Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 26, 2007

April Qassam calendar

As with the February and March calendars, the numbers for each date represent the number of Qassams fired on that day. The numbers in parentheses are those I saw reported by Palestinian Arab media, outside of parentheses are those reported in Israeli media.

The dates with URLs (in red on some browsers) are the days Israel responded to events in Gaza.

May calendar here.

April

Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
(2)		1	3	1	(2)	1
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
(1)				(4)		(2)
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
	1 (2)	(1)		(4)		4 (6)
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
1	(2+ 2)	10 (30)	1 (3)	2 (2 +2)	1 (1)	(3)
29	30
1 (2)	(5)

It appears that Blogger doesn't allow me to link contiguous strings with different URLs so I lost some of the URLs above. Sorry.

The ten second truce

Reuters reports:

Palestinian armed factions renewed their commitment to a Gaza Strip truce on Thursday but said rocket salvoes from the territory could resume if Israel did not halt military operations in the occupied West Bank.

But as this "news" went out over the wires, Israel confirmed one rocket being shot and two PalArab groups in Gaza claimed four rockets and two bombs aimed at Israel.

So the PalArab definition of "truce" seems to be "the time period between shooting rockets." Not that Reuters would notice things like that.

JIB musings

As I've mentioned in past years, I have a problem with self-promotion, both for the weekly Haveil Havalim as well as for the JIBs. And it is utterly irrational - I spend enough time creating postings for the blog, and the entire point of these postings is to advance a pro-Israel argument, so why shouldn't I do everything possible to increase my audience?

On the other hand, the blogs that are screaming "vote for me!" and who nominated themselves in every category under the sun just rub me the wrong way.

Yet on the proverbial third hand, I am still obsessively checking how this blog is doing in the first round votes for Best Israel Advocacy Blog, and I see my position in third place teetering precariously. (In order to make it to the finals, I need to stay in at third place or better.)

So, reluctantly, I am asking my readers who have not voted yet, and who like this blog, to vote here - at least get me to the finals. I don't expect to win but there is definitely a bump in readership from being nominated, and I do work hard to put together original articles and perspectives that you will not find elsewhere.

And as always, a great "thank you" to those who did vote and all of you who continue to visit here.

Everyone agrees that the media is biased towards PalArabs

Around 100 journalists demonstrated to release Alan Johnston. But guess where they held the demonstration?

On the Israeli side of the Gaza border.

One UK newspaper said that the kidnappers faced the wrath of the world's media. Yes, I'm sure they were quaking at the thought of a few dozen reporters too scared to even enter Gaza to begin with.

The BBC reiterated how news coverage of Gaza suffers when no foreign journalists work there:

In terms of news, they also fear that Gaza could be neglected by the wider world.

"It only serves to limit the coverage in the Gaza Strip, if foreign journalists stop going," said Walid Batrawi, a Palestinian correspondent for the Arabic satellite TV station, Al-Jazeera.

"The human stories of the people of Gaza will not be told."

There is a recurring theme that when foreign journalists stay away from Gaza, the Palestinian Arabs suffer - because their story is not getting out. For example, this article in Asharq Alawsat:

By kidnapping the BBC reporter, this "victimized" executioner has lost one of the world's leading and most reliable media outlets. Without further engaging in unacceptable arguments on Western bias, let us recall our numerous rightful issues that were revealed by the Western rather than the Arab press – Abu Ghraib is just one example. Can we imagine what it would mean to hide the stories of Palestinian suffering from the global press?

Or look at what rabid anti-Zionist London mayor Ken Livingstone said:

"All the Palestinians needed was the truth to be reported, which is what Mr Johnston did. His abduction was a catastrophe. If you wanted to find a person whose abduction could damage the Palestinian cause, you couldn't find anyone better to do the job."

The mayor then appealed directly to Johnston's kidnappers. He said: "Look what you have done. Instead of the foreign media continuing to report on the situation in Palestine, the media focus has been shifted to the story of the kidnapping.

"Unless the journalist is liberated it's likely that coverage of the situation will continue to be about Mr Johnston."

Is a journalist's job to act as a PR representative of the area he or she is covering, or to report the news - whether it is good or bad?

No Zionist is saying "Israel needs more foreign journalists, in order to show the human face of Israel." Because we all know that the vast majority of journalists in Israel have little interest in making Israel look good. In most areas of the world, having more journalists would not be considered a great PR move - their job, after all, is to uncover news, and news is usually negative. But the unspoken backstory here is that journalists in Gaza do have an agenda, that they will gloss over bad news from Gaza and that their absence hurts the Palestinian Arab people.

Let's look at how life in Gaza is today. In the past six months there have been dozens of kidnappings, hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. The very reason that journalists refuse to go there is because it is too dangerous for them. Now, why exactly would foreign reporters in Gaza be expected to help make PalArabs look good? If they are truly meant to be fair and unbiased, wouldn't they be reporting and publicizing the chaos far more than they are now? Aren't daily murders considered newsworthy anymore? Wouldn't their presence be a bad thing for most Palestinian Arabs?

And it is not like there are no journalists in Gaza now. As the BBC says:

[I]nternational organisations have been relying almost entirely on their local staff to gather information for reports.

So there are reporters there - all of them Palestinian Arabs. They still gather the news and sometimes write for the major media outlets. Why would foreign journalists in Gaza be expected to be more favorable towards PalArabs in their stories than PalArabs themselves are?

The only possible reason that foreign coverage is widely assumed to help Gazans is because foreign reporters are heavily biased towards Arabs against Israel.

And everyone knows it.

First quarter injury report: 1065 PalArab self-injuries

I haven't been keeping statistics on injuries from PalArab internal violence, but the Al-Mezan center does.

In the first three months of this year, according to Al-Mezan, 1065 PalArabs were injured in internal violence (their count of deaths was not too far off from mine - 147 vs. 160 during those three months - so this looks like an accurate number.)

In contrast, the UN OCHA counts 513 PalArabs injured from Israeli actions during that same time period.

I guess that the PalArabs must be practicing "genocide" against themselves!

Hamas, Qassams and Freud

I found a wonderful Arabic article on Alqassam.net (the Hamas "military wing" website) which just screams out "PENIS ENVY". Qassam missiles are just phallic symbols, meant to restore the masculinity that PalArabs have lost over the years by losing wars to lowly effeminate Jews.

Although much of the translation is almost incomprehensible, it shows how in Arabic the themes of humiliation and disgrace are so central. This is a critical part of the Arab psyche that must be understood. Anyone who thinks about the Middle East starting from the premise that the Arabs have the same values and thought processes as Westerners is fatally wrong.

It must also be understood that since humiliation and disgrace is so feared, and masculinity to treasured, that the goal of these missiles are not so much to physically damage Israelis as to disgrace them. This is why a rocket barrage that caused essentially no damage is being celebrated - damage isn't the point, but the fact that Israel could not destroy the rockets or launchers immediately.

This ode to Qassams shows the Arab psyche far more accurately than anything one will find in English.

In the shadow of missiles (1)

By : Rashid firm

Now a Qassam rocket to measure the nobility and dignity; and the balance of masculinity and attitudes of men in Palestine or absence!

Shell and the most destructive in the percentage of anger missile Al-Qassam Brigades and not one cent of that missile battalions riddling the venerable nests brothers of monkeys in two hours; and the rate of one missile every seventy-two seconds!

...

Today renewed Hamas killed last hope of leading Zionist dementia; or American official Smug; European politician or sinful gay; to subject movement and spoken word atheism and the National Forensic; and let resistance in the name of Allah and Jihad for the Mundane fleeting soaring dignity; and refrain from cutting the tree which paved without God versus Drahmin Najasin of Satan; Like who had reneged Ghazlam and falling and Artxoa; replaced their pride and humiliation; and national treason; and sold Immortality alienate young martyrs and the waiver; and pronouncing words and missed on contempt martyrdom operations!

