Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 14, 2007

The IDF helping the Palestinian Arab economy. Try to find that reported somewhere.

The US recently floated the idea of "benchmarks" where both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs would agree to some confidence-building measures. Two of the things Israel is supposed to do under this plan are dismantling checkpoints in the West Bank and allowing free passage between Gaza and the West Bank - both of which will certainly increase terror, according to the IDF and common sense.

But, Israel's critics would argue, what can you expect from the IDF - after all, the World Bank just released a report saying that Israel's policies are stopping any chance for an economy to be built in the territories. Israel seems hell-bent on a policy of strangling the Palestinian Arabs economically, right?

Too bad the press doesn't report on everything that Israel - including the IDF - is doing to help the PalArab economy:

Israel and the Palestinian Authority are working on plans for the establishment of five industrial parks close to the Green Line that are each meant to provide hundreds of Palestinians with jobs, Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh confirmed yesterday.

Sneh told Haaretz that work on an industrial area has already begun in the area of Jenin and in Sha'ar Ephraim, close to Tul Karm. At the same time Israel is making plans to establish an industrial area in the Erez industrial zone, close the the Gaza Strip, that will be operated by Turkish contractors.

In addition, there are contacts with private Palestinian investors for the establishment of an industrial zone close to the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip, and also with the government of Japan for the creation of a similar park in the vicinity of Jericho.

Sneh also expressed criticism at the fact that the World Bank made no mention in its latest report, of the Israeli efforts to contribute to the Palestinian economy. In its report, the World Bank criticized Israel for effectively stymieing Palestinian economic development through policies that limit the freedom of movement of the Palestinian population in the West Bank.

The industrial park venture was presented by the defense establishment last January during a meeting of Israeli, Palestinian and American representatives at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones. The meeting dealt with the Agreement on Movement and Access of November, 2005.

The idea behind the venture is to establish work places in the territory of the Palestinian Authority in order to prevent excessive dependence by the Palestinian economy on jobs in Israel.

All the industrial parks will be established in Palestinian Authority territory, and Israel has committed to facilitating security and bureaucratic arrangements relevant to the projects.

The clearest indication that the "benchmark" plan is not only a non-starter but is in fact counterproductive can be seen by what has been happening recently at the Karni crossing:

While tensions rise in the Gaza Strip ahead of a possible IDF operation in response to daily Kassam rocket attacks, 16,600 jobs have been created there in the last three months, with unemployment down - over the past six months - by close to 7 percent.

According to Col. Nir Press, commander of the IDF Coordination and Liaison Administration, a drop in terror threats to the Karni Crossing has led to an increase in the transfer of raw materials into Gaza, creating new jobs.

Nevertheless, he stressed, unemployment in Gaza remained at just over 30%.

The increase in jobs in the last quarter followed a similar rise in the previous quarter, when 19,100 jobs were created, including 10,500 in agriculture.

This past quarter, only several hundred out of the 16,600 new workers found jobs in agriculture, with the majority finding work in transportation, communications and construction.

According to the Coordination and Liaison Administration, 43 million carnations were exported to Europe from the Gaza Strip this past season, up from 17 million in 2006. The Palestinian farmers told Press during the meeting that they made a profit of €4.5m.

Press told The Jerusalem Post the increases in jobs and flower exports were due to both improved coordination and a Palestinian effort to deter terrorists from attacking the Karni Crossing, the main artery for cargo in and out of the Gaza Strip.

In 2006, Karni was closed for nearly 100 days due to intelligence warnings of planned attacks. Last summer, a vast tunnel - intended to be filled with explosives - was discovered being dug under the crossing.

"Last year, when there were the security warnings Karni was closed... and a lot of flowers went down the drain," Press said. "Since September, however, Karni has been open daily except for some days when it was closed due to labor strikes on the Palestinian side."

Israel's desire for peace with the Arab world, including the Palestinian Arabs, is clear and consistent from before 1948. The only thing Israel desires more is her own security.

The story at Karni is crystal clear - when the terror threat subsides, Israel goes above and beyond to help the Palestinian Arabs. After seven years of the intifada, this is more than remarkable - and it is possibly reckless. This is the story that is invisible to the world media, one that every Israeli knows in his bones and one that the entire world suppresses, because it doesn't fit the standard story template of oppressive Israelis and Palestinian Arab victims.

Benchmarks are stupid and do the exact opposite of their intent. If you want peace, pressure the Palestinian Arabs to stop their daily terror attacks and Israel will, inevitably and inexorably, do everything else. Forcing Israel to reduce her defenses will increase terror. The only people who can stop it are the Palestinian Arabs themselves, and it won't be in "response" to any Israeli goodwill gesture - it will be when they grow up and act like responsible human beings.

Notwithstanding the good news at Karni and the industrial zones, this prospect is not likely in the foreseeable future.

Jerusalem, 1952

This week Israel celebrates the 40th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem, by any objective yardstick one of the best things ever to happen to the holy city.

