Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 25, 2006

The utter idiocy of the NYT and MSM

Others have trashed (or are planning to trash) this nonsensical editorial in today's NYT, and frankly Israel Matzav did a brilliant job. I am just wondering what planet the editorialists are from:

Mr. Olmert wants to go ahead with Ariel Sharon's misbegotten plan to unilaterally redraw the borders of what could eventually be Palestine. The key word here is unilaterally, because the Israelis are prepared to do this without any input from the Palestinians. They would be left to try to cobble together a country out of whatever remained behind.

The New York Times, along with the rest of the MSM, just cannot even conceive that their basic assumptions are wrong.

The pre-conceived notion that has attained Biblical status among the left is that Palestinian Arabs somehow "deserve" a state.

I am not quite sure what criteria are used to make this assumption. Why, for example, do the Kurds not "deserve" a state but Palestinian Arabs do? Exactly how does a people attain the status of "deserving" a state?

If Gaza has taught us anything, it is that Palestinian Arabs cannot responsibly govern themselves. I cannot say for how many generations they will continue acting like infants with grenades, but it is manifestly clear that today's Palestinian Arabs do not have the capability to act responsibly even regarding their own people, let alone other nations.

The question is not "how to make a viable state out of the West Bank and Gaza." The question is, why on earth is this desirable? Why is the world throwing hundreds millions of dollars to a group of people who have shown no ability to govern, no ability to act maturely, no ability to build, no ability to even distinguish between right and wrong?

Is it because the UN decided that there should be a Palestinian Arab state in 1947? Of course not - the Arabs themselves didn't want it.

Is it because the West Bank and Gaza are/were "occupied"? Of course not - hardly anyone cared when Jordan and Egypt occupied the same areas.

Is it because the Palestinian Arabs finally recognized Israel at Oslo? Of course not - because they have withdrawn that recognition and no one even blinks. A state is still assumed to be the Solution.

The only real reason why the world says that Palestinian Arabs deserve a state of their own is because the Arabs have scared the world into thinking that if Israel would just give them what they want, we won't have any more terror attacks. In other words, it is a reward for the airline hijackings of the '70s and the Al Qaeda pronouncements of the 2000's. It is a Mafia protection racket on a scale that has never been imagined.

It is easy for the world to offer Israel as a human sacrifice to appease the Arab gods - because the world doesn't much like Israel anyway. So everyone from Osama bin Laden to the New York Times blames Israel for a problem that is being framed as Israel's fault rather than as a logical continuance of Arab and Islamic terror towards the West. The Palestinian Arabs have no responsibility according to the morally retarded "elite":

To a significant degree, the Palestinians put themselves in this spot by electing Hamas to run their government, and the Bush administration is right to refuse to legitimize a government dedicated to the destruction of Israel. But Mr. Bush should not punish the Palestinian people by endorsing any unilateral proposal — doing that would punish them for exercising their democratic right to vote.

In other words, we can scold Palestinians for choosing a terror group to lead them, but to actually hold them responsible for it is just way too mean. No - it is Israel that needs to do everything the Palestinian Arabs demand, because, after all, it is somehow Israel's fault that they freely elected Hamas.

We have seen the Palestinian Arabs, over and over again, being handed an independent state on a platter. We have seen them, again and again, reject that state, always for absurd reasons that blame Israel. And we have seen, again and again, the New York Times swallow the Palestinian Arab narrative whole, so much so that their editors can no longer even notice the utter incompatibility of how Palestinian Arabs are acting today with statehood. Gaza is a brilliant lesson in how an ultimate Palestinian Arab state would look - but one cannot expect the New York Times to notice anything that obvious.

That would mean they'd have to admit they were wrong, and it is much easier to support another terror state than to admit that you are wrong when you are the Newspaper of Record.

UPDATE: See also AbbaGav's comments.

Earliest pictures of Jerusalem

For Yom Yerushalayim I wanted to find the earliest pictures of Jerusalem on the Internet from Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources. I didn't do an exhaustive search so if anyone can send me a link to earlier pictures I'll add modifications.

The earliest Christian picture is almost certainly the mosaic on the floor of a church in Madaba, Jordan from the 6th century CE(predating Islam altogether!) The map is of most Biblical places and the Jerusalem part is fascinating:

Many other ancient maps of Jerusalem, from the 12th through 19th centuries CE, can be found here.

Perhaps pre-dating this one is a map known as the Peutinger Map, drawn in the 12th or 13th century CE that was apparently an exact copy of a 4th century Roman road map that included Jerusalem. This is far more a map than a picture, though:

An Islamic map of the area from the 10th century is fascinating for how it represents Jerusalem (one of the upper circles):

The Arabs never regarded the Land of Israel, which they called Falastin, as a distinct geographical or political unit, and mapped it as an integral part of ash-Sham, Syria, as in the example shown here. Jerusalem is represented by one of the circles in the upper part of the map (which is directed towards the south-west and is named Bayt al-Maqdas (Hebrew: Bet haMiqdash, the Temple).

I imagine the earliest picture of Jerusalem in Jewish art would probably be in one of the famous illuminated Haggadahs from the 15th century CE on the page where it says "Next Year in Jerusalem," but the earliest I could find was this one from a this early printed Amsterdam Haggadah (1695):

One of the first photographs of Jerusalem was taken in 1844 by Jiro De Franje:

This picture is a mirror image of the way Jerusalem looks.

I cannot find any Muslim artwork of Jerusalem specifically before the 20th century. Again, if someone can point me to an earlier picture I will post it.

Hamas is seeking the ability to attack Israel using small airplanes laden with explosives to be flown September 11-style into important targets, possibly Tel Aviv skyscrapers, a leader of Hamas's so-called military wing, Abu Abdullah, told World Net Daily yesterday.

Palestinian security officials said they believe Hamas recently smuggled into Gaza three small airplanes that can carry explosives and be used to attack Israel.
They said the aircraft were purchased from Eastern European dealers and that Hamas members received flight training in Sudan, Iran, and Syria.

Sometimes it seems like a contest among terror groups as to who can be the most depraved.

UPDATE: Full story is here.

YNet scared of Hareidim in Jerusalem

An interesting article in YNet:

Most Israeli citizens are well-aware of the division between east and West Jerusalem, but there exists another border in the capital, that which runs from north to south and separates the secular part of the city (south) and the ultra-Orthodox.
Even some northern neighborhoods previously considered to be secular enclaves are becoming more and more religious.
“On Mishmar Hagvul Street, near the religious Sanhedria neighborhood, you won’t see any TV antennas on the rooftops,” ultra-Orthodox reporter Yisrael Gliss says.
The situation in neighborhoods such as Ramot Eshkol or Maalot Dafna is most indicative of the fact that north Jerusalem is becoming more and more ultra-Orthodox, so much so that the northern part of the city is attracting many religious couples, most of whom are Anglo-Saxon.

Architect David Kroyanker says “the ultra-Orthodox are settling predominantly in the north, but the problem is that the border continues to move south. At first traditional religious people arrive, then come the more modern ultra-Orthodox, but it is not long before the neighborhoods become completely ultra-Orthodox.”

Former Mayor Teddy Kollek, who understood in the early 1980s that something has to be done, initiated the construction of a sports complex in north Jerusalem to attract the secular population. The ultra-Orthodox protested against the plan, saying the cars traveling in the area would disrupt the Sabbath. Some haredim even went as far as throwing sand and stones in the tractors’ engines to interfere with the construction works.

Eventually the plan was foiled, and the city’s soccer stadium, which was named after mayor Kollek, was built in the southern Malcha neighborhood.

