Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, October 17, 2011

The soon-to-be-free terrorists who should NOT be released

I have said that I do not support Israel releasing those who have planned major terror attacks, and from what I can tell, most of the terrorists that are supposed to be released are not these mega-terrorists, but rather those who were more low-level (transporting bombers and bombs, for example.)

However, there are a few who are going to be released - mostly to be exiled - who fit the category of terrorists who should not be released, ever, because they can conceivably plan new attacks.

Here are some of them:

Walid Anajas, from Ramallah, a commander of Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. He was given 36 life terms in 2002 for his involvement in a number of suicide bombings, including that of a Jerusalem cafe in 2002, in which 12 people lost their lives.

Nasser Yataima, who planned a suicide bombing which killed 30 people as they were about to celebrate the Passover festival at a hotel in March 2002, was sentenced to 29 life terms.

Khamis Zaki Aqel, a member of the Qassam Brigades, which carried out a string of suicide bombings and other attacks, was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to 21 life terms. It was not immediately clear for which crime he was sentenced.

Majdi Muhammed Amr, arrested in 1993, is serving 19 life sentences after being found guilty of coordinating the work of suicide bombers, including one who blew up a bus in the northern city of Haifa in March 2003, killing 17 people. [He also murdered David Cohen in a drive-by shooting in July 2001. - EoZ]

Maedh Abu Sharakh was also sentenced to 19 life terms for his role in planning the Haifa bus bombing.

Abdel Hadi Ghanim, of Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, was serving 16 life sentences after he hijacked an Israeli intercity bus in 1989 traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and drove it over a steep drop, killing 16 passengers.

Muhammed Daghales was sentenced in 2001 to 15 life terms for his role in planning the 2001 suicide bombing of a Jerusalem pizzeria, which killed 16 Israelis.

I would add Yehye al-Sinwar, sentenced to 4 life sentences, on the list as going home to Gaza. According to a Hamas website, he had poured scalding water on the face of a prison warden and had planned another Shalit-style soldier abduction from prison. Even if he did not have direct "blood on his hands" he is someone who is a clear danger and whose release will almost certainly jeopardize Israeli lives.

I confess I do not understand the logic of how Israeli negotiators considered some to be major terrorists and others not to be.

Step by step of how Shalit will return home

From Ha'aretz:

Phase 1: Shalit is released and met either by a representative of the International Red Cross or an Egyptian official on Tuesday morning.

Phase 2: Israel frees 27 Arab female prisoners on confirmation of Shalit's release.

Phase 3: Hamas transfers Shalit to Egypt via the Rafah crossing. Shalit will spend a very short period of time in Egypt, possibly under 15 minutes, before overland transfer to Israel.

Phase 4: Israel releases the first wave of Palestinian prisoners to Gaza and the West Bank upon confirmation of the transfer.

Phase 5: Shalit is transferred to an Israel Defense Forces near Israel's borders with Egypt and Gaza. He will be given his old cell phone in order to telephone his mother.

Phase 6: Shalit is expected to undergo initial medical check-ups conducted by IDF Chief Medical Officer Brigadier - General Itzik Kreis.

Phase 7: Shalit is transferred to Israel Air Force base at Tel Nof.

Phase 8: Shalit undergoes further medical examination on arrival at Tel Nof.

Phase 9: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz meet Shalit at Tel Nof.

Phase 10: Shalit is accompanied by Netanyahu, Barak and Gantz to be reunited with his family.

Phase 11: If Shalit is well and healthy, the IDF flies Shalit and his family to their home Mitzpe Hila in north Israel by helicopter.

The entire transfer is expected to be completed by Tuesday afternoon.

The exact timing of the deportation of some terrorists to other countries, and when we will learn the identities of the second wave of terrorists to be released, is not clear yet.

(h/t DoZ)

Sympathy for the devil

From Al Arabiya:

In December 1998, former American President Bill Clinton was visiting the Gaza Strip with his then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Together with late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Eriekat they listened to the story of a Palestinian girl called Nihad Zakout, whose father had been incarcerated in an Israeli jail for nine years.

