Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Poor Ziopedia Jew-haters

Ziopedia is the virulently Jew-hating website that Eric Hunt wrote an article for bragging about trying to kidnap and assault Elie Wiesel.

Fellow lunatic site Al-Jazeerah.info published a short whiny piece by Ziopedia's publisher that is simply hilarious:

Due to obscene political pressure by the Zionist Mafia, both PayPal and StormPay were forced to suspend our donations accounts. Your generous financial support is needed for ZioPedia.org to survive and remain the fastest growing anti-Zionist voice on the web.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the obscene attempt of the Kosher Nostra to destroy ZioPedia.org by bullying online payment services PayPal and StormPay into suspending their donations accounts, is the silence of fellow dissident sites on the matter. Is is because they are afraid of receiving the same treatment? Or do they see ZioPedia.org as a competitor rather than an ally in the war against a common enemy?

The number of pledges is an even bigger disappointment. Instead of the expected surge in solidarity, ZioPedia.org is now facing the real prospect of having to shut down.

Unless we are able to raise at least $5,000 before the end of February, ZioPedia.org will be forced to close its doors .

Please send the details of your pledge to donations@ziopedia.org and we will get back to you with payment options.

Andrew Winkler

Editor/Publisher ZioPedia - All There Is To Know About Zionism

This is classic stuff - the paranoia, the Judeophobia, the digs at fellow "dissident" sites who haven't all fallen into goose-stepping to Ziopedia's monetary aid, and the utter cluelessness as to why a company like PayPal may not want to be associated with an upstanding website like ZP.

Poor, poor Andrew. This couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Olmert says he'll respond to Qassams - eventually

Ehud Olmert today re-affirmed his vision of an independent Palestinian Arab state - and then said something even dumber:

Olmert said that if the Kassam rocket attacks on Israel continue, Israel would have to retaliate. "We are not going to restrain ourselves forever," he said. "The continued attacks challenge Israel's patience. In the end, if the attacks continue, we will respond."

Funny...where have we heard that before?

In late November, when the "cease fire" was new:

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday morning that any attempt to fire into Israeli territories would be considered a breach of the cease-fire and treated with severity.

According to Peretz, Israel is interested in quiet, but would not accept attacks on its citizens.

A couple of days later, Olmert admitted that he was "a little disappointed" that Qassams were still being shot daily into Israel.

In late December, after a month of straight Qassam attacks in the wake of Olmert's "cease fire", he asked the UN to intervene. Yeah, that really worked.
------------------------------------------

Here is my best shot at keeping track of when rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza so far this month. On the 8th, 10 were claimed to have been shot by Islamic Jihad but only four or so were recorded as having landed. Most of the rest of these numbers were rockets that actually landed in Israel, with links back to the news stories. Numbers in parentheses are Arab claims.

Remember that Israel still regards this as being "calm" and has only rarely responded to Gaza terror since the "cease fire" announced in November.

February 2007 Qassam attacks

A magical place where terrorism always pays

Hadi Saud had a problem.

Last year he was shot in the leg and he never got proper treatment. He was also unemployed and he was jealous of all those Palestinian Arabs who manage to get jobs doing nothing. Even though he was a long-standing member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, the pay was apparently not very good.

So he hatched a plan.

He kidnapped three American women aid workers who were in Nablus, called up the AP and said that he would release them in exchange for medical treatment and a job.

Nablus' district governor negotiated with Saud and they did what Arabs are famous for - they bargained.

In the end, Saud released the women. In exchange, he will get medical treatment and will not be prosecuted for the kidnapping.

The PA: where terrorists always win.

AP's misleading headline

It seems that the wire services send out their articles with a default, suggested headline thatmost newspapers will copy verbatim. So it is interesting to see dozens of headlines in Google News that say:

The article slowly clarifies exactly who this "Palestinian"was:

Israeli troops on Wednesday fatally shot a West Bank leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group who was involved in an attempted bombing near Tel Aviv, the army said.

Mahmoud Abu Obeid, 24, was traveling in a car in the center of Jenin when undercover Israeli troops shot and killed him, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli combat helicopter was seen in the area at the time, they said.

Abu Obeid had fired in the air with an M-16 rifle and then pointed it at troops when they shot at him, said a commander in the Jenin area, Col. Hertzi Halevy.

Abu Obeid was wanted for recruiting a Palestinian from the Jenin area who was caught by Israeli security in Tel Aviv on Tuesday trying to carry out a suicide bombing, the army said. Abu Obeid also had supplied the bomber with the explosives, the army said.

Abu Obeid oversaw the preparation of bombs for the militant group, and the car he was driving was full of explosives, Halevy said. Troops tracked down Abu Obeid due in part with information given to security forces during the interrogation of the bomber caught on Tuesday, Halevy said.

But people glancing at the paper or website will only see that Israel has killed yet another innocent Palestinian Arab for no reason.

Bahrain's hot new club

Bahrain was the site of yet another protest against Israel. But I got a kick out of the name of the organization that organized the protest:

"We are against any interference at one of the most holy places for Muslims and we strongly condemn what Israel is doing," said chairman of the Bahraini Society Against Normalisation of Relations with the Zionist Enemy, Mohammed Al Aradi, who led the protest.

Demonstrators condemned the demolition of some portions of Al Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation forces and said Israel should be immediately stopped from digging tunnels around it. "This is a direct affront to Muslims," said Mr Al Aradi.

"This is damaging the foundations of the historic structure and the whole action smells of a Jewish conspiracy."

He said any damage to Al Aqsa Mosque would hurt the feelings of Muslims around the globe and called on the UN to intervene.

The BSANoRwtZE is definitely the "in" place to be in Bahrain.

This is not the first time Mr. Al Aradi has been in the news. Previously, his organization's name was slightly different:

Mohammed Al-Aradi, head of the Society for Resisting Normalization with the Zionist Enemy in Bahrain, expressed outrage at the government decision and said bilateral agreements could not override Arab League decision, according to a report by Arab News.

Obviously, the SfRNwtZE name does not have nearly the pizazz as BSANoRwtZE.

It appears that Mr. Al Aradi also has a government job in Bahrain, as a public prosecutor where he prosecutes fairly petty cases.

Sounds like a very hip dude.

How Israel treats Muslim archaeological finds

As I've mentioned before, the major issue that the Muslims have with any archaeological digs in Jerusalem is the possibility that Jewish items and buildings will be found, and hence the digs will end up "Judaizing" Jerusalem.

What they refuse to admit is that many of the digs have uncovered critical periods of Islamic history as well.

There was a recent report claiming that Israeli archaeologists had found an ancient Islamic prayer room three years ago and had covered it up. In response, the Israeli authorities pointed out that they had not determined what the find was yet, and if it was found to be an important Islamic find then they would preserve it. Of course, the Muslims accused Israel of being more nefarious:

Adnan Husseini, chairman of the Muslim council that oversees affairs at the holy site, expressed anger that Israel withheld news of the discovery for three years. "We didn't hear anything about this," he said. "They are always hiding things."

Let's see whether that argument has any merit.

When the Israeli archaeologists started digging at the southern part of the Temple Mount, they found the remains of an Omayyad palace as well as other finds that illuminated early Muslim life in Jerusalem. Rather than destroy this palace as the Muslims would have you think, they shared the information with the local Islamic authorities - who appreciated the gesture and allowed the Israelis to dig in other areas near the Temple Mount.

This story illuminates how Muslims have traditionally tried to politicize archaeology as much as possible:

(Meir) Ben-Dov (field director of southern Mount dig) tells the story of a visit to the excavation by Rafiq Dajani, the deputy director of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. Dajani remarked to Ben-Dov, “If we could leave politics to the politicians, I would heartily congratulate you on your work, revealing finds of which we knew very little up until now. The finds from the early Moslem period are thrilling, and frankly I’m surprised the Israeli scholars made them public.”

