Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Egyptian TV: "Roman Wars against Cleopatra Instigated by the Jews"

Just uploaded to MEMRI's YouTube channel:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Wael Ramadhan, creator of an Egyptian-Syrian TV series about Cleopatra, which aired on Egyptian TV on November 18, 2010:

Wael Ramadhan: The [Roman] war against Cleopatra was Jewish in essence, and history repeats itself. The Romans had no territorial aspirations in Egypt in those days, and this is ignored by history and by many historians. The Romans were at war with the Parthians and the remnants of the Persian Empire, but they had no intention of waging war against Egypt.

But the Jews harbored resentment and pain, because of their expulsion from Egypt – when they were still called "Hebrew" – and they wanted to return to Egypt by force, in order to establish their presence there, but they did not have an opportunity to do so until that moment. So they recruited the help of the Romans.

This part of history is not mentioned in any Arab history book, but is the outcome of research I conducted myself, and this is my own perspective, which is unique and true.

Interviewer: Especially since it is based on sources that are...

Wael Ramadhan: On very important sources. [The Jews] financed the Romans, distracted them from their wars, and diverted them to Egypt. They failed in their attempt to get Julius Caesar to defeat Cleopatra. They failed to get Mark Antony to defeat Cleopatra. They had also financed the Mark Antony campaign. They failed in their efforts to completely control that region.

To this moment, they continue to try. History repeats itself. That is what should have been called the history of Cleopatra, and this was my approach when I made the "Cleopatra" series.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

PalArabs pretend to have identified Arafat's "poison"

Firas Press reports that the former Special Adviser Yasser Arafat has, after months of painstaking research, determined the likely poison agent used to "assassinate" Arafat: Thallium.

According to the adviser, Bassam Abu Sharif, "British and European toxins experts are unfamiliar with this poison, but a specialist in criminal investigation on the murder by poison knows about it and and it is very effective, and there is no antidote to stop it after five hours of injection or being eaten."

Abu Sharif adds that "the expert who has done research confirmed that this poison works slowly to destroy the internal organs of the victim one after the other (liver - kidney - lung - and then the brain) and that the period of time to kill a man with this poison varies from person to person based on [various factors]. This period ranges from two to eight months, which gives an opportunity for offenders to escape from the crime scene."

The supposed "expert" looks like a scam artist who took money from Abu Sharif to pretend to unravel the mystery of how a man who died from AIDS can be credibly made to appear to have been poisoned by Israel. In fact, thallium poisoning usually is seen quite quickly and there is an antidote known to scientists since the 1960s - Prussian blue.

Oh well. Better luck next time!

(h/t Folderol)

Melanie Phillips: "Israeli hasbara is a joke"

A video where Phillips tells it like it is:

Facts and logic do not work on the ideologues

Ha'aretz this morning has another article that twists the facts of the Abu Rahma case. This one, by Gideon Levy, blames the IDF for what he thinks is clear evidence that Jawaher Abu Rahma's death, and he calls the IDF spokespeople liars.

Now there is no doubt that the IDF has not handled this as well as they should have. But what is even more clear is that there is no way that a healthy person with no other medical condition will be killed by a weak concentration of tear gas that hovered for a few seconds from between 150 and 500 meters away, depending on the version of the story.

So I commented on the story:

Never in history has anyone been documented of dying from CS tear gas inhalation outdoors - let alone from 150 meters away from the gas source. Never. It is essentially impossible to breathe in a lethal concentration of CS gas for the amount of time necessary for a healthy person to die in a ventilated area. Levy and Haaretz, by insisting otherwise, are the liars.

I received two responses. The first one was from Darwish:

Thank you for clearing that up. Now can you please list your credentials to lend support to your stated "facts."

So Ha'aretz has scientific credentials that I lack. I didn't know that.

