Rafah round-up (Soccer Dad)

Soccer Dad has an excellent analysis of coverage of the Rafah deal where Condi Rice forced hard concessions from Israel (compromising its security in very real and clear ways) and forced essentially nothing from the Palestinians beyond empty words.

I once noted that Palestinian actions can be regarded as Pavlovian. The argument can be extended here - when the Palestinians ignore demands made of them (by the road map, by the US, by the quartet) the world will still make Israel give them more. When their refusal to do anything beyond the cosmetic is constantly rewarded with more Isralei concessions, what incentive do they have to actually do anything?

Obviously the US conduct is disappointing and the EU conduct is expected. But ultimately the responsibility for Israel's security belongs to the Israeli government - it is the most important function a government has. Other governments say "no" to the US constantly and do not suffer unduly; it is time for Israel to draw a line in the sand. Too many Israelis are dead because Israel has caved to pressure from Washington.

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Notable articles

The last couple of articles I wrote via BlogThis! disappeared and frustrated me quite a bit, so here are just a couple of links without my comments because I'm too tired:

From Zeesen via Beirut to Tehran - an interesting Indian analysis of Iranian and other Muslim anti-semitism
On Islam and Terrorism - An Arab mulls Muslim responsibility for terror in a Saudi newspaper - kudos for some degree of self-examination; jeers for the remaining bigotry that can be seen when read carefully.
Zionist power stems from Western belief in "Holocaust" myth - More Holocaust denial from our friends in Tehran (link may be broken now).

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Iranian satellite can spy on Israel

Russia seems to be quite gung-ho about helping Iran achieve its "purely scientific" ambitions, both nuclear and satellite. It is interesting that in the aftermath of the worldwide furor that Iran created with its anti-Israel statements, it is still business as usual with the terror-supporting, belligerent and immoral Iranian regime.

Words are a lot cheaper than cash.

It is also interesting that the name of the satellite, Sina, is extremely close to the Hebrew word for "hatred" (sin'a.)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said the satellite would be purely scientific. But a month after its launch _ and only weeks after the president said Israel should be wiped off the map _ the head of Tehran's space program now says the Sina-1 is capable of spying on the Jewish state.

The launch of the Russian-made satellite into orbit aboard a Russian rocket last month marked the beginning of Iran's space program. Officials say a second satellite _ this one Iranian-built _ will be launched in about two months, heightening Israeli concerns.

The Sina-1's stated purpose is to take pictures of Iran and to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation. Sina-1, with a three-year lifetime, has a resolution precision of about 50 yards.

But as it orbits the Earth some 14 times a day from an altitude around 600 miles, with controllers able to point its cameras as they wish, Sina-1 gives Iran a limited space reconnaissance capability over the entire Middle East, including Israel.

"Sina-1 is a research satellite. It's not possible to use it for military purposes," said Deputy Telecom Minister Ahmad Talebzadeh, who heads the space program.

But he agreed it could spy on Israel.

"Technically speaking, yes. It can monitor Israel," he told The Associated Press. "But we don't need to do it. You can buy satellite photos of Israeli streets from the market."

The Russian company Polyot built the 375-pound satellite for Iran, but Iran had already developed the necessary infrastructure for its space program. The program represents Tehran's drive to prove it can produce advanced technology on its own.

Similarly, Iran has said its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electricity and showcasing the country's technical prowess _ though the United States believes the program secretly aims to produce nuclear weapons.

Notice how AP says that "the United States believes" as if the rest of the world fully trusts Iran's stated peaceful nuclear ambition.

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Hebrew slang - now and then

A funny AP article on a new Hebrew slang dictionary. There are so many examples that I am quite surprised to have found this in the China Post.

(The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon told me the other day that "l'hitpajaim" means "to put pajamas on" in modern Hebrew.)

The English "spin" becomes "speen," plural "speenim."

The language of Moses has also absorbed "blind date," "under control" and "hacker" (pronounced hah-cker), along with some 10,000 other words and expressions that have been compiled in a dictionary of Israeli slang, a bestseller since it came out this fall.

The hefty hardcover tome reflects the onslaught of foreign words in the age of globalization and the struggle of modern Hebrew _ revived as a spoken language just a century ago _ to adapt an ancient vocabulary to modern times.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for one, doesn't like the trend. A while back, on Hebrew Language Day, he complained that the once ubiquitous Hebrew farewell "shalom" has largely been replaced by "yalla, bye," an Arabic-English hybrid. He also chastised the satellite and cable TV companies "Yes" and "Hot" for choosing foreign names.

