Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My obligatory Ahmadinejad one-liner

Ahmadinejad said that "A Jewish state means a racist regime."

The official name of his country is The Islamic Republic of Iran.

UNHRC fawns over the PA's response to Goldstone

The UN Human Rights Council came out with a report judging the respective merits of the responses by Israel, the PA and Hamas to the Goldstone Report.

It wasn't too terrible in judging Israel's responses, given that it is the UNHRC we are talking about here. They had some good things to say but were still unconvinced how independent the Israeli investigators were and they had other issues like Israel not following up with Arab complainants about the status of the investigation.

And, to their credit, they politely implied that the Hamas investigation was worthless:

86. The Committee also has concerns related to the impartiality of the second Gaza Committee’s investigations. The report did not seriously address the recommendations by the Fact-Finding Mission to the de facto Gaza authorities....This gives the impression that the investigations sought to deflect attention from the alleged violations of IHL and IHRL by the de facto Gaza authorities and raises concerns about their credibility and genuineness.

87. Moreover, some aspects of the report sought to explain away allegations of serious violations of IHL. For example, the second Gaza Committee suggested that the unavailability of modern military technology could not preclude armed groups from defending themselves. This implicitly acknowledges the truth of the allegations in the FFM report that armed groups violated IHL by launching weapons at Israel that were incapable of striking precise targets, while seeking to justify the violation and absolve the perpetrators.

(I cannot find a copy of the Hamas "investigation," the UN did not publish it as they did the others.)

But the UNHRC absolutely loved the PA's investigation.

70. The Committee notes that the Independent Investigation Commission undertook ndependent and impartial investigations in a comprehensive manner that squarely addressed the allegations in the FFM report.

72. Moreover, its report demonstrates that it was thorough. In the elaboration of its methods of work, the Commission set out in detail the process it had followed to arrive at its conclusions. The fact that the Commission was able to undertake some 100 hearings in relation to each of the alleged violations illustrates the comprehensiveness of its work. The Commission met governmental representatives accused of violations, including high-level officials. The steps taken to protect witnesses and safeguard the information it obtained demonstrate its professionalism.

While the PA commission did indeed investigate even the PA itself, it can hardly be considered impartial.

As I posted in August, the PA commission tried to justify Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians by saying that such rockets "cannot be considered a violation of international humanitarian law, per se." Why does the UNHRC notice Hamas' justification for rocket fire and yet ignore the exact same justification done by the PA commission?

Beyond that, the PA commission went way beyond investigations and into squarely insulting Israel multiple times. Here is an example of the PA commission's "impartiality":

The inference from such conduct can only be either that the Palestinians are considered by their occupier as lesser human beings, or that whatever harm is inflicted upon them, no matter how indiscriminate, excessive and disproportionate, is justifiable on the basis of Israel’s exceptionalism and granted impunity.

Is it the purpose of a fact finding commission to judge parties that are not within the scope of its investigations?

The UNHRC shows yet again that even when it tries to appear unbiased, it fails.

HRW calls on Syria to release teenage blogger

From HRW:

The Syrian government should immediately release Tal al-Mallohi, a 19-year-old high school student and blogger held incommunicado without charge for nine months, Human Rights Watch said today. She has been held by Syria's security services since being detained on December 27, 2009.

State Security (Branch 279), one of Syria's multiple state security agencies, summoned al-Mallohi to Damascus for interrogation in December and immediately detained her. Two days later, members of State Security went to al-Mallohi's house and confiscated her computer, some CDs, books, and other personal belongings. Since the arrest, the security services have not allowed her family to communicate with her and have not offered any explanation for the arrest.

"Detaining a high school student for nine months without charge is typical of the cruel, arbitrary behavior of Syria's security services," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "A government that thinks it can get away with trampling the rights of its citizens has lost all connection to its people."

