Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

UNRWA has no problem with Hamas wasting construction material

Yesterday I noted that Hamas was building a massive 10,000 sq. ft.stage to celebrate the release of hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails, and I noted that it seems that Hamas can find all the building materials it needs - wood and iron - when it wants to build something.

I wondered if UNRWA was bothered at all that all these valuable building materials that are supposedly banned from Gaza are being used for terror rallies rather than, say, building houses.

Israel Awareness emailed UNRWA's Chris Gunness with that question:

Will UNRWA mention this – that Hamas has enough building materials to build plenty of homes, but refuses to use them? Will you urge Hamas to use it for the greater good?

Or will you condemn Israel for not allowing enough building materials into Gaza?

Gunness' answer, in part:

There’s no doubt that right now we all need to redouble our efforts to ease the suffering of the ordinary people of Gaza and to think again about the blockade policy.

I would imagine that the stage is built with materials which came in to Gaza through the tunnels. Because of the blockade policy the tunnels trade from which Hamas takes a fifteen per cent tax is booming. The Israeli blockade policy has empowered Hamas. Another reason you might think to lift the blockade.

I agree that we need to build houses for people who are homeless from the war and since their homes were bulldozed by the Israeli authorities ten years ago in the south. To do that, the UN needs to bring in thousands of trucks from Israel and to do that, the blockade needs to be lifted.

From what I can tell, Gunness is saying that while Hamas is the de facto government in Gaza, they are not responsible for the well-being of their citizens. Only UNRWA builds houses, leaving Hamas without that responsibility.

So, UNRWA's position is that Hamas is perfectly entitled to use building materials that could be used to build houses for people that have been homeless for ten years (way before the Gaza closure, by the way) for whatever it wants - terror rallies, weapons bunkers, tunnels to kidnap Israelis, whatever. Hamas has no fear that UNRWA will say anything remotely critical of it, and it equally has no fear that it will ever have to actually take responsibility for its people the way every other government in the world is expected to (besides the PA.)

No, Chris Gunness' condemnations are never aimed at Hamas, but rather concentrated on one entity in the Middle East, and one only.

BBC reporter not quite sure why a terrorist was in prison

At the BBC website there is a video clip of reporter Jon Donnison speaking to one of the freed terrorists in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Taha.

Donnison starts the interview off by saying, "'You are 31 years old, 10 years in prison, serving a life sentence for being a member of Hamas, I mean, how do you feel today?"

Was Taha serving a life sentence only for being a member of Hamas?

Well, it seems he was a bit more involved than that.

From the MFA site:

Ahmed Abd Al Karim Ali Abu Taha was born in 1980 and resides in Ramallah. Abu Taha was involved in preparing explosives for Hamas terrorists in Ramallah, including the car bomb that exploded in Giva'at Ze'ev in Jerusalem on 29 July 2001. A member of the Ibrahim Abu Rub and Ballal Baraguti organizations, he transported the suicide bomber Ra'ad Baraguti from Ramallah to Jerusalem, where he exploded on Hanevi'im Street on 4 September 2001 and injured 14 people. It is interesting to note that his father, Abd Al Karim Ali Mustafa Abu Taha, works in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Also, according to the list of prisoners given out by Israel, he was sentenced to 27 years, not life. He only intended to kill scores of people, but he wasn't successful.

But when the BBC gets such a great interview, with someone who actually knows English, why should they bother reporting those little inconvenient facts? It might insult Mr. Taha, and that wouldn't be polite.

(h/t Yedidya)

Abbas claims Israel promised him another major prisoner release

At a rally in Ramallah celebrating the release of hundreds of Arab terrorists, Mahmoud Abbas claimed that Israel agreed to release a many prisoners to him.

He said, " It is not a secret if I say that there is an agreement between us and the Israeli government to release another batch similar to this one after [this prisoner swap] is finished, God willing."

Ha'aretz says that "it was the first mention of such a release."