The second one was:

How do you know all this? Researched intensively on tear gas use over the past 50 years have you? Doctorate in the subject? Even if this poor girl did have an underlying condition, it was evidently the gas which led to her death. Whether 99.9% of the population would not have died under the same circumstances is really not the issue. THe IDF should step up and take responsibility. Their constant evasion of responsibility is totally counterproductive.

So I answered:

Sources? Sure!
Physicians for Human Rights 1989 paper on tear gas
Archives of Toxicology vol 77 number 10 (misquoted by Haaretz on Friday)
BMJ June 2009
And, finally, Prof. Dr. Uwe Heinrich in his paper on CS at Waco said "There are no reports on human death related to CS exposure" in 2000.

Haaretz apparently doesn't let me put in URLs, but the reports are out there - IF you care about the truth and not simply finding fault with Israel.

(I had first tried putting in URLs to the blog, which Ha'aretz rejected.)

The funny thing is that my fact-based response, which anyone could Google, got seven "thumbs up" and five "thumbs down." (My original post also received a healthy number of "thumbs down.")

Now, why would anyone disapprove a post that gives the real research and unbiased information?

The only conclusion you can draw is that a lot of people are emotionally invested in the idea that the IDF is filed with murderers and liars, and any fact - no matter how tangential - that disturbs that meme is viewed somehow as a threat to their cherished viewpoint. Instead of shaking them up, it strengthens their resolve to fight.

In other words, logic and facts are useless. These people are following a religion, the religion of IDF-hatred, and convincing them otherwise is as useless as using logic against a Christian fundamentalist or an Apple Macintosh fan. One someone is emotionally invested, then - game over. This is why it is so difficult to find people who who publicly give out their opinions who are willing to admit to or correct their mistakes.

From a hasbara perspective, it is useless to try to convince the ideologues that they are wrong. Practically none of them can listen to facts that contradict their worldview without getting offended, and that very offense shuts down whatever little ability they may have had to listen to logic. It is a form of primitive flight or fight.

I am convinced, however, that most people do not have any strong opinions, and sort of go with the flow - whatever they glean from the headlines. These are the people that need to be targeted with facts - and with soundbites, posters, videos, and so on. When going into battle against the frothing haters like Levy and his fans, the important thing is to remember who the audience is.

It isn't the other side. It's the lurkers.

Chile's recognition of "Palestine": A partial victory for Israel?

Chile has joined other South American countries in recognizing "Palestine" - but this recognition is different than that of Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay. While those other countries mentioned the imaginary "1967 borders" as the boundaries of the state, Chile specifically didn't:

The State of Chile has always and consistently supported the right of the Palestinian people to establish itself as an independent state coexisting in peace with the State of Israel. It has also fully endorsed the right of Israel to exist within secure and internationally recognized borders.

It says nothing about the borders of the state.

Chile was heavily lobbied by its large Palestinian Christian community to recognize "Palestine" on the other side of the Green Line - and it evidently refused, instead echoing the wording of UN Security Council Resolution 242 which imply that the 1949 armistice lines are not going to be the final borders of Israel.

Morning links

Some stuff, new and not so new...

Melanie Phillip's excellent speech on how Israel must treat delegitimization (from last month)

The IDF is going on the record the Jawaher Abu Rahma did not die from tear gas. Not as many specifics as I would like, though.

The IDF also shows video from last Friday's Bil'in protest, showing that they wait for the stone throwing and fence-cutting before shooting tear gas.

The JCPA has a paper on Turkey's disappearing Jewish community.

The flying Mossad agent is being freed from Saudi Arabia!

And for those going to the counter-protest in New York today, please take pictures and video - especially if any of my posters are being used :)

Meanwhile, rockets continue from Gaza (Israeligirl)

From Israeligirl:

Rocket attacks on Israel have escalated over the weekend, as one IDF soldier was killed and several soldiers and civilians were injured in clashes with Palestinian terrorists.

The al-Quds Brigades, the militant arm of the Islamic Jihad group, took responsibility for the shootings. Hamas is looking the other way, allowing smaller terrorist groups to test how far Israel will go in its response.