Of course, the international community disagrees, and the EU and US are expected to boycott the celebrations.

So let's have a look at how Jerusalem was after it was divided. From Time magazine, April 28, 1952:

STRANGLED CITY
Jerusalem, holy city of three great religions, is dying from strangulation. The rope around its neck is the barbed wire which separates Jew from Arab, the New City from the Old.
Before the Arab-Israel war of 1948-49, Jerusalem was a thriving community of nearly a quarter of a million people. Today, divided between Israel and Jordan, after three years of "armistice" without real peace, it is a 1,650-sq. mi. economic wilderness. Blocked gates, streets dead-ended by dragons teeth and rusting barbed wire, roadblocks and ruins divide the two cities, which for economic well-being must be one. On the Arab side, 100,000 people live without money to buy plentiful goods. On the Jewish side, somewhere between 110,000 and 140,000 people live with money but no goods to buy. The people watch each other uneasily. The wife of Jacob Meyerbaum and the wife of Ahmed Abu Mohammed hang the morning's washing out on lines which are separated by only a few yards. Then they return to equally empty kitchens.
Palestinian Prison. Business on both sides of this divided city is almost dead. The proprietor of Bulos' souvenir shop just inside Jaffa Gate in the Arab section surveyed his empty store and the empty street leading to the gate where Arab Legionnaires, checked kaffiyehs on their heads, blocked the way. "Before the war," he said, "at this time of the morning the street would be jammed with tourists from the King David Hotel. By Sunday night the counters would be empty and the cash register full of those beautiful old Palestinian pounds. Today I've got a store full of goods, one clerk who has nothing to do but talk politics with his cousin—and the cash register hasn't got a dozen Jordanian dinars in it."
Some Arabs talk hopefully of internationalizing the Holy City as called for by the U.N.'s Nov. 29, 1947 resolution. But most doubt it will come about. "The resolution will never be enforced," said a Christian Arab, "because the big powers don't care about it. But even if the U.N. fulfilled its word, the two governments which now divide Jerusalem would fight it. The Israelis surround us on three sides and the Jordanians block us off on the fourth. We are in a prison."
The Palestinian is a lonely man who hates the Jordan government which took over his country against his will. He also despises the U.S. and Great Britain, on whom he places the major blame for his plight. He particularly hates Harry Truman and hopes that General Eisenhower will be elected and that he will change U.S. policy on the Israeli-Arab problem. The British whisper that Britain did everything it could to protect the Arabs against the U.S.'s mad determination to create the state of Israel. The burden of hate is shifting more & more to the Americans. And the U.S. does nothing to answer the accusations.

Communism Gains. There is a great deal of grumbling about the way U.S. Point Four aid is being handled. For instance, a $1,200,000 emergency shipment of U.S. wheat was stopped short at Amman, and never found its way across the Jordan River for distribution to the needy in Jerusalem. The reason: Jordan, quite suddenly, discovered that she had a bumper wheat crop coming up, and that this foreign wheat, which had been sought to avert serious famine, would drive prices down. In the meantime, Jerusalem has almost no wheat, and bread is short.
The atmosphere in the bars and coffee houses reminds me of the early 1930s in the U.S. when jobless men sat around all day with nothing to do except feel sorry for themselves. The men of Jerusalem don't know where to go, which way to turn. There are no leaders, no men with messages. Even the evil former Grand Mufti has lost a substantial part of his following, because he no longer does anything, no longer sends his devoted followers money.
The Communist Party is growing stronger. Though outlawed in Jordan, it is very active underground, and you hear the Commie line in every coffee house and bar. Directed from Haifa in Israel (where it is legal), the party has mobile printing presses which flood the countryside with literature. Normally, the Jerusalem Palestinian is not the sort who would be a Communist. But he has not had any work for three years. His properties in the New City are now in the hands of the Israelis. He is desperate. Arab Jerusalem is one of the three most fertile fields for Communism in the Middle East today (the others: Teheran and Cairo).
New Race of Wanderers. In Jerusalem today you see oldsters and middle-aged men, but few vigorous, ambitious educated men in their 20s. The reason is simple. Those who can are getting out. They are working all over the Arab world as teachers or junior staffers in oil companies. One sees them in Syria, Iraq, and up & down the length of the Persian Gulf, sad, lonely for the lovely hills of Judea. They are a new race of wanderers from the Holy Land.
I mentioned the declining number of young men in Jerusalem to one of Palestine's greatest jurists the other night. He nodded sadly and said: "Yes. Our people are disintegrating. The young ones, the strong ones are all going away. The ones we must count on in the future will not be here when we need them. But could you tell them not to go? What is there for them here?"

Of course, the Israeli side continued to grow and become a modern city between the time this article was written and 1967, while the Arab side continued to slide into a slum. Apparently, today's wise diplomats (the progeny of the diplomats of 1952 who did nothing to stop the Old City from being Judenrein ) prefer that state of affairs to Jerusalem today, with triple the population and a bustling economy for Arab and Jew.

