Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Freedom of expression, Palestinan Journalists Syndicate-style

A couple of days ago the New York Times has an adoring article about how Palestinian Arab journalists are paying a price for their desire to express themselves freely:

Yousef Shayeb, 37, a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah, published an article in a Jordanian newspaper this year charging officials at the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Paris with corruption and espionage. In an interview here last week, he said that he had imagined people might thank him for his exposé. Instead, he spent eight days in a Palestinian Authority jail.

Jamal Abu Raihan, a Palestinian blogger, has been in prison for three weeks, after he posted a satirical column lampooning the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as a donkey on a Facebook page he ran titled, “The people want an end to corruption.”

And in recent months, on the orders of the attorney general, the authorities have tried to block Palestinians’ access to a number of Web sites that officials said were supportive of Muhammad Dahlan, a onetime Gaza security chief and now a rival of Mr. Abbas.

As Palestinian journalists and activists, imbued with the spirit of the Arab Spring, become more daring and enamored with the possibilities of new media and social networking sites, the primary instinct of some in the Palestinian Authority has been to crack down.

But if you read past the initial paragraphs, you see something a little jarring:

Now Palestinian officials, journalists and bloggers are struggling to define the principles of freedom of expression and its boundaries, and to distinguish between legitimate criticism and defamation.

“We understand that we have a constructive power,” said Nabhan Khraishi, the communications officer for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, “and on the other hand we have a destructive power that can be a catastrophe.”

Isn't it a little unusual for a journalists' syndicate to talk about how their own people might be crossing the line into "defamation"? Usually they will argue for absolute (or nearly absolute) freedom of expression and let others advocate for limits on such freedoms.

Well, it turns out that the PJS is against freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. From JPost:

Any Palestinian journalists who meet with Israeli colleagues will be expelled from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in the West Bank, the group warned on Thursday.

The warning followed a meeting that took place last week between Israeli and Palestinian journalists on the occasion of World Free Press Day.

“We are opposed to such meetings because they are designed to achieve normalization with Israel,” said a senior member of the journalists syndicate in Ramallah. “Any member who meets with Israeli journalists will be fired.”

So in the end the leaders of the journalists themselves are the ones who are the most against freedom of expression! In fact, they are acting in ways that are indistinguishable from how the Arab dictators and despots they pretend to despise act.

Egyptian presidential race wide open

From Egypt Independent:

A poll on the popularity of presidential candidates conducted by the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), a think-tank associated with the Egyptian Cabinet, showed that Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh led the presidential field, although nearly 40 percent said they were undecided.

According to the poll, Abouel Fotouh’s 9 percent support was followed by Ahmed Shafiq who garnered 8 percent. Shafiq rose one rank as compared to a poll conducted by the IDSC in April.

The results of the poll, which was published Thursday said that Amr Moussa stood at 7 percent support, falling into third place. The Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsy came fourth with 4 percent, while Hamdeen Sabbahi was fifth with 2 percent.

The poll said that the 39 percent are yet to decide on a candidate, down from 42 percent in April. Eight percent of people, meanwhile, said they would not participate in the election and 6 percent refused to name their candidate.

Fotouh is a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and who has garnered support from both secularists and from Salafists.

Shafiq was the last prime minister under Mubarak, making his second place showing a bit surprising in a country trying to remove the "remnants" of the Mubarak regime.

Amr Moussa is the former secretary general of the Arab League and had been considered the front-runner.

With such a small percentage of people supporting even the leading candidates, and so many undecided, this election can go to anyone.

Some Hungarian anti-semitism (updated)

I received two items today about Hungary.

The first incident:

Actor József Székhelyi had been invited to perform as part of a cultural event in Eger, but the city council decided (after the posters and programmes had been printed) to un-invite him because, as one councilwoman put it, he is a "Liberal, stinking Jew".

In reaction:

Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor cancelled a planned visit to Eger to protest allegedly anti-Semitic remarks made against actor József Székhelyi by a Fidesz local councillor. Mor assured Székhelyi of his solidarity.