It is unclear why the authorities have detained al-Mallohi. According to her family, al-Mallohi, who is in her last year of high school, does not belong to any political group. Some Syrian activists have expressed concerns that security services may have detained her over a poem she wrote criticizing certain restrictions on freedom of expression in Syria. Her blog, which contains poetry and social commentary, focuses mostly on the plight of Palestinians and does not address Syrian political issues. Her homepage shows a picture of Gandhi with the quote, "you will remain an example."

What is chilling about this case is that al-Mallohi seems to be just an ignorant young blogger. Her blog contains no passionate criticisms of anyone except Jewish Zionists. Her politics seems hardly outside the mainstream for Syrians.

She has three blogs.

The first one she simply titles "My Blog" and it contains some poetry and pro-Palestinian Arab articles. She includes a picture of Raed Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel; some praise for Venezuela and Erdogan, a picture making George Bush look like Hitler and lots of ignorant stuff about Jerusalem and how Jews have no rights there whatsoever and Israeli crimes. She signed her more recent posts "A Palestinian."

There are barely any comments on her posts there.

Her second site, "Palestinian Villages," is supposedly a list of Arab villages destroyed by Israel and their history. It includes a picture of what looks like a variant of Greater Syria.

Her third site, called "Latters" (probably meant to be "Letters") might be the one that is problematic to Syrian authorities. In that blog she writes a series of letters to the human race about human rights and freedom. It is possible that there are some veiled references to Syrian repression in those letters, but, again, this blog was hardly read by anyone judging from the number of comments.

If Syria goes after teenagers whose childish views would be all but unnoticed otherwise, and whose deviation from the Syrian version of political correctness is this slight, then the Syrian regime is even more paranoid than I thought it was. Usually such extensive paranoia accompanies equally extensive feelings of insecurity.

Which means that every citizen of Syria must live in incredible fear.

Lebanon tense following Hezbollah airport incident

Lebanon is on edge after an incident on Friday when Hezbollah acted in direct opposition to the government:

A former Lebanese general who has been summoned by prosecutors for threatening remarks made against Prime Minister Saad Hariri was on Saturday promised protection from arrest by opposition group Hezbollah.

Jamil Sayyed was detained for four years on suspicions of involvement with the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, the father of the current prime minister.
However, he was released in 2009 when the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) ordered his release due to lack of evidence.

Sayyed has insisted that the testimony that landed him in detention was provided by a lying witness. Last week, he publicly threatened Hariri in a press conference.

'I will not be silent until justice is made...' Sayyed said, accusing the younger Hariri of paying for the testimony that put him away.

'False witnesses must be held accountable under the law, or we shall settle the score against them in the street,' Sayyed warned.

Those remarks, including one to take justice 'with his own hands' if Hariri did not admit to his alleged crimes, prompted Lebanese prosecutor Said Mirza on Thursday to summon Sayyed for questioning regarding threats to Hariri and state security.

But, when Sayyed arrived at Beirut's international airport, he was greeted by Hezbollah lawmakers and officials, who escorted him his house amid heavy security to prevent anyone from arresting him.

Hezbollah's move is seen as a repudiation of Lebanon's courts.

Hezbollah issued a statement on Friday saying that Mirza's request to summon Sayyed was 'political,' calling for a reversal of the judiciary's decision to summon Sayyed for questioning.

'Hezbollah fully supports Sayyed,' the statement said, adding that 'any move to take legal action against Sayyed will cause chaos in the country.'

Many observers believe that the situation in Lebanon is critical and similar to the atmosphere that prevailed in May 2008, when gunmen of a Hezbollah-led alliance occupied the Sunni part of Beirut, to protest a decision by the Western-backed government to dismantle the movement's special telecommunications network.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Saturday that 'no one is capable of putting Sayyed in prison.'

Hezbollah's stance was unnerving to some observers.

'Hezbollah's warm reception for Sayyed is viewed as a direct challenge to the the Lebanese authorities and if it succeeds it will be viewed as the end to Lebanon's sovereignty,' a Lebanese government source said.

So far, the Lebanese government response has been muted, although individuals from all parties are (as usual) being quite outspoken.

