Monday, April 17, 2006

Hamas aid watch

OK, Iran finally publicly announced that it would give $50 million to Hamas, apparently wanting to wait for their terror conference to make the announcement. But keep in mind that this cover roughly ten days to two weeks of the PA budget, so for such a bigmouthed powerhouse it is a surprisingly small number. Compare to the half a billion or so that the PA got for years from both the EU and the US.

The Arab Summit pledged $55 million monthly to Hamas, although I will bet that this will last only a month or two.

Russia pledged an unspecified amount. Clearly, their motivation is to be a power-broker in the Middle East, because the idea that Russia's economy has millions to spare is laughable. Chances are it was a relatiively small amount and meant more as a political move to show relevance to the one-time superpower.

I still think that the cash will get through to the terrorists, mostly through the UNRWA, which employs many Hamas terrorists itself, as well as the "charities" and NGOs that are sure to sprout up as the money flow moves in that direction. But ultimately the PA budget is so bloated that there is no way that the world will make up the shortfall without Hamas firing half of the PA employees and risking a civil war.

UPDATE: Qatar added $50 million, but the article says that the other Arab pledges never materialized.

UPDATE 2: Qatar's $50 million is just part of the earlier pledge by the Arab summit, but Iran doubled its pledge to $100 million (the same number I predicted, by the way.)

Again, to keep it in context, the PA budget is somewhere between $1.5B and $2 billion a year. These pledges are Band-Aids. If the Arab world would truly commit to the entire shortfall from the loss of EU and American money, it appears that it will affect the Arab world's entire economy.

It is also notable that the two most important Arab countries, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, did not attend the Arab summit where the money was pledged, meaning they have not yet pledged anything.

UPDATE 3: Japan cut off its aid to Hamas, some $40 million a year.

The culture of terror

The mother of the scumbag who murdered at least 9 innocent people today in Tel Aviv said to AP that "there were no warning signs her son was getting involved with a militant group."

And here she is, with some family photos of her beloved murderous son:

But wait? What is her son holding in that photo?

Only in the Arab world can one go to a local photographer and pose a family member in front of his "Autumn in New England" backdrop with an automatic weapon, to see it become a cherished family memory.

And only Palestinian Arabs can say with a straight face that the children whom they raise to hate Jews, who they raise to love murderers, who they brainwash from birth into idolizing death and terror - that they are surprised when they actually do what they have been taught to do.

The mother is as guilty as the son, and it is time that the parents of these terrorists get treated the same way. She should be rotting in jail where she cannot raise and indoctrinate another set of would-be murderers.

GAZA, April 17 (Reuters) - Palestinian militants linked to President Mahmoud Abbas's increasingly fractured Fatah movement threatened on Monday to attack Jews overseas to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners from its jails.

"This is an open call to all our fighters in the homeland to focus on kidnapping Israeli soldiers and civilians inside our occupied land. And if the enemy does not release our prisoners, then Zionists outside Palestine will be an easy target for our fighters," the group said in a statement.

Remember, these are the moderates that the world is trying to strengthen to oppose Hamas.

Hitler made plans to destroy Palestinian Jewry

Hat tip Ruthy at A March of Folly:

It was the victory of the famed Desert Rats of Britain’s Eighth Army at El Alamein under the leadership of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery that saved the Jews in Palestine from annihilation. The turning point in the desert war signalled a reprieve from a planned German invasion of what was then the British Mandate of Palestine.

The Nazis stationed a unit of SS troops in Athens, tasked with following invading frontline troops in Palestine and then rounding up and murdering about 500,000 European Jews who had taken refuge there, according to historians at the University of Stuttgart.

But the unit, answerable to the Afrika Corps under Field Marshal Erwin “The Desert Fox” Rommel, never deployed.

It was designed to function like the Einsatzgruppen or “action squads” of the SS that followed the German army into Russia, shooting close to a million Jews and political enemies before the static killing centres such as Treblinka and Auschwitz were established in Poland.

Klaus-Michael Mallmann of the University’s Ludwigsburg research team and his assistant Martin Cüppers said they had spent three years studying German wartime archives, including those at the foreign office in Berlin which had hitherto remained sealed.

“The Allied defeat of Rommel at the end of 1942 had prevented the extension of the Holocaust to Palestine,” they said. If Rommel had beaten the Allies in the desert and invaded Egypt, a push into Palestine would have followed and the unit would have deployed there.

The researchers, whose findings appear in a new book entitled Germans, Jews, Genocide: The Holocaust as history and the present, said the Athens unit would follow the blueprint drawn by Nazi units that hunted for Jews in eastern Europe, massacring them on the spot or shipping them off to death camps. In Palestine, they say, it would have been more of the former than the latter due to the greater distances involved.

Mr Mallmann and Mr Cüppers said the Nazis had planned to exploit Arab friendship for their plans.

“The most important collaborator with the Nazis and an absolute Arab anti-Semite was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem,” they say in the book. He was a prime example of how Arabs and Nazis became friends out of a hatred of Jews.

Al-Husseini had met Adolf Eichmann, Adolf Hitler’s chief architect of the Holocaust, several times to settle details of the slaughter. In the academic work they draw on documents from the Reich Main Security Office showing “Einsatzgruppe Egypt” was standing by in Athens and was ready to disembark for Palestine in the summer of 1942.

The Middle East death squad was to be led by the SS Obersturmbannführer Walther Rauff.

Dutch Dhimmi Dummies

An astounding "study" in Holland:

The Dutch authorities must work to establish good relations with the political aspects of Islam. That is the conclusion of a report by the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). The report, which was presented this week to Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, has been released at a time when the EU is also dealing with the problem of a Palestinian government led by Hamas.

In recent years, a climate of fear and suspicion between the Muslim world and the west has led to distorted mutual perceptions. In this atmosphere, Islamic politics are often equated with the views and behaviour of anti-democratic and violent fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden. The WRR report argues that this image is unfair. Within Islam there are many more and varied political views.

Of course there are fundamentalists such as the Taliban and the followers of al-Qaeda, who advocate a literal interpretation of the Qu'ran and reject democracy and human rights. But Islamic politics also includes progressive movements and thinkers who emphasise the spirit rather than the letter of the Qu'ran and who often seek to justify democracy and human rights on the basis of Islam.

The report also draws attention to the fact that, over the years, many Islamic activist movements have gone through a process of moderation. Movements like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt who - in the 1970s - were still calling for a radical overthrow of the secular state. Today they act as normal political parties willing to cooperate with others within the limits of a democratic system.

Pure Islam
This is not really new. But Dr Wendy Asbeek, one of the authors of the report, thinks that these facts need to be explained in the Netherlands today:
"In the Dutch media, we regularly hear opinion makers and experts claim that fundamentalist Islam is the only 'pure Islam'. This calls for a counter-discourse that shows the diversity and especially the dynamics of political Islam."What are the consequences of this analysis for Dutch government policies? The report calls for nothing less than a "paradigm shift". The Dutch authorities and also the EU must learn to view political aspects of Islam as a potential ally in their efforts to advance democracy and human rights in the Muslim world.

