Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Hostages of Hatred - full documentary

The video I posted earlier about UNRWA is in fact part of a full documentary by Pierre Rehov, called "The Hostages of Hatred," that was made in 2004. It is an excellent and accurate overview of Palestinian Arab history from 1948 onwards.

Here's the entire film:

Thanks to sshender for the link.

Sunni clerics declare new Jihad

From the BBC (h/t Andre):

At a weekend meeting in Istanbul, 200 religious scholars and clerics met senior Hamas officials to plot a new jihad centred on Gaza.

The BBC's Bill Law was the only Western journalist at the meeting.

In a hall crowded with conservative Sunni Muslim sheikhs and scholars, in a hotel close to Istanbul's Ataturk Airport speaker after speaker called for jihad against Israel in support of Hamas.

The choice of Turkey was significant. Arab hardliners were keen to put aside historic differences with the Turks.

As one organiser put it: "During the past 100 years relations have been strained but Palestine has brought us together."

The conference, dubbed the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, also gave impetus to Sunni clerics concerned about the growing power of Hezbollah, the Shia movement backed by Iran, which rose to international prominence in its own war with Israel in 2006.

"Gaza is a gift," the Saudi religious scholar Mohsen al-Awajy told me. He and other delegates repeatedly referred to the Gaza war as "a victory".

"Gaza," he continued, "gives us power, it solves our differences. We are all now in a unified front against Zionism."

In closed meetings after sessions delegates focussed on the creation of a "third Jihadist front" - the first two being Afghanistan and Iraq. The intensity of the Israeli attack had "awakened all Muslims," Mr Awajy claimed.

"Palestine is a legitimate theatre of operations for jihad (holy war)," he added.

Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas leader based in Damascus, challenged Arab governments to "open their borders and allow the fighters to come."

Delegates from all over the Middle East, and from Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia applauded as he stabbed the air with a raised finger and declared: "There will be no agreement with Israel... only weapons will bring respect."

Gaza has opened a gulf between Arab people and their regimes, clerics say

Mr Nazzal told his audience: "Don't worry about casualties."

The 23 days of bombardment of Gaza, in which some 1,300 people, many of them civilians and nearly 300 of them children, are believed to have died, was "just the beginning" of the struggle, Mr Nazzal said.

To laughter in the audience, another speaker noted that twice as many babies were born as children were killed during the war.

Every death, I was told, was a martyrdom on the road to liberation.

For the hardline sheikhs, it was an opportunity to underline what they see as the growing gulf between Arab regimes who are hesitant to back Hamas and the people of the region who, they say, embrace Hamas as heroes fighting against overwhelming odds.

More importantly, this conference represented something of a coup for Hamas. They were promised weapons, money and fighters.

This is not particularly new - it is not as if Muslim clerics were ever moderate towards Israel, as many Friday sermons through the years show.

However, this is noteworthy because the fact is that some of what they say is correct - the people were far more pro-Hamas than the governments, which were more pragmatic. Even Hezbollah, which had promised to send rockets in support of Hamas, decided against it.

One of the ironies from the pro-democracy push that George Bush advocated is that if there were free elections in the Arab world today, chances are that they would be the only elections in history - because the Islamists would win and would never give up their power. Democracy is meaningless without freedom, and the clerics might say they want democracy now but they certainly don't want freedom.

Every "friendly" Arab country is only one bullet away from becoming another Gaza, ruled by Islamic extremists and ready to turn their nations into theocracies. Sure, there would be plenty of average Arabs who would not be happy about it but none of them are as fanatic about freedom as the extremists are about political Islam, making the chances of Arabs getting rid of the mullahs on their own are very slim.

So while there is no additional danger yet to Israel from the Sunnis in Turkey letting off steam and celebrating the deaths of 1200 Arabs, their words do indicate that they have power that can blossom in their own countries if their current leaders make a mistake. And if they take power, all the weapons that we have sold them will immediately be earmarked for Israel - and the West.

