Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Hack the Fatah elections!

Fatah members trapped in Gaza due to the power struggle with Hamas will vote in their party’s convention by phone and email.

Oh, this is too easy....

"To kill Israeli soldiers is to worship God"

From Al Arabiya:

The audience in the Gaza Strip clapped and cheered as the actor delivered the movie's most memorable line.

"To kill Israeli soldiers is to worship God."

"Imad Aqel", which had its premiere on Saturday, is the first feature film produced by the Islamist Hamas movement and the title is the name of a Palestinian fighter whom Israel held accountable for the deaths of 13 soldiers and settlers.
In accordance with strict Muslim tradition, men and women sat in separate sections of the theatre to view what Hamas officials termed the "Cinema of Resistance", referring to what it describes as a fight against Israeli occupation.

"Imad Aqel" was filmed on a set built inside the former Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

It depicts Hamas's founding in the 1980s, attacks Aqel mounted on the Israeli military in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the signing of the Oslo peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.

The film cost $120,000 and was written by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas, which the West regards as a terrorist group and shuns because of its refusal to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing interim peace deals.

Aqel was killed at the age of 22 by Israeli soldiers who surrounded his hideout in Gaza in 1993.

Four of the actors in the film, which took several months to make, were later killed in the 22-day offensive Israel launched in the Gaza Strip last December with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters.

Majed Jendeya, the movie's German-trained director, said he hoped to screen the film at the Cannes festival in France.

Three deaths and no Zionists in sight

This one was an electrocution.

And a 38-year old man shot and killed his father near Bethlehem.

Also, an Egyptian guard was killed by someone trying to smuggle illegal African immigrants into Israel.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 134.

UPDATE: Ma'an English bulletin says a father killed the son, so the autotranslation might have been messed up.
UPDATE 2 : I was right the first time.

Hezbollah violating UN 1701 (video)

From the Times of London:

These rockets are near the border with Israel:

Surveillance footage, obtained by The Times, reveals that Hezbollah fighters desperately tried to salvage rockets and other munitions from the site, while obstructions were placed in the way of Unifil peacekeepers coming to investigate.

Alain Le Roy, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, told the Security Council last month that the ammunition explosion amounted to a “serious violation” of UN resolution 1701, which imposed a ceasefire and arms ban after the 2006 war.

“A number of indications suggest that the depot belonged to Hezbollah, and, in contrast to previous discoveries by Unifil and the Lebanese Armed Forces of weapons and ammunition, that it was not abandoned but, rather, actively maintained,” he said.

Unifil’s mandate is due to be renewed by the Security Council by the end of this month and Israel is pressing for the peacekeepers to be more robust in stopping Hezbollah and other armed groups form infiltrating the UN-patrolled region south of the Litani river.

But while diplomats negotiate, many believe that it is too late to stop Hezbollah’s build-up.

The group, armed, trained and financed by Iran, has been engaged in a wide-scale recruitment, training and rearmament drive since the end of the 2006 war with Israel.

Although basic training on handling and firing weapons as well as field craft is taught at ad hoc camps in the mountains flanking the Bekaa Valley, more specialised courses are carried out in Iran. Hundreds of fighters have travelled to Iran since 2006, many of them on multiple trips, to acquire skills in bomb-making, anti-tank missiles, sniping and firing surface-to-surface rockets.

Remember this?

Yasir Arafat, September 9, 1993:

The PLO commits itself to the Middle East peace process, and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations.

The PLO considers that the signing of the Declaration of Principles constitutes a historic event, inaugurating a new epoch of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts which endanger peace and stability. Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators.

Mahmoud Abbas, August 4, 2009, at the Fatah conference:

We reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law.

And in a conference that opened up in tribute to "martyrs" who blew themselves up trying to kill Jews, the word "resistance" means....?

And in other Palestinian Arab news....

