Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Amnesty International likes some illegal settlements

From Arutz-7, June 3:

The fledgling neighborhood of Maoz Esther, outside Kochav HaShachar, has been destroyed by government forces for the second time in one week. This time, police rounded up residents as the demolition took place at 10:00 a.m., and cut off water and electricity to the area before leaving.

From Amnesty International:

The soldiers also confiscated a water tank, a tractor and a trailer, which the villagers used to bring water from several kilometres away. They are not allowed access to local wells. The villagers are now without shelter and a source of water during a season of high temperatures.

Many of these families have had their homes destroyed multiple times in recent years and all of them face the prospect of further displacement.

House demolition, like the denial of access to land and water, has long been used by the Israeli army and authorities to force the local population off the land. After each demolition, the families rebuild their homes either in the same place or nearby, but they are now finding it increasingly difficult to survive in the area.

Wow...is Amnesty International concerned about people who lose their houses that they keep rebuilding illegally?

Not quite. The Amnesty article is not about Maoz Esther, but about houses built illegally by Arabs in Ras al-Ahmar in the West Bank.

Any way you look at it, the houses are illegal and the government in charge of the area has the right to destroy buildings built illegally. Israel is not demolishing any of the 98% of Palestinian Arab homes that are under PA rule - and no doubt a functioning PA would be doing the exact same thing to houses built without proper permits.

Somehow, I don't think we will be seeing any Amnesty articles about Jewish families being evicted from the homes they keep rebuilding against the wishes of the current Israeli government. On the contrary, Amnesty purposefully ignores them in saying "Successive Israeli governments from across the political spectrum have all backed construction and expansion of unlawful settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)" without even a footnote to mention the many Israeli communities destroyed by Israel in recent years.

Moreover, Amnesty writes

Though they are very isolated, the villagers are determined to remain in the area where they have lived since long before the Israeli army occupied the OPT in 1967.

Would Amnesty make the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria who lived there before 1948 sound so heroic for being determined to return to their homes?

More on Islamic "tolerance"

From the NYT:

With all his references to the history of Islam and to its (questionable) “proud tradition of tolerance” of other faiths, Mr. Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.
Nor did he bother to mention that with this flight and expulsion, Jewish assets were — let’s call it by its proper name — looted. Mr. Obama never mentioned the belongings I still own in Egypt and will never recover. My mother’s house, my father’s factory, our life in Egypt, our friends, our books, our cars, my bicycle. We are, each one of us, not just defined by the arrangement of protein molecules in our cells, but also by the things we call our own. Take away our things and something in us dies. Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn’t die right away; it took four decades of exile to finish him off.
Mr. Obama had harsh things to say to the Arab world about its treatment of women. And he said much about America’s debt to Islam. But he failed to remind the Egyptians in his audience that until 50 years ago a strong and vibrant Jewish community thrived in their midst. Or that many of Egypt’s finest hospitals and other institutions were founded and financed by Jews. It is a shame that he did not remind the Egyptians in the audience of this, because, in most cases — and especially among those younger than 50 — their memory banks have been conveniently expunged of deadweight and guilt. They have no recollections of Jews.
In Alexandria, my birthplace and my home, all streets bearing Jewish names have been renamed. A few years ago, the Library of Alexandria put on display an Arabic translation of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” perhaps the most anti-Semitic piece of prose ever written. Today, for the record, there are perhaps four Jews left in Alexandria.
When the last Jew dies, the temples and religious artifacts and books that were the property of what was once probably the wealthiest Jewish community on the Mediterranean will go to the Egyptian government — not to me, or to my children, or to any of the numberless descendants of Egyptian Jews.
It is strange that our president, a man so versed in history and so committed to the truth, should have omitted mentioning the Jews of Egypt. He either forgot, or just didn’t know, or just thought it wasn’t expedient or appropriate for this venue. But for him to speak in Cairo of a shared effort “to find common ground ... and to respect the dignity of all human beings” without mentioning people in my position would be like his speaking to the residents of Berlin about the future of Germany and forgetting to mention a small detail called World War II.

The UN. What a joke.

This press release from the UN tells you pretty much everything you need to know about that bloated, ineffective organization:

JAKARTA, Indonesia, 8 June -- The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine this afternoon heard presentations of four experts, including Israeli and Palestinian, on the theme "International efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine".
A journalist from Israel pointed out that the two-State solution was generous to Israel, as it acknowledged that history could not be undone. The reason why Israel did not accept that solution was, according to her, because it would threaten Jewish contemporary thinking in Israel as it would leave the future out of control of the hegemonic Jewish authorities.