A foreign correspondent overheard Dajani’s remarks and included them in his story.

Two weeks later Dajani was summarily dismissed and later died in the prime of life.

And how did the hated Zionists sweep the discovery of this palace under the rug?

By placing it on a stamp, of course.

Contrast this with how the Waqf treats Jewish archaeological finds on the Temple Mount, and you can see yet another example of Muslim projection of their own attitudes and actions onto the Jews.

Hamas/Fatah truce update

Just because the Western media hasn't been reporting any fighting between Hamas and Fatah doesn't mean that they are playing happily together:

Ramallah - Ma'an - The Fatah movement warned on Tuesday that several "atrocities" had taken place in the Gaza Strip in order to gain "extra time". Since Sunday, there have been four violent assaults on various civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, the Fatah spokesperson, Jamal Nazzal, said, adding that the perpetrators have all been either the pro-Hamas Executive Force or still-unidentified armed men. Fatah has condemned all the attacks.

In one incident, 200 armed men, allegedly from the Executive Force, took control of a farm belonging to Ishaq Hassan. 20 of his family members were forced out of their homes and his 15-dunum farm, located in the Al-Mughraqa neighbourhood close to the evacuated Israeli settlement of Netsarim in the central Gaza Strip, was set ablaze.

In a separate incident, unidentified gunmen stole a car belonging to Palestine TV in Gaza City and brutally beat the car's occupants. The car was reportedly transporting Palestine TV employees in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in central Gaza City on Tuesday.

A day before, three unarmed Fatah members were also attacked by unknown gunmen in Gaza City.

Fatah also condemned the recent attack on "The Youth House for Culture and Arts" in the northern Gaza Strip where a children's library containing 7,000 books was set ablaze. The library was reportedly attacked because it was "contradictory to Palestinian traditions". In this regard, Nazzal added that the offices of dozens of publications and websites have been closed down in the Gaza Strip following frequent threats by the Executive Force against employees, particularly women.

This must be the PalArab definition of "peace."

Which is something to keep in mind when people talk about the "peace process."

Mecca accord lies

Maan News reports:

Ramallah - Ma'an - The head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) has assured that all the demands of the Quartet are found in the Mecca deal.

The Quartet – comprising of the UN, EU, US and Russia – has stipulated that any new Palestinian government must renounce violence, accept the state of Israel's right to exist and adopt the previously signed peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The head of the Fatah bloc, Azzam Al-Ahmad, was speaking with PLC member Qais Abdul-Karim of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), in the West Bank city of Ramallah during a meeting with the press in the ministry of information. He added that great efforts had been taken to reach the Mecca deal and called on all parties to show more commitment to the agreement.

It seems that Fatah assumes, with good reason, that EUdiots and other liberals are so keen on pouring money back into the terrorist PA that they will accept any assurances that the Mecca agreement is the exact opposite of what it states.

As Petra Marquardt-Bigman points out concerning an article that Khaled Mahaal wrote in the Guardian:

Mashaal had all the reasons to present Palestinian demands and threats with the utmost confidence. He knows all too well that in Europe, quite a few people would rather join a demonstration shouting "We are all Hizbullah" than be accused of "blind support" for Israel. Moreover, a Europe that has to contend with Islamic extremists in its midst has become quite receptive to the "linkage" theory that blames Muslim radicalization on the unsolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which, in turn, is often blamed on Israeli intransigence, made possible by US support.

Most of the Western media did not reprint the actual text of the Mecca agreement. There were two parts - the letter where Abbas calls on Haniyeh to "respect" (but not abide or adhere to) past PLO agreements, and then the actual agreement itself:

Based on the generous initiative announced by Saudi King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz and under the sponsorship of his majesty, Fatah and Hamas Movements held in the period February 6-8, 2007 in Holy Mecca the dialogues of Palestinian conciliation and agreement and these dialogues, thanks to God, ended with success and an agreement was reached on the following:

First: to stress on banning the shedding of the Palestinian blood and to take all measures and arrangements to prevent the shedding of the Palestinian blood and to stress on the importance of national unity as basis for national steadfastness and confronting the occupation and to achieve the legitimate national goals of the Palestinian people and adopt the language of dialogue as the sole basis for solving the political disagreements on the Palestinian arena.

Within this context, we offer gratitude to the brothers in Egypt and the Egyptian security delegation in Gaza who exerted tremendous efforts to calm the conditions in Gaza Strip in the past period.

Second: Final agreement to form a Palestinian national unity government according to a detailed agreement ratified by both sides and to start on an urgent basis to take the constitutional measures to form this government.

Third: to move ahead in measures to activate and reform the PLO and accelerate the work of the preparatory committee based on the Cairo and Damascus Understandings.

It has been agreed also on detailed steps between both sides on this issue.

Fourth: to stress on the principle of political partnership on the basis of the effective laws in the PNA and on the basis of political pluralism according to an agreement ratified between both parties.

We gladly announce this agreement to our Palestinian masses and to the Arab and Islamic nation and to all our friends in the world. We stress on our commitment to this agreement in text and spirit so that we can devote our time to achieve our national goals and get rid of the occupation and regain our rights and devote work to the main files, mainly Jerusalem, the refugees, the Aqsa Mosque, the prisoners and detainees and to confront the wall and settlements.

So the true agreement says nothing about even respecting past PA commitments and the only peaceful dialogue it calls for are between Hamas and Fatah.

Anyone who says that the Mecca accords address the Quartet demands, let alone fulfill them, is simply a liar. And a letter that Abbas sends Haniyeh is not an accord saying that Haniyeh even agrees with the murky "respect" clause - we would need a letter from Haniyeh to even imply that.

The fact that the world is so willing to accept an internal Palestinian Arab political power-sharing agreement as anything other than a complete capitulation by Abbas to Hamas is more testament to the power of wishful thinking over reality.

And as the rockets continue to rain down on Israel from the unified Palestinian Arabs without a single word of protest by any Palestinian Arab group, the idea that PalArabs have accepted the Quartet demands goes beyond absurd.

Ten years ago: Empire State Building PalArab terror attack

Ten years ago this week, a Palestinian Arab man shot seven people on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and killed one of them before killing himself.

At the time, his family and the US media all tried to paint this as the act of a deranged loner who was depressed over money problems and they did everything they could to distance this attack from terror. Initial reports said he was Egyptian, not a Palestinian Arab.

A few days later it was revealed that he was carrying a note blaming Israel, the US, France and England for Palestinian Arab troubles, but by then the news cycle had turned and the attack was almost forgotten:

NEW YORK -- The Palestinian teacher who went on a fatal shooting rampage atop the Empire State Building carried a note blaming the United States for using Israel as "an instrument" against his people.

The note found in Ali Hassan Abu Kamal's pocket contains "rambling, angry stuff," and appears to contradict claims by the man's family that the shooting had nothing to do with politics, a high-ranking police source said last night.

The letter also expressed anger at France and England for using Israel as "an instrument" against Palestinians, and indicated that Mr. Abu Kamal planned to vent his anger at the Empire State Building, the source said.

Seven tourists were shot Sunday, one fatally, on the 86th-floor observation deck of the famous landmark, long a symbol of romance and tourism. Mr. Abu Kamal then killed himself.

That Mr. Abu Kamal -- a 69-year-old Palestinian in the country only two months -- could buy a Beretta semiautomatic handgun "is totally insane," Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said at a news conference.

Police Commissioner Howard Safir described Mr. Abu Kamal as "one deranged individual working on his own."

An anti-terrorist task force was still part of the investigation, Mr. Safir said, but so far it had found no evidence that Mr. Abu Kamal was aligned with any terrorist group.

