Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Mysterious explosion kills terrorist in Gaza (updated)

Ma'an says:

From PalToday

A Palestinian was killed and several others injured in an explosion targeting a car in Gaza City just before noon Tuesday.

Civil defense officials said an Israeli drone targeted the car, which was on the street outside the Palestinian Authority passport office in western Gaza City.

But the truth is a bit more complicated:

A car exploded Wednesday afternoon near a Hamas police station in Gaza City. The al-Arabiya network reported that one person was killed in the blast and another three were injured.

The man killed in the explosion was a senior field commander in the Army of Islam, one of the organizations affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Strip.

Eyewitnesses said the car was travelling on the road parallel to the police headquarters when the explosion occurred. Despite the claims of an airstrike, other residents said the explosion occurred inside the vehicle.

Palestine Press Agency says that Hamas had arrested him a few days ago to stop his group from firing rockets into Israel. His car exploded as it was approaching Hamas police headquarters.

It quotes other Hamas supporters as saying that it might have been an Israeli booby-trap.

Israel has not commented on whether it was an airstrike.

So, intriguingly, there are at least five possible scenarios:

* Israeli airstrike - not likely in the middle of Gaza City with non-combatants around
* Israeli booby trap - also not likely because, frankly, it is easier to shoot from the air
* Hamas car bomb - possible, although the timing is strange
* Army of Islam attempt to attack Hamas that went wrong - given the arrest and their ideology, this is a possibility
* A generic work accident

UPDATE: It was the IDF.

Gratuitous photo meant to gain more readers

My post that mentioned Pamela Anderson yesterday got lots of attention and probably a couple of thousand hits.

Yet there is more to say about her that illuminates the huge inconsistency of how people on the far left treat Israel.

Israel is the first (and, as far as I know, only) country in the world to have even seriously considered a ban on fur across the board. Certainly, politics has stalled the bill from passing in Knesset, but the fact that it went as far as it did indicates that Israel is, in some respects, a far more liberal country than any other in the world, regardless of the outcome of the bill.

Does this mean that leftists will be more sympathetic to Israel? On the contrary. Here is how the Anti-Fur Coalition reported the political roadblock to the bill:

This situation put Israel in a very negative light as the world watches the dirty political games that are played between the religious parties and the fur lobbyists; instead of taking the opportunity to take a moral and ethical historical step.

More negative than the 192 countries that didn't even consider the issue seriously enough to talk about it?

There's another connection of Pamela Anderson to Israel's liberalism.

Anderson is a guest judge on Israel's version of "Dancing with the Stars."

And, for the first time in any edition of the show worldwide, it will feature a same-sex couple competing.

Again, will any anti-Israel activist, pretending to hate Zionism for liberal reasons, even consider the fact that Israel is acting more liberal than any European country? Will "Queers for Palestine" put out a statement of support for this groundbreaking move?

Not quite.

Comparing news coverage of Iraq and Israel

I noticed that wire service coverage of the recent bloody events in Baghdad almost invariably use the word "insurgents" or "assailants" or "gunmen" or "attackers" or "militants" to describe the Al Qaeda terrorists.

Almost never are the terrorists referred to as "extremists," although a few background pieces refer to Al Qaeda as being an extremist group.

When the word "extremist" is used in the Middle East to refer to an actual person, more often than not it refers to Jews who are alleged to have harassed Palestinian Arabs.

The word "extremist" has a far more pejorative connotation that "insurgent" or any of the other terms used to describe terrorists in Iraq. "Insurgent" or "gunmen" or "militants" are value-neutral words. "Extremist" is far more pejorative, as it carries with it a judgment of the character of the person who did the act. Such judgment is absent when AFP or AP or the New York Times or CNN report about attacks that are orders of magnitude worse, by every conceivable measure, that the worst thing that Israeli settlers have ever done or been accused of doing.

So why do they consistently use a word that connotes something far worse when referring to Jews in the West Bank than they do to refer to mass-murdering Muslim terrorists in Iraq?

The cumulative effect of years of such biased reporting is that news readers, subconsciously, start to believe that the actions of Israelis are objectively worse than the actions of real terrorists who kill thousands of people. Years of such subtle bias have a huge effect on a large number of people who rely on the mainstream media to form their opinions.