Abbas went on to praise the prisoners, some of whom are cold blooded multiple murderers of innocent civilians, as "freedom fighters, and Mujahideen for the sake of God and the homeland."

One reason Shalit looked so ill at ease in his interview (UPDATE)

A number of people have noted how cruel it was to force Shalit to be subjected to an inane interview on Egyptian TV, delaying his release for ten excruciating minutes:

And while we can attribute his hesitation to answer and his discomfort to the idiotic questions, there is another reason for his distress, as can be seen from this photo immediately before or during the interview:

(Getty Images claims this was an interview with Hamas TV before he was released, but no such interview seems to have occurred and the microphone, background wall and chair seem to match those in the Egyptian interview.)

(h/t JSSNews)

UPDATE: AP verifies it was in Egypt:

UPDATE 2: AP wrote about it as well:

Armed Hamas militants were in the area during the interview. One of them stood behind Schalit's chair, wearing a a black face mask, a green headband of the Qassam brigades – Hamas' military wing – and a video camera in his hand.

(h/t David)

UPDATE 3: The interviewer insists that Shalit wasn't pressured to do the interview. Yeah, right.

Amnesty International becomes even more of a joke

Amnesty International put out a nonsensical press release:

The prisoner exchange involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners highlights the need for the humane treatment of all detainees in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Amnesty International said today.

“This deal will bring relief to Gilad Shalit and his family after an ordeal that has lasted more than five years. Many Palestinian families will feel a similar sense of relief today when they are reunited with their relatives, many of whom have spent decades under harsh conditions in Israeli detention," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.

Cable TV, free college degrees, excellent medical care, smuggled cell phones...the horrors never stop.

Since 27 September, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike in protest against recent punitive measures imposed by the Israeli authorities.

Prisoners are demanding that the Israel Prison Service end the arbitrary isolation of prisoners and allow them regular family visits.

Amnesty forgot to mention the whole chickens! I'm sure there is an international convention on the rights to have whole chickens! And unlimited satellite TV of terrorist channels, which is another demand.

The fact that they are detained on Israeli territory makes it difficult, if not impossible for their families to visit them, as the Israeli authorities often refuse to grant them travel permits.

Since Amnesty is on record as saying that Gaza is "occupied" - against its own definition of the term - this means that Amnesty is insisting that Israel build prisons in Gaza itself! Will Hamas sign on for that?

Amnesty throws in another unwarranted dig at Israel:

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or deporting people from an occupied territory. In the event that those prisoners being exiled abroad or transferred to Gaza from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have not given their consent, Israel would be violating its obligations under international humanitarian law.

But the terrorists and Hamas agreed to the deportations. One of them insisted today to go to Egypt instead of Gaza, out of fear that she would be killed in Gaza! In other words - they did give their consent, so this paragraph serves no purpose except for Amnesty to imply Israeli human rights violations with no evidence.

Not to mention - they are lying about Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions:

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total or partial evacuation of a given area if the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.

The terrorists do not have all the privileges of Geneva's "protected persons." As the ICRC writes:

If civilians directly engage in hostilities, they are considered " unlawful " or " unprivileged " combatants or belligerents (the treaties of humanitarian law do not expressly contain these terms). They may be prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action.

Unlawful combatants do not qualify for prisoner of war status. ....This protection is not the same as that afforded to lawful combatants. To the contrary, persons protected by the Fourth Convention and the relevant provisions of Protocol I may be prosecuted under domestic law for directly participating in hostilities. They may be interned for as long as they pose a serious security threat, and, while in detention, may under specific conditions be denied certain privileges under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They may also be prosecuted for war crimes and other crimes and sentenced to terms exceeding the length of the conflict, including the range of penalties provided for under domestic law.

But beyond that, Amnesty is not even entertaining the possibility that these terrorists remain a danger to Israel - something Geneva addresses!

Keep in mind that Amnesty never called for Shalit's release. Even though he was kidnapped specifically to be a hostage, even though his capture and captivity were completely against the Geneva Conventions - Amnesty did not think he deserved to be released unconditionally.