The guardians of proper Hebrew don't seem to be overly worried.

Hebrew is flourishing and has proven its adaptability, said Avraham Tal, deputy director of the Academy for the Hebrew Language _ ironically known in Hebrew as the "academia."

Seeking to stem the use of foreign words, experts at the academy have been inventing Hebrew alternatives for words such as "sensatia" and "conditioner." From time to time, the nation's top linguists present their creations to the academy's plenum, where favorites are adopted by vote, often after stormy debate. A few times a year, the academy publishes a list of new words and asks state radio and TV to use them.

Ruth Almagor-Ramon, the language adviser at Israel Radio, said it's easy enough to introduce words in news casts and other programs, but that doesn't always mean they'll take hold.

"Every word has its fate," said Tal, acknowledging quite a few of the academy's creations have fizzled, such as Hebrew substitutes for "video" and "jingle." A belated effort to get the public to accept a Hebrew word for shampoo seems doomed from the start.

Almagor-Ramon said politicians and ad copy writers are among the worst language offenders.

"There is no way to correct them," she said, noting that in a recent radio ad a Labor Party legislator refused to use the formal Hebrew substitute for "primaries," arguing that no one would understand him.

Journalists don't seem to be far behind in the list of culprits. In a recent front-page article, political commentator Ben Caspit complained about what he said the foreign minister's manipulation of the press and his habit of posing for photographers in faraway "locationim."

The author of the "Comprehensive Slang Dictionary," Ruvik Rosenthal, said Hebrew's relatively small vocabulary _ around 150,000 words, a fraction the size of English _ encourages borrowing.

Rosenthal, who writes a weekly language column in the Maariv daily, mined some 800 Web sites, hundreds of books as well as TV and radio broadcasts for his dictionary. He also consulted with specialists on subcultures _ criminals, youth, computer nerds, the ultra-Orthodox and soccer fans.

The biggest contributors to slang are English, Arabic and Yiddish. "These three are competing without casualties," said Rosenthal.

Arabic rules emotional expression _ "ahla" (great), "walla" (true), "sababa" (cool), "ashkara" (for real) _ as well as the most emphatic curses. With the rise of Oriental culture in Israel after decades of European domination, Israelis feel at ease using Arabic words, despite their ongoing conflict with much of the Arab world, Rosenthal said.

Some of the Arabic already found its way into Hebrew in the 1930s and 1940s, absorbed by children of Zionist pioneers who wanted to blend into the region and distance themselves from their parents' Diaspora upbringing.

English dominates computers, high-tech, dating, fashion and sports. "Yesh lo touch," (he has the touch) a sports commentator has been heard saying of a talented soccer player.

Car mechanics use mangled English, a throwback to British rule when cars first came to the Holy Land: brakes become "breksim," a back axle is a "back ax." Following a strange logic, a front axle is a "back ax kidmi," literally a front back axle.

German still rules in construction, going back to 1920s and 1930 when builders and architects immigrated from Germany to pre-state Palestine. Today, Palestinian and Chinese construction workers communicate on the job with words such as "kabel" (cable), "stecker" (plug) or "spachtel" (spatula).

Yiddish, still a strong source of slang with about 1,200 words in the book, offers some of the juiciest insults, such as "freier" (sucker), "shtinker" (informer) and "nudnik" (pest). However, some of the words are fading away, or are now used only by ultra-Orthodox Jews, Rosenthal said.

Literal translations of phrases from other languages are also popular. "Ma bo'er?" (from the Yiddish "was brennt?" or "what's burning"); "mi pi hasus" ("from the horse's mouth").

In a gray zone between slang and standard Hebrew, some foreign words are squeezed into the corset of Hebrew conjugation: to subsidize becomes "lesabsed," to zap TV channels is "lezapzep," to discuss is "ledaskes," to torpedo is "letarped."

Most Israelis know the boundaries between slang and standard Hebrew, and there's nothing wrong with the flourishing of slang, said linguist Rafael Nir. "It's definitely a sign of how alive the language is, not necessarily a sign of the deficiency of the Hebrew language."

"Slang gives it (Hebrew) something extra," he said.