To the mainstream news media, the word "terrorist" is unsuitable to refer to people who blow themselves up in a church, but the word "extremist" is perfectly acceptable to refer to people who are accused of cutting down trees.

This is one reason why it is difficult to believe that the media is unbiased when it comes to reporting from Israel.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad... (Zvi)

From Zvi:

Iraqi hospital and police officials say blasts ripping through Baghdad's mostly Shiite neighborhoods have killed at least 76 people and wounded some 200.

The blasts took place in at least 10 neighborhoods across the capital Tuesday evening.

"Ten cars exploded with bombs inside them. There were also four roadside bombs and two sticky bombs," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said. "(They were) all in Shiite neighborhoods."

One of the biggest explosions appeared to target restaurants and cafes in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. Earlier, a police source in the area said 15 people had been killed and another 23 wounded.

The blasts come just two days after gunmen in Baghdad held a Christian congregation hostage in a siege that ended with 58 people dead.

This is horrible. It is horrible that Baghdadis should live in fear of this kind of purposeful, evil, savage and unlimited violence.

The bodies will be buried, and life will go on, and people - even most Iraqis, unless they lost loved ones or saw it happen in front of them - will forget these terrorist attacks. It is just not convenient to remember them. There won't be a movement to memorialize the civilian victims of 2 November, who were going about their daily shopping or chatting in restaurants when they were all murdered together. There won't be a demonstration in London, or Tehran, or Oslo, and Muslim leaders will not call on their communities to denounce the jihadis who evidently committed these atrocities.

Iraq Body Count identifies 3205 non-combatant deaths in 2010 alone. And in fact, NEARLY EVERY MONTH for the last 7 years, the number of Muslims deliberately slaughtered by Islamist terrorists, Baathists, Iranian-allied militias and related thugs in Iraq vastly exceeds the number of civilians killed in a mostly accidental fashion during Cast Lead.

I'm still waiting for the commentators, who blame global anti-Semitism on Cast Lead, the Hizballah war or "extremist settlers" (who have killed how many Bank Arab in the last 5 years? As far as I know, ZERO) to explain why European and Middle Eastern Muslims are NOT holding riots to denounce al Qaeda for slaughtering SO MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE. So many innocent Muslims. I'm still waiting for Middle Eastern journalists to use the same blood-soaked terms to describe mass-murdering Islamists that they use to describe Israeli settlers who have not killed anyone.

I'm still waiting for an indication that the hysterical rage nurtured and aimed at Israel is anything other than a supreme act of hypocrisy.

The changing threats to Israel (Giora Eiland)

Zvi pointed to a must-read article in the Jerusalem Post (originally in the JCPA) by Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, who knows a thing or two about security.

Here is the synopsis from JCPA (which, by the way, is one of the great things about all JCPA articles - the fact that they put the important points as bullet items):

How do we resolve the dilemma of a peace agreement that includes handing over the Golan Heights to the Syrians, while facing the fact that Israel cannot be defended without the Golan Heights? The way around this was supposed to be the inclusion in any peace agreement of specific security arrangements. Yet this approach was based on a number of assumptions, all of them misguided.

Events over the past ten years have also revealed a marked change in the types of threats to be expected from a Palestinian state or from the existing Palestinian entity. This involves a switch to three types of weaponry that all fundamentally contradict the guidelines discussed for security arrangements.

Rockets and missiles positioned throughout the West Bank would easily cover the entire State of Israel. Advanced anti-aircraft missiles would be capable of shooting down not only large passenger aircraft flying into Ben-Gurion International Airport, but also helicopters and even fighter planes. Anti-tank missiles that are highly effective up to a range of 5 km. can easily cover not only strategic positions such as Israel's north-south Highway 6, but well beyond.

The common denominator among all of these is the ease of smuggling and clandestine manufacture, as is taking place today in Gaza. No monitoring system that may be established will be able to prevent this. Only effective control of the Jordan Valley along the Israeli-Jordanian border can prevent the smuggling of these types of weapons.

In addition, if Israel were to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines, then the area to the east of the Israel-Palestine border would be home not only to the Palestinian Authority, but to other potential enemies too, including Hizbullah and Syria. This means that in determining security arrangements in the West Bank, the approach must be broader, beyond Israel's needs vis-à-vis only the Palestinians.

Seriously, read the whole thing.