This is only the latest embarrassment to come out of Amnesty.

It banned Zionists from an Israel-bashing forum last night in London.

The Canadian government dismissed Amnesty's "stunt"at calling for George W. Bush to be arrested when he visits Canada, noting that they never demanded the same from Castro, Gorbachev or other despots who have set foot on Canadian soil.

(HRW, not to be outdone, mimicked Amnesty's call to Canada.)

That's Amnesty - an organization that fervently believes that Hamas terrorists should be treated with more deference than US presidents.

(h/t Anne, Brad, see also Omri)

PLO envoy to Ottawa asked to leave after tweeting anti-Jewish video

From the Globe and Mail:

The Palestinian envoy to Canada has been told she’s not welcome in Ottawa after she tweeted a link to a video that the federal government deemed an offensive diatribe against Jews.

Now, Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata. The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to “limit communication” with her until a replacement arrives.

The diplomatic cold shoulder was sparked when Ms. Sobeh Ali took to Twitter this month to circulate a link to a video posted on YouTube, telling her followers on the social-media message system to “check this video out.”

The video shows a Palestinian girl, in tears and shouting with passion, reciting a poem in Arabic, “I am Palestinian.” The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews.”

When Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird learned of it about two weeks ago, he instructed his deputy minister, Morris Rosenberg, to call Ms. Sobeh Ali in to complain, and the Canadian representative in the West Bank, Chris Greenshields, to protest to the Palestinian Authority.

“Canada expects the Palestinian Authority to appropriately deal with this serious transgression,” Mr. Baird’s spokesman, Chris Day, said in an e-mail. “We have taken the decision to limit communication with this official until a replacement is selected.”

It’s not clear how quickly Ms. Sobeh Ali – essentially the Palestinian ambassador, although she does not hold that rank because she does not represent a sovereign state – will be replaced. Reached by telephone on Monday, Ms. Sobeh Ali said she is not in a position to comment right now. She denied a rumour she is leaving Ottawa this week, but when asked if the Palestinian Authority has recalled her, she said a polite goodbye, and hung up.

Complicating the matter – in the eyes of some, but not others – is the fact that the English subtitles in the video linked to Ms. Sobeh Ali are a mistranslation of the girl’s Arabic poem in several parts.

The phrase that the subtitles translate as, “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews,” is correctly translated as, “to a war that is destroying oppression and kill the soul of Zionism,” according to Salah Basalamah, associate professor in the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation.

Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which first sent Ms. Sobeh Ali’s video tweet to Mr. Baird’s office, said both versions are unfit to be circulated by a Palestinian envoy.

“You’re speaking to someone who doesn’t see a difference,” Mr. Fogel said. Calling for a war for the destruction of Zionism – the movement to establish a Jewish land – is a denial of Israel’s right to exist, he said, and the passion of the girl, shaking as her eyes well up with tears, makes it an entirely wrong thing for a Palestinian envoy to Ottawa to circulate, he said.

“I was shocked at the video,” he said. “And I’m pretty thick-skinned.”

Ms. Sobeh Ali has closed her Twitter account.

There are dozens of versions of this video of a brainwashed girl on YouTube, in Turkish, French, Arabic and English. Most translate to a diatribe against Zionists, but some do translate her words as wanting to destroy the Jews.

This seems to be the version that Sobeh Ali tweeted:

Yesterday, I noted that one of the released terrorists was Yehye al-Sinwar, who had tried to orchestrate a Shalit-style kidnapping while in Israeli prison.

Today, at the Gaza border, he congratulated the terror groups that were involved in Shalit's kidnapping and he vowed that Hamas would do whatever it takes to get the remainder of Arab terrorists released from prison, "at all costs."

What do you think he means by that?

Somehow, I don't think it means recognizing Israel and accepting peace.

Microcosm of the conflict in Ramallah

Ha'aretz reports that Palestinian Arab protesters burned tires on the planned route that prisoner buses were going to take.

source

So Israel re-routed the buses to avoid the burning tires.