Each year the religious population takes control of additional Jerusalem neighborhoods and sites, such as the Schneller military base, which is set to be cleared in the coming year. According to an agreement between United Torah Judaism and Agudat Yisrael, the Gur hasidic sect will own the site, and 800 housing units will be built there for its members.

Across the street from Schneller is the Tnuva compound, which was also sold to haredi real estate entrepreneurs.

Kroyanker, who lives in Malcha, is not optimistic regarding Jerusalem’s future.

“The city’s story is one of simple demographics,” he says. “This is a natural process whereby the haredi population is growing at a rate ten times higher than the secular population.”

“There is no solution this problem,” he says.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the founder and chairman of the religious ZAKA organization, says “haredim are not taking control of the city because a few rabbis planned it. They are taking control because ultra-Orthodox couples have many children – that’s just how it is.

From the hysteria in this report one would think thatYNet would prefer Arabs taking over Jerusalem rather than thse Jews who are so....Jew-y.

Luckily, I have a solution to the "problem" of a Jerusalem without TV antennas: Encourage non-Hareidi Jewish families to have lots and lots of kids as well! I guarantee, no "ultra-Orthodox" will get upset at this, and as a bonus, the "demographic problem" that is convincing Olmert to give up parts of Israel to terrorists will no longer exist!

To start, donate money to Just One Life, an organization that finds Israeli women who want to have abortions because they cannot afford to have a baby and supports them monetarily and emotionally so they can safely give birth. Over 7200 children have been born to women who have been helped by this program, and most of these are not Hareidim.

It's the least you can do to help save Jerusalem!

Aaron's story, part 6

Elie at Elie's Expositions has finally finished telling his tragic story of his son's passing, exactly one year after the shiva was over.

Read it and then hug your loved ones.

In a staged shot worthy of the worst B-movie director, Palestinian Arab women pretend to be thrilled to give what appears to be a bag of garbage and a Hebrew National salami to a Hamas "militant". The reason appears to be that they want to show their appreciation that the Palestinian Arab security forces have increased in size yet again so they feel so much safer.

Since they didn't seem enthusiastic enough, the photographer instructed them to put a "thumbs up" sign to get the message across. Unfortunately, third-from-left Fatima's thumb had been sliced off by her husband when she was late giving him dinner one night so she can only show a fist.

Ahmadenijad: Thoughts will be punished

Today's GoozNews is yet another classic rant from the seemingly syphillic Ahmadenijad:

Even the mere thought of staging an aggression violating the rights of the Iranian nation will receive a stiff response from the nation, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Wednesday.
"Enemies should know that they cannot inflict the slightest harm to Iranians from the outside and that is why they are trying to create discord among the people," said the president in his address before a huge crowd in this southern city.
Saying Iranians "are on the eve of a great breakthrough," the president said "everyone has a responsibility to contribute to Iran's development and eventual rise as an advanced and powerful Islamic state."
He urged the nation to stay vigilant, and stressed that "our people have successfully conquered the highest peak of scientific progress with their resistance and unity."
"Unity, justice and hard work" have been major factors in the Iranian nation's achievement of its goals," he added.

They cannot refine their own oil but they are hellbent on getting nuclear "energy".

Israel arrests murderer of four Americans

One would think that the American media would be slightly interested in the names of the American victims of terror whose murderer was arrested by Israel yesterday.

It is also worth mentioning that the murderer is a member of Hamas, and that he is responsible for 78 deaths in terror attacks.

Here are the names and pictures of the American victims:

Marla Bennett

Benjamin Blutstein

Janis Ruth Coulter

David Gritz
Marla Bennett (24) of San Diego, California, David Gritz (24) of Peru, Massachusetts, Benjamin Blutstein (25) of Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania and Janis Ruth Coulter (36) from New York were murdered when a remote-controlled bomb detonated in the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria on Jerusalem's Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus.

And here is a picture of the Hamas celebration at the news of the Hebrew University murders:

Meanwhile, the BBC just doesn't understand why Israel would consider arresting a mass murderer:

BBC correspondent Caroline Hawley in Jerusalem says it is not clear why the army moved against Hamad.
Hamas has not carried out any suicide attacks for 15 months and Israeli military operations in the past few months have focused instead on the militant Islamic Jihad group, which has been responsible for most of the recent bombs.

The clear implication is that when Israel even arrests a known terrorist, it is Israel that is escalating the conflict. The other BBC implication is that even though Hamas has been heavily involved in terror since the "truce," only suicide bombings are worth worrying about. The BBC even goes so far as to juxtapose Israel's arrest of a Hamas arch-terrorist with another meaningless Hamas pretense at flexibility towards peace, all to demonize Israel and boost Hamas.

Persian Jews 1502-1925

In the light of the recent controversy about whether Iran is considering instituting a national dress code that may or may not distinguish non-Muslims from Muslims (Amir Taheri stands by his original article); it is worth looking at how Shi'a Muslim leaders in Persia treated Jews in the time period before the Pahlavi dynasty. This time period, from the 16th through 20th centuries, may well indicate the direction that the current Shi'a Muslim Iranian leadership wants to move their nation.

From Wikipedia:

Safavid and Qajar dynasties (1502-1925)
Further deterioration in the treatment of Persian Jews occurred during the reign of the Safavids who proclaimed Shi'a Islam the state religion. Shi'ism assigns great importance to the issues of ritual purity — tahara, and non-Muslims, including Jews, are deemed to be ritually unclean — najis — so that physical contact with them would require Shi'as to undertake ritual purification before doing regular prayers. Thus, Persian rulers, and to an even larger extent, the populace, sought to limit physical contact between Muslims and Jews. Jews were not allowed to attend public baths with Muslims or even to go outside in rain or snow, ostensibly because some impurity could be washed from them upon a Muslim.^[11]

The reign of Shah Abbas I (1588–1629) was initially benign; Jews prospered throughout Persia and were even encouraged to settle in Isfahan, which was made a new capital. However, toward the end of his rule, the treatment of Jews became harsher; upon advice from a Jewish convert and Shi'a clergy, the shah forced Jews to wear a distinctive badge on clothing and headgear. In 1656, all Jews were expelled from Isfahan because of the common belief of their impurity and forced to convert to Islam. However, as it became known that the converts continued to practice Judaism in secret and because the treasury suffered from the loss of jizya collected from the Jews, in 1661 they were allowed to revert to Judaism, but were still required to wear a distinctive patch upon their clothings.^[9]

Under Sunni Muslim Nadir Shah (1736–1747), who abolished Shi'a Islam as state religion, Jews experienced a period of relative tolerance when they were allowed to settle in the Shi'ite holy city of Mashhad. Yet, the advent of a Shi'a Qajar dynasty in 1794 brought back the earlier persecutions. In the middle of the 19th century, a European traveller wrote about the life of Persian Jews: "...they are obliged to live in a separate part of town...; for they are considered as unclean creatures... Under the pretext of their being unclean, they are treated with the greatest severity and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans, they are pelted by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt... For the same reason, they are prohibited to go out when it rains; for it is said the rain would wash dirt off them, which would sully the feet of the Mussulmans... If a Jew is recognized as such in the streets, he is subjected to the greatest insults. The passers-by spit in his face, and sometimes beat him... unmercifully... If a Jew enters a shop for anything, he is forbidden to inspect the goods... Should his hand incautiously touch the goods, he must take them at any price the seller chooses to ask for them... Sometimes the Persians intrude into the dwellings of the Jews and take possession of whatever please them. Should the owner make the least opposition in defense of his property, he incurs the danger of atoning for it with his life... If... a Jew shows himself in the street during the three days of the Katel (Muharram)..., he is sure to be murdered."^[12]