Hamas stopped elderly patients, women and children from getting medical treatment in Israel over the weekend, fearing that they are really Fatah members going to the conference in Bethlehem. 55 patients and their families clashed with Hamas forces near the Erez crossing. The PA Ministry of Health says that some 13 patients have died from Hamas restrictions on going to Israel. The ministry also says that since Hamas dismissed PA doctors and replaced them with their own, inferior doctors, more patients have needed to go to Israel for their care, costing the PA tens of millions of dollars.

As Gilad Shalit suffers in an undisclosed location, 100 Palestinian Arab prisoners completed their college degrees this year. They also enjoy hot water, radios, Arab TV and portable music players.

Egypt intercepted a shipment of 70 tons of cement meant for Gaza. It is probably a very small percentage, though, because Northern Sinai is now suffering from a shortage of cement as suppliers are selling it all at much higher prices to Gaza smugglers.

Hamas abducted 20 more Fatah members as the Fatah conference began in Bethlehem.

A Gaza ombudsman (who knew?) reveals the incredible fact that Hamas actually tortures prisoners!

PA finally deciding to stop bankrolling Hamas?

The Palestinian Authority has apparently decided to stop paying for Gaza infrastructure as it has been. It will announce at the end of the Fatah conference that it will only send salaries to the 77,000 workers in Gaza who do no work.

More than half the PA budget goes to Gaza, and on a per-capita basis Gazans get twice as much PA aid [from the West] as West Bankers. Two years after Hamas violently overthrew the PA, the quasi-government still pays Hamas for electricity, water and fuel. A prominent Fatah member and ambassador to Beirut described Hamas (sort of) this way: "We see the lion's teeth, and he ain't smiling."

Another source said "I think that this farce must end, and that Hamas bears responsibility towards the people who they [claim they are] responsible for."

Hamas responded to the threats by saying that this only proves that the PA is collaborating with Israel. A Hamas spokesman said this "indicates that the Fatah movement had lost its senses and has started pouring the bulk of their anger on Hamas and the people, especially after failing in all attempts to impose a de facto policy on Hamas." He said that withholding the free money is "blackmail."

The Fatah conference begins

The sixth Fatah conference started today in Bethlehem.

Mahmoud Abbas claimed that Israel had already committed to giving him all of east Jerusalem and was now reneging. In other words, the leader of the Palestinian Arabs is a baldfaced liar.

Abbas also nostalgically recalled the early days of "resistance," which included hijacking and blowing up international airliners and murdering Olympic athletes, as compelling "the whole world to hear the voice of Palestine."

He also referred to Hamas leaders as the "princes of darkness." Hamas had blocked all Fatah members in Gaza from attending, and some 27 had to sneak out of that "open air prison" that Hamas evidently owns the keys to.

Hamas promised to arrest those attending Fatah members upon their return, and reports indicate that Hamas has stopped nearly all patients from going to Israel in recent days in fear of them attending the conference.

A former Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader who is now on Israel's amnesty list called on the Fatah to adopt a "program of resistance" at the conference. He also said “I am happy that our army is trained in Jordan in Egypt, in Russia, in several countries all over the world. In case there is a future war, we will have some people who will be trained.”

Tuesday linkfest

Anne Bayefsky puts together a strong case that Obama has already resigned himself to a nuclear Iran, as he gives the mullahs all the time they need without any repercussions.

Barry Rubin explains why a settlement freeze makes no sense to Israel, even among Israelis who aren't pro-settler.

A British regulator announced the shocking news that George Galloway's broadcasts on Iran's English-language PressTV violated impartiality rules. Who woulda thunk it? (h/t Suzanne)

Daled Amos emails the US Consulate in Jerusalem, and receives a response that the "Consulate General in Jerusalem is the principal representation to the Palestinian Authority." Putting together the facts that the consulate is in both east and west Jerusalem and not in the West Bank, this indicates that US State Department policy is not that Jerusalem is disputed, or even meant to be an international city, but it is entirely Arab. (Daled Amos has a different take.)