Hamas denies making Shalit video

Arutz-7 reported that Hamas had created a propaganda video showing a staged execution of Gilad Shalit.

YNet reports that Hamas denied any connection with the video.

In this case, Hamas is probably telling the truth. The person who uploaded the video to YouTube called it "Exclusive video of Gilad Shalit, September 2010" but the video is obviously not real footage but a composite. Although he is a fan of Hamas videos, there is no indication that he is a member.

I see no reason to embed it here; but if you want to see it just click on the uploader's YouTube page.

Shiite cleric insults Aisha, loses Kuwaiti citizenship

From AP:

Kuwait revoked the citizenship of a hard-line Shiite scholar on Monday, accusing him of trying to stir up discord among Muslims by describing the Prophet Muhammad's wife was an "enemy of God."

The Interior Ministry made the decision after cleric Yasser al-Habib attended an event in London dedicated to attacking the prophet's wife, Aisha. Such remarks are considered blasphemous by Sunnis, who revere Aisha as being the most beloved to him.

She is also a divisive character in Islamic history because of her leadership role in battles over who would succeed the prophet in leading Muslims after his death. Those battles divided Muslims into the communities that became known as Shiite and Sunni.

Predominantly Sunni Kuwait has accused al-Habib of similar offenses in the past. In 2004, a Kuwaiti court tried him in absentia on charges of issuing an audio recording insulting the companions of the prophet and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

The Interior Ministry is accusing al-Habib of undermining Kuwait's national interests with his latest remarks and wants him extradited from his current base in London to face a trial, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

"Al-Habib attempted to create discord among Kuwaitis and also threatened the country's interests and security," said a ministry statement carried by the news agency.

Jewish belly dancer performing at West Bank weddings?

YNet reports:

A mysterious belly dancer from Israel has become a recent sensation in the West Bank.

The woman of mystery has become the talk of the town among Palestinians, after appearing in many wedding celebrations and leaving the crowd flabbergasted.

Recently, the woman, dubbed "the Jewish dancer" appeared in a wedding at Bethlehem. Guests who saw her perform said she quickly turned into the highlight of the night, and came up in almost every conversation during the event.

The wedding sensation, whose name and other identifying details remain unknown, reportedly charges an astronomic amount of NIS 1,600 (about $425) for every 15 minutes of performance.

Her much acclaimed appearance in Bethlehem earned her at least NIS 2,700 (about $718) for the night.

Palestinian website PNN also wrote about the mystery woman, discussing whether the Jewish Israeli's presence in the West Bank is legitimate or controversial.

Maybe she should perform at the next round of negotiations.

The PNN article is here. It says that she performed until past midnight in her Bethlehem appearance.

World Bank: Israel is a state without a region (updated)

At the World Bank site, they divide up the world into regions to make it easy to find the country you are looking for information on.

One of the regions is the Middle East and North Africa. Here's the drop-down list of countries there:

A country seems to be missing. Wait, maybe it is listed in one of their Public Information Centers?

Nope, not there.

Israel does have a page and various reports, and within the Israel page it looks like it might be a part of Middle East and North Africa:

Besides the fact that the link to what is supposed to be the Israeli flag is broken, the navigation on this page is not true - you cannot get to this page from Home >Countries > Middle East and North Africa.

On this page, they do say

The MENA Region includes: Algeria | Bahrain | Djibouti | Egypt | Iran | Iraq | Israel | Jordan
Kuwait | Lebanon | Libya | Malta | Morocco | Oman | Qatar | Saudi Arabia | Syria
Tunisia | United Arab Emirates | West Bank and Gaza | Yemen

But their PDF snapshot of the area makes clear that Israel is not in their list of countries of that region.

Isn't that interesting?

UPDATE: When you zoom in on the map of the region, you can see that Israel is explicitly excluded (the white lines of the border take up almost the entire area of Israel but a smidgen of yellow in the Negev shows that Israel is not one of the countries they consider part of MENA):

(h/t Jeanette and Samson)

Making anti-semitism sound intellectual

M. Shahid Alam is a professor of economics at Northeastern University. As a professor, he knows a lot of big words. He's also an academic fraud and a borderline anti-semite.