Another European traveller reported a degrading ritual to which Jews were subjected for public amusement:

At every public festival-even at the royal salaam [salute], before the King’s face — the Jews are collected, and a number of them are flung into the hauz or tank, that King and mob may be amused by seeing them crawl out half-drowned and covered with mud. The same kindly ceremony is witnessed whenever a provincial governor holds high festival: there are fireworks and Jews.^[13]

In the 19th century there were many instances of forced conversions and massacres, usually inspired by the Shi'a clergy. A representative of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Jewish humanitarian and educational organization, wrote from Tehran in 1894: "...every time that a priest wishes to emerge from obscurity and win a reputation for piety, he preaches war against the Jews". ^[14]. In 1830, the Jews of Tabriz were massacred; the same year saw a forcible conversion of the Jews of Shiraz. In 1839, many Jews were massacred in Mashhad and survivors were forcibly converted. However, European travellers later reported that the Jews of Tabriz and Shiraz continued to practice Judaism in secret despite a fear of further persecutions. Jews of Barforush were forcibly converted in 1866; when they were allowed to revert to Judaism thanks to an intervention by the French and British ambassadors, a mob killed 18 Jews of Barforush, burning two of them alive.^[15]^[16] In 1910, the Jews of Shiraz were accused of ritual murder of a Muslim girl. Muslim dwellers of the city plundered the whole Jewish quarter, the first to start looting were the soldiers sent by the local governor to defend the Jews against the enraged mob. Twelve Jews, who tried to defend their property, were killed, and many others were injured.^[17] Representatives of the Alliance Israélite Universelle recorded other numerous instances of persecution and debasement of Persian Jews.^[18]

Driven by persecutions, thousands of Persian Jews emigrated to Palestine in the late 19th – early 20th century.^[19]

Today's delusions by Jew-haters

Uruknet seems to blame Israel for the Darfur genocide in "Zionist rain [sic] of death on Sudan"
Iran accuses Israel of holding Iranian kidnapped diplomats at Aljazeera.com
AxisGlobe says that Israel's Declaration of Independence was written by a Communist spy
A Los Angeles Times op-ed ignores Israel's consistent giving away of land since 1977 as it claims that Israel keeps on taking "Palestinian" land. (OK, he doesn't ignore it - author Sandy Tolan threw in a 14-word parenthetical comment in an 1187 word article: [In the early 1980s, Israel withdrew from the Sinai, and last year from Gaza.] )
Australia's Green Left Weekly happily reports on a Nakba rally where 50 people attended.

The best defense...

Yesterday's Qassam rocket that hit a classroom in Sderot is only the latest in a series of slow escalations that the current Israeli administration seems willing to allow. Just like the settlers have been demonized for choosing to live in dangerous areas, so too will we see the leftist Israeli leaders blame residents of Sderot for staying in rocket range of Hamastan. The hollow words of "defense" minister Amir Peretz that "The lives of the children in the schools and kindergarten should be top priority" ring false when he is not willing to do anything to solve the problem.

His big plan? Make the walls of schools thicker!

Already, the Israeli government recommends that top floors of classrooms in rocket range not be used:

Home Front Command officials explained that there is an instruction not to teach in classrooms on the top floors of schools located around the Gaza Strip, for fear a rocket will directly hit the building.

Capitulation to terror is now becoming normal in the New Israel.

Instead of actually addressing the problem, Israel is looking towards spending billions of dollars to fortify some classrooms. Those who live in houses, well, tough luck. And when Katyushas replace Qassams, I guess that is just another few tens of billions of dollars to fortify a few more miles in.

I guess in a few years every Israeli will be told to walk around outside with suits of armor, as a normal defensive move against bloodthirsty Arab terrorists. And we will be reading articles about how brave Israelis live sort of normal lives underground.

This is insanity.

It is impossible to defend Israel against rockets and other attacks at the same time that Israel is giving land to the terrorists. Not only because giving land emboldens the terrorists, but also for the simple reason that land is the only defensive buffer that can effectively forestall rocket attacks.

I am not saying that Israel should abandon defensive mechanisms. Rocket interception and some fortification of course will be needed. But it is clear that the Gaza withdrawal has not enhanced Israel's security at all; it just pushed the defense line closer to the major population centers. And it is equally clear that continued withdrawals will also not make the Palestinian Arabs any more peaceful, despite all the leftist Jimmy Carter-ish wishful thinking that pervades not only Europe but much of Israel itself.

It is time for Israel to abandon its wishy-washy policy of tough words followed up by bombing empty fields, or at best a targeted assassination here and there. I am unaware of a single fact that would indicate that Palestinian Arabs are capable of acting responsibly or even rationally in valuing the lives of their own people or wishing for true independence. Unless this changes dramatically, Israel will have to militarily re-occupy parts of Gaza sooner or later.

And when one is speaking about defense, sooner is almost always better than later, saving a lot of money and many lives.

HH LXX

This week's Haveil Havalim is hosted by Soccer Dad.

I am honored that he chose two articles of mine; Tehran Lies and Israeli Morality and Canonical list of reasons idiots give to fund Palestinian Arabs.

Check it out - because as usual, it is an excellent round-up of the JBlogosphere.

Mother of all work accidents watch

Iran continues to get regular earthquakes. Just today there were three!

1. Quake hits eastern Iran

According to the seismological base of Birjand affiliated to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University, the quake occurred at 10:49 hours local time (07:19 GMT).
The quake was felt in an area measuring 59.49 degrees in longitude and 32.49 degrees in latitude, the report added.

Saturday May 20, 2006 2. Quake hits southern Iran

Iran-Firouzabad-Quake
According to the seismological base of the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University, the quake occurred at 01:29 hours local time (21:59 GMT Friday).
The quake was felt in an area measuring 52.28 degrees in longitude and 28.6 degrees in latitude, the report added.

Saturday May 20, 2006 3. Quake jolts Dehdasht in midsouthern province

An earthquake measuring 3.5 degrees in the Richter scale jolted surrounding areas of Dehdasht in midsouthern province of Kohgilouyeh & Boyer Ahmad on Saturday.

As I mentioned before, building nuclear power plants in the most earthquake-prone region of the world is not the brightest idea. But on the bright side, it may end up that Iran's genocidal desires end up being foiled by a literal act of God.

Who wants a Palestinian Arab state?

One of the assumptions that have been made since at least Oslo is that it would be a Good Thing for Palestinian Arabs have their own state. Israel has subscribed to this idea, as has the US, and of course all of Europe.

Now that the Muslim-Brotherhood affiliated Hamas is running the show in the territories, it appears that the countries that are most against a Palestinian Arab state are its Arab neighbors!

Egypt has already had problems of its own with religious extremism in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood, which started there. And since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, the Sinai has become a much more hospitable place for Al Qaeda and other sister groups that advocate a worldwide Islamic 'ummah. Not to mention Hamas shielding terrorists from Egypt.
Jordan has already acted against its local Hamas members. It has always straddled the line between Islam and the West, and it stands to lose a lot should it suddnly become neighbors with Hamas. In 1970 it showed the world how sympathetic it was to Palestinian nationalism, and the newer religious component is turning into a greater threat than the PLO was then.
Lebanon is still trying to get rid of its Hezbollah albatross, and Hezbollah is essentially the same as Hamas - and it has assisted Al Qaeda as well. Hamas would strengthen Hezbollah significantly.