Farfur the Terror Rat: "I had to cheat because of what the Jews did!"

The latest installment of the Hamas children's TV show featuring Farfur the Terror Mouse had a smaller role for him but that role was very telling.

Farfur was caught cheating on a test. A new adult character asked him about it:

Hazem: "Why did you cheat?"

Farfur: "It was against my will, uncle Hazem, because the Jews destroyed our home, and when the Jews destroyed our home I couldn’t find my notebooks."

You can see the entire clip here:

Now, I didn't see the rest of the clip. Perhaps the TV show scolded Farfur for thinking this way. Even so, this is a neat bit of insight into the Palestinian Arab psyche. Farfur doesn't feel that cheating is bad per se; he feels that if the evil Jews destroyed his homework that he could cheat. This is but a microcosm of the standard PalArab groupthink that there is no act too depraved as long as the ends justify the means. Personal responsibility is simply not a part of PalArab society.

The Palestinian Arabs have had nearly sixty years to build a productive society and they have consistently failed - because of the exact same thinking that Farfur exhibits: it's the Jews' fault. Sixty years! Look at what has been accomplished in the past sixty years in other parts of the world! Look at Japan and Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong, not to mention Israel. But instead of building a positive culture in the lands that they have, the PalArabs have built a culture of death and blame and depravity.

Hamas and Fatah back to their natural selves

2 Fatah terrorists and 2 others were killed today, including a pro-Hamas journalist, as the intrafada which had been on hold for a couple of months (at least as far as fatal events are concerned) started heating up again. This brings the weekend death count to 6.

There were also a spate of kidnappings, and three were wounded during the Fatah commander's funeral. Both sides started setting up checkpoints throughout Gaza.

In other words, things are getting back to normal. As is always the case, things that the Palestinian Arabs and "human rights activists" blame Israel for are being done on a much grander scale by the poor, oppressed, starving, victimized yet proud Palestinian Arabs to each other. (The Palestinian Arab media invariably refer to Israeli arrests of terrorists as "abductions" or "kidnappings.")

Our PalArab self-death count is now at 206 for the year.

UPDATE: Ma'an (Arabic) counts five dead today. 207.

UPDATE 2: 2 more Fatah members killed Monday morning. 209.

UPDATE 3: Hard to keep track of the numbers now; Ma'an reports two pro-Hamas journalists from Falastine killed last night but I'm not sure if one of those were mentioned yesterday so I'll only count one. Ma'an is also reporting in its "breaking news" headline (no link) that a bystander was killed in Khan Younis. So now we are at 211.

UPDATE 4: 14-year old boy killed in a clan clash in Nuseirat, central Gaza. 212.
I'm going to downgrade the number because I may have double-counted one, Ma'an says the total is at 8 dead from the clashes and this does not include the three normal murders that happened besides those, and as far as I can tell they are including all the ones killed from other news sources, so for now I will go back to 211. (It may be that some killed on Sunday were counted as Monday deaths.)

UPDATE 5: Ha'aretz counts 5 dead Sunday and four more Monday, including a truck driver killed by a stray bullet. This revises the count back up to 212.

Leftist protest guide (Uri Orbach)

Every Friday the "peace protesters" go to Bil'in and demonstrate against the security fence. Every week there are wire service photographers waiting for this "peaceful" demonstration to get violent so they can take good pictures like these from today:

Now we can see the demonstrators' handbook!

Leftist protest guide

Uri Orbach provides tips on how to irritate soldiers, obtain photos of violent troops

This is how you fight the occupation: Bring five leftists along, give a camcorder to each one, and travel to the Territories. The nearest checkpoint is your playground. As you approach the checkpoint, attempt to express protest by moving roadblock rocks, swear at the soldiers, and do everything, and I mean everything, to piss them off.

Leftist, remember this: The soldiers are fatigued and worn out, and if you aim your swear words well, there is a good chance the reserve soldier at the roadblock will become upset. If you see some Palestinians on the other side, it's a good idea to start hurling stones.

However, all this should be done with extreme caution: Make sure not to film the stone-throwing by mistake. The photographers must focus on the reservists' reactions in order to convey an accurate picture of the incident.

Annoy them, bother them, swear at them, and yell out "occupation!" and "Aren't you ashamed of yourselves?" Block the road and climb the fence. Film the soldiers' reaction. The world loves to see violent Israeli soldiers. Should one of the reservists lose it a bit and hit you, you must immediately lie down on the ground (pay attention to the camcorder aimed at you) and start sobbing.

Mission accomplished. In regular protests the police sometimes resort to violence, and at times protesters also go too far. In your protest, the army's violence is not the result, but rather, the goal. And the goal is to acquire a photo of IDF violence. The goal justifies the means.

Such photo shows the entire world how cruel, terrible, and dangerous Israel is. It is worthwhile to sustain some blows for such noble objective.