A short animation on Judea and Samaria's strategic importance

English translation:
Did you know?

The Judea-Samaria mountain range constitutes 23% of Israel's area.
The Judea-Samaria mountain range is 55 km. wide; sovereign Israel between the Green Line and the Mediterranean Sea is only 15 km. wide.
The distance from Kefar Sava to the Green LIne is all of 2 km.
The Judea-Samaria mountain range looms to a height of 1000 meters over Tel Aviv.
Whoever controls Judea-Samaria can hit most of Israel's cities directly and indirectly.
Judea-Samaria abuts Jerusalem from three directions: north, east, and south.
Jerusalem will become an Israeli enclave within a Palestinian state, connected to the rest of the country via a narrow Palestinian-controlled corridor.

Judea-Samaria -- a mountainful of security!

(h/t My Israel via Shiloh Musings, translation by Naftali Greenwood)

Just a little anti-semitism from Jordan

MEMRI noticed this one, from Jordan's Al Dustour newspaper:

Wounded American soldiers bike through Israel

From the Friends of the IDF, via email:

On October 13, nine American war veterans who were wounded while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan travelled to Israel and joined IDF wounded veterans on an unforgettable cycling trip across the Jewish Homeland.

The 11-day cycling mission to Israel was a joint initiative of the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and Friends of the IDF. The WWP organization provides wounded American veterans with physical and emotional support during their healing process. The much-anticipated trip came about after four years of successful collaboration between the two organizations and multiple American-Israeli bike rides in the U.S.

Four years ago, WWP reached out to FIDF and invited wounded soldiers from the IDF to join the New York Tri-State Soldier Ride, taking place every summer. The WWP Soldier Ride provides cycling opportunities across the U.S. for wounded American warriors. All participants suffering from a disability are provided with the adaptive equipment they need to cycle. In addition to organizing challenging and enjoyable rides, the Soldier Ride program also raises awareness for issues and hardships American wounded veterans face on a daily basis.

Since that summer, IDF soldiers have travelled to New York every year for a ride, which has come to symbolize the profound friendship and solidarity shared by the soldiers. Although they fight in different arenas, soldiers from both countries feel that they are fighting for a similar cause and face similar dangers, and that everything they have experienced during and after the injury brings them closer together.

This year, the WWP organization decided to take its Soldier Ride program overseas for the first time. Since the bond with the IDF soldiers and FIDF has become so strong, WWP chose Israel as its first international destination for the Soldier Ride. WWP wanted to give the American soldiers an opportunity to ride together with their Israeli friends in the latter’s home country. For the nine American veterans, it was the first visit to Israel and a rare opportunity to connect with Israeli soldiers and citizens.

The ride started off in the ancient Roman port city of Caesaria, continued up to the Lebanese border and then around the Sea of Galilee. From there, the soldiers rode through the Judean Hills, visited the Dead Sea, climbed the historic site of Masada, and toured around Jerusalem. In between, the American veterans were hosted by James Cunningham, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and by officers and soldiers at three IDF bases, including the IDF’s central Induction Base at Tel Hashomer.

"We are truly honored and moved to see our American heroes riding alongside veterans of another nation’s armed forces and welcomed so warmly in Israel," says Steve Nardizzi, WWP executive director. "Not only does this mark a new chapter in WWP’s history, but it’s an opportunity for each participating warrior to forge an international friendship with a fellow warrior."

For Army Sergeant (ret.) Robert Laurent of the Armored Corps, who lost an eye and fingers on his left hand in an ambush in Adwar, Iraq, one of the highlights of the trip was seeing how personal the war is for his Israeli friends. "In our wars, we fly 12 hours or more to get there, but here, it can be just minutes from your home town. We have Canada and a whole lot of ocean separating us from the enemy, but for me to see how close the threat is to the Israelis… well, it’s just crazy."

Cycling together for 11 days across the rugged and awe-inspiring Israeli terrain meant that the wounded warriors had to stay determined, muster the strength and, like in battle, rely on one another for moral and physical support. Throughout the ride, the soldiers kept encouraging each other, and reminded themselves of what they had each learned after being injured; that they can achieve any goal they set.