So, interestingly, Israel's Arab neighbors are much less sympathetic and much more realistic about Hamastan than most of the West. While they will mumble platitudes of support for the Palestinian Arab people, they aren't actually acting as if they want to see a Palestine emerge anytime soon.

They see the lessons of Gaza, where any vacuum in the Middle East will be filled by the most radical elements who hate non-religious Arab regimes as much as they hate America.

It would behoove the West to take a second look at the desirability of the success of the Oslo experiment. Inertia is not a reason to continue to go forward towards supporting what would inevitably become the next chaotic center of international terror.

Canonical list of reasons idiots give to fund Palestinian Arabs

Humanitarian reasons: (EU)
If the reason is purely humanitarian, then why do Palestinian Arabs deserve millions of dollars more than starving kids in sub-Saharan Africa? It is not like they do not have resources to grow crops or provide medical care - and they received state-of-the-art greenhouses giftwrapped. At what point does the world say that Palestinian Arabs need to show some level of responsibility for themselves rather than being bailed out by the West?

Political influence: (Arab states)
The fear is that if we don't give money to Hamas, Iran will, thus increasing Iran's influence in the conflict. Of course, Hamas has made it clear that it wants money with no preconditions and it will not be influenced easily. And what is the difference between Arab goals for Palestine and Persian goals?

Hamas was elected democratically (loony leftists and Arabs who support Saudi Arabia):
So the people that elected murderers should have no responsibility for electing murderers?

Withholding money is "collective punishment" for the majority of peace-loving Palestinians (loony leftists and Arabs)
This one directly contradicts the one before. And since when is receiving money from the West a human right?

The PA is owed money due to prior agreements: (loony leftists and Arabs)
Since the current PA government does not recognize any prior agreements, it is a bit hypocritical to insist that other parties continue to abide by theirs. An agreement is two way; a concept that does not seem to have permeated the average Palestinian Arab mind yet.

If money isn't given to Palestinian Arabs, they will start terrorizing each other/Israel/the world: (Hamas spokesman)
This is the standard blackmail/Mafia argument. Just because it is couched in other words does not make it any less of a threat. And history shows that giving in to threats is the best way to ensure that more will be coming.

Besides the fact that they terrorize each other/Israel/the world anyway, whether they get money or not.

We will only fund hospitals [and maybe schools] (Israel and the US):
No one is saying that Arabs should starve or sicken, but shouldn't the primary responsibility for funding Palestinian Arabs come from the Fatah money squirreled away worldwide and from other Arab nations?

Guns or butter?

I'm sure that he was planning to distribute the money to hospitals and food banks. He just forgot to declare it at the border.

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- European monitors at a crossing between Gaza and Egypt caught a Hamas official Friday carrying about 900,000 euros, Palestinian officials said.

That amount is worth more than a million dollars.

The Associated Press identified the official as Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

This is the same guy who swears up and down that Hamas is nothing like Al Qaeda, no-sir-ee-bob.

Commenting on bin Laden's message shortly afterwards, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group's ideology was "totally different" from that of bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

"What Osama bin Laden said is his opinion, but Hamas has its own positions which are different to the ones expressed by bin Laden," he said.

However, he said that what he called the "international siege on the Palestinian people" would inevitably lead to tensions in the Arab and Islamic world.

"It's natural that this tension is going to create an impression that there is a Western-Israeli alliance working against the Palestinians," Abu Zuhri said.

He added that Hamas was "very keen to have good relations with the West" but said that Western policies were inflaming tensions.

Hamas is very keen to have good relationships with people who give it money for free, with no preconditions, and who look the other way when they smuggle some in themselves.

Must-have equipment for every police force

Rocket-propelled grenades are an essential part of every police force. After all, what better way is there to combat crime? You can be sure that a shoplifter will think twice knowing that this is what he is up against when the police patrol the streets with RPGs.

A Palestinian militant of the Islamic group Hamas, carrying a RPG (Rocket propelled grenade) launcher, patrolls a street in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip Wednesday, May 17, 2006. The Palestinian interior minister declared a new Hamas-dominated police force operational on Wednesday, defying President Mahmoud Abbas in a powerful challenge that could stoke more internal bloodshed.

A Palestinian militant from the Hamas movement patrols the street of Gaza city May 17, 2006. The Palestinian interior minister declared a new Hamas-dominated police force operational on Wednesday, defying President Mahmoud Abbas in a powerful challenge that could stoke more internal bloodshed.

Palestinian militants from the Hamas movement patrol the streets of Gaza city May 17, 2006.

Palestinian militants that are part of a new security force of the Hamas-led Palestinian government patrol the street after deploying in the Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip Wednesday May 17, 2006.

Terrorist Yankee fan

I always knew the Yankees were evil...

They tie for first and the Palestinian Arabs go wild, shouting "We're Number One!"

Tehran lies and Israeli morality

An article in both MehrNews and the Tehran Times pretty much makes up facts to describe the "naqba":

TEHRAN, May 16 (MNA) -- When the sun descended behind the Al Khalil mountains on May 15, 1948, the inhabitants of the verdant village of Kafar Qasem in Palestine were once again waiting for the men to return from the fields.

Reports then began trickling in of a massacre of Palestinians carried out by members of the terrorist organizations the Hagana and the Stern Gang in a nearby village.

The family of Mahmud al-Natsha, one of the poor farmers of Kafar Qasem, was waiting for him to return, but suddenly a terrible sound descended over the entire village.

The Zionist terrorists, backed by British colonial forces, entered the village and massacred innocent women and children.

Hagana’s leader at the time was none other than Menachem Begin, who later went on to become prime minister of the Zionist regime, despite his terrorist past.

The Hagana’s terrorist attack left over 200 dead just in Kafar Qasem, all of whom were innocent women and children.

Say what? A massacre on the very day of Israel's independence? And Begin heading the Haganah?

Of course, the author, Hassan Hanizadeh, is a bald-faced liar, but he knows that his normal readership at MehrNews and Al-Jazeerah.info and far-left Western media outlets will be even more ignorant than he is.

There was a bad incident at Kafr Qassem - in 1956, not 1948. And that incident, as unfortunate as it was, underscores the differences between a fundamentally moral nation and a fundamentally immoral one:

On October 29, 1956, on the eve of the Sinai Campaign, the Israeli army ordered all Israeli Arab villages near the Jordanian border placed under a wartime curfew that was to apply from 5 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next day. Any Arab on the streets was to be shot. The order was given to Israeli Border Police units at 3:30 before most of the Arabs from the villages could be notified. Many of them were at work at the time.

At Kfar Kassem, villagers began to arrive from work to their homes after the curfew. Israeli Border Police opened fire on them. A total of 47 Israeli Arabs were killed (some sources say 51 dead). The news of the killings was censored and the general Israeli public did not learn what happened until several weeks later when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced the findings of a secret inquiry.

There are the facts. And the aftermath of that event shows the difference between Israel and Palestinian Arabs:

The event was shocking to the Israeli public who demanded, and got, a full investigation. Prime Minister Ben Gurion said the act, "struck at the holiest principles of human morality", perhaps reminded of Nazis who claimed they were "just following orders".

The extensive investigation revealed that the local commander had issued an illegal order. As a result, about two years after the event, eleven border policemen were charged with crimes and eight were convicted of murder on the grounds that it is immoral to fire on unarmed civilians and no possible military order could justify that act. Among the convicted were the unit’s commander who had instructed his soldiers to "kill anyone who violated the curfew." ...