Award-winning documentary

Demonstrator, remember this! You are not just some guy who arrived in order to protest an injustice or express your political views. You arrived in order to get a front page photo for the newspaper and for television newscasts in Israel and abroad. It worked in Hebron, with the cursing settler, it worked out at the roadblock with the "Palestinian forced to play his violin," and it worked well in many other places where the world only saw miserable Palestinians, violent soldiers, and protesters being beaten up. Half-a-picture is worth a thousand words.

At the end of the day you shall return home tired but satisfied, beaten up but overjoyed. The evening newscasts will rush to use your photographs, the morning news shows will interview you, and peace organizations from all over the world will use the video clip in their PR presentations and send you donations.

The defense minister will convene a special meeting and demand an inquiry. After all, this time around we're not talking about settlers beaten up by soldiers or police officers, but rather, holy protesters demonstrating on behalf of a noble objective.

IDF officials will say they view the solders' conduct "with severity" and throw a miserable soldier into military prison. The public will yawn, but you did your job. With a little luck, at the end of the day you will make a big budget award-winning documentary film out of it. You will even receive funding from Israeli public foundations thanks to the "brave and incisive film" (this is what the newspaper reviews will say) that shows Israel too has human rights fighters.

So, let's march on to the Palestinian village of Bil'in! Charge the checkpoint! It will be moral, and fun.

NYT unclear on who is a "Palestinian refugee"

Wikipedia notes:

Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their descendants do not come under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, but under the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which created its own criteria for refugee classification. As such they are the only refugee population legally defined to include descendants of refugees, as well as others who might otherwise be considered internally displaced persons.

This is how the number of Palestinian Arab "refugees" has ballooned from 700,000 in 1948 to nearly three million today.

Even though this is an arbitrary definition of "refugee," one where Palestinian Arabs are the only exception worldwide, it is almost universally accepted.

The New York Times published an article last week about the plight of Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon, but even the NYT with its celebrated attention to detail and nomenclature cannot seem to figure out whether they are "refugees" or not:

BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 5 — Three generations of the Hamdallah family have lived in Lebanon. And for three generations not a single member of the family has been allowed to graduate from school, legally marry, or hold a job, or even set foot outside of the rundown camps that have been home to generations of Palestinians.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency estimates that more than 400,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon — refugees, their children and their children’s children — all denied many basic rights in their adopted homeland on the Mediterranean.

But within that diaspora at least 3,000 people, including the Hamdallah family, are invisible to the legal system, aid groups here say. When their families arrived in Lebanon, they failed to get refugee status, and without it they cannot get identification cards, the currency of all life transactions in this region. Marriage, travel, work — all are impossible without a national identification document.

“They are not persons in front of the law,” said Stéphane Jacquemet, regional representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon. “They live in camps, don’t have access to services, schools, hospitals, and strictly speaking a person with no documents can be arrested. They absolutely have no future, and they are giving their no future to their children.”

Palestinian refugees have been denied citizenship in Lebanon for years, and they are prohibited from practicing more than 70 professions. The Lebanese government has insisted that the plight of the refugees should not be settled at the expense of host nations, and it has made clear that it eventually wants the Palestinians to go back to Israel after a settlement with that government.

At the heart of that policy lies the fear that the refugees could upset Lebanon’s already complicated and tenuous power-sharing system, based on ethnic and sectarian affiliation. Because most Palestinians are Sunni Muslims, nationalizing them would throw the power balance to Sunnis.

So, with no real hope of becoming Lebanese citizens, Palestinians remain squeezed in dark, small camps where sewage water often runs in claustrophobic alleys, the only playground of young refugees. Outside most of these camps, the Lebanese Army maintains a heavy presence.

The first mention of "refugees, their children and their children’s children" implies, correctly, that children of refugees are not refugees. But the entire rest of the article uses the word "refugees" as synonymous with "Palestinians" to the absurd point of saying that Lebanon wants these people to "go back" to a land that the vast majority of them have never lived in.

It is way past time to get the UN to close UNRWA, which is dedicated to a single problem which has expanded fourfold under its watch, and stop the ever-increasing problem of Palestinian Arabs who can never become citizens of most other Arab countries precisely because of this wrong definition. It is UNRWA who has done the most to perpetuate the problem it is supposed to solve, and the Arab countries are more than happy to use these bogus "refugees" as pawns while shielding themselves from criticism for not actually doing anything to make their lives easier.

Insane hacker at Cornell?

For the past couple of days, I've been seeing Google News references to an article at the Cornell Daily Sun with some paranoid insane Bush-bashing anti-semitic nonsense, but the link was always broken. This was to multiple URLs at the website. It appeared that someone has managed to post their screed at Cornell and Cornell keeps deleting it, but not before it gets propagated to Google (and possibly RSS feeds.)