Hamas
The release of the report is timely because at the moment the Dutch government and the EU are wrestling with the question of how to deal with the Islamic movement Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in January. Wendy Asbeek:
"The report will surely contribute to making cooperation with Hamas debatable. It is important to approach such movements pragmatically and to judge them on their deeds. We should have the courage to enter into dialogue."

IslamOnline adds:

The WRR study urged an end for campaigns sullying the image of Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands.

It blamed right-wing politicians like MP Ayaan Hirsi for fanning the conflict with Islam.

The study maintained that those politicians, in attacking Islam, are after fame and voters.

The findings of the study drew immediate fire from right-wing and liberal parties, which asked the parliament to hold a special session to debate the conclusions.

Hirsi, who wrote the scripts of two documentaries on alleged oppression of women in Islam, said the study lacks professionalism and undermines free speech.

Yes, walking around with 24-hour protection from Islamic would-be murderers and imams who threaten your life and who murdered your friend is definitely just for fame.

And Hamas is just a democratic movement that doesn't take the Koran literally.

And the Muslim Brotherhood is not interested in terror, no, not in the least. They are fully within the democratic tradition.

And "political Islam" is just another political movement; no interest in establishing shari'a law for the world. No-sir-ee.

Such stupidity from Holland, the country that hosted the murder of Theo Van Gogh, is breathtaking.

UPDATE: I didn't realize Little Green Footballs had covered this, and an interview with one author is even worse, identifying Hezbollah as a moderate movement and saying that Shari'a is just like the Ten Commandments.

Humanitarian crisis, part 3

Palestinians stand in front of their shop at Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza strip April 16, 2006.

Yes, the Palestinian Arabs huddled in horrible, squalid conditions in their refugee camps, clearly starving, and if the EU doesn't pony up an automatic salary for every adult male in the territories, how will Palestinian women be able to afford to shop for their stylish clothing that are for sale at the Khan Younis Mall?

(Part 1 and part 2)

Today's Palestinian Police Phunnies XXVI

A masked Palestinian security man shouts after they stormed a government building at Khan Younis camp in the southern Gaza Strip April 15, 2006. Dozens of masked Palestinian security men stormed a government building in the Gaza Strip on Saturday demanding the Hamas-led administration, already under international financial pressure, pay overdue salaries. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Law and order once again is front and center for these dedicated public servants.

Already, we can see the dire effects that no salary is having on the average Palestinian Arab. They are already suffering a severe flag shortage!

Chag kosher v'sameach!

This blog is now officially free of all leavened products.

(from the Washington Haggadah, Joel ben Simeon, 1478, at the Library of Congress.)

Wishing all of you a wonderful Yom Tov, and L'Shana Haba'a B'Yerushalayim!

A-Z Meme (gee, thanks AbbaGav)

I am always torn about these things. On the one hand, they are pretty much identical to computer viruses (and chain letters) and I don't like to help propagate them. On the other hand, someone actually wants to know how I would answer the questions.

So, here are my answers to the A-Z meme, but I will not pass it on to others, especially right before Pesach!

Accent: None that I'm aware of. I like to think I speak in the same way a national anchorman speaks.
Booze: I never understood why people like drinking things that taste like ashtrays. When I must drink for some social reason, I can stomach a gin and tonic. That is very rare.
Chore I Hate: Pretty much all of them. That's why they are called "chores."
Dogs/Cats: We have a Lhasa Apso, perhaps the dumbest dog in the world. In fact, that's how I call him: "Here, you stupid dog!" And he always comes to me.
Essential Electronics: PC, Casio Exilim camera, Blackberry. And my old Treo which has Bejeweled and a siddur. And a USB memory stick. And a USB WiFi adapter. And a Panasonic camcorder. And....
Favorite Perfume/Cologne: Some twenty years ago, when I taught Hebrew school, I got two colognes for Chanukah. One was English Leather. It took me years before I could bring myself to throw them out.
Gold & Silver: Sorry, I didn't read how others answered this, so I don't know what it means. I don't have any, at any rate.
Hometown: Born in Philadelphia, now in central NJ.
Insomnia: Only when thinking about blogging. Which is often.
Job Title: Guru.
Kids: 2, known as Daughter of Ziyon and Junior Elder.
Living Arrangements: I share my bedroom with my wife. Shocking, I know.
Most Admired Trait: How would I know? The readers need to answer that one.
Number of Sexual Partners: More than zero and less than two, unless I'm really forgetful.
Overnight Hospital Stays: Bli ayin hora, never for myself. DoZ was born on a Friday night so I did stay in the hospital that night.
Phobia: Memes.
Quote: "You deserve the best, but nobody owes you anything." -E. of Z.
Religion: The Jewish part is easy, but I have no idea which subdivision of Orthodoxy I might fit in.
Siblings: 2.
Time I Usually Wake Up: 6.
Unusual Talent: The ability to make faces in a crowded room to a teenage daughter, making her laugh despite herself, without anyone else noticing.
Vegetable I Refuse To Eat: Plenty I dislike but haven't yet seen any I couldn't force down.
Worst Habit: Apparently, responding to memes.
X-Rays: Well, my teeth have been X-rayed a few tmes.
Yummy Foods I Make: My rule is never to spend more time making a food than it takes to eat it. I used to doctor up pre-made foods when I was single, for example putting honey on pre-made breaded chicken before baking, or putting chopped onions in pre-made chopped liver, and those shortcuts made ordinary pre-packaged stuff much more interesting.
When my kids were little I would ask them to take out 3 random (non-dairy)ingredients from the refrigerator or cupboard and then I would mix them up and put it on chicken pieces. Practically everything works (mustard, marmalade, OJ, onions....)
Why I spent more time answering about how little time I spend on food preparation, I do not know.
Zodiac Sign: Virgo, both in my Hebrew and English birthdays.

The Palestinian Arab welfare state stats

Some more statistics and information about how utterly dependent the Palestinian Arabs are on free money:

This article says that the PA pays $118M every month just for salaries. Since the PA employs some 140,000 people, that means that each "worker" gets over $10,000 a year on the average. This may not be high by Western standards, but compare this to Egypt, whose average annual income is $1530 (in 2001) and Jordan's is $1750. (I am assuming that "average annual income" is per worker; I couldn't find a definition.)

I also found this article from 2000 showing how thousands of Palestinian Arabs are employed by NGOs and getting paid far more than civil service workers, and seem to have plenty of corruption that goes along with the extra money and perks, with little accountability. As we see international funding shift from directly funding the PA to the "humanitarian aid" organizations, watch as the NGOs become more and more corrupt and infiltrated with terror supporters themselves.

