Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 16, 2005

Abbas again shows his leadership skills

Palestinian militants punched a new hole in a border wall between Gaza and Egypt on Thursday and hundreds of civilians streamed across, defying efforts by official to plug gaps in the frontier, witnesses said.

Palestinian police stood by as about 50 gunmen from Hamas and the Palestinian Resistance Committees rammed a dump truck into the cement wall, knocking down several large slabs.
...
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, visiting the southern border town of Rafah, said he gave security forces orders to prevent further border infiltrations.

'I have given them instructions to prevent violations whatever they are,' he said.

Meanwhile...

Mahmoud az-Zahar, the most prominent political leader of Hamas, admits openly that al- Qaeda is putting down roots in Gaza. ((Il Corriere della Sera-Italian, 13Sep05), quoted by Daily Alert)

It is interesting to watch the world leaders and press in denial, still regarding Abbas and something other than a joke, pouring money into the PA black hole and pretending that Abbas actually has any influence over Gaza.

And there were some encouraging words from Egypt:

Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed Assem Ibrahim assured Israel that the situation on the border would be addressed and law and order restored. When asked about the weapons-smuggling tunnels, Ibrahim said, "you can be sure that people do not need to smuggle weapons into Gaza, there are enough there already."

No worries, mon!

Pragmatism from Pakistan

An interesting editorial from Karachi.

By Irfan Husain

A year or two ago, I had made the point that recognition of a state is not a badge for good behaviour. Rather, it is an acknowledgement of a reality. The truth is that there are a lot of very unpleasant countries out there, and if we only talked to states we liked, our cost on foreign missions could be reduced substantially. Frankly, if recognition were to be conferred on the basis of civilised behaviour, Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave would be far less crowded.

Currently, our official position is that we would recognise Israel when it vacates the West Bank and a Palestinian state comes into being. But what kept us from normalising ties with the Jewish state between 1948 and 1967, the year in which it occupied Gaza and the West Bank? For nearly 20 years, we referred to Israel as "the illegal Zionist entity," although it came into being with the blessings of the United Nations.

Granted, there were many horrors associated with the birth of Israel, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are still suffering as a direct result. Their plight is largely responsible for the anger and bitterness that have radicalised two generations of Muslims. But the creation of Pakistan was not exactly pain-free: at Partition, nearly 40 per cent of Sindh’s population comprised Hindus.

How many remain today? Today, Hindus from Sindh are scattered around the world, often doing remarkably well, but even their children talk nostalgically of Hyderabad and Karachi. For their sake, I am glad they have not witnessed the sad state these cities have been reduced to.

Population transfers are messy, painful events, and from the comfort of hindsight and physical distance, one can afford to be philosophical about such matters. Certainly millions of Palestinians have every right to feel cheated, abused and oppressed. But time moves on. Individuals can rail against the injustices of the world, but states and governments have to deal with realities as they exist at a given time.

The fact is that for nearly two decades, we refused to recognise Israel because Arab countries had decided not to. And yet Turkey, another non-Arab Muslim country, opened diplomatic ties with the Jewish state soon after its creation because it perceived that it was in its interest to do so. We have denied ourselves the benefits of enlightened self-interest because of our fuzzy notions of the ummah, that nebulous, ill-defined and incoherent Islamic brotherhood that supposedly cuts across man-made state borders.

The reality is very different. Never were a people more divided than Muslims are today. Indeed, more Muslims have been killed by their fellow Muslims than from any other cause. By and large, Arab countries have generally acted in their own interest without caring what the "ummah" might think. Thus, Egypt and Jordan opened diplomatic relations with Israel when it suited them. Other Middle Eastern states trade and talk with Israel all the time. Israeli tourists flock to Morocco and other destinations in the Maghreb.

Even Pakistan’s leaders have been pragmatic when they needed to be. One of the minor revelations in the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report is the fact that during the disastrous 1971 war, when Yahya Khan asked Nixon for military assistance, he was told that the quickest way would be for him to accept Israeli Skyhawk fighter bombers. Desperate, Yahya Khan accepted the offer. However, the war was over far too quickly for the planes to arrive.

During the Afghan war, the CIA bought Soviet arms captured by Israel in its various wars with Arab armies, and transferred them to Pakistan for onward supply to the mujahideen. This was obviously done with Zia’s blessings, and yet he was the grand patron of the religious parties. None of the MMA leaders, today trying to make political capital out of the Kasuri-Shalom meeting in Istanbul, uttered a squeak then.