Mazsihisz and the Budapest Jewish Religious Community BZSH will hold an event to show solidarity with Székhelyi at Goldmark Hall near the Dohány utca synagogue in Budapest on Sunday evening.

And the second was this photo of a poster, supposedly widely visible throughput Hungary, showing an Aryan-like Hungarian shaking the money out of an evil Jew's pockets:

(h/t O. and JH as well as jzaik)

UPDATE: Commenter Ukridge, who is in Budapest, confirms the first story but says the second one is not true at all.

UPDATE 2: Simply Jews traces the poster story back to a Hungarian blogger who assures us that it is very real, and identifies where this poster was photographed.

Former Jerusalem mufti says "don't visit Jerusalem"

A wonderful example of the rigorous logic of Israel haters:

Former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Ekrima Sabri criticized a controversial visit by Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa to al-Aqsa Mosque, saying it was wrong both religiously and politically.

“On the religious level, one should not deal with, support, or recognize the enemy,” Sheikh Sabri said in an interview with Al Arabiya’s “Noqtat Nezam” (Point of Order), scheduled to be aired on Friday.

Defenders of Gomaa’s visit to Jerusalem have cited the Prophet Mohammed’s visit to Mecca while the city was under control of the tribe of Quraish , his enemy at the time.

But Sheikh Sabri rejected this comparison saying: “When Prophet Mohammed went to Mecca, it was not under occupation while Jerusalem is.”

Say what? The two sound pretty analogous to me - Muslim holy cities under control of their enemies.

But it gets better:

Sheikh Sabri said from a political perspective Gomaa’s visit implied the recognition of Israeli’s occupation.

“Recognition is a form of normalization because no one can enter Jerusalem without an Israeli visa or without proper coordination with the Israeli security forces.”

But if Muslim citizens of Europe or America visit Israel, their visit would not be considered as an act of “recognizing the occupation,” Sabri said.

“If German or French Muslims visit Jerusalem, this is not normalization since their countries already recognize Israel.

“Some Arab governments might not boycott Israel, but their people do and they reject normalization.”

So when Germany or France recognizes Israel, that means that German or French Muslims can visit Israel. But when Egypt and Jordan recognize Israel, it means that Egyptian or Jordanians cannot visit Israel, because somehow it is the people who decide that they do not want to recognize Israel.

Yet if people want to visit Jerusalem, they shouldn't be allowed to because, um, the other people don't want them to!

All of this is pretty much a very poor attempt to put a fig leaf of poor logic on top of what is, in effect, just plain hatred.

Jerusalem Grand Muftis come and they go, but they all seem to have that good old fashioned hatred in common.

Fatah member insults Hamas; says it supports Israel

Whenever Hamas and Fatah insult each other, it is to prove that the other side is more conciliatory and peaceful towards Israel (and, in contrast, how their side is adamantly against Israel and its policies.)

Which tells you all you need to know about how much they desire peace.

The latest comes from Fatah Revolutionary Council member Jamal Nazzal, who says that Hamas' positions are so close to Israel's that Hamas could become a member of Israel's unity government!

Excerpts:

What are the manifestations of the 'dispute' between Hamas and Israel? There are none. What are the axes of the field of conflict between Hamas and Israel? No axes of conflict. ... How many rockets are fired by Hamas to the occupation every day? Zero. How many Hamas leaders in the field are targeted by the occupation per month? Zero. What are the means Hamas uses to pressure Israel to halt settlements? None. What are the means Hamas uses to achieve the demands a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem? None. What is Hamas' program for the return of refugees? A dreamy call of Palestine from the river to the sea. What is the nature of Hamas programs for relief and care of refugees? None at all!

Hamas did not interfere in the recent war between Israel and Islamic Jihad. Therefore we can not say that there is a state of war taking place between Israel and Hamas, any more than we can talk about a state of war between Syria and Israel. Israel ended the field of engagement with Hamas for a truce in exchange for Israeli silence on the authority of Hamas in Gaza. This is the image: a truce for Hamas' authority. Hamas's commitment to the protection of borders and addressing the factions is a part of this agreement. Calm. Peace. These are the fundamental concepts of the relationship of Israel by Hamas.