The meeting ended with a tearful Clinton handing his handkerchief to the crying girl, patting her on the shoulder, and promising to do his best to release her father within a month at most — a scene that irked the Israelis a great deal.

The girl returned to her home at the Jabalia Refugee Camp and prepared to welcome her father back in the Eid ul-Fitr feast, since the meeting with Clinton had taken place at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

However, that Eid ul-Fitr came and her father never showed up. Several other Eid ul-Fitr passed and Zakout only saw her father behind bars at the Nafha Prison in the Middle of the Negev Desert, 100 kilometers away from Gaza.

However, last week Zakout, now 24 years old and mother of two girls, learned she would finally see her father Mohamed, now 48 years old, being released from prison.

At the time [of her father's arrest], Nihad Zakout was two years old. When she heard that President Clinton was visiting Gaza, she wrote a letter to the Association of Palestinian Detainees expressing her desire to meet the American president.

“They told me he is the president of the world’s biggest country and that he can put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to release my father,” she wrote in her letter.

Three years after the meeting with the president, Palestinian director Saud Mehanna made a 10-minute film on Nihad Zakout and called it “A message to Clinton.” The film, whose cost reached $10,000, depicted the disappointment of a young girl waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.

Mehanna, 53, then translated the movie into English and sent a copy to the White House in the hope that Clinton might remember the promise he made before his term was over.

The movie, which took five months to make, was shot in Zakout’s house in the Gabalia Refugee Camp and featured the girl and her mother Maysara.

How poignant!

Al Arabiya, however, gives a brief description of what the poor girl's father did to land in prison to begin with:

Mohamed Zakout was a construction worker in Tel Aviv in the 1980s and was wracked with conflict about earning a living and taking part in the building of the country that killed and dispossessed his people.

That conflict saw him leave his work place on March 21, 1989 with a knife and stab in the neck the first Israeli his eyes fell on. The victim turned out to be the head of the Environment Association in Tel Aviv.

He then stabbed another Israeli, who also died, before stabbing a third in the back of his head and his spinal cord. He was arrested by the police.

Al Arabiya doesn't give all the details in this piece however. A 1998 article fills in some gaps:

What the 11-year-old didn't tell the president -- and what Clinton apparently didn't know -- was that her father, Mohammed, murdered an elderly Israeli scientist on his way home from delivering goods to the poor in the custom of the Jewish holiday of Purim.

In a speech before about 900 Palestinian leaders in Gaza, Clinton compared the pain of children like Zakout with that of children of victims of terror. The president said he had spoken to children from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that their stories touched him deeply.

Israelis were furious. Clinton's comparison was denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, the Israeli press and many others.

"I can say one thing," said Rami Schallinger, the son of the slain scientist. "President Clinton can in no way bring back my father to me."

Schallinger, a 41-year-old insurance broker, said he learned from a reporter that the girl with whom Clinton spoke was the daughter of his father's murderer. Mohammed Zakout is serving a sentence of life plus 25 years for the 1988 slaying of Dr. Kurt Schallinger, a professor of agricultural science.

"I was telling him [Clinton] that these people were defending their homeland. The Israelis keep saying we are terrorists," [11 year old Nihal] said in an interview last night from her home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. "If we kill one of them, they are killing thousands of us. These people are heroes. They have defended their homeland. I want my father."

During the trial of his father's murderer, Schallinger learned that Zakout said he wanted to kill because he didn't want to see Jews happy at Purim, a festive holiday in which children dress in costumes and recall the deliverance of Persian Jews from death.

"I can just tell you this: My father was an old man and he was religious. The murderer didn't come in front of him and fight him," said Schallinger. "He came from behind with two knives. [My father] couldn't even see him. I can hardly call [the killer] a political prisoner. This is just a brutal murder. And to compare the pain of the victim with the pain of the son, I don't have enough words."