Tunnel collapse!

One dead, two injured, three missing in a new tunnel collapse under the Rafah border on Monday night.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 133.

UNIFIL to build apartheid fence against expansionist Zionist cows

This story's got it all: a fence, a border, water, an impotent UN, and, of course, Zionist cows:

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is in the process of erecting a fence in the southern Kfar Shuba area with the aim of preventing cows from Israeli flocks crossing the Blue Line and using Lebanese water supplies, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

The fence, which will be erected by the Spanish contingent of the UN peacekeeping force, will be two meters high and surround the Baathaiil Lake once finished in the next ten days.

A UNIFIL spokesperson told The Daily Star that they are assisting the Lebanese authorities by creating the fence “in order to prevent cattle crossing around the Kfar Shuba region.”

Media reports on Monday suggested that the fence, once erected, will allow Lebanese shepherds to pass over to the opposite side of the lake.

This comes a month after a UNIFIL meeting, in which municipality members urged peacekeepers to keep Israeli cows out of Lebanon by any means necessary.

The Lebanese claimed last month that the thirsty Zionist cows are being protected by Merkava tanks.

UPDATE: According to the LA Times Babylon and Beyond blog, the Blue Line extends through the "lake" (really a pond.) So if UNIFIL places the fence south of the pond it is actually depriving the Zionist cows of their rightful water! (h/t Global Freezing)

Open thread

I've been distracted by Real Life® issues lately, but that doesn't mean you have to be....feel free to paste any interesting links you've seen.

US policy on Jerusalem (Ami Isseroff)

From the Zionism-Israel website:

What George Mitchell is asking Israel to do is to give up its capital city. What are friends for after all, if not to oblige other friends with little favors like that? This is an even handed policy. The Saudis are asked to allow Israeli overflights (and refuse) and Israel is asked to renounce sovereignty over its capital city. Everybody is asked to do something for the cause, and to please smile while doing it.

The heart of the disagreement is that the US insists that Jerusalem is just another "settlement," that the US does not recognize Israeli sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem, and that they can and should dictate to Israel what policies to adopt in Jerusalem and when and where to build. The most recent "misunderstanding" was a public and ugly US protest against removal of illegal Palestinian occupants squatting in propery owned by Jews. It may not be wise for Israel to build in areas that might be subject to future negotiations, but it certainly understandable that Israel will enforce Israeli law, backed by a supreme court decision, in an area that is declared by Israel to be under its sovereignty. There is no misunderstanding. The problem is not that the United States wants Israel to negotiate, but rather that the US is telling Israel and the world that there is nothing to negotiate about in Jerusalem, since the city does not belong to Israel according to them, but to a hypothetical international administration or Palestinian state. This is not a disagreement among friends. It is a hostile diplomatic act. In the 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem, the United States did not once protest any Jordanian action, including the building of King Hussein's summer house, or the wrecking of the last remnants of the Jewish quarter and the Jewish cemetery in the Mount of Olives.

Read the whole thing.

Today's PalArab news

Fatah admitted its failure at getting the international community to pressure Hamas to allow Fatah members to go to the Fatah conference in Bethlehem that starts tomorrow. Hundreds of members are being kept in Gaza by Hamas, who also threatened to arrest any who manage to sneak out upon their return. (Egypt is opening the Rafah crossing today.)

For its part, Hamas continues to arrest Fatah leaders and members in Gaza.

A Christian gold dealer in Gaza was murdered and his body dumped at the beach. These murders always send shockwaves through Gaza's tiny Christian community.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 132.

Hamas close to recognizing Israel? Um, no.

This week's breathless news of new Hamas flexibility came from The Economist:

“HAMAS is very close on recognition of Israel,” says Ahmed Yousef, the Islamist movement’s deputy foreign minister, speaking from the top floor of a high-rise building in Gaza City. “We show all sorts of ideological flexibility on this.”