...The real conflict is not between Hamas and its ally, the Israeli right. Both benefit from the current situation remaining unchanged, they hope for a thousand years.

The Fatah movement calls makes demands rejected by the Israeli right. Hamas refuses to reject the Israeli right!!

Fatah calls for an independent Palestinian state with its capital Jerusalem. Israel rejects this.

Fatah calls for the return of refugees and the removal of settlements Israeli. rejects this.

Hamas and the Israeli right reject the UN resolutions of international legitimacy and the Palestinian state and the idea of a negotiated solution! And they accept a temporary Palestinian state as a reality under the rule of Hamas to secure the occupation in Gaza now....

D. Jamal Nazzal
Member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah

In Arabic, you will not hear Fatah saying that Hamas rejects peace while Fatah strives for it - you will hear the opposite! Fatah tries to position itself as being more intransigent and less flexible in relation to Israel. They almost taunt Hamas to increase their militancy.

But to the idiots in the media, Fatah is still the "moderate" movement.

Iran freaks out over Google Maps

From Al Arabiya:

Google has -perhaps unknowingly- launched a new war in Gulf. The internet giant sparked a conflict with the Iranians last week when it dropped the name “Persian Gulf” from the body of water that separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula.

The waterway also touches Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain – the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that call it the “Arabian Gulf.”

Google also declined to call it “Arabian Gulf,” or even “the Gulf,” saying it would hurt their credibility and creditability.

The company instead decided, perhaps as the biggest landmark on its maps, to leave the 250,000 square kilometers (97, 000 square miles) body of water nameless .

Iran, previously known as Persia, did not approve of Google‘s decision and didn’t hesitate in launching a verbal attack.

In an interview the Islamic Republic’s official news agency Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Bahman Dorri said “Google fabricating lies... will not have any outcome but for its users to lose trust in the data the company provides.”

“The enemies cannot hide facts and evidence about the Persian Gulf,” Dorri said. “Documents in the U.N. and the UNESCO show the name of this body of water has always been ‘Persian Gulf’ since a long time ago.”

“The efforts of the (global) arrogance and its Arab allies to remove the name of the Persian Gulf will result in its name becoming more durable,” he added in a reference to the United States.

The controversy over the name of the Gulf goes back to the 1960s and has entangled everyone from the Asian Games to the Unites States Navy to National Geographic Magazine.

Today, the United Nations refers to it as the “Persian Gulf”, as does the UK and the U.S., although the U.S. Navy, which has extensive dealings with Arab Gulf states, mostly uses ‘Arabian Gulf.’

In 2004, National Geographic published a world atlas that, while acknowledging the waterway’s primary name as the “Persian Gulf” added “Arabian Gulf” in brackets. Tehran responded by banning the American-owned magazine and its reporters from Iran.

When a country is so emotionally invested in how people name an adjacent body of water to the point of creating an international incident every time someone uses a different name, it is not exactly an indication of a mature and reliable member of the family of nations.

Here's the funny part: If you do a search of "Persian Gulf" in Google Maps, you do end up inside the Gulf. If you type in "Arabian Gulf" you will not, and Google would guess that you are referring to various Arab companies with that name.

Stumbling onto an Elder (open thread)

This week I took a scenic boat ride along part of the Intercoastal Waterway and saw many very expensive houses and mansions.

(Part of) one of them looked like this:

Besides the prominent Israeli flag, the boat moored at the house is named "Mitz-Sea-Ah," in Chinese-style lettering.

Even with this person's unseemly love of bad puns, it is clear that the owner of this house is an Elder in good standing.

Don't forget that you have a chance to stumble onto not just any Elder on May 21st in New York City.

Biased Reuters article on UNRWA filled with lies

Decades of Palestinian Arab lies are all taken as fact in this incredibly biased article by Noah Browning of Reuters.

For example:

Three generations of Palestinians displaced by the founding of Israel in 1948 know only life in UN refugee camps, going to schools beneath the blue-and-white UN flag and drawing their food stocks from UN warehouses.