Multiple-murderer Mohammed Zakout is not one of the prisoners who will be deported to Turkey or Qatar. This despicable terrorist will return to Gaza where his daughter will welcome him home.

Iranian theories on assassination plot claim

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, has given his theory of why the US is accusing Iran of a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington:

In a meeting with thousands of enthusiastic university professors and students in Kermanshah province, Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution discussed the goals of the recent terror allegations against the Islamic Republic and warned: "In case American officials are living in their dreams, they should know that any wrong move - be it political or security - will face a strong response from the Iranian nation."

Ayatollah Khamenei said that diverting attention from the Wall Street movement might be one of the goals of the recent uproar caused by the US. He added: "The people of at least 80 countries have expressed their support for this movement, which is spreading to other parts of America, and this is very bitter and difficult for American officials."

But an Iranian MP has a much more interesting theory:

Disavowal of Pagans ritual is a rally held by hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims as well as pilgrims from other countries during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca each year.

During the rally, which is an initiative of the Founder of the Islamic Republic the late Imam Khomeini, pilgrims chant anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans.

Speaking to FNA, member of the parliament's presiding board Mohammad Dehqani said that the recent US accusation about Tehran's involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi Envoy to Washington was a plot to overshadow the massive Muslim rally during the Hajj pilgrimage.

The best part?

Dehqani further dismissed the US accusation as "baseless", and noted, "Nations of the region and the world have come to know Iran as a powerful and rational country and they know well that these allegations are totally baseless."

Report: Grapel deal imminent, no word on Tarabin

Israel Hayom quotes Israel Radio as confirming the Al Hayat story I noted yesterday that Ilan Grapel might be released in a swap as early as this week:

Ilan Grapel, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen arrested in Egypt in June on espionage charges, is expected to be released from Egyptian custody just days after Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza for more than five years, returns home, Israeli officials confirmed on Monday, according to Israel Radio.

The confirmation follows a report in the Egyptian state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, which said Israel has agreed to release 81 Egyptian citizens currently held in Israeli prisons in exchange for Grapel's freedom.

"All reports suggest that the Shalit deal will not be the only one concluded between Arabs and Israel in the coming days," Al-Ahram reported. The Shalit deal, the article said, will "soon be followed by another deal, between Egypt and Israel, in which the spy Ilan Grapel ... will be released in return for all Egyptians held in Israeli prisons."

Egypt has been bolstered in recent weeks, setting the stage for Grapel's release, thanks to its successful mediation in the Shalit deal, which will see 1,027 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in exchange for the hostage Israel Defense Forces soldier. Israel also issued a formal apology for the deaths of six Egyptian soldiers who were killed during the pursuit of terrorists following a multi-pronged terror attack in southern Israel in August. According to Egyptian reports, negotiations between Israel and Egypt over Grapel's release are currently in their final stages.

Still no information about Israeli Bedouin Ouda Tarabin, also held in Egyptian prison. Likud MK Ayoob Kara has been pressing to include Tarabin in any Grapel deal.

Speaking at a special press conference with the Tarabin family, Kara said: “I am ashamed that an Israeli Bedouin citizen does not get the same treatment as the one received by Ilan Grapel.”

He added, “I’ve approached the U.S. Ambassador in Israel as well as the Prime Minister and demanded that any deal to free Grapel also include Inside Ouda Tarabin. I do not accept any excuse on this matter because once we release security prisoners held in Israel for Grapel, there will be no chance to release Ouda, because no one knows who will assume power in Egypt and there’s no guarantee he’ll released in December 2015 when he finishes serving his prison sentence.”

Suleiman Tarabin, Ouda’s father, also spoke at Monday’s press conference with Kara and said: “I call on the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and the American government to act to release my son from the Egyptian prison.”

“I do not understand why when we go to the doctor we are treated as any Jew is treated, but when it comes to detainees in Egypt, the Bedouin do not get the same treatment received by a Jew,” added Tarabin. “The Shalit family has not slept more for more than 2,000 days, and my family and I have not slept for more than a decade. For more than ten years we have not celebrated any holidays. My son refuses to get married before his brother is released. I am pleading with anyone who has influence to do anything possible to have my son see the light of day.”