Islamist threat forces Israelis to play tennis to empty house

From AP:

Sweden and Israel will play their first-round Davis Cup match in an empty arena next month because of security concerns.
Several anti-Israeli demonstrations are planned during the best-of-five series, which will be played March 6-8 at the 4,000-seat Baltic Hall.
Malmo officials announced the decision after a vote on the issue in the city's recreational committee. The Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Left Party won the vote 5-4 after a long debate.
The committee said it could not guarantee security for the fans.
``It's a high-risk match,'' committee chairman Bengt Forsberg was quoted as saying by Swedish news agency TT.
Only officials, some sponsors and journalists will be allowed to enter the arena.
Carlos Gonzales Ramos, the committee's vice chairman, wanted to call off the match.
``But since it was not possible to do so, this was best result,'' he told TT.

Now, what sort of security concerns could cause such a decision? Could it be because everyone knows that when normal people protest, it is not too disruptive, but when Muslims protest, there is always a decent chance for violence?

Nah. This is simply being careful, nothing to do with the possibility of Islamic rioting and destruction.

(h/t LGF)

Muslim women meet for equal rights

From BBC:

Campaigners from Afghanistan set out the country's new marriage contract. Activists from Morocco explained how they secured wholesale reform of family law.

These were just two of the issues discussed by hundreds of Muslim women who gathered in Malaysia to launch a new global campaign for equality.
Reform of family law is at the heart of the campaign, to tackle what organisers called the "untenable" treatment of some Islamic women.
Polygamy, consent to marry, inheritance rights, custody of children after divorce - all are areas where they want change.
Zainah Anwar is at the helm of the campaign.
She helped organise the conference in Kuala Lumpur, which culminated in the unveiling of a new organisation called Musawah, which means equality in Arabic.
"The disconnect between Muslim family laws that discriminate against women and the realities of women's lives today is untenable and unacceptable," she said. "Women can't take that any longer."
Change on such a grand scale may seem unachievable to some, but Musawah is aimed at connecting Muslim women all over the world and uniting their efforts.
Underpinning their campaign is a new interpretation of parts of the Koran, Islam's holy text.

They believe this is crucial to winning arguments with scholars and politicians.

Good luck convincing the imams to re-interpret the Quran. Here's what happened to two people who merely tried to translate it:

An appeals court in Afghanistan upheld 20-year prison sentences yesterday for two men who published a translation of the Holy Quran that drove religious leaders to call for their execution.

The controversial text is a translation of the holy book into an Afghan language without the original Arabic verses alongside.

There has long been a catch-22 in the idea of modernizing Islam: there is no way to change attitudes without re-interpreting the Quran, and there is no way to re-interpret the Quran without the approval of the most intransigent clerics.

And the most extreme clerics hold veto power over everyone else, because no one wants to be accused of being a kuffir and put their lives in danger.

NY Theatre Workshop interested in Jew-bashing play

From NYT:

Three years after New York Theater Workshop drew protests for canceling “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” a play sympathetic to Palestinians, it is considering mounting a production of a new piece by Caryl Churchill, “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza,” that at times contains images of heartless Israelis.

A spokesman for New York Theater Workshop — known for provocative work like Tony Kushner’s play “Homebody/Kabul” and the original production of the musical “Rent” — said on Tuesday that the workshop was “interested in the play” and was now considering whether a production could be mounted this season.

According to other people familiar with the discussions at the workshop, its artistic director, James C. Nicola, is pursuing the play while mindful of his bruising experience in 2006 with “My Name Is Rachel Corrie.”

The entire text of the play and my comments here; other comments here.

Notice that the article implies that the Rachel Corrie play was controversial because it is "sympathetic to Palestinians" rather than because it is slanderous towards Israelis. The implication is that critics of these sorts of "artistic" ventures simply hate Palestinian Arabs rather than have any legitimate problems with mindless and decontextualized Israel-bashing.

(h/t Tamzen via email)

US senators in Syria while Syria builds WMD plant

Jane's uncovers:

Satellite images from several commercial sources gathered from 2005 to 2008 have shed light on activity at the chemical weapons facility identified as Al Safir in northwest Syria. Imagery obtained by DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1 satellite indicates that the site contains not only a number of the defining features of a chemical weapons facility, but that significant levels of construction have taken place at the facility's production plant and adjacent missile base.