The exodus of Arabs pre-dates the founding of Israel by six months, and certainly the first couple of hundred thousand left on their own, as they were mostly the richer ones who left the same way they left during the 1936-9 Arab riots. In other words, they wanted to avoid a conflict started by their fellow Arabs to kill Jews.

For these Palestinians whose long-cherished goal is the right of return to the lands they lost 64 years ago, the camps must be seen as temporary no matter how permanent they might seem to others.

This article seems to be only about those in camps in Palestinian Arab territory - which are, of course, in Palestine.

It is their leaders who "insist" on forcing the people into these "temporary," horrible camps, not the residents themselves. I don't see any residents who insisted to remain in tents in the 1950s when given the chance to move to concrete housing. The residents were - and are- used as pawns, but the lies are swallowed by Reuters.

Which explains why the latest program by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, to upgrade the camps' dilapidated facilities is such a delicate operation.

The article could have - and should have - focused on the hypocrisy of the "leaders" who insist on keeping these people in camps rather than allowing them to move on and become productive citizens of territories that they already claim as their own.

Some 700,000 people fled or were driven from their homes when Israel was created after the 1948 war, but now as many as five million refugees and their descendants live in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, many of them in squalid camps.

The vast majority were not "driven" from their homes and about half left before Israel was created, all of them before or during - not after - the war. The number who live in camps is actually about one third of those in the five countries UNRWA operates in.

Founded in 1949, UNRWA is almost as old as the UN itself. Given that prospects for a resolution to Israel's disputes in the Middle East continue to be dismal, it appears to have a long future ahead.

UNRWA's existence is not at all dependent on Israel or its "disputes." It should have disappeared in the 1950s and it almost lost its funding a few times in its first couple of decades. This article implicitly blames Israel for the existence of these so-called" refugees" and doesn't say a word about how most Arab countries refuse to give citizenship to Palestinian Arabs who desire to live in their host countries - even though Arab League countries allow naturalization of every other Arab.

The fate of refugees clinging to the right of return has been one of the toughest issues facing negotiators in two decades of on-off talks aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel says the demand for a right to return is a deal breaker in any peace accord, arguing that allowing the refugees into Israel would increase the proportion of Palestinians living within its borders and thus undermine its nature as a Jewish state.

It also disputes the legal basis of the right of return set out in a UN resolution of December 1948 and says the world has not taken into account the plight of Jews forced from their homes across the Arab world in the last 65 years.

The text here takes as a given that UNGA 194 gives the "right of return" when in fact the word "right" was deliberately and consciously taken out of the text of the resolution itself. In other words, this "right" is fictional. Reuters is saying that the "right" exists and only Israel's interpretation is wrong.

In fact, the UN itself wrote an exhaustive analysis on how to interpret UNGA 194 in 1950, proving that there is no such blanket "right to return."

"194, 242, 338," student Alaa al-Homuz rattles in staccato, naming UN Security Council resolutions dealing with Palestinian refugees which he is studying in a class on international law.

194 was not a Security Council resolution. UNSC 338 merely refers to 242, which vaguely requires a "just settlement to the refugee problem" without using the word "Palestinian;" in context it might be referring to those displaced as a result of the 1967 war.

There's lots more incredible bias and outright lies in this article, and the sad part is that the lies are so embedded in the narrative of lies pushed by the Arabs that most Westerners don't recognize the lies any more.

The Canadian madrassa that teaches hate of Jews

From The National Post:

Police are investigating a complaint about a Toronto Muslim school whose curriculum tells boys to exercise so they are “ready for jihad,” refers to “treacherous Jews” and contrasts Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”

“Yes, I can confirm for you that a complaint has been made and our Hate Crimes Unit is investigating,” Acting Sergeant Rebecca Boyd, a York Region Police spokeswoman, told the National Post on Monday.

“However, they are in the early stages of the investigation,” she added. The complaint was made by the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which found the material on the website of the East End Madrassah.

The Islamic school operates out of David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute, a public high school in Toronto. But the complaint was made to police in York because the Islamic school’s mailing address is in that region.