In Mr. Abu Kamal's hometown of Gaza City, relatives said he had been distraught over losing his life savings of more than $300,000 and had no ties to Palestinian radical groups. Mr. Abu Kamal called home Sunday and said he could not send tuition money to one of his sons, who is studying civil engineering in Russia, a son-in-law said.

The letter in Mr. Abu Kamal's pocket discussed personal issues but did not mention the loss of his life savings, the police source said. How he lost the money is a mystery.

Now it is revealed that the family lied the whole time - under pressure of the Palestinian Authority:

(IsraelNN.com) The family of Ali Abu Kamal, who opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building a decade ago, now admits that his attack was politically motivated. The family had claimed for years that the attack, in which one person was killed and six were injured, was due to a mental breakdown which Kamal suffered after losing his life’s savings.

A letter found on Kamal’s body at the time pointed to a political motivation for the attack. However, sources in the Palestinian Authority worried that publicizing Kamal’s true motivation would erode Israeli and American trust in the Oslo Accords. So PA officials invented the story about Kamal’s supposed loss of savings and convinced his family to repeat it.

Kamal’s daughter, a UN worker in Gaza, said that at first “we didn’t know he was martyred for patriotic motivations.” Even after becoming convinced that Kamal was in fact a terrorist, the family covered up that fact and destroyed evidence out of fear. Family members say they are now admitting the truth because they are tired of lying.

If the PA would successfully pressure families to lie ten years ago, what percentage of news stories out of Gaza and the West Bank about supposed Israeli crimes are lies as well?

When the acting "government" of a people cannot be trusted to tell simple truths - if in fact they go out of their way to mislead and lie to the world - how can negotiators today trust a word that they say?

A true Arab terror attack occurred in a New York City skyscraper ten years ago, right between the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and because of a combination of the PA's lies, wishful thinking on the part of the New York police and politicians, and the desire to downplay anything that could derail the Oslo "peace" process, the media and the local governments all agreed that this was not a story that was worth pursuing.

And the PA was behind a massive cover-up that can only be learned about today.

Once again there are lessons to be learned from history. Yet it seems unlikely that history's truths will outweigh the wishful thinking agendas of the US, EU and Kadima.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin ties this case to other cases of "lone gunmen" who happen to be Muslims and whose terrorist motivations are consistently downplayed. (hat tip One Jerusalem)

Isn't unity wonderful?

Now that the PA has unified under the terror Hamas leadership, they of course want that wonderful Palestinian Arab unity umbrella to spread even wider.

They invited two other terror organizations, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP, to join the government as well.

Islamic Jihad said "no thanks" and PFLP is still considering it, but it shows even more clearly what "unity" means to the Palestinian leadership - it means supporting terror, pure and simple. The world's darling "moderate" Abbas did not utter a peep in protest against this move, proving beyond any doubt that the Palestinian Arab idea of a government is for one that officially calls for the death of millions of Jews in the pursuit of the destruction of Israel.

Israel losing the Internet propaganda war

A very good article in Omedia shows the problems Israel has in getting its message across:

Yonatan Dahoach-Halevi, who is a former head of the IDF’s Department of Information and Public Affairs, is responsible for the IDF Spokesman’s website, is a political content consultant to the ministry of defense, and an associate researcher with the Jerusalem Center for Public and Political Affairs, sees the internet as a world of unlimited possibilities. Israel, explains Halevi, does not exploit it correctly, even in the most basic sense of publishing official data, using the internet as a creative tool through blogs, forums, etc. “Israel doesn’t publish information in a free and flowing way on the internet. There is no Israeli database that academic researchers can use to write articles, or for researching the subject of Israel. If an academic researcher wants to write a position paper he goes to the internet and only finds Palestinian information and no Israeli data. Any information published by Israelis is put there by the Betzelem organization and other human rights organizations. The information they publish isn’t always accurate, but given the lack of other resources, the academics will use that data. The UN also uses their information. This creates a situation where the falsehoods and misinformation put out by the Palestinians becomes reality, their perception of reality”.

Dahoach-Halevi’s opinion was supported by one of the conference participants, who reported that she had contacted the IDF Spokesman’s Unit on numerous occasions to request information and had received no reply. Betzelem on the other hand had answered her inquiry quickly and supplied the information efficiently. It is only natural that journalists or academics carrying out research will ultimately use that information.

No Pioneers, No Brakes

Lately Dahoach-Halevi has been working in Canada and knows the Canadian media up close. As someone who can see the Israeli conflict through foreigners eyes, it is important for him to put across points which seem clear to us but aren’t clear abroad. “The Israeli approach” he explains “namely, that it is enough if we just tell the truth, is wrong”. For example, he recounts, incidents like time when left wing activist Rachel Corey was run over by a bulldozer have not gone away. They are alive and kicking on the internet, where Israel’s opponents are sure not to let their side of the story fade away. Borrowing an image from the world of football, Dahoach-Halevi, says that Israel is playing on the internet without a proper defense.

Dahoach-Halevi warned that the Palestinians are using the internet to rewrite history and to create the past through their eyes. They fastidiously post historical documentation in scrupulous detail of their narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict thus putting Israel’s very existence in question. Eli HaCohen, the professional director of the Netvision Institute for Internet Research, refined the problem; “We should consider not only the fact that they are rewriting the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they are also rewriting the history of the Jewish People. By this I mainly refer to the various websites denying the holocaust, which have recently sprung up all over the internet”.

Dahoach-Halevi doesn’t just bemoan the situation he also suggests ways to correct it: “If we want to succeed in the information war on the internet against the Palestinians, it would be very good if we copied how they do things. I mean, for example, the Israeli sites should appear in more languages. Exactly like the Hamas site which appears in a large number of languages, not like the foreign ministry site which is in very few languages”. Dahoach-Halevi also suggests ways of using blogs, video clips, and RSS updates. Above all, he thinks that the IDF Spokesman, Israeli Intelligence, and the foreign ministry should join forces and work together on the internet as information agencies in every sense to tell the Israeli side of the conflict.

It is worth reading the whole thing.

Part of the reason that this blog exists is because I try to put things in perspective in ways that Israel's government does not. It is indeed frustrating that there are no central databases for things that I end up doing - why isn't there an official count of Kassam rockets or of PalArab self-violence? Where can one look up any specific Israeli action in the territories and find out the reason and context? Beyond that we have the problem of Israel accepting responsibility for various PalArab deaths prematurely (like al-Dura).

As the article mentions, there are also plenty of things that Israelis take for granted that the world does not understand. While the Israeli response to the Mughrabi gate digs wasn't terrible, in reality the best responses were from the Israel Antiquities Authority and it took way too much time before anyone even thought about creating a map or pictures to show how absurd the Arab claims were.

I only have a couple of hundred readers, and it takes a lot of time to keep this blog going. It is frustrating to know that in many ways I, and other bloggers, are doing a better job than the government of Israel itself in bringing historical perspectives and objective context to the conflict.

It is true that the Israeli government is somewhat hamstrung by the fact that it has to be accurate in everything it says. But even that problem can be solved - a central database that keeps track of issues and events, even with incomplete information, would be tremendously helpful especially for journalists who are otherwise clueless.

PalArabs winning 115-18 so far this year

Every week, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights puts out an exquisitely detailed report of what they consider human rights violations by Israel against Palestinian Arabs, with painstaking detail given to counting up cumulative statistics of injuries, deaths, arrests, and many other events given without context. This is one of many sources that feed the PalArab propaganda machine which in turn feeds wire service reports showing how terrible Israel is.