This is clearly not the first time someone tried to research this phenomenon; check out these two articles from the Palestine Post in 1945:

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"Suicide Bombers Are People, Too "

This Newsweek article about the film "Paradise Now" (portraying Palestinian suicide bombers as complex and sometimes sympathetic human beings) tries very hard not to fall in the trap of glorifying the murderers. Yet its very attempts at staying impartial is immoral itself. This paragraph seems to be justifying why it is even giving the film publicity:

It’s won an Amnesty International Award, a Blue Angel for best European film and is now Palestine’s official entry for the Academy Awards (this is only the second year Palestine has been allowed contribute to the Oscar’s foreign film competition). It opened in New York and Los Angeles two weeks ago to glowing reviews in The New York Times, and Abu-Assad was featured in interviews on NPR and in the Los Angeles Times.

Yet one wonders...

If someone made a similar film humanizing child rapists, would the mainstream media wax so rhapsodically? Could a fictionalizing version of the members of NAMBLA get rave reviews? Or a film about abortion-clinic bombers?

The simple fact is that it is unthinkable to consider showing or creating such a film unless there is an audience that is willing to sympathize with the main characters.

And to take the mind exercise a little further - can anyone imagine a rave review of a film about George Bush or Karl Rove or Ariel Sharon being given by the New York Times or NPR? There might be an audience, but it is literally unthinkable that the liberal media would have anything good to say, no matter how well done it is.

Which means that in a very real sense, they identify more with suicide bombers than with those whose politics they disagree with.

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Another bizarre Iranian conspiracy theory

It is truly mind-boggling how Middle-East Muslims can just make up facts to fit their twisted worldview.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - In Italy the death of Fiat heir Edoardo Agnelli five years ago is viewed as a tragic suicide. In Iran, he is venerated as a martyr for Islam, supposedly murdered in a Zionist-orchestrated boardroom putsch.

On the fifth anniversary of his death, some 200 Iranian students gathered on Tuesday in a candlelit vigil outside the Italian embassy in Tehran, carrying placards reading 'No to the Zionist coup at Fiat' and chanting 'Death to Israel'.

'Edoardo was a martyr for Islam and was killed by the Zionists,' said Hamideh Taghizadeh, among a group of young women in all-enveloping black chadors, clasping posters of Agnelli.

His fall from a motorway viaduct in northwest Italy offers all the ingredients Iranians need in their conspiracy theories -- a heady mix of Judaism, family rivalries and ruthless big business.

The conspiracy runs as follows: after Agnelli converted to Shi'ite Islam, Israeli agents decided Fiat could not fall into such hands, murdered him and ensured the Elkann family, of Jewish origins, should run the carmaking dynasty.

Italian investigators found no suggestion his death was anything other than suicide.

Agnelli did have a strong interest in Shi'ite Islam, once visiting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

But the graduate of oriental literature and philosophy was also interested in other religions and travelled widely in Asia and Africa.He never worked for the Turin-based car empire.

The Agnellis buried him in their Christian family tomb.

Mohammad Ghadiri Abianei, a diplomat who said he had known the Fiat heir during a posting in Rome, claimed Agnelli had converted to Islam and changed his name to Mehdi.

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Arab Denial (Yaron London)

I think most Israelis identified with the latest victims of the radical Islamic hurricane, and joined in the pain of the Hashemite Kingdom and worried about the future of that country.

In my heart I hoped this tragedy would spring forth at least a few drops of sweetness. I hoped the fact that blind murder had finally struck them would lead the Palestinians to question the justice of suicide bombers, but this hope proved false.

I watched the reactions in the Arab world and heard their denunciations of the bombing, but not even one person thought to compare the wanton slaughter of Jews and the wanton slaughter of Muslims.

Most protested the fact that Muslims had the audacity to murder other Muslims, not over the fact that innocents were killed. The message was frighteningly clear: there is nothing wrong with terrorism in-and-of-itself. The mistake in the current instance was the religious makeup of the targets.

For example, a debate was held on Jordanian television in which participants refused to recognize the fact that several Muslim groups have embedded themselves in a culture of murder.

They claimed there is only one Islam, and whoever deviates from its religious message is not Muslim.

By excluding the murderers from the boundaries of Islam, there is no possibility to study the weakness of a society that produces murderers wholesale. Self-criticism is possible only when a society dares recognize the fact that the dregs of that society are, in fact, part of that society.

To our incredible sorrow, there are few signs to suggest that this process has gripped Muslim society.