They have killed scruples chests Oh Qassam; How are you prepared a clear demarcation between the two schools : schools do not recommend increasing the people and win in the elections and push for the rule only closest to the people; and attached to the charge of the people; the sake of spiritual covenants and the Grand National; School of the homeland and the blood of martyrs, and soil and sanctities Hemostat for lovers; and peaceful for personal ambitions and heart disease and corruption conscience; even at the expense of religion and homeland and its people!

...And in the hands of Qassam honors one or insulted ...

Also today Akram Aqsa holy God; and loved the land Ascension; and lovers of the first Qiblah and CO mosques and the Rock Wall sons of the Islamic nation; renewed hope that they had never disappointed in this Althlh Almstavoyer Maairiyha Ansariyeh Army Mohammed peace be upon him; even though the unbelievers; even with the football team error Muslims and Hassadtham and Guchechtham!

If modern viewers who danced their hearts eve percentage rocket joy!

The worst whose right Qassam them shame and humiliation that singles out those in need of special article; to prevent the viewers and at worst one; and also because some of the humiliation and inseparable Qassam Hakram greater coverage urgency; Valley Forum in the near future, God; again in the shadow of missiles!

PalArabs still just don't get it

In order to be able to negotiate with someone, you need to be able to understand that other person's perspective. You may disagree, but at the very least you need to be able to articulate the positions of the other side and see how they are consistent from the other viewpoint.

PalArabs, whether from blindness or stupidity, have no ability to understand Israel's point of view. Everything is colored through their own "Israel is evil" perspective and their resulting conclusions have no relationship with he real world.

The complete and total cluelessness of most Palestinian Arabs can be seen in the following "analysis" by an PalArab academic. While it is altogether possible that there will be some sort of active conflict between Israel and PalArabs in Gaza in the coming months, his methods of reaching that conclusion are nothing less than idiotic:

Hazim Abu Shanab, a Palestinian political analyst, said that the Israeli threats to invade the Gaza Strip and carry a military offensive are real since Israel is trying to evaluate the capability of its army after its defeat in Lebanon and the latest offensive in the southern part of the Gaza Strip which failed to achieve its objectives.

Abu Shanab added that this military offensive was prepared and planned to encourage the Israeli soldiers after their defeat by the Lebanese resistance.

He also said that another motive for this offensive is to show the United States that Israel is carrying a parallel war “against terrorism” in the Middle East, in order to garner further American support to its offensives in the occupied territories.

Abu Shanab warned that Israel is trying to create links between its offensive in Palestine, with what it calls “the Iranian threat”, this means that Israel will authorize the army to act more violently without any international objections to its acts since they are categorized as “war on terror”.

“I fear that an attack against Iran will be preceded with an attack against the Gaza Strip and several areas in the West Bank”, Abu Shanab stated, “These attacks will most likely target resistance fighters, and Palestinian security posts, along with attacks against other constructions and groups”.

In short, this "analyst" gives us four possible reasons for Israel to invade Gaza, all of which would be fodder for conspiracy theorists rather than true analysts.

As a sort of test for its army - like a real-life war game.
As a morale-booster for the IDF.
To consolidate American support for Israel.
Some vague reason about linking Gaza to Iran that I don't really get.

Not only are these reasons absurd, but they show how Arabs think - because they would in fact go to war for similar, stupid reasons, and they assume that: 1) They are smart, and 2) That Israelis would think the same way.

Let's contrast this with real reasons that Israel might go into Gaza:

Because Qassam rockets are still being fired at alarming rates, despite promises five months ago to curtail them. Israel's restraint has been rewarded with more rockets, not less.
Because its human intelligence from Gaza has deteriorated since the withdrawal from Gaza and it needs to be improved.
To increase Israel's bargaining position to get Gilad Shalit back.

Anyone with a passing familiarity with Israel would see that one set of reasons are simply stupid and the other set is consistent with how Israel thinks, since before 1948.

Meaningful negotiations are impossible with a people whose "best and brightest" are so incredibly clueless. They cannot offer anything that Israel would want because they cannot fathom that Israel can legitimately want anything.

Latest conspiracy theory - evil Zionist pigs. Literally.

The latest conspiracy theory blaming evil Zionist pigs for all the world's problems now comes to include, literally, evil Zionist pigs:

A herd of wild boars on Tuesday attacked the cleaning workers of Salfit municipality while they were emptying a garbage truck.

The driver of the garbage truck, 'Umran Abu 'Umar, said "while I was emptying the garbage in the early morning, a group of boars attacked the workers who had to use the truck as a shield and kill one of the boars."

The wild boars are being released by Israeli settlers in order to destroy the plants and crops of Palestinians.

Keep in mind that Ma'an is by far the most objective and reliable of Palestinian Arab media site, yet they blame this wild animal attack on Israel with no shred of evidence. (They also bizarrely illustrate the story with a picture of a pig's head with a kaffiyeh.)

A similar claim was made in February:

Palestinian sources in Salfit, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported on Thursday that Israeli settlers released boars in Palestinian farmlands near Salfit, in the northern part of the West Bank.

Resident Abdul-Fattah Al Ghazzawi, 43, stated that the settlers released at least twenty boars that attacked his farmland and several surrounding farmlands and ate the plants.

The settlers kept the boars in the farmlands overnight and only moved them away on Thursday morning.

Al Ghazzawi added that the settlers have carried out several similar attacks against the farmlands recently, and that the number of attacks has significantly increased.

Those nefarious Jews training wild boars to attack poor PalArabs, damage their crops, and then return to the Jewish fields and leave them untouched?

Well, anything possible - after all, the Jews are training boars to sniff out land mines and terrorist bombs.

Hamas' terror cheerleaders

The Al Qassam Brigades website does not often include purposeful irony or humor, but the English version celebrated their launching of many Qassam rockets this morning with this "Good Morning, Israel" graphic:

(I have no doubt that EUdiots and other similar morons will look at this and see it as a sign of Hamas moderation - after all, they said "Israel" which is practically recognition!)

The accompanying article, celebrating the fact that Hamas is back in the direct rocket game, includes a couple of lovely comments from Hamas' English-speaking fans:

Qassam | Norway

Qassam Attack Against The Zionist jew Animals

Inshalla with Gods Help we will kill Every zionist and every Jew settler On palestinian Land..may God protect our soldiers in Izz el deen Brigades ..

Qassam Mujahida | United States

Lots of Qassam rockets and mortar shells

Good. Lots of Qassam and mortar. Al-Qassam Brigades has right to fire their rockets and mortar shells as the Zionists' attack on the Palestinians are continuing daily. And the Zionists refuse to stick to the ceasefire. Inshaa Allah they will cause severe damage and deaths to the illegal Zionist occupation.

The website actually has an entire forum section in English that is something to behold. The person quoted above, "Qassam Mujahida," is apparently an American woman who moderates some of the forums (although her command of English is pretty shaky - she might very well be a man in an Arab country trying to make Hamas look a bit more inclusive.)

In the unintentional irony department, there are lots of pictures of dead shaheeds (including one smiling in death,) body parts, blown up Humvees in Iraq, and posters celebrating Hamas' wonderful terror achievements:

Page after page of bloody and violent images with accompanying text exhorting all to kill the Zionists - and then there comes this curious cartoon asking

"Does the Zionists want peace with Hamas?"[sic]

But this cartoon showing Hamas extending its hand for peace with Israel was too much for the regulars in the forum:

thats not a good picture sister because it signifies hamas making compromise with the zionists and wanting to be a friend of them.

Norway's recognition of Hamastan, one month later

Reuters reports:

Norway said the month-long policy of international engagement with the Palestinian unity government, led by the Islamic group Hamas, was starting to bring results and helped avoid "civil war tendencies".

Norway was the first Western state to recognise the new Palestinian government last month and said it would soon be ready to resume aid to the Palestinians, raising criticism from Israel and the United States.