I just grabbed a copy of this long-winded, incomprehensible document. A sample:

2/24/07 Words secret and sealed until the time of the end. (Dan. 12:9) Bush Daddy was talking last night about cutaneous Anthrax which they had again tried to infect me with. I went looking for my Antrax: An Ancient Scourge article and found the only available copy on the second page; thus they still scheme to conceal the truth of the matter, that Anthrax is a Biblical Greek word from Exodus 9:9; Deut. 28:27. As I have mentioned, the Karposi Sarcoma of the early AIDS epidemic was contact Anthrax, and I witnessed similar sores on an Irish lad who was apparently infected by handling dead animals at Cornell Vet School, which was illegally producing the stuff. Now Bush Daddy claims that they make it in the laboratory from dead flesh and use it in AIDS medication, flu vaccines, what not? Just as the first plague of Ex. 9:3 produced the dead animals that produced the spores (soot) Ex. 9:8 of the second plague, Ex. 9:9-10, the dead horses of World War I produced the lethal flu epidemic of 1918 that infected one-fifth of the world population. This favorite method of operation from ancient times has been bolstered by the secret "power food" of the Moabite women of Shittim (Numbers 25:1-4), giving us a word that means feces. (Seek out my Coprophagia Rules article while it may be found. I inspected recent toxicology textbooks and found that all references to Anthrax have been eliminated. I did find that 250 ppm of arsine is instantly fatal. See below) 2/21/07 This is for the transgressions of the lawless Jacob, George Herbert Bush, and for the sins of the house of the lawless Israelites, the Nazis; i.e . the Niggardly Asinine Zionist Idiots. And what is the sin of the house of the lawless Israelites? Is it not Jerusalem? (Mic. 1:5) The Lord God declares; "I abhor the pride of the lawless Jacob. (Amos 6:8) The day of their watchmen, of their punishment, has come. (Mic. 7:4) Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, make yourself bald as an eagle. (Mic. 1:16) Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go. The Lord will take away all of their finery, their hoods, and their veils. Instead of perfume, there will be rottenness; instead of well-set hair, baldness; instead of a rich robe, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame. (Is. 3:16-25) The watchman says, "Morning has come, and also the night." (Is. 21:12) Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of rubble." (Mic. 3:12)

Apparently, creating websites isn't enough for the wackos, now they are trying to increase their readership by hacking others.

Dhimmi Carter's advice to the Jews

Dhimmi Carter, playing his Saudi funders' playbook, is trying mightily to split Jews from Christian Zionists.

According to The Jewish Week:

Wading into the delicate fray over the alliance between Jews and pro-Israel Evangelicals, former President Jimmy Carter last week reportedly said it was a mistake for Jews to accept such ties, and that he was working to convince Southern Baptists to change the way they look at Judaism and the Middle East.

Christian Zionists can be better friends of Israel by challenging its government’s policies, while accepting Judaism as a legitimate path to God, Carter told a group organized by Rabbi Michael Lerner in California last week, according to the rabbi.

“He said it was a terrible error for Jews to become allied with Christian Zionists who actually desire our conversion or burning in hell,” Rabbi Lerner related in an interview Tuesday.

So Carter's telling evangelicals to hate Israel and he's telling Jews to hate the evangelicals.

How very Christian of him!

Things are different in May in Gaza

I'm not sure how to interpret this, but there are two striking differences between the Qassam calendars I've been keeping this month and last month.

In April and March, there were many more Qassams claimed to have been fired by the Arab terror groups than Israel acknowledged having landed in Israel. It appeared that the terror groups were vying for taking credit and that many rockets didn't even make it over the border.

But this month, the terrorists are less likely to exaggerate. The PalArab newspapers mention Israeli reports of rockets but they are not usually quoting terrorist group claims of more rockets.

Secondly, there are daily reports in the PalArab newspapers of Israeli incursions into Gaza, but very few of these are reported in Israeli media. Again, I don't know if it is Israeli war censorship or if the PalArabs are making up stories to cover up internal fighting and blame injuries/deaths on Israel.

There is no doubt that fighting is starting to increase again between Hamas and Fatah, after a lull. No official deaths yet but lots of kidnappings and injuries.

Take a wild guess who Iran accuses in the 1994 Argentina Jewish Center bombing

Why, it was the Joooooos!!! From Iran's "Press TV":

Zionists behind 1994 Argentine bombing

A former Argentine minister has tied the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires to hard-line Zionist nationalists.

Lois Dalias, Argentina's former minister of housing, who attended a court hearing on Thursday, denied any alleged connection between the Iranian government and the deadly blasts in which 85 people were killed.

Thus far the judiciary investigations into the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, has hit an impasse with the powerful Zionist lobby in the country trying to impute it to Iran.

Iran has strongly denied having any thing to do with the terrorist attacks, warning the Argentine government of plots underway to damage their mutual relations.

"When a radical Zionist shot dead the Israeli Prime Minster Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, it would not be impossible to think that some other right-wing nationalists designed a similar plan to blow up the AMIA Jewish cultural center", IRNA reported Dalias as saying.