Denial is the heritage of the masses and the heritage of the intellectuals.

The claim that it is impossible for Muslims to carry out such a loathsome act, and therefore the culprits cannot possibly be Muslim, is simply understood by many Jordanians: If the attack wasn't carried out by Muslims, then it must have been carried out by someone else.

And if it was carried out by someone else, it must have been someone or group trying to weaken the Arabs – in other words, the Jews.

This warped logic has led Arab journalists and statesmen to blame Israel for terror attacks in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh, for the pogrom Muslims carried out on the Copts in Egypt, for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, and of course – the September 11 attacks in the United States.

One British reporter traveled to the village in the West Bank. On a small path near the mourning tent, he spoke to family members of the victims and asked them who they thought was responsible for the massacre. Every single one blamed Israel.

Why would Israel have killed them? The answers were angry and babbled, but they showed clearly that they, too, had internalized the message that Muslims wouldn't have murdered fellow Muslims, and so it must have been Israelis, born with a murderous nature.

In order to reject the possibility that Muslims would murder other Muslims, one would have to erase entire chapters of history. But the memory is an illusive tool. It is the nature of man to preserve those memories that reinforce his worldview, and to erase the ones that call that outlook into question.

These villagers can't stomach the thought that the same emotions that drive the shaheeds (martyrs) they produce also drove Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi to murder their loved ones.

One needn't be an expert in psychology to understand that such an admission would drag them to the edge of the abyss of the naked, terrible truth: those responsible for the murder in Amman are not "others" – Israelis, Zionists, Americans or the CIA, but rather by the victims themselves; that is to say, those wrapped up in self denial.

It is too bad that the author doesn't take the next step - that it is impossible to negotiate in good faith with people who cannot even admit truth when it hits them in the face.

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Quick round up of those who blame Jews for Amman blasts

It is worthwhile to occasionally look at what the terror-supporting morons of the world have to say.

• "The suicide bombers story was created and spun to cover up the real crime. The real targets of the bombings were Palestinian high ranking officials and Chinese military personnel. "(Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? by Dr. Elias Akleh, globalresearch.ca)

• "It is now obvious the Amman hotel bombings were a black op executed by Mossad, British intelligence, or the American military, or it was a collaborative effort of all three (suspicion, however, falls on the Israelis, since they have plenty of experience with these sort of operations..."(Amman Bombings: More Suspicious Details, by Kurt Nimmo, uruknet.info)

• " The fact that few (if any) Israeli Jews have been killed in any of the major terror incidents which have occurred in recent years - despite the fact that the alleged perpetrators are anti-Zionist - is indirect evidence that the bombings are actually being carried out by an Israeli agency, be it the Mossad or some other top secret entity charged with black ops of this nature. Similarly, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the 'al-Qaeda' websites currently being cited in news reports are anything other than undertakings of Israeli intelligence intended to help allay suspicions that the bombings were actually sophisticated operations involving explosives planted inside the hotels." (Israel's latest black op - the most transparent yet?, "socialdemocracynow", Mathaaba.net)


• "Now, with the ceiling story dismissed and the evacuation of the Israelis prior to the attack story all but extinguished, "we are told these al-Zarqawi militants included a "husband and wife team" and they "carried out the Amman attacks with explosive belts after carefully staking out the hotels for a month," according to The Associated Press. The “suicide bombers” story was cooked up to cover up the real crime." - Who Profited from Amman Bombings, aljazeera.com)
  

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Israel caves totally to American pressure on border crossings

It is just insanity. Any benefits from the Gaza withdrawal are being eroded very quickly.

Again, we see American pressure on Israel and Israel refusing to fight this pressure in her own self-interest. Despite the fact that Israel willingly helps the US unquestioningly in areas that the US needs help, time after time the State Department (and seemingly the White House) pressures Israel to do more - meaning sacrificing Israeli lives and her economy on the altar of an illusory "peace".

A Google News search for the past month on US "pressure on Egypt" comes up empty. But for "US pressure on Israel" we find not only this Rafah fiasco, but also pressure on settlements, and on Israeli arms exports to Venezuela and China, where Israel is giving up on hundreds of millions of dollars.

And of course the liberal media prefer to look at Israel thumbing her nose at the US and the US doing all that Israel desires. It is a constant theme among anti-semites, and also in al-Guardian, which asks the absurd question "Why does the US refuse to pressure Israel, even for its own good?"