Check out this recent piece he published at a far-left website where he tries to explain why Zionism was successful and colonial adventures from major world powers were not.(It is apparently an excerpt from a book of his.)

How did the Jewish colons [sic] in Palestine succeed in creating an exclusionary colonial settler state in the middle of the twentieth century, and continue to grow with support from a surrogate mother country, while the French colons in Algeria, the Italians in Libya or the British colons in Kenya had to give up their colonial projects?

The answer to this question is simple. The white colons in Algeria, Libya, or Kenya simply did not have enough influence over the mother country—over France, Italy, and Britain—to overrule what the elites in the mother country had decided was in their interest: to pull out of their colonies. The Jewish colons in Palestine had more power than the white colons in Algeria, Libya, and Kenya. Where did their power come from?

The success of Jewish colons in Palestine and the failure of the colons in Algeria, Libya, or Kenya is a paradox. The French, Italian, and British settlers had a natural mother country, a country of origin, with whose people they shared an ethnic bond. The Jewish colons in Palestine did not have a natural mother country, a powerful Jewish state to support their colonial project. Yet, their colonizing project succeeded, and they drove out the Palestinians to create a nearly pure Jewish state in Palestine. The Jewish colons did not pull off this feat on their own; they succeeded because of their ability to recruit the greatest Western powers, and many others besides, to support their colonial project. Somehow, the Zionists turned what could well have been a fatal deficiency for their colonial project – the absence of a natural mother country – into their greatest asset. They gained the freedom to pick and choose their mother country.

How did the Zionists bring this about? The Jews were not a majority in any country, but there existed a Jewish minority in nearly every Western country. In itself, the presence of Jewish minorities could not have been a source of strength; a weak Jewish minority in any country could do little to help their coreligionists in another country. What made the Jewish minorities different was that they carried a weight that far outweighed their numbers. Over the course of the nineteenth century, they had become an important, often vital, part of the financial, industrial, commercial, and intellectual elites in several of the most important Western countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States. Moreover, the most prominent members of these elites had cultivated ties with each other across national boundaries.

Once these Jewish elites, spread across the key Western countries, had decided to support the Zionist project, they would become a force in global politics. On the one hand, this would tempt the great powers to support Zionism, if this could buy them the help of the Jewish communities, based in a rival or friendly power, to push their host country in a desirable direction. Conversely, once the Zionists recognized this tendency, they too would seek to win support for their cause by offering the support of Jewish communities in key Western countries. ...In September 1917, this competition persuaded Britain, at a difficult moment in the execution of its war, to throw its support behind the Zionist project.

Anxious to conceal the power of the Jewish lobby, Zionists often argue that the Western powers supported Zionism only because the Jewish state served their strategic interests in the Middle East. We have shown that Zionism was in conflict with the long-term interests of Britain and the United States. Exigencies of war and the presence of a strong contingency of Christian Zionists in the cabinet of Lloyd George explain British support for the Balfour Declaration in 1917. On the other hand, the strong U.S. support in 1948 for the partition of Palestine – and later – was the product of a domestic Jewish lobby.

Alam's entire thesis rests on one simple lie: that Zionism is colonialism. Once that idea is accepted, then he must jump through ridiculous hoops to figure out why these powerful Zionist Jews from Europe and the US - so powerful that they couldn't convince their host countries to bomb the railroad lines to Auschwitz - managed to take poor, homeless, oppressed immigrants and place them as white interlopers into an Arab nation and force them to stay while under daily attack by Arabs.

Not even once does Alam consider that the Jews themselves had a millenia-long connection to their own homeland. Never does Alam entertain the notion that only a people who feel connected to the land will fight to the death for it; while the Arab inhabitants who never considered themselves "Palestinian" had much less incentive to stay and fight rather than emigrate to one of the many other Arab countries that they had traversed for centuries.