And who was this Israeli journalist who happily represented her country in this meeting?

AMIRA HASS, journalist for the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, said people were often lost in formulas. It was necessary to take the reality out of standard and confusing language. The two-State solution was not just a mantra, she said, but posed a deep historiography of the conflict, different from the one used by the Israelis or the Palestinians. That solution said that Israel was part of the colonialist period. Zionism was both a product of European colonialism and also of the prosecution of the Jews with its culmination in the Nazi industry of murder.

Ah, it's one of Ha'aretz' most pro-Arab and anti-Zionist reporters!

Besides the fact that the UN creates a "balanced" symposium by including three Muslims and a far-left anti-Zionist Israeli, think about the name of the conference:

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine

The UN cannot find enough calendar days in the year to overemphasize the plight of a single group of people who get a hugely disproportionate amount of attention, money and sympathy. It has to convene meetings about the issue all over the world in order to keep people's attention riveted towards this unique group of people, at the expense of the dozens of groups who deserve far more.

Can you imagine a more worthless organization than one that can come up with this idea for a meeting?

If life were discovered on Mars tomorrow, you can be sure that the UN-sponsored Martian symposium on Palestine would not be far behind.

"Islam can conquer Europe peacefully!!"

I just read an absurd article in Iran's PressTV, named "The Palestinian story: Judaization of our lands," that does an interesting job distorting the history of Zionism (one classic quote: "Although they had agreed to put the rest of Palestine under an undefined international administration, Britain decided to conquer the area and in late 1917 their soldiers laid foot on the lands of our beloved al-Quds -- which they now call Jerusalem." As if the name Jerusalem didn't exist before 1917!)

But even more interesting than the article was one of the comments afterwards:

Islam can conquer Europe peacefully!!
Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:17:39 GMT
JUST BE SMART!! It is easy. No Suicide Bomber. No Terrorism attacks. Just marry Healthy Westerners and convert them to Islam, have as MANY CHILDREN AS POSSIBLE from them! Zionist jews are already doing this in Palestine! Jewish Rabbis are already encouraging Jewish women to have 12 children each in order to form MAJORITY and populate all Palestine with jews. Europe and America will be Muslim in 30 years if you do this. Good luck to all Muslims!

Jordanians insisting on examining brides' hymens

Islam Online (Arabic) has a story saying that in the past year in Jordan, potential in-laws have forced some 1200 prospective brides to undergo a "virginity exam" - and have the doctor report the results back to them.

A number of doctors and clerics are sharply critical of this system, saying that it is an unacceptable breach of women's dignity.

In some Arab countries, women undergo surgery to restore the appearance of virginity - and not doing so could cause them to be victims of "honor killings."

French company succumbs to Israel boycott

From Ma'an:

Under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners, a French company is poised to withdraw from the controversial Jerusalem Light Rail project that links the city center to illegal West Bank settlements.

The company Veolia, which was supposed to operate the transport system after its construction, is now abandoning the project and also seeking to sell its 5% stake in Citypass light rail consortium, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Campaigners in Europe targeted Veolia and another company, Alstom, over their involvement in the project, ultimately causing Veolia to lose 7 billion US dollars in contracts in Bordeaux, Stockholm, and West Midlands, England. Dutch activists also convinced a Dutch bank to divest from Veolia.

The US government penalizes companies that adhere to the Arab boycott against Israel.

Veolia has many transportation projects in the US.

Perhaps someone should inform the Bureau of Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce?

Boycott Alert

U.S. companies continue to report receiving requests to engage in activities that further or support the boycott of Israel. U.S. companies may receive similar requests in the future. If you have questions, please call (202) 482-2381 and ask for the Duty Officer or you may contact us by email.

Open thread, plus "collaboration"

I keep forgetting about the Power of the Open Thread.

Feel free to post links, have civil discussions and order pizza for everyone.

Oh, and check this out: Hamas is accusing some Gazans of "collaborating" - with the Palestinian Authority.

Nice link

I have no time to blog but I liked this story at The Muqata.

The word "extremist" has radically different definitions when talking about the Jewish variety and the Arab one. One does everything he can to kill civilians on the other side; the other does everything he can to save them.