Staff Sergeant (ret.) Ryan Kelly, who was hurt by shrapnel and lost half a leg when his convoy of unarmored humvees got hit, leads his life with a strong sense of purpose and drive. Kelly earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star of Valor for helping wounded comrades during the attack. After 13 months of rehab at Walter Reed, his prosthetic leg doesn’t prevent him from cross-country bike treks and all other forms of extreme sporting activity. "With a little bit of thought and lots of determination, you can do just about anything," he concludes.

Beyond the amazing experience of visiting Israel for the first time, the soldiers got a chance to share their passion for riding bikes and to once again celebrate their ability to do anything − even cycle through the entire state of Israel.

When Jordan murdered a UN peacekeeper

Tri City Herald, May 27, 1958:

Lt.-Colonel Flint was trying to help an Israeli soldier who was shot. He went out to him, waving a white flag, when he was fatally wounded.

The UN launched an investigation to determine which side was at fault. Its ballistics tests concluded:

1. In paragraph 57 of my report of 7 June 1958 on the firing incident of 26 May 1958 on Mount Scopus, I indicated that I had ordered a ballistic examination with regard to the circumstances of the death of Lt. Colonel Flint, my representative for Mount Scopus. This examination has been performed by the State Criminalistics Institute in Stockholm Sweden, and I am herewith reporting on its results.

2. The examination has revealed that the bullet which killed Lt. Colonel Flint was a direct shot. It is thus to be considered as established that Lt Colonel Flint was shot by a bullet fired from Jordanian-controlled territory.

3. It has not been possible to establish from what distance the bullet was fired.

4. It has been established that the bullet was fired by a Lee-Enfield .303 calibre rifle.

5. It has been established that one at least of the Israeli policemen killed during the incident was shot by a bullet fired by another rifle of the same type.

Another UN report detailed the series of events:

11. At approximately 1615 LT, Lt.-Colonel Flint and an UNMO, carrying two white flags, proceeded from Issawiya towards the area where the Israelis and one UNMO were pinned down. As they reached the party at approximately 1630 LT - when they realized that approximately fifteen men were pinned down - firing, which had been reported sporadically up to that time, stopped almost entirely. Lt.-Colonel Flint, however, repeatedly reported that any movement by anyone in the party brought firing by apparently one individual from Jordanian territory to the east. This information was passed on to the Jordanian Delegation with a request for immediate action in order to bring all firing under control.

12. At 1632 LT the Israeli police commander in the Jewish Sector indicated that if the Israeli patrol had not been recovered from its pinned down position within half an hour, he would take matters in his own hands. Being apprized of this message, Lt.-Colonel Flint asked by radio that the police commander be informed that measures had been taken to ensure a complete cease-fire on the Jordan side, that the situation was generally well in hand and that the party was working on the problem of its evacuation.

13. Following a discussion between Lt.-Colonel Flint, the UNMOs and the Israeli patrol leader on the question of evacuation of the wounded and dead men and withdrawal of the party, the members of the Israeli patrol began to move at 1650 LT, with Lt.-Colonel Flint and the UNMOs standing nearby with white flags. A single loud shot was then fired, apparently not from a long distance, and an Israeli fell wounded in the chest.

14. Meanwhile, one of the two UNMOs in the Jewish Sector had proceeded towards the pinned down party, accompanied by an armed Israeli policeman. He was just reaching the party, carrying a white flag, when he heard a bullet whistle over his head and dropped to the ground.

15. At 1654 LT.-Colonel Flint apparently decided to make a personal appraisal of the situation in the vicinity of the newly wounded Israeli, who was lying close to the place where the body of the previously killed Israeli officer was situated, at approximately MR 17388 13355. After Lt.-Colonel Flint had proceeded 40 to 50 metres towards that place, carrying a white flag, there was a single shot and he was hit by a bullet of apparently the same origin, judging by the intensity of the shot, as the one which had hit the Israeli policeman a few minutes earlier. An unwounded Israeli lying only two metres from Lt.-Colonel Flint shouted that the letter was not moving and that he could see the entrance hole of the bullet. An UNMO who was at a short distance saw the impact of the bullet and, as Lt.-Colonel Flint had fallen immediately, concluded that he must have been killed instantly.

16. Realizing that the party was apparently being pinned down by a marksman, whose firing had in a very small area resulted in four casualties, the two last of them in less than five minutes, the Senior UNMO in the party decided that no further attempts at evacuation of the killed and wounded should be made by daylight, i.e. for about two more hours, unless the sniper had been found and brought under control. The Israeli patrol leader concurred in this decision.