Here is a summary of the events:

On Friday evening, An IDF force identified several Palestinian militants planting explosive devices near the fence in the Central Gaza Strip. The soldiers reacted by firing towards the Palestinian terrorists. For a reason that is still unclear, one of the shells deviated from its course and hurt IDF soldiers. Sgt. Nadav Rotenberg was killed and an other IDF officer was moderately injured. Three other IDF soldiers were lightly wounded during the incident.

3 foreign workers were injured when a mortar fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in the Sha'ar Hanegev region. One of the foreign workers was in moderate-serious condition from shrapnel injuries to his chest. A second foreign worker was moderately wounded by shrapnel in his leg and a third was lightly wounded in the incident.

At least three Qassam rockets were fired at southern Israel Saturday evening, wounding a truck driver lightly. The truck driver was hurt by glass shreds after driving near the rocket landing site.

It's been slightly more than 2 years since Israel launched operation "Cast Lead" and Hamas is increasing the fire slowly but surely.

For those who like to use Ma'an as a reliable source...

Today's Ma'an (English) says:

The Palestinians will achieve a historic triumph in any future confrontation with Israel, but the toll will be heavy on the Palestinian side, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said Saturday.

"We are only a few steps away from achieving a historic triumph which might cost us a large number of our children. However, in the coming confrontation with the Zionist entity, we will realize our ancestors' dream and return history to the right track," Zahhar said

The Hamas official made the comments at a ceremony held to commemorate the second anniversary of a massacre at the UN-controlled Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

The school which was bombarded by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead, a three-week offensive that began in December 2008.

Even the UNRWA admitted that no shells hit the school:

...[T]he Situation Report of 7 January referred to ‘the shelling of the UNRWA school in Jabalia.’ The Humanitarian Coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school.

In fact, the shells hit a street outside the school, from which there had been mortar fire according to witnesses, and at least three and possibly as many as 10 militants were killed in the IDF response.

Western media will often quote Ma'an as if it is a real news source. They should think twice.

Is Ha'aretz just making stuff up? UPDATE: Not this time, at least.

Ha'aretz, Friday, had an article headlined: 2004 IDF study: High concentrations of tear gas could be lethal

Here's what it said:

Seven years ago, the IDF Medical Corps published a study on CS gas in both the Israeli medical journal “Refuah” and the overseas journal “Archives of Toxicology.”

That study, based on animal experiments, concluded that to kill a person, you would need a dose 800 to 5,600 times larger than the quantities used to disperse demonstrations.

Nevertheless, it added, a high concentration of the gas in a given location could cause serious or even lethal harm, and therefore, the gas cannot be considered innocuous.

Over the last year the IDF has begun using a tear gas grenade launcher in Bil’in, the Ringo, that allows them to shoot six canisters at once into the same place, creating a thick cloud of gas. The Palestinians say Abu Rahmah was caught in such a cloud.

When Haaretz contacted some of the doctors involved in the Medical Corps study, they declined to comment, saying the study was not necessarily relevant to today’s conditions.

The study “approved the way the IDF used tear gas then and determined that it was not life-threatening,” one explained. “If the way the gas is used has changed, and especially in a manner that creates much higher concentrations, it’s necessary to do a new study.”

I have this weird tendency to be skeptical of everything I read and to seek corroboration. And it just so happens that the Archives of Toxicology has its abstracts online, so I could look for any articles about CS over the past forty years or so.

The journal has published exactly five articles on the topic of CS, or to be precise, o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, since only one of those articles was written in the past ten years, it has to be the article Ha'aretz is referring to because it was written by Israelis (published in 2003):

Report of accidental CS ingestion among seven patients in central Israel and review of the current literature
I. Solomon, I. Kochba, E. Eizenkraft and N. Maharshak

Abstract
A report of seven people who accidentally drank a juice contaminated with CS (o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile) is given. Due to its mucosal irritating properties, CS (also known as "tear gas") is commonly used by policemen and soldiers in riot control. However, only a few reports of its ingestion by humans exist. Ingestion of CS may cause immediate irritation of the oral mucosa and gastrointestinal symptoms later on. Damage of internal organs, which has been shown in animals but only rarely in humans, is probably related to the dose ingested. The extensive use of CS gas merits recognition of the signs and symptoms of its exposure in order to reduce anxiety in both patients and medical staff and to facilitate fast and efficient management.

