Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 12, 2011

Report: Hamas member kidnapped in Sinai, now in Israeli prison

Palestine Press Agency reports that a member of Hamas was abducted four days ago in the Sinai and is now being held in Israel.

Taher Atwa, a Gaza resident who works in the Hamas Ministry of Interior for minister Fathi Hammad, was kidnapped by unknown assailants in broad daylight in the Sinai Peninsula on Thursday.

Atwa is also a member of the terrorist Al Qassam Martyrs' Brigades.

Atwa's brother Mohammed told the newspaper that his family received a phone call saying Taher was being held by the IDF.

Nobody has explained exactly why Atwa was in the Sinai to begin with.

Israel's new ambassador to Egypt arrives in Cairo

From Ha'aretz:

Israel's new ambassador to Egypt arrived in Cairo on Monday, Egyptian airport officials told the Associated Press, three months after rioters ransacked the Israeli Embassy in the Egyptian capital.

Amitai, the new envoy, replaces Yitzhak Levanon, who was ambassador when the embassy was stormed in August after six Egyptian guards were killed by Israeli troops pursuing militants responsible for the deaths of eight Israelis on the border.

Amitai, a fluent Arabic speaker who has previously served at the embassy in Cairo, will join the small Israeli diplomatic staff still on in the Egyptian capital.

Following the September incident in Cairo, Foreign Ministry officials and the Shin Bet security services decided that the building housing the embassy was unfit from a security point of view. Since then, efforts have been made to find an alternative location.

For now, Amitai is expected to work from his residence with the assistance of two Israeli diplomats.

Al Masry al Youm adds:

[Amitai] expressed the hope that peace between Egypt and Israel will continue in the future. He said, upon his arrival to Cairo on Monday afternoon, "The Egyptian revolution will succeed, God willing", expressing his pleasure to work in Egypt at this historic moment for Egypt and the Middle East, adding that he hoped that his time in Egypt in the service of peace between the two countries.

He added "The Egyptian-Israeli peace is a durable peace, because we have [strong] goals and common features, and I'm sure the peace process between the two countries will continue...My job is to consolidate the peace between Egypt and Israel."

UNRWA accidentally proves it hurts "refugees"

From UNRWA:

According to a new report by UNRWA, despite modest economic good news in the West Bank, the number of unemployed refugees grew by nearly one per cent in the first half of the year, to over 50,000 people, as unemployment generally in the West Bank declined. At 27.4 per cent, the unemployment rate for refugees is about 5 percentage points above the average of the West Bank as a whole.

“These figures show once more that the refugees continue to bear the brunt of economic hardship in the West Bank,” said UNRWA spokesman, Chris Gunness, “making the need for our emergency services greater than ever.”

The report finds that “in the context of 3.7 per cent overall employment growth, refugees lost ground in the public sector, where their employment declined 2.9 per cent in the sequential period. Total employment growth of refugees was about 1.5 per cent year over year, well below the overall rate of job growth for non-refugees in the West Bank.”

First, let's get beyond the absurdity of referring to Palestinian Arabs living in the Palestinian Arab territories "refugees." They aren't refugees by any definition of the term. They live in their own homeland!

But lets look at these numbers. Palestinian Arabs who do not live in these camps have been doing better economically and their unemployment rate has gone down; those who live in these camps and are dependent on UNRWA handouts saw their lives worsen as their own unemployment rate has gone up.

The logical conclusion is that these so-called "refugees" must, at long last, be fully integrated into PA society. It would help them and it would help the PA take the responsibility that any government is supposed to for their own people. If the PA had any sense of pride, it should be insulted that some 15 years after they gained autonomy, they still allow an outside agency to take care of their people. The PA should have built permanent housing and communities for the camp residents and mainstreamed them into their society.

Why on Earth are these still "refugee" camps in the West Bank and Gaza? Moreover, why is there no plan to get rid of them?

UNRWA is not helping these people - it is crippling them. UNRWA's hollow excuse that they cannot get rid of any of their facilities before a comprehensive peace is found is absurd in this context. An agency that truly cared about these people would have put into place a plan to diminish its services years ago until they are no longer needed. The massive UNRWA budget should be transferred to the PA so that the government, so lavishly praised for its institution building, can take basic responsibility for its own people.