Rice Secures Rafah Package Stripped of Adequate Counter-Terror Safeguards

DEBKAfile Special Analysis
November 15, 2005, 1:28 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt will reopen on November 25 as a Palestinian-Egyptian facility with a European presence. Video images will be transferred to a control center at the Kerem Shalom crossing which is on Israeli soil. It will be manned by Israelis and Palestinians with a European presence.

Israel will not be entitled to demand that suspected terrorists be kept out or detained. The Palestinians will only be required to report on the arrivals of VIPs, diplomats and humanitarian cases – no one else. Mofaz lauded this as “another stage in Egypt’s involvement.” He made no reference to the failure of Egyptian border police’s failure to secure the Philadelphi border enclave against the massive smuggling of arms and terrorists since the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

As for the crossings from Gaza into Israel, Israel surrendered the prerogative to shut down them down to secure personnel against terror alerts, although these facilities are notoriously prime terrorist targets. Jerusalem has undertaken to first notify the US embassy in Tel Aviv and back up its “request” with specific information, thus parting with its intelligence secrets. It must then wait for permission from Washington – or its refusal - to the closure.

Effective preventive action may well be held up by this delay.

By surrendering this point, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon relinquished a key element of Israel’s sovereign right to self-defense and agreed to hamstring its own army’s freedom to combat terror. The presence of Palestinian customs inspectors at Kerem Shalom makes an additional inroad on Israeli sovereignty.

From Dec. 15 to January 15, “secured Palestinian convoys” will start rolling across southern Israel from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The Palestinians want their own forces to secure the trucks. All that has been settled is that the Americans and Europeans will determine the procedures for their passage through Israeli territory.

There is no sign of the Sharon government standing up to Washington’s demands on that point either, so it is more than likely that Palestinian “forces” will be let loose on a wide swathe of southern Israel to escort 150 trucks a day bound for Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus.

The provisions for the Rafah crossing will also be applied to Gaza’s deep sea port construction of which begins without delay. Israel has therefore forfeited control and oversight over incoming goods and people to Gaza by sea as well as overland.

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750 lashes and 40 months in jail - for praising Jews

He won't make that mistake again!

RIYADH (Reuters) - A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a teacher to 40 months in jail and 750 lashes for 'mocking religion' after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday.

Al-Madina newspaper said secondary school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi will be flogged in public after he was taken to court by his colleagues and students.

He was charged with promoting a 'dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer', the newspaper said. It gave no more details.

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Bill Clinton to Israel: Don't act unilaterally against terror

Ex-president Bill Clinton urged Israelis over the weekend not to overreact to comments by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommending that Israel be 'wiped off the map.'

Speaking at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Saturday, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was 'outrageous,' but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was 'not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West.'

'He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance,' Clinton explained, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that 'true peace and security can only come through principled compromise.'

So Clinton says Israel should compromise with those who want to see it destroyed? I wonder if he gives Bush the same advice, not to act unilaterally when dealing with Al-Qaeda. I seem to remember Clinton unilaterally shooting some ineffective rockets towards Afghanistan jihadi training camps - tsk, tsk, how could he react to a terror bombing in such a way?

I hope that this was taken way out of context. I expect such lunacy from Carter, but not Clinton.

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The Independent's Fawning Obituary for a Terrorist

A terrorist gets memorialized in the Independent (UK)'s obituary page, exactly the same as authors and prominent business leaders. Unbelievably, the obituary lists his terror accomplishments in exactly the same way that obituaries mention others' charitable and scientific accomplishments.

Look - he's a published author of a guide on how to make bombs! He became "extremely pious" so he "embraced jihad"! The suicide attacks using his bombs didn't actually kill anyone - but their explosive power "[led] to the deaths of 245 people!"

This is truly one of the sickest examples of relative morality that has ever been published.

Azahari Bin Husin
Terrorist 'Demolition Man'
Published: 14 November 2005

Azahari bin Husin, statistician and bomb-maker: born Malacca, Malaysia 1957; Associate Professor of Statistics and Valuation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 1991-98; married 1994 Wan Noraini Jusoh (two children); died Batu, Indonesia 9 November 2005.

How and why this mild-mannered Malaysian mathematician transformed himself into "Demolition Man", the most wanted fugitive in South-East Asia, is a puzzle which authorities are hard pressed to solve after his violent death last Wednesday.