And the paper does survey the literature about CS, although it only studies the specific case of the seven who accidentally drank juice laced with CS.

There is only one problem: the paper doesn't say what Ha'aretz says is written there.

Here are the relevant parts (h/t Zach who got a full copy for me):

The irritant effects of CS are of rapid onset even in low concentrations and are short lived (15–30 min) if individuals are moved into fresh air (Worthington and Nee 1999), though the time for complete recovery has been questioned (Editorial 1998). Irritant symptoms are produced at concentrations at least 2600 times lower than the lethal dose (Danto 1987). The systems and organs most commonly involved are the eyes, respiratory tract, skin and gastrointestinal tract.

...At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths from lacrimating agents have been reported (Danto 1987; Ferslew et al. 1986; Thorburn 1982).

CS is just one lacrimating agent, and the Thorburn paper, at least, was entitled "Injuries after use of the lacrimatory agent chloroacetophenone in a confined space" - and chloroacetophenone is not CS (it is the agent used in Mace.)

Unless there is some other article in the Archives of Toxicology that I am missing, then Ha'aretz appears to be making things up. They go on imply that current IDF methods of shooting tear gas are much more toxic than in the past, and further imply that this makes CS as deadly outdoors at it potentially is in an enclosed space for a full minute.

The entire article is trying incredibly hard to implicate the IDF, and it hangs on a study that simply doesn't say what Ha'aretz claims it says.

So where did Ha'aretz get this from? Did they read the paper and ignore it? Did they take the information from someone else and that person made it up? Or, is there a chance that the Archives of Toxicology had another article on CS, by members of the IDF, within a year of the article I found?

I've been looking hard, and I cannot find a single case of someone dying from CS outdoors, ever. And even indoor cases are very hard to find. Ha'aretz, however, seems to want people to believe otherwise. Why is that?

UPDATE: I have been emailed a link to the Hebrew paper (in the Refu'ah journal) that Ha'aretz was referring to and it is not at all the one that was published in the Archives of Toxicology. It was written by different people than the paper I referred to above and appears to be a general overview of CS gas. (My Hebrew is not good enough to actually understand most of it.)

At any rate, Ha'aretz' assertion that the paper was published in the Archives of Toxicology is not true. I cannot find the paper in English anywhere, although here is the abstract.

Mrs. Ginsburg gets a visit from the Human Rights Police

SCENE: Mrs. Ginsburg is in the kitchen of her home in Israel, preparing a meal.

The door bursts open and three men in suits enter.

MAN 1: Drop the knife!

MRS. GINSBURG [dropping knife] : What's wrong? Who are you?

MAN 1: I'm Richard Johnson - Human Rights Police. Step away from the counter!

MRS. G: Oh, dear, what's wrong?

JOHNSON: Your chemical weapons killed an Arab woman in the next village.

MRS. G, surprised: What did you say?

JOHNSON: Oh, don't act coy, ma'am. You know what you did.

MRS. G: To be honest, I'm at a loss. I'm just preparing dinner for my family.

JOHNSON: Oh, sure. Dinner. And I suppose that all of your dinners include - onions? [pointing to her chopping board]

MRS. G: Well, some of them do.

MAN 2: Onions contain chemicals. At high concentrations the chemicals can kill someone. And that's exactly what happened to Mrs. Khalawar.

MAN 3: Propanol S-oxide.

MRS. G: I'm so sorry! I didn't know!

JOHNSON: Oh, yes you did. Your eyes tear when you chop onions - you know, and so does everyone else. Don't pretend and lie. You Israelis make me sick.