Another UN document (that I could not find online) concluded starkly:

One thing is certain: LCol Flint was not killed accidentally or even amid an exchange of fire between the parties... he was killed deliberately by a single bullet coming from the territory controlled by Jordan after a mutual cease-fire agreement.

Even worse, even though the UN tried for years to get Jordan to pay reparations for the death, Jordan refused, claiming against all evidence that Israel was at fault.

Even though Israel apparently had some differences with Flint, he died trying to save an Israeli soldier's life. He was a hero.

Today, there are no websites demanding justice from Jordan for this deliberate act of murder.

Nobel laureates speak out against BDS

38 Nobel prize laureates released this statement (via Daily Alert):

Statement of Nobel Laureates on Academic BDS Actions against Israeli Academics, Israeli Academic Institutions and Academic Centers and Institutes of Research and Training With Affiliations in Israel

Believing that academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are:

* antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom,
* antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and
* may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin,

We, the undersigned Nobel Laureates, appeal to students, faculty colleagues and university officials to defeat and denounce calls and campaigns for boycotting, divestment and sanctions against Israeli academics, academic institutions and university-based centers and institutes for training and research, affiliated with Israel.

Furthermore, we encourage students, faculty colleagues and university officials to promote and provide opportunities for civil academic discourse where parties can engage in the search for resolution to conflicts and problems rather than serve as incubators for polemics, propaganda, incitement and further misunderstanding and mistrust.

We, and many like us, have dedicated ourselves to improving the human condition by doing the often difficult and elusive work to understand complex and seemingly unsolvable phenomena. We believe that the university should serve as an open, tolerant and respectful, cooperative and collaborative community engaged in practices of resolving complex problems.

The shameful part is that such an exercise is even necessary.

Lebanon on the brink of a coup. World still sleeping.

The world media - and world leaders -are all but ignoring the escalating tensions in Lebanon.

Here's the latest from Naharnet:

The Syrian-backed Opposition reportedly plans to take control of Beirut in the event an indictment by the international Tribunal was issued.

Pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Tuesday quoted a well-informed Lebanese source as saying reports were being circulated among Lebanese security authorities that Hizbullah and AMAL Movement as well as other forces allied with Syria have been holding extensive, periodic meetings to discuss "coordination" in the presumed battle for the control of Beirut.

It said the meetings discussed "zoning" of the areas such as each group will have its own confrontation zero hour map.

And this:

Security has been tightened around the police headquarters in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh neighborhood following reports that the Opposition is likely to carry out a "swift operation" to shake up the Lebanon situation and convey a message about what Opposition forces can do if an indictment was issued.

Information obtained by Internal Security Forces (ISF) said one of the main goals behind the "operation" was to seize control of the police headquarters and the intelligence bureau, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

It said the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces had previously leaked reports to a Jordanian newspaper about the Opposition's intention to target ISF headquarters.

Ad-Diyar quoted well-informed security sources as saying that the attackers are likely to wear police uniforms as a disguise to storm the headquarters.

An entire country is on the verge of being taken over by what is effectively an Iranian army brigade, and yet all we see are scattered, muted statements of concern about interference with the STL investigation.

The consequences of a Hezbollah coup are frightening and wide-ranging. It would mean the beginning of the end of any pretense of equal rights for Lebanese Christians, it would mean Iran would have a military base on the Mediterranean, it would mean that Israel suddenly borders Iran - and Iranian weapons. (The ineffective UNIFIL presence would be even more irrelevant when Iran can put medium-range missiles in the north of Lebanon that could atill strike all of Israel.)

True, Syria has been largely allied with Iran, but the Syrian government will still play one side against the other to maintain power - it is not an ideological alliance. Hezbollah, on the other hand, proclaims full allegiance to Iran and Iranian clerics.

The Hariri probe can be released any week now; it is widely expected to come out before the end of the year. There have already been reports of Hezbollah's likely planned reaction.

When will the world wake up?

Another terrorist satellite TV channel

Palestine Today, newspaper of Islamic Jihad, will start a pilot program today of broadcasting over satellite (Nilesat) with the aim of full-time programming on January 1.