Last year Dalias was forced to resign after he joined public demonstrations in Argentina as a show of allegiance with Iran in the face of unfounded charges in the case.

Reading between the lines of the propaganda, we see that a former minor anti-semitic Argentine official floated a theory that "Zionists" bombed a Jewish center in Argentina for reasons unknown and Iran's crack journalists translated that into a headline stating it as a fact.

The diplomacy of fear, 1877

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post called "Diplomacy of fear - the Muslim way" in which I noted that, for decades, Muslims would exert influence on the West by making threats.

It seems that this idea was older than I thought.

This article, from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of October 14, 1877, describes fearful - and literal - Flag of Islam that would signal an all-out war of Muslims against Christians. Supposedly when this flag, housed in a mosque in Constantinople, would be unfurled, it would signal every single Muslim to fight to achieve paradise.

Note the fear that the author shows of the possibility that huge crowds of Mohammedans could be unleashed at a moment's notice to kill every Christian.

Here are some highlights:

Since the commencement of war between Russia and Turkey, the world has several times been startled by the announcement that the "Flag of the prophet" was about to be unfurled in the streets of Stanbul. Such an event, if it should happen (which may Heaven avert), would proclaim a crusade in which all true Musslemans would be bound to take an active part and to fight against Christianity in every part of the world. They may be in India, Arabia, Egypt or wherever else their scattered race has found a home; the raising of the green standard is a call in which none may disobey without, as the Koran lays it down, sacrificing all his hopes of Paradise.

This fearful appeal to all the worst passions of the Eastern races hangs like a menace over the Mohammedan world; and if the word was once uttered and the dreadful flag unfurled, there is no telling to what sanguinary excesses it might lead an enthusiastic people. If may be of interest to our readers if, under these circumstances, we endeavour to make them acquainted with the origin and history of a banner that has not seen the light of day since the Empress Catherine of Russia attempted to reinstate Christianity in the city of the Sultans, and which once unfurled would set the world ablaze.

The prophet himself predicted that one day, when his followers should number 100,000,000- which they do now with 20,000,000 more added to it- his flag should fly against the advancing power of the northern races; and the Koran Mohammedan Bible says that when its silken folds are flung forth "the earth will shake, the mountain melt into dust, the seas blaze up in fire, and the childrens hair grows white with anguish." This language is of course metaphorical; but it is easy to conceive, by the light of very recent history, that some such catastrophe might take place, as the displaying of this terrible symbol would raise a frenzy of fanaticism in the breast of the Mohammedan race all over the globe.

When once unfurled, it summons all Islam by an adjuration from the Koran that the sword is the solitary emblrm and instrument of faith, independence and patriotism; that armies, not priests, make converts and that sharpened steel is the "true key to heaven and hell"

Upon that fearful ensign are inserted the words which are supposed to have been written at Mecca itself- namely, "all who draw it (the sword) will be rewarded with temporal advantages, every drop shed of their blood, every peril and hardship endured by them, will be registered on high as being more meritorious than either fasting or prayer. If they fall in battle, their sins will be at once blotted out, and they will be transported to Paradise, there to revel in eternal pleasure in the arms of black-eyed hours. But for the first heaven are reserved for the faithful who die within sight of the Green Flag of the Prophet" Then follow the terrible and all-significant words, the fearful war-cry against God and man, "Then may no man give or expect mercy."

This is the outburst of barbarism with which the world is threatened in this year of grace, 1877; and the reader cannot do otherwise than mark the cunning nature of the portentous works inscribed on the prophets banner. What would not most men do, civilized or savage, for "temporal advantages"? While to the eastern people fasting and praying, are looked upon as of so meritorious a nature, than to find something else which, in the eyes of Allah, would be desideratum which none would fail to grasp by any means whatever, if it came within its reach. But Mohammed's wonderful knowledge of human nature, is shown in his picture of Paradise as prepared for the faithful who fall in battle while his declaration that the highest heaven in this so called Paradise will be reserved for those who die within sight of the Green Flag, is a masterpiece of devilish policy unequalled in the annals of mankind.

It scarcely needed the fearful words which follow, to add emphasis to this dreadful appeal to the passions of a semi-barbarous race. Another motto on this sacred flag is not without significance at the present time; "The gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords;" and this alone would, if the flag were unfurled in the Holy Mosque of Constaninople, give to the Turk a moral power over his subordinates the effect of which it would be vain to calculate. Civilized though he partially is , he still firmly believes in the old doctine of kismet or fatality, and in angels fighting on his behalf; not less implicitly than did his ancestors at the Battle of Bender, where this formidable green standard was first unfurled...

PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 9:00 on Thursday, 10 May 2007, the child Shayma Jaser Jarghoun, 7-year old girl from Khan Yunis, was admitted to the European Hospital in the city. She was suffering from moderate shrapnel wounds in the feet sustained when a homemade grenade was thrown during an armed intra-clan clash involving members of her family.