Unless the international community starts overseeing the NGO budgets, the problem is just moving terror dollars from one pocket to another.

Who is working to give the Palestinian Arabs financial independence?

GAZA: Israel suspended formal security ties to the Palestinian government yesterday in what Hamas said amounted to "a declaration of war".

Meanwhile...

Israel must not be recognized and the Palestinian Foreign Ministry should aim to establish a Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, in place of the Jewish State, PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said according to Palestinian media reports.

So Israel refusing to cooperate with those who want to destroy it is "declaring war", but Hamas saying they want Israel to be replaced by another Arab state is just evidence of its desire to live in peace with its (Islamic) neighbors.

BERLIN, April 11, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The European Union is set to remove derogatory terminology about Islam like "Islamic terrorism" and "fundamentalists" in its new lexion of public communication to make clear that terrorists are hijacking the religion, an EU official revealed on Tuesday, April 11.

"Certainly 'Islamic terrorism' is something we will not use ... we talk about 'terrorists who abusively invoke Islam'," the official told Reuters.

EU counter-terrorism chief Gijs de Vries said that terrorism was not inherent to any religion, and praised Muslims for opposing attempts by terrorists abusing Islam.

"They have been increasingly active in isolating the radicals who abuse Islam for political purposes, and they deserve everyone's support. And that includes the choice of language that makes clear that we are talking about a murderous fringe that is abusing a religion and does not represent it," he told Reuters.

Omar Faruk, a Muslim British barrister who has advised the government on community issues, said there was a strong need for a "new sort of political dialogue and terminology".

The widespread use of the expression "just creates a culture where terrorism actually is identified with Islam. That causes me a lot of stress," Faruk added.

The lexicon, which would set down guidelines for EU officials and politicians, will reconsider other terms like "Islamists" and "jihad," which is often used by groups like Al-Qaeda to mean a holy war against the infidels.

"Jihad means something for you and me, it means something else for a Muslim. Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself," said the EU official.

We wouldn't want to cause Mr. Faruk any stress, would we?

The very same website that printed this definition of Jihad has this quote in its "fatwa bank," quoting the "moderate" Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.

The meaning of Jihad in our present time particularly refers to striving to liberate Muslim lands from the grip of the disbelievers who usurped them and imposed on them their own laws in lieu of the Divine Law. Those disbelievers may be Jews, Christians or both or even pagans, who follow no particular religion at all. Disbelievers are all alike.

Capitalists, Communists, Westerners, Easterners, People of the Book and pagans are by no means different from one other. They should all be fiercely fought if they attempt to occupy any part of the Muslim land. This duty falls on those closest to the occupied land, who should be aided by those closest to them, who, in turn, ought to be aided by those closest to them, till it becomes incumbent on all Muslims to take part in Jihad.

Muslims have never been more severely afflicted than they are nowadays. Many of their lands have been captured by the disbelievers, on top of which is Palestine that has fallen victim to corrupt Jews. Similarly, Kashmir has been dominated by pagan Hindus. Chechnya and other Islamic states have fallen in the grip of pagan tyrannical communism.

Retrieving these lands, freeing them from the clutches of atheists and their twisted laws is the joint responsibility of all Muslims. Declaring Jihad to save our land is an Islamic obligation.

If war is waged anywhere to achieve this goal, namely to free the occupied lands of the laws and the tyranny of disbelievers, it is undoubtedly a case of Jihad for the sake of Allah. It thus needs to be financed from the money of Zakah, the amount of which is to be decided based on the total sum of the charity, the requirements of Jihad as well as the degree of the need of other potential recipients of charity. This is all to be decided by reliable scholars, if they are to be found.

So here is the real definition of Jihad: When talking to Muslims, it means fighting non-Muslims; when talking to non-Muslims, it means "struggle."

I have yet to see an Islamic website mention the terror group "Islamic Jihad" with any anger about how they supposedly usurped the word Jihad.

The EU has succumbed yet again to dhimmitude, and watering down the definition of the war against Islamic terror means that the Islamic terrorists have just won another victory in their jihad against the West.

Islamic feminism

I once had an ancient 1954 World Book Encyclopedia. It had a large entry on "Negro" with such picture captions as "Smiling Pullman Porters help people on the train!" It talked about problems in the Negro world, such as the fact that there were far fewer Negro doctors per million Negro people compared to the number of white doctors per white people.

In other words, World Book was earnestly trying to be politically correct, while at the same time being unwittingly racist.

I am reminded of that article as I read this in the Arab News.

Saudi women need jobs, so let's give them jobs! As long as they are the right kinds of jobs...

JEDDAH, 11 April 2006 — The government’s decision to replace salesmen with Saudi saleswomen at lingerie shops will be implemented in two phases, according to Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, deputy labor minister for planning and development.

Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, he said the sales jobs at lingerie shops along the streets, central markets and major shopping centers would be restricted to Saudi women starting on June 18.

In the second phase set to begin next year, sales jobs at shops of abayas and women’s readymade dresses will be restricted to Saudi women, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Al-Humaid as saying.

Last week, Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi said his ministry would not back off from the decision. “The directive is binding and there will be no retraction in its implementation,” Al-Gosaibi said. “Providing jobs for women has been a priority for decision makers in the Kingdom for more than 25 years.”

The Labor Ministry has launched a campaign aimed at employing 200,000 women. Some of the jobs that have been identified for Saudi women are receptionists, tailors, banquet hall employees, nutritionists, governesses, photographers, beauticians, caterers, and hospitality and recreation industry workers.

April 12, 1936: Not worth the paper it wasn't written on

Philip Roth once wrote "Truth is stranger than fiction, but stranger still are lies." And he is right.

We see today that world leaders can transparently and provably lie and yet their statements are treated as if they are newsworthy.

Diplomacy is based on the assumption that both parties are trustworthy. But for some reason, even when one party is proven to have lied over and over again, in today's world people are willing to give them more and more chances - as long as they aren't the ones who can be directly affected by the lies.

Even bald-faced lies can have the effect of buying time, of causing the listener to pause and reconsider. People want to believe so much that they will allow themselves to believe the words of known liars.

So lies almost always work, on some level. And as long as they are rewarded, they will be repeated.

The headline I haven't seen yet

Back in January, I outlined the "nightmare Hamas scenario" where Iran would fund the nascent Hamastan. In this scenario, Hamas remains solvent, terroristic and it becomes a means to deliver nuclear weapons to Israel without any rockets.

It appeared that the scenario was coming true, as Iran forcefully and loudly declares its support for the Hamas terror leadership. Iran did in fact claim to offer Hamas money in February, and we know that Hamas has been getting closer to Hizbollah which is funded directly by Iran.

Iran has also been very vocal in its public support for Hamastan, hosting conferences with the purpose of supporting Hamas and Palestinian Arabs.