In an interview ahead of this week's NATO meeting in Oslo, Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called on the European Union and the United States to normalise economic relations with the Palestinian government to shore up its fragile institutions. "This type of engagement is slowly demonstrating results," Stoere told Reuters on Tuesday as Hamas's armed wing declared an end to a five-month-old ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel, despite the unity government's calls to keep the shaky truce.

Asked if Norway would consider suspending relations or aid if Hamas did not make good on its promises, Stoere said the time was not right to speculate on such scenarios.

"We should not underestimate the tremendous efforts it took for the Palestinian parties to come together and (we should) solidify what is still quite fragile," said Stoere.

The progress that Stoere notices are:

"We have a Palestinian government which has ended the most flagrant civil war tendencies, there has been an improvement in the security situation, the Arab countries have taken new initiative ... and you have stronger U.S. engagement, all these signs are positive," Stoere said.

So, according to Norway, the Fatah/Hamas civil war has been forestalled because Norway recognized them. I can just imagine the masked leaders of these terror organizations canceling their rumbles in appreciation to Norwegian peace moves.

Today, of course, we saw the biggest dividend of the Norwegian initiative - Hamas' rocket barrage in an attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers. For some reason I don't think that Norway will take credit for that, though. And Hamas' announcement that the ceasefire against Israel is over will not make Norway budge either - because, of course, for them not to support Hamas' terrorism they might upset that delicate balance.

It is perhaps not coincidental that Norway, which is essentially a non-player on the world stage, identifies with Muslim terrorists whose incentive is also to prove Islamic relevance to the world. Norway's bucking the West shows the same infantile tendencies that Arabs and Muslims tend to show. And the egocentrism in the Norwegian statement, taking credit for every event in the region that can be construed as positive, is also very similar to Islamic egomania.

Abbas: "Cease fire" still on

Even though Hamas showered Israel with rockets and mortars today, and even though Hamas has said that its non-existent "cease fire" with Israel is over, Mahmoud Abbas knows better:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that a violation of a five-month ceasefire by Hamas was an exception and would not be repeated, while Israel should show restraint to avoid a security deterioration.

"The violation of the truce is an exceptional event that will not last," said Abbas at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome. "I take this opportunity to appeal to Israel to show the necessary self-control so that this will not happen again."

PalArab family shoots up Pal Legislative Council

Israel isn't the only place celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut with fireworks:

Dozens of Palestinian citizens broke into the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building in Gaza City on Tuesday, carrying the corpse of a Palestinian youth.

The boy was killed on Sunday by unidentified gunmen after being abducted in the northern Gaza Strip.

Ma'an's reporter stated that family members of the murdered boy, Hasan Abu Sharikh, broke into the PLC building during its session and fired gunshots into the air.

The Abu Sharikh family shouted slogans condemning the state of chaos that prevails in the Palestinian territories and calling on the government, the minister of the interior and the PLC to reveal the killers of their son and punish them.

The family issued a statement in which they depicted the killers as "a merciless group which has gone astray, taking advantage of the lack of security to spread murder and chaos amongst the Palestinian people." The family affirmed that the murderers "will be revealed and pay for their crime."

A group called 'Army of Islam' claimed responsibility for the killing of Hasan Abu Sharikh in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, and claimed that it was an accident.

The group said in a statement, "The man was not meant to be killed. It was an error and we pledge before God and the family of Abu Sharikh that we will bear complete responsibility and repercussions." The statement also commended the Abu Sharikh family and said they had always played a significant role in the Palestinian struggle.

The group also pledged to punish the perpetrator according to Islamic law once the details of the incident are revealed.

Of course, the best way to fight against security chaos is to bring corpses into a parliamentary session and shoot "into the air" - indoors.

And here is an account of how Abu Sharikh was killed - sounds very "accidental:"

At approximately 17:00 on Sunday, 3 masked gunmen stormed a shop of electrical appliances belonging to Hasan Mahmoud Abu Sharekh, 51, from Jabalya refugee camp. The gunmen kidnapped Abu Sharekh. During the attack, the gunmen exchanged fire with members of the Executive Force of the Ministry of Interior who were in the area. Four people, including a member of the Executive Force, were wounded, and the kidnappers were able to leave the area taking Abu Sharekh with them. At approximately 19:00 on the same day, Abu Sharekh’s body was found near Barcelona Park in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. He was killed by a gunshot to the head.

Chag Sameach!

April, 1948: How the Arabs left Tiberias

In March, 1948, on the eve of Israeli independence, the Jews and Arabs of Tiberias forged a cease-fire:

Unfortunately, the truce was short-lived. Within weeks, Arabs started firing at the Jews, and the Haganah fought back:

Soon, the Jewish forces were proven superior again. And after the Jews defeated the Arabs, details emerged about what had happened earlier.

It seems that the Tiberias Arabs didn't want to fight the Jews, but Arabs from the outside infiltrated and attacked the Jews from the local Arab homes. Local Arabs even fought against the invading Arabs, but in the end they were forced to leave - by the invaders. Not for the first time, the larger Arab community cynically used the local Arabs who had no real quarrel with the Jews in order to achieve a political gain - that ended up hurting the Arabs themselves.

Evidence of this can be seen by the immediate aftermath of the Jewish victory, where the Jews themselves safeguarded the abandoned Arab homes from Arab looters. See also how the Jews, protecting the homes of their Arab neighbors, clearly want to see those neighbors return to their homes:

An opinion piece in the Palestine Post elaborated on how Tiberias' Arabs had turned into pawns as well as how the Jews, as a whole, had no interest in kicking out the Arabs from their nascent state.

In 1949, a very articulate Haifa Arab wrote a remarkable letter to the Palestine Post (2/6/49) in which he laid the greatest share of the blame for the Arab refugee crisis on the British, and he claimed that the British were the ones who forcibly moved the Tiberias Arabs to Transjordan:

The Editor, The Palestine Post
Sir, — Mr. Bevin appears to
hold the Jews responsible for
the flight of the Palestine Arabs.
Although the Israel military
forces destroyed certain Arab
villages and carried out wholesale
transportation of their occupants,
yet the primary responsibility
for the panicky
flight of the Arabs is the British
Government's. Whether intended
or not, there can be no
doubt that the mischief originat -
ed from the conduct of the
British, and not from the attitude
of the Israeli Government.

There is ample evidence
for this statement.

The sequence of occurrences
showed that the British Government
had no intention or
desire to enforce law and order,
and that Palestine Administration
was labouring to create an
atmosphere permeated with fear
and alarm. No effective measure
was adopted by the authorities,
civil and military, to ensure
safety. On the contrary, they
encouraged disorder and disobedience
of the law, and countenanced
insubordination. They
allowed a large force of armed
Arabs to infiltrate into the country,
and to roam about with
impunity. Palestine was virtually
converted into two antagonistic
armed camps under the
eyes and nose of the Mandatory
Power. Huge quantities of arms
and ammunition were openly
smuggled in, and recruiting and
drilling of combatants became
conimonplace events. ...

Secondly, the idea that the
Arabs should quit their homes
was advanced, sponsored and
propagated by the British. The
Government of Palestine granted
its officers three months' pay
in advance, and facilitated the
departure on leave of Arab of -
ficers to adjacent territories.
British companies, such as the
Iraq Petroleum Company, and
Steel Bros. & Company, unnecessarily
transferred a part
of their offices and the majority
of their Arab employees to the Lebanon.
And generally, the at -
titude of the responsible British
authorities was such as to infuse
into the minds and hearts of the
Arab population a feeling of
consternation and the belief that
their departure was a logical
necessity , or, at least, a prudent
precaution.

Thirdly, it was the British, and
not the Jews, who first put into
effect the dislodgement and deportation
of the Arab popula -
tion. When conditions in Tiberias,
where the friendly relations
between Arabs and Jews formed
a bright illustration of the
possibility of the two communities
co-operating, became acute,
the British authorities forcibly
transported the Arab inhabitants
en masse to Trans-Jordan. They
did not take any action
toward pacification and restoration
of peace and order. It was
their evident duty to do so;- but
instead of discharging their obligation
with honesty and dignity
they discarded it with
ignominy, and compelled the
Arabs to abandon their homes
and belongings and seek refuge
in the contiguous Arab territory.