MRS. G: But if onions are so dangerous,then we have to warn the people in the nursing home down the block!

JOHNSON: Really? [Speaking into walkie talkie] - Whitson, new information about an old age home - check it out for fatalities. [Back to Mrs. Ginsburg] What's the name of the facility?

MRS. G: Ummm...the Gloria Cohen center, I think.

JOHNSON makes a disgusted face. [back to walkie talkie] Cancel that order, Whitson. [To Mrs. Ginsburg] Stop playing with us, the fumes only kill Arabs. Everyone knows that.

MRS G: I don't want to hurt anyone, but how can I cook without onions? I always use onions! Onion soup, chopped liver, and tonight I was making pepper steak...

JOHNSON: [Shocked] Did you say pepper?

MRS. G: Yes, pepper steak...

JOHNSON [to walkie talkie] Get the Hazmat suits, stat! We have a full blown case of chemical warfare here!

MRS. G: [sputtering] But...but...

MAN 2: Two lachrymatory agents in one dish! The horror!

MAN 3: Who knows how the S-oxide would combine with the capsaicin in the peppers? It could start World War 3!

JOHNSON: [to walkie talkie] Find out every Arab woman and child who has died in the past six months within a five kilometer radius. [eyeing Mrs. Ginsburg] We think we found the cause. Over. [back to Mrs. Ginsburg] Do you know nothing about human rights of Arabs? Now we have to shut you down.

[Men arrive in hazmat suits, start ripping apart Mrs. Ginsburg's kitchen.]

[Tight shot of a confused Mrs. Ginsburg. Fade out.]

An interesting school name in Rafah

Hamas concluded a week-long commemoration of the Gaza was with an assembly at a secondary school in Rafah on Thursday.

The name of the school is "Beersheba." ( بئر السبع )

Just another tiny proof among the thousands of others that many Arabs will not rest until Israel is destroyed.

The day in tear gas

In the past day or so, tear gas was deployed in:

Algeria
Telangana, India
Jordan
Greece
Turkey
and Tanzania.

Let's see how many of these incidents capture the imagination of the human rights community.

Son of an imam who is a critic of Islam gets death threats

From Translating Jihad:

Hamad 'Abd-al-Samad: I Consider Islam Part of the Problem in the Islamic World

masrawy.com, 6 Jan 2011, (link to Arabic)

What would the world lose if the Islamic nations disappeared from the map? Almost nothing, says Hamad 'Abd-al-Samad, and he adds that the Islamic world has stopped innovating, and become a burden on the civilized nations. Indeed it has become a breeding ground for intolerance and violence. The researcher at the University of Munich says in his book, which was published in German and Arabic under the title "The Fall of the Islamic World," that the Muslims are fixed on the past, and are unable to answer the difficult questions of the future. Therefore they flee to the successes of a glorious past."

The book has caused serious controversy since its release in Germany, between those who accuse 'Abd-al-Samad of disseminating and establishing stereotypes, and those who consider him a "brave writer" who has placed his finger on the problem for many people, calling on Muslims to take charge of the reform of their own societies. In this book, 'Abd-al-Samad considers Islam a part of the problem in the Islamic world, and he looks at the Qur'an as a stumbling block in the way of Muslim development, due to the enormous influence the text of the Qur'an has over Muslims. The author has received a number of death threats, and also received accusations that he--the son of an imam of a mosque in the Egyptian countryside--is swimming in the current of hostility to Islam and Muslims. [...]

In another article, possibly based on the same interview which seems to have been done by Deutsche Welle, he says "that the Islamic world will collapse, and is expected to fall during the decades after the oil runs out and the desertification of parts of it occur due to climate change."

Enough links to last the weekend

Hamas leader Mahmoud al Zahar told a rally in Gaza that the Holocaust was a Zionist lie. Surprised?

The Economist has a good article about Israel's economic promise, and potential problems. (h/t Yaakov Lozowick)

Israellycool, inspired by my series, makes his own poster.