But I have yet to see the headline "Iran pledges $100 million to the PA" or anything specific like that. All I am seeing is Iran calling on other Islamic and Arab states to support Palestinian Arabs, and the occasional article saying how Iran "supports" Palestinian Arab rights.

Why hasn't Iran taken the obvious lead in funding Hamas publicly?

Do they not have the cash? Are they full of hot air? Do they want to keep aid to the Hamas military "wing" private and out of the scrutiny of international auditors who watch where Western dollars go?

Any ideas?

CAIR data point

The Muslim supremacist group, CAIR, recently held a fundraiser in Detroit. The Arab American News covered the event. Among the attendees interviewed was this

"[We’re] interested in the future of Islam…[and we’re] opposed to the Zionist state of Israel," said Henry Dudzinski of Redmond, joined by his wife Mary. "[We’re] interested in hearing the keynote speaker."

It is interesting to note that it appears that the general American-Arab population is right in line with Hamas in being against Israel altogether, not against post 1967 "occupation."

But I'm sure it is only a tiny minority.....

How to deal with adversity

A lesson for Palestinian Arabs:

Gush Katif Lettuce being exported en masse to North American communities for Passover

For the coming Passover the “HaSalad” Company is flying out over 250,000 heads of lettuce to some thirty destinations all over the world.

The “HaSalad” Company is one of the leading producers and marketers of chilled fresh leafy worm-free vegetables in Israel. It is currently engaged in exporting by air 250,000 worm-free kosher for Passover lettuce heads to about thirty Jewish communities abroad. The lettuce heads are being taken to five centers in the United States (Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Miami and Las Vegas) and to other countries including England, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Russia.

Mr. Roni Ephraim, export manager at the “HaSalad” Company, reports that his firm will export 100 tons of lettuce, with a value of 1.5 million dollars.

The “HaSalad – Alei Katif” company was founded in Kfar Darom, Gush Katif sixteen years ago. It was the first business in Israel which specialized in growing insect-free leafy vegetables.

During the expulsion the plant, the largest in Gush Katif, was transferred temporarily to the industrial zone of Sha’ar HaNegev. In a short time it succeeded in growing lettuce and other vegetables on an area of hundreds of dunams in the western Negev area.

Formerly about 450 dunams in Gush Katif were covered with greenhouses that grew vegetables for HaSalad. In a mere six months the firm has again reached 100% of its former production. Dozens of new workers from Sderot and Netivot have replaced many of the workers formerly employed in Gush Katif.

Yes, Jews were forcibly kicked out of their homes, 16 years of their work and livelihoods destroyed, and six months later they are completely back up to speed - without the EU or the UN giving them a dime, without whining constantly to the world about how bad their lot is, without insisting on handouts and resolutions.

How many decades will it take Arabs to learn the same lesson?

Looks like we need a scorecard

Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad are re-arranging their roles. Somehow, I think their goal remains the same.

This is particularly hilarious:

Some Fatah-affiliated militias are behind the latest wave of Kassam rocket attacks, in the hope of prompting a massive IDF operation in the Gaza Strip that would eventually bring down the new Hamas cabinet, Hamas officials claimed on Sunday.
The officials told The Jerusalem Post that the timing of the recent increase in attacks - almost immediately after the Hamas cabinet was sworn in - was not coincidental. They also accused some elements in the rival Islamic Jihad of working together with Fatah militias.
"Their main goal is to drag Israel into a major confrontation in order to bring down the Hamas administration," a Hamas minister said. He pointed out that Hamas was not involved in firing rockets and that the movement would continue to honor the unofficial truce with Israel.
He said he did not rule out the possibility that some of the Palestinian Authority's security forces were also involved in the "conspiracy" to topple the Hamas cabinet.
"The situation is very dangerous," he said. "I don't rule out the possibility that some of the security forces and their commanders are behind the rocket attacks. They want to plunge the area into anarchy so that they can say that Hamas has failed."
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas cabinet, said the latest wave of violence was clearly aimed at confusing the new cabinet. He expressed regret that the international community was more interested in finding ways to isolate Hamas than in forcing Israel to halt its "state terror."
Another Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, accused Israel of trying to bring down the new cabinet. "The latest Israeli military escalation is aimed at forcing the Palestinians to succumb and bringing down the new cabinet, which was elected in democratic elections," he said. "The Zionist crimes won't break the will of the Palestinian people and the occupation will pay a heavy price for its crimes."
Both Hamad and Zuhri refrained from openly blaming Fatah or any of the PA security forces.
Meanwhile, a row has erupted between Islamic Jihad's political and military wings over whether to stop Kassam attacks. Sources close to the military wing, al-Kuds Brigades, announced on Sunday morning that the group had decided to halt its attacks for at least one week because of the IDF strikes over the past few days.
"The decision was taken to prove to the world that Israel is initiating attacks on the Palestinians and that we are only responding," it said in a leaflet distributed in Gaza City. "We want to show the world that we are only defending ourselves and that we don't love bloodshed."
Hours later, Khaled al-Batsh and Khader Habib, the top political leaders of Islamic Jihad, denied that the group had agreed to suspend its rocket attacks.
PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh chaired an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Sunday to discuss the latest cycle of violence. The cabinet decided to request an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians were entitled to "resist the occupation."
The cabinet also decided to dispatch Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar to a number of Arab and Islamic countries to seek financial and political backing for the PA.
Information Minister Yusef Rizkah told reporters that Israel was trying to "blackmail" the new cabinet and send a message to Palestinian voters that they had made the wrong choice by electing Hamas. "Israel's message is also directed to the Arab world," he said. "Israel is warning the Arab leaders against supporting the Hamas cabinet."

Dizzying, isn't it? In a nutshell: Hamas says Fatah is using violence against Israel to topple Hamas so Fatah can get back in charge with world backing because Fatah is so much more peaceful than Hamas. Islamic Jihad wants to stop its hundreds of rocket attacks to prove that Israel is the aggressor, but in the end it denies wanting to stop any sort of terror. Hamas says Islamic Jihad is in cahoots with Fatah to bring down Hamas even though IJ never had any political ambitions.

Makes perfect sense!

Haveil Havalim Home-Run!

The Ignoble Experiment hosts this week's Haveil Havalim, in a dizzyingly comprehensive look at the Jewish/Israeli blogosphere.

I am honored to be mentioned no less than 4 times in this roundup:

My picture of April snow,
a wire-news picture of a dilemma,
my article on how Iran perceives Western fears,
and my article on where "humanitarian aid" goes.

Thanks, Irina, for the mentions!

Seraphic Secret has an excellent and heartbreaking post about going through the notebooks of the son he lost.

Elie's Expositions has three articles also about the pain of losing his son last year, and his latest is both saddening and uplifting.

May both Elie and Robert take comfort in the fact that they and their wives raised incredible young men who continue to touch and inspire all of us.