Yours, etc.
E .N. KOUSSA

I don't know how accurate Mr. Koussa's claims are, but they make a certain amount of sense. Even so, the British didn't act in a vacuum, and they were almost certainly acting in ways that their Arab allies wanted them to.

What is clear, though, is that (as in Haifa,) the Jews did not drive out the Arabs of Tiberias and the people who claim a pre-meditated ethnic cleansing are simply liars.

South Koreans vs. Muslims, part 3

I wrote two postings contrasting the visceral shame and embarrassment that South Koreans experienced after the VA Tech massacre compared to the infantile abdication of responsibility that Muslims exhibited after 9/11.

A wonderful example of exactly this kind of puerile Muslim reaction can be seen in this article in the PakTribune by Ahmer Muzammil, where the author attempts to contrast US reaction to a South Korean nutcase with his fantasy of how Americans would have reacted if the shooter had been a Muslim:

Would it have changed the fact that this was a deeply disturbed not to mention chronically ill man? Would the media, neo-cons and Zionists react in the same manner? Would there be plans to attack another Muslim country even though it had nothing what so ever to do with the heinous crime? Is South Korea where CHO hailed from a clear and present danger now and hence should be the beneficiary of Daisy Cutters and other “Marvels of Science” that we have invented for the well-being of human race? If you are able to answer these questions honestly than it should become obvious, that we live in a very sad, hypocritical, prejudice and bigoted world.

In addition to the international dynamic, domestically speaking all things being as they are now, only If CHO had been Muslim, even a non practicing one at that, you can rest assure that there would have been mass arrests, migrations and intimidation of Muslims thru out the country. There would have been threatening phone calls to the masajids, our sisters who wear Hijab would have been harassed. The MSA’s(Muslim Students Association) would have received threats; Muslim women on campus would have been scared because most of them are identifiable thru their head-covering.

Strawman arguments are but one aspect of an immature person; but the fact that even after 9/11 very little of his imagined harassment happened shows how utterly deranged many Muslims are. Here we have a textbook case of showing how Muslims as a whole cannot distinguish fact from fiction.

After some irrelevant blather, he comes to a punch line:

I realize that there are militants out there that are driven by there interpretation of Islam, however my question is that is Islam the driving force behind it or is it some form of injustice somewhere that is the catalyst? For way too long we have avoided these uncomfortable questions maybe because the Zionist lobby in Washington realizes that if this conversation starts then there jig would be up.

Can one even find a better example of infantilism than this "argument"? Instead of taking responsibility for his fellow Muslims, as the South Koreans did with the shooter, he circles around to blaming the victims instead - for their perceived "injustice" that is as imaginary as his litany of how the US would expel thousands of Muslims had the shooter been Muslim.

Thanks, Mr. Muzammil, for illustrating my point about the immaturity of most Muslims so perfectly.

JIB awards are upon us

The 2007 JIB Awards are here. If you are interested in getting me to the finals in the category of Best Pro-Israel Advocacy Blog, go here and vote. If, on the other hand, you can't stand this blog, go there and vote for someone else.

Unlike other years, you can only vote once per each subcategory. So choose carefully!

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Three PalArabs were killed, including two brothers, in Gaza (Haitham and Mohammed Abu Amr and Hassan Abuscherkh, in autotransliteration.)

We've also recently seen gun attacks, drive-by shootings, accidental explosions and machine gun fire, bombings at an American university in Gaza, bomb threats, a PalArab journalist injured - the usual mayhem.

Israel is uncharacteristically aggressively attacking terrorists this weekend, with about 8 terrorists killed and 1 civilian (a sister of a wanted terrorist who stayed in the house after Israel asked everyone to leave.) So this week the PalArabs have to work hard to keep their streak going of killing each other faster than Israel is.

UPDATE: Paltoday.org (Arabic only) adds a fourth PalArab victim of PalArab violence Sunday, named Imad Abu Hussein. This brings the self-death count this year to 182.

UPDATE 2: Paltoday adds a 12-year old boy named Muhammad Al-Saadi was shot and killed Monday. 183. Ma'an adds a 5-year old girl was shot in the head by one of those "mysterious gunmen," critically injuring her.

UPDATE 3: A Hamas commander died of wounds he got two months ago in Hamas/Fatah fighting. 184.

UPDATE 4: From PCHR, another child who killed himself from finding a weapon at home:

At approximately 03:00 on Tuesday morning, 24 April 2007, medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared that Haitham Mohammed Bulbul, 12, from al-Sha’af neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, died from a wound he had sustained on Monday. The child was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the chest at approximately 22:00 on Monday, when he mishandled a gun at home.

185.

UPDATE 5: A woman died, and others were injured including a 70-year old man, in a clan clash in the Bureij camp in Gaza on Wednesday. 186.

Shame, responsibility and maturity

As a follow-up to my earlier posting on the differences between how South Koreans are acting to the AV Tech massacre versus Arab reaction to 9/11, there is still a nagging issue that needs to be addressed.

It has been long recognized that the West has a guilt culture and the Arab and Eastern worlds are a shame culture. He have discussed many times how Arab conceptions of "honor" (which is just a manifestation of shame) are so foreign to Western ears, and are critical in understanding the differences between us.

But here we have a stark contrast between two cultures that are both recognized as shame cultures: the Arab world and the Asian (in this case, South Korean) world. If they are nominally the same, why are their reaction so diametrically different?

I believe that the answer lies in another dimension of their respective psyches, namely, maturity. The Korean reaction to VA Tech represents a mature instantiation of a shame culture, while the Arab responses to the multitude of terror attacks is clearly immature.

I would argue that the single biggest difference between immature and mature people are their respective abilities to take responsibility.

A child will go through a number of steps instead of admitting guilt - he may lie, or try to put the blame on someone else, or claim extenuating circumstances - not only in an attempt to avoid punishment, but also often so as not to admit to himself that he is guilty.

Growth comes from learning to act responsibly and learning to take responsibility.

Compare the Arab world to Japan. Both suffered humiliating wartime losses in the 1940s. It can be argued that Japan lost much more, as it had a formidable war machine and it was not just defeated but forced to surrender unconditionally. And both of them have strong shame cultures.

Yet only decades later, with very few natural resources, Japan turned itself around into an economic and technological powerhouse that became the envy of the West. The Arab world, in contrast, had the misfortune of sitting on billions of barrels of oil.

Japan was forced to grow up in a hurry. The Arab world, with the cushion of petrodollars, had the luxury of becoming the spoiled brats of the planet, building playgrounds for the super-rich in the Gulf. Is there any real psychological difference between the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s and a boy who takes his football back when the game doesn't go the way he wants?

In short, the shame/honor dynamic may explain many of the Arab world's psychoses, but it doesn't explain them all. We need to add the dynamic of an infantile culture as well. And the VA Tech outrage shines a brilliant light on the contrast between a mature shame culture and a puerile one.

HH CXIII

The 113th edition of Haveil Havalim is out at Soccer Dad.

One of my posts made it in, always an honor since I rarely self-nominate.

Check it out!

South Korean vs. Arab reaction to terror

Many articles have been written about the Arab reactions to 9/11. Critics claim that Arabs refused to condemn the atrocity in an appropriate manner, and Arabs would point to articles and statements that did seem to condemn it.

Even so, there was still a nagging feeling in much of the West that the condemnations were not strong enough, that they weren't heartfelt, that something was missing.

In the wake of the VA Tech massacre, looking at the South Korean community's reaction, it is now clear what was missing: shame and responsibility.

For Korean Americans especially, the tragedy is hitting close to home. Though they don’t personally know Cho or his family, local Korean Americans share a cultural and ethnic background with them.

“I’m very ashamed,” admitted Buwon Brown, a community volunteer who is Korean American.

Dong Lee, an editor at the Korea Central Daily News’ office in Seattle, said the community was “very shocked, very saddened by the news.”