And yet the US continues to send major officials to genuflect at these active builders of WMDs:

A delegation of US senators headed by Benjamin Cardin, a member of the foreign relations committee, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad.
Cardin's talks with the president on Wednesday will focus on bilateral relations, the peace process and regional questions, the US embassy said.

It is the second US Congressional delegation to visit Syria in less than a month and John Kerry, foreign relations committee chairman, is expected to make the country one of his stops on a current Middle East tour.

See Soccer Dad for more on the folly of senators sightseeing in Damascus.

Iranian official calls Bahrain a province of Iran

Bahrain isn't too happy with Iran:

PARLIAMENT yesterday condemned controversial statements by Iranian officials, who claimed Bahrain was actually part of the Persian state.
All 40 of Bahrain's MPs agreed to issue a statement dismissing the statements as a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, an international law that advocates mutual respect between sovereign states.

It follows comments by Hujjat Al Islam Ali Akbar Natiq Nuri, head of public inspection at the office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, last week.

He revived the controversial claims during a speech in Mashhad marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in which he described Bahrain as the 14th Iranian province.

On December 27 last year, IIam province MP Daryoush Ghanbari also claimed Bahrain was an integral part of Iran, questioning what he called the dubious role of the United Nations in establishing Bahrain's sovereignty.

Bahrain has suspended talks with Iran over natural gas imports.

Jordan has condemned the Iranian official's remarks as well, and reminded Iran that they still illegally occupy land that belongs to the UAE.

UNRWA is part of the problem (video)

I wish I knew who made this, but it is pretty good (h/t Israellycool):

Good news links

An Israeli company has signed the world's largest solar energy deal with a California electric company, to power nearly a million homes.

A Portuguese cheesemaker who is a descendant of Jews forced to convert to Christianity 500 years ago decides to get kosher certification.

Technion scientists invent an artificial "nose" that can detect and identify cancers early just from smelling the breath of the patients. The head of the team is an Arab.

An IDF soldier who died in a tragic accident becomes a successful shadchan (matchmaker) two years later. (See also Treppenwitz for a personal angle and observations.)

Now babies can have their own iPods before they are born - and it might save their lives.

The "James Bond" gadgetry of the IDF.

British libraries cave to Muslims

From the Daily Mail:

Librarians are being told to move the Bible to the top shelf to avoid giving offence to followers of Islam.
Muslims have complained of finding the Koran on lower shelves, saying it should be put above commonplace things.
So officials have responded with guidance, backed by ministers, that all holy books should be treated equally and go on the top shelf together.
This means that Christian works, which also have immense historical and literary value, will be kept out of the reach and sight of many readers.
The guidance was published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, a quango answering to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham.
It said Muslims in Leicester had moved copies of the Koran to the top shelves of libraries, in keeping with the belief that the Koran is the all-important word of God.
The report said the city’s librarians consulted the Federation of Muslim Organisations and were advised that all religious texts should be kept on the top shelf.
‘This meant that no offence is caused, as the scriptures of all the major faiths are given respect in this way, but none is higher than any other,’ the guidance added.
Critics said such a move implied religious works should be treated as objects of veneration rather than as books to be read. Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank said:

‘Libraries and museums are not places of worship. They should not be run in accordance with particular religious beliefs.
‘This is violating the principles of librarianship and it is part of an insidious trend.’

"410 children"

On the day that Israel declared a cease fire in Gaza, AFP quoted Palestinian "medical sources" - meaning the Ministry of Health - as saying that there were 1188 dead, including 410 children.

On that same day, Ma'an quoted a figure of 1205 killed - including 410 children.

And on January 19th, two days later, the Palestinian Ministry of Health was quoted by the UN and WHO as saying there were about 1300 deaths - including 410 children.

By February 1, the Arab press was saying that there were 1400 deaths - including 410 children.