The "magic key"

From the Saudi Gazette:

King Abdullah told US President Barack Obama during last week’s meeting that Arab patience was “running out” and that solving the Palestinian issue was the “magic key” to finding solutions to all other problems in the region, according to sources quoted by Arabic daily newspaper Al-Hayat on Sunday.

Here are some news stories from today's Al-Arabiya:

* Two people were killed in demonstrations inYemen
* 88 people were arrested during recent unrest in Iran
* Four policemen and two civilians killed in Afghanistan
* Mortar rounds hit the Green Zone in Baghdad. Also a bus station was bombed, killing 7.
* More fighting in Somalia
* Syria is accused of sending drugs to Gulf states via Jordan
* Egyptians fear a coming wheat shortage
* Hezbollah was defeated in the Lebanese elections

Obama could have asked a reasonable question on exactly how resolving the "Palestinian issue" would magically solve all these other problems. But of course, he didn't.

Because, based on his statements, he really believes it.

Once he showed his belief in magic keys, the least he should have done would be to ask the Saudi king for a magic carpet, too.

Egypt bans marriage to Israelis

President Obama said in his speech in Egypt that "Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance."

Was he aware of this when he spoke those words?

After the verdict was read in the Cairo courtroom, Nabih al-Wahsh, an Egyptian attorney, jumped for joy and received an avalanche of telephone calls from friends congratulating him on his latest legal victory.

Al-Wahsh has managed to extract a ruling from Egypt’s Administrative Court — which rules in disputes between citizens and the state — that would force the Egyptian government to strip Egyptians married to Israelis of their Egyptian citizenship. The May 19 ruling was met with the cheers of millions in this populous Arab country.

“This is an historic ruling,” al-Wahsh said to reporters after the ruling. “Egyptians married to Israelis are dangerous to Egypt’s national security, acting in ways that contradict the constitution of their country and Islamic laws,” he said.

Calls flooded into TV talk shows discussing the verdict and readers posted comments on Web sites of newspapers that wrote about it.

Everyone appeared united in elation at the ruling, as well as in hatred of the Jewish state and everything that related to it, even if it was originally Egyptian.

“Israel clamors to become an integral part of the Arab world and to do so it lures Egyptians to get married to its women,” one reader wrote to a local newspaper, commenting on the ruling.

A second writer warned against Israeli plans to use Egyptians married to Israelis as spies, while a third said the sons and the daughters of these people would one day claim property in Egypt, something that would “ease Israel’s hegemony over Egypt yet again.”

It turns out that this verdict from late May affects mostly Egyptian men who marry Israeli Arab women.

Shukri Shazly, who has lived in Israel for the last 15 years, says he won't be stripped of his Egyptian citizenship without a fight.

Shazly, who is married to an Israeli Arab and has four daughters here, was "embarrassed" but not surprised by the Cairo Administrative Court decision last week that called for the implementation of an old law that would strip citizenship from Egyptians married to Israelis, as well as from their children.

"This judge didn't study the issue correctly. And that is the reason for my embarrassment and regret. This is all ignorance and backwardness… Egypt is like that," he told The Jerusalem Post Thursday from the home of an Egyptian friend.

"The superficiality is clear from the decision... They always forget human rights. They always forget about freedom… They always do everything according to their mood and their feelings. But laws should be the determining factor, not our moods, nor our opinions."

Only the eldest of Shazly's four daughters has Egyptian citizenship, while the others are Israeli citizens. While he prefers that his daughters only have Israeli citizenship, he believes no one has the right to strip him or anyone else of their Egyptian citizenship.

"I don't care about the certificate [passport] but we are Egyptian," he said. "Being Egyptian is something inside of us."

Shazly, who is the president of the Association of Egyptians in Israel, estimates that he is one of between 6,000 to 7,000 Egyptian citizens married to Israeli women and living in the country legally.

He believes that another 4,000 to 5,000 Egyptians, either married or single, are living in the country illegally.

So there are about 10,000 Egyptians living in Israel.

There are about 100 remaining Jews living in Egypt.

What a great example of Islamic tolerance!

(Arab comments from Al Arabiya on this story are classic.)
(h/t Andre)

PalArab woman facing death for "collaboration"

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian woman is currently on trial on charges of collaborating with Israel, court officials told AP on Sunday.

The woman could face the death penalty for passing information to Israel, according to the same report. It is rare for women to be convicted as Israeli spies.

Court officials told AP that the 22-year-old woman was recruited as a collaborator after obtaining a divorce from her husband, who forced her to work as a prostitute, making her a social outcast.