The fact that "refugees" are in such poor financial shape even after they take advantage of free education and health services is all the proof you need that UNRWA is hurting the people it pretends to help in the territories. it is not teaching self-sufficiency - instead, it has created a culture of laziness and entitlement.

While perhaps an argument can be made that UNRWA is necessary in Lebanon or Syria, there is no reason at all for it to exist in the Palestinian Arab territories. -

Unless, of course, it is meant to used not to help people but only to use them as a weapon against Israel.

By the way, the UNRWA report mentions that employment of Palestinian Arabs in Israel increased by 5.51% between the second half of 2010 and the first half of 2011 and 1.64% compared to the first half of 2010 (which accounts for seasonal jobs.)

And it also grudgingly admits that Palestinian Arabs enjoy "relatively high wage jobs in Israel."

Sorely needed facts about the Mughrabi ramp and gate

It is a weekday, so that means that Muslims and Islamists are freaking out (the only other time they do that is on weekends):

A Hamas spokesman said Monday that the closure of Jerusalem's Mughrabi Bridge, which leads from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount, is an attack against Muslim holy sites, AFP reported.

"This is a serious step that shows the Zionist scheme of aggression again the Al Aqsa mosque," Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

Jordan's powerful Islamists on Monday denounced a decision by Israel to close a controversial access ramp to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem as "flagrant aggression."

"This is a very dangerous move," the head of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Said, told AFP.

"The only solution against this entity [Israel] is resistance in order to protect the sanctity of the holy places against such flagrant aggression," he said.

"Jordan rejects any Israeli attempt to affect Jerusalem's holy sites, identity and heritage, including Al-Mughrabi Gate" that leads to the compound's Al-Buraq Wall, known to Jews as the Western Wall, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said.

So how ancient is the obviously sacred and venerable Mughrabi ramp/bridge? Was it built in the time of Mohammed, or during the Mamluk period? Did Yasir Arafat ever step foot on it?

Of course not. It was built in 2007, by Israel, after the earlier ramp collapsed in 2004 in a landslide due to an earthquake and snowstorms that year.

When the ramp collapsed in 2004, the Muslims blamed Israel, saying that Israel was attempting to destroy the entire Temple Mount.

When Israeli archaeologists, after three years of study, announced the collapse had revealed a heretofore unknown ancient Muslim prayer room, Muslims complained that Israel hid this information from them. (How that helps Judaize Jerusalem is an open question.)

And when the temporary ramp was being constructed in 2007, Muslims rioted

Let's go back in time a little. When was the Mughrabi gate re-opened to begin with?

Before 1920, The Mughrabi Gate was closed. At the time the Western Wall was a small cul-de-sac where worshipers could gather in relative privacy. But then the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem opened up the Mughrabi Gate - specifically to turn the area into a thoroughfare so that the Jewish worshipers would be disturbed. They even drove mules through the prayer area.

A few days before the 1929 anti-Jewish pogrom broke out, "an incited Muslim mob rampaged through the opening torn by the Mufti in the south of the plaza, attacking the Jewish worshipers and destroying ritual objects."

(The Mughrabi Gate itself was built only around the 12th century - above what is known as Barclay's Gate, which is believed to be one of the original Second Temple gates. Barclay's Gate was closed off by Muslims in the 10th century and was rediscovered by James Barclay in 1848. It can be seen in the women's section of the Wall today.)

So the Muslims are upset when the ramp collapses, they are upset when Israel builds a temporary replacement, they are upset when Israel closes the temporary replacement ramp.

Keep in mind also that Mughrabi Gate is the only gate that non-Muslims may use to access the Temple Mount. Muslims are not at all inconvenienced by the closure of the ramp - but Jews and Christians are.

Rocket from Lebanon falls short, injures Lebanese woman

From Naharnet/AFP:

A woman was injured after a rocket fired in southern Lebanon landed in a Lebanese village near the border with Israel, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

The Katyusha rocket, fired from al-Qaysiya valley in Majdal Selem, landed in the village of Houla near the border with Israel.

The rocket wounded Nasira Ali Abbas, 55, as the rocket hit her house, according to NNA.

The woman was transferred to Mais al-Jabal Hospital.

Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported on Monday that the Lebanese army informed UNIFIL about the incident and launched an investigation.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops were on very high alert along the southern border with the Lebanese town, according to the radio station.