Of course, these same champions of "human rights" all but ignore Palestinian Arabs killing other Palestinian Arabs. They used to put out reports on a subset of these attacks in terms of "misuse of weapons and security chaos" but they do not attempt to keep track exhaustively of these numbers.

One statistic that you will never hear from them is that for the past six weeks, at least, the number of Palestinian Arabs killed by other PalArabs has exceeded the numbers killed by Israel every single week.

According to my statistics, 115 Palestinian Arabs have been killed so far this year by their neighbors, and PCHR counts 18 killed by Israel. This week, four Palestinian Arabs were killed or died from earlier wounds from attacks by other PalArabs (not counting any killed in Iraq, for example) and none at all were killed by Israel.

One would expect a true "human rights" organization would focus on the real violations of Palestinian Arab human rights rather than their weekly exercise in demonizing a nation that allows tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs to enter it just for medical reasons.

But PCHR is clearly not interested in human rights.

The media's love affair with Arab dictators

Diane Sawyer's obsequious interviews with the Syria's dictator and Iran's madman are hardly the first times that the Western media tried to turn terror-supporting Muslim leaders into heroes.

Read, if you can, this fawning 1955 cover story from Time magazine on Gamal Abdel Nasser. Here are some excerpts:

Gamal Abdel Nasser, a handsome, dedicated soldier of only 37, is the one man in Egypt who could give such an order and have it obeyed. Last week, further curbing some of his impatient lieutenants and the Moslem hotheads who would like to provoke a full-scale war with Israel, he endorsed United Nations efforts to create a buffer zone or stretch a barrier along the border dividing Israel and Egypt at the hypersensitive Gaza strip. There is an intimate connection between Nasser and The Strip. It was there that the fuse was lit to Egypt's 1952 revolution, and it was Gamal Nasser who struck the match.

Seven years ago, Egypt, a power in the Moslem world, had come sweeping across the Sinai Peninsula to throttle the infant Israel at its U.N. birth. But decades of corruption in palace and government paid off disastrously in lack of ammunition, inferior arms and cowardly officering. Captain Nasser's unit was surrounded at Faluja, a few miles from Gaza. He saw his commanding officer wringing his hands and crying: "The soldiers are dying! The soldiers are dying!"

Dug in under Israeli fire, Nasser, as he later wrote, reflected: "Here we are in these foxholes, surrounded, in danger, thrust treacherously into a battle we were not ready for our lives the playthings of greed, conspiracy and lust which have left us here weaponless under fire." Said a comrade, "Gamal, the front is not here, it is in Cairo." Nasser turned to the front, plotted a revolution, toppled a king and rose to be ruler of Egypt's 22,500,000, the most powerful, most energetic and potentially most promising leader among the long divided, long misled Moslems of the Middle East.
...
The shortcomings and setbacks have disappointed those—both inside and outside Egypt—who began to talk of a new Ataturk when the dashing young soldier sprang up from obscurity and took charge. Yet in Western capitals, Nasser is still looked upon as Egypt's best hope for decent government, a moderate among the hotheaded many who would fight Israel even at the cost of suicide, a man who perhaps some day can grow into the dominant Middle Eastern leader he aspires to be. Even in Israel, officials say privately that they would be sorry to see Nasser fall from power. "Without Nasser," says a British Foreign Office diplomat, "Egypt will be one unholy mess, another Syria."
...
Nasser does not look like a man with a chip on his shoulder. He carries 200 Ibs. with the lithe grace of a big, handsome All-America fullback. His wiry, close-cropped hair is greying at the temples and thinning just above the forehead, where there is a faint scar made by a police club. He has a big, slightly hooked nose and a close-trimmed black mustache, a row of regular, white teeth and a brilliant, easy smile. His eyes are piercing and brown, and he talks quietly, gently, and has never been known to raise his voice or lose his temper. Beneath his apparent softness, there is a streak of rough, tough ruthlessness. Last week in his Cairo office, he talked quietly, but he let the toughness come through.

"We have no hostile attitude towards America," he said. "I have always tried to build up friendly relations, only keeping in mind that these relations must not take us toward any sort of domination. But gradually, I have realized that there is always some obstacle between us, and that obstacle is Israel. America helps Israel with money and moral support, and they use the money to buy equipment to be used against us. But when we ask America to supply us with arms for defense, nothing is done."
...
While he expands his personal power, Nasser is coming closer to the day next January when he has promised to transform his military rule into representative government and give Egyptians a parliament. Not even Gamal Nasser himself seems certain that he will keep that promise. "Throughout my life," he confesses, "I have had faith in militarism." The army is the only sector of power he so far has found it possible to trust, and even there he fears that unless he can provide more equipment, morale will fall and officers will weaken to subversion from the Communist left or the passion-inflaming Moslem extremists.
...
If earnestness were enough—which it is not—Nasser and Egypt would be making fast progress toward that goal. The Premier himself lives with remarkable austerity in a five-room, sand-colored house inside the army compound in Cairo's Abbasiya military district. He allows himself almost none of the personal privileges now within his means. "I did not go there before," he once explained to an associate who wondered why the Premier refused to go inside the fashionable Semiramis Hotel. In the first days of power he liked to wear a military bush tunic, open at the neck, with a couple of rows of ribbons and the insignia of a lieutenant colonel, but now he prefers a plain grey suit.
...
It is easy to read a plot into some of Nasser's recent moves. Cairo's Voice of the Arabs radio pours a stream of anti-French propaganda into Morocco, and Nasser gives warm asylum to old Riff Rebel Abd el Krim, a key North African troublemaker, as well as to Jerusalem's Jew-hating Mufti. In the Gaza strip he allows, if he does not approve, the arming and training of the Al Fedayeen commandos, teams of Palestine Arab refugees which periodically cross the border to raid Israel.
...

"I don't think I am a dictator," says Premier Nasser quietly. "I don't have the character for it. I am sentimental, like all our people. But I am going on with the revolution—until I meet a better assassin."

Wow...Time's reporters really had a great knack for getting to know someone, didn't they?

Arabs destroy Tu B'Shevat trees

Tu B'Shevat, on the Hebrew calendar, marks the New Year for trees. Although this has various Jewish legal ramifications, in modern Israel it means that this was the traditional time to plant new trees.

From Arutz Sheva:

An American-born leftist and liberal rabbi led Arabs and foreign activists in an effort to prevent thousands of school children in the B'nai Akiva movement from planting trees in honor of Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year for Trees.

The children this past week began to hike up a hill at the industrial area of the southern Hevron Hills, between Be'er Sheva and Hevron, in order to plant more than 5,000 pine and cedar trees.

Liberal rabbi Arik Ascherman, a few other left wing activists and several Arabs, stood in their path.

The police, fearing a confrontation, told the children not to continue until authorities from the Civil Lands Administration arrived and showed Ascherman documents and permits proving that the land belongs to the regional council. Regional council official Akiva London said permits were obtained for the event.

As Ascherman left the area, children overheard him say, "There is day and there is night." Two nights later, vandals uprooted approximately half of the 5,000 cedar and pine trees that the children had planted. Footprints leading to nearby Arab shacks indicated the source of the damage.

"How do you explain to children that Arabs uprooted trees they planted with their own hands?" asked Akiva London, an official of the southern Hevron Hills.

...The regional council is carrying out re-planting of the trees that survived the vandalism and plans to build a fence and install a surveillance camera in the area to prevent future more uprootings.

This is another great opportunity to point out Elder's First Rule of Arab (and Muslim) Projection: Arabs will project their own crimes and worldviews on everyone else. In this case, Arabs are far more guilty of destroying Jewish-owned trees than Jews are of Arab-owned trees. Yet you will never see the mainstream media mention that fact.

Saudi price to build hotel - in Tel Aviv

From YNet:

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is in negotiations to build a hotel on Tel Aviv's coastline.

