows.

Protesters also brought down the Israeli flag, the second incident in less than a month.

Witnesses said demonstrators tried to storm the nearby Giza Security Directorate police in the area and set fire to another building. Four police vehicles were set on fire.

Police used tear gas to disperse protesters and gun shots were heard. Witnesses said a police vehicle drove through protesters as it fired tear gas. Clashes with police and army continued until Saturday morning.

Does this mean that the Egyptian police, when they finally reacted to a demonstration, used deadly force and killed three unarmed protesters?

I have not even seen a list of the dead, let alone calls for an investigation into how they were killed. Somehow, it is assumed that Egyptian security acted proportionately and correctly in killing three protesters.

Do the people who are incensed over the Mavi Marmara know about this?

9/11 weekend open thread

On September 11, 2006, I took this photo at about 9 AM, and superimposed an illustration of how tall the World Trade Center was:

Today, the Freedom Tower is the tallest building in lower Manhattan, about 1000 feet high. Junior Elder took a (cheap mobile phone) snapshot a couple of weeks ago:

Hope springs eternal - but memory is essential.

Syria kills defector's brother, child

In June, Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush defected from the Syrian army to join the opposition movement:

Today it was announced that his brother and child were killed by Syrian forces.

Syrian security forces killed two relatives of a defecting military officer, as opposition groups urged Russia to abandon its backing for President Bashar al- Assad and help end his government’s violent crackdown.

A child and brother of Colonel Hussein Harmoush, the most senior army commander to switch sides, were killed today in the northern province of Idlib, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said in a phone interview from Damascus. At least 11 people were wounded in the suburbs of the capital, where gunfire was heard by residents, he said. Seven protesters died yesterday in Idlib and the central region of Homs, Merhi said.

More than 3,100 civilians have been killed in Syria since protests began in March, according to Merhi and Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. About 30,000 people have been detained and 13,000 of them are still being held, the activists estimate.

Security forces “forcibly” removed 18 wounded people from al-Barr hospital in Homs on Sept. 7, including five from the operating room, Human Rights Watch said late yesterday, citing witnesses, including doctors. The forces also prevented medical personnel from reaching the wounded in a number of the city’s neighborhoods, the New York-based organization said.

Egyptians destroy part of wall protecting Israel embassy (updated, video)

On Tuesday I posted about a new wall being built in Egypt to keep people away from the Israel embassy, and how many vowed to destroy it today.

Thousands of demonstrators came out today, with hammers, to do just that.

Al Masry al Youm reports that there were minor skirmishes between the protesters and police, but the military was not able to stop them from destroying parts of the wall.

Some demonstrators were injured; one fell from a bridge that the wall was built on top of and one tried to climb an adjacent building and fell as well.

(h/t Sylvia)

UPDATE: Here's video:

(h/t Dan)

Did an Egyptian nuclear scientist defect to Israel?

El Fagr reports of an Egyptian nuclear scientist named Noha Awad Hached who moved to Israel last June.

The Egyptian media is unclear; they seem to be saying that she intends to convert to Judaism and participated in a right-wing conference that claims that Israel should include parts of Egypt, using evidence she took from Al Azhar University.

Al Ahram says that she has been working towards her doctorate for over twenty years and still does not have it, and that she had visited Israel previously. It also implies that she is a bit crazy.

The Egyptian media quotes Israeli media on this story, but I have not found any articles corroborating this very strange story.

An eyewitness to Arab 9/11 celebrations in Beirut

The original Wall Street Journal article is no longer available, but this account by Elisabetta Burba about her experiences in Lebanon is a must-read:

Whooping It Up
In Beirut, even Christians celebrated the atrocity.

BY ELISABETTA BURBA
Saturday, September 22, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT

BEIRUT--Where were you on Sept. 11, when terrorists changed the world? I was at the National Museum here, enjoying the wonders of the ancient Phoenicians with my husband. This tour of past splendor only magnified the shock I received later when I heard the news and saw the reactions all around me.

Walking downtown, I realized that the offspring of this great civilization were celebrating a terrorist outrage. And I am not talking about destitute people. Those who were cheering belonged to the elite of the Paris of Middle East: professionals wearing double-breasted suits, charming blond ladies, pretty teenagers in tailored jeans.

Trying to find our bearings, my husband and I went into an American-style cafe in the Hamra district, near Rue Verdun, rated as one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Here the cognitive dissonance was immediate, and direct. The café's sophisticated clientele was celebrating, laughing, cheering and making jokes, as waiters served hamburgers and Diet Pepsi. Nobody looked shocked, or moved. They were excited, very excited.