It appears that Hezbollah was at least indirectly responsible for the rocket attack two weeks ago, as the initial claim of responsibility by an Al Qaeda-linked group was denied by that same group.

Speaking of...

The security unrest witnessed in Lebanon in recent weeks, most notably Friday’s attack against the French unit in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, requires diligent governmental work that would prevent future instability, reported the daily An Nahar on Monday.

Security sources told the daily that the attack will likely increase tensions between France and Syria in light of French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe’s accusation on Sunday that Syria was “undoubtedly” behind the assault.

He added however that he had no evidence to substantiate his claim.

Asked during an interview with TV5MONDE, Radio France Internationale and Le Monde whether he believed the attack was a “message” from Syria, he replied: “There’s no doubt.”

"We have strong reasons to think that this attack came from there," he said, noting that Damascus used Hizbullah for such attacks in the past.

Furthermore, informed sources said that Juppe’s accusation was not only political, but it stemmed from initial international investigations that point to Syria’s involvement in the UNIFIL attack.

A security official meanwhile revealed to Agence France Presse that investigations are focusing on two suspects who were spotted in a Mercedes near the area of the explosion about an hour before it took place.

He said that the bomb was loaded with four to five kilograms of TNT, adding that it was remotely detonated before the UNIFIL vehicle arrived to the exact location of the explosive, which resulted in damage to only its front section.

The official confirmed An Nahar’s report on Sunday that estimated that the bomb was detonated by mistake, which consequently saved the lives of the French soldiers.

When people accuse Syria of doing something in Lebanon, they mean Hezbollah.

A couple of weeks ago Iran said explicitly that if it was attacked, they would strike Israel using Hezbollah rockets. No worries about UNIFIL or the Lebanese Armed Forces stopping them.

Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a vassal state for Iran and Syria.

PalArabs plan to use UNESCO to bar Jews from holy sites

From Karl Vick at the Time magazine blog:

Now that Palestine has been voted into UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, officials are preparing applications for the organization’s marquee designation: a World Heritage Site. Candidates are abundant. Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity stands atop the cave where believers kneel to kiss the spot, confidently marked by a starburst, said to be where Jesus Christ was born. Jericho, which marked its 10,000th birthday last year, is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the planet. And Hebron boasts the final resting place of Abraham, whose covenant with the Almighty led to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Genesis 23 lays out the details of his grave in Deed Office detail, including the price (30 shekels)[sic - it was 400 shekels - EoZ] paid for the cave and the adjoining field from Ephron the Hittite. There’s not much about the site that’s in doubt, including what Palestinian officials aim to do with the property if they get control of it — stop Jews from praying there.

The stated reason: The massive stone structure built atop the cave by King Herod, a Jew, and held for a time by Christian Crusaders, has since the 14th century been a Muslim house of worship. The Ibrahimi Mosque has minarets, rugs, washrooms for ablutions and anterooms lined with racks for storing shoes.

“It’s a mosque!” says Khaled Osaily, the mayor of Hebron. “You don’t have to be an architect to see it! Will you allow me to pray in a synagogue or a church?”

And as a practical matter, the vagaries of bureaucratic scheduling means no Palestinian site will be even considered until 2014 by UNESCO, which after all “was created to work for peace,” notes an official speaking from the organization’s Paris headquarters. “You’d be hard pressed to find a person at UNESCO who says, ‘Yes, Christians should be banned from there or Muslims should from here.’”

So why frame the World Heritage application as a bid to restrict the use of a religious site, when the only practical effect will be to create bad feelings? For the same reason Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, in his September speech to the U.N. General Assembly, evoked the the Holy Land by name-checking Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammed but said nothing about the Jews: In a word, spite.

"Spite" is not an accurate description of the reason that they want to ban Jews from the site. It is Islamic supremacism.

Since the 14th century, Muslims banned Jews - and specifically Jews - from worshiping at Judaism's second holiest site. This is not "spite" against Zionism but an expression of Muslim supremacy over Judaism.

And the idea that UNESCO would not allow the site to revert to being Judenrein is not as ridiculous as Karl Vick makes it sound. After all, last year UNESCO declared that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb were "Palestinian:"

The Palestinian sites of al-Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil/Hebron and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem: the Board voted 44 to one (12 abstentions) to reaffirm that the two sites are an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law, the UNESCO Conventions and the United Nations and Security Council resolutions.

