Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Methodist storybook indoctrinates children against Israel

From the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle (h/t Solomonia)

The book, “From Palestine to Seattle: Becoming Neighbors and Friends,” is billed as a “storybook on Israel and Palestine” for children 6 through 12. This is no benign Sunday school text, however. It is a well-crafted bit of propaganda that portrays Israeli security checkpoints as the cause, not the result, of Palestinian violence. This message is underscored by the teacher’s manual marketed along with the storybook.

The storybook describes adventures of two children from Seattle -- Allison and Matthew -- whose father, a Protestant minister, has just returned from a visit to Bethlehem.

...When Allison and Matthew see a checkpoint for themselves as they travel to Bethlehem, they are “shocked to see a barricade across the road, with sandbags and barrels lining the street. Looking up they saw a soldier with a gun sitting in a watchtower!”

The image accompanying this part of the story shows five soldiers standing around the van in which Allison and Matt are riding and a sixth soldier standing in a guard tower nearby. The image of barbed wire, guard shacks, sandbags and menacing armed soldiers surrounding a brightly-colored van filled with innocent children is reminiscent concentration camps in Eastern Europe in the 1940s.

...The lesson then ends with this coda [in the teacher's guide]: “Remind the children that when people are denied things that they believe everyone should have, they feel bad and sometimes become angry, too. Invite the remaining children to get juice and grapes from the refreshment table.”

The implication is undeniable. Suicide bombings -- which are not described anywhere in the either the storybook or the teacher’s manual -- are the consequence of Israeli checkpoints, which deny the Palestinians “the things that they believe everyone should have” and in turn make “people feel bad and sometimes become angry.” The impression the children are left with is that if the Israelis took down the checkpoints, Miriam, the young Israeli would no longer be frightened of bombs going off in her neighborhood.

FrontPage Magazine described the same book last month and it is even worse than described here:

The Arab boy, Tarek, has never been to McDonald's because the closest one is in Jerusalem, and travel there requires a pass by the Israelis. Naturally, the American children are disturbed. In an ongoing pen pal exchange, Tarek asks the American children why their country thinks all Palestinians are terrorists. The Americans are embarrassed. They summon up the nerve to ask Tarek why passes are needed to travel to Jerusalem.

Tarek responds that Israeli soldiers require passes, and that Palestinians without them are turned away, whether they are going to their jobs, or to hospitals. “How can people be so unfair?” the American children ask their pastor father. The father is unsure how to answer. But he helps them begin another correspondence with a little Israeli girl, who recounts that her cousin, an Israeli soldier, has been imprisoned for refusing to guard the “checkpoints” because “they were wrong and they were hurting people.”

Apparently, there is only one side to the story according to the Methodists, and it is identical to the side of the people who hand out candies when Jews are blown up.

Freedom of the press, Hamas-style

Hafez Barghouti is the editor of the Fatah daily Al Hayat al-Jadida newspaper. He has printed things that were critical of Hamas in the past year, and Hamas has revoked the credentials of Al-Hayat to work in Gaza.

Now, Hamas is bringing it to another level - they are suing Barghouti for libel!

From Ma'an (Arabic):

al-Hayat al-Jadida editor Hafez al-Barghouthi received a lawsuit via fax yesterday from the [Gaza] Strip Magistrate's Court inviting him to appear before it on Monday the twenty-fourth of this March to be tried on charges of libel violation of Article 204, 203 and in 1936 for disseminating Publications offensive to the members of the Palestinian government .

For its part the [Palestinian Arab] Journalists Union condemned the case and considered it against press freedom and against Palestinian journalists.

Reuters' biased headline of the day

Palestinian stabs rabbi in Arab East Jerusalem

The incident happened in the Old City of Jerusalem, which from roughly 1870-1948 had a majority Jewish population. The Muslim Quarter, where this incident occurred, used to be called the "Mixed Quarter" because Jews, Muslims and Christians all lived there, until the 1929 pogroms against the Jews.