The Israeli Supreme Court made a new ruling on the right and duty of soldiers to disobey unlawful orders. That ruling has been incorporated into Israeli martial law. On the 43rd anniversary of the incident (1999), Israeli civics teachers were instructed to lead a one-hour discussion on Kafr Kassem in their classes. Israel wants its future soldiers to understand the need to identify and disobey an illegal order in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling.

So there was a crime that occurred there, and the Israeli public was stunned.

No handing out candies, no dancing, no celebrations. No annual holidays to commemorate the deaths of Arabs. They displayed deep shame rather than the deep pride that accompanies Arab murderers.

The lesson from Kafr Qassem is the exact opposite that the lying author is trying to convey. The real lesson is that while Israel is far from perfect (and indeed the murderers even got out of jail much earlier than they should have), the Israeli psyche is the polar opposite of the Arab psyche that celebrates the deaths of innocents and idolizes the murderers.

So I must thank the propagandist Hassan Hanizadeh for allowing me to learn once again how utterly immoral his society is compared to Israel's.

My letter to Reuters (Hamas "truce")

In your article on Mahmoud Abbas, you say:

Hamas is formally committed to destroying Israel, though it has observed a truce for more than a year.

This is simply a lie. There have been many documented attacks by Hamas during the so-called "truce", including rocket attacks, although they have not been all successful. In addition, it is clear that many attacks that used to be "joint efforts" of Hamas and other terror groups now still happen, just without Hamas taking credit.

For example, see this blog article that refers to US terror statistics from 2005:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2006/04/that-hamas-truce.html

Since you claim that you quickly correct mistakes,

Reuters news operations are based on the company's Trust Principles which stipulate that the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters must be upheld at all times.
Reuters has strict policies in place to ensure adherence to these principles. We are committed to accurate and balanced reporting. Errors of fact are always promptly corrected and clearly published.

I would appreciate if you can point me to where you correct this one.

(The feedback form is buried way deep in the Reuters website. Here is the form I used.)

Mahmoud Abbas: Terrorist

It is time for the world to stop buying into the charade of "good cop, bad cop" being played by Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas. Abbas is just as bad as Hamas, and maybe more so because he hides his support for terror and genocide against Jews.

For example: Abbas is the nominal head of Fatah, which has never dissociated itself from its own Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, responsible for countless terror attacks. The most charitable interpretation of this relationship is that Abbas is a bumbling figurehead with no real power to stop his own (paid!) people from terror attacks; the worst is that he approves everything that they do. As the heir to notoriously two-faced Yasir Arafat, one tends to believe the latter explanation.

His own Al Aqsa leader was just quoted as celebrating the death of 16-tear old American Daniel Wultz:

Abu Nasser, a senior leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in the West Bank, rejoiced in Wultz's death. Abu Nasser is part of the Brigades leadership in the Balata refugee camp suspected of plotting the attack.

"This is a gift from Allah. We wish this young dog will go directly with no transit to hell," Abu Nasser said.

Terror group Islamic Jihad commented on the idea that they might try to assassinate Abbas:

"There is no difference between us and President Mahmoud Abbas that would make anybody even think of throwing a stone on him," said Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza.

His pals at Al-Aqsa also threatened Europe and America for withholding their welfare checks:

"We won't remain idle in the face of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people by Israel, the US and other countries," said a leaflet issued by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip. "We will strike at the economic and civilian interests of these countries, here and abroad."

At a Naqba celebration, Abbas said:

"Our first priority is to lift the economic and political siege, then to end the occupation of our land once and for all, and to establish our independent Palestinian state."

Any question as to which land he is referring to? The Fatah logo answers that nicely:

Also notice the priorities: the state is the last of his list, even though he could declare an independent state today.

Of course, we cannot forget that Abbas was one of the first Arabs to jump on the Holocaust-denial bandwagon, back in 1983:

In 1983, in an early public example of denial from an indigenous Middle Eastern source, a Palestinian named Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) wrote The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and the Zionist Movement. In the book, Abbas suggested that the six million figure was "peddled" by the Jews but that in fact "the Jewish victims may number six million or be far fewer, even fewer than one million." In 1995, reports of the book's existence reached the Western press, largely because of the public prominence that Abbas had attained as the chief PLO architect of the Oslo peace accords and cosigner of the 1993 Declaration of Principles in Washington. The California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center publicly called for Abbas to clarify his position on the Holocaust, but no clear statement was forthcoming. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, Abbas tried to frame the issue in terms of realpolitik. "When I wrote The Other Side...we were at war with Israel," Abbas said. "Today I would not have made such remarks...Today there is peace and what I write from now on must help advance the peace process."

In other words, my words do not necessarily reflect my reality.

Abbas is also less than forthcoming as he circles the globe trying to extort money from Western governments, money that history has shown goes towards terror - either by paying PA "policemen" who moonlight as terrorists, or by freeing up money for terror, or that is laundered through UN agencies and NGOs towards terror.

Contacts with solid information – all speaking off the record – describe the current PA fiscal crisis as political or “artificial” in nature. There are other PLO holdings – of considerable magnitude – Abbas would be able to draw upon.

So while Abbas may not brandish a gun like his predecessor, and while he may wear suits, his goals and methods are indistinguishable from Arafat, the godfather of modern terror. And an Abbas-led PA is no more peaceful in its goals than Hamas. Anyone who tries to prop up Abbas is acting according to the terror playbook, and a West panicked by Hamas needs to remember that the alternative is no more peaceful and considerably less honest.

Happy Naqba!

I just wanted to wish all of my readers a Happy Naqba!

As Hossam Ezzedine, the terror apologist for AFP, describes it:

Palestinians marked the worst day in their history, determined to lift damaging economic sanctions and warning that Israeli unilateralism could kill off a two-state solution.

Indeed, it was the worst day of their history. (Notwithstanding that they weren't called "Palestinians" for at least 15 years afterwards...)

Because what exactly happened in May of 1948? Instead of accepting a Palestinian Arab state that the UN offered, they decided to try to wipe out the Jews.

Of course it was a disaster! They chose wrong and lost!

In 1948 there could have been a Palestinian Arab state with its own flag, currency, and international legitimacy. If they would have chosen peace with Israel they would have jobs, a good economy, oceanfront property, and an incredibly tiny Jewish state next door.

So, in commemoration of the incredibly bigoted and stupid move that their forefathers chose, they celebrate the annual event of the disaster of their own making. They wave flags and shout empty slogans and threaten the West and make friends with Iran and Syria and support terrorists.

And here's the funniest part - they could have a state today! They could declare a Palestinian Arab state in Gaza and easily get more than half the UN to recognize them as a legitimate state - any hour of any day they choose. They could invite the gigantic Palestinian "diaspora" to help them build their country in the areas that Israel no longer enters. They could be preparing the institutions needed to run their state. It is all there for the asking.

After all, the very day that Britain left Palestine was the day the Israel declared itself independent. It isn't that hard.

But evidently it is preferable to complain about a naqba rather than do anything about it.

Because they do have a currency today - and that currency is whining.

They have learned that they get more attention by whining to the world about their self-imposed catastrophe than by doing something about it. They whine about occupation, they whine about having no money, they whine about Israelis defending themselves, they whine about a Jewish mom in Samaria building a new bathroom on her house. They love when their kids get killed, because a funeral is worth many, many whines.

Complaining is its own reward. It gets results - nations throw money at the whiners, at least at whiners about Israel.

So we will be seeing many, many more decades of Naqba celebrations. You can whine more easily about catastrophes that you pretend happened to you than about the hard work you refuse to do. And it is hard to teach an entire generation how to work when they have been raised to whine.