The state’s only Korean American legislator, Paull Shin, said he was watching the news early Tuesday morning as he was getting dressed. He “collapsed” when he heard the gunman was a fellow Korean American. “I could not face the reality. How could this have happened? I lost my control,” Shin recounted.

Later that day, the Edmonds legislator took the floor of the Senate chambers to apologize on behalf of the Korean American community. He told his fellow senators, “This (shooting) really affects me deeply. I’m sorry.” Afterwards, his colleagues came over to console him and to emphasize that the shootings were not his fault or the Korean community’s.

South Koreans expressed shock Wednesday, as new details revealed that the Virginia Tech shooter was Cho Seung-Hui, who was born -- and lived for eight years -- in Seoul.

President Roh Moo-Hyun held a special meeting with aides Wednesday to discuss the shooting and figure out further steps to ease the situation.

The president is expected to make a statement of apology at an event in Seoul Wednesday afternoon. His office has issued two statements of condolence about the mass killings.

"It's a tragic incident. But to find out that he is a Korean, I am ashamed and confused," a shipping-company employee said. "I keep asking myself what would have made him do such a thing. It's a very bad day."

A wave of shame washed over the Rev. Kun Sang Cho when he learned the Virginia Tech shooter was a native of South Korea.

He knew the murders occurred hundreds of miles away, possibly at the hands of a mentally ill young man. But what most pained Cho and many other Korean-Americans living in Colorado was that the shooter was Korean -- one of their own.

"They feel ashamed," said Cho, pastor at Asbury Korean United Methodist Church. "This is our culture. If one of my members got involved in a crime, all members feel the shame."

To honor the 32 victims of the shooting, Cho's church will host a community memorial Sunday at 4 p.m. at 7140 S. Colorado Blvd.

First-generation Koreans tend to have a cultural sense of shared responsibility, said Adrian Hong, a board member of the Mirae Foundation, a national organization of Korean-American college students. "If something good happens to one, it happens to all Koreans, and if something bad happens to one, it happens to all of them," he said.

Kyeyoung Park, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles and member at the university's Center for Korean Studies, said that because Korean culture tends to be homogeneous, new immigrants rely on one another emotionally.

"In Western culture there is an emphasis on guilt; in many Eastern cultures the emphasis is on shame," she said. "I think Korean-Americans want to do something because they feel ashamed. Some of them feel truly responsible, even though it is ridiculous to think they are responsible for the action of this person."

Park said some first-generation immigrants identified with the comments of South Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-sik, who said not only do Korean-Americans feel ashamed but called for them to "repent." He suggested a 32-day fast - one day for each victim of Monday's carnage.

Now we can understand more fully what was lacking after 9/11 and countless other Arab terror attacks.

A condemnation is not a heartfelt, spontaneous reaction. It is almost always a contrived, carefully written, political reaction more for damage control than for true remorse.

Koreans don't have madrassas with daily exhortations against infidels. Koreans don't have daily or weekly terror attacks against the West. Koreans don't have countless newspapers and websites demonizing Americans.

And yet, they spontaneously show true, heartfelt shame - and a sense of shared responsibility - for the actions of a lone crazed man who happens to be one of them. While they have a fear of a backlash, their shame is not a calculated reaction designed to blunt political reprisals - it is a true reflection of what they are feeling.

This is what was missing after 9/11 - the kneejerk reaction of guilt, shame and responsibility from the Arab community. Instead we saw attempts to deny, or redirect, or contextualize the despicable acts - never to take ownership.

While the Koreans are taking responsibility for the actions of a single nutcase, the Arab Muslims spent all their time trying to abdicate their responsibility for the culture that brought about Al Qaeda.

All the condemnations in the world is not worth a single heartfelt apology. And even though it is absurd for the Korean community to apologize for something that is clearly not their fault, the fact that they are doing it shows true remorse.

The world Arab community in general, and the Muslim Arab American community in particular, never felt truly sorry for 9/11, or else they would have acted beyond the way that Koreans are acting today for an event that is miniscule in comparison.

Invoking Elder's First Rule (part 2)

Another example of how Arab accusations about Jews are merely projections of Arab crimes can be seen here:

(IsraelNN.com) Residents of the Gush Etzion hilltop community of Sde Boaz had hundreds of grape vines and scores of fruit trees uprooted and destroyed Friday. The latest vandalism, though the most costly yet, is just the latest in a string of attacks on the community’s property.

Residents of the agricultural community said that in addition to the destruction of the Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards and fruit trees Friday, expensive irrigation systems were damaged and stolen as well. The vandals used donkeys to plow under the hundreds of vines and uproot the fruit trees.

As Omedia notes, mainstream Israeli media refuses to even mention Arab destruction of Jewish agriculture, seemingly because it happens on the "wrong" side of the Green Line:

This accumulation of facts attests to a situation in which Israel is gradually conceding its sovereignty and its rule of law while abandoning Jewish agricultural property to the mercy of the Palestinians. The myth that the Palestinians are deeply attached to trees, perhaps as opposed to the Jews, plays into the hands of those who use trees for political purposes. When the trees belong to Jews, the tree is merely considered another tool in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. It is well known that the Jewish-Arab conflict in Israel is tied to the struggle over land, such as the struggle between the Jewish National Fund’s pine and cypress forests (only in recent years have they begun planting olive trees), and olive groves, typically seen as a Palestinian symbol.
All of the above information was only made public on Arutz Sheva, a radio station identified with the settlers, and never managed to reach the general public. Why was such pertinent information never published in Ha’aretz or on central news sites such as NRG? Such information is obviously newsworthy. Perhaps these media outlets consider the uprooting of Jewish trees by Palestinians too commonplace – a “dog bites man” story – or see it as a mere curiosity. Whatever the reason, tree removal by Palestinians deserves media exposure as well.

As I have shown in the past, Palestinian Arab destruction of trees and other Jewish agriculture predates 1948 and PalArabs have been found to destroy their own trees when it can make the Jews look bad. The idea that trees are somehow sacred to Palestinian Arabs is a preposterous myth, one that is all too ready to be swallowed by even more preposterous supporters.

Invoking Elder's First Rule (part 1)

My First Rule of Arab Projection states that whenever Arabs accuse Israel of doing some crime, they are doing that exact crime, usually on a far grander scale than their accusations.

This weekend gives us the opportunity to invoke this rule more than once.

The first example can be seen in an article in Ma'an:

The Al-Aqsa association for protection of Islamic endowments and holy sites revealed on Saturday that some Jewish organisations are manufacturing forgeries of documents aimed to illegally purchase Arab properties in the old city area of Jerusalem.

The forgery and deception is being conducted through registering Jerusalemite lands to the names of Arab citizens who do not originally possess any lands in Jerusalem.

Extremist Israeli groups then come to those people and submit the forged documents, showing that there are lands registered in the lands' department under their names.

They offer those people huge amounts of money in return for selling properties which they never owned, nor did they know about it.

The conspiracy was unfolded when an elderly Palestinian man from the village of Qalansawa in ‘the triangle area’ inside Israel, told the Al-Aqsa association that “a Jewish extremist group had came to his home offering a large sum of money in return for 2600 square meters in Jerusalem registered under his name.” They then showed him the ownership document.

The old man added, "I kicked them out and told them that they are plotting a trick, since I never owned the span of a hand in Jerusalem."

The director of the media department of the Islamic movement and spokesperson of Al-Aqsa association, Sheikh Khalid Muhanna, warned of the dangers of this phenomenon, which, it has been noted has been rising in frequency recently.

He accused the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem in particular, and the Israeli government in general of taking a big share with these far right-wing groups. He based his accusations on the supposition that “such groups could not wander along the length of the country carrying bags loaded with money and forged documents without assistance of formal governmental institutions and departments”.

There are certainly Zionist groups that raise large sums of money to legally purchase Arab-owned land. While it is altogether possible that a member of this organization saw a common Arab name on a legal deed and made a mistake approaching the wrong man, this accusation shows no evidence of forgeries, Israeli government conspiracy or anything else.