While there are parts of East Jerusalem that are predominantly Arab, to categorize all of East Jerusalem as "Arab" is an editorial comment, not a statement of fact. To say that the Old City is "Arab East Jerusalem" is pretty dishonest, even if there are more Arabs living there now than others. It is effectively enshrining Jordan's illegal annexation and ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem for 19 years as being legitimate, and the existence of Jewish-owned lands in East Jerusalem as illusory. It is also meant to make the existence of a yeshiva in the Old City's "Muslim" quarter look as if it is a recent "settlement," when in fact the yeshiva is occupying the building of the only Jewish school or synagogue that was not destroyed by Jordan in 1948 (Torat Chaim, est. 1886.) All additional buildings that Ateret Cohanim own were purchased legally.

East Jerusalem is much larger than the Old City, of course, and using the term "Arab East Jerusalem" to describe something that happened in the Old City would be like saying that the Upper East Side crane accident over the weekend occurred in "New York State." It appears that Reuters is specifically choosing this terminology in order to render Israeli building in other parts of East Jerusalem, such as in Har Homa, as being illegitimate, since Reuters considers it "Arab" land - notwithstanding that most of Har Homa was also owned by Jews in 1948.

New Saudi Miss Camel to be crowned

Loyal readers will remember the horrible news last January when a Saudi beauty contest winner died and was mourned by many.

Well, it is time for her replacement to be named. (Warning: Camel pron ahead)

Camel breeders are open about their admiration for the physical attributes of the animals as they gather at this spring's camel markets.

"It's just like judging a beautiful girl," said Fowzan al-Madr, a camel breeder. "You look for big eyes, long lashes and a long neck."

Public displays of affection between men and women are rigidly policed by the feared officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice but in the camel bazaars anything goes.

"Camels are just like humans," breeder Haza al-Shammari told the International Herald Tribune. "They love and hate just like humans. That's why you have to bring them up very gently."

Mr Shammari grabbed his favourite camel's neck and kissed the beast on the mouth.

"She isn't married yet, this one," he said. "She's still a virgin. Look at the black eyes, the soft fur. The fur is trimmed so it's short and clean, just like a girl going to a party.

"When you get to know the camels, you feel love for them. My camels are like my children, my family."

British author Robert Lacey, a resident of Saudi Arabia, said ownership of a troupe of camels was central to an elite lifestyle that revolves around desert entertainment.

"They let you stroke them and pet them," he said.

"You can go out for the day, two or three hours out of Riyadh, have lunch, play with the camels, have tea, say the sunset prayer in the desert. Camels are a gentleman's pastime and this is how a gentleman entertains his friends.

"In a way, you're also re-enacting the pageant of your ancestors."

With camels changing hands for as much as 17 million Saudi Riyals (£2.2 million), camel owners are keenly awaiting the emergence of a new reigning champion.

The previous top camel, Mashoufan, died in January. Four of its offspring are seen as favourites to claim the crown.

The organiser of the pageant said it was drawing as much interest as a human competition would elsewhere in the Middle East.

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon," said the man who has the username Walid on a competition's website. "Here we have Miss Camel."

Another half-ton of explosives found in the Sinai

Palestine Press Agency reports(Arabic):

An Egyptian security source says that 500 kilograms of explosives and 40 mines had been uncovered during the last two days near the border with the Gaza Strip.

As quoted by the French news agency, the Egyptian source said that the explosive materials and mines found in two locations near the border with the Gaza Strip were intended for smuggling into the (Gaza) sector."

I have not seen this yet at AFP or any other news source yet, but PalPress has been pretty reliable over the past on topics like these.

PalArabs counterfeiting Girl Scout badges

Forget counterfeiting currency - now the Palestinian Arabs are going after more serious stuff. From Ma'an (Arabic):

The Palestinian Girl Scouts and Girl Guides Association accused merchants of Scout uniforms in the Palestinian cities of printing any insignia does not depend from Scouts and Girl Guides Association of Palestine.