In this Pesach season may we only have שמחות, happiness, and may we go מעבדות לחירות , from slavery to freedom, in every sense of those words.

Today's GoozNews

As I mentioned before, Gooz is a Farsi word for flatulence, so GoozNews is a compendium of Iranian news stories:

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), itself, is fomenting insecurity and injustice instead of establishing security, substitute Friday prayers leader Ahmad Khatami here said.

It is always funny to see crazed Muslims turn against the institutions that have been on their side for decades.

European Union High Representative for common foreign and security policy Javier Solana is expected to present a paper on Iran at the regular EU foreign ministers meeting to be held in Luxembourg on Monday.
The paper contains an analysis of the latest developments in EU- Iran ties and a clear sense of EU position which includes that EU wants good relations with Iran, to establish a sound partnership, etc., EU sources told IRNA in Brussels Friday.

Solana is nothing if not inconsistent in his love of terror-supporting entities.

Speaking of useful idiots:

The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero here Thursday stressed Iran's right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Addressing a joint press conference, Annan and Zapatero said negotiation is the best solution to Iran's nuclear case.
It is quite right that Iran reminds the world of its right to access to peaceful nuclear energy, said Annan adding Tehran should fulfill its commitments within the regulations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He praised efforts made by Iran and the European states to resume talks and settle Tehran's nuclear case, encouraging the sides to boost the move.

Here's a recurring theme at IRNA's GoozNews division:

The United States is the worst enemy of Islam, said a Pakistani member of the parliament on Friday.
Talking to "IRNA", Sabir Hussain Awan, who is member of the lower house of Parliament, described the US as the most cunning enemy of the Islamic world.

Pretty much every day they will quote an obscure Pakistani or Lebanese politician or professor who says that the US is evil, or that Israel is evil, or that Iran is a beacon of light to all nations.

Finally, we see that the Jew-hating and terror-supporting nutcases continue to attack Caterpillar on the basis of "morality":

The Interfaith Group for Morally Responsible Investment (IMRI) is accusing the Church of England of being guilty in supporting Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians by continuing to invest in US manufacturers, Caterpillar.
"People are dying, HR abuses are being committed, and the Church of England is currently profiting from that. At best the Church of England is condoning these abuses and at worst is complicit," IMRI told the church's Ethical Investments Advisory Group (EIAG).

Here's a chart of Caterpillar's stock price over the past year, since the calls for divestment really started gaining steam:

EU decides to prop up Hamas. They're only after Jews, after all.

The stupidity and immorality of the EU is breathtaking.

European Union diplomats have rejected a proposal to suspend direct aid to the Palestinian Authority because some EU countries consider the measure “too brutal”.
Representatives of the 25 EU member states refused to endorse a European Commission proposal that would have suspended co-operation with the PA, led by Hamas, the militant Islamist group.
Countries such as France and the UK said it would send a wrong and even “brutal” signal if the EU halted aid to the PA without first developing ideas on alternative ways of delivering assistance.
Some EU officials argue that eventually Europe will have to engage with Hamas, which, together with its parent group the Muslim Brotherhood, is becoming one of the Arab world’s most popular and electorally formidable organisations.
The debate indicates Europe’s more gradual approach to demands agreed with the US on the Hamas-led PA. While Washington insists the PA must renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by past agreements, some European diplomats see such calls more as broad principles.
The draft text for Monday’s meeting also calls on Israel to resume transfers of $50m a month in Palestinian tax and customs revenue that it is withholding.

So we have Hamas saying, explicitly, that it will never recognize Israel, that it dreams of Israel's destruction, that it regards its police force as an army to fight Israel, that terrorists will not be jailed and in fact will be rewarded, that those who blow up Jewish civilians are heroes - all things that Hamas leaders have said in only the past couple of weeks.

And the immoral EU says, sure, we must fund these monsters, because only by giving them money so they can continue to send rockets into kibbutzim and bombers into Tel Aviv can there ever be peace.

The bitter irony of the fact that they cloak their collusion with terrorists in the guise of "humanitarian aid" cannot be emphasized enough. Under the pretense of morality do they tell Israel: Sorry, but Jewish lives are not worth as much to us as the possibility of a Palestinian Arab terrorist not getting paid.

The unimaginable nerve of saying that calling for Hamas to renounce terror is more of a "broad principle" than a hard demand is nothing less than saying that, when they have a choice between Western civilization and the demands of terrorists, they are happy to choose the terrorists. And then they go beyond that, and demand that Israel pay those who are sworn to destroy her!

The EU leaders, starting with Javier Solana, are gutless pawns of dhimmitude at best, and accessories to mass murder at worst. They have no claim to morality as they congratulate themselves on managing to find a way to funnel millions of Western dollars to those who want to destroy us.

(ANSA) - Cagliari, April 6 - Terrorists planned to stage attacks on the Milan subway and in a Bologna church but were thwarted by Italian secret services, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said on Thursday .

One of the targets was the San Petronio church, which had been threatened before by Muslims. This article (I believe from the Times of London) is from June, 2001:

Muslim leaders in Italy are demanding the removal or destruction of a priceless 15th century fresco in Bologna that they say offends Islam by showing the Prophet Muhammad being cast into the flames of Hell.

The row over The Last Judgment by Giovanni da Modena, in Bologna Cathedral, could threaten the already strained relations between the Roman Catholic Church and members of Italy’s Muslim community.

The recently established Union of Italian Muslims has written to the Pope and Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the outspoken conservative Archbishop of Bologna, complaining that the fresco shows clearly Muhammad, the founder of Islam, among those condemned to burn in eternal flames.

The protesters said that Giovanni da Modena had shown Muhammad being “thrown into hell, completely naked, with a snake wrapped around his body and a demon next to him about to torture him”. They said that Muslims had never depicted Jesus or the Virgin Mary on the walls of a mosque.

In the letter they called for the “barbarous” fresco to be removed from the wall of the Bolognini chapel, inside the 14th-century cathedral of San Petronio.

In 2002, Al-Qaeda tried to blow up the church:

An Islamist terror group linked to al-Qaida is suspected of plotting to blow up Bologna's most important church to erase the offence of a 15th-century Gothic fresco showing Mohammed being tormented by devils in hell.
A key alleged figure known as "Amsa the Libyan", who was arrested in Britain three weeks ago for possessing false papers, is suspected of having passed orders from al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Iran to terrorist cells in Europe.
The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported that in a telephone call intercepted by police in February, one of the suspect's alleged associates discussed plans for an attack on the Church of San Petronio, which has a large fresco by Giovanni da Modena showing the founder of the Islamic religion in hell.
The painter was inspired by Dante, who consigned Mohammed to the ninth circle of hell - reserved for religious schismatics - in his Divine Comedy. The fresco, held in a side-chapel, is seen by many Muslims as a symbol of Christian intransigence.
Amsa was monitored as he allegedly passed instructions to al-Qaida cells in Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. In one intercepted telephone call he apparently discussed an attack on the US embassy in Amsterdam.