More on Tarabin here.

It is a shame that Tarabin has not been getting the coverage that Grapel has been receiving - from the right or from the left.

List of important Hamas prisoners who aren't being released

Although Hamas is bragging that it got "99%" of its demands in the Shalit swap, this is quite an exaggeration.

One major figure that Hamas wanted was Ibrahim Hamid. As Ha'aretz reported in June:

Ibrahim Hamid, a senior Hamas military commander in the West Bank, planned and saw to the carrying out of a shooting in the West Bank a year ago despite being in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison for the past five years.

Hamid, from the West Bank town of Silwad, was arrested in May 2006. He was tried and convicted of being responsible for the deaths of 46 Israeli in suicide bombings in the early days of the second intifada. According to the Shin Bet security service, Hamid is, in fact, responsible for the deaths of 90 Israelis, and is considered a "groundbreaker in the field of strategic terror" and a "model" for other terrorists.

Hamas wants Hamid included among the Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for the release of Gilad Shalit, but Israel is adamant that he stay in jail.

Hamid has been in total isolation since his arrest. He was recently moved from Ayalon Prison to Hasharon Prison. With the exception of his attorneys, Hamid is barred from having visitors.

Last week, the Central District Court extended Hamid's solitary confinement by an additional six months in what has become a biannual event. Unclassified information submitted by the state to support its request to extend Hamid's isolation indicated the existence of recent intelligence "pointing to his involvement in planning, from prison, a shooting attack in which two Israelis were injured on September 1, 2010 at Rimonim Junction. [Hamid] constitutes a serious and extraordinary danger even from within prison."

There has been some controversy between the Fatah and Hamas press about whether Hamid's mother complained about her son not being released; apparently she did and turned around quickly when Hamas let her know their displeasure.

Other Hamas leaders whom Hamas, for years, insisted be released and whom Israel refused to release include:

Hassan Salama. Head of Hamas' Jerusalem branch, responsible for two suicide bombings on the city's No. 18 bus in 1996 and for a suicide bombing in Ashkelon the same year.

Abdullah Barghouti. Senior bombmaker for Hamas' military wing in the West Bank. He was convicted of planning terror attacks in which 66 Israelis were murdered and hundreds hurt, including the attack on a Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.
He was sentenced to 67 life terms in 2003.

Abbas Sayid. Head of the Hamas military wing in Tul Karm. He was convicted of planning terror attacks in which 35 Israelis were murdered and hundreds hurt, including the attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002.
Sayid was sentenced to 35 life terms in 2006.

Mahand Sharim. Sayed's deputy, involved in planning the suicide attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002.

Ra'ad Hutri. One of the masterminds of the attack on the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, which killed 22 young Israelis. He was also involved in suicide attacks in Neve Yamin and at the Bar Ilan Bridge.

Jamal Abu al-Haiga. Hamas' leader in Jenin, sentenced to nine life terms for his involvement in suicide bombings at the Hadera Mall, at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem. He also planned a number of other attacks from his home in Jenin.

Muath Bilal. Sentenced to 26 life sentences for the deaths of 26 Israelis. He was involved in suicide bombings at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and on the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in 1997.

Bahij Badr. Responsible for the death of 18 Israelis in suicide bombing in Tzrifin, at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem and in south Tel Aviv.

(source)

Another prisoner who is not being released - and whose mother has taken ill because of it - is Issa Abed Rabbo, the longest serving prisoner, sentenced to life in 1984. I cannot find out his crime; pro-terror sites simply say that he was arrested for belonging to Fatah.

So it looks like most, if not all, of Israel's negotiating red lines were not crossed in this deal (at least so far.)

It is Hamas that caved, not Israel.

Chinese Jews make Aliyah

From the Los Angeles Times:

As a child growing up in Kaifeng in central China, Jin Jin was constantly reminded of her unusual heritage.