At approximately 8:20 on the same day, Musallam Mustafa El-Sha’er (47) from El-Bureij refugee camp was injured by a bullet in the right thigh, fired by one of his relatives over a financial dispute. El-Sha’er was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah for treatment, where his injury was listed as moderate.

At approximately 23:00 on Tuesday, 8 May 2007, Salim Abdel Fattah El-Sharabi (35) from Nablus was killed in Ras El-Ein Quarter in Nablus. Gunmen killed El-Sharabi in a crime motivated by a clan dispute. He was killed by multiple bullets to the upper body.

This brings my count of the number of Palestinian Arabs killed by their own actions up to 200 for the year 2007.

Oh - and a couple of PalArabs got arrested for selling their daughters, aged 12 and 13, too.

UPDATE: PalArab murdered in Qalqiya; his brother suspected.

A "beauty queen" in Hebron strangled her husband. 202.

UPDATE 2: Fatal Hamas/Fatah clashes resume; 2 Fatah members killed in Gaza. 204.

Palestinian Arabs extend their winning streak to 22

For the 22nd consecutive week, more Palestinian Arabs have been killed by other PalArabs than by the IDF. This week's score was 6-3.

Palestinian Information Minister Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi has played down the reaction to the news that his ministry has banned the broadcasting of a children's program on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV because it conveys political messages.

Barghouthi said in conversation with Ma'an that Al-Aqsa TV stopped broadcasting the program itself after they reviewed the program in regards to its message. Barghouthi also denied issuing an order to end the program.

He stressed the need to be cautious when making children's programs so that these programs would not be exploited by bodies that monitor these programs in order to incite international public opinion against the Palestinian people and harm the Palestinian cause.

So the Information Minister, who according to all accounts is far more moderate politically than Fatah, is not saying that the program was wrong to teach children to kill themselves. He's got no problem with inciting tots to hate. Demonizing Israelis and Americans is A-OK. And, of course, he would never try to stop such a show from broadcasting on the TV channels he is partially responsible for.

The problem is, you see, that certain "bodies that monitor these programs" happen to translate and publicize them. And, in the strange and twisted PalArab universe, telling the truth publicly about these sorts of things is incitement!

The legal definition of incitement is "the act of persuading, encouraging, instigating, pressuring, or threatening so as to cause another to commit a crime."

In normal English, that means that teaching kids to murder and blow themselves up in the process is incitement.

Telling the world about real incitement is not incitement unless you are a member of the professional victimhood society that comprises the Palestinian Arab leadership.

UPDATE: Hamas refused to drop the program. It will show this Friday as usual, inshallah.

Photo: one of those oppressive checkpoints

Prepare to get angry as you see heavily armed IDF soldiers randomly stopping a Palestinian Arab car, scaring its occupants:

Palestinian security forces stop a car to a random check in the streets of Gaza City, late Wednesday, May 9, 2007. Thousands of Palestinian police began deploying in Gaza City late Wednesday, the first phase of a security plan approved by the Cabinet, a Palestinian official said.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Oh, it wasn't the IDF?

Sorry for calling these moderate, peace-loving policemen "oppressive." Checkpoints are only oppressive when they are meant to save Jewish lives.

It just ain't normal

Omri asks an interesting question about the Salafist shooting at a school in Gaza over the weekend:

What on earth is compelling the Palestinians to post that many guards at an elementary school? ...Has the situation in Gaza gotten so bad that Palestinians are now posting guards at schools? And if so, shouldn't more people be talking about this?

After immersion therapy in Palestinian Arab newspapers for a number of months, I'm almost used to the many things in the territories that are taken for granted that simply do not exist elsewhere and that the West is clueless about.

Here's a tiny example, in a story about a missing boy:

The family searched in the police departments and in the neighbouring fields and deserted areas, but they could not find the missing boy.

Zeidan said that it is unlikely to be a politically motivated abduction as his family has good relations with all parties and political factions.

Well, of course every family in Pallywood must keep the local militias, political parties and clans happy so as not to have their children kidnapped.

Or this story:

Assault rifles, pistols, hand grenades, pipe bombs and assorted ammunition are now on sale in Gaza's bustling used car market. "Come along, come along, a bullet for eight shekels ($2) and a stun grenade for seven shekels ($1.75)," Hassan, a 17-year-old arms dealer shouts. Dozens of cars are still being offered but the 25 weapons competing for business show the extent to which the rule of the gun has largely become the rule of law in the Gaza Strip. "Anarchy, what anarchy?" Hassan says when asked for his view about the lawlessness that pervades the impoverished territory where Palestinian militant groups hold sway.

I've mentioned before the major difference between Palestinian Arab newspapers and those of the rest of the Arab world: There's no crime section. The PalArab police are so weak, and the judicial system close to nonexistent, that there may be articles about murders and kidnappings but not small crimes like arson or thefts that are so endemic that they do not merit being mentioned at all.