Of course, the mainstream media will never get around to publishing a reproduction of a priceless 15th century work of art, so here it is:

And the detail with Mohammed:

That "Humanitarian Crisis" again

I mentioned here last November that there were 52,000 Palestinian Arab "policemen" and "security personnel" employed by the PA, making the ratio of police to the general population 1 in 67. For comparison, in Canada it is 1 per 533.

Well, in the days that Fatah's terror leadership of the PA was giving way to Hamas' terror leadership, Fatah offered to hire tens of thousands more - 18,000 right beforehand and 14,000 in the months before that, according to this article - because if Hamas approves the newest recruits the Palestinians will never have to worry about violence again.

The new number of Palestinian security personnel would be 90,000, making the ratio one policeman for every 39 men, women and children in the territories!

Imagine the security of knowing that on every block there lives a few policemen, ready to preserve the peace!

So here are the origins of the Palestinian "humanitarian crisis" - the world funded a welfare state that promoted terror explicitly all while paying every able-bodied man not to work. Sometimes they would kill people for fun. If police weren't paid enough, they would riot. And they were involved in terror attacks.

Now, the world is scared that if they stop paying Palestinian Arabs for their fake jobs - they will riot, kill people and commit terror attacks.

Or, as the UNRWA warned, " "Half of the payroll is for security people who have arms ... there could be more breakdown of law and order."

Makes perfect sense!

Noam Chomsky, Zionist?

Over the past week no fewer than three separate articles were published by terror-supporters all who criticize Noam Chomsky for being too pro-Israel.

You can't make this stuff up.

Palestinians hold posters of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with his two sons Qusai and Uday, and with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, during a march, to support Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people, in the West Bank town of Jenin Wednesday April 5, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

Yes, here are the starving, homeless people who deserve millions of dollars from the world community because they are such upstanding and peace-loving citizens.

9/11 memorial sculpture, Jersey City, April 5, 2006

Hamas: "US Churches are secretly run by Jews"

Hamas gets more respectable all the time, don't they?

United States churches are secretly run by Jews who converted to Christianity with the intention of controlling religious Americans including President Bush, a top Hamas official claims.

'Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jewish who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling the Americans,' Mohammad Abu Tir, the number two Hamas terrorist in the newly formed Palestinian Authority government said during an exclusive interview from his home yesterday with top radio host Rusty Humphries and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

'I made a study and I know very well that all this radicalism in some parts of the Christianity, [including] the Anglicans who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of Zionists,' said Abu Tir.

The Hamas official, famous for his orange-dyed beard, went on to accuse 'Zionists' of controlling Western media organizations and 'leading terrorism inside the mass communications media.'"

But I'm sure that Kofi Annan will find a way to funnel more money to these bozos. (And in Abu Tir's case, I mean that literally:)

Rich Arab countries refuse to increase funding to Hamas

A small fact buried in an AFP news story (that falsely implies that Hamas is ready to recognize Israel:)

Last week's summit in Sudan of the Arab League -- which counts some of the world's richest countries among its members -- did not accede to Palestinian requests for a funding boost.

More details from this Lebanese newspaper:

Arab leaders also rejected any attempt by the government of Israeli Premier-elect Ehud Olmert to fix the Jewish state’s borders if it is unable to negotiate for peace with the Palestinians.
They also expressed support for the nearly bankrupt Palestinian Authority as it comes under the control of Hamas, but turned a deaf ear to the radical Islamist group’s pleas for more money to avert a humanitarian crisis.
In a declaration at the conclusion of the summit, Arab League members said they rejected “Israeli measures including... fixing Israel’s borders unilaterally in a way that fulfills its expansionist greed”.

So as usual, the Arabs are quick to pretend to support their Palestinian brethren but they will not lift a finger.

Iran's perception of Western fears

The Iranian strategy for getting nuclear weapons makes certain assumptions about the Western psyche. It is pretty a pretty accurate picture of how the Left thinks, at least.

It plays on liberal fears:

Fear 1: Fear of unilateralism
Fear 2: Fear of confrontation
Fear 3: Fear of death

Fear 1 is that the Western nations do not want to do anything without a support team. So as long as Iran can divide us, for example by playing to some other Western European fears, it will slow down any real possibility of a united diplomatic front against Iran. It will also water down any UN resolutions that end up passing. The knowledge that the West has lost its ability to act quickly and decisively is a significant point in Iran's attempts at ascendancy.

The fear of unilateralism is what allows Iran to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction as fast as possible.

Fear 2 is the natural outgrowth of trying to "understand" evil, of relative morality, of everything being acceptable under certain circumstances. Never make a judgment unless it is against the fascist Nazi Bush neo-cons. But terrorists and Islamists? No, those who actually threaten you are those who must be avoided or compromised with at all costs.

This fear of confrontation is what Iran plays against when it makes its daily threats against the US. Belligerence is rewarded with tough words and no action, buying time.

Fear 3 is the biggest one that Iran is banking on. As we value life, we are less willing to find causes that are worth dying for. There are an unlimited number of Islamists who are more than willing to die for a cause, but precious few Westerners (goes the Iranian thinking.). As a result, it is easier for fearful Westerners to explain away anything Iran does and pretend that everything is fine than to face up to the facts that there will be a war one day, and that war will mean some will die.

Europeans, especially, are jittery about another world war and will try to avoid it at all costs.

Iran takes full advantage of Western morality and the natural desire for peace - and it regards these traits as fatal weaknesses which will ultimately lead to a Muslim world.

The irony is that the longer we wait to act because of our morality, the more will end up dying.

Logic doesn't enter into it

The world is coming up with ways to accept Hamas, notwithstanding Hamas making no claims whatsoever to have any interest in peace unless it includes the destruction of Israel.

To make matters worse, the Israeli elections appeared to be a testament to exhaustion.

If even Israelis are sick and tired of defending their land, how can we expect the world to care?

The cult of the "peace process" continues and the twin myths of the roadmap and Oslo show no signs of disappearing. How much of it is due to left-wing stupidity and how much to deep-rooted Jew-hatred, I do not know.

But what is clear is that facts and logic and strategy are in woefully short supply in how the world (and even Israel) is dealing with the threat to Israel and the West from Islamism. And this is the scariest part of all.

The prayer mat or the submachine gun

Which one should he bow to?

Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck

The new Palestinian Authority Prime Minister is getting ready for a meeting.

But check out the logo:

Look familiar?

Arab journalism at its finest

It is good to know that Arab journalists are willing to ask the tough questions from the newsmakers.

Just check out this hard-hitting interview by Al-Arab to noted "historian", "Dr." David Duke.