Which prompted Palestinian Arabs to clash with the IDF, angry that the original route wasn't being used.

source

Which is the entire conflict in a nutshell. Palestinian Arabs so something pointless, counterproductive and destructive; Israel responds in the only way possible while preserving life, and Palestinian Arabs then turn on Israel for reacting to their idiocy.

An infinite loop of futility, fueled by self-destructive stupidity, perpetually blamed on others.

Gilad Shalit is free!

No matter what you think about the swap deal, this is a day that has been a long time coming.

Gilad Shalit is alive and well and has arrived back home.

Iran's nuclear program suffering setbacks

From WaPo:

Iran’s nuclear program, which stumbled badly after a reported cyber attack last year, appears beset by poorly performing equipment, shortages of parts and other woes as global sanctions exert a mounting toll, Western diplomats and nuclear experts say.

Although Iran continues to stockpile enriched uranium in defiance of U.N. resolutions, two new reports portray the country’s nuclear program as riddled with problems as scientists struggle to keep older equipment working.

At Iran’s largest nuclear complex, near the city of Natanz, fast-spinning machines called centrifuges churn out enriched uranium. But its output is steadily declining as the equipment ages and breaks down, according to an analysis of data collected by U.N. nuclear officials.

Iran has vowed to replace the older machines with models that are faster and more efficient. Yet new centrifuges recently introduced at Natanz contain parts made from an inferior type of metal that is weaker and more prone to failure, according to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington nonprofit group widely regarded for its analysis of nuclear programs.

“Without question, they have been set back,” said David Albright, president of the institute and a former inspector for the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Although the problems are not fatal for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, they have “hurt Iran’s ability to break out quickly” into the ranks of the world’s nuclear powers, Albright said.

Western diplomats and nuclear experts say Iranian officials have been frustrated and angered by the program’s numerous setbacks, including deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists. Four Iranian scientists have been killed by unidentified assailants since 2007, and a fifth narrowly escaped death in an attempted car-bombing.

All together now:

"Awwwwww!"

(h/t CHA)

I am the 0.003%!

From JPost:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the United States is imprisoned by "10,000 Zionists," in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Monday. "The Zionists are maximum 10,000 people, should all of American be sacrificed for the Zionists?" the Iranian president asked.

The "Occupy Wall Street" crowd complains about the 1% of Americans who supposedly control the nation's wealth, but Ahmadinejad is going a couple of orders of magnitude better - saying that 0.003% of Americans control all aspects of the nation!

I am more powerful than even I imagined!

Eyewitness to Copt massacre

The New York Review of Books has a very good, evenhanded eyewitness account of the massacre of Copts in Egypt last week. There is enough blame to go around - the government, the TV station, Muslim thugs, and Egyptian civilians..

Some excerpts:

As the march moved forward, many more people joined in, and there were some 10,000 by the time we neared Maspero, just after sunset. I rushed ahead, taking a side street past rows of riot police to reach the State TV building in advance of the crowd. A few hundred Copts were already gathered there, and I noticed plainclothes State Security agents among them and other men lurking around who looked like they might be thugs. It was in those moments, as I stood at Maspero and the march approached the corniche, turning the corner, that chaos broke out. At first there was shouting, as the police used their batons to deter protesters, and then suddenly, a siren, before gunfire filled the air—not single shots, but rounds. The sound seemed to be coming from the front line, near the October 6 Bridge, which I now stood behind. It kept coming in bursts, and the marchers were running, many back in the direction of Tahrir, where they later tweeted that they were confronted by thugs and security forces.

Almost everyone I talked to thought the army was doing the shooting, saying that security forces were firing randomly at the crowd. More plausibly, from my vantage point and the accounts of some, it looked like the army had first fired warning shots in the air to prevent the protesters from reaching the TV Building, which some activists had been proposing to storm (a theory subsequently confirmed in part by the discovery of blank rounds at the site.) But this then raises the question of who else might have been shooting, since it became clear that live rounds were used.