When the mullahs pretended such rage over President Musharraf’s initiative, they found it difficult to rally many people behind them. Their demonstrations were more pro-forma than passionate. The truth is that for most people, this is a non-issue. Even the poor, illiterate silent majority realise that Israel is a reality that has come to stay, whether Pakistan recognises it or not. Hence their indifference to the religious right’s ineffectual protests.

At the end of the day, we cannot forever subordinate our policies to suit other nations. The fact is that we have no territorial dispute with Israel. Diplomatically and strategically, we ignore its existence to our peril. Foreign policy should be conducted on the basis of cold calculation and pragmatism, and not be motivated by idealism and ideology.

Arab countries should make a gesture towards Israel after its withdrawal from Gaza by talking with their Middle East neighbour to chart a future for the region, Qatar's foreign minister has said.

'Arab countries must take a step towards Israel through an international meeting or a meeting between Arab states and Israel and the co-sponsors of peace, particularly the United States, in an attempt to come up with a clear vision to the period after Gaza,' Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani said in a speech on Wednesday at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Praising the Israeli pullout after 37 years of occupation in Gaza, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim said Arab countries should respond, stressing that 'it is very important that there be a clear vision after this step'.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim said the Gaza pullout could bring normalisation of relations with Israel to prominence, but he acknowledged the issue remains 'controversial' in the Arab and the Islamic worlds.

This is interesting. The Pakistani overtures strike me as being just a cynical attempt to gain favor from the US, but this sounds like he really means it.

My guess is that there will be some sort of temporary "peace dividend" from the Gaza withdrawal, but it will disappear pretty quickly as the Arabs retrench and start amplifying their next set of never-ending demands from Israel.

Leonard Nimoy on drugs

This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this blog, but I just saw this video and it has got to be proof that Nixon spiked the US water supply with acid around 1969. Shatner's song stylings don't seem quite so embarrassing next to this.

Israel's military has assessed that Palestinian weapons smuggling from neighboring Egypt has significantly increased since the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Military sources said hundreds of weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank rockets and bomb components, have been smuggled over the last three days from the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip. The sources said Palestinian insurgents brought the equipment from Egypt in wake of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

So far, more than 10,000 Palestinians have crossed the Gaza border and made their way to towns in eastern and northern Sinai. The sources said they included hundreds of operatives from Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, some of whom directed the flow of Palestinians into Sinai.

'In the first moments of Israel's abandoning of Gaza they smuggled weapons,' Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz said. 'The ink on the agreement has not even dried and the Philadelphi route [Egyptian-Gaza border] is being used for massive weapons smuggling.'"

More details:

Black-market prices for weapons dropped sharply, with AK-47 assault rifles nearly cut in half to $1,300 and even steeper reductions for handguns.

News of the smuggling came as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas tried to impose order after the Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza this week. Militant groups scoffed at a new Palestinian Authority demand that they disband after parliamentary elections in January, saying they would not surrender weapons.

Egypt had assured Israel it would prevent weapons smuggling once its troops took over from Israel along the Gaza frontier, and Cairo and the Palestinian Authority pledged to seal the once-heavily defended border by Wednesday evening.

And more:

Hundreds of people continued to cross the border between Gaza and Egypt unhindered on Thursday despite efforts by police on both sides of the frontier to assert control.

Around 30 Palestinian police and 20 Egyptian border guards took up positions at dawn on the main road straddling the border, previously blocked by a mound of earth, but just hours later they failed to stop a group of Palestinians.

Children in school uniform, men and women also crossed the border as Palestinian police were preparing tea a short distance away.

An AFP correspondent was also allowed to cross the border through a hole in the border wall before returning minutes later.

"We have stopped the flow and we are bringing the situation under control now," a senior Egyptian security official in the area told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Overnight, unidentified people blew a second hole through a concrete wall by Israel on the border, allowing people to cross easily.

Egyptian authorities in Rafah on Wednesday urged Palestinians who had entered Egypt illegally to return to Gaza.

More Muslim respect for holy places

Palestinians placed a pipe bomb near Rachel's Tomb, south of Jerusalem. No injuries or damages were reported. IDF troops found a second bomb nearby and blew it up in a controlled manner.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Abbas:

'We are not going to tolerate chaos after today.'

Abbas to disarm "resistance groups":

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas plans to disarm resistance fighters in the near future, beginning with his own Fatah group's armed wing, a top Abbas aide has said. Although the aide, Rafiq Husseini, provided no timetable, it was the first indication that Abbas would begin to deal with the issue.

Abbas addresses the Palestinian Arabs:

“After today, we are not going to hesitate to put an end to all the negative signs and violations of law and order.”

Abbas has said that after January 25 parliamentary elections, which Hamas plans to contest for the first time, the group would no longer need weapons.