It is truly amazing that during the cease fire, the ridiculous sources that reporters uncritically used raised the death toll by over 200 and no one noticed - and they also didn't notice that the children and women dead stayed the same.

I started researching this bizarre "410 children" figure when I saw it quoted as fact by the rabidly anti-Zionist Philip Weiss in his blog, today, even when the MoH figures have been proven to be absurd. Even if you don't accept the IDF figures of 300 total women and children (counting children as under 16, not under 18), the PCHR said that the number of children killed was 280 and at least tries to back up that number.

But why let facts get in the way of insane hate?

More details about the missing Gaza ordnance

I just got off the phone with Richard Miron, UN spokesman in Jerusalem for UNSCO who was quoted in the BBC report about the seven missing tons of unexploded ordnance in Gaza. He said that his only official statement was what he told the BBC, but he did answer a couple of questions.

Miron said that the YNet report was incorrect in saying that UNRWA officials examined the weaponry. The UN Mines Action Team was not the party that found, gathered nor stored the explosives; they did not own the warehouse and never took possession of them. Their job was simply to safely destroy of the material, and Miron did not tell me how exactly they found out about it to begin with.

He also refused to speculate who might have taken the explosives, although I think we all now who that was.

(Interestingly, I had emailed Chris Gunness about the UNRWA connection and he simply emailed back to call a certain number. I assumed the number belonged to Gunness himself, but it was Miron, Chief Public Information Officer of UNSCO, who answered the phone, and whom I had earlier emailed with similar questions.)

Followup: Terrorists recycling unexploded Israeli bombs

As a followup to yesterday's article about Hamas bragging that they got lots of free munitions from unexploded Israeli ordnance, the BBC explains exactly where they got it from:

A large stockpile of unexploded weapons has disappeared in Gaza, before United Nations experts were able to dispose of it safely, the BBC has learned.

The explosives, including aircraft bombs and white phosphorus shells, were fired by the Israeli military during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.
UN officials said they were urgently trying to establish where the arms had gone and have called for their return.
Israel has accused Hamas of taking the stockpile, which was under Hamas guard.
A UN Mines Action Team has been in Gaza since the end of the war, last month, its job to locate unexploded Israeli ordnance and to organise its safe disposal.
Two weeks ago, on 2 February, the UN team was given access to a storage site in Gaza City where more than 7,000kg of explosives were being housed.
They included three 2,000-pound bombs and eight 500-pound bombs, which had all been dropped from aircraft but failed to explode.
There was also a large number of 155mm shells for delivering the incendiary chemical white phosphorus.
Many of the explosives had been collected by the Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip.
The UN staff had been waiting for the Israeli army to allow them to bring specialist equipment into Gaza so they would be able to destroy the explosives safely.
In particular, the team needed explosives or flares to set off a controlled explosion and they needed tools to allow them to extract fuses from some of the bombs.
The UN staff were also waiting for permission from the Israeli military to use two safe areas to dispose of the munitions.
At a meeting last Thursday with the Israeli army, two areas were identified: one in the north, in a no-go area close to the border with Israel and the other near Khan Younis in the south, in a former Hamas training area.
On Sunday, when UN officials returned to the warehouse, which was under a Hamas police guard, they say they found most of the explosives had gone missing.
Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said the stockpile had been "commandeered by Hamas".

And why exactly did the UN allow Hamas to "guard" seven tons of explosives?

(h/t Callie)

Guess who wrote these words?

Try to guess what organization wrote these words in their press releases during January:

Zionist killing machine aimed at medical staff and drug stores

The [Zionist] forces of Nazi oppression, which has taken upon itself to destroy crops and cattle, adding to its black record every minute a new shameful affront to civilization and humanity. A new Holocaust in Gaza, the indiscriminate targeting of elders, women and children.

Army of the Nazi occupation attacks children and women

Seems that there is no sanctity of anything in this war declared by the barbaric Zionist killing machine on the defenseless people of Gaza Strip...every hour there was a massacre.

Was it Hamas? Islamic Jihad? Iranian TV?

No, these press releases were from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, of the moderate PA, reporting to peacemaker Mahmoud Abbas, whose webpage is plastered with pictures of dead children.