Two architects have already started working on the project. The one is Bin Talal's private architect, who had worked with him on oriental hotels across the world, Basel al-Beiti. The other is former Tel Aviv Chief City Engineer, Yisrael Gudovich.

The planned project is a joint venture with the Abulafya family, which owns a structure on a 1-acre plot on Herbert Samuel Street.

According to the blueprints submitted to the Tel Aviv Municipality, an eight-story, 150-room hotel is planned to be built on the site.

Bin Talal is the nephew of the late Saudi King Faisal, and is believed to be worth $26.4 billion.

Mughrabi Gate webcam up and running

It can be seen here at the Israel Antiquities Authority website. (The site works best with Internet Explorer.)

There are no further digs until Sunday morning. It looks like it is raining in Jerusalem at the moment.

Already some amazing things have been found, like a Byzantine mosaic.

Will the webcam convince any nutty Muslims who are just itching to riot that Israel has no intentions of harming the Al Aqsa mosque? Of course not, but at least Western liberals who still have half a brain will be able to see that Israel has nothing to hide.

UPDATE: AP confirms my suspicions:

However, angry Muslims said they were not satisfied with the cameras.
"This procedure is not enough," said Ismail Radwan, a spokesman for the militant Palestinian group Hamas. "The Zionist enemy is engaging in trickery and continuing its digging. We don't trust these procedures."

Public domain English Talmud translations

Just messing around in Google Books, and I discovered:

Rodkinson's translation of Rosh Hashanah (Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, 1895)
Rodkinson's translation of Shabbath (Rodkinson and Isaac Wise, 1896)
Rodkinson's Shekalim and Rosh Hashanah (1901)
A Christian translation of Chagigah (Annesley William Streane, 1891)

Rodkinson usually only translated an abridged form of each mesechta, ignoring aggadata and what he considered irrelevant segues.

I didn't look too closely at the Streane Chagigah but just its existence is interesting. There were a number of Christian books about the Talmud in the late 19th century, all seemingly in the wake of a book about the Talmud written by Emanuel Deutsch in 1874. One interesting one was "The Criminal Code of the Jews: According to the Talmud Massecheth Synhedrin" by one Philip Berger Benny, who originally wrote it as a series of columns for a British newspaper!

But if you are really interested in such things, look at the English Hebraica blog.

Another horrible example of Israeli apartheid

Since this is Israeli Apartheid Week, I would be remiss not to contribute a small example from the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News (English):

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Issa Al-Zananiri, 25, is an engineering graduate of Birzeit University near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Originally from the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Hanina, Al-Zananiri applied after completing his undergraduate degree to study a Masters in Engineering at the Israeli 'Technion' Institute of Technology in Haifa.

At Technion, Al-Zananiri found himself under the supervision of a professor who had lost his father in an armed operation against an Israeli bus in Egypt in 1990. Issa only discovered the truth about the supervisor, Yoram Shifton, while preparing for his interview for acceptance on Tecnhion's higher education program.

Issa told the Israeli newspaper 'Yedioth Ahranoth', "I arrived at the interview with many fears interacting inside me but I only found in my supervisor cooperation and help, far from any aggressive atmosphere."

When Zananiri arrived at the "Technion" institute, he did not know Hebrew and so he began studying it from home, making use of dictionaries, the internet and television.

As Zananiri's family home is on the West Bank side of the wall that runs through the suburb of Beit Hanina, Issa also greatly relied on the help of his supervisor to obtain the necessary permit to enter Israel for his Masters. Shifton stood by him until he graduated and then helped him obtain a job in the company "BGL1", which specializes in public transportation planning and is responsible for the planning of the proposed light railway in Tel Aviv in Israel.

Issa said, "They accepted me to work with them without hesitation because of the recommendation of my higher studies' supervising professor".

Issa describes himself as a Palestinian who, during his studies at Birzeit University, opposed the bombing operations and even the throwing of stones at Israeli cars. He said that he is grateful for being absorbed into the Israeli community. He currently lives in an apartment with his brother in Haifa and works in Tel Aviv in the planning team of the city's trains.

So the terrible apartheid state of Israel allows a Palestinian Arab who opposes terror to work on its public transportation system that has been attacked and bombed numerous times by other Palestinian Arabs.

A professor whose father was murdered by other Arabs is his main champion.

Yup - this sounds exactly like the Israel that is being described by the idiots behind "Israel Apartheid Week."

Bonus question: where is it safer for Zananiri to live, among the racist Jews in Haifa or among the patriotic PalArabs of Beit Hanina, especially after this interview where he stated that he was against "even" stone-throwing at Israeli cars?

Guess who Iran blames for the Lebanon bus bombings?

The question is rhetorical.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Tuesday condemned bombings in Bikfaya in Lebonan.

"These explosions are suspicious activities which are in the service of the Zionist regime," he said in a statement.

Hosseini also said the bombings were carried out "to target Lebanese people and their solidarity and resistance against the plots of the Zionist regime".

Aid to PA skyrockets: rich get richer, poor get poorer, Hamas gets more powerful

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics just released an interesting report:

The president of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Luay Shabaneh, has revealed that the rich in the occupied Palestinian territories became richer and the poor became poorer over 2006, in spite of the international community aid which amounted to some US $816 million in 2006, compared with $ 352 million in 2005.

Speaking in a forum organized by the ministry of information in Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank, Shabaneh added that the rich and the poor accounted for 10 percent each of the national income in 2005, but in 2006 the rich people accounted for 36 percent of the national income and the poor were only accounting for 3 percent.

I've seen other numbers showing how aid has increased to the PalArabs under the "boycott":

The European Union in 2006 gave 27 percent more aid to the Palestinians than in 2005, about €700 million, or $910 million, through a mechanism designed to aid individuals but formally bypass the Hamas-led government.

Even according to the PCBS, the amount of international aid skyrocketed in 2006 despite the "international boycott." This aid was meant specifically for the poorest of the PalArabs and supposedly bypassed the Hamas-run PA. Yet somehow, the rich Palestinian Arabs managed to get much richer and the poor seem to have received very little of this aid, all under the watchful eyes of the non-corrupt Hamas-led PA. (The report itself is not yet available on their webpage.)

The corruption in the PA is endemic, widespread and staggering.

Yet international aid organizations are ready to blame everyone but the Palestinian Arabs themselves. Oxfam just came out with a report showing that millions of euros are wasted in bank charges and therefore recommends giving money directly to the terrorists again - but completely ignores that even with this waste, Palestinian Arabs are getting far more aid than the previous year.

Interestingly, the EU aid mechanism and the US and Olmert's attempts to bypass Hamas and support Abbas has ended up supporting Hamas itself, by relieving the pressure on Hamas to provide basic services. As a Palestinian Arab wrote in the Yemen Observer last week:

The US, European countries, and Fatah leaders pledged that Hamas would not stay in power for more than three of four months due to Palestinian public pressure after discovering that Hamas will not be able to run a government isolated politically and financially. But observers see that Hamas will not make any concessions or leave governance without a pressure from the Palestinian street. With a Palestinian people taking salaries and grants from international community and Israel via Abbas, there is no need to change the Hamas Government.

It is ironic, but not surprising, that the methods meant to bolster the "moderate" PalArab terrorists have ended up strengthening the "extreme" PalArab terrorists.

Time for some good news

The Tel Aviv stock exchange hit record highs today.

Investors are rarely philanthropic. They are out to make money, and as such, a stock market is usually a pretty good indicator of the thinking of the smartest financial minds in the world (there are exceptions, of course, when a herd mentality or fad takes over.)

It is remarkable that - even with the threats facing Israel every day - it is considered a very good place to invest.

Who's afraid of the truth?