There is one thing Abbas is ready for today, however - for Israel to give in to more demands:

Abbas Ready to ‘Engage Immediately’ in Final Status Negotiations

Victimology

This excellent article by Omni Ceren about how the press blames Israel for Palestinian crimes is a springboard to a topic I have touched on before.

Whenever otherwise reasonable people speak about the problems between Israelis and Palestinians they have unspoken assumptions that are, quite frankly, bigoted - against Palestinians.

For example, just try to suggest to a politician or editorial board writer that Jews should live as free citizens in a Palestinian state the same way Arabs live freely in a Jewish state. Such a thing is, of course unthinkable, but the reason it is unthinkable is because everyone knows, liberal and conservative alike, that Palestinians would murder Jews who live in their midst. Things would go back to the way they were in the 1930s as I have documented in my many Palestine Post-ings articles.

A similar thing happened this week. Everyone knew that Palestinians would destroy the synagogues as soon as they could. It didn't enter anyone's mind that Palestinians could possibly practice self-restraint, or even that Palestinian "policemen" would be able to stop the mob (or themselves) from their celebration of the destruction of Jewish symbols.

In other words, it is simply not fathomable to anyone that Palestinians would act like mature human beings, even when it is in their own self-interest. This is the subtext of all discussions about the feasibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, whether it is stated explicitly or not (and usually it is not.)

Because the fact that Palestinians will act without restraint is so obvious, liberals clearly believe it as well. But since such a worldview is so abhorrent to "enlightened" minds they must find a way to live with such bigotry and yet explain it to make it palatable. Hence the ideas of victimology gain currency - that the reason "oppressed people" act like animals is the fault of the perceived "oppressors." Never mind that many truly oppressed people never start acting like animals - facts are not important when they reveal inconvenient truths.

From here it is only a short stroll to justifying suicide bombings, desecrations of holy sites, and really any crime that can be thought of. Since the victims are no longer responsible for their actions, according to the advocates of victimology, anything they do is no more their fault than a rabid dog biting someone. That the supposed champions of Palestinian Arab rights think of their pets as animals is ironic, but as long as they can blame the oppressors it is somewhat more palatable.

So we are left with a situation where one side is expected to act like adults, one side is expected to be able to make concessions, one side is expected to be able to be empathetic with the enemy - but no such expectations exist for the other side.

A good definition of an adult is someone who takes responsibility for his own actions. The way to raise a child to become an adult is to teach him responsibility. One who never has learned responsibility is destined to stay immature. And the cult of victimology imposed by the West is the reason that so many Palestinian Arabs feel they can act in the most depraved manner without any fear of consequences.

The day that the West looks at the orgy of looting and destruction that accompanied Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and gets sickened by it is the first day on the track towards Palestinian Arab maturity, and a possibility for real peace between real partners. Until that happens, while the Palestinian Arabs are expected and allowed and encouraged to act like animals, the idea of a true peace between Jews and Palestinian Arabs is just a joke.

Rich history of synagogue desecration by Arabs

This week's gleeful destruction of Gaza synagogues by Palestinians is a continuation of a long tradition of synagogue destruction, and attempted destructions, throughout time. Just in the decades of the 30s and 40s shows a large number of outrages committed by Arabs towards Jewish places of worship, both in Palestine and in surrounding Arab nations.

The justifications given by Arabs and their apologists are strikingly familiar.

In 1936, Tiberias' Jews were under siege from their Arab neighbors, and their shuls were targets as well: (All articles from the Palestine Post):

The situation did not improve, and things got violent again in 1939:

In case you may be wondering whether this was not a deliberate act, the British House of Commons were alarmed enough to address this issue the week after. It is very clear that these are terror attacks against Jews.

But the problem was hardly localized in Tiberias. Here is an account of a synagogue bombing in Jerusalem in 1938.

In Haifa, another synagogue was destroyed, in the wake of Jewish flight from Arab terrorism earlier in 1938:

This was not a localized problem in Palestine. Cairo Jews were victims of two attempted synagogue bombings in 1939, a few days after the Tiberias incidents:

And these were immediately followed by two bombs in Beirut:

World War II brought an apparent respite from synagogue attacks by Arabs - they seem to have left that job up to the Nazis for the war years. But the Arabs learned a lot from the Nazis, as their attacks against Jews intensified and mimicked the Nazi destruction during the Holocaust. This remarkable article shows the details of anti-Jewish riots in Cairo in 1945, including the joy throughout the Arab world at the killing and destruction and the bizarre justification by the Muslim terrorists who were behind it (click for larger image):

As the UN Partition plan was getting approved, the Arab hate for all things Jewish intensified. In Syria, an Arab mob destroyed a celebrated ancient synagogue, along with a priceless manuscript of the Hebrew Bible that scholars have used as a standard reference text.