"We weren't supposed to eat pork, our graves were different from other people, and we had a mezuza on our door," said the 25-year-old, referring to the prayer scroll affixed to doorways of Jewish homes.

Her father told her of a faraway land called Israel that he said was her rightful home, she recalls. But "we didn't know anything about daily prayers or the weekly reading of the Torah."

Jin has since fulfilled her father's dream. On a hot summer day in Jerusalem, where she works as a tour guide for Chinese citizens visiting Israel, Jin, who now goes by the Hebrew name Yecholya, wore a long khaki skirt, indicative of her conservative religious views, and Teva-like sandals, the national footwear of Israel.

Jin and her relatives belong to a community of Chinese Jews that was established in the 9th century by Persian traders who traveled along the Silk Road to Kaifeng, at the time China's capital.

Records documenting the group's history are spotty, but experts do know that some of the Jewish traders settled in Kaifeng and eventually built a synagogue with official recognition from the emperor. After the last rabbi in Kaifeng died in 1809, many began to forsake their religious practices while holding on to certain traditions, like the prohibition against pork and the celebration of a communal meal on Passover.

Then in 2005, Shavei Israel arrived. The privately funded conservative religious organization, based in Jerusalem, specifically targets descendants of Jews who have lost their connection to the religion, such as those forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition in Spain.

A video about Shavei Israel and the Chinese Jews made two years ago shows more:

(h/t Philtheman, Ian)

Murderer of teenager might not get a great reception in Gaza

From YNet:

From the sea of words and images flooding the Israeli press since news of Gilad Shalit's return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners broke, two female terrorists stand out above the others: Amina Mona from Fatah and Ahlam Tamimi of Hamas.

Mona was the mastermind behind the murder of teenager Ofir Rahum while Tamimi drove the Sbarro restaurant suicide bomber to his Jerusalem destination, where he murdered 15 Israelis and seriously injured many others.

In Israel, the release of the two is stirring strong emotions as they symbolize in their non-apologetic demeanor a strong sense of disgust and well-founded desire that they serve the rest of their lives in prison for their murderous activity. According to the prisoner swap deal, both will be deported: Mona to Gaza and Tamimi to Jordan.

As part of a project I conducted in Israeli prisons, I have held lengthy conversations with the two. Apart from being a young and intelligent woman, Mona turned out to be a manipulative woman with a larger ego than the entire Palestinian problem she claims to represent.

During our meetings, her mood swings could be easily identifiable. Alongside her outrageous statements defending her right to murder her enemies, including an innocent teenager who was lured by her romantic gestures, she still tried to convince me that she was not the monster that Israelis claim her to be.

Mona's problem is that it isn’t only Israelis who view her as a monster. Her fellow inmates also think she is. She controlled the prisoners in her ward with an iron fist as if she were Al Capone. Several inmates who refused to obey her orders suffered heavy punishments. Some were bitten by her while others suffered serious burns inflicted by boiling wax because they dared challenge her leadership.

Her infamous cruelty did not go unnoticed. Many Fatah members including her accomplice found it hard to defend her actions to me. Hamas even vowed to "sort things out" with her upon her release.

Even if it is no comfort to the Rahum family and the people of Israel, Mona may initially be received as a hero in Hamas-controlled Gaza, but her fate may not turn out to be as bright. She obviously won't enjoy much comfort in light of her abusive methods in prison.

On the other hand....

Ahlam Tamimi was always proud of the fact that she was the first female Hamas combatant. She planted an explosive charge she had made inside a bottle and placed it on a supermarket shelf. Since she had a press card, she was granted free access to roam Jerusalem and collected information on possible targets for Hamas.

She personally led the suicide bomber to the location that she had singled out – the Sbarro restaurant – because she said there were "many radical Jews there".

She spoke to me while maintaining a chilling and provoking composure, which characterizes her entire attitude. The only concern she expressed in our meetings, during which she defiantly described her story, pertained to a possible deportation to Jordan, as was eventually decided upon in this deal.