As I've mentioned before, the major problem that Arabs have with any digs in Jerusalem has nothing to do with mosques, holy places or weakening foundations. Their major concern is that they don't want anything Jewish to be found by archaeologists, because they want to keep their myths alive that Jerusalem has no Jewish history.

Another proof that the issue is "Judaizing" and not anything else comes from the Palestine Center for Human Rights press release concerning the digs, with the headline "As the International Community Remains Silent, Israeli Occupation Authorities Continue the Judaization of Occupied Arab Jerusalem."

Again applying Elder's First Rule of Arab Projection, let's look at the Palestinian National Commission for Education, Culture and Science webpage and specifically its page about Jerusalem.

Almost nothing is mentioned about any Jewish rule or influence in Jerusalem's history. No David, no Solomon, and the Second Temple is only mentioned as possibly existing for less than a century. Here's the only section (out of 30) that acknowledges any Jewish claims on the area, and interestingly it is the only section that does not include a picture:

23. Al-Buraq (The Western Wall, Wailing Wall)

One of the Islamic holy places, this wall is part of the western wall of the Haram al-Sharif. It is named after al-Buraq (the elevation) that carried the prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) on his journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. Moslems believe that it was tied up at this site.

The Jews called it the Wailing Wall. They claim it as part of the wall around their Temple that was built by Herod the Great in 18 BC and was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. It is a holy place for them and they used to weep whenever they visited it, thence the name Wailing Wall.

The site is an endowment of the Algerian family Abu Midain. In the reign of Muhammad Ali Basha Jews used to obtain permits to visit the site in return for 300 pounds a year. During the British Mandate some Jews broke the “status quo” by bringing seats, lamps and curtains and claiming it as their property. The result was a revolt, called the al-Buraq revolt, of August 1929. More than 116 martyrs fell, 232 people were injured, 1000 were imprisoned and three were executed, namely Ata al-Zear, Muhammad Jamjaum and Fu’ad Hijazi.

The decision was taken in 1930 that the Moslems are the sole owners of the wall, but Jews were given the right to pray there under the conditions stipulated by the committee.

The simple fact is that Jews, by digging in Jerusalem, are not afraid of what will be found. Jerusalem archaeology is replete with finds from not only Jewish periods of history but also Byzantine, Roman, Islamic and Jebusite. This is not considered a threat, as the truth is not something to be feared.

But even a cursory look at this one entry in the Palestinian Arab "educational" site shows that the truth is the furthest thing from the minds of those who create the PalArab educational curriculum - it is nothing short of brainwashing. To mention the 1929 riots purely in terms of numbers of Arabs killed (by the British, not Jews) and to ignore the massacres against Jews in Hebron, Tzfat and Jerusalem is astonishing.

And this aversion to truth, and stubborn adherence to clear lies, is endemic even among the Arab intelligentsia. Look at this article that has been spread widely among Arab and far left website in the past day by "journalist" Nicola Nasser:

The eye of the present storm is Bab al-Magharibah, located in the southern section of al-Haram al-Sharif's western wall, which connects Al Aqsa Mosque compound with Jerusalem's southern neighborhoods; it was used by the residents of the Magharibah Quarter which was demolished by Israeli bulldozers in June 1967 to build the “Jewish Quarter” in its place. On 28 September, 2000, the comatose former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, used Bab al- Magharibah as his entry point to “visit” the Haram al-Sharif, igniting a firestorm of protest and sparking the Al Aqsa Intifada (uprising), which brought the peace process to a deadlock until now. In August of 1929, the same site sparked an uprising known in Palestinian political literature as the “Al-Buraq Revolt.”

Al-buraq is the Arab-Islamic name of Al Aqsa compound’s western wall, which the Jews called the “Wailing Wall” before changing it to the “Western Wall (of the Temple Mount, a widely-spread knowledge that has yet to be vindicated by historical fact or archeological findings) after the creation of Israel in 1948. The Israeli Occupying power after its overwhelming victory in 1967 confiscated by force the keys to Bab al-Magharibah from the Islamic Waqf to make them ever since Israel’s “Achilles’ heel” or “Joha's nail” to claim its imposed “partnership” on the Haram al-Sharif, later using that self-proclaimed “partnership” at the Camp David negotiations in 2000 to demand joint sovereignty over the mosque area.

How many lies can you find in this article? But these lies are the currency of discourse among Arabs, and their greatest fear is the existence of hundreds of Jewish buildings, ritual baths, coins, pottery shards, Hebrew inscriptions and other evidence of how Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish universe since King David.

Finding this evidence - uncovering the truth - is the greatest fear of the Arabs.

It's time again to play: Who's Telling the Truth?

Palestinian Arab news:

Gaza – Ma'an - Palestinian security sources said that 20 year old, Mohammad Shakir Sa'eedi, a member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, the main military wing of Fatah, was killed by Israeli forces, east of Gaza City on Tuesday morning.

Medical sources said that an ambulance that was transporting two injured Palestinians, including Sa'eedi, was targeted by the Israeli forces, Sa'eedi died and the other sustained serious wounds.

Eyewitnesses said that Sa'eedi was injured along with another man in an armed clash with the Israeli forces, near the border fence east of the Gaza Strip, medical sources confirmed the injury of two Palestinians on Tuesday morning, and told Ma'an that the Israeli forces shot at the ambulance while transporting the two men at 8 am.

Israeli news:

A Palestinian man was killed during a gun battle between an armed cell belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah, and IDF forces near the Karni crossing in northern Gaza.

The cell was carrying an explosive device, which detonated during the exchange of fire, killing one of the gunmen.

The Karni goods crossing has been a frequent target of attacks in the past. (Hanan Greenberg and Ali Waked).

Which one passes the smell test?

Wafa and IMEMC Palestinian Arab sources don't mention a thing about them being in an ambulance.

UPDATE: YNet adds much more detail now:

A Palestinian was killed Tuesday morning in exchanges of fire which erupted near the Karni crossing between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing.

During the exchanges of fire, an explosive device belonging to the gunmen exploded, killing one of them. Kalashnikov rifles were found in the area.

Shortly before 9 a.m., IDF soldiers spotted two gunmen attempting to plant an explosive device on the border fence near the Karni crossing. Soldiers from the Givati Brigade arrived at the area and exchanges of fire erupted between the troops and the gunmen.

During the exchanges of fire, the gunmen's explosive device exploded, killing one of them. The soldiers searched for the other gunman.

IDF officials estimated that the two planned to carry out a terror attack, as rifles and weapons were found in the area.

Palestinian sources reported that the man killed in the incident was Muhammad Saidi, 20, a member of the al-Aqsa Brigades.

Egyptian MP would rather see Al-Aqsa destroyed than Israeli dig

From Reuters:

'That cursed Israel is trying to destroy al-Aqsa mosque,' Mohamed el-Katatny of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) told a heated parliament session held to discuss the Israeli digging.

'Nothing will work with Israel except for a nuclear bomb that wipes it out of existence,' he said.

Is there any clearer indicator of Arab intentions towards Israel?

Is there any clearer indicator of how little importance the "Noble Sanctuary" has in Arab thought, to say that it is preferable for it to be blown to bits than to have Jews have any control over it?

PalArab self-death count update

Two Arab alleged "collaborators" were murdered today near Ramallah - including a man who murdered his own brother.

Our counts of Palestinian Arabs violently murdered by other PalArabs has now risen to 318 killed since Operation Summer Rains and 113 killed just this year.

UPDATE: A corpse was found in a Gaza cemetery, shot dead. 319 and 114.

UPDATE 2: The brother of the general whose house was torched by Hamas in January has died from his wounds in that attack. 320 and 115.