“We are looking into it,” said Masuma Jessa, principal of the East End Madrassah. She said the curriculum document in question had been removed from the school’s website. Later on Monday, the entire school website went offline.

...Ms. Jessa said the complaint about the material was made on Thursday. “We told them that we took the book off the website and yesterday [Sunday] we had a meeting and we looked at it and we are correcting it,” she said. “It was an error.”

Some error!

I found a copy of the same curriculum online at another Islamic site. One booklet is called "Prophet Muhammad [s] A Brief Biography." Here are some excerpts:

Scattered here and there across West Asia and North Africa were colonies of Jews, to whom several outstanding Messengers had been sent by the Almighty. But these divine favours had failed to reform the crime hardened Jews, whose very name had become synonymous for treachery. They had long deviated from the commandments of Allah, distorting the laws brought by Prophet Moses [a], tampering with divine scriptures, slaying prophets and in the end coining the chauvinist creed called Judaism. It was more a racial sedition rather than a set of beliefs and the Israelites' vehement opposition to the last great reformer, Prophet Jesus Christ [a], was still fresh in the minds of the people.

End of Jewish Plots and Treacheries

Ever since the Prophet's entry into Madina, the treacherous Jews had vehemently opposed him and his Islamic call, evoking memories of their hostility to the previous Prophet, Jesus Christ (a), half a millennium ago. The crafty Jews entered into an alliance with the polytheist Quraish in a bid to stamp out Islam. They conspired to kill Prophet Muhammad [s] despite the fact that he was lenient towards them and had treated them kindly, hoping to convince them of Islam's truth. But eventually as Jewish plots and aggressions increased, he had no choice other than to take up arms against them, in order to protect Islam and the Muslims. At the battle of Khaiber which is famous for Imam Ali's [a] heroic exploits, the Prophet defeated them ending Jewish intrigues and conspiracies in Arabia.

The Jews flaunting their sacred books used to mock the pagan Arabs, saying that soon a Prophet will emerge in Arabia and come to Yathrib and will put an end to their wicked ways.

But strangely enough when Prophet Muhammad [s] did finally proclaim his Prophethood and emigrate to Yathrib, it were the Arab tribes of Aws and Khazraj who renounced idolatry and accepted Islam, while the chauvinistic Jews, whose forefathers had come to Arabia, for this very occasion, rejected the Prophet. Their pretext was he was an Arab descended from Prophet Abraham's [a] elder son Ishmael [a], rather than Isaac [a] and therefore unacceptable to the racist Jews.

Another booklet that was on the site is

A Glance at the Life of the Holy Prophet of Islam, by Dar Rah Haqq's Board of Writers
Published by:
Mostazafan Foundation of New York
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
ISBN 0-922817-01-4

It says:

Before Islam emerged, the Jews had changed the religion of Moses into hidebound dogma and its principles into hollow, lifeless rules and precepts.

Unlike the beliefs of the ancient Romans, the Jews, and the Nazis, Islam is not restricted to a certain community or a certain race, but is for all human beings and aims at human prosperity and salvation.

The combatants of Islam do not intend to gain control of a land or overthrow an oppressive rule to replace it with a similar rule through jihad. Rather, jihad is a pure humanitarian struggle fulfilled in God's way and for human evolution and the rescue of the oppressed people. This struggle culminates in the elimination of all sedition and in the establishment of peace and prosperity.

There were probably other books from this site on the madrassa's page.

But the madrassa apologized, so everything must be just great again.

UNRWA closed by protesters in West Bank

Dozens of protesters closed off UNRWA headquarters in Ramallah because of the latest terrible thing UNRWA did.

Did it pay low salaries? Did it stop terrorists from joining? Did it say it was going to teach about the Holocaust?

No, this protest was different than previous ones.

This protest was because UNRWA did not voice public support for the terrorists and suspected terrorists who are participating in a hunger strike against Israel.

Yes, in a Palestinian Arab state, if you would not publicly support the current trends, you are considedred an enemy - and treated as such.

It is unclear what services were disrupted because of this protest, but no doubt it was well worth it.