Which means that under UNESCO's rules, Israel's allowing Jews to visit those sites after 1967 would have been considered a unilateral move and violated UNESCO guidelines.

And the idea of banning Jews from their holy sites in Judea and Samaria is mainstream in the Arab world. Here's part of an Arab League note to the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1994:

A statement issued by the Islamic Committee in the middle of the preceding month gave a clear indication of the intensive and repeated Israeli attempts to formulate specific arrangements aimed at imposing control over a number of Islamic mosques, including the Ibrahimi Shrine.

The statement referred to information that had recently been leaked by Israeli sources, to the effect that the occupation authorities were discussing the future supervision of some of those Islamic places of worship, through the establishment of special arrangements under which religious rites could be performed by both Muslims and Jews, after the settlers demanded the right to engage in acts of religious worship, like the Muslims, in a number of mosques, including the Ibrahimi Shrine, Joseph's Tomb at Nablus, Nabi Samwil at Jerusalem and Rachel's Tomb at Bethlehem.

Outrageous that the "settlers" would insist on the right to worship - like the Muslims!

Here we have enshrined the Arab insistence on Muslim supremacism over Judaism, in stark contrast to Israel's attempts to maintain open access by all to Jewish holy sites (except, of course, to its restriction on Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.)

And now we know exactly how the enlightened, moderate and culture-loving Palestinian Arab leaders intend to use their UNESCO membership.

(h/t Honest Reporting)

Egyptian PM breaks into tears while talking about the economy

From Ya Libnan:

Egypt’s new interim prime minister broke into tears in front of journalists on Sunday as he spoke about the state of the country’s economy, saying it was “worse than anyone imagines.”

Egypt’s transition in the months since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster has been rocky, with protests against the military council leading the process, an increase in crime and the battering of the tourism industry that was once a pillar of the economy.

Kamal el-Ganzouri, the third temporary prime minister since Mubarak’s ouster in February, said his priorities were the restoration of security and economic progress.

At one point in his news conference, el-Ganzouri became teary eyed as he recalled seeing “an Egyptian man on TV saying I want security, not bread.”

He said austerity measures were needed to start reducing the deficit but that no new taxes will be imposed. He did not elaborate on exact steps.

El-Ganzouri said his government will not consider loans from the International Monetary Fund until the outlook of the Egyptian budget becomes clear. In the summer, the IMF offered a $3 billion loan, but Egyptian officials turned it down.

The IMF is projecting Egypt’s economic growth to be just 1.2 per cent this year, compared with about 5 per cent in 2010.

“Solidarity is needed to face the economic crisis and security problem for citizens to be pleased with the revolution,” he said.

Urban consumer inflation in Egypt rose to an annual 9.1 per cent in November from 7.1 per cent in October. The unemployment rate in the third quarter climbed to 12 per cent from just under 9 per cent a year earlier. Net international reserves dropped by roughly 40 per cent by the end of October, compared with the end of 2010.

Spengler has been sounding the alarm about this for a while now. Egypt is in deep trouble and the revolution is showing no way for it to extricate itself.

Jordan is Palestinian (Mudar Zahran)

From Middle East Forum:

In most countries with a record of human rights violations, vulnerable minorities are the typical victims. This has not been the case in Jordan where a Palestinian majority has been discriminated against by the ruling Hashemite dynasty, propped up by a minority Bedouin population, from the moment it occupied Judea and Samaria during the 1948 war (these territories were annexed to Jordan in April 1950 to become the kingdom's West Bank).

As a result, the Palestinians of Jordan find themselves discriminated against in government and legislative positions as the number of Palestinian government ministers and parliamentarians decreases; there is not a single Palestinian serving as governor of any of Jordan's twelve governorships.[3]

Jordanian Palestinians are encumbered with tariffs of up to 200 percent for an average family sedan, a fixed 16-percent sales tax, a high corporate tax, and an inescapable income tax. Most of their Bedouin fellow citizens, meanwhile, do not have to worry about most of these duties as they are servicemen or public servants who get a free pass. Servicemen or public employees even have their own government-subsidized stores, which sell food items and household goods at lower prices than what others have to pay,[4] and the Military Consumer Corporation, which is a massive retailer restricted to Jordanian servicemen, has not increased prices despite inflation.[5]

Decades of such practices have left the Palestinians in Jordan with no political representation, no access to power, no competitive education, and restrictions in the only field in which they can excel: business.