Reading their words does not make one think that they would be the most reliable sources for objective information.

Yet it just so happens that the Palestinian Ministry of Health was the "official source" for most media outlets during the Gaza operation when they counted the number of casualties. They were the ones that insisted that one third of the dead were children. And they were also the source used by the UN's John Holmes when discussing how many casualties were civilians - even when the somewhat less biased PCHR reports were out that showed the MOH to be exaggerating.

Journalists can be forgiven for using MOH's figures as long as they identify the source and indicate the possible bias. But when they use them as fact, they are simply part of the problem.

PA arrests and beats shoe-throwing teen

From JPost:

A Palestinian boy who threw a shoe at the car of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad has been arrested by the PA security forces.

The boy was identified as Saher Ahmed Muhaisen, 15, from the Dehaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem.

The incident occurred last Thursday while Fayad was in Bethlehem to attend a conference of Christian community leaders.

Sources in the city told The Jerusalem Post that Muhaisen hurled his shoe and an orange at Fayad's car as his convoy passed through one of the main thoroughfares. No one was hurt.

They said that PA policemen and security officers accompanying the convoy arrested the boy after chasing him through the alleyways of the camp.

The sources quoted eyewitnesses as reporting that the boy was severely beaten before being taken into custody. The boy remains in prison, and the motive for his attack on Fayad remains unclear.

A Palestinian journalist living in Bethlehem told the Post that he and his colleagues have been warned by the PA security commanders not to report on the incident.

The journalist, who asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety, said that Fayad's convoy was attacked on two other occasions.

"Each time the convoy passed through the main streets, young men would throw different objects, especially vegetables, at the cars," he said.

The journalist added that the PA police have so far arrested eight suspects, including Muhaisen, in connection with the assaults. He said the families of two other teenagers have refused to hand their sons over to the security forces for questioning about the attacks.

According to the sources, all the suspects are minors.

A senior PA official in Bethlehem said the suspects were detained for throwing vegetables at vehicles belonging to the security forces in the city. He refused to say whether the attacks were directed against Fayad's heavily-guarded convoy.

Asked why the PA has refrained from informing the public about the alleged incidents, the official replied, "This is not an important issue and we don't think there's a need to publish it. It's just a trivial matter concerning thugs."

I found this mentioned in the Arabic press - only after the Jerusalem Post report, and only quoting from it.

The anti-Fatah Palestine Today mentions the JPost story, as does the independent Al-Quds newspaper. Ma'an, Firas Press and Palestine Press Agency do not.

Freedom of the press is still dead in the "moderate" PA.

PA accuses UNRWA of illegally selling aid

From Ma'an:

UNRWA has begun investigating PA Ministry of National Economy accusations that the agency has been importing private-sector goods under its name behind the back of the ministry, Undersecretary of the Ramallah-based government office Nasser As-Sarraj said on Monday night.

As-Sarraj, part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry in Gaza not to be confused with the separate Ministry of National economy of the de facto Hamas government in the same area, said UNRWA has been caught selling rice and sugar to local merchants without coordinating with the ministry first.

When contacted, UNRWA spokespeople said they had not heard of any such accusations and were unaware of any ongoing investigations of Gaza staff.

As-Sarraj said UNRWA employees were involved in bringing truckloads of goods into the Gaza Strip under title of the agency and selling them to the private sector, and called the act “illegal.” He said he brought the accusations to UNRWA’s attention Monday night.

“We seized three truckloads of rice and sugar [being sold to] merchants of the private sector through UNRWA, and the [PA] coordination committee had no idea. UNRWA does not have the right to use its special position [in the Strip] to engage with the private sector.”

Whether or not these accusations are true, the very fact that they exist is evidence that UNRWA in Gaza is firmly on Hamas' side.

How Will Nassur Die? [new EoZ video]

Terrorists recycling unexploded Israeli munitions?