Wednesday links (Ian)

Marx: Jews Were Majority In Jerusalem

[Jerusalem’s] sedentary population numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans [Muslims] and 8,000 Jews . . . the Mussulmans, forming about a quarter of the whole, consisting of Turks, Arabs, and Moors, are, of course, the masters in every respect

Honest Reporting - BBC Or Norman Finkelstein: Who is More Despicable?

Also, note the use of the term “Jewish lobby.” Not the “Israel lobby” as has been used, most notably by Walt and Mearsheimer in their discredited thesis. What does the BBC base its statement on? Such criticism of American presidents has come from a particular anti-Israel strain and is certainly not a universally accepted mantra.

Shatter accuses Palestine group of cyberbullying
Justice Minister hits out after 'avalanche of venom' forces band to cancel tour of Israel

Anyway J.Lo is much nicer to look at than scruffy Irishmen.
Jennifer Lopez schedules a Tel Aviv concert for late 2012!

Obama Accepts Big Money From Israel-Hater
Team Obama includes a self-identified “Muslim Palestinian-American” campaign fundraiser who has a history of blasting Israel in highly charged letters and newspaper articles about the Middle East conflict.

Hala Hijazi, a Jordanian native and current San Francisco city employee, has personally secured between $100,000 to $200,000 for Obama’s reelection effort, according to Federal Election Committee filings.

She also has gone on record accusing Israel of war crimes while castigating America for providing the Jewish state critical military aid—a long-term investment that has bolstered U.S. security interests.

The battle for America
Special: Israeli, Jewish students fighting back as hostility grows on leading campuses in America

'Lost Airmen of Buchenwald' - Honoring Pilots Who Survived Imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp

By the Numbers: Jodi Rudoren's Palestinian Prisoner Article

What the Guardian won’t report: Palestinians continue to laud Itamar Massacre terrorists

Hamas urges French President-elect Hollande to visit Gaza

Also:
With Help of a ‘Bionic’ Suit, Paralyzed Woman Finishes London Marathon
Israel's ReWalk technology, of course. (h/t Elias)

How the PA fooled the West on Jenin (Toameh)

From Khaled Abu Toameh at the Gatestone Institute:

The Palestinian Authority has been boasting over the past four years of its success in restoring law and order to the West Bank city of Jenin.

Journalists from all around the world were invited to Jenin, once notorious for dispatching suicide bombers to Israel, to report on the Palestinian government's successful efforts.

Palestinian leaders and government officials told the journalists how their security forces have managed to end the state of chaos and lawlessness that used to prevail in Jenin.

They talked about how Fatah gangsters and thugs who used to roam the streets, imposing an atmosphere of intimidation and terror on the population, have vanished.

Most of the gangsters, the Palestinian government officials noted, had been recruited to various branches of the Western-funded Palestinian security forces and were indirectly receiving salaries from American and European taxpayers' money.

But while the international, and Israeli, media were breaking the "good news" about Jenin, the journalists failed to understand what was really going on in Jenin and its surrounding villages. Some journalists, in fact, chose to turn a blind eye to the grim reality on the ground.

The murder of Israeli Arab actor and film producer Julian Mar-Khamis in Jenin last year should have sounded an alarm bell among the media representatives. His killers have never been caught, sparking a wave of unconfirmed reports about the involvement of influential Fatah gangsters and Palestinian security officers in the case.

A Western journalist who wanted to do an investigative report into the case was warned by senior Palestinian security officers that she would be putting her life at risk if she insisted on carrying out this mission.

Last week, the truth about the situation in Jenin finally exploded in the faces of everyone: the local governor died of a fatal heart attack following an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

For the Palestinian Authority leadership, the assassination attempt was what lifted the veil: Palestinian leaders in Ramallah realized that they could no longer continue to hide the truth about what was really happening in Jenin.

Palestinian security forces have since arrested dozens of Fatah "outlaws" and police officers for various crimes -- including murder, extortion, abductions, sexual harassment and armed robberies.

Radi Asideh, the security commander of the Jenin area, admitted that it was the Palestinian security establishment that was responsible for the anarchy and lawlessness. "There is a defect inside the security establishment and officers were responsible for this," he revealed.