The issue of collaborators is sensitive, because Palestinian fighters have been jailed or killed by Israeli forces based on information supplied by spies.

Of course, many innocent Israeli lives have been saved because of "collaborators," but you won't ever hear Palestinian Arabs consider that a good thing.

Also, does anyone think that her ex-husband is in jail or under investigation for forcing her into prostitution?

The elephants are still in the room

In January 2008, I wrote a post called "Ignoring elephants" that listed ten major issues that those who are hellbent on a "peace process" find convenient to ignore. With the new administration's emphasis on this same failed "peace process," it is worthwhile to update it.

Sadly, seventeen months later, it requires very few changes, and we can even add a few.

In the reckless chase for Middle East peace, the number of elephants in the room is increasing exponentially. But the ability of the "peacemakers" to ignore them rises to the occasion.

Elephant 1: Hamas controls Gaza

Every peace plan includes Gaza in a Palestinian Arab state, and none of them has any provision on how to handle the fact that Gaza is a terrorist haven, in much worse shape since Israel uprooted the settlements there, controlled by a terrorist group that has no interest in restraining the even-more extremist terror groups that thrive there. Peace is impossible with this elephant, so it is easier to pretend it isn't there.

Elephant 2: Palestinian Arabs elected a terror government

In the only fair, democratic elections in the territories, the Hamas terrorists were chosen by the people. Poll after poll shows that Palestinian Arabs support terror in Israel itself. The elections proved that the conventional wisdom was wrong - and the conventional wisdom proceeded to ignore it.

Elephant 3: The current PA government was not elected

This corollary to Elephant 2 means that the current people negotiating for the Palestinian Arabs do not represent the people. Even if they sound moderate or compromising, they have no mandate. Negotiating with them is, literally, meaningless.

Elephant 4: The current PA government has almost no power

Outside of Ramallah, the Fayyad/Abbas government has little popular support and little power. Hamas is a very real threat to the PA in the West Bank and is quietly building its base. The attitudes that forced the PA to abandon Gaza - a lack of passion by people for its positions - could very well play out in the West Bank as well.

Elephant 5: The PA is being kept alive by artificial methods

The PA budget is bloated from "payroll" of non-working workers - but if they would slash the payroll, the people on international welfare would revolt. So the very basis of the organized Palestinian Arab workforce is a fiction being kept barely alive by ever-increasing infusions of cash with no real plan to fix the problem.

Elephant 6: Fatah remains a terrorist group paid by the PA

Despite the recent claims that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has dismantled, it is a joke meant to appease the wishful-thinkers. There has been no serious move by the PA against terror except for its tit-for-tat arrests of Hamas members in the West Bank, and its moves have been almost wholly cosmetic and aimed for Western consumption rather than real fighting against terror.

Elephant 7: The first - and second - stages of the roadmap were never implemented

The entire point of the road map was to slowly build confidence, starting with the end of terror and incitement on the Palestinian Arab side, afterwards building a "provisional" state and only then going to final-status negotiations. By skipping to Phase III as if the other two phases were already in place, the entire exercise is simply a joke. Incitement remains at full blast and the slight lull in terror is tactical, not a sea-change in Palestinian Arab attitudes.

Elephant 8: The PA's goal remains the destruction of Israel

Whether it is by "right of return" or not changing the Fatah charter or by printing map after map showing no Israel, even the most moderate Palestinian leader clings to the idea of destroying Israel, and looks upon a Palestinian Arab state as only one stage in the process.

Elephant 9: Jerusalem

Most Israelis want a unified Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Most Palestinian Arabs refuse to accept anything less than all of Jerusalem as the capital of a Muslim state. The positions are not compatible and a compromise will not reduce the chances for violence - it will increase it.

Elephant 10: What happened to Gaza

Forgetting Hamas for now, the time period between Israel's dismantling settlements in Gaza and the Hamas takeover is instructive as to how Palestinian Arabs take advantage of territory they gain. They didn't build new houses or communities to reduce the "refugee camp" population, no schools or hospitals. They destroyed the greenhouses purchased for them by American Jews; they turned beautiful former settlements into training camps for terror - in other words, Israel's last major concession not only didn't help achieve peace, it ended up encouraging terror. Any claims that something similar wouldn't happen in the West Bank is the triumph of wishful thinking over experience.