According to the Minority Rights Group International's World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples of 2008, "Jordan still considers them [Palestinian-Jordanians] refugees with a right of return to Palestine."[6] This by itself is confusing enough for the Palestinian majority and possibly gives basis for state-sponsored discrimination against them; indeed, since 2008, the Jordanian government has adopted a policy of stripping some Palestinians of their citizenship.[7] Thousands of families have borne the brunt of this action with tens of thousands more potentially affected. ...

These open displays of animosity are of a piece with the Hashemite regime's use of its Palestinian citizens as pawns in its game of anti-Israel one-upmanship.

King Hussein—unlike his peace-loving image—made peace with Israel only because he could no longer afford to go to war against it. His son has been less shy about his hostility and is not reluctant to bloody Israel in a cost-effective manner. For example, on August 3, 2004, he went on al-Arabiya television and slandered the Palestinian Authority for "its willingness to give up more Palestinian land in exchange for peace with Israel."[24] He often unilaterally upped Palestinian demands on their behalf whenever the Palestinian Authority was about to make a concession, going as far as to threaten Israel with a war "unless all settlement activities cease."[25]

This hostility toward Israel was also evident when, in 2008, Abdullah started revoking the citizenship of Jordanian Palestinians. By turning the Palestinian majority in Jordan into "stateless refugees" and aggressively pushing the so-called "right of return," the king hopes to strengthen his anti-Israel credentials with the increasingly Islamist Bedouins and to embarrass Jerusalem on the world stage. It is not inconceivable to envision a scenario where thousands of disenfranchised Palestinians find themselves stranded at the Israeli border, unable to enter or remain in Jordan. The international media—no friend of the Jewish state—would immediately jump into action, demonizing Israel and turning the scene into a fiasco meant to burden Jerusalem's conscience—and that of the West. The Hashemite regime would thereby come out triumphant, turning its own problem—being rejected and hated by the Palestinians—into Israel's problem.

...The desperate and destabilizing measures undertaken by the Hashemite regime to maintain its hold on power point to a need to revive the long-ignored solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict: the Jordanian option. With Jordan home to the largest percentage of Palestinians in the world, it is a more logical location for establishing Palestinian statehood than on another country's soil, i.e., Israel's.

There is, in fact, almost nothing un-Palestinian about Jordan except for the royal family. Despite decades of official imposition of a Bedouin image on the country, and even Bedouin accents on state television, the Palestinian identity is still the most dominant—to the point where the Jordanian capital, Amman, is the largest and most populated, Palestinian city anywhere. Palestinians view it as a symbol of their economic success and ability to excel. Moreover, empowering a Palestinian statehood for Jordan has a well-founded and legally accepted grounding: The minute the minimum level of democracy is applied to Jordan, the Palestinian majority would, by right, take over the political momentum.

Read the whole thing.

70 million Arabs in poverty, and a wild peace plan

Addustour reports on the Conference of Arab Social Affairs Ministers, held in Beirut on Saturday.

Among the statistics released is that the number of Arab citizens who live below the poverty line is between 65 and 73 million, and ten million Arabs are suffering from malnutrition.

According to statistics, the unemployment rate in Arab lands is at 20 percent and that the Arabs will need 51 million new jobs for young people by 2020. The Arab population is expected to increase to 645 million by 2050.

The number of illiterates of people 15 or older has grown to reach nearly 5.99 million people, according to UNESCO, and the illiteracy rate in the the Arab world is at 9.27 percent.

There is of course an easy way to help fix these problems:

Make peace with Israel.

Israeli experts would be thrilled to travel openly to Arab countries and work with them on economic, education and health issues, to create joint projects that would employ tens of thousands, to raise everyone's standard of living and to creatively come up with comprehensive solutions to regional issues. The benefits of a real, warm peace with Israel would be huge for all Arab countries.

And there would be another benefit.

If a few Gulf states would break with their Arab neighbors and embrace Israel as a fact, it would bring peace with the Palestinian Arabs that much closer. The intransigence of the Palestinian Arab leaders is based partially on the unwavering paper support from their Arab "brethren."

They would be far more likely to accept a peace plan if they felt that this support that Arab leaders have given them was in jeopardy.

Everyone would win.