The Assembly, through its warning, said that is the printing and marketing such decals beyond the instruction was contrary to the traditions of the Palestinian Scout uniforms, and will be working on pursuing legal claims against them.

But why should Girl Scouts have to work hard and act responsibly to achieve their goals when their parents haven't learned that lesson either?

75-year old man shot and killed in Qalqiya

Ma'an Arabic reports that three masked men, apparently in a stolen Israeli car, drove past and shot to death 75-year old Saleh Omar.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 36.

Moving - and staying

Yesterday, US Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones, upon seeing the overcrowded haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem, said that he was aware of the shortage of housing, but added: "Sometimes people do have to move to a different location. They cannot always stay close to their families." He was clearly talking about Israel building new houses and apartments in Jerusalem.

Many in the JBlogosphere correctly slammed these comments.

Sultan Knish says:

After 2000 years of Jews being told where they could and could not live, walled into Ghettos, given designated Jewish areas, the State of Israel was founded in order to create a place where Jews could live freely, only to have the US Ambassador stride into its capitol, which the US continues to refuse to recognize, sniff around and proclaims that Jews cannot live in their own capitol city.

Boker Tov Boulder, a bit less diplomatically:

Remember how Dhimmedia told us time and time again, prior to the disengagement, how OVERCROWDED Gaza was? Funny, it's always the Jews who have to move. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that's getting old already. How 'bout Jews live wherever they damn well please?

Atlas, even less diplomatically (as is her style):

What nerve. Tell it to the Gazans. Tell it to the Arabs with all their ginormous land. The nerve on this antisemite.

I wouldn't go so far as to call him an anti-semite, but the comment does betray an immense double-standard that has become quite acceptable even among Israel's friends.

Why is no one telling the Arab world to "move" their Palestinian Arab brethren elsewhere? Why is their claim to a piece of land that they pretty much turned into a wasteland when they lived there more powerful than that of a people who have lived there, died there and cried to return there continuously for 3000 years, and whose entire belief system is in no small part dependent on that land? In Arab history, Palestine was always a subdistrict of Syria (including much of today's Jordan), and Arabs freely moved between all Arab lands, while the Land of Israel was always the only place that Jews are commanded to live - so why do the Jews always have to move?

The reason is that, as always, Jews are regarded as being more "reasonable" and malleable, more open to reason, more likely to compromise. So why bother making a big demand on people who may just turn around and bomb you in response when it is so much easier to ask the more reasonable Israelis to do all the compromising?

Treppenwitz answers the ambassador brilliantly:

Although not specifically stated in the article, such a tour should have caused any reasonably intelligent observer to reach the conclusion that 'natural growth' in and around Israel's capitol city is an internal issue and not something open to international debate. Yet the conclusion that the U.S. Ambassador reached was exactly the opposite; that rather than allow the natural urban sprawl, such as surrounds nearly every major city in the world, Israel - so as not to cause offense - must instead relocate its growing population to unspecified remote locales, rather than build new neighborhoods just down the block.
Well I have a few news flashes for His Excellency, Mr. Jones:

We've done enough moving thankyouverymuch. We've spent the last two millenia moving from one place to another, all the time trying not to give offense to our hosts and neighbors. Yet despite being an industrious, peaceful people that has enriched our hosts far beyond all proportion to our modest numbers, we have been systematically victimized, caged, enslaved, slaughtered, disenfranchised, outlawed and expelled more than any single people in recorded history. And ... though we are (very) occasionally tolerated for short periods of time by progressive people like yourself... these periods of relative quiet are inevitably followed by more victimization.

Lather rinse repeat.

So guess what... now that we've finally managed to regain ownership of the only patch of land to which even your own family Bible gives us undisputed ownership, we're done moving. Go sell your plan elsewhere.

To the east of us is a spanking new country called Jordan that was created out of whole cloth by the British Mandatory power (at our expense). Not only is more than three-quarters of that country's population ethnically 'Palestinian', but there are huge, unused tracts of land east of the Jordan river that nobody is even looking at, much less fighting over. If you feel the burning need to find some suitable contiguous land to offer the poor Palestinians, why not start there?