UPDATE 3: A man near Jericho tried to kill his pregnant wife in an apparent honor killing and stabbed his 14-month old daughter to death. 321 and 116.

GAZA, February 12, 2007 (WAFA) - Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) condemned Monday the diggings near Al-Aqsa mosque, warning of the ramifications of agitating Muslims' feelings.

In a press release, GCMHP expressed its full condemnation for this dangerous act that harms holy places and highly inflames Muslims feelings.

"The diggings and destruction to the Mosque is considered a clear provocation to Muslims worldwide and a blatant violation of the principles of the international law, particularly, the fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits the destruction of civilian properties - especially holy places," according to the press release.

"Such acts bring memories back to what Al-Aqsa was previously exposed to of incidents that violated its sacredness and led to eruption of violence in the region."

GCMHP stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque represents a significant part of Palestinian and all Muslims' identity all over the world. As a result, says GCMHP, any damage to the mosque is considered a direct harm to the identity of all Muslims, which may result in eruption of instability in many parts of the world.

GCMHP added it views this provocative act, politically supported and covered by the Israeli government yesterday, as a way of igniting feelings of anger and congestion of all Muslims, and lead to reactions that may convert the whole region and the international community into a vicious cycle of violence and counter-violence and clashes between religions and civilizations in a manner that endangers the world peace and stability.

It called upon the world governments, the UN agencies, and legal and cultural organizations to take their legal and humanitarian responsibilities and immediately intervene to stop such dangerous practices, warning of the negative repercussions of the continuation of exposure to the holy places.

There you have it. The pre-eminent mental health professionals in Gaza have said that Muslims worldwide have no ability to control themselves; that it is quite natural that they would react violently to any preceived slight, no matter what the reality is; and that Israel decided to do the construction purely to inflame Muslims' delicate and sensitive feelings.

The psychosis that says that Muslims are not responsible for their actions is apparently officially regarded as normal by this organization, and if any Muslim acts violently it is Israel's fault.

To put it another way: the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme cannot see any psychological distinction between Muslims and animals.

Looking at the GCMHP website one can see that they consistently condemn intra-Palestinian Arab violence as well as any attacks on European interests in Gaza. Not once can I find a condemnation of any attacks on Israeli civilians. Apparently, Israeli civilians are legitimate targets.

To their credit, they do recommend "non-violent" methods of protest. On the downside, they regard stone throwing as "non-violent" in the same way that Gandhi and MLK were non-violent. Their description of the first intifada reveals volumes about the mental health of these mental health "professionals:

Nonviolence has proven throughout history that it can achieve liberation against occupation, apartheid, and colonization. The first Palestinian Intifada is a good example in changing stereotypical images of Palestinian people from being terrorists to victims of occupation and suppression. It opened the eyes of the world that Palestinians are struggling for their basic human rights and freedom for their country in a peaceful manner. The images of children confronting Israeli soldiers and being killed won the hearts of the international community and justice loving world.

In the end, even the most liberal Palestinian Arab supporters cheer when their own children die. And that is the biggest psychosis of all.

Qassam rocket fire continues. Has Olmert given up?

It has been over a month since Olmert said that he was modifying the unilateral cease-fire in Gaza to allow shooting at Qassam rocket crews as they are setting up. Since then, as far as I can tell, Israel has not fired on anybody launching Qassam rockets, and the only attack I can recall in Gaza was towards a tunnel in late January. At that time, in the wake of the suicide attack in Eilat, Olmert said that he is still "upholding the truce."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Arabs continue their rocket fire:
4 rockets this morning
At least one Sunday
At least one Friday
10 on Thursday
4 on Wednesday
6 on Tuesday

Multiple, daily attacks almost every day.

It appears that Olmert has pretty much conceded that the southern and western Negev will be under attack for at least a couple of years, until Israel manages to deploy an anti-missile system. True to form, he has no plan to defend his people, no clue on how he would if he wanted to, and he seems to believe that it is acceptable for residents of Sderot and other communities to be bombarded daily.

His incompetence seems to be increasing with time.

Where are the Muslims who can distinguish facts from fiction?

There are a number of parallels between the Danish cartoon riots and the Mughrabi Gate riots. Perhaps the most important one, and the one with the most relevance, is that the Muslim world seems completely incapable of distinguishing truth from lies and fact from opinion.

In both cases, in the topsy-turvy world of Islam, a completely unfounded and unsupportable opinion becomes the driving force behind irrational actions. In both cases, a paranoid worldview where the West is hellbent on destroying Islam is the only accepted "fact" and any shreds of "evidence" that support this absurd viewpoint are promoted beyond all rational belief.

Conversely, the 99% of things the West does that explicitly support Islam as a religion and its adherents as being worthy of respect and equal rights is given no weight whatsoever.

It is a world where, simply stated, paranoia is the basis for all actions and reactions, and facts are utterly ignored.

When viewed in this light, anything the West does to dissipate the paranoia is doomed. Israel can broadcast the Mughrabi Gate dig in high-def from 20 different angles and not one Arab or Muslim leader will be swayed to admit that their assertions of long-standing Jewish plans to destroy Al-Aqsa are inaccurate.

What causes such extreme paranoia among mainstream Muslims?

The answer can be summed up as Elder's First Rule of Muslim Projection: Muslims will project their own crimes and worldviews on everyone else.

It cannot be denied that Islam, along with many other religions, holds a supremacist worldview. This is natural - everyone believes that their belief system is superior to others. But what is little discussed in the West is how extreme Islam's brand of supremacy truly is.

I cannot claim to be an Islamic scholar but it is very hard to find Islamic leaders saying that they do not subscribe to the idea that Islam is meant to literally rule the world, by any means possible - by proselytizing, by demography, by war. The thinking is simple and explicit: dhimmis live as second-class citizens, infidels do not live.

When one grows up with this viewpoint, one assumes that his enemies also grow up with their own versions of the same viewpoint. So for Muslims to say that non-Muslims are determined to destroy Islam is a natural and foregone conclusion, and that is where fantasy becomes Muslim reality.

In other words, Muslims view the West - and Jews in particular - as if they think like Muslims do. Just as Jordan destroyed every synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City in a matter of days after gaining control in 1948, and this was considered natural, the Muslims assume that Jews have been planning the destruction of all mosques in Jerusalem since 1967 (the oft-repeated "Judaizing" meme.)

Every fact that supports their predetermined "truth" is promoted incessantly as evidence, every fact to the contrary is ignored or dismissed as being part of some much larger, nefarious Zionist plot to achieve the same goal. So you will find Muslim websites that prominently highlight and embellish supposed Zionist aggression against Al-Aqsa and none that mention that Israel itself voluntarily gave the Muslim Waqf control over the entire Temple Mount in 1967, nor that Israel has had the ability to destroy the mosque thousands of times over the past 30 years and has scrupulously protected the rights of Muslims to worship there as well as in many other Muslim sites that were themselves built on top of ancient Jewish holy places.

The next question then becomes, how can Israel or the West as a whole negotiate with a people who cannot distinguish between reality and their own paranoia?

UPDATE: Shrinkwrapped links here and has a much more detailed and frightening description of paranoia and projection.

Peaceful unity government scorecard

Here's what the new peaceful unified Palestinian Arab factions are up to in the past 24 hours:

A bus carrying Canadian tourists in east Jerusalem was pelted with stones Saturday in what police described as an organized protest spurred by Hamas.
The Al Aqsa Brigades and the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades announced responsibility for the launching of three mortars "at an Israeli military post" near the Gaza Strip on Friday.
A Palestinian Arab was injured in an explosion in his home in Khan Younis, in what appears to be a "work accident" as he was building a bomb.
A jewelry shop owned by a Hamas supporter in Nablus was shot up.
A Fatah offshoot called "Yasir Arafat's Group" shot two missiles at Sderot.
Israel arrested thirty stone throwers near Rachel's Tomb.
An explosion in the Gaza Strip injure 6 PalArabs - Israel says a Qassam blew up prematurely, the PalArabs say that Israel shot at them as they tried to plant an explosive device.
The IDF discovered two bombs that a PalArab tried to smuggle in through the Hawara checkpoint and destroyed them in a controlled explosion.