INTERVIEWER: How would you advise independent journalists or editors to resist the strong influence of the Pro-Israel lobby? If people could get in trouble just talking about it, how do you propose they fight it? Also, there are many out there who are genuinely ignorant of the power of such lobbies, how could you go about enlightening them without sounding like a 'false prophet' of some sort? You know that mainstream media plays a 'labeling game' with all those who dare to point out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

DR.DUKE: It's as Benjamin Franklin once said, “We must hang together or we will hang separately.” If most of the journalists, academics and politicians who know about the Jewish lobby would add their voice, the Jewish powerbrokers couldn't single out anyone for their dirty work. Most of the intelligentsia knows about the Jewish supremacy in the American political and media realm, but it’s the proverbial gorilla in the room that no one dares to speak about, pretending not to see it so as not to raise its ire.

Still many need to learn the truth. As for being a false prophet, anyone who exposes this Gorilla will be labeled such. The original label of "false prophet" was used by similar Jewish extremists against Jesus Christ. They have the power to say what they will. All we can do is have the courage to speak the truth.

INTERVIEWER: Where do you stand politically or otherwise? We have heard of what is said about you by those who wish to discredit you because of your beliefs, but how would you 'label' yourself? Do you have a specific opinion on races or religions?

DR.DUKE: Of course, they slander me unjustly, for I am no supremacist or anti-Semite. I want to preserve the independence, and heritage and freedom of the European American people and I support all peoples in the struggle for those basic human rights. I am no supremacist, I don't believe in suppression of people, globalism, or lording supreme over other nations, religions or peoples. I have been telling the truth about Zionism for many years, so I have earned the hatred of these extremist Jews who are themselves supremacists who seek supremacy not over simply Palestine and the Mideast, but over the political and media apparatus of the United States. Also, I am not an anti-Semite, it is the extremist Jews I oppose, not every Jew, and I respect greatly those Jews who themselves oppose the Jewish extremist elements. My latest book, Jewish Supremacism, is dedicated to a courageous Jew, the late Dr. Israel Shahak. Unfortunately the extremists control the organized Jewish community and through their power influence us powerfully as well....

We must not retreat. Those of us who know the truth must stand together and know that those whom the Jewish extremists hate the most are our best friends.

INTERVIEWER: We are much grateful that you have accepted to answer our questions. We thank you for your time and effort.

The KKK and the Arabs...a match made in jihad heaven.

Today Show ignores terror

The Today Show this morning, in its opening news roundup, didn't think that a Palestinian Arab terrorist pretending to be a religious Jewish hitchhiker and blowing himself up in the car of the grandparents who picked him up was worth mentioning as a major story.

Nor did they think that the approval of the new Palestinian government towards the terror attack was newsworthy.

Or the fact that the bomber had just been released from a Palestinian jail by the new PA government.

This suicide bombing was the cruelest and most cold-blooded in months but it isn't worth mentioning. At least according to the Today Show.

The "Humanitarian Aid" dodge

The Quartet has spoken:

International peace mediators said on Thursday the new Hamas-led Palestinian government had failed to commit itself to peace and warned that aid would inevitably be affected.
The Quartet of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations "noted with grave concern that the new government has not committed to the principles spelled out on Jan. 30," a joint statement said, referring to demands that it recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace deals.
"There inevitably will be an effect on direct assistance to that government and its ministries," the statement said.
It added that humanitarian assistance to meet the basic needs of the Palestinian people should continue.

OK, are the Palestinian Arabs starving? Do they live in thatched huts? Is there a comparison in "humanitarian aid" needed between these two groups of people?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development divides countries up by per-capita Gross National Income. It puts the Palestinian territories in the "Lower Middle Income" category of countries and territories. Lower on the list are:

Afghanistan
Angola
Bangladesh
Benin
Bhutan
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Central African Rep.
Chad
Comoros
Congo, Dem. Rep.
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Haiti
Kiribati
Laos
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Mauritania
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nepal
Niger
Rwanda
Samoa
Sao Tome & Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Sudan
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tuvalu
Uganda
Vanuatu
Yemen
Zambia
Cameroon
Congo, Rep.
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
India
Kenya
Korea, Dem.Rep.
Kyrgyz Rep.
Moldova
Mongolia
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Zimbabwe

Not to mention the dozens of other countries at the same rough level economically as the Palestinian territories.

So, when the Quartet "talks tough" to Hamas and still allows "humanitarian aid" into the terrortories, how much of it is really meant to be humanitarian and how much is just to get around the pesky fact that Hamas refuses to accept Israel and renounce terror? How much concern does the Quartet show for the humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa compared to the well-dressed rock-throwing Palestinian youths?

The Palestinian Arabs are well-educated and healthy. They have electricity and clean water courtesy of Israel. They have a monetary and psychological support system of Arabs and Muslims worldwide. There is no humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Arab territories.

They have taken in hundreds of millions in aid and have zero to show for it. Their major industries remain olives and building bombs. They've had sixty years to build themselves an economy and a future and they have consistently chosen to whine and seethe instead.

At some point, one has to wonder why exactly the West, in the triage of humanitarian aid dollars, decides that Palestinian Arabs are one of their top priorities.

Insane Muslim Protester of the Day 3/29 part 2

This didn't look that insane until I read the caption:

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards beat themselves with chains during a religious gathering against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, that were published in European newspapers, in Tehran, Iran March 29, 2006.

Maybe if we publish more cartoons they'll start shooting themselves.

70 Years Ago - Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

I thought that this series of three contiguous articles in the Palestine Post from March 30, 1936 was interesting.

A Muslim sheikh spreading incitement against Jews?
Preventing Jews from visiting holy places purely because they are Jews?
An Arab found with explosives?

Good thing we have advanced since 1936, right?

Insane Muslim Protester of the Day 3/29

You would think that the people who claim to have created algebra would know how to add 1+1.

Jersey City, 8:20 AM

The Yahoo MB refugee bloggers

I've mentioned before that I used to spend inordinate amounts of time on the Yahoo! news message boards, arguing about Israel with Jew-hating morons, before I switched addictions and now spend inordinate amounts of time blogging.

I just wanted to point out a few blogs from fellow Yahoo! refugees that are updated regularly:

A March of Folly
The Atheist Jew
Eye on the World

And updated a little less regularly:
Callie is Chatty
Carl's Blog

One of these things is not like the other

Our friends the Saudis have been playing interesting games again.

(Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington Turki al-Faisal) called on Israel to disarm to create a nuclear-free Middle East. “We all know that Israel has atomic weapons and that’s why removing these threats from the Middle East on a uniform basis would serve Israel’s purpose as well as the rest of the countries in the area,” he said.

In Seattle, he said

The development of nuclear weapons by any Middle Eastern country is "totally unacceptable."

And finally:

BERLIN (AFP) - Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, a German magazine reports in its latest edition, citing Western security sources.