Not only Aleppo but also synagogues and Jewish communities in Kuwait, Derna and Aden were attacked:

During the 1948 war, the famous Hurva synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem was destroyed in a very public and symbolic manner by the Jordanians.

But that was only the first - in the end, all vestiges of Jewish life in Jerusalem were utterly obliterated by the bloodthirsty and hateful Arab terrorists.

Finally, after the war ended, the Arab hatred of everything remotely connected to Judaism did not end. Back in Damascus, a synagogue bombing killed 11 Jews. The Syrian government appeared to be displeased at this massacre - not so much because of the dead Jews or destroyed synagogue, but because it could have affected the truce talks between Israel and her neighbors.

Then as now, morality never seems to enter the picture when Arabs speak out against terror.

"Palestinian police on Tuesday blocked off abandoned settlements and chased after scavengers in a first attempt to impose law and order after chaotic celebrations of Israel's pullout from Gaza, but the overwhelmed forces were unable to halt looting of the area's prized greenhouses.

The greenhouses, left behind by Israel as part of a deal brokered by international mediators, are a centerpiece of Palestinian plans for rebuilding Gaza after 38 years of Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority hopes the high-tech greenhouses will provide jobs and export income for Gaza's shattered economy.

During a tour of Neveh Dekalim, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei implored Palestinians to leave the structures intact, even as people scavenged through debris elsewhere in the settlement.

"These greenhouses are for the Palestinian people," he said. "We don't want anyone to touch or harm anything that can be useful for our people."

Just minutes away, crowds of looters in the Gadid settlement overwhelmed hundreds of guards trying to protect the greenhouses. Guards acknowledged that in many cases, they were unable to stop the looting.

"They are taking plastic sheeting, they are taking hoses, they are taking anything they can get their hands on," said Hamza Judeh, a Palestinian policeman.

If casinos in Vegas and London would accept the bets, you could make a fortune wagering that Palestinian Arabs will always do something counterproductive for their future. It is a sure thing.

"Burning synagogue lights Gaza dawn" - Fawning coverage over destruction of holy sites

This was how The Age of Australia described the burning of a synagogue. Completely fawning coverage, sprinkled with obvious lies, all while lionizing looters, rioters and arsonists:

In the first grey light before the dawn Ahmed Talalka was already exhausted. The unemployed 20-year-old sprawled by a path in what, until hours before, had been the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, an Israeli enclave inserted hard against the southern outskirts of Gaza City.

"When I got here it was 12.30 and already there was no one, so we went straight to the synagogue and set it on fire," he said.

"It was an illegal building on our land. The Israeli Jews don't respect anyone's religion but their own. I am very happy. The Israelis are out of here. We have more land and we got rid of the roadblocks."

Stripped of furniture and holy materials, the building did not burn well so, as the sun rose over the Mediterranean, a Palestinian bulldozer began clawing at its walls. A camera's flash brought dozens of troops and police crowding round the culprit. (Apparently, in the topsy-turvy world of Gaza, the sun rises in the west. - EoZ)

"You can watch but you can't take pictures," warned a young army officer. (Notice that he is not a "policeman"! - EoZ)

"This place is a problem for us. They (the Israelis) want people to see us destroying it, so it will look bad for us."

A few kilometres to the south, crowds of Palestinians were busy scavenging the ruins of Kfar Darom, an outlying settlement poking like a finger into the flank of the Arab town of Deir el-Bala. (Here's is what the boundaries really were: -EoZ)

One of the few women present, Ma'soud Aud'allah, 65, was tugging a bent girder from the bulldozed wreckage of a settler home. She did not call it looting.

'What Will the Americans Say?' (Natan Sharansky)

Translated by Daily Alert.

Whoever suggests bringing in the Americans to be the supreme judge on the issue of Israeli settlements understands nothing about the basics of American government and policy. After Bush issued his letter on Israeli settlement blocs, I asked a senior White House official in Washington if the U.S. was now ready to recognize the annexation of a single square meter of Maale Adumim, in return for disengagement. 'No,' came the immediate reply. 'We will be pleased if in the end you receive all of Maale Adumim, but only in the framework of negotiations with the Palestinians.'

To expect anything different from any American administration is to push them into a corner they don't want to be in. If we waited for American approval, even the Jerusalem suburbs of Pisgat Zeev and Gilo would not exist today. We certainly need to take American concerns into account, we need to be diplomatic and explain and not surprise them. When I was minister of construction, I phoned the American ambassador before every announcement of new construction in the territories. The response each time was: 'We don't agree, of course, but we thank you for keeping us informed.' This is how we should act in the future; to update them, to take them into account, but not to wait for their approval.