But wait... I'm not done yet, there's more!

To the west of us is a vast empty chunk of land called the Sinai peninsula that is nominally administered by Egypt, but is for all intents and purposes abandoned. While the interior of Sinai is largely un-arable desert, the long fertile Mediterranean coastline, up to and including the Gaza strip, is nearly unparalleled in potential to provide a crowded, downtrodden people with a spacious (and contiguous) future paradise. Why not try that?

Why is it that you are demanding that Israel eviscerate herself to make room in her soft underbelly for a Palestinian state that will have no natural resources, little potential for development and above all, no chance for contiguity (at least so long as Israel remains stubbornly extant)?

Could it be because you know perfectly well that Jordan and Egypt won't consider having a real or defacto Palestinian terror state stirring up discord and unrest in their midst? Could it be that it is much easier to bully little Israel into slitting open its belly and allowing an openly antagonistic and parasitic entity to metastasize inside her than to ask Jordan or Egypt to tolerate a restive and radical Palestinian entity on their flank?

Read the whole thing.

Saudi Vice, episode 12: Flying sorcerors

It was a busy day for our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

First, they managed to chase a young couple into the path of an oncoming truck.

But there was another, more nefarious evil happening, unbelievably, in the holy Kingdom itself:

Sorcery.

Two Yemenis and a Sudanese man were practicing the black arts in Dhamad, Jizan. They had books and formulas showing how to cast spells, ready to do the most horrible things to innocent Muslims who stumble across their paths.

Luckily, our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice found out about these criminals and arrested them.

As the Saudi Gazette reports:

The three are charged with “malicious activities” to break up marriages and inflict harm on people for money. They reportedly slaughtered black sheep as part of their sorcery rituals.

And once the Muttawa were done with them, the three confessed to these heinous crimes.

The newspaper explains the crime of practicing "malicious magic":

As per Shariah law, Saudi Arabia prohibits sorcery. “Malicious magic” is perceived to have the power to influence the mind, body or possessions and cause disease, sickness in animals, bad luck, sudden death, impotence and other such misfortunes.

Truly, how fortunate the Saudi people are that they have people who put their own manhood at risk in order to save the rest of the Saudi males from magical impotence.

Another stellar day for our heroes, and now Saudi men can sleep better at night knowing that they are safe from black magic.

A young man and woman in Saudi Arabia decided to do the ultimate act of evil: to take a drive together in the man's Toyota Camry.

Of course, a man and woman being alone together - even in a car - is known as "khulwa" as can be punished with many lashes and a prison sentence.

Our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice got tipped off about this flagrant violation of human decency and started to go after the criminals.

The suspects, knowing that the SUV coming after them had the distinctive style of our Muttawa heroes, decided to try to avoid being detained.

Saudi law states that the Muttawa should never engage in a car chase, but should call police to arrest the criminals. Our heroes, though, knew that the police were not as efficient nor as single-minded about stamping out serious crimes like these as the members of the Commission, and it is an insult to think that the Muttawa cannot chase cars as well as any police officer.

On the Madina-Tabuk Road, in the Tabuk area, the chase ended when the Camry rammed head-on into a truck and burst into flames.

The man’s body was totally charred. The woman’s body was ripped into two by the force of the impact. They were too disfigured for immediate identification.

But most importantly, our heroes managed to stop a flagrant act of khulwa, and, especially, any unspeakable acts that might have followed.

Another fine day for our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice!