One witness said the first shot came from behind the security forces’ front line, in the area between the bridge and Maspero. And a friend later told me a pickup truck had driven by the march as it was approaching the corniche, and that men had shot at the crowds through the windows, stirring panic. This weekend, I was shown a video that seemed to confirm this—it showed a pickup truck that had first gone to Maspero, where five or six men with clubs and swords had got off, pelted the army with stones, and beat some soldiers. Clearly there to stir trouble, these thugs cast themselves as “Copts”, putting the army on alert. The video shows them then driving off, in the wrong direction down the street and round the corner, towards the protesters. The account of the first gunshot coming from behind the army as the protesters approached might be explained by this mob—it is possible one of them stayed behind in Maspero.

At the time, rushing back in the direction of the side street as the crackling of gunshots filled the air, I found myself facing dozens of police in riot gear beating down protesters with batons. I returned to the main street a few meters away, where people were being knocked to the ground. Men around me—civilians—were throwing rocks in the direction of the march, and people had by that point begun screaming as the APCs, which had been stationed at the foot of the bridge, began maneuvering out of their sidewalk parking spots, and then roared, zigzagging down the corniche, pushing protesters onto sidewalks and to the ground as they picked up speed.

...In that first hour after the violence broke out, rocks and broken glass and Molotov cocktails rained down on us —some of it from what looked like thugs who had joined the crowd, some from atop 6 October Bridge, and some from the line of buildings adjacent to Maspero. (Someone said objects were being thrown from the State TV building itself.) Teargas was also fired, and it lingered in the air. I continued to hear shots, seemingly fired at random, no one could really tell from where. Protesters that I had seen marching lay injured. An army car was engulfed in flames—the first in a series of army and private vehicles that would be set on fire that night.

...For the next few hours, the violence ebbed and flowed between riot police, soldiers, Copts, and mobs. I could see clashes up on the bridge and was told that the army was chasing protesters through the streets of downtown. I was chased myself at one point, up a ramp. Young boys were also flocking in—many of them teenagers, some as young as nine or ten. They picked up rocks and threw them, challenging anyone to fight back, shrieking insults about Christians, and chanting for an Islamic state. Many of them looked familiar—the same youth I had seen gather outside the Israeli embassy a few weeks before, and at other protests in recent months that had turned violent. Soldiers looked on, many of them leaving the rowdy crowds to battle, while others tried to break up the mobs. The sirens of ambulances rushing to and from the area could be heard in all directions.

...Then there is the matter of paid thugs who seem to have taken part. Official government memos obtained by local newspapers in recent weeks indicate that there is a network of some 165,000 thugs who worked for the State Security apparatus and who have been used by agents of the former regime in various assaults over the past six months. Within army ranks, it is believed that destabilizing SCAF itself may be one of their targets; a plot orchestrated from within the existent and underground remnants of Mubarak’s security apparatus. Indeed, amid the violence of Maspero, plainclothes state security agents and thugs seemed to have played more of a part then the soldiers themselves as the night wore on.

Above all, perhaps, was the role played by the state media, which actively incited violence against “armed Copts” and quickly adopted the narrative yhat the state has long fallen back on in such situations: namely, that there is always “foreign interference” or an “element” stirring trouble against the state. (During the revolution, it was State TV that claimed that protesters in Tahrir were being bribed to be there—LE50 a day and a KFC meal). In this instance, the Copts were the perfect scapegoat.

(h/t T34)

Hamas manages to find building materials when it wants to

Here are some images of the massive stage being built today in Gaza by Hamas for the ceremony to honor hundreds of terrorists being released tomorrow.

According to this story, the stage will be 1000 square meters (over 10,000 square feet) and is being built with some 1200 iron poles. 10 people have been working 18 hour days since Thursday to build this, which will include electric generators in case the power goes out.

Imagine how many houses Hamas could build if it wanted to. You know, for all those people that we hear are still homeless since the Gaza war.

I wonder if UNRWA will mention this the next time it blames Israel for not allowing enough building materials into Gaza.

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)