But it is interesting that this accusation came on Saturday, because a much stronger accusation came just last Thursday - by the PA itself: (H/T: Backspin)

Dozens of Christian families from the Bethlehem area are about to discover that their homes and lands have been "sold" to Muslims without their knowledge, Palestinian Authority security officials said Thursday.

The officials told The Jerusalem Post that members of a local Muslim gang have been arrested on suspicion of stealing land and property registration documents from the Bethlehem Magistrate's Court.

Bethlehem Governor Salah Ta'mari confirmed that an investigation was under way to determine who was behind the theft. He said most of the stolen documents belonged to families living abroad.

A Christian businessman told the Post that most of the victims were Christian families living in the US and Latin America. "They are stealing our homes almost every day," he said. "We believe the suspects have been receiving help from some Palestinian security officers here."

The scam was uncovered when court officials complained that many files relating to cases involving ownership of property had disappeared, a security official said.

Initially, police thought thieves had broken into the court and stolen the files, he added. However, further investigation revealed that the theft was an inside job. Three court employees and five land dealers were later arrested in connection with the case.

The official refused to reveal the land brokers' identities, but sources in the city said some of them were not real land dealers.

"These are people with close ties to the Palestinian security forces," the sources said. "We have written to the Palestinian Authority demanding a full inquiry. This is one of the biggest scandals in Bethlehem and many families are very worried that they may lose their property."

Apparently, the "Al-Aqsa Association" decided that now would be a good time to divert attention from the real phenomenon of Muslims stealing Christian land in Bethlehem.

Ann Arbor synagogue gets picketed every week

A Jewish pro-Palestinian-Arab organization has been picketing an Ann Arbor, MI Conservative synagogue, Beth Israel, every Shabbat for over three years.

Even though the synagogue is pro-peace, and supports a two-state solution, this is not enough for the airheads who continue their protests. They demand that the synagogue disavow all support for Israel as a Jewish state, support all PalArabs to move to wherever they want in Israel, and some other absurdities. The protest group has been deplored and condemned by the Ann Arbor City Council and most major newspapers, and an anti-protest organization that just started in March already has 260 members.

Perhaps the most innovative response comes from a group named SPURN, for "Synagogue Protest UNACCEPTABLE! Respond Now," which raises money for Magen David Adom proportional to the size of the protest every week. So far, they have raised over $84,000.

Try to imagine the headlines that would result if people protested a mosque every week, no matter how peacefully.

Paging Dr. Melfi - Terrorists suffering from depression

An article in YNet that would be considered a spoof in any other area of the world: (Hat tip: EBoZ)

Palestinian security forces have been seeking emotional counseling, following "internal infighting in Gaza". Dr. Riad al-Aqra, the director for the Gaza hospital for mental health, said that "although the occupation is a major cause for emotional depression for Gaza residents…Palestinian infighting plays a striking role in the increase of shock, tension and depression, present in previously unseen amounts."

"One member of the Hamas security force came to me suffering from high tension, which was causing physical problems. He said he felt fear from the fact that he would burn in hell forever if he fired even one bullet at someone," the doctor said.

He told of another case, in which a member of the security forces arrived with similar symptoms. "He said he couldn't fire at another Muslim, and that he felt pain and bitterness," al-Aqra said.

"These are the feelings on both sides of the infighting, and emphasize that everyone, deep inside, rejects the civil war in his soul, rejects that which is unnatural," he explained.

As opposed to killing Jews, infidels and women who speak with unsuitable men, which is the most natural feeling in the world!

But Hamas angst ran even deeper this week:

Hamas members were troubled by an additional issue this week: an altercation with the Egyptian branch of the hitherto supportive Muslim Brotherhood.

The rift occurred after a senior leader in the organization, Abd al-Munam Abu al-Fatouh, announced that the Brotherhood supports the creation of a secular Palestinian state and a bi-national presence in Palestinian, as a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hamas members were so incensed by al-Fatouh's announcement that the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Akef, had to release a special statement refuting it.

Akef said, in his statement, that the Muslim Brotherhood believes that "Palestine is Islamic and therefore, holy to Muslims and, thus, belongs only to Palestinians."

"No Palestinian has the right to refute this…The Zionists have no choice but to live under the rule of a Palestinian nation in which they will be free to worship their God and enjoy full rights of citizenship," Akef added.

"If the Zionists do not agree, our Palestinian brothers will have no choice but to resist and undertake all actions that are consistent with holy principles that were given to the Palestinians and that are in accordance with their national interests," he said.

Nonetheless, a source from the Muslim Brotherhood told the London-Based a-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that Akef's statement was made primarily to reduce tension between the two groups.

No one even mentions the horror that accompanied reports that King Abdullah of Jordan said that he favors monetary compensation to PalArab "refugees" rather than their physical moving to Palestine.

Too much news, too little time - Dhimmi Carter edition

Jimmy Carter has decided that Palestinian Arab rights are the most important issue in the coming presidential election, a litmus test that Iowa caucus voters should use when choosing a candidate. It seems that the Saudi money that pays for The Carter Center is being spent very wisely.

A Palestinian Arab whose rights Carter is so concerned about got very close to blowing up a bus in Israel two months ago, but he put the batteries for the bomb in incorrectly. He made it into Israel through parts of that apartheid fence that Jimmy wants to see destroyed. As Barak at IRIS points out, he would be a candidate for prisoner release the next time Islamic Jihad kidnaps a Jew, because he doesn't have "blood on his hands."

While Dhimmi Carter is obsessing over the Israel Lobby, Harper's Magazine is more concerned with the Saudi Lobby.

Carter's favorite moderate PalArab group, Fatah, announced that it want to kidnap more Israelis.

Birthright Israel is bringing a record 23,500 students to Israel this summer. Carter would want them to go to Gaza.

I've been skeptical about the possibility of strengthening moderate Islam. Daniel Pipes disagrees. I'm not sure what Jimmah would think.

Canadian reporter attacked over Islam article

From the Toronto Star:

Journalist Jawaad Faizi says he can still feel broken glass showering over him in his car as he fended off blows from a cricket bat in a surprise attack he blames on "religious fanatics."
A writer for the Pakistan Post, Faizi said he was beaten by three men because he mocked a Pakistani cleric in a column.
Faizi said the men smashed the windshield and driver's window of his car as he arrived at his editor's home about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. He said he was struck by the cricket bat and was cut on his forearm.
"They were smashing and smashing, hitting and hitting," Faizi said. "I could not stop them."
Faizi said both he and his editor, Amir Arain, recently received phone calls warning them to stop writing defamatory articles about the religious group Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran and its leader, Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri.
Faizi said he wrote a column two weeks ago mocking the cleric, who he said told a gathering in Pakistan "that he could write the name of Mohammed on the moon with his finger."
"He is always trying to fool the people," Faizi said.
The columnist said his three attackers screamed at him in Punjabi and Urdu to stop writing about Minhaj-ul-Quran.
He said they fled when he dialed 911 on his cellphone. He was treated at Mississauga's Trillium Health Centre and released the same night.
Constable Jodi Dawson said Peel Region police have assigned the case to detectives in 12 Division.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, a Toronto-based association of more than 300 journalists, editors, publishers, producers and students, condemned the attack.

Hat tip Zionist Spy.

Hamas: We don't give no respect

Remember when the EUdiots and others were falling over themselves to explain that the Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah meant that Hamas was moderating? It was based on language that Hamas promised to "respect" previous agreements of the PA.

An interview with "Dr." Mahmoud Al-Zahar, co-counder of Hamas and current deputy in the Palestinian Legislative Council (as well as former foreign minister for the PA), explains the Mecca agreement a bit further from Hamas' perspective:

Dr, Zahhar said that "what happened in Mecca agreement were four issues; firstly , the agreements and laws that are related with the Palestinian issue which was signed by Arab countries and the PLO, but we didn’t mean (Oslo agreements), because it is known here that we did not recognize the Oslo Agreement and we will not recognize it at all. Also, the international agreements is the Geneva agreement which related to the international law. The humanitarian law which are war, prisoners of war and others. In addition, there are Arab cooperation agreements in security, economic and others.