The German magazine Cicero says that during the Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca in 2003 through 2005, Pakistani scientists posed as pilgrims to come to Saudi Arabia in aircraft laid on by the oil-rich kingdom.

Between October 2004 and January 2005, some of them took the opportunity to "disappear" from their hotel rooms, sometimes for up to three weeks, it quoted German security expert Udo Ulfkotte as saying.

According to Western security services, the magazine added, Saudi scientists have been working since the mid-1990s in Pakistan, a nuclear power since 1998 thanks to the work of the now-disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Cicero, which will appear on newstands on Thursday, also quoted a US military analyst, John Pike, as saying that Saudi bar codes can be found on half of Pakistan's nuclear weapons "because it is Saudi Arabia which ultimately co-financed the Pakistani atomic nuclear programme".

The magazine also said satellite images prove that Saudi Arabia has set up in Al-Sulaiyil, south of Riyadh, a secret underground city and dozens of underground silos for missiles.

Here's the Allah Fish!

Yes, a fish has been found in a British pet store that "clearly" has the Arabic words "Allah" and "Mohammed" marked on its sides. This is causing a stir in the Muslim 'ummah.

There is a video on the site as well that reverently describes the phenomenon, with awe-inspiring Arabic music.

Apparently, the fish has been sold. I hope it tasted good.

(Hat tip: LGF)

Saudi ambassador: Osirak bombing was a good thing

How funny is this?

Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor was “probably” fortunate, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington said.

Asked March 23 whether Saudis now welcomed the attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor, given Iraq’s subsequent aggression against Kuwait, Turki al-Faisal answered, “Probably, yes.” Faisal appeared caught off guard by the question, which came when he called on Israel to disarm to create a nuclear-free Middle East.

I'm sure that the clarifications and corrections are imminent...

Hamas: Let the world destroy Israel for us

Hamas has out-Arafated Arafat.

They realize that they do not have to lie. All they have to do is make sure that their spokesmen wear suits, use the word "peace" incessantly when even they will admit that their idea of peace means that Israel doesn't exist, and let the world do what it does best: pressure the Jewish state to make more and more concessions.

Of course, terror apologists like AFP are more than happy to play along, with headlines like:

Hamas ready for international Mideast peace push

...when even in the contents of the article it says

Hamas government was ready to talk to the international community to end the Middle East conflict but would not change its hardline stance on Israel.

But that is enough to call it a "peace push!"

And as AFP goes, so goes Europe.

When one side makes its red lines clear to begin with, the international community has no choice but to pressure the side that really has none.

Feds stop Israeli company purchase

Checkpoint, the Israeli company that makes the most popular firewall product worldwide, has been effectively stopped from buying an American company, Sourcefire. Sourcefire creates Snort, an open-source intrusion detection software, as well as some commercial products that build on Snort.

It was done by the same government panel that approved the Dubai ports deal.

Forbes reported in early March:

The company was told U.S. officials feared the transaction could endanger some of the government's most sensitive computer systems.

The objections by the FBI and Pentagon were partly over specialized intrusion detection software known as "Snort," which guards some classified U.S. military and intelligence computers.

The contrast between the administration's handling of the $6.8 billion Dubai ports deal and the Israeli company's $225 million technology purchase offers an uncommon glimpse into the U.S. government's choices to permit some deals but raise deep security concerns over others.

The 45-day investigation into the Israeli deal still under way is only the 26th ever conducted in 1,600 business transactions reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. The panel, facing criticism by Congress about its scrutiny of the ports deal, judges the security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.

In private meetings between the panel and Check Point, officials from the FBI and Defense Department objected forcefully to permitting any foreign company to acquire some sensitive Sourcefire technology for preventing hacker break-ins and monitoring data traffic, an executive familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press. This executive spoke on condition of anonymity because government negotiations are supposed to remain confidential.

William Reinsch, a former senior U.S. official who participated in reviews under President Clinton, said the Israeli sale involves more dire security issues than the administration's recent approval for a Dubai-owned company to take over significant operations at six major American ports.

"This raises a lot more important issues," said Reinsch, a former Commerce Department undersecretary. "The most important case is where we're making an irrevocable technology transfer to a foreign party. Port operations raise security issues, but the ports are still in the United States."

Many things do not make sense about this:

Snort is open-source, meaning that the technology is completely open and transparent to the world. There is no additonal security risk to having Israel own the rights to the code that is already publicly known, even if the government is heavily using Snort. (The feds could take the open-source Snort and build new versions based on that, rather than use the new ones thast Checkpoint would come out with.)
The government already uses Checkpoint firewall software, and that in theory is far more problematic than intrusion detection software. For years, people who distrust Jews have spread rumors that Checkpoint put backdoors into the firewall software so they can break into computers at will. Of course it is untrue (the downside of having something like that discovered is so much worse than any perceived benefit as to make the idea ridiculous.)

Anyway, firewall software is in the critical path of data; intrusion detection systems are not. If the Israelis can be trusted with firewall code, there is no additional risk for IDS.
Anyone who thinks that trusting Arabs who support terror with port security makes more sense than trusting Israelis with perceived data security is insane.

So what's going on? Was it an overreaction to the criticism over Dubai? Was it latent anti-semitism in the FBI and Pentagon? Was it a complete misunderstanding of technology?

This is a bit troubling.

Pakistani military: Al Qaeda works with Jews and Hindus

In an astonishing display of how ingrained the Jew-hatred is in the real Muslim world, the Pakistani military dropped pamphlets on villages near the Afghan border, telling residents not to cooperate with "foreign terrorists" because they work together with Jews and Hindus. Knowing full well that the residents hate Jews and Hindus with a passion, they figure a little bigotry can be a useful tool.

And, of course, everyone knows that the Jews and Hindus are the real terrorists and that true Muslims are incapable of hurting a fly. I mean, duh.

TANK, Pakistan - Pakistan’s military airdropped pamphlets this week over towns in restive tribal regions near the Afghan border urging tribesmen to shun ”foreign terrorists”, saying they were part of a Hindu and Jewish plot.

The pamphlets were dropped over Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, and Miranshah in North Waziristan as part of a campaign to win support among tribesmen who have shown sympathy for both Taleban and remnants of Al Qaeda living among them.

A Reuters reporter in Tank, a town close to the boundary with the semi-autonomous tribal agency of South Waziristan, obtained one of the pamphlets, bearing the sign-off “Well Wishers, Pakistan’s Armed Forces”.

Titled “Warning”, the pamphlets said the foreign militants were fighting against Pakistan in connivance with “Jews and Hindus”, a term that would play on traditional prejudices among the region’s Muslim conservatives. (Notice that Reuters doesn't describe them as "militants" or "hardliners" or "bigots," but just as "conservatives.")

“This war is against foreign terrorists and their harbourers who are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Jews and Hindus against the state of Pakistan,” it added.