Saudi marries off his daughter, 15, to a murderer

An unbelievably sick story out of Saudi Arabia, reported impassively by Arab News:

RIYADH, 18 March 2008 — Muhammad Al-Zahrani, a convicted murderer, was executed at the end of February in Taif. Al-Zahrani’s execution, which was postponed for four years, took place after the victims’ family refused to pardon him.
However, what makes Al-Zahrani’s case interesting is that the convicted murderer had married his daughter to another convicted murderer on death row in the same prison, Awad Al-Harbi.
The newly married groom now lives in the hope that he may be saved by the generosity of his victim’s family.
Reaction in society to the prison marriage was mixed. Some saw the father’s decision as a good thing, a way to give a friend and fellow prisoner a second chance in life. Others condemned the step and described it as being unfair to one’s daughter.
The marriage fulfills all legal conditions under Saudi law, according to Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars.
Al-Obaikan said should a woman accept a man on death row after knowing about his situation there is no reason why the marriage should be stopped from happening. When Arab News questioned Al-Obaikan on the girl’s sound judgment considering she is only 15, he said she is considered an adult and therefore eligible to marry.
Al-Obaikan said that a woman could get married and see her husband die soon after, which would be God’s will, and in Al-Awad’s case it would also be God’s will to keep him alive should the victim’s family pardons him.
As for the idea of marriage in Islam being a form of asylum and haven, and whether this condition applies while one of the spouses is in captivity, Al-Obaikan said that if it is a woman’s choice then no one should object.
Ahmad Al-Hariri, a Ph.D. in forensic psychology, said, “In other countries, a 15-year-old is considered a child and cannot be considered an adult until she turns 18.”
He added that even if such a marriage is legal then it is still considered an assault on her humanity and wellbeing.
Al-Hariri said this could not be accepted both socially and psychologically. “After choosing a suitable spouse, starting a family and having children are the natural outcome of marriage and in this case there is no guarantee for such a family to exist and thrive,” said Al-Hariri.
“The overwhelming possibility of the success of this marriage is bleak, and what we see for the future is a widow with orphans,” he added.
“Even if this marriage is legal, it is totally unacceptable on a humanitarian level as it will harm the girl’s interests. Should the Reconciliation Committee’s efforts fail she will loose a husband after having lost her father,” Al-Hariri said.

Even the liberal Saudi expert who is against the marriage doesn't state the obvious - that it is the worst form of child abuse to force your daughter to marry a convicted murderer! And yet, according to Sharia, this is perfectly acceptable.

The New York Times Magazine last Sunday had a lengthy article by Noah Feldman that talks about sharia and how it really isn't so bad, how the West isn't looking at it with enough nuance and how much better it was than English common law - in the 18th century. Perhaps he can defend this action better than the Arab News managed to.

The Shin-Bet starts a blog

The BBC reports:

The Israeli secret service has launched a new venture: it has started to carry an internet diary, or blog, written by four of its agents.
The agents discuss how they were recruited, and what sort of work they perform; they also answer questions sent in by members of the public.
The tone of the blog is chatty, at times even facetious.
The agents from Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, are shown in silhouette.
Agent Chet is the sole woman among them. She works in hi-tech.
She says she went to the agency because it offered her a better "work-life balance" than her previous job in the private sector.
There are parts of her job, she says, which she can't discuss even with her husband - but then again, at home, they don't much like talking about work.
Recruitment drive
Agent Aleph, dubbed "the expert" on the blog, attempts to debunk a few myths.
"We don't work in a basement," he says. "We don't spend the day wearing earpieces."
"And we don't get to have flashing blue lights for our cars. We have to sit in traffic jams like everyone else."
The blogs are intended to draw members of the public into other areas of the Shin Bet website - in particular the recruitment section.
Some of the positions are advertised with a red star and the slogan "hot job".
There is the opportunity to work on what are described as "irregular missions"; to work on one's own; and to acquire a variety of "special skills".
A Shin Bet official told the BBC that the idea was to inform the public that the agency offers work beyond just stopping Palestinian paramilitary attacks.
The official said that the agency had been cheered by the feedback from members of the Israeli public - keen to find out more about the jobs within Shin Bet, the pay and even the food.

The blog can be found here. Unfortunately, it is only in Hebrew.

The Elder breaks a story

Israel Today picked up on a story I did last week, linking to me.

Cool!