We must never forget for a second that it's not the role of America to raise the flag of Zionism. The task of strengthening settlements and building and protecting Jerusalem isn't their job; it's ours, and we can't transfer it to anyone else - even our closest friends.

(Makor Rishon-Hebrew, 9 Sep 05)

Muslims destroy shuls - world silent

Not a single peep from Palestinian leaders, Americans, Europeans, even Israeli officials.

Pure religious bigotry and intolerance. Pure anti-semitism. Pure hatred. And yet not a single official has the guts to say out loud that these are clearly not a people that can be negotiated with. Not a single person can point out that the vaunted Muslim tolerance of other religions; the supposed Muslim ban on destroying the holy places of other religions is a lie.

Palestinians refer to Israel's not dismantling the synagogues as a "trap" to make them look bad - yet not a single Palestinian official calls for converting the shuls into mosques or even into public buildings that can be used by a supposed nascent Palestinian state.

The world has witnessed pure Muslim depravity and hate yet again. And the world yawns.

Because this is how Palestinian Arabs are expected to act by the people who pretend to be on their side.

UPDATE:

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom Monday called the Arab burning of Gush Katif synagogues a "barbaric act."

UPDATE 2:
Abbas sees no problem:

"They left empty buildings that used to be temples, but they removed all the religious symbols, and they are no longer religious places," Abbas said.

Somehow, the Palestinian Arabs noticed the symbolism and torched the synagogues first. Perhaps he should have explained to them that they were just ordinary buildings?

Holocaust Memorial Day "offends" British Muslims

Of course, the very existence of Jews and Westerners not living under dhimmitude seem to offend Muslims as well.

Ditch Holocaust day, advisers urge Blair - Sunday Times - Times Online:
Abul Taher
ADVISERS appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims.

They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia as well as people of other faiths. (Notice how the author of this article doesn't put scare quotes around "mass murder" of Muslims in Palestine, as if this is a fact. - EoZ)

The draft proposals have been prepared by committees appointed by Blair to tackle extremism. He has promised to respond to the plans, but the threat to the Holocaust Day has provoked a fierce backlash from the Jewish community.

Holocaust Day was established by Blair in 2001 after a sustained campaign by Jewish leaders to create a lasting memorial to the 6m victims of Hitler. It is marked each year on January 27.

The committees argue that the special status of Holocaust Memorial Day fuels extremists’ sense of alienation because it “excludes” Muslims. (Perhaps they will go after Easter next? -EoZ)

A member of one of the committees, made up of Muslims, said it gave the impression that “western lives have more value than non-western lives”. That perception needed to be changed. “One way of doing that is if the government were to sponsor a national Genocide Memorial Day.

“The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims. It sends out the wrong signals: that the lives of one people are to be remembered more than others. It’s a grievance that extremists are able to exploit.” (Sounds like one they are already exploiting - EoZ)

The recommendation, drawn up by four committees including those dealing with imams and mosques, and Islamaphobia and policing, has the backing of Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain. (Another "moderate" Muslim. -EoZ)

He said: “The message of the Holocaust was ‘never again’, and for that message to have practical effect on the world community it has to be inclusive. We can never have double standards in terms of human life. Muslims feel hurt and excluded that their lives are not equally valuable to those lives lost in the Holocaust time.”

Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of the charity Interpal, said: “There are 500 Palestinian towns and villages that have been wiped out over the years. That’s pretty genocidal to me.” (Again, an outrageous statement printed with no comment by the Times of London. Maybe a link to dictionary.com? -EoZ)

The committees are also set to clash with Blair on his proposal to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, the radical Islamic group. Government sources say they will argue that a ban is unjustified because the group, which is proscribed in much of the Middle East, neither advocates nor perpetrates violence in the UK. (Advocating violence against Jews is fine according to these British "moderate" Muslims, as long as they are not on Jewish soil. -EoZ)

A Home Office spokesman said it would consider the proposals for a separate Genocide Day for all faiths but emphasised that it regarded the Holocaust as a “defining tragedy in European history”.

Mike Whine, a director of the British Board of Deputies, said: “Of course we will oppose this move. The whole point is to remember the darkest day of modern history.”

Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside and a Holocaust Memorial trustee, said: “These Muslim groups should stop trying to evade the enormity of the Holocaust.”

The seven committees finalise their recommendations today at St George’s House, Windsor, and will submit them to Blair and Charles Clarke, the home secretary, on September 22.