"Regarding the word " respect" or " accept" .. if I respect your views , it doesn't mean that I accept your views. So , the saying that we are accepting the Oslo agreement is not true"

Q: You mention the word " respect" which evoked the debate recently that it is an introduction to recognize " Israel" ?

A: What does commitment mean in Law ?? does respect mean commitment ?? If respect means commitment , then why the two words are different in Language ..they are surely different". If Hamas wanted to recognize "Israel" , we will say it frankly. Hamas does not have the intention to recognize "Israel" at all because we will contradict the Quran with that in the Israa' verse "7" and will contradict ourselves that the occupation should be eliminated.

Q: Some said that "Accepting Hamas of Palestinian State on 67 borders is considered a retreat of the Hamas project " Palestine From Sea to River" ?

Zahar : If you read Hamas Charter , we were ready to establish a state on any "Span". That mean : we are ready to establish that state on less than 67 borders or more than that but that doesn't mean that we will leave the whole land… this is a clear point. The interpretations are Zionist interpretations and some other Palestinian factions , who leave the Palestinian issue at all , took these interpretations.

Q: What is the distinction between the political program of Hamas and the political program to the unity government, Which led by one of Hamas leaders Ismail Haniya?

A: The unity government duration of time is three years but Hamas program is not linked to time. Hamas even after the liberation of Palestine, is looking to the Arab and Islamic world as an Islamic state, forming the Arab-Islamic forces unity.

A couple of observations:

Islam is a legal-based religion, and therefore since the word "respect" is meaningless in a legal context, Hamas could claim to "respect" agreements knowing full well that they were not agreeing to anything. Zahar is explicit about that.
When he claims that accepting Israel's existence is against the Koran, he is tying Hamas' terror with religion. This means that the Saudi "peace" proposal where the "entire Arab world" would recognize Israel is known initially to be a sham - obviously, the large percentage of the Arab world that accepts Hamas' interpretation of the Koran can never recognize Israel - theologically.
The ultimate goal (which is clear in the Hamas charter) is not getting rid of Israel but establishing a global Islamic 'ummah, similar to Iran's goal.

Happiness is.... shooting a machine gun

In an Arab wedding in Hebron yesterday, the brother of the groom celebrated in the usual PalArab fashion: by shooting a machine gun in the air.

He was lucky - he only injured 7 guests, one seriously.

The PalArab leaders are struggling with the difficulty of wanting to limit weapons while at the same time making sure that there are plenty of weapons around to kill Israelis easily available.

The cult of death is so ingrained that it literally doesn't even occur to them that Israeli actions against them are proportional to their own violence against Israel, not inversely proportional as they seem to think. They honestly think that all they need are more weapons and things will then be hunky dory.

A different reaction to mass murder

I didn't really want to comment on the VA Tech massacre because it really has nothing to do with the normal themes of the blog. But Dry Bones makes an acute observation:

Indeed. Islam has been used as inoculation against outrage. When Muslims do something crazy in the name of Mohammed, it is not regarded as a mental illness, rather as freedom of religion.

That extra sympathy doled out by terror sympathizers, that "but..." that always accompanies every Muslim "denouncing" terror acts, not to mention the sheer quantity of Islamist mass murders (in Iraq, a day when 32 civilians are killed would be considered a pretty good day) all combine to give Muslims, if not quite a free pass, at least a much less critical eye for their terror.

7000 concentration camp prisoners killed in one day in 1945 - by England

Holy crap:

On May 3, 1945 - in the worst friendly-fire incident in history - Britain's Royal Air Force killed more than 7,000 survivors of Nazi concentration camps who were crowded onto ships in L beck harbor, Germany. The ragged masses that had survived the Holocaust stood no chance against the guns of their liberators.

This tragic mistake occurred one day before the British accepted the surrender of all German forces in the region. Reports of the incident were quickly hushed up - as a jubilant world prepared to celebrate the Allied victory in Europe.

Despite the bitter irony of dying in hellish fires on sinking ships just hours before liberation, the tragedy was quickly forgotten or resolutely ignored. The anniversary of this dark day will soon pass by again - largely unnoticed or unmentioned.
By early May 1945, the rumors of Hitler's suicide had rekindled hope for beleaguered prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. The Red Army had just conquered Berlin, the British held Hamburg and Americans were in Munich and Vienna. After surviving unspeakable horrors and deprivations for years, the battered prisoners could finally dare to hope that their day of deliverance was at hand.

In the closing weeks of World War II, thousands of prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, the Mittelbau-Dora camp at Nordhausen and the Stutthof camp near Danzig were marched to the German Baltic coast. Most of the inmates were Jews and Russian POWs, but they also included communist sympathizers, pacifists, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, prostitutes, Gypsies and other perceived enemies of the Third Reich.

At the port of L beck almost 10,000 camp survivors were crowded onto three ships: Cap Arcona, Thielbeck and Athen. No one knew what the Nazis were planning to do, or what plans the Allies had already set into motion.

Although the final surrender was imminent, British Operational Order No. 73 for May 3 was to "destroy the concentration of enemy shipping in L beck Bay." While thousands of camp prisoners were being ferried out to the once-elegant Hamburg-Sud Amerika liner Cap Arcona, the RAF's 263rd, 197th, 198th and 184th squadrons were arming their Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers with ammunition, bombs and rockets.

At 2:30 p.m. on May 3, at least 4,500 prisoners were aboard the Cap Arcona as the first attack began. Sixty-four rockets and 15 bombs hit the liner in two separate attacks. As the British strafed the stricken ship from the air, Nazi guards on shore fired on those who made it into the water. Only 350 prisoners survived.

The Thielbeck - which had been flying a white flag - and the poorly marked hospital ship Deutschland were attacked next. Although Thielbeck was just a freighter in need of repairs, it was packed with 2,800 prisoners. The overcrowded freighter sank in just 20 minutes, killing all but 50 of the prisoners.

In less than two hours, more than 7,000 concentration camp refugees were dead from the friendly fire. Two thousand more would have died if the captain of the Athen had not refused to take on additional prisoners in the morning before the attack.

MOST WHO were familiar with the Cap Arcona disaster believed that the Nazis intended to sink the ships at sea to kill everyone on board. Hundreds of prisoners had already been killed on the forced marches from the camps. In this case, however, RAF Fighter Command did their killing for them.

In the Cap Arcona/Thielbeck/Athen disaster, the tragic deaths of so many who had suffered so much for so long were quickly forgotten. After years of unprecedented bloodletting and destruction, the nations involved were in shambles, their populations numbed by suffering and death. The unfortunate victims who perished at the close of history's worst conflagration were quickly lost in the fleeting euphoria of peace.

...Britain has never officially apologized for its tragic mistake at L beck Bay, nor has it honored the innocent victims with a proper memorial.

The RAF records of the disaster are sealed until 2045, one century after the attack. No British government document has referred to the estimated 7,500 victims of its mistake.

In an age when the words "coverup" and "massacre" are thrown around like so much confetti, it helps to put things into perspective.

Even in the context of the war, it is unconscionable that Britain does not even acknowledge what it did, let alone investigate this unimaginable tragedy.

UPDATE: Wikipedia adds some detail:

The ships were carrying from 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the German concentration camps in Neuengamme, Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora, half of whom were Russian and Polish POWs, others from 24 nationalities, including French, Danish, and Dutch. Those reaching the shore after the sinkings were shot by SS troops, but about 350 managed to escape from the massacre; others were cannoned by the British pilots while trying to get ashore.

For weeks after the sinking, bodies of the victims were being washed ashore, to be collected and buried in a single mass grave at Neustadt in Holstein. For nearly three decades, parts of skeletons were being washed ashore, the last find, by a twelve years old boy, was in 1971.