The anti-Israel crowd will never get it because they don't want to admit that Jews do have a deep, emotional connection to the Land of Israel. French people never wanted to live in Algeria, Italians never yearned for Libya and British never pined for Kenya. But Jews have prayed to return to Zion - daily - since Biblical times. But accepting that Jews are a nation means that Jews have the right to self-determination - anathema to academic fakes like Alam.

This is the "simple answer" that eludes genteel anti-semites like Alam. Accepting that Jews are a nation and are not just a religious group would upset his entire edifice of Zionism as colonialism. Instead he constructs a bizarre scenario, with zero proof: a story of outsized Jewish influence in the West in the 19th and early 20th centuries, where the stupid Westerners were manipulated by clever powerful Jews into supporting a national movement that, according to Alam, was against their own interests!

This pseudo-intellectual is forced to downplay or ignore innate cultural, historic and religious Jewish ties to Israel - all because he wants the world to accept the lie of Zionist as colonialist.

A unique experiment on anti-Israel academics

Backspin points to an interview with Fred Gottheil, concerning an experiment he undertook this year. Here's how he described it in an article earlier this month:

A year and a half ago, January 2009, David C. Lloyd, Professor of English at the University of Southern California, wrote a three-page petition concerning U.S. relations with Israel, which he addressed to incoming President Barack Obama. His petition was endorsed by nine hundred signatories, most located at universities and colleges in the United States, but some affiliated with academic institutions in Canada, United Kingdom, and even Israel.

Lloyd's petition was notable not only for its criticism of Israeli policy -- that is standard fare among the set of academics who subscribe to a post-colonial view of the world -- but rather for its demonizing of the Jewish state.

...[A]ccepting as genuine the petitioners' stated goal of seeking social justice in the Middle East, I thought it fitting to contact the signatories of the Lloyd petition to offer them yet another opportunity to express their commitment to social justice in the region, this time by endorsing a Statement of Concern regarding human rights abuses practiced against gays and lesbians and against women in general in many of the Middle Eastern countries, including the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The idea was really uncomplicated: Since they expressed a concern about social injustice in Israel, they might also be willing to express their concern about human rights abuses practiced against women, gays, and lesbians in other parts of the Middle East.

...Only thirty of the 675 self-described "social-justice seeking academics" responded, 27 of them agreeing to endorse the Statement. But these 27 signatories represent less than five percent of the 675 contacted. In other words, 95 percent of those who had signed the Lloyd petition censuring Israel for human rights violation did not sign a statement concerning discrimination against women and gays and lesbians in the Middle East.

Surprised? If so, prepare for yet a bigger surprise. As many as 25 percent of the Lloyd petition-signing academics were faculty associated with gender and women studies departments. Yet of these, only 5 endorsed the Statement calling for attention to the discrimination against women in the Muslim countries of the Middle East. Put more bluntly, 164 of the 169 faculty who had chosen to focus their life's work on matters affecting women, and who felt comfortable enough to affix their names to Lloyd's petition censuring Israel, chose not to sign a Statement of Concern about documented human rights violations against gays, lesbians, and women in the Middle East.

What should we make of this? Perhaps it is that we should be aware of what we don't see when we see petitions and their signatories. While academics are entitled to voice opinions no less than anyone else, those -- as in the Lloyd petition -- who explain their criticism of Israel and demand change in our relationship to that Jewish state on grounds of "social justice" may indeed have other agendas in mind. What they were willing and unwilling to sign tells us a great deal about who they are and what social justice means to them. It appears their "social justice" is reserved only for their own kind. And it matters. After all, many of them teach "social justice" in their classrooms.

Somehow I had missed this story; it was covered by CiFWatch and others.

Egypt reiterates: Galloway banned from Egyptian soil

In light of the "Viva Palestina 5" convoy that is heading towards Egypt, Hossam Zaki of the Egyptian Foreign Affairs ministry has emphasized that George Galloway is banned from entering Egypt under any circumstances.