Humanitarian crisis, part 9 - Isn't it strange?

Our friends the Palestinian Arabs are showing yet again how much they value their economy:

Several greenhouses belonging to the former settlement of Morag in the Gaza Strip were destroyed over the weekend during an attempt by dozens of gunmen to take control of the area.
The Palestinian Company for Economic Development, which is in charge of thousands of greenhouses that used to belong to Morag and other settlements in Gush Katif, said the attack, which took place on Friday, was the latest in a series that began almost immediately after the settlements were evacuated.
The company revealed that hundreds of greenhouses and other agricultural installations have been sabotaged over the past few months, expressing its outrage over the recurring phenomenon. The company issued an urgent appeal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Interior Minister Said Siam to intervene to halt the attacks on the lands belonging to the former settlements.
"These greenhouses and other installations and projects provide a source of income for over 4,500 families," company officials said. "We are very disturbed by the recurring attacks and thefts. Such actions jeopardize the largest agricultural project carried by the Palestinian Authority after the Israeli withdrawal."

Isn't it strange that 90,000 policemen can't guard a few hundred greenhouses?
Isn't it strange that the Gaza Arabs who are the subject of so many sympathetic newspaper sob stories about how rough they have it can tolerate the destruction of their economy?
Isn't it strange that the world nations (including Israel) are tripping over themselves to help people who have a history of wasting every penny they ever received?
Isn't it strange that a people who pretend to want a state so much cannot expend any effort on actual state-building?
Isn't it strange that the bulk of the money that these emotional infants receive come from the West that they hate with a passion, and not from their own Arab brethren?

Another American victim of Arab terror dies

Daniel Wultz, HY"D, the 16 year old victim of last month's Tel Aviv bombing from Miami, died today.

It is mystifying how any American can continue to support the terrorist Arab side of this conflict when in fact Americans are just as much targets as Israelis. What strange psychological illness makes people so willing to identify with their would-be murderers?

Forget the fact that by any rational argument, Israel is in the right in essentially every important aspect of the war. But just normal human self-preservation should allow every single American and Westerner to be able to clearly see that one side is on our side and the other is against us. One is an expert in building, the other an expert in destroying. One wants to help Americans and the other celebrates their deaths. One wants to build a better world and the other wants to conquer it.

An American boy died today at the hands of an evil and depraved culture. Where is the spontaneous anger? Where is the outrage?

It is way past time to wake up, because the longer it takes, the more Daniel Wultzes will be murdered.

Greetings to The Great Jamahiriya

One good benchmark of how politically isolated a nation is comes from its state-run media. It is fun to read Iran's websites, for example, for their daily articles about how some former EU diplomat agrees with a narrow part of their policies, or how a minor parliament member in Pakistan or Lebanon praises their leader. When you read that you know they are grasping at straws, despite their bravado.

Here's a great example of a country hitting rock bottom, and it is instructive as to who, exactly, is singing its praises.

The Palestinian President Mohmmoud Abbas praised the Leader of the Revolution and the Libyan people expressing his profound thanks and appreciation for the support and assistance made and still being by Great Jamahiriya to the Palestinian people in these difficult and harsh conditions wishing further progress and prosperity to the Libyan people.
This came in a cable sent by the Palestinian President to the participants in the 1st session of the Permanent Bureau of the Arab Bar Union which began Saturday morning in Sert He referred in his cable to the situation experienced by the Palestinian people due to the escalating aggression by the Zionist army terrorist organization against the Palestinian people.

With all due respect to the Great Jamahiriya and the Arab Bar Union, this has got to be one of the funniest press releases I've seen this year.

But it is nice to know that Abbas is keeping himself busy as he continues his long slide into irrelevance.

Humanitarian Crisis, part 7

Apparently, the PA has access to a lot more money then they are letting on.

But if by lying they can get free money from the EU, US and Israel, why argue with what works?

Israel Matzav blog is superb

Carl in Jerusalem, who runs the Israel Matzav blog, follows things much more closely than I do, and he has none of the reluctance to criticize the Olmert government that I do.

(I always feel that it is a bit unfair for someone like myself in the Diaspora to criticize the Israeli government publicly, for a number of reasons: there may be nuances I am not aware of, I aim at Jewish unity in this blog, and I try as hard as I can to give benefit of the doubt to those whose lives are directly at risk based on their own decisions. This doesn't mean that I haven't been very disappointed and upset at various actions taken by the leaders of Israel, but this is not the venue to tackle those topics. Israeli bloggers don't have the same constraints that I impose on myself.)

Here are three in a row that are must reads:

Weapons, money, men

Once again, Hamas makes its priorities clear.

"We ask all the people in surrounding Arab countries, the Muslim world and everyone who wants to support us to send weapons, money and men," Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal said in a speech at a pro-Palestinian event in Qatar.
"You should not shy away from of this. This is resistance, not terrorism," said Meshaal whose group -- sworn to the destruction of Israel -- leads the Palestinian government.

Somehow he didn't seem to ask for food, or medical supplies, or fuel, or any of the other things that are causing the bogus "humanitarian crisis" that the West is so upset about.

And, of course Reuters has to add this lie at the end of the article:

Hamas, which has largely abided by a ceasefire for more than a year, has been under increasing Western and Israeli financial pressure to recognize the Jewish state, abandon armed struggle and accept interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

Money for nothing

Well, the US and the EU caved.

The United States bowed to pressure from its allies Tuesday and agreed to support a new program to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the Palestinian people.

Temporary is never temporary when it comes to welfare.
Any money going to Palestinian Arabs who voted for terrorists gives the terrorists more money to buy bombs and missiles.

A surprise statement by Mideast peacemakers, issued after a day of closed-door diplomatic meetings, did not say precisely how much or what kind of aid they would provide. But the agreement seemed to underscore a concern that months of withholding most aid from the Palestinians, part of an effort to pressure the new Hamas-led government toward a more accommodating stance with Israel, was harming the Palestinian people.

The newspapers played their part - writing up stories about how Palestinian Arabs can't buy gas and aren't getting paid and are holding signs saying "hungry." When in fact, the Palestinian Arabs are in better shape than a good percentage of the world's people economically.

The United States and European Union have cut off direct aid to the Palestinian government while pledging to help meet the crushing humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people through charities and other means.

An entire nation on welfare, living it up and terrorizing the world on the world's dime. No real industry, no forward thinking, no creativity except for ways to build new rockets and tunnels. Sure, let's give them aid.

Speaking Wednesday in Ramallah on the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh slammed the United States and its Western allies for demands on his government, but did not reject the temporary program.

The world should be more understanding that when they decide to give Arabs millions of dollars, they will get insulted in response. Saying "thank you" would violate his cultural norms, and we need to be sensitive to those.

"The Quartet brings from time to time conditions to force the government to concede the rights and recognize the legality of the occupation," Ismail Haniyeh said.

"I believe the government will remain faithful to the Palestinian rights and will keep seeking the equation that protects the Palestinian people. The financial crisis has never been a factor dividing the Palestinians. It will be a factor that unites them," he told reporters.

Of course, just a few days ago Palestinian Arabs started protesting Hamas because of their not getting any money. The Quartet cannot abide Arab protests against other Arabs, only against Denmark and other countries that offend Arabs.

Overseas donations, mostly from Europe, have long sustained the cash-strapped and bloated Palestinian government.

Isn't it interesting that everyone knows the government is "bloated" but no one dares suggest that the terror supporters slash, say, 75,000 jobs from their payroll? Nope, the donors do not have any say in such matters.