Nilesat already broadcasts Hezbollah (Al-Manar) and Hamas (Al-Aqsa) TV to much of Europe and Africa.

And yet there is still no worldwide Israeli satellite service. Sigh.

A quick comparison

Number of vehicles that Viva Palestina brought into Gaza with their much heralded convoy: less than 150

Number of vehicles that Israel has shipped into Gaza in the past couple of months: about 200. (The tenth shipment of twenty cars arrived Monday.)

Now, how much news coverage did each event get respectively?

PalArabs mourn anniversary of Balfour Declaration

Today is the 93rd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, and there are a number of articles in the Arabic media about it.

Islamic Jihad released a statement condemning the Declaration and declaring "[we] renew our commitment to our right to recover our entire land without sacrificing an inch of soil. We reject any solution at the expense of principles in our conflict with the Zionists, and we consider any recognition of a "Jewish State" by the Balfour Declaration the most serious trial of our history and the struggles and sacrifices of our people."

Another article in Palestine Today about Balfour illustrates itself with this map of the borders that, they are certain, Israel is really aiming to expand to, from the Nile to the Euphrates:

Which is very similar to a map that Iran once published in their edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

More on the Iranian weightlifter

The poor thing.

The Persian BBC writes that the coach, the weightlifter and the head of the weight lifting delegation are temporarily banned in Iran because the weightlifter stood next to the Israeli during the medal ceremony.

While the BBC mentions a temporarily ban, this Iranian source says that they have been banned from all sport activities for life.

“The fact that an Iranian weightlifting veteran has competed against an Israeli during the worldwide competitions and has stood beside him during the distribution of medal is unjustifiable,” Jalal Yahya-Zadeh, head of Physical Education Committee for Youth Committee "explained".

Anti-fur group sends talking breasts to Israel to lobby haredim

There is a bill that has been winding its way through the Knesset to ban the fur trade in Israel altogether - with the exception of fur used for religious purposes (many chassidim wear hats made of fur.)

Animal-rights groups are lobbying hard for the bill, making Israel the first nation in the world to have such a law and hoping for a cascade effect with other nations.

As a result, the bill has become politicized worldwide, with Canadian furriers banding together with some Israeli religious parties to defeat it. They say that a ban on fur would be the first step towards a worldwide ban on kosher slaughter - especially since the same animal-rights activists oppose both.

So the animal-rights movement is sending a spokesperson to Israel to help convince the religious parties to reconsider their stand.

And who are they sending?

Pamela Anderson.

Does the anti-fur group think that she will help? Do they think that any of the religious Knesset members even heard of her, let alone whether they'd be dazzled by a former TV star whose main assets are her breasts? Do they think that they even heard the word "Baywatch?"

Clueless.

More PA lies and UNRWA deceptions

The Palestinian Authority has added its own voice to the denunciations throughout the Arab world when outgoing UNRWA official Andrew Whitley revealed a bit of sanity.

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority Cabinet on Sunday denounced the statement of UNRWA official Andrew Whitley, who said Palestinian refugees should give up their right to return and resettle in Arab countries.

Whitley, outgoing New York director of the UN refugee agency, said refugees should not live in the "cruel illusion" that they will return. He said UNRWA did not publicly advocate the issue, which was not "politically palatable."

At the weekly Cabinet meeting in Ramallah, ministers expressed surprise at the comments in light of UNRWA's mandate to assist refugees until they returned to their homes in accordance with UN resolution 194.

Does the UNRWA mandate say anything about UN 194?

Not at all.

From the UNRWA website:

UNRWA was originally mandated to:

"carry out direct relief and works programmes in collaboration with local governments"
"consult with the Near Eastern governments concerning measures to be taken preparatory to the time when international assistance for relief and works projects is no longer available", and
plan for the time when relief was no longer needed.

UNRWA’s contemporary mandate is to provide relief, human development and protection services to Palestine refugees and persons displaced by the 1967 hostilities in its fields of operation: Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and the Gaza Strip. UNRWA’s mandate has been repeatedly renewed by the UN General Assembly. The current mandate runs till 30 June 2011.

There is nothing in UNRWA's mandate that is at all dependent on the outdated and irrelevant UNGA Resolution 194. The PA cabinet is lying.

While we are at it, UNRWA's Chris Gunness wrote a letter to Hudson-NY in response to an article by Khaled Abu Toameh that we linked to asking why everyone is lying to PalArab "refugees."