Elephant 11: Palestinian Arab "unity"

Related to Elephant #1. No peace plan can work unless Hamas and the PA/Fatah reach some sort of unification agreement. This is not possible in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Hamas is powerful enough that any such agreement must include a hardening of positions that would be completely incompatible with the basic demands for peace - renunciation of terror, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements.

Elephant 12: The Palestinian Arab "diaspora" and Arab intransigence

Any final peace agreement would mean that Arab countries could no longer justify keeping Palestinian Arabs in "refugee camps" not could they justify their continued refusal to discriminate against Palestinian Arabs from becoming citizens of their countries should they want to stay. The millions of PalArabs in the Middle East becoming citizens would not be accepted by many Arab countries as it would endanger their own tenuous holds on power.

Elephant 13: Economics

Some 16 years after Oslo, the economy in the territories is still close to non-existent and wholly dependent on foreign aid. Not only is there no free market, there is no incentive to build one as the very mentality of Palestinian Arabs and their leaders is one of welfare rather than responsibility. All the plans to create a Palestinian Arab state do not consider Day 2 and how such a state would be able to sustain itself. The expected influx of hundreds of thousands of people from "refugee camps" would make it even worse. It would take at least a generation to turn the poisonous attitude of entitlement around.

Elephant 14: Gaza demographics

Gazans have no room to expand as their numbers continue to grow. Theoretically they could move to the West Bank but only a small percentage would. This is another Day 2 powder keg that is being ignored in the interests of a "solution" of a "Palestinian state."

Elephant 15: Palestinian Arab leaders never showed interest in independence

The West assumes that the goal is an independent Palestinian Arab state where Arabs no longer have to live under "occupation." But the actions and words of Palestinian Arab leaders have never borne that goal out; they have not worked towards building the institutions and infrastructure that would be necessary in an independent state. Their insistence on "right of return" and "Jerusalem" as issues that must be resolved before independence betray their thought processes - inconsistent with independence (neither of which require those two issues to be resolved) and consistent with a desire to destroy Israel in stages.

Interesting Photoshop at Palestine Today

I just saw this picture illustrating an Arabic story in Palestine Today about the "peace process."

At least some Palestinian Arabs are feeling that Obama is on their side....

Saudis confiscate, destroy women's camera phones

From the Saudi Gazette:

Women teachers and schoolgirls in Al-Ahsa were taken aback by a surprise inspection tour of their schools and the confiscation of their camera phones by the Eastern Province’s General Administration for Education.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Milhim, Director of Girls’ Education Administration in Al-Ahsa, said these inspection tours came after the administration had received a number of complaints from the guardians of schoolgirls and women teachers regarding violations taking place in schools including the taking of pictures by some female students and teachers.

Al-Milhim pointed out that education inspectors confiscated the camera phones of schoolgirls and women teachers in schools. He added that only camera phones having women’s pictures were destroyed. However, camera phones that did not contain any violating pictures were handed back to the guardians of the female owners of the phones after making the women and schoolgirls sign a pledge not to violate the regulations.

Al-Milhim added that if schoolgirls and women teachers are caught in possession of camera phones, the penalty for the student might be dismissal from school while a deduction would be made from the salary of the teacher. He stressed that all must abide by the regulations.

Al-Milhim said his administration would continue to carry out inspection tours. He warned against camera phones being taken into girls’ schools in order to protect the interests and rights of both teachers and students.

You read that correctly - the Saudi Education Administration is saying that they need to destroy the private property of women, and punish those who are in possession of camera phones, in order to protect the women's rights!

Notice that they didn't return the "non-offensive" phones to the girls, but to the girls' male guardians. Because, after all, how can they trust such sensitive electronic equipment to mere females?

Rule 5 Sunday (early edition): A Lebanese hookah

(Rule 5 Sunday is my occasional attempt to gratuitously show pictures of attractive women, a la Rule 5 of The Other McCain, while still trying to keep to the themes of my blog, whatever they might be.)

The Arabic Al Quds newspaper often goes out of its way to publish gratuitous pictures of beautiful women, and its readers react in interesting ways.

Here is an article about how cheap tobacco is in Lebanon, how the health warnings are too small to read and how children can get cigarettes easily.