Azahari bin Husin eluded capture for three years after allegedly supplying explosives to the Islamist extremist group Jemaah Islamiah which has ideological and financial links to al-Qa'ida. Police say his signature car bombs and explosive backpacks were used in at least four suicide attacks against "soft targets" in Bali and Jakarta, leading to the deaths of 245 people, including 26 British tourists in the 2002 Kuta night-club bombings. Azahari was briefly apprehended in Sumatra, but was unrecognised as the bespectacled militant wanted by Interpol for plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Singapore, and he slipped off. But he struck Jakarta's Australian Embassy in September 2004, personally driving his customised car bomb and parking it 300 metres away. Police suspected him of planting similar bombs in August 2003 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, where he was seen sketching in the lobby weeks before the explosions.

Fingerprints taken from one of the suspected militants killed in a police raid on a safe house in East Java on 9 November matched Azahari's records. An hour-long gun battle ended dramatically when a militant sheltering inside blew himself up, and police found a stockpile of 30 more explosive devices in the rubble. Documents discovered in a cohort's hideout the plans for a pre-Christmas "bomb party" to be unleashed at Jakarta schools and churches.

Azahari was born in 1957 in Malacca, the cosmopolitan port town 150km south of Kuala Lumpur. At the age of 17, he left home to study in Adelaide, Australia, where he became an avid jogger and a motorcycle aficionado. But the gregarious student dropped his mechanical engineering courses after four years. An Australian classmate, John Cooper, recalls the young Azahari as "bright and cavalier. He seemed to have a healthy disrespect for authority."

When, aged 20, Azahiri returned home, the Iranian revolution was in foment and Islamic students around the world took heed. Asahari did well enough in his statistics coursework in Malaysia to be accepted as a foreign student at Reading University, where he was enrolled in the late 1980s. Contemporaries remember his fondness for women, sport, and fast cars. After submitting his doctoral thesis, he left Britain for employment in Jakarta as a property-market analyst, but found he preferred life in academia. He married a co-lecturer at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at Skudai, Johor, where he eventually was appointed Associate Professor of Valuation and known for his lively classes.

It was only when his young Acehnese wife, Noraini, had difficulty conceiving a baby that Azahari turned to religion. Following visits to a Muslim faith healer, she became pregnant and bore two children in quick succession. After she was diagnosed with throat cancer, Azahari became extremely pious. He embraced jihad and was drawn to charismatic leaders such as the Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir, spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah. With Noordin Mohamad Top, headmaster of a religious boarding school, he promoted a pan-Muslim territory extending from the southern Philippines to southern Thailand and recruited youths to become martyrs for the cause.

Azahari perfected his bomb-making skills at a jihadi camp in Sadaa, Afghanistan, in 1999, after months of training in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, and went on to design the Jemaah Islaimah bombers' manual with emphasis on backpack explosives. He attended a meeting in Thailand with Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was considered Osama bin Laden's point man in South-East Asia. After Hambali's arrest in August 2003, Azahari rose through the organisation's ranks.

Counter-terrorism experts have described Azahari as a master of disguise. But in the past few years, officials said, he invariably wore an explosive belt around his waist to avoid being captured alive.

One of Azahari's former students, Lum Chih Feng, recalled his teacher's enthusiasm for English Premier League football. He preferred close-fitting Western clothes and rarely wore an Islamic skullcap and robe except at the mosque.

Shortly after his second baby was born in 2001, Azahari left home, telling his wife: "I have a greater cause in life. It is to serve God."

Jan McGirk

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

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Rabin was more hawkish than Sharon is today

IsraelNN points out:

In fact, however, Rabin was totally against a withdrawal from Gush Katif. In his last Knesset speech, he said:
'We will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967... The security border will be placed in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest interpretation of this concept... [We will] include Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are east of what was the Green Line... and also... settlement blocs like Gush Katif; would it be there were others like them in Judea and Samaria as well.'

Neither was Rabin in favor of a Palestinian state, and stated clearly his envisioned solution of a 'Palestinian entity that is less than a state.'

It is also interesting to remember that Rabin's reaction to the first "intifada" was far more violent than Sharon's reaction to the second one. It is perhaps unfair to compare the two, but the sainthood that the Left confers on Rabin seems more than a little misplaced, and conversely the concessions that Sharon has made to the Palestinian Arabs seem foolhardy compared to those Rabin may have offered.