Latest Peaceful PalArab Poll

From The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research:

If new presidential elections were to take place today, Mahmud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh would receive almost equal number of votes, 46% for Abbas and 47% for Haniyeh. Haniyeh’s popularity today is the highest ever registered since Hamas’s electoral victory in January 2006.

The gap between the standing of Fateh compared to the standing of Hamas decreases significantly in three months from 18 percentage points to 7. If new parliamentary elections were to take place today, Hamas would receive 35%, Fateh 42%, other electoral lists combined 12%, and 11% remain undecided. This represents a significant increase in Hamas’s popularity compared to December 2007 when it received 31% compared to 49% to Fateh, 10% to other lists and 11% undecided.

49% say Haniyeh should stay in office as Prime Minister while 45% say he should not. Last September only 40% said Haniyeh should stay as prime minister. By contrast, today only 38% say Fayyad’s government should stay in office and 55% say it should not.

One of the elephants in the room is that the West Bank is not nearly as "moderate" as wishful-thinking Secretaries of State might believe. Even in the earlier municipal elections, Hamas beat Fatah in many major West Bank towns, and Fatah's hold seems to be pretty much Ramallah alone.

If the majority of Palestinian Arabs freely support terrorism, how much are they responsible for the actions of the terror government they support?

The Jewish St. Patty's connection

I heard on a TV show yesterday, and a number of websites confirm, that the idea of corned beef and cabbage as an Irish food is a purely American invention, unknown in Ireland.

Apparently, the Irish immigrants who settled in the Lower East Side wanted to make boiled bacon and cabbage, which is the traditional Irish dish. But they had no real choice but to frequent the many kosher butchers and delis that were owned by Jewish immigrants.

Obviously there was no bacon available at these shops, so they substituted corned beef from the kosher delis, and the rest is history.

UK journalist shows her "objectivity"

A reporter named Louisa Waugh from the Sunday Herald managed to get into Gaza to report on the situation there, and she makes it very clear what her stories will be like:

Gaza is being dragged to its knees in the face of shameful silence from the international community, including the EU. I have no doubt that before I leave Gaza in a few weeks, there will be more power cuts, more pointless civilian deaths, and more deafening international silence.

This story doesn't even mention the word "rockets" - except when referring to Israeli rockets. It is as if jackbooted Israel just decided to enslave a population for no reason except, of course, Jewish racism. She admits that she can only speak to people that are being pre-arranged to speak to her - something any real journalist will chafe under - but since she knows that her stories will be in sync with what she is being fed, she can pretend to be brave by parroting Palestinian Arab talking points.

Even so, interesting facts emerge, despite her spin:

One of my PCHR colleagues estimates that only 3000-4000 Gazans are allowed by Israel to travel outside the Strip. This is around 3% of the population; the remaining 97% cannot get travel permits, so cannot go anywhere.

So thousands of Gazans can travel outside and return? That doesn't sound like a "siege" to me.

Waugh does manage in another story to speak to a rocket manufacturer, and she paints him in a very sympathetic light - and gives useful advice to terrorists:

THE POPULAR Resistance Committees is a close ally of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "Abed", a 28-year-old father of two, is one of the PRC's senior artificers, responsible for devising mines and designing and building rockets and mortars. It was with some surprise, therefore, that he started receiving phone calls from an Israeli spy.
"I was home two weeks ago, getting ready for evening prayers, sitting with my wife and child, and suddenly my mobile starting ringing. He said, I'm Rami, I'm from Shabak the Israeli security agency Shin Bet and I'm responsible for your area. What are you doing? I guess you're with your wife and your two children?' I said no, and he said Yes, your two children are with you, but now you've just moved out of the room'. I said, what do you want? He said If you don't stop your rockets it's only a matter of time before you are targeted'."

Anyone who has ever seen a modern spy movie knows what you're supposed to do next: hurl the phone as far as you can and then dive from the building before it or the telephone explodes. Next, go underground, and never use a phone or a computer again. Abed, on the other hand, merely hung up the phone. Half an hour later he was again nonplussed when Rami called back to continue the chat. "He threatened me again that we have our own ways to reach you, but the rockets we will use to assassinate you will be stronger than before.'"