Speaking of, a Polish site put my posters together in a narrative!

Zach at Facebook notices that a couple of people were killed in a protest in Tanzania, a story that will disappear immediately without a trace because no one can blame the Jews.

Yesterday the PA released a number of prisoners who were involved in major terror attacks - including the massacre of four people near Hebron in August. Palestine Today has smiling photos of them. (Israel arrested them, accidentally killing a man during the search.)

Palestine Today also reports that Israel is looking for a type of gum to keep soldiers alert and awake. I figure, if Israelis are so good at making sex gum, how hard can it be?

Swiss bank UBS has banned money transfers to certain anti-Israel (called "pro-Palestinian") organizations. The major one is Collectif Urgence Palestine, whose webpage says that their objectives are to end occupation, release prisoners and allow the right to return as a first step. Hmm..wonder what Step 2 might be? (It is possible the UBS made the decision after lawsuits from Israeli victims of terror claiming that UBS money transfers funded the attacks.)

Folderol sent a link to some new information indicating that Jews used Greek translations of the Torah in synagogues much later than had been thought. Some of the Greek is written in Hebrew characters.

Richard Millett notices an advertisement for tourism to "Palestine" that seems to imply that Israel doesn't exist. Will the UK advertising board ASA object?

Alan Dershowitz and Yaacov Lozowick respond to the ridiculous Letty Cottin Pogrebin column in the Forward that I skewered last week.

Yaacov also has a nice perspective on Abu Rahma.

I had missed this great story from last month: BDS protesters tried to intimidate a Montreal shoe store owner into dropping a brand of high-end Israeli women's shoes called BeautiFeel. He refused, and the Montreal Jewish community has more than made up for any losses from the weekly protests. (One woman bought $3000 worth of shoes to distribute to the homeless!) (from Gil Troy blog)

The dog who drove Nazis crazy

From JPost:

Germany's Nazi government was so angry about a dog trained to imitate Hitler that it started an obsessive campaign against its Finnish owner, according to newly discovered documents.

In the middle of World War II, the Foreign Office in Berlin commanded its diplomats in the Nazi-friendly Nordic country to gather evidence on the dog, and even came up with plans to destroy the pharmaceutical wholesale company of the dog's owner.

The dog, Jackie, was a mutt owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Borg's wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the strange way it raised its paw high in the air like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of "Heil Hitler!"

On January 29, 1941, German Vice Consul Willy Erkelenz in Helsinki wrote that "a witness, who does not want to be named, said ... he saw and heard how Borg's dog reacted to the command 'Hitler' by raising its paw."

Borg was ordered to the German embassy in Helsinki and questioned about his dog's unusual greeting habits.

He denied ever calling the dog by the German dictator's name, but admitted that his wife called the dog Hitler. He tried to play down the accusations, saying the paw-raising had only happened a few times in 1933 — shortly after Hitler came to power.

The Finnish merchant ensured the Nazi diplomats that he never did anything "that could be seen as an insult against the German Reich."

The zealous diplomats in Helsinki did not believe him and wrote back to Berlin that "Borg, even though he claims otherwise, is not telling the truth."

The different ministries that were involved in the dog scandal — the Foreign Office, the Economy Ministry and even Hitler's Chancellory — meticulously reported all their findings about the canine.

The economy ministry announced that the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben, which had supplied Borg's wholesale trade with pharmaceuticals, offered to eliminate his company by ending their cooperation with him.

Based on all this support, the Foreign Office was already looking for ways to bring Borg to trial for insulting Hitler, but in the end, none of the potential witnesses were willing to repeat their accusations in front of a judge.

Although the episode is funny, there is a very important lesson to be learned:

Totalitarians have no sense of humor, and hate being made fun of.