He writes:

The facts speak for themselves. The proportion of refugees living in camps has steadily declined from about one hundred per cent at the time of our creation over sixty years ago, to just one third today.

And in real numbers? The number of "refugees" in camps has roughly doubled since 1949, to 1,396,368 registered refugees as of January 2010. That number is not decreasing, and it never will. One big reason is that UNRWA has no mechanism to remove "refugees" from its calculations outside of death, as opposed to UNHCR which has a detailed definition of how refugees lose their status.

Gunness further writes

As with refugees assisted by UNHCR, the refugee status of UNRWA refugees is transferred through the generations pending a just and lasting solution.

While UNHCR extends refugee benefits to family members (Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees page 12), it does not give them the status of refugees in perpetuity.

That's why the number of world refugees has been generally decreasing and those of Palestinian Arabs inexorably increasing. That's why in 2009 there were some 10.4 million refugees worldwide under UNHCR's responsibility and 4.8 million UNRWA "refugees" just from one tiny sliver of land from 62 years ago.

One of UNRWA's biggest problems is the utter inability to tell the truth - not to the people they are pretending to help, not to the world as they beg for more and more money, and not even to themselves, except behind closed doors (as Whitley showed.)

You've heard of the insanity defense - now comes the Jinni defense

From Al Arabiya:

A recent case in which a judge claimed stealing 100 million while under a spell stirred controversy among lawyers and jurists over the possibility of accepting magic as a legal defense argument and the means to verify the involvement of a jinni in a crime.

A heated debate over committing crimes while under magical influence ensued during the proceedings of a corruption trial that involved several employees in the Medina Court including one of the judges.

I Dream of ...

A statement by a man who claimed to have performed a roqia (Islamic exorcism) on the suspected judge ignited the controversy. The ‘exorcist’ told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that the judge was possessed by a jinni and was under his influence while taking bribes to cover up for illegal possession of land and real estate.

For legal advisor Saleh al-Khedr, being possessed by a jinni or an evil spirit does not absolve the culprit of blame....

Meanwhile, several jurists argue that it is possible that an evil spirits makes people unable to control their actions, yet it is hard to prove.

Dr. Ibrahim al-Balawi, a lawyer, stated that the judge should consider this possibility if the culprit admitted to being under a spell while committing the crime.

“However, it is very hard to prove that and the court only acknowledges clear and tangible evidence,” he told AlArabiya.net. “But the judge should not ignore it and further investigations have to be carried out.”

Balawi added that there are specialists who are capable of detecting if a person is possessed and they can be consulted in these cases to verify the defendant’s allegations.

Lawyer Badr al-Basees agreed with Balawi and stressed that magic and its effect on people are mentioned in the Quran.

“There is no doubt that magic exists,” he told AlArabiya.net. “It is only proving it that is a challenge.”

Here's a picture you won't see often: the national flag of Iran next to (and on a lower level than) Israel's flag.

From Payvand Iran News:

During the World Masters Weightlifting Championships in Poland in an unprecedented move, an Iranian athlete took his place on the medal podium beside an Isreali athlete drawing criticism from Iranian authorities.

Iran's Student News Agency (ISNA) reported that Hossein Khodadadi, Iranian representative in the Masters Weightlifting Championships stood beside his Israeli peer in the medals ceremony.

The event which took place in early October was in the 105 Kg category for the ages of 35 to 39.

Sergio Britva, Israeli weightlifter took the first place lifting 300 kg in total and Hossein Khodadadi, the Iranian weightlifter took the silver medal lifting 296 kg.

Khodadadi appeared on the podium to receive his medal beside the Israeli athlete and this move led to serious criticism from Iran.

This is the first time since the 1979 Revolution in Iran that an Iranian athlete has appeared beside an Israeli athlete in an official championship.

Head of Iran's weightlifting committee at the Masters Weightlifting Championships, MirRasouli Raisi, said that everything had been done in coordination with the Iranian embassy in Poland.

Khodadadi claimed that they were not able to remove their flag from the hall and all he could do was to appear in unofficial attire so that their presence would not be deemed official.

He added that if they had not attended the ceremony, they would have had to return all the medals they had received on the previous days and disqualified Iran from participating in further competitions.