And here is how it was illustrated: with a picture of a woman in a bikini smoking a water pipe poolside at a hotel:

The autotranslated comments are mostly impossible to understand but amusing nonetheless:

By God, it Mowoowoowoowoowoowoowoowoowoowoz Mezzeh Mezzeh

Zail, but you, Al-Quds Al-do an annex of the girls who Ptaamln sex phone numbers and addresses and Heck Petkonowa Yedioth Ahronoth as Srth

Thank you for this photo-Hulwah

God and the strangulation of a girl Btaknq Iajmall

Time God's time,,, put in pictures, there is no picture of this naked for the expression of smoking in Lebanon . Time Aalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllah

If the rest of Cyebsit all the best for that Bacon Bacon uninteresting

They just don't get it

From the Lebanon Daily Star:

US Central Command Chief General David Petraeus told Al-Hayat newspaper in comments published on Monday that the administration of US President Barack Obama considered Hizbullah a terrorist organization, adding that the party did not participate in fostering stability in Lebanon. "Hizbullah's justifications for existence will become void if the Palestinian cause is resolved. Reaching an agreement over a peace process in the Middle East will eliminate several groups' justifications for existence," he explained. Petraeus added that resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will pave the way for Arabs and Muslims to help the US in its war against terrorism.

The biggest single mistake that well-meaning Westerners make when analyzing the Middle East is when they assume that everyone thinks the way they do.

To a Westerner, it seems obvious that organizations that have no logical reason for existence would become irrelevant. In the Arab world, things are quite different.

Westerners look at problems and instinctively try to find optimal, logical solutions. They want to draw a straight line from point A to point B. They create project plans, hold conferences, debate issues, and attempt to make everybody happy - all with the underlying mindset that everyone is like them.

Arabs do not think like we do. Westerners have to stop trying to place the square Arab peg in the round Western hole and actually understand an entirely alien mindset.

(This is not to be judgmental. I am not saying that either way of thinking is superior, just that they are vastly different.)

Westerners need to understand the Arab attachment to symbolism, to pride, and to religion before making such wrongheaded analyses.

To Western eyes, Hezbollah has had no reason to exist ever since Israel withdrew to the UN-drawn Blue Line nearly a decade ago. Yet they do exist today, and they are more powerful than ever. This should be reason enough to look again at what Hezbollah is all about.

The direct method is often the easiest. This is from the Hezbollah Charter:

Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.

Experience has shown that when Arab terror organizations make statements like these, they never retract them.

From an Arab perspective, the "justification" for Hezbollah is crystal clear and explicit: they will continue to exist until Israel is destroyed. For a large number of Arabs, a peace treaty would be, by definition, between Israel and Arab traitors - a useless gesture whose only possible purpose would be to destroy Israel by stages. To them, Israel's very existence is an unpardonable affront to their honor as Arabs. Hezbollah is not Palestinian.

Even forgetting about Israel, Hezbollah has two other purposes that keep them relevant after any "peace treaty:" they aim to turn Lebanon into a fundamentalist Islamic state, and (more recently) they are enabling Iran to increase its influence in the Middle East. (Syria also finds Hezbollah useful to advance its own interests.)

Looking at things from this perspective - most of which Hezbollah says in very clear language - the idea that a Palestinian Authority peace treaty with Israel would weaken Hezbollah is laughably, and dangerously, naive.

UPDATE: Barry Rubin noticed the statement as well.

Obama's deceptive Muslim advisor

The Arabic press is noting that one of the people who worked on Obama's Cairo speech is Dalia Mogahed, an American Muslim advisor of Obama's who wears a hijab "as she walks through the corridors of the White House."

While I have no problem with women wearing a hijab, I do have a problem with Dalia Mogahed.

Mogahed works for the Gallup organization, and last year co-wrote a book called "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think." As I noted in my Amazon review, the book is an opinion piece masquerading as science. She knowingly and deceptively cooked the numbers to make it appear as though a much smaller percentage of Muslims support terror and justified 9/11. She wrote articles claiming that her research showed that "only" 7% of Muslims were "radical" when her own numbers showed that over one third of Muslims found 9/11 to be either completely, mostly or partially justified.

Her reputation as an objective expert gives her all sorts of prestige and influence, yet she has been proven to be a fraud in interpreting her own data. The fact that she is Muslim, rather than validating her as a shining representative of her co-religionists, actually suggects the distasteful idea that Muslims cannot be trusted in reporting objective facts.

NYT repeats an Egyptian journalist's lie

The New York Times surveys reactions to Obama's speech and quotes an Egyptian journalist's blog:

The US President emphasized the historical relationship binding the US & Israel, and condemned the “violence” of Palestinians “who fire rockets at sleeping children” and the “bombing of buses full of innocent civilians and elderly passengers.” It must be remembered that the last Palestinian suicide bombing took place in November 2004, and that their primitive home-made rockets usually don't kill Israelis.