And for the umpteenth time, Hamas immediately denies ever saying any such thing, in much more blunt language:

Senior Hamas official Ahmad Yousef said on Sunday that the Islamic movement will never recognize Israel, backtracking on remarks printed by the British magazine The Economist.

Yousef said that the magazine misunderstood him when it quoted him saying that Hamas is close to recognizing Israel. He characterized the report as “totally untrue.”

In a statement to Ma’an, Yousef, who is the deputy foreign minister in the de facto government of Gaza, said that “no law” can force Palestinians to recognize Israel. “We can’t admit the existence of the state and the nation that is occupying us. They are the ones that should recognize Palestinian rights,” he said.

Hamas continues to play the Western wishful thinkers like a violin, saying purposefully ambiguous comments that they know will be interpreted as relatively moderate and then insisting that they are just as radical as ever, explicitly, in Arabic.

A page from the Fatah playbook.

Crashed Iranian plane carrying Hezbollah arms?

From YNet:

An Iranian plane crash two weeks ago – which left 168 people dead – was caused by the explosion of sophisticated fuses slated to be delivered to Hezbollah, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Saturday, quoting sources in the Middle East.

According to the report, the pilot of the Tupolev plane, which was making its way from Tehran to Armenia, sent an emergency warning 16 minutes after takeoff. Shortly afterwards, the plane crashed in northwest Iran.

According to the sources, the aircraft was carrying a large number of modern fuses composed of 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives and electrical instrumentation.

The report is in line with testimonies on explosion sounds heard before the crash. According to the sources, the plane was meant to transfer the fuses from Iran to Armenia, and from there to Syria through Turkey, and then on the ground to Lebanon. This route was chosen, according to exiled opposition sources, so as not to draw attention.

According to the report, the transfer of arms was a special operation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and some of its members were among the crash victims. It was also reported that the presence of security forces at the site of the crash was not a coincidence.

This story, released yesterday, has barely made a ripple in the media. I've only seen it mentioned in Israeli media and Al-Arabiya. Even in the immediate post-election Iran, the media is treating the Islamic Republic with kid gloves.

No matter how many people die because of its support of terror.

YouTube video proof that Saudis are really Jews!

If you thought that the video I posted yesterday wasn't proof enough that Saudis really like Jews, then you need to see this YouTube video that proves that Saudis really are Jews!

Because their noses are so similar!

Can't argue with that logic! I guess it is time to convert all Mecca mosques into synagogues...

The stupidity of a pro-Arab professor

The Gulf Daily News had an article by someone named Paul Balles about the fictional disease "Islamophobia." The entire article made no sense, but the upshot is that it is Zionists who are keeping the idea of Islamophobia alive:

Have you ever been short of breath, shaking, nauseated and light-headed in elevators, closed rooms or crowded places? Experienced a panic attack in a high-rise? Do you have an irrational fear of germs? Of strangers or foreigners? Of shadows? Of thunder or lightning? Of spiders? Of public speaking? Afraid of flying?
If you've experienced any of these, you're suffering from a type of irrational fear called a phobia. These are some of the most common phobias. People suffer from literally hundreds of phobias.
A relatively recent irrational phobia that hasn't even appeared on all the lists is Islamophobia - fear of Islam.

Why, after more than a decade, do Westerners still believe these false assumptions about Islam? What are the sources of the baseless fears feeding these perceptions?
Many of the distorted impressions come from Zionist propaganda:

Now look at the examples he gives from "Zionist propaganda:"

Israel's use of words like "disputed territory" rather than occupied, "redeeming" for stealing land, "terrorists" rather than resistance fighters for Palestinians, "anti-Semites" for critics of Israel (or "self-hating Jews" if the critics are Jewish).
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) bulletins and lobbying - AIPAC's only purpose is to ensure American support for Israel. No matter what Israel does, it cannot do any wrong.
American Jewish Committee newsletters - despite efforts by Jewish organisations to stifle criticism of Israel and objections to Zionism, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Not all Jews are Semites. Most Arabs are.