This is one game the PalArabs win every week

For the 19th consecutive week, more Palestinian Arabs were killed by their own actions than by Israeli actions.

Those aggressive, genocidal Israelis with their sophisticated war machines managed to only kill a single Palestinian Arab during the week from April 12-18, according to the "Palestinian Center of Human Rights."

In that same time period 5 PalArabs were murdered by each other, including a woman in an "honor killing." In addition, two bodies were found of people murdered in previous weeks, including another woman, which makes last week's revised score 8-5, not the 6-5 squeaker we reported.

Of course, the PalArabs have a perfect record against the Israelis this year in how many PalArabs can be killed in any particular week.

As a people who are always so jealous of Israeli accomplishments while their own society literally wallows in its own sewage, this record should cause some much-needed pride for the oppressed Palestinian Arabs.

Did US lose Saddam's WMD?

Melanie Phillips speaks to a man who claims that he found Saddam's WMD bunkers back in 2003, but the army ignored him and the materials ended up getting smuggled out to Syria.

His story has made it into various right-wing websites and newspapers and his credentials seem stellar (although his web design skills are pretty bad.) He certainly deserves to be taken more seriously, no matter how circumstantial the evidence.

Mahmoud Abbas lies again

A couple of hours ago, Reuters reported:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reached an agreement with militant groups that they will stop rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel, an aide said on Wednesday.

"President Abbas is doing everything he can to stop the attacks," said Nabil Amr, accompanying Abbas on a visit to Poland as part of a diplomatic offensive to convince the EU to lift a freeze on financial aid to the Palestinian government.

"He has reached a real agreement with all forces that occasionally fire rockets," Amr told Reuters in an interview.

It took only a few minutes for even Reuters to show that Abbas was lying:

In Gaza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, which advocates the Jewish state's destruction, said his group's [sic] had no plan to stop firing rockets and was bound only by tactical considerations.

"There is no decision to stop firing," the spokesman, Abu Ahmed, said. "It increases and decreases according to security conditions on ground."

But what about Hamas? Surely the newly-moderate coalition partner will agree to stop rocket attacks?

Not according to Hamas' "military wing":

Al-Quds Brigades Denied what the Zionist media claimed about reaching an agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas to stop firing rockets, Abu Ahmed, the spokesmen said in a statement "the Zionist media claims are untrue".

For Hamas to call Reuters the epithet "Zionist" must mean they are really ticked off.

UPDATE: YitzchokGoodman of Judeopundit correctly points out that Al-Quds is Islamic Jihad, not Hamas. I mixed them up because I read it on a Hamas website. Sorry!

Novak's great white hope, redux

I wrote yesterday about the phenomenal self-delusion of Robert Novak as he seemingly found a single sort-of moderate Hamas voice and he played it to the hilt, implying that Hamas was ready to make peace with Israel and that not speaking to Hamas was foolhardy and wrong.

Today, his Hamas hero has backtracked on his moderate words:

Jenin - Ma'an exclusive - Palestinian Education Minister Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er has denied the declarations which the US daily newspaper Washington Post ascribed to him.

In an interview with Washington Post columnist Robert Novak published on Monday, Ash-Sha'er was quoted as saying that bombing attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets had ruined past peace attempts.

Ash-Sha'er reportedly said that "previous attempts at peace were ruined by suicide bombers. Now, we look forward to a sustained peace."

On Wednesday, in conversation with Ma'an, he depicted the newspaper's allegations as imprecise.

The minister highlighted, "electronic websites took portions of a long interview, and what they took was absolutely out of the real context." It was misinterpreted, he explained.

Ash-Sha'er explained, "Every people in the world has the right of self defence, and nobody can incriminate his own history or his own right to self defence."

So it seems that he really doesn't think that suicide bombings had a negative effect on peace efforts. And that terror attacks against civilians is every Palestinian Arab's right.

Poor Robert Novak. He wasted an entire year searching for the legendary Moderate Hamas leader. Perhaps he'll have better luck looking for the Easter Bunny in Bethlehem.

PalArabs 133, Israelis 34

According to the UN's OCHA statistics, from January through the end of March, 34 Palestinian Arabs were killed by Israel.

And 133 were killed in PalArab violence.

(I had counted 159 PalArab self-deaths at that time, but I am not sure if they include things like honor killings, deaths during tunnel cave-ins and murders during robberies, for example.)

Although there are no good statistics, it appears that more Palestinian Arabs were killed by Arabs in Iraq than by Israelis during that time period.

Still waiting for any NGOs that claim to care so much about the Palestinian Arab people to start mentioning the Arab-caused deaths as prominently as they mention Israeli activities.

All you need to know about Hezbollah/Syria can be seen at Shebaa Farms

A clueless EUdiot visits Lebanon:

Hezbollah would be ready to transform its armed resistance into a political movement, if all occupied Lebanese territories are freed, a Spanish representative to the European parliament said Sunday.

"One of the positive elements of our meetings with Hezbollah was that they declare that they would like to become a political movement ... when the occupation of Lebanese land end," David Hammertzein told reporters at the end of a three-day visit by an EU delegation to Lebanon.

"When asked when the occupation ends, they said clearly the 'Shebaa Farms'," Hammertzein added. "We all clearly support such an idea of placing Shebaa under the temporary jurisdiction of the UN and urge Syria and Israel to cooperate with this idea which will end the tension at the borders between Lebanon and Israel," he added.

A little more context on Hezbollah's peaceful intentions can be found in this article from today:

Lebanon's Hezbollah group on Tuesday accused the Lebanese March 14 majority coalition of seeking to "normalize" relations with Israel and backing an alleged scheme to create a U.S.-controlled Middle East.

Mohammed Raad, leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, said that the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc of Saad Hariri, leader of the parliament majority, "went too far with a scheme to reconcile with the Zionists and the Americans who want to create a new Middle East by describing the resistance weapons as illegitimate."

Such a new Middle East, according to Raad, "is based on recognizing the Zionist entity's (right to exist), normalizing relations with it and abolishing any opposition to or resistance of Israeli aggressions."

The first thing to understand is that the Lebanese claim to the Shebaa Farms is completely and utterly worthless. There is no "dispute" - the border was as clearly drawn as is possible, by the UN based on overwhelming map evidence. See Wikipedia for a fair and exhaustive discussion of all claims and their worth.

The second thing to understand is that the crux of the entire problem Arabs have with Israel has nothing to do with refugees, or "apartheid," or "occupation" - it is all about eliminating the shame of inferior, dhimmi Jews controlling land that the Arabs consider their own (namely, all of Israel.)

When Sadat was negotiating for the Sinai, he insisted on every grain of sand - or he would start another war. Every negotiation with Israel is based on the idea that the Arabs want the amount of land that Jews own and control to get smaller and smaller. The entire existence of the "Palestinians" as a separate Arab people was a fiction by the Arab powers as a means to force Israel to give up land. (Today, there are indeed a Palestinian Arab people, and the only thing they have in common is the fact that they were thoroughly screwed by their brethren.)

Land is the key.

So there is no contradiction between Hezbollah telling the EU that their only desire is the Shebaa Farms, and them accusing the Lebanese government of the hideous crime of wanting to actually have peace with Israel and not another war. In both cases, their goal is to get some land away from Jewish control - politically, by getting naive EUdiots to consider their demand for Shebaa Farms to be a reasonable and tiny request, and militarily by insisting that they will keep attacking Israel indefinitely.

The cynicism exhibited by Hezbollah, and especially the Syrian government supporters vis a vis Shebaa Farms is breathtaking. Syria is trying to say both that the Shebaa Farms should be returned as part of UN resolutions 242 and 338 (which would imply that they are Syrian land) and also that they are Lebanese lands. Again, the intended result is not to gain land, but to ensure that Jews lose land. Hezbollah and Syria don't want the land - chances are pretty good that they would agree to giving it to the UN.

They just cannot accept the idea of Israel controlling it.