The Times, of course, doesn't bother fact-checking what this "journalist," Jano Charbel, writes.

Well, he's only off by four years and 12 suicide bombings. Since November 2004 we have:

Jan 18, 2005 - An ISA officer was killed, an IDF officer seriously wounded, and 4 IDF soldiers and 3 members of the ISA were lightly wounded in a suicide bombing attack at the Gush Katif junction in the central Gaza Strip. While search procedures were being carried out, the suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body detonated himself. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Feb 25, 2005 - Five people were killed and 50 wounded Friday night, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Stage club on the Tel Aviv promenade at around 11:20 P.M., on the corner of Herbert Samuel and Yonah Hanavi streets. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

July 12, 2005 - Five people were killed and about 90 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside Hasharon Mall in Netanya. The bomber was identified as Ahmed Abu Khalil, 18, from the West Bank village of Atil. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Aug 28, 2005 - A suicide bomber detonated himself outside the Beersheba Central Bus Station. Two security guards who stopped the bomber were severely wounded and about 50 people were lightly wounded or treated for shock. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Oct 26, 2005 - Six people were killed and 55 wounded, six seriously, in a suicide bombing at the Hadera open-air market. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 5, 2005 - Five people were killed and over 50 wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Sharon shopping mall in Netanya. The terrorist detonated the bomb when he was stopped by security guards, one of whom was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 29, 2005 - Lt. Ori Binamo, 21, of Nesher was killed when a terrorist en route to carry out an attack in Israel detonated himself at roadblock set up near Tulkarm following an intelligence tip. A second intended suicide terrorist was also killed in the blast as well as the taxi driver and a third passenger. Three soldiers and seven Palestinians were wounded.

Jan 19, 2006 - Thirty-one people were wounded in a suicide bombing in a shawarma restaurant near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem Battalions of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mar 30, 2006 - Four people were killed when a suicide bomber hitchhiker disguised as an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student detonated his explosive device in a private vehicle near the entrance to Kedumim.

Apr 17, 2006 - Eleven people were killed and over 60 wounded in a suicide bombing during the Passover holiday near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, at the Rosh Ha'ir shawarma restaurant, site of the Jan 19 bombing. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Jan 29, 2007 - Three employees of a bakery in the southern city of Eilat were killed in a suicide bombing. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

Feb 4, 2008 - Lyubov Razdolskaya, 73, of Dimona was killed and 38 wounded - Razdolskaya's husband critically - in a terror attack carried out by a suicide bomber at a shopping center in Dimona. A police officer shot and killed a second terrorist before he detonated his explosive belt. A Hamas statement from Gaza praised the attack, calling it an "heroic act".

And of course there were other fatal terror attacks that were not suicide bombings.

Normally, a lying, terror supporting Egyptian blogger is not worth much attention, but when the NYT uncritically quotes him saying something factual, people will believe the fact.

(The rest of the posting by Charbel also praises terror attacks and pretends that the right to terrorism is enshrined in something called the Common Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights - which he quotes, showing it says no such thing.)

More Gaza culture, kids' edition

At the very same place as yesterday's Islamic Jihad Arts Festival came the end-of-year ceremonies for the Dar al-Huda School.

Here is a dramatization of "What I Want To Do When I Grow Up":

The evil Israelis don't only attack people, but also adorable teddy bears!

"And after we kill the Jews, we can start killing each other! Allah Akbar!"

The 70 virgins start preparing for their weddings:

The future terrorists in the audience weren't impressed with the quality of virgin:

The audience, however, seems just as bored as they are at any other commencement exercises.

Which just goes to show that children wielding rifles, simulated murders and animal abuse just can't excite jaded audiences like this.

Some reactions to the speech from Commentary

Commentary has some nice articles.

Jonathan Tobin:

Speaking of the Arab-Israeli conflict, he says: “If we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth.”
But there is more than one type of blindness. The search for the truth is not merely an exercise in which all grievances are considered the same. To assert the truth of the Holocaust is appropriate — if unfortunately necessary when addressing an Arab audience — as is calling on the Palestinians to “abandon violence” and to cease “shooting rockets at sleeping children” or blowing up old women on buses.