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Other members of the Popular Resistance Committee reported receiving threatening phone calls - an interesting insight into Israel's capacity to use mobile telephone networks to monitor and, in this case, harass its enemies. But the reaction of Abed and his comrades to their calls from Shin Bet illustrates another aspect of the conflict: the remarkable operational naivety which is often displayed by Palestinian militants, even after scores have already been assassinated by Israel.

"After that I realised that when talking on the phone that someone was listening to me," muses Abed.

"I changed the SIM card, but it seems like they were following the sound of my voice, because even after changing the SIM card I could hear someone was listening. My brother borrowed my mobile, and when he was talking to his friend someone else was talking to him on the same line."

It seems that Abed and his fellow militants do not know that when a mobile phone is connected to a network it identifies itself not only by its SIM card but also with the handset's own unique code. To foil detection it is necessary to change both SIM and telephone, not the SIM card alone.

Isn't it interesting that Israel knows where the rocket manufacturers live - and yet they don't kill them outright? Waugh "knows" that "Abed" should have jumped out of the house when the phone rang, because her knowledge of what Israel is likely to do comes from spy movies. But Abed knows quite well that he is safe as long as he is with his family, a fact that escapes Waugh.

She can't even get basic facts right:

Since the present uprising began more than seven years ago around 4000 Palestinian missiles, mostly Qassams and home-made mortars, have been fired into Israel or its former Gaza settlements and military bases, part of a cycle of bombardment, blockade and invasion which has proved far more injurious to Gaza than to Israel.

Actually, the number of Qassams and mortars to the Negev alone is more than double that number.

Such is the quality of UK journalism - advocating for terrorists and providing them with a willing platform.

HH CLVIII

Haveil Havalim- The Almost Purim Edition is up at Jack's Shack. I am honored to have had two postings chosen for this weekly roundup. Check it out!

In honor of it almost being Purim, I will post the probable lyrics to part of an old Saturday Night Live sketch that is seemingly impossible to find online (from season 5):

Listen to the story about a man named Abdul
Poor Bedouin trying to keep his family full
Then one day he was shooting at some Jews
Up from the ground comes a bubbling ooze
Saudi soda
Persian Perrier
Kuwait Kool-aid

Next thing you know old Abdul's a billionaire
Kin folks say "Abdul move away from there"
Said "California is the place to set your lair"
So they got up and they moved to Bel Air
Next to Beverly Hills that is
Swimming Pools
Movie Stars
Jews

The Bel-Airabs!

They had two episodes, one of which made fun of Abscam (remember that?)

Terrorist life insurance

YNet reports:

The family of Muhammad Shahade, the Fatah and Islamic Jihad man killed by the IDF along with three other Palestinians in Bethlehem Wednesday evening, received a phone call from Hassan Nasrallah's office Friday evening, Palestinian sources reported.

Hizbullah representatives reportedly spoke with Shahade's widow and informed her that Nasrallah decided to designate her husband as a Hizbullah martyr, therefore entitling his family to a "martyr allowance."

"We do not alienate ourselves from our people and we will assume the financial burden involved in this," Hizbullah told the widow.

But that's not the only windfall for the Shahade family, who (the YNet article goes on to say) very possibly was the mastermind of the Mercaz HaRav massacre with Hezbullah help. Our moderate friends from the PA is also paying life insurance to the terrorist's family: (from Palestine lPress, autotranslated):

The Minister of National Economy Kamal Hassouneh on Saturday visited the mourning tent Bethlehem Nativity built in the Bethlehem Nativity Plaza. Hassouna said.. that he had issued instructions to the Ministry to direct crews from tomorrow rebuilding the house of martyr Mohammed Shehadeh destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces last month.

So what exactly is the difference between Hizbollah and the PA again?