Unfortunately, the Arab mentality is not win-win, but a zero-sum game. They believe that if Israelis want to do something, it must by definition be fought against. (Arab pride will not allow them to accept help from the hated Zionists anyway.)

So their people will continue to suffer. Hundreds of billions of petrodollars will remain in the hands of the rich Arabs and poverty will increase along with the high Arab birthrates.

And Arabs will continue to be fed the lie that Israel is the reason for all their problems.

And the funny thing is, even supposedly progressive, "pro-peace" liberals are not calling for Arab nations to unconditionally establish warm, peaceful relations with Israel, even though it would benefit the Arabs - and ultimately their Palestinians - so richly.

On the contrary, they want to keep them in an official state of war.

Ironic, isn't it?

London mosque hosts sheikh who calls to enslave Jewish women

Andrew Gilligan at The Telegraph reports than the East London Mosque hosted a radical sheikh to speak last week:

Sheikh Saad al-Beraik raised over a hundred million dollars to give to Palestinian Arab terror organizations in 2002.

He also has said:

Is it too dear to us that among our honorable beloved die as martyrs? Their death dates were written before their birth. That they die as martyrs. “Say even if were at your home, those who will die will walk to their death.”

Which is a better choice, to de on your bed, or to die perseverant, fighting, not retreating. Which is better to suffer long before death many days, or taste death quickly?

Which is better to suffer a slow death, or die as a martyr in your way to heaven. A death that you will be forgiven on the first drop of your blood.

When life became perishes we started to drink humiliation many times over.

Oh Palestinian Authority, don’t you see that you are tested once or twice a year? Then you don’t learned or repent.

Isn’t time yet to wage jihad, and call for holy war. Isn’t time that Muslim countries which normalized relations with the Jews to cancel everything that happened from Madrid to Oslo, and Why River, which forbids the supplying of weapons to Muslims in Palestine?

It’s a call to close all embassies opened for the Jews in the land of Islam; it is call to end normalization with Israel.

People should know that Jews are backed by the Christians, and the battle that we are going through is not with Jews only, but also with those who believe that Allah is a third in a Trinity, and those who said that Jesus is the son of Allah, and Allah is Jesus, the son of Mary.

I am against America until this life ends, until the Day of Judgment;

I am against America even if the stone liquefies

My hatred of America, if part of it was contained in the universe, it would collapse.

She is the root of all evils, and wickedness on earth.

Oh Muslim Ummah don’t take the Jews and Christians as allies.

Muslim Brothers in Palestine, do not have any mercy neither compassion on the Jews, their blood, their money, their flesh. Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don’t you enslave their women? Why don’t you wage jihad? Why don’t you pillage them?

He also refers to Jews as monkeys.

(h/t Ian)

Tunisian Jews publicly support Islamist government, privately nervous

From Al Arabiya:

Tunisia’s moderate Islamist Ennahda party said in a statement Saturday that Jews living in the North African country were citizens with “all their rights and duties.”

The party, which emerged as a dominant force in October elections, criticized an invitation last week by Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom for Tunisian Jews to settle in Israel.

“Tunisia remains, today and tomorrow, a democratic state that respects its citizens and looks after them regardless of their religion,” Ennahda said.

It added that “members of the Jewish community in Tunisia are citizens enjoying all their rights and duties.”

Silvan Shalom

Tunisian-born Shalom on Wednesday called on Jews living in the country “to settle in Israel as soon as possible,” speaking at a Jerusalem ceremony for Jewish Holocaust victims in Tunisia.

Tunisia is home to about 1,500 Jews, mostly on the island of Djerba.

Ennahda called Shalom's comments “irresponsible” and “irrational” and said “making this kind of statement at this particular time is very suspicious.”

The head of the Jewish community in Tunisia, Roger Bismuth, reportedly said that “all this fuss made around Silvan Shalom’s statements is a storm in a teacup and an attempt to undermine the process initiated by Tunisia after freeing itself from the yoke of dictatorship.”

“No foreign party has the right to interfere in Tunisia’s affairs, including those of the Jewish community living in this country for over 3,000 years,” he said, according to a report by the Tunisian news agency TAP.

He added that “the Jewish community loves Tunisia and does not consider leaving it,” the report said.

A report on reactions by Tunisia's Jewish community is interesting.