The new fund is supposed to administer only money for basic human needs. But both European and U.S. diplomats said that at some point it might be used to pay salaries for urgently needed doctors or teachers or for other services that the Hamas government otherwise would be expected to provide.

Ah yes, teachers who teach that Palestine is a country that extends from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, and it will be Jew-free, inshallah.

Frustrations rose to the surface over the weekend, when hundreds of Palestinians staged strikes and demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza to demand payment, the first public signs of discontent with Hamas' handling of the situation.

So at the exact time that it looks like the sanctions might have a positive effect in weakening the terror group Hamas, what does the West do?

European governments in particular have been alarmed at the worsening plight for unemployed Palestinians and concerned that charities and U.N. agencies could not meet the demand for services or handle the amount of money that might be needed, diplomats said.

They pressed the United States to agree to the new humanitarian fund, even though that kind of assistance may be an indirect benefit to Hamas. The United States agreed on condition the fund be temporary and limited to programs that meet basic needs, a senior State Department official said

"It would be against our values to let people starve," said Marc Otte, the EU's special envoy for the Mideast.

Let's see - the Palestinian Arabs have farms, crops, livestock, poultry, fruit trees, and even some greenhouses that are still intact after Israel abandoned them. Who, exactly, is in danger of starvation?

And if a few would go hungry, why are Palestinian Arab terror supporters more deserving of food than the millions of truly starving people worldwide?

The entire exercise of withholding money was a sham, with the Eurabians so eager to strengthen those who celebrate when Westerners die. This is humanitarian aid; this is where limited money should go, according to the dhimmis that are in reality trying so hard to make sure that their supply of oil never gets disrupted. And if hundreds of Jews get blown up in the meanwhile, no biggie.

Insane Muslim protestors of the day - The Next Generation

The cartoon protests have entered the second generation!

A little background:

A Pakistani student, carrying a knife, was caught by German police trying to enter a building housing a newspaper that published the dreaded Mohammed cartoons.

The student, Amir Cheema, committed suicide in jail using his bedclothes. He left behind a suicide note written in Urdu and a will.

Pakistanis are outraged, calling the would-be murderer a martyr and a hero and claiming he was murdered by German police.

Now they are staging violent protests, burning German flags, in honor of their terrorist hero:

The world just doesn't seem right unless hordes of insane Muslims are protesting in support of terror.

Iranian human rights doesn't extend to women

Der Spiegel reports on the latest misogynist moves by Ahmedenijad:

Tehran's deputy attorney general, Mahmoud Salarkia, has begun a new drive against "immoral behavior in public" directed largely at the capital city's young female population. The relaxed appearance of many women in Tehran has long bothered archconservative politicians and the country's religious leaders. Headscarves have become shorter and more colorful and among the brave, bare feet in flip-flops are considered all the rage in summer.

But now Iran's feared moral police, founded by Islamic revolution leader Ayatollah Khomeini, are to be strengthened with 50 more patrol groups. They will be equipped with police cars from Germany that should allow the mullahs to monitor "un-Islamic behavior" spreading through the land more closely. Women that show too much hair peeking from their headscarf or wear figure-defining clothing face a fine of around Â€300 -- roughly a month's salary for a teacher -- or ten days in jail. Taxi drivers that pick up such fashion sinners also face punishment. The expanded patrols are also supposed to crack down on pop music in public and dog owners will be banned from walking their pets -- considered unclean in Islam -- in city parks.

The government's hard line is also feared by Iran's intellectuals, especially after Ramin Jahanbegloo, a prominent Iranian philosopher and writer who also has a Canadian passport, was arrested on charges of "spying and endangering domestic security" last week. The move was condemned by a leading liberal cleric, Mohsen Kadivar, as "completely arbitrary." But Jahanbegloo's detention is likely retribution for his publicly critical comments about Ahmadinejad's notorious anti-Israel rhetoric.

Ahmadinejad, who has been seen kicking around a ball with Iran's national soccer team, has also apparently decided not let his fondness for the sport cloud his conservative agenda. The president had in April surprisingly chosen to allow women fans to watch men's soccer games. But on Tuesday, the Iranian ISNA news agency reported that following intense criticism from clerics over lifting the decades-long ban, Ahmadinejad had reversed his decision.

Speaking of Ramin Jahanbegloo:

A mouthpiece of mullahs daily newspaper accuses detained Iranian intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo, a prominent thinker and writer on democracy and non-violence, of having links to US and Israeli intelligence services.

"Ramin Jahanbegloo has been linked to the CIA and the Mossad for a while but he has been under surveillance," Jomhuri Eslami newspaper charged, without giving a source.

Yes, this is the country that lectures the US on human rights and morality. This is the country that intends to become a nuclear superpower. This is the country that has explicitly called not only for a world without Israel, but a world without America.

Ahmadinejad's letter - prelude to attack? (Jihad Watch)

A very important point made by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch:

An initial thought on Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush. When he says this, he is calling Bush to accept Islam -- since in traditional Muslim belief it is only Islam that guarantees "monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day."

Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that is, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world – that are the result of disobedience to the Almighty and the teachings of prophets – and improve our performance? Do you not think that belief in these principles promotes and guarantees peace, friendship and justice? Do you not think that the aforementioned written or unwritten principles are universally respected? Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets? Mr President, History tells us that repressive and cruel governments do not survive.

In a Hadith, Muhammad tells his followers to call people to Islam before waging war against them:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them….If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)

In light of that, this letter could be -- but is not necessarily -- a prelude to an attack.

Hat tip: Pastorius.

Diplomacy of Fear - the Muslim way

Many liberals like to decry conservatives for what they call the "politics of fear." This means that neocons like to use fear as a battering ram of sorts to spook people into voting for them, specifically fear of terror.

There may or may not be merit in this argument, but I have hardly anyone talk about the flip-side of this concept, one that liberals wholeheartedly embrace, usually without realizing it.

I call it the diplomacy of fear.

For decades, the Arab world specifically and the Muslim world in general has used threats as its main leverage to get the West to bend to its will. The threats aren't usually direct; most often they take the form of "if you don't do what we want, the Arab street will erupt" or "the terrorists will have an excuse." In other words, if Arab thugocracies do not get what they desire from the West, then they will be powerless to stop the irrational forces within their borders from damaging Western interests.

I touched upon an early example of this in this recent posting about Arab sympathies with the Nazis, and the British reaction:

“If war were to break out, no trouble that the Jews could occasion us, in Palestine or elsewhere, could weigh for a moment against the importance of winning Muslim opinion to our side,” Britain’s Minister for Coordination of Defence, Lord Chatfield, told the British cabinet in 1939, shortly before Britain reversed its decision to partition its mandate, promising instead all of the land to the Palestinian Arabs.

Think about this for a minute - the British are saying that since Jews are not troublemakers and the Arabs are, it is in the British self-interest to appease the Arabs (at the expense of thousands of Jewish lives).

And this theme is so widespread, so much a part of the fabric of the way the world thinks today, that it is unthinkable that there could be an alternative.

European Mideast policy is almost wholly driven by fear of upsetting Arabs and Muslims. Those who claim to be seeking "peace" make the assumption that asking Arabs for concessions is useless and could ignite some sort of negative response - so is makes more sense to pressure Israel into making even more concessions.

How many times have we seen a variant of this recent pronouncement from Mahmoud Abbas:

Mr Abbas said the freeze was causing hardship to ordinary people and would lead to further instability.