But the problem with this conflict is not that both sides won’t listen to each other or give peace a chance. That might have been a good point to make prior to the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993 when Israel recognized the legitimacy of Palestinian aspirations and began the process of handing over large portions of the area reserved by the League of Nations for the creation of a Jewish National Home for the creation of a Palestinian equivalent. But Israel offered these same Palestinians a state in virtually all of the West Bank and Gaza as well as part of Jerusalem in 2000 and again in negotiations conducted by the government of Ehud Olmert just last year. So, the problem is not that the Israelis don’t want the two state solution that Obama endorsed in Cairo. Rather, it is, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in Washington only a week ago, that the Palestinians aren’t interested in negotiating with Israel.

Even more obnoxious than this refusal to see that the truth about the conflict isn’t to be found through an even-handed “plague on both your houses” approach is his comparison of the Palestinians’ plight to that of African-Americans in the United States before the civil rights era. Israelis have not enslaved Palestinians. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians rests on the latter’s unwillingness to come to terms with the former’s existence. The plight of Palestinians in Gaza is terrible but it is a direct result of their own decision to choose war over peace, not a lack of understanding on the part of the Jews. By going to the Middle East while ostentatiously avoiding Israel and picking a fight with its leadership sends a message that will resonate throughout the Arab world. His signal that America is now an impartial broker rather than Israel’s ally can only encourage a Palestinian people that continue to reject peace.

Jennifer Rubin:

So where does Obama go now? Back to broadcasting his complaints about Israel and insisting on a settlement concession, which is unacceptable to the wide political spectrum in Israel? Or does he declare the whole trip a grand success and go on his way? All of the grand talk and gestures are not simply useless. They convey to our friends and enemies that the administration does not think more than one move ahead, over-values the president’s personal charisma, and is so stymied by the real issues (e.g. Iran’s acquisition of nuclear arms) that it must spend its time excoriating its one true ally in the region. It is an embarrassingly naive episode which, I am sure, will not go unnoticed by foes and allies alike.

David Hazony:

More important, is the weird language about settlements:

The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

What is unclear here is whether he is referring to new construction, new settlements, or the very existence of settlements at all — meaning, are the homes of a quarter million Jews in cities and towns, including throughout Jerusalem, now illegitimate? This would mean a radical break from previous American policy. What on earth could the phrase “It is time for these settlements to stop” mean? Stop what? Existing? Expanding? In so carefully crafted a speech, the ambiguity here seems deliberate.

Rubin again:

The next long section of the speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tour de force of moral relativism — one of the least honest parts of the speech. He is in the even-handedness business so he must distort and shade history to make it all come out even. No mention of the wars against Israel, no mention that Israel offered up the Palestinians a viable state in 2000. No, it’s some sort of weird replay of the American civil rights movement. And sometimes it is downright incoherent...

The Palestinians are enslaved American blacks? Well, we fought a civil war about that for starters so it’s not helping his pacifist theme. Moreover, the analogy is offensive and inapt in multiple ways.

The moral equivalence festival continues: yes, the Palestinians must give up violence and the Jews need to give up the settlements. It’s all one and the same.

Max Boot:

There were other examples of attempts to build false equivalence between the Western and Muslim worlds. For instance, he said: “Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s.” Of course most Israelis don’t deny Palestine’s right to exist as a Muslim state as long as it is willing to live in peace, whereas Palestinian leaders have shown no comparable willingness to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Another example of moral equivalency: “In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians.” That is accepting the (false) narrative of the Iranian Revolution, which holds that America’s role in overthrowing Mossadeq more than half a century ago — a development that would not have been possible had the leftist prime minister not lost support in the Iranian street — is just as bad as the campaign of mass murder and kidnapping that Iran continues to support at this very moment.

Obama also twisted history when, for example, he mentioned how “Islam has always been a part of America’s story.” He said: “In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, ‘The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.’ ” That made the treaty sound like a celebration of American-Muslim partnership when in reality it was a treaty whereby the U.S. paid substantial bribes to the ruler of Tripoli in return for a cessation of attacks on American shipping by his corsairs. Tripoli didn’t keep its promises, and the result was America’s first overseas conflict — the Barbary Wars fought against the Muslim states of North Africa.

Ira Stoll:

During the campaign I had actually defended Obama against those who felt he would be a disaster for Israel. This speech makes me think that may have been a mistake. The only chance now is that this speech will be mere rhetoric, like so much in the Middle East, intended only for public consumption. But if Obama really means it, it is bad news for the Jews in Israel and America, not to mention for American national security.