During her prison sentence, Tamimi got engaged to her cousin – who is also jailed in Israel – and may now remain single. In contrast to Mona, she is expected to join Hamas' propaganda machine because of her persuasive rhetoric ability. She may even turn into Hamas' Leila Khaled (a Fatah plane hijacker who became a leading voice of the Palestinian cause).

People may want to look at a poster series I did earlier this year on female terrorists including Tamimi.

Barghouti upset he is not being released (updated)

Palestine Today reports that Marwan Barghouti, the senior terrorist in Israeli jails, was surprised by the Shalit deal and says he was in the dark about the negotiations.

According to a source close to Barghouti, he said that Hamas was not in contact with him, nor with Ahmed Sadaat of the PFLP or even with other major Hamas terrorist leaders who are not part of the deal.

He said, "No one told us that we will not be freed, and certainly they did not get our consent in writing.. We knew about the deal from the media, and that contrary to Hamas pledges to free us throughout the discussions of the deal, we were very surprised about it."

UPDATE: A Hamas website says that Barghouti's lawyer is denying this story, sayingthat the prisoners were kept abreadt of all the details and were told of "Zionist intransigence" towards their release. He blames the article on Fatah. The source it uses is a Facebook group.

The newspaper also reports that Hamas' interior minister has banned the use of shooting weapons in the air in celebration of the scheduled arrival of hundreds of prisoners on Tuesday.

He said that such celebrations are against the law and Hamas will prosecute any lawbreakers.

Qatar gives Egypt half a billion dollars

From Ma'an:

Egypt's finance minister, who has been negotiating with Gulf Arab states for financial assistance, said on Sunday that Qatar had given a grant of $500 million to support the budget which has ballooned as a result of political turmoil.

Hazem el-Beblawi said last week he was negotiating with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for funds worth close to $7 billion. He also said he was considering International Monetary Fund financing that Egypt previously turned down.

Egypt's economy, which had been growing robustly before the popular uprising earlier this year, was hit hard by the protests, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw funds and saw major revenue sources like tourism suffer.

"They transferred $500 million as a grant to Egypt," Hazem el-Beblawi told Reuters, adding that the Qatari funds had been transferred in the past week or so. "It is a grant for budgetary support," he added.

Qatar's pledges to the PA have been a lot less than that. In fact, Qatar had refused to pay its pledges to the PA back in 2007.

The PA must not be happy that the pockets of Gulf countries are open to Egyptian Arabs and not to the Palestinian Arabs.

Reports: Iran caught laundering up to $400 million

From Al Arabiya:

The issue of alleged money-laundering in Kuwait is no longer a local concern, but it is raising alarm in other Gulf Arab and Western countries, sources said.

The sources, Gulf Arab diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Kuwait al-Rai daily that investigations have begun, inquiries that have expanded since claims that Iran was behind plans to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

The investigations are looking into the extent to which some Kuwaiti officials and a businessman are involved in breaking the EU, U.S., and U.N. sanctions placed against Iran.

The alleged money-laundering scheme also involves countries including Germany, Russia and Britain.

According to Al Shahed newspaper in Kuwait, the money deposited in the accounts of two lawmakers, a former minister and a businessman, came in installments of $54,267,200, $180,891,000 and $162,802,000, for a total of $397,960,000.

Al Rai daily, the media outlet that broke the news, said that the amount alleged was $300 million, and that around $180 million was deposited in the accounts after the amount was taken on a private plane from Kuwait to Amsterdam.

The money was then taken to Moscow, where it was kept for four days before it was moved to Iran and then back to Kuwait.

Experts said that laundering money through a third country can help Iran get around the sanctions imposed on it.

In the alleged plot to kill a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil, a complaint from the U.S. Justice Department claimed that one of the key plotters, Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American citizen who is now in U.S. custody, was able to transfer of $100,000 from Iran to a financial institution in an unnamed country.