The owner of La Goulette’s Kosher restaurant, Mame Lilly, and former Constituent Assembly candidate Jacob Lellouche insisted that to him, Shalom’s comments were shallow. “Silvan can say whatever he wants. I am Tunisian, this is my country. I will stay here. Silvan can not tell me where to live.”

He added that the only fear he had of the Islamists currently in Tunisia’s government was that they would not succeed in improving Tunisia’s situation. “I fear for Islamists that god will turn against them,” he joked with a tint of sarcasm.

Avraham Chiche, is the director of the Jewish Old Age home in La Goulette. His family immigrated to Tunisia over 500 years ago from Spain during the Spanish inquisition. Chiche feels that Shalom’s comments have been political and he has no plans to leave Tunisia.

“Silvan Shalom needs to mind his own business and let us choose to live where we want to live, instead of making publicity statements for Israel,” said Chiche.

“We fear the small number of Salafists in Tunisia, but not Ennahda, the leadership of Ennahda came to us both before and after the election and assured us that our community will remain a vital part of Tunisian society while they are in government,” Chiche added.

But...

Others contacted in the Jewish community refrained from comment.

A Djerba based silversmith who asked not to be named, said that it was best for him not to respond to Shalom’s comments. Like many other Tunisians he is hoping that Tunisia’s democratic transition succeeds.

“It is best I not respond to Shalom because whatever I say can be misunderstood or distorted by people both here and in Israel. I obviously have not taken these calls seriously, they have been made by Shalom before. I prefer to be vigilant, and patient with this new government to see if the democratic transition will be successful instead of listening to the provocations of Shalom.”

The fact that no Jews are willing to express any reservations publicly speaks volumes about where the truth is.

It sounds like Jews of Tunisia are a lot more nervous than is being reported.

Unity! PA refuses to send passports for Gazans

Palestine Today reports that the PA has continued to refuse to send blank passports to Gaza.

The passports are necessary for Gazans to travel to other countries, especially Egypt.

The PA has withheld or drastically limited the passports for years. But in one of the agreements with Hamas for "unity," Mahmoud Abbas promised to rectify the situation, saying that a passport is "the inherent right of every Palestinian."

"Unity" has accomplished its main purpose: It stopped a possible revolt against Fatah and Hamas with false promises. And the two parties will continue to do whatever they can to maintain the status quo, and to save their own necks and positions of power.

The Palestinian Arab media is mostly aligned with one side or the other, so there are very few articles complaining that "unity" has been a sham. Instead there are articles blaming the others for the stalemate.

The 12th Arab Games are being held in Doha, Qatar this week - and they have caused some controversy.

During the opening ceremonies, when countries are announced, the TV feed shows a representation of a map of that country popping out in 3D from the globe.

"Palestine" showed only the West Bank and Gaza.

Here's the video:

Arabs are incensed at Qatar for allowing such a graphic to exist that does not obliterate the Jewish state.

(h/t/ CHA)

Palestine Today reports that Fatah and Hamas plan to hold a meeting in Cairo on December 18th.

According to the director of the Center for Palestine Studies in Cairo, Ibrahim Alderawi, there will be a following meeting on the 22nd where all Palestinian Arab leaders will talk about whether the PLO should be revamped.

He said "There is a consensus between Fatah and Hamas to continue the Fatah government headed by Salam Fayyad in the West Bank, and the Hamas government headed by Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip," until planned elections in May.

The invented people in the 19th century

Palestinian Arabs and their Israel-hating friends have been freaking out over Newt Gingrich's characterization of them as an "invented people."

One does not have to go far back in time to see that the different Arab communities of Palestine had nothing in common with each other, and in fact usually fought with each other.

From The New Werner Twentieth Century Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry on Palestine, 1907:

The Arab tribes transplanted to Palestine their old distinctions, especially that between Northern and Southern Arabs (Kais and Yemen; cf. Arabia). The Arab peasantry is still divided into clans; for example, the districts of the Beni Hasan and Beni Malik to the west of Jerusalem, those of the Beni Harith, Beni Zeid, and Beni Murrd to the north, and that of Beni Salim to the east. Till recently the relations of the separate clans of fellahin was one of mutual hostility, and, unhindered by the Turkish Government, they engaged in sanguinary conflicts. In manners and in language (though Arabic is universally in vogue) the Palestine peasants retain much that is ancient. It is extravagant, however, to maintain from the traditions they preserve that primeval Canaanite elements still exist among them. The prevalent type, in fact, is Syro-Arabic, or in many districts pure Arabic; and their superstitious customs are partly remains of Syrian beliefs, partly modern Arabic reproductions, under similar external conditions, of ancient superstitions. These remarks are applicable to the saint worship at present spread through the whole Oriental world. The fellahin are on the whole a diligent frugal race, not destitute of intelligence. If well treated by a just Government which would protect them from the extortions of the nomadic tribes, they would be the means, with the assistance of the capitalists, of greatly improving the cultivation of the country, especially in the various lowland districts. They choose their own village sheiks, who derive most of their authority from the reputation of their virtues, their bravery, and their liberality. The Bedouins, i.e., wandering tribes of pure Arab origin, also play an important part in the country. Till quite recently they used to visit certain settled districts and exact black-mail from the peasants; and they find their undisputed domain in those districts which are incapable of cultivation, and fit only for cattle rearing, and in other fertile portions which for various reasons are not occupied by the husbandman. To the first class belong the belt of desert to the west of the Dead Sea, the southernmost parts of the country west of Jordan and the south country beyond the river (Moab); to the second belong the greater portion of the maritime plain, the depression of the Jordan valley and part of the country to the east. The divisions of the Arab tribes will be discussed in the article Syria. In Palestine east of Jordan the Beni Sakhr (Moab) are of most importance; Jebel 'Ajlun is the seat of the 'Adwan. The Ghawarine (the inhabitants of the Ghor or Jordan depression) form a peculiar race which, as they are partly agricultural, have been a long time settled in the district. In type, as well as by their degeneracy, they are distinguished from the other Bedouins. The true Bedouin style of life can be studied only beyond the Jordan or to the south of Palestine—the tribes west of the river, such as the Ta'Smire and Jehalin in the south being all more or less deteriorated.

The Palestine Exploration Fund in 1884 researched the names of the tribes around Jerusalem and discovered something fascinating:

If, however, we turn to the map of Arabia in the days of Muhammed and of Omar, we find the following tribes represented :—
Beni 'Amir, a tribe of the Nejed near Yemana, or again south-east of Medina.
Beni Harith, a tribe of Yemen north-east of Sana.
Beni Murreh, both east of Medina, and south of the Jauf Oasis.
Beni Suleim, east of Medina.
Beni Malik, a division of the Beni Temim, who lived near Yemana.

It was with the aid of these and other tribes that the famous Khaled defeated the Romans on the Hieromax in 634 a.d. ; and under Omar they swept over Palestine soon after.

It seems therefore probable that in these local names we have a trace of Omar's Conquest of Syria, and that the hills of Judea and Samaria were regularly portioned out among his followers. The noble families of Jerusalem still claim to have "come over with the conqueror" at this time. We have thus only another instance of the survival in Syria of early Moslem divisions, and the division of the Keis and Yemeni factions, which dates back to the early days of Islam, is still hardly extinct, and is well remembered in Southern Palestine.

Other more recent scholars concurred - the tribes of Palestine were transplanted splinter tribes from various parts of Arabia and kept their names.

A later work called Syrian Stone-lore, or The Monumental History of Palestine also written for the Palestine Exploration Fund seems to have heavily borrowed from the above quote, but added:

In 1881 I heard related in Taiyibeh (see 'Memoirs,' vol. iii.) a long account of the contests of these factions, occurring in quite recent times. In Palestine the Eastern Arabs were the Yemini party, and the settled village population mainly the Keis party. This feud of Keis and Yemini, which arose when the Ommeiyah ruled Palestine, was a split between the Aramaic or North Arab tribes, who claimed descent from the Adites, and the Yemenites or South Arab tribes, who claimed descent from Himyar and from Kahtan. The two factions were, however, joined by various tribes from purely political motives, so that the division is not exactly one of race. In 64 A.h. Merwan had some tribes of South Arab origin on his side at the battle of Merj Rahif.

This is not controversial. The simple fact is that the Arabs of Palestine before 1900 identified fully with their tribes and villages and not at all with each other, and they had no more in common with each other as they had with their neighbors across the Jordan and in Syria.

Saying that they were a "people" is simply fiction. An argument can be made that they are a people today, mostly because of their shared suffering at the hands of their Arab brethren, but before the 20th century it is simply not true.