He also said that Egypt does not allow land convoys to enter Gaza and restricts the number of people who can enter at one time. He stated that the goods must be unloaded at El Arish where the Egyptian Red Crescent takes over all issues of distribution of the goods.

The Viva Palestina people are not commenting on any of this in their webpage.

Star of David nanoparticles discovered. Time for a boycott!

From Bloomberg:

A new type of nanoparticle that resembles the six-pointed Star of David, a Jewish symbol which appears on the flag of Israel, has been discovered by researchers at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Hebrew University team, headed by researcher Uri Banin, said the star-shaped nanoparticles have a unique, cage-like structure. The discovery is described in an article in the October 2010 issue of the journal Nature Materials.

The particles, which are some 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, may prove useful in applications ranging from the development of new ways to sense glucose in diagnosing diabetes to serving as photo-catalysts for turning solar energy into clean fuel, the university said.

“Exploration into the possible applications for the nano Stars of David has just begun, and already they have shown that they are not just beautiful; the composition and the unique cage shape makes them useful,” the university said in an e-mailed statement.

Here are those Israelis again, creating six-pointed nanoparticles just to humiliate Palestinian Arabs. Blue ones, no less! (The color is of course not real but chosen to make it easier to see.)

(h/t Mohammed the Teddy Bear)

Once I'm selling stuff....

Thanks to the people who bought items from the EoZ store!

Glancing at the other items for sale, I saw that they had...a teddy bear.

Unfortunately, I couldn't match the adorable bear I had originally designed for this post back from 2007:

Here is the best I could do:

$15.99 - a great gift for, um, Simchat Torah!

I figure at least one of my readers won't be able to resist....

Iran attacked with very sophisticated computer worm

From Computerworld (UK):

A sophisticated worm designed to steal industrial secrets and disrupt operations has infected at least 14 plants, according to Siemens.

Called Stuxnet, the worm was discovered in July when researchers at VirusBlokAda found it on computers in Iran. Siemens also alerted the IT community that Stuxnet has been targetted on its industrial systems. The worm is one of the most sophisticated and unusual pieces of malicious software ever created.

Researchers at Symantec have cracked Stuxnet's cryptographic system, and they say it is the first worm built not only to spy on industrial systems, but also to reprogram them.

Once installed on a PC, Stuxnet uses Siemens' default passwords to seek out and try to gain access to systems that run the WinCC and PCS 7 programs -- so-called PLC (programmable logic controller) programs that are used to manage large-scale industrial systems on factory floors and in military installations and chemical and power plants.

Stuxnet has infected systems in the UK, North America and Korea, however the largest number of infections, by far, have been in Iran.

Nobody knows who's behind Stuxnet, but recently Kaspersky Lab researcher Roel Schouwenberg said that it was most likely a nation state.

Symantec's O'Murchu agrees that the worm was done by particularly sophisticated attackers. "This is definitely not your typical operation," he said.

Hmmmm.....

Today's PalArab news (9/20/2010)

An Jordanian newspaper reports that a Hamas official, Mohammed Nazzal, was denied entry to Jordan to visit his son's graduation ceremony last month. He had been admitted in the past.

A Palestinian Arab court has ruled that selling land to Israelis is a capital offense.

A Syrian ship with aid for Gaza docked at El Arish, Egypt today.

Egyptian security officials continue to hold senior Hamas official Mohamed Debabeche on suspicion of activities that harm Egyptian security. He was on his way to Saudi Arabia when he was arrested at Cairo airport last week. (Debabche may know where Gilad Shalit is being held.)

That symbol of Gaza poverty, the Crazy Water Park, was torched by unknown arsonists last night, causing severe damage. One report says that there were some 40 attackers.

The water park had been closed twice in the past month for violating Islamic norms.

An article in Palestine Press Agency seems to be saying that investment projects in Gaza that are headed by Hamas members and their friends are doing very well; while the others have been victimized by arsons like this one as well as being closed for perceived violations of various laws.