"Instability?" We all know what he means by that - he means violence and terror, which is apparently a natural reaction in the rules of Arab physics. If the West doesn't give Palestinian Arabs more and more money, well, hey, he sure can't control his people from the spontaneous inevitable violence (remarkably similar to the violence they seem to have perfected when they had a billion dollars a year coming into their coffers.)

Mahmoud Abbas threatens the Western world and no one bothers to call him on it.

Similarly, a Canadian imam threatened Canada with similar unspecified terror last year. Iran threatens the West daily with implied terror and eventual nuclear bombs. It is the main leverage the Saudis have when lobbying Europe and America - they are more "moderate" and if the royals don't get their request taken care of, they might fall and those "militants" will take over.

This climate of fear is so endemic that fundamentally irrational and immoral acts by the Muslim world are accepted by the West with little question - to challenge it could put you in the same category as a Salman Rushdie or a Danish cartoonist, and who needs that hassle?

Maybe it is pure bigotry that causes Saudi Arabia to not allow Christian bibles or any Jews altogether to be on holy Saudi soil - but you won't see any EU inquiries into that matter. By any objective measure, the Arab world is the center for terror and human rights abuses today. But it is much easier to concentrate on supposed Koran abuse at Guantanamo. Much safer to call Israel with its million Arab citizens "an apartheid state."

Because the US and Israel don't threaten the EU with terror the way the Arabs do.

So, the diplomacy of fear has an excellent record since the first part of the twentieth century, and there is no indication that it will slow down any time soon. After all, it works.

Humanitarian crisis, part 7

Once again, the poor starving Palestinian Arabs are forced to go to great lengths just to acquire the bare necessities of life.

Israel last week seized a large cargo of high-grade explosives which an Egyptian boat tried to transfer to two Palestinian boats from the Gaza Strip, the army told AFP.

According to a military source on Tuesday, an Israeli navy patrol off the Mediterranean coast of Sinai last Wednesday spotted "an Egyptian boat trasferring a cargo to two Palestinian boats".

The suspicious cargo was dropped off by the Palestinian boats once their crews noticed the Israeli ship, the source told AFP.

"Navy divers later retrieved the cargo from the seabed and found it contained 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of full-grade TNT (trinitrotoluene) explosives," he said.

Part 6 and links to the others of the series here.

Abu Marzouk: Hamas will never recognize Israel

Since Jimmy Carter is so convinced that Hamas fully intends to recognize Israel and renounce terror if only Israel would abandon all the post 1967 territories, to the point that the world should throw money to Hamas now, perhaps he should read the Muslim Brotherhood website - in English! An interesting interview with Hamas' "deputy chief" Abu Marzouk:

Ikhwanweb: There are statements attributed to Mr. Khaled Mesha’al indicating that Hamas will recognize Israel if it withdraws to the 1967 borders. Your comments.

Abu Marzouk: One of Hamas founding principals [sic] is that it does not recognize Israel. We ran in elections and the people voted for us based on this platform. Therefore, the question to recognize Israel is definitely not on the table unless if it withdraws from ALL Palestinian lands, not only to 1967 borders. How can we be expected to recognize an occupying entity when there are millions of our people refugees and thousands others prisoners! Why must we recognize them when they do not recognize us as a sovereign state with full independence.

Ikhwanweb: what is the future ahead of Hamas amidst the mounting international pressure?

Abu Marzouk: I believe that the formation of Hamas government in itself is a major turning point in the history of Palestinian cause. Hamas government will help transitioning the Issue of Palestine from its international framework to that of the national resistance. Palestinian people will stand resolute and will support their democratic choice. I truly believe that Hamas will succeed by the will of God in addition to the steadfastness of Palestinian people and the support our Muslim and Arab nation.

But no matter how explicitly Hamas states its goals, no matter how clearly they say that their aim is military and terroristic, there will always be useful idiots willing to believe in their make-believe world where all problems can be magically wished away with people in suits talking in conference rooms.

(Hat tip - MEMRI. But the terror apologists like Carter can't claim that MEMRI mistranslated this interview!)

"Wiping Israel off the map is just one step in Iran's attempt to create a new world order," said Brig.-Gen Yosef Kuperwasser, head of the IDF Military Intelligence's research division.
"Iran is interested not only in turning into a superpower, but also in changing the world order," Kuperwasser said at a conference on power projection at the Fisher Institute of Strategic Studies in Herzliya.
"Iran is at the forefront of global terrorism, and aids Hizbullah in Lebanon, al Qaida, and Palestinian terror organizations, and is behind attacks on US armed forces in Iraq," the general asserted.
Just hours before the UNSC votes on sanctions against Iran, Maj-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad said that he believed Iran was vulnerable to sanctions. "Iran is Not North Korea," Gilad said. "It's a country of intelligent, intellectual people."

While it is nice to see that my own analysis is confirmed by the IDF, I can't help but worry why a solitary person reading the Internet can see things so clearly six months before an organization that presumably has much better tools at its disposal.

Gibberish in the Yemen Times

Either there's some secret message here to the mujahedeen or the Yemen Times will print whatever gibberish comes its way as long as it appears to be anti-Zionist and anti-American.

After reading it a few times, it seems that the author (getting a doctorate in the Arab world is apparently pretty easy) is saying that Jews created Al-Qaeda sometime during the Clinton administration, and tried to get him to kill all American Muslims or something like that. When he balked, the Jews created the Monica Lewinsky scandal to punish him and then convinced Bin Laden to lead their Zionist movement, deceiving him.

The upshot is, as usual, it is all the Jews' fault. As always. Those Jews are so damn smart that only an illiterate Arab PhD is capable of unscrambling their nefarious plans!

Was Bin Laden deceived?
Dr. Abdullateef Al-Adham

“But they worked their plan, and their plan was before God, and their plan was such as would move the mountains”

(Surat Abraham 14-46)

God had depicted the extent to which deception may reach at times. Mountains may diminish under its intensity; leave alone a weak creature like the human being.

We all witnessed on the 11th of September the collapse of one of the buildings of the International Trade Towers in New York, which was followed, by the second one, shortly afterwards. They became just a trace of ruins. They became a rebel that was lately removed. The site of the destroyed towers was given the name ‘ground zero’. We also witnessed the direct impact, which rocked the whole world, with the Islamic world, who was immediately accused, on top.

In fact, what happened on that day was a model to which the conspiracy might amount. What happened was the result of the theory of “civilizations conflict”, which was fabricated by the Zionists’ mind, whose leaders thought that the opportunity of dominating the world had ripened following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Yet they think that the only obstacle that hiders their plans is Islam. They attribute this to the significant populace, and civilization. They think of the necessity of directing a destructive blow to it.

The American and British decision makers were convinced with the civilizations conflict theory and its advantages was circulated. The Zionist cupidity was not understood. The Al-Qaeda organization was formed, and some Muslim youth were lured to join it, to carry out some operations that were attributed to it. This was accompanied by exaggerated media campaigns of the role of the organization and its leader Bin Laden.

However, President Clinton’s hesitation, especially in executing an immense attack inside America, hindered a great part of the Zionist project. He was punished for that with the scandals and the shameful prosecutions. Bush agreed to do what Clinton had rejected. He set out to take a number of measures, including the provocation of China and the withdrawal from Durban Human Rights Conference and others. He carried out the 11 September attack, and incidents continued. But Gods prodigy was observing their actions. He disclosed their conspiracy and the theory of conflict of civilizations failed. Yet was Bin Laden aware of the Zionist cupidity? There is a possibility that he was deceived, like the others, but the fact remains that he is a part in a serious crime, engineered by the Zionism. However, God will hinder their intrigue.