The Justice Department complaint said that the money moved to a bank in New York and was then deposited into an account monitored by the FBI.

Following the money works just as well today as it did in the days of Al Capone.

More Pallywood: The lady doth protest too much

I had missed this video:

In the absence of any sustained conflict, packs of photojournalists and freelance photographers have taken to covering the so-called “Friday demonstrations” staged weekly by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank against settlements and the Israeli West Bank barrier. Each Friday, Israeli Defence Forces and border police routinely trade tear gas for stones with Palestinian youth, thereby presenting photographers with opportunities for dramatic images. Easily accessible by taxi and safer than an actual conflict zone, these demonstrations have become training grounds (some might saybattling grounds) for young conflict photographers. Documentary filmmaker Andrew Lampard is preparing an hour-long film on the subject. This video piece, excerpted from the longer documentary, examines the issues that arise when “the pack” visits these demonstrations.

In this video is that you see numerous journalists and photographers saying, quite clearly, that if there were no journalists there would be no demonstrations and that there is really no news here but it is a play where photographers jostle to outdo each other. They say that while the intifada was a real story, the weekly Silwan and Bili'n demonstrations are little more than a game, where reporters who want to pretend to be in a war zone go to dodge tear gas and feel macho.

The place I saw this video was in a blog entry by Lisa Goldman in 972 magazine who is disingenuously claiming that this video, and another video I had linked to earlier, are not showing the real truth. Incredibly, she believes that the two videos are being more deceptive than the photos filed by wire services where you cannot see the gaggle of photographers crowding around a single stone thrower mugging for his audience.

But there are a few questions that are not asked by these journalists.... Questions like, Why are these Palestinians out demonstrating in the first place? Why do they come out, week after week, to face Israeli security forces who choke them with tear gas, beat them and arrest them? What are their grievances?

This video says, quite clearly, that the tear gas always comes after the Arab youth start throwing stones. And that the stone throwing is magnified by the media. The arrests are not unprovoked. But Goldman specifically ignores that and frames these events as if these stone-throwing youth are peacefully demonstrating and then the evil IDF, for no reason, starts choking and beating them. How objective she is!

The video also shows that there is nothing newsworthy about the demos, that they are the same every week, that there are literally thousands of photos that show the same thing - and that they are boring. But that enrages our intrepid journalist Lisa Goldman:

Neither of the two video reports include any background or explanation. They also don’t really touch on the fact that very few of the photos and videos shot at these demos are ever published. Editors are not interested anymore. Their readers have turned away; Israel-Palestine is regarded as a story that is stuck in Groundhog Day, doomed to repeat itself in perpetuity.

Instead, she wants the world to remain enraged in perpetuity! How dare the world media decide that weekly staged demonstrations - a game played between the Arab kids, the journalists and the soldiers - are anything less than an expression of sheer anger and desperation! How dare editors choose stories from Syria or Yemen or Tunisia instead of yet another story of pawns playing a game in Silwan every damn week? Don't they know what is newsworthy, like Lisa Goldman does?

In fact, Goldman lets us in on a secret:

Do teenage boys wearing jeans and muscle shirts swagger and act all macho when a bunch of photojournalists point big lenses in their direction? Yup, they do. Do they sometimes make a mockery out of stressful, frightening situations in order to preserve their dignity, their cool and their street cred? Sure. Does that mean they have no reason or purpose in demonstrating? Of course not. Would the same people demonstrate if there was no media presence? Yes. I know, because I have attended many demonstrations from which the media was completely absent, and events unfolded in pretty much the same way as they do when the photographers are there.

It is a mystery how Goldman, a journalist, has attended demonstrations where there was no media. Was she was wearing a burqa? She is obviously Western - is she really claiming that she is not part of the audience for these demonstrations?

There is no shortage of other observers besides the mainstream media who play parts in this charade. NGOs, so called "peacemaking" teams, and other Westerners are always around for these exercises and they are just as much an audience as the photographers. Their mobile phones take pictures and videos too, and they post things on their websites.