My powers remain unchecked

From Iranian "news" site Hamsayeh.net:

Today, it is clear that US President for various reasons is unable to challenge the authority of corporate elites and their Zionist boss, ruling over the United States of America in every aspect.

Aw, I'm blushing!

Report:Hebron terror attackers meant to steal victims' bodies

Al Ahram is reporting that Palestinian Arab security sources have revealed the intent behind the Hamas terror attack that killed two men and two women outside Hebron on August 31st.

According to the report, the point of the attack was not just to disrupt the negotiations that were starting in Washington but to force Israel to impose a siege on all of the West Bank. The intent was not just to murder the victims but to take their bodies away and bury them, and then claim that they had kidnapped them.

The murderers started dragging the bodies out of the car to hide them but an approaching vehicle forced them to flee.

The plan was meant to order to trigger a massive Israeli response, with the IDF occupying large areas under PA control and, they hoped, leading to Mahmoud Abbas' resignation.

The attack was also meant to pressure Israel to release more prisoners, and to force Israel to withdraw from negotiations altogether.

The report says that the attack was planned jointly by the Syrian and Gaza leadership of Hamas.

More on how the PA finances Hamas

Yesterday, I posted an article that shows that the PA is apparently giving between 10% and 25% of its entire budget to Gaza "security" forces - meaning, Hamas terrorists.

In YNet today, another means by which the PA enriches Hamas is detailed:

[Over the summer] Israel announced that it will allow new cars into Gaza, for the first time since Hamas took over the Strip. Of course, that announcement was not directly conveyed to Hamas authorities – the official Israel prefers to pretend that Ramallah’s Palestinian Authority still rules the Strip.

Everyone, all across the military and economic establishment, plays along with this pretension, highlighted by the shekels used by Hamas to pay Gaza salaries – shekels transferred to Gaza by the Bank of Israel and seemingly handed over only to authorized banks. Similarly, messages about car imports are also conveyed via a game of pretend: Only to representatives of the official Palestinian Authority. Yet this time we were in for a surprise.

Maher Abu-Aluf, the PA official in charge of coordination with Gaza, quickly approved the move. However, the transportation ministry’s director general on behalf of Hamas in Gaza, Hassan Ukasha, announced that he will not allow the vehicles to enter the Strip.

Ukasha explained his decision to the stunned Gaza press as follows: The Palestinian Authority has a financial interest in bringing vehicles into Gaza. Israel imposes high taxes on each vehicle (a 50% sales tax and a 14% value added tax) – these funds are directly transferred from Israel’s Treasury to the PA’s accounts in Israeli banks. The PA doesn’t have to make any effort to collect the money from the importers – Israel does everything.

Ukasha made it clear that he does not wish to undermine importers and impose more taxes on vehicles entering Gaza. Hence, he proposed a simple solution: Let’s establish a joint committee with the PA that would discuss the distribution of funds received from Israel.

Officials in Salam Fayyad’s government realized that they’re about to lose millions and rushed to convey a message to Ukasha suggesting that he shut up: There is no reason for Israel to be aware of the nature of financial ties between Hamastan and the PA, to the tune of billions of shekels annually.

Ukasha got the hint, and proposed a joint committee about a wholly different issue. Within less than a week, a committee was set up, seemingly for the sole purpose of discussing “a shared transportation vision for Palestine and connecting Gaza to the West Bank.”

And so, with discussions about vision not arousing suspicion of money transfers to Hamas, the committee completed its work. Officially, the PA informed Israel about a week ago that it managed to convince Hamas authorities to lift their objection to the entry of vehicles into Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas announced that it is no longer interested in vehicle tax revenues, as long as the Fayyad government earmarks more funds to Gaza municipalities.

The entire article is very interesting.

OK, the T-shirt is now available

From CafePress, a slightly modified version of the T-shirt I designed this morning:

$17.49.

UPDATE: If I made a similar shirt substituting "Gays" for "Palestinians" would anyone buy it? It would be great for those anti-Israel gay group rallies.