Satire, humor and put-downs are important weapons against Islamists, Islamic terrorists and Islamist dictators. The entire purpose of terror, after all, is to feel important and relevant, to feel that you can make superpowers quake with fear. Every statement coming out of Iran is designed to make that state look like a superpower whose decisions must be taken seriously. If the reaction is instead belittling and humorous scorn that shows that they are like mere mosquitoes who need to be slapped down, they lose much of their incentive and power.

The Islamic terror supporters are good at insults but they are awful at being the butts of jokes. A few well-placed YouTube videos can make even other Arabs laugh at them. And it is something that anyone can do.

IDF: new information proves Abu Rahma died of other causes

YNet reports:

Israel Defense Forces officials said Friday that the army was about to reach an agreement with official Palestinian sources that the death of Jawaher Abu-Rahma in the West Bank village of Bilin last week was not caused by tear gas fired during an anti-fence rally in the area.

"Our assumptions were verified this week after we received additional documents from the Palestinians," said Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brigadier-General Nitzan Alon.

He added that "the documents and data we received strengthened the understanding that her death was caused by the method of the medical treatment and other medical aspects."

The division commander said some details remained to be examined on the matter, but that further talks would be held with the Palestinians in a bid to reach a final understanding.

"We now understand that she herself was not at the protest, but in a more distant place, where remains of the tear gas may have reached her. But this was not the cause of her death. She died from other illnesses and medical care."

This is on the record, so chances are that the IDF has some specific new information that will show the truth about Abu Rahma's death. My sources say that we will be learning more on Sunday.

"Completely Peaceful" - New EoZ video

An email correspondent suggested this idea...

Wikileaks: "PA money going to Hamas"

From Aftenposten's Wikileaks collection, a cable dated December 4, 2008:

Econoff called Udi Levi, Counterterrorism Finance Bureau Director at the [Israeli] National Security Council (NSC) and a senior intelligence officer on December 2 to press for release of NIS 250 million to the Gaza banking system, as requested by the Palestinian Monetary Authority. Levi said continued rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, stalemate in negotions on release of Hamas-held Israeli Defense Force soldier Gilad Shalit, and new information on Hamas access to the Palestinian Authority salary payments funded by the requested transfer all made it unlikely that the GOI would honor the request.

Levi did say that the GOI is considering a policy to permit about NIS 40 million in new liquidity to enter the Gaza Strip banks on a monthly basis. The exact amount is still under discussion, said Levi, but the Israeli security services have agreed that monthly transfers of some amount of shekels to Gaza are necessary to avoid collapse of the banking system there.

However, Levi noted GOI intelligence has indications that Gaza banks are being forced by Hamas to underreport their true reserve holdings, so it is difficult for the GOI to assess the current state of the banking system in Gaza. He said that the banks have had no choice but to follow Hamas instructions and conduct business as if they were operating on insufficient reserves. He posited that the present pre-Eid crisis might be an attempt by Hamas to further consolidate its power in Gaza though he was vague on how the crisis would forward the Hamas agenda. Regarding the PA,s payroll, Levi told econoff that it included Hamas members and many other questionable individuals that the GOI did not believe to be working as civil servants for the Fatah-controlled PA. He offered to share all GOI information on the topicin a meeting with relevant USG officials at their earliest convenience. We will take him up on that offer and report septel.

A cable from November gives some background:

The PA contends that Hamas, ability to pay its workers, salaries each month combined with the inability of the PA to do so causes further deterioration in support for PA/Fatah relative to Hamas (reftel &I8). The GOI, on the other hand, believes that many of the estimated 77,000 wage earners on the PAs payroll may actually be Hamas members or affiliates. Israeli security analysts argue that a considerable portion of the civil service salaries that the PA attempts to pay each month to its Gazan employees actually find their way to Hamas or Hamas supporters (see reftel "D"). They have therefore determined that full coverage of the payroll is contrary to Israel,s security interests, even if Hamas gains some political advantage from being able to pay its salaries in full.

Furthermore, GOI officials, while often praising the credentials of PA technocrats, doubt the effectiveness and authority of the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) to regulate and police Palestinian, and especially Gazan banks.