So, according to Balles, Israeli nomenclature of calling terrorists "terrorists" and of calling disputed territory "disputed territory" are obvious manifestations of Islamophobia. He goes on from there down an irrelevant path that shows his complete misunderatdning of basic English, and from there to conflating Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter with Zionist propaganda.

Now, a nonsensical op-ed in a Bahraini newspaper isn't that noteworthy, until you look up Balles' bio:

Dr. Paul Balles has lived and worked in the Middle East for 40 years - first as an English professor (Universities of Kuwait and Bahrain), and for the past ten years as a writer, editor and editorial consultant.

So this is not some Arab writing gibberish, but a Western Arabist professor.

You know - an intellectual.

Slight research shows how rigorous his research methods are. From another article of his, published in The Radical Press:

Israeli educators, scholars and politicians openly advocate the annihilation of all Palestinians. Dr Nachum Rakover, a legal scholar, opined: “They voted for killers and sent them to kill us. To call them [civilians] innocent is a tragic comedy… [C]ivilians are partners of the killers.”
Many other politicians called for the need for “wiping off Gaza from the face of earth”, and “annihilating of every moving thing there”. The right-wing Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman proposed nuking Gaza following the US example when it dropped the atomic bomb on Japan during World War II.
“All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants and even their beasts,” cries the religious opinion of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, the director of the long-established Tsomet Religious Institute.
According to the Pakistan Daily, “Israeli spokeswoman Tzipora Menache stated that she was not worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said ‘You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House.”
Adding to her own boasts, Tzipora Menache said:
You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they [Americans] do to us? We control Congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America, you can criticize God, but you can’t criticize Israel. [all bold is mine. ed.]

As we have previously discussed the Rabbi Yisrael Rosen quote is wholly fictitious, and as far as I can tell, made up by Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper.

The Lieberman quote is similarly a lie. Lieberman called for Israel to force Hamas to surrender the way that the US forced Japan to surrender, and anti-Israel pundits immediately changed that into "Lieberman calls on Israel to nuke Gaza."

How about the quote by "Tzipora Menache"? Here, the scholar Balles goes one better - not only is the quote made up, so is she! Even rabidly anti-semitic websites acknowledge that "Tziporah Menache" does not exist, and they blame this quote on Zionist propagandists (who, they bizarrely claim, are trying to get people to click on Google links with her name to place a virus on their computers.) See this Google search for "Tzipora Menache hoax".

And Balles believes a website with zero credibility, the Pakistan Daily, which regularly publishes anti-semitic articles.

The upshot is that Professor Paul Balles is dumber than the average Rense or Stormfront anti-semite.

Saudis build world's largest menorah!

You have got to see this YouTube video. Even if you don't understand a word of Arabic, you'll get the idea. And the music is just so great.

It is entitled "Wahhabi Saudi Arabia's largest tribute to the land of the Jewish symbol of the Hijaz."

If you want to find this on Google Maps, look for the road that leads from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain; it is just north of that.

From the ground, it is a fairly attractive promenade:

Fatah official calls for closer ties to Iran

Palestine Today reports that Fatah official and former PA minister Hatem Abdel Qader has called on Fatah to forge a strategic alliance with Iran.

He recalled that even though most Arab and Muslim leaders were critical of Arafat's rejection of the Clinton proposal at Camp David, only former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami supported Arafat in his rejection of peace.

Qader also decried how Hamas has taken the initiative in having closer relations with Iran, saying that Iran could help bridge the gap between Hamas and Fatah.

At the very moment when Iran's reputation on the world stage is at an historic low is when Fatah decides this would be a good time to choose to get closer with that regime.

These "moderates" keep getting less and less moderate.