Goldman's piece is fascinating in how she gets so angered at the truth being revealed about the staged charades that occur every week. Perhaps because she knows that a large chunk of her paycheck comes from her inflating the importance of these trivial events rather than uncover real news - news that might even show Palestinian Arabs as less than heroic youths fighting to "preserve their dignity."

(h/t Richard)

Iran: "Zionists behind world economic crisis"

From Iran's official FARS "news" agency as well as Iran's ABNA agency:

The Iranian author of the book "Yisroel and Zionacracy", Seyed Hashem Mir-Lohi, took Zionists responsible for the current economic crisis in a large number of the world countries, and said the only way to rescue the world from the current situation is harnessing Zionists' greed and expansionism.

"To save the world from the current situation and prevent further calamities, there is no way out but controlling the Zionists," Mir-Lohi said at a press conference at Fars News Agency on Sunday.

He also reiterated that the current economic problems of the American people which have sparked the "Occupy Wall Street" movement were resulted from the malfunction of the US banks which are mostly under the Zionists' control.

Even the US presidential election candidates should be approved by the Zionist lobby active in the country, Mir-Lohi said.

"Thus, Americans are actually protesting against the behind-the-stage policies of their countries which are decided and run by the Zionists," he added.

The search and replace algorithm replacing "Jew" with "Zionist" is always amusing.

I can't wait for the press release saying that "Zionists" have hook noses.

Amnesty urges Canada to arrest and prosecute George W. Bush

From Amnesty International:

12 October 2011
Amnesty International today urged Canadian authorities to arrest and either prosecute or extradite former US President George W. Bush for his role in torture, ahead of his expected visit to Canada on 20 October.

“Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former President Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture,” said Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

“As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring former President Bush to justice, the international community must step in. A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention against Torture and demonstrate contempt for fundamental human rights.”

A failure by Canada to arrest former President Bush demonstrates contempt for human rights?

I have never seen Amnesty urge any Western nation to arrest Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has been found to - surprise! - torture prisoners. Similarly, I cannot find any Amnesty calls to arrest leaders of Hamas or other terror groups. (Egypt, for example, is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture and Amnesty did not urge Egypt to arrest any Palestinian Arab terrorist or political leader responsible for torture when they are in its territory.)

Amnesty, it will be remembered, has defended a supporter of the Taliban as a "human rights defender" and suspended an employee who disagreed.

If anyone needed any more evidence of the twisted priorities of Amnesty International, this pretty much seals the deal.

(h/t CHA, Daled Amos)

Jewish groups ascend to Temple Mount for holiday

Palestine Today writes that "Jewish extremist groups" have "stormed" the Temple Mount to "terrorize and intimidate" Muslim worshippers and celebrate the Sukkot holiday.

David Ha'Ivri, spokesman for the Shomron Liaison Office, tweets that he spent 5 hours in Israeli police custody for the crime of praying in the holiest spot in Judaism.

Arutz-7 reports:

Arab policemen arrested two Jews, including a prominent spokesman in Samaria, for allegedly bowing down and praying on the Temple Mount Sunday morning.

Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Spokesman David Ha’Ivri told Arutz Sheva, “We were in a group of 25 men performing the mitzvah of being seen on the Temple Mount during the Sukkot holiday.

“Suddenly, two policemen said a friend and I were bowing down, which they say is forbidden.” Ha’Ivri said the policemen were non-Jews and, responding to Arutz Sheva, identified them as Arabs.

“I told the policemen, ‘Look, there are Arab watch guards here, and they are not making a fuss about it.’ The policemen replied, 'It is forbidden to bow down, and we are just doing our job.'”

He added, “Can you imagine being indicted for bowing down?”

Ha’Ivri said he has ascended the Temple Mount several times a year for the past 20 years and was arrested only once, many years ago.

Abiding by known rules issued by Muslim clerics, Ha’Ivri and the other members of the group did not carry with them any prayer books or religious items, which are forbidden by Jews to being with them when going up to the Temple Mount