According to an article in the Islamic Jihad-oriented Palestine Today, the percentage of unexploded IDF ordnance in Gaza is considered a "gift from the sky:"

Abu Maaz of the resistance in the zz el-Deen al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades of the military wing of Hamas made clear that dozens of missiles and rockets by Israeli aircraft over the Gaza Strip in the recent war did not explode, and Hamas was quick to dismantle them and use the material that is inside.

He said: "After the war of aggression was stopped, we discovered dozens of rocket-propelled grenades which did not explode ... a gift from the sky. We in the resistance, we found the treasure trove".

"Abu Anas", an expert in explosives engineering al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed that the resistance is in the process of dismantling the missiles that did not explode, and making use of inside and outside.

Abu Anas noted that 5% of the rockets shot by Israel did not explode...

They go on to say that since there is a scarcity of raw materials in Gaza to manufacture missiles, these will come in very handy.

They also quote a YNet article about this phenomenon, which I could not find in English.

Does Hezbollah have anti-aircraft weapons?

The LA Times blog says:

Hezbollah said it has a right to acquire and use antiaircraft weaponry against Israeli warplanes, in a ceremony commemorating assassinated leaders of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group.
"We have the right to possess any weapons including air defense arms, and we have all the right to use these arms if we wished to," Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah said to crowds in the southern suburb of Beirut, which is the group's stronghold.

Nasrallah did not confirm or deny whether the group had acquired antiaircraft missiles but said that Hezbollah has built its successes on the "basis of surprises."

Israeli warplanes have launched regular flights over Lebanon since the 2006 war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.

Nasrallah said that Israel's superiority in its wars is only due to its air force, adding that Israeli ground troops have proved their weaknesses during the 2006 war and the latest offensive on Gaza.
"If the air equation changes, the equation for the whole struggle changes," he said.

Al Quds - Arabic seems to have understood Nasrallah a little differently, assuming that the autotranslation is correct:

Secretary-General suggested the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, on Monday evening that "the resistance in Lebanon has anti-aircraft missiles," saying that "resistance to the full right to possess such a weapon."

It is interesting that the Lebanese government doesn't seem to have any reaction to an extra-governmental militia gaining such capabilities.

It will also be interesting to see if UNIFIL - which is supposed to guard against such things - has any reaction.

Latest on UNRWA school casualties

Following up on the IDF report that the Arab-sourced casualty numbers from Gaza are completely wrong....

From JPost:

Amid controversy over the number of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded during Operation Cast Lead against Hamas last month, the United Nations is working on compiling its own report to determine the exact figure.

Work on the UN figures is being led by the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO).

UN officials said Monday that researchers were scouring data on the number of casualties provided by the Palestinian Health Ministry, the IDF and Gaza-based human rights organizations. The work is complicated and will last several weeks, if not months, one official said.

Isn't it amazing that uncritical belief in bogus statistics takes no time at all, while doing actual research takes months?

Even so, the UNRWA has already told me that they stand by their figures of 30 killed initially at the UN school, without being able to tell me how they came up with that number.

"It [the IDF report] prompts inquiries," a UN official said. "The UN is researching from various sources the number of casualties to gain clarity on the number of people who were killed in the conflict."

Yet if the IDF hadn't done some research, the chances that the UN would have cared to check is somewhere between zero and none.

Defense sources also reiterated their earlier claim that three civilians and some nine terror operatives were killed in an IDF shelling near a UN school in Jabalya in early January, and not 40 or more people as was widely reported at the time based on Palestinian claims.

A New York Times report from the Gaza funeral after the incident stated that "the row of bodies [were] uncountable in the press of the mourning crowd" and cited reports that as many as 40 people were killed in the shelling outside the school. It said Palestinian hospital sources reported that 10 of the dead were children and five were women, and quoted one mourner who said she had lost nine members of her extended family, age three to 25.

The defense sources Monday said that the IDF had studied the incident and was adamant that its figures were correct.

It would take guts for the IDF to make such a claim if there were really 30-40 dead, and their credibility would take a huge hit if they were found to be wrong. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same for the Palestinian Arab side - although their credibility for casualties has been nil for years, the press is always eager to report their accusations as facts.