Iranian athletes have often run into difficulty refusing to confront Israeli opponents in other world championships.

In the competitions in Poland, all of the Iranian participants received medals.

Head of Iran's National Athletic Organization had earlier written a letter to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to receive instructions on how to handle situations where Iranian athletes have to confront Israeli athletes.

Iranian athletic community has become more and more concerned about political restrictions costing them medals in competitions.

CrethiPlethi adds:

The [Iranian] reformist daily Mardom Salari dedicated its editorial to the incident, wondering why it took a whole month to uncover and deal with the affair. The editorial said that all those responsible for the issue—from the Foreign Ministry and the Physical Education Organization to the team coach—must provide answers. The daily strongly criticized the head of Iran’s Weightlifting Association for taking no action about the issue until it was exposed on the media (Mardom Salari, October 23).

Here's the video, where you can see the Iranian refuse to shake hands with the Israeli. For good reason - it would have ended his career, and maybe his life.

It is still fun to know that he had to stand respectfully during the entire playing of Hatikva.

(h/t Gabriel, who points out an Iranian athlete who is quite a bit friendlier to Israelis.)

Fair news/bad news/worse news from Saudi Arabia

The fair news, from September:

JEDDAH: The phenomenon of employing women cashiers in supermarkets is catching on with Centrepoint shopping store now joining the growing list of employers.

Panda and then Marhaba supermarkets were the first to employ women cashiers, but Centrepoint has gone one step ahead by placing women cashiers at check outs for T-shirts, pants and accessories for women.

The Centrepoint store on Prince Sultan Street, visited by Arab News, has women cashiers in a separate section. The women were busy checking out and packing the goods from the women customers.

The mahrams (male guardians) of women shoppers were seen standing outside area waiting for their spouses. A store official said that men who come with their families can come inside the area but the majority of the men preferred to wait outside.

Keeping a strict watch was a security personnel, whose task was to prevent men without families entering this area. It also fell on them to call out on the microphone the names of family members if the mahrams were not waiting outside the area.

A woman cashier, who revealed that some of the women working here are also studying and taking care of their families, lauded the stores for giving them this independence. “Women are now taking care of things. It is not like the old days when daddy would do everything,” she added.

Severe restrictions and rules, but at least a step in a positive direction for women in Saudi Arabia.

For a while.

The bad news:

Saudi Arabia's top clerics have challenged the government's policy to expand jobs for women with a fatwa ruling that they should not work as cashiers in supermarkets, a report said on Monday.

The official fatwa issuing body said that "it is not permissible for a woman to work in a place where they mix with men," the news website Sabq.org said.

"It is necessary to keep away from places where men congregate. Women should look for decent work that does not make it possible for them to attract men or be attracted by men," it said.
The ruling came from the Committee on Scholarly Work and Ifta, the official issuer of fatwas, or religious rulings, under the Council of Senior Scholars, the top authority for Islamic issues in the kingdom.

The fatwa was in response to a question -- published with the ruling -- asking specifically if women should work as cashiers in supermarkets, Sabq reported.

The ruling was unambiguous, and signed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, the head of the Senior Scholars Council, and six other members of the fatwa committee.

Again this is a government-sanctioned religious rulings board. It sounds like their problem goes beyond the existing restrictions on the women cashiers. (What I don't understand is why women - with their guardians, of course - are allowed to go to stores altogether, where they see male cashiers.) It is unclear whether this will make those cashiers illegal, or if the government can ignore this fatwa.

The worse news:

A Saudi journalist is to be lashed in public after he was convicted of instigating protests against a government electricity company because of continuous power cuts in a central town, Ajel online newspaper said on Monday.

The court in Qubba in the central province of Qaseem sentenced Fahd Al Jukhaidib, a journalist in the Saudi Arabic language daily Aljazierah, to two months in prison and 50 lashes with the whip, including 25 lashes in public in front of the electricity department, the paper said.

Al Jukaidib was accused of leading residents of Qubba to the department two years ago to demand action to resolve continuous power cuts in the town.

A few days later, the company yielded to their demands and sent seven additional power generators to the town.

“The problem was over but I was later summoned by police, who charged me of instigating protests. I was then referred to court, which has just sentenced me to two months in prison and 50 lashes, including 25 lashes in front of the electricity department,” the paper quoted Al Jukhaidib as saying.