Even PalArabs believe that Western aid increases corruption

From Ma'an:

Two out of three Palestinians believe that financial assistance from the West fosters corruption and foments the conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

This is one of the findings of a new report by Fafo, the Norwegian research institute that hosted secret talks between the PLO and Israel in Olso 1993 that later led to historic peace negotiations and the inception of limited self-rule in Palestine.

Fafo's researchers interviewed 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, between 22 February and 4 March, about the political and economic situation in the occupied territories. Most of those surveyed to not believe that aid from the West has improved conditions.

According to the study, 63% think the aid encourages corruption and that the aid does little or nothing to fight poverty. 69% percent believe financial support aggravates the conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

One out of five Palestinian households includes a person who wants to leave, 20% to the West. The remaining 80% of those who want to move wish to settle elsewhere in Palestine or in other Arab countries. Only 42% believe they will get the chance to move.

...Just 44% support Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, down from 77% in December 2006.

Poor Arabs, being ruled by apes and pigs

I had missed this lovely speech given by an elected member of the PA parliament, Hamas member Fathi Hammad, on Al-Aqsa TV last January. It just has so much good stuff that it deserves a wider audience:

The wounded men have sacrificed themselves in defense of the honor of the Arab and Islamic nation, and in defense of the holy places. They have sacrificed parts of their bodies in order to stop the advance of the Jews, who want to uproot you. As you know, the Israeli flag has a star between two blue lines. They want to establish the state of Israel between the Euphrates and the Nile. The Jews want to invade Egypt and Iraq, to destroy Saudi Arabia, and to return to Khaybar.

This is a perfect example of Muslim projection. Muslims believe that every land they ever ruled must remain Muslim forever and that they will come back to conquer it. Since Khaybar was once a Jewish province in what is now Saudi Arabia, it is logical that Arabs think that Jews are pining to avenge their loss of that land to Mohammed in 628 - exactly like many Muslims ache to return to Andalusia, Spain.

Where is your valor? Stop being such cowards. The time has come for you to awaken from this deep slumber. The time has come for your honor, dignity, and valor to awaken. Where are you, Muslims? Are you monotheistic, or not? Are you Muslims, or not? Do you love Allah, or not? Do you love the Prophet, or not? As a sign of your love for Allah and the Prophet, you should sweep away the borders, which were created by imperialism.

Notice again that Hamas is consistent in not desiring a Palestinian Arab state but a pan-Islamic 'ummah.

We are in need of weapons, we are in need of food, we are in need of moral support, as well as support by the media, economic support, medical aid, and support in weapons.

Notice the priorities! And it seems he mentioned one of those priorities twice, just to get the point across.

Therefore, oh Arabs, who number 300 million, you cannot allow yourselves to be ruled by four million brothers of apes and pigs. Where is your nobility? Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? Where are you, oh Muslims, who number one and a half billion, yet you are ruled by four million brothers of apes and pigs?

The hilarious part is that he is describing himself as being ruled by the hated, despised and weak Jews, giving the Jews far more real power than they have ever sought themselves.

Where is your manliness? Where is your nobility? You stand there like women and do not lift a finger. What is the meaning of this apathy? What is the meaning of this cowardice? What is the meaning of this fear?[...]Your armies have become like women, who hide and cannot lift a finger. Your armies, tanks, and planes have become rusty.

The consistent posturing of masculinity is also funny. By putting the conflict in terms of manliness, he is admitting that Israel has made the Arabs look like women in comparison. This is of course a major source of their anger - their emasculation by the hated Jews - but for all of their bluster, they themselves admit it unwittingly in speeches like these. By trying to arouse an animal-like instinctive reaction from his listeners, he is actually insulting them and strengthening the case that they are in fact inferior. Rather than frame the fiery speech in terms of how good Arab culture and the Islamic nation are, he instead unwittingly tells his audience that they are failures, lower in the evolutionary scale than apes and pigs.

This is really a great speech. Watch it to see his frothing anger as he accidentally admits that he and his people cannot compete in today's world.