[I]n most cases it is the Palestinian Authority's security forces that are responsible for the chaos and corruption.

If the Western journalists and donors continue to ignore the reality on the ground, the West Bank could soon fall into the hands of gangsters and armed clans, as has been the case in Jenin -- among the main reasons the Palestinian Authority collapsed in the Gaza Strip in 2007, speeding the rise of Hamas to power.

The PA security forces are corrupt? The ones trained by the US? Say it ain't so!

"Israel spreads AIDS and heroin in Egypt"

Great stuff from MEMRI:

This has it all - the Protocols, Zionist heroin, and naked Israeli girls purposefully spreading AIDS among Egyptian youth (hijacking an old urban legend, no less.)

Not bad for a one-minute clip!

Erdogan on Turkey: “One nation, one state, one flag and one religion.”

From Hurriyet:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks on “one religion” for Turkey were a slip of the tongue in his apparent intention to emphasize the common Muslim faith of Turks and Kurds, a senior official of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has said. Erdoğan’s controversial comments had sparked concerns that he was targeting the secular system with his statements.

Erdoğan made the controversial remarks in two separate speeches over the weekend as part of comments on the Kurdish conflict. Addressing Kurds, he said that he had never advocated one language for Turkey but “one nation, one state, one flag and one religion.”

“Democratic and secular countries cannot have one religion. Our attitude towards [non-Muslim] minorities is evident. As someone who has known the prime minister for years, I can say that this was a slip of the tongue,” AKP deputy chairman Hüseyin Çelik told daily Radikal, stressing that the party’s statute rejected “ethnic, religious and regional nationalism.”

Sure - a slip of the tongue. Twice.

(h/t Simone)

The Palestinian Arab addiction to headlines

Whining from Salam Fayyad:

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Tuesday the Palestinians may have "lost the argument" on the international stage for an independent state but cautioned that continued Israeli occupation was unsustainable.

Arab unrest, the US presidential elections and financial crises in Europe had combined to knock the Palestinian issue off the global agenda more than 18 months after peace talks with Israel broke down in a dispute over settlement building.

"What is the biggest obstacle we face? The state of marginalization. It is unprecedented," he said. "The Israelis have managed to successfully trivialize our side of the argument," he added, alluding to the Palestinian demands for a halt to settlement building before negotiations can resume.

Palestinian Arabs are obsessed to feeling relevant, and they childishly equate world headlines with relevance.

This is why they did the UN stunt last year. That's why there are constant calls to boycott Israel. That is why they're obsessed with publicizing the current hunger strikes of prisoners - the vast majority of whom have been convicted of serious terror attacks. And that's why they are hoping that one or more of the prisoners die.

They are addicted to headlines.

It is very telling that Fayyad - the most moderate of the moderates, the only Palestinian Arab leader who is untouched by a history of terrorism - buys into this childish need for attention as a critical tactic.

Although they will still mouth support for it, the Arab world is sick of the Palestinian issue. Compared to what is going on in Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia and elsewhere, the fact is that the Palestinians are literally irrelevant in the Arab world. And to the world at large, the PalArabs are even less important.

The fact is that, consciously or not, the world community knows that Israel does support a two-state solution. Politicians know that it is Palestinian Arab obstinacy and unwillingness to compromise that is holding up a real solution. They know that the 1% or 2% difference between what Israel offered and what the Palestinian Arabs insist on is not worth obsessing over - the PalArabs could have a state if they want one but instead they insist on a nebulous idea of "justice" where they are the sole judges.

That is why they lost world sympathy. That is why they lost the front pages. And that is why they are itching (or constantly "warning") of a new intifada - because rather than attacking the real issues, they would rather feel relevant and hope that their headlines will pressure Western powers to pressure Israel to make yet more concessions on top of concessions they have been making for peace for decades.

It is not Israel that trivialized their side of the argument. Their argument has been trivial from the start. It is the Palestinian Arabs who have been trying to inflate this trivial argument into a world crisis by relying on publicity stunts, year after year.