And, in case this isn't enough,

A Hamas leader called on PalArabs to end their "truce" with Israel.

Elie Wiesel attacked by Holocaust denier, media yawns

One would think that when a Nobel Peace Prize winner gets assaulted in a hotel that it would generate some headlines. Especially when someone brags about the attack on a Holocaust denying website.

But right now, it is only a local item in a San Francisco newspaper.

And it happened over a week ago.

Terror wins again

One of the key sticking points in the Fatah/Hamas agreement was that Abbas wanted Hamas to "adhere to international resolutions and the agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization" but Hamas only wanted to say that they "respect international resolutions and the agreements" signed by the PLO.

Hamas won.

Which means that the new PA government, which will be formed under Hamas' leadership, is not obligated to recognize Israel nor to keep any agreements made from Oslo through now. The word "respect" is legally meaningless and open to interpretation.

But that word does accomplish exactly what it was meant to accomplish. It allows idiotic world leaders to do what they've always wanted to do - resume funding the Hamas-led PA, talk to Hamas and allow the new PA to negotiate Israel's destruction with the fig leaf of this obvious but ignorable deception.

And it has already started:

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said inclusion of the term "respect" in reference to Israel "is a step in the right direction toward full adherence to the demands of the international community that we hold dear, including in particular the recognition of Israel."

This is, of course, from the AP, which deceptively makes it sound like the document says that Hamas "respects" Israel. In fact, the document doesn't mention Israel explicitly or implicitly.

And Douste-Blazy, by mentioning the word "respect," clearly knows that the words "adhere to" were rejected by Hamas - and yet he says "it is a step in the right direction toward full adherence" to the EU's demands. No, it's not: it is a clear rejection of international demands but it is ambiguous enough to allow EUdiots like Douste-Blazy to pretend that something meaningful and peaceful actually occurred.

In the end, Hamas seems to have won this battle without diluting its hate and terror goals one iota. And now it will have the EU on its side, as the aid to the PalArabs (which already is at record levels and increased by 10% in 2006 over 2005, even with the boycott) will snowball into yet more money that will be converted into Qassams, RPGs, Katyushas and bomb belts.

Media ignores Arab racism in Jerusalem

Why are the Arabs rioting against the Israel's shoring up the ramp to the Mughrabi gate?

From reading the wire service articles, one would conclude that the Arabs are worried about damage to the foundations of the Al-Aqsa mosque:

Israeli excavations near Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine have sparked fury among Muslims who fear such works endanger its foundations, but officials involved say they will not damage the holy site.

Yet the Arabs have been quite forthcoming about why they are upset, and worries about the foundations are clearly not what is uppermost in their minds. Look at the letter from the PA to the UN condemning the repair work:

Excellency,

In follow-up to our letter dated 24 January 2007, Israel, the occupying Power, has stepped up its illegal actions, especially in Occupied East Jerusalem, which aim to intensify expansionist policy for the colonization and Judaization of Arab Jerusalem, with the support of fanatic Jewish settler groups.

Israel, the occupying Power, is continuing its campaign to Judaize the city of Jerusalem and create a new demographic composition in the occupied city. Such actions demonstrate clearly the intransigence of the Israeli Government and its persistence in defying the will of the international community and in violating international law and United Nations resolutions. In this context, it is imperative for the international community to take measures in order to confront these Israeli policies and actions, to ensure respect for international law and to prevent further escalation of the situation in the region.

In line with this unchecked intransigence, Israeli occupying authorities have gone ahead with the condemnable plan to step up its aggression against Islamic Waqf sites in Occupied East Jerusalem. Most notably, Israeli occupying authorities have begun demolishing a historic road connecting Bab Al-Maghariba with the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in addition to two rooms adjacent to the Western Wall, thus exposing the Holy Compound and making it more vulnerable yet to future acts of aggression. Additionally, Israeli occupying authorities continue to carry out excavation works below the Holy Al-Aqsa Compound, undermining its foundations and threatening with its collapse.

There are also concerning reports that Israel, the occupying Power, plans to construct a tourist site below the Holy Al-Aqsa Compound, further raising fears about serious threats facing the Holy Compound. Additionally, Israeli occupying authorities have banned Palestinians below the age of 45 from entering the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in grave contravention of their basic right to access their holy sites and clear violation of Israel's obligations, as an occupying Power, to ensure and protect that right.

Even this letter does not say that the ramp work is excavating below the compound, but it says that there are other digs doing that (without specifying any details.)

Any look at the Arab press shows that "Judaization" is the real concern, not any pretense of worry about Al-Aqsa's integrity:

The statement also reaffirmed that the Islamic and western world will not simply watch what is happening to Jerusalem taking no action against the Israeli continual excavation, which aims to change the characteristic of Jerusalem and Judaization it as well as to obliterate its Arab, Islamic and Christianity landmark. (Petra - Jordan)
The Israeli government is continuing a large-scale demolition project of ancient Islam in East Jerusalem's Old City. Al Aqsa Mosque is under grave danger of destruction in the face of Israeli Judaization of Jerusalem. (Palestine News Network)
KUWAIT, Feb 7 (KUNA) -- Acting Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly Mohammad Al-Busiry asserted Wednesday the necessity of Islamic unity to face the Israeli hostile designs against the holy Aqsa mosque and other Islamic sanctities in the occupied Palestine.

"Concerted efforts must be made to put an end to the Jewish designs targeting judaization of Jerusalem and the removal of Islamic landmarks there, " Al-Busiry told reporters here.

Now, why would the media downplay the real reason that Arabs are upset?

Could it be that doing that would portray Arabs are being bigoted and intolerant, and that this dosn't fit the playbook that the MSM wants us to believe about them?

It is much easier to say that the Arabs are trying to defend their holy site than to say that they do not want any vestiges of Jewishness to remain in the entire city.

Polite requests from Fatah

Some interesting images from Maan News, the first three with identical hilarious captions:

Masked Palestinian militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades ask a shop keeper to close his store as part of a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron February 7, 2007.

Masked Palestinian militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades enforce a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron February 7, 2007.

So the terrorist thugs from Fatah "ask" shopkeepers to close their stores.

At gunpoint.

A few points are worth highlighting, even if they are obvious:

The only people being hurt by the forced strike are the PalArabs themselves.
Fatah is Mahmoud Abbas' party, and in the past many of the tens of thousands of PA policemen also moonlighted as masked "militants."
This is not in Gaza, but in the West Bank, showing that every Palestinian Arab area is at the mercy of armed terrorists rather than the benevolent PA security forces that the world insists is responsible for police work.

Hamas and Fatah can sign all the agreements they want, but in the end their people are so steeped in a culture of violence that no numbers of handshakes will make these areas civilized under Palestinian Arab rule.

How to solve the Temple Mount problem

The Arabs think that Israel is acting aggressively against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They want Israel to stop.

The obvious solution is for them to tell the Waqf to give a part of the Temple Mount to Israel. Israel will appreciate this move so much that it will stop any digs for a while as a goodwill gesture. And to ensure the largest amount of goodwill, the Waqf should give the entire Temple Mount to the Jews.

I call this plan "land for peace."

Since the entire world from Israel's political center through the Europeans, US and Arabs know that "land for peace" is the only formula for real lasting peace in the region, it should work splendidly.