An hour later, at a little market near the U.S. Embassy, on the outskirts of Beirut, a thrilled shop assistant showed us, using his hands, how the plane had crashed into the twin towers. He, too, was laughing.

Once back at the house where we were staying, we started scanning the international channels. Soon came reports of Palestinians celebrating. The BBC reporter in Jerusalem said it was only a tiny minority. Astonished, we asked some moderate Arabs if that was the case. "Nonsense," said one, speaking for many. "Ninety percent of the Arab world believes that Americans got what they deserved."

An exaggeration? Rather an understatement. A couple of days later, we headed north to Tripoli, near the Syrian border. On the way, we read that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who donated blood in front of the cameras, was rejecting any suggestion that his people were rejoicing over the terrorist attack. "It was less than 10 children in Jerusalem," he said.

In the bustling souk of Tripoli we started looking for the Great Mosque, a 1294 building with a distinctive Lombard-style tower. But in that labyrinth, nobody spoke anything but Arabic, which we don't speak. Finally, in a dark shop, we found an old gentleman who knew French. His round white cap showed that he was a devout Muslim. Leaning on his stick, he managed to get on the street and with most exquisite manners gave us directions. Common decency survives all.

Once at the mosque I donned a black chador, but our Lonely Planet guide attracted the attention of a hard-looking bearded guy all the same. "Are you Americans?" he asked in a menacing tone. Our quick denial made him relax. He gave us the green light to go in. But very soon afterward we were again approached, by a fat young man. He turned out to be one of the 350,000 Palestinians who live in Lebanon, unwelcome by most of the population and subject to severe hardships. Hearing we were Italians, first he recited like a prayer names of Italian soccer players. We were relieved at first that he wanted to talk about sports, but he soon moved on to politics and the "events."

"My people have been crushed under the heel of American imperialism, which took away our land, massacred our beloved and denied our right to life. But have you seen what happened in New York City? God Almighty has drawn his sword against our enemies. God is great--Allah u Akbar," he said.

I heard these appeals to religion so often that I needed some theological help. "How can God do evil?" I later asked an Arab friend, a businessman with an international background. "According to what I learnt in my catechism, God lets evil happen. He doesn't do it," I said, and he answered:

"The Koran has the same teaching, but blood calls for blood."

What about compassion? I asked, pointing out that Jesus had turned the other cheek. Isn't Allah also always called the Merciful? "He is, but when a people has been begging for a piece of land for 52 years and it has experienced only bloodshed, what can you expect?" But the victims of the World Trade Center were civilians, I insisted. "In the new intifada, 500 Palestinians have been killed. America didn't give a damn, so why should Muslims care now about those who died in the twin towers? It's hard, but that's the way they see it."

I couldn't help it. I kept remembering how a day earlier, in Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had talked about clash of civilizations.

On Thursday night, in the Christian northern part of Beirut, we heard some loud noises. "Probably they are celebrating the attacks," someone told us when we asked. You mean the Maronite Christians are also celebrating? I asked.

"Yes, they also feel betrayed by the Americans."

On Friday, the national day of remembrance for the victims in Europe and the U.S., I was relieved to see that the Christian church in the Sahet Aukar district was packed with people holding a candlelight vigil. Less comforting was the thick barrier of soldiers and checkpoints that protected the church.

Heliopolis, in the Bekaa Valley, was the Sun City of the ancients. Nowadays it is called Baalbek. Near its lavish temples stands the stronghold of the Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Party of God. Along the clean alleys that lead to the Hezbolla's stronghold there are hand-made posters of bearded young men. "They are martyrs," explained a well-dressed, cultivated Arab man who had just gotten out of his Mercedes. "They fought until victory: the withdrawal of Israeli occupants. So they became a model for the all Arab world." Weren't they terrorists? we asked. "Terrorists? What about the Israelis who kill women and babies?"

In the seven days we spent in Lebanon, we saw one young Arab woman with teary eyes. "The stories of the victims touched me," she said, and I began to regain my trust in humanity. Then she added: "But in a way I am also glad, because for once the Americans are experiencing what we in the Middle East go through every single day." Back in Italy, I received a phone call from my friend Gilberto Bazoli, a journalist in Cremona. He told me he witnessed the same reactions among Muslims in the local mosque of that small Lombard city. "They were all on Osama bin Laden's side," he said. "One of them told me that they were not even worthy to kiss his toes."