At any rate, the consistent labeling of "dove" and "hawk" done incessantly by the media reflects more their perceptions and wishful thinking than the reality.

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Senior PA officials explicitly support continued terror

For some reason, the mainstream media completely missed these interviews by the PA national security advisor and the PA minister of civil affairs.

The official PA policy is continued terror, period.

Statements by Jibril Rajoub
	(Photo: Al-Arabiya, November 4, 2005)
		Jibril Rajoub, the PA's national security advisor, and a leader of the second generation of Fatah, was interviewed in Cairo by daily newspaper Al-Zaman on October 30, 2005. He stated that Abu Mazen would not, under any circumstances, ask the PA security apparatuses to disarm Hamas and the PIJ as long as Israel occupied the West Bank .
		As a guest on an Al-Arabiya TV talk show on November 4, 2005, Rajoub was asked about his statement in Al-Zaman regarding the disarmament of Hamas and the PIJ. He replied as follows (Translations from the original Arabic):
	“ The West Bank is one thing, the Gaza Strip is something else . Israel retreated from the Gaza Strip and a dialogue was held to deal with the subjects of weapons [i.e., the PA's attempt to stop armed men from roaming the streets] and security for Palestinian civilians. The West Bank is still occupied and resistance [i.e., terrorist activities] is a legitimate right . However, regarding everything concerning the Gaza Strip, we of the PA have decided that a law will be passed by the legislative council to deal with the carrying of weapons.”
		During the program he stated several times that the matter of the various organizations' weapons was an internal Palestinian issue which would be dealt with by a dialogue between the PA and the organizations “taking into consideration the position of the PA regarding one weapon and one law…”
		He also expressed his determined objection to the launching of missiles from the Gaza Strip but did not take a firm stand (and was in fact ambiguous) about launching them from the West Bank . He stated that: “the residents of the Gaza Strip have a right to live in peace. Will a missile fired from Gaza liberate the West Bank ?” The interviewer said: “I understand from what you say that you are in favor of launching missiles at Israel from the West Bank ,” and Rajoub answered: “ I am not in favor of [launching] missiles, but it is our right to resist, to react and to confront the occupation . However, the resistance must follow an agenda we agree on…”
		He was then asked whether it had been agreed that the lull would end at the end of 2005. He answered: “No. The lull is part of our national program, and therefore whether or not it ends also depends on a national dialogue. The lull is open and changes according to developments in the field . Its main objective is to maintain local and international momentum, which serves Palestinian interests.” The lull's function, according to Jibril Rajoub, is “ to exert pressure on the criminal Israeli government .”
	Statement by Muhammad Dahlan
	Muhammad Dahlan (right) at a press conference dealing with the Rafah crossing point (Photo: Al-Jazeera RV, November 7, 2005)
		Muhammad Dahlan is minister of civil affairs and among the leaders of second-generation Fatah activists . During a visit to the town of Khan Yunis , he called to strengthen national unity, “ to complete what was achieved in the Gaza Strip. To liberate Jerusalem and the West Bank and for the refugees to take by force the right to return to their houses ” (Palestinian News Agency, November 6, 2005).

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Got another one

I don't usually post these stories because others do a better job, but since this was not widely reported it is worth mentioning and praising the IDF for yet another job well done.

IDF troops killed Hamas leader in Nablus, Amjad Hinawi, 34, during a gunbattle which erupted before dawn Monday when soldiers attempted to arrest the fugitive.

Overnight Monday, numerous troops operated in Nablus against the city's terrorist infrastructure and arrested eight Hamas fugitives, Army Radio reported.

Among their aims was to arrest Hinawi, but when gunmen opened fire at the soldiers during the operation, troops returned fire, killing Hinawi.

A Kalashnikov rifle, a handgun and two magazines were found on Hinawi's body.

Ha'aretz adds:

Hanawi is believed to have masterminded several suicide bombings in Israel in the 1990s.

Israel has conducted raids against hideouts of commanders of armed groups on nearly a nightly basis since a suicide bombing late last month killed six Israelis in an open-air market in the town of Hadera.

A number of commanders have been killed, prompting vows of vengeance from the targeted groups, in particular the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Palestinians have strongly criticized the IDF raids and assassination operations, saying that they have foiled PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to seek promises of calm from the armed organizations.

Ooooh, not the dreaded "efforts to seek promises of calm"! Abbas must really be serious this time!

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