This is a small taste of what things are like in that wonderful part of the world.

Hamas pulls Terror Mickey

Today's Genocidal Mickey Mouse news:

Walt Disney's last surviving daughter declared how horrified she was at Terror Mickey.

And Hamas denied that they dislike Jews:

"Our problem is not with the Jews,'' Yehia Moussa, a Hamas leader in the movement's Gaza Strip base, told The Associated Press.

"Our problem is with the (Israeli) occupation and the occupiers.''

Too bad Farfur the Rat disagrees:

Sanable: We want to fight.
Farfour: We got that. What else?

Saraa: We want to...

Sanabel: We will annihilate the Jews.

Even though Farfur was such a wholesome, non-Halal example of Islamic supremacy, the PA decided that the media glare was a bit too much:

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas's television station for "review," Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday.

Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Rest assured it would not be considered "mistaken" if Farfur the Rat hadn't appeared on the cover the the New York Daily News and on numerous TV shows over the past couple of days.

The dangers of Islam (1884)

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article in February 3, 1884 about the political intrigues and wars being fought in Northern Africa at the time. The last paragraph of that article is most interesting:

From this summary statement of facts the reader will at once perceive that the nature of the great question of the day is not the recovery of a revolted state, nor, the chastisement of a refractory people, nor even the suppression of the slave trade, but a conflict between Christian civilization and Mohammedan barbarism. The triumph of Tel-el-Kebir did not by any means establish a conquest of Moslem fanaticism. The hatred of the Mohammedan against the Christian and against civilization is innate and irrepressible. This hydra-headed monster will ever raise its head at the slightest provocation, and under the least pretext, to devour all that may come in its way. If at times quite, it lies dormant, and not dead, ever dreaming of Alhambraand the walls of Vienna and over-running, one day, the civilized world.

Encore presentation of Farfur, the Genocidal Mickey Mouse

MEMRI found more interesting stuff about Farfur, the Mickey Mouse clone we mentioned who preaches Islamic supremacy and genocide of the Jews:

Host Saraa, a young girl: Sanabel, what will you do for the sake of the Al-Aqsa Mosque? How will you sacrifice your soul for the sake of Al-Aqsa? What will you do?
Sanabel, young girl on phone: I will shoot.

Farfour, a Mickey Mouse character in a tuxedo: Sanabel, what should we do if we want to liberate...

Sanable: We want to fight.

Farfour: We got that. What else?

Saraa: We want to...

Sanabel: We will annihilate the Jews.

Saraa: We are defending Al-Aqsa with our souls and our blood, aren't we, Sanabel?

Sanabel: I will commit martyrdom.
[...]

Farfour: My dear youngsters, we're back. We always miss seeing you on your weekly program "The Pioneers of Tomorrow," in which we are placing together the cornerstone for the ruling of the world by an Islamic leadership.

You can watch the clip here.

Mosa Al Ghriz: my kind of martyr

The Hamas Al Qassam website is an unending source of mirth and merriment. Especially interesting is the "Martyr" section, where brief biographies of the lives and grisly deaths of Hamas terrorists are detailed.

I just stumbled onto the biography (not autotranslated - this is from the English website) of Mosa al Ghriz:

Name: Mosa Abed Al Fattah Mohammed Al Ghriz.

Resident: Rafah.

Hometown: Maghar.

Birth

Mosa Abed Al Fattah Mohammed Al Ghriz was born in 1968. His roots back to "Maghar", which was occupied in 1948. He was brave since his childhood. His mother died since he was a child and he never saw her. His father raised him on the good manner and virtue. He was careful to obey his father.

Education

He finished his primary and preparatory studying in UNRWA schools in Rafah. He finished his high school with high marks. But the difficult situation didn’t give him the opportunity to continue his studying . He got married to his cousin. He has five children, one of them is disable. He worked in a social association that was interested in helping the poor families.

In Al Qassam Brigades

He joined to Al Qassam brigades in the first intifada in 1987. the brigades leadership saw his courage and his commitment so they agreed to let him a member in the Brigades. He participated in defending many areas in Rafah as "Al Salam", "Brazil" neighborhoods, and the east side of Rafah. He was the friend of the martyrs "Ayed Al Bashity" and "Yousif Al Mallahi".

Life full of actions

He participated in digging many tunnels as " Hardon" military location, "Tarmid" military location near Salah Eddeen gate in Rafah. Mosa participated in sniping the Zionist soldiers on the border. He also was watching the Zionist vehicles near Al Salam neighborhood. He shared in digging a tunnel for Rafah cross. His friends said that he was always ready for any an emergency situation. They added "he was a leader".

Interested actions in his life

He was guarding his neighborhood. Suddenly, a man come and started to shout on him. And pronounced with bad words towards Mosa. But Mosa didn’t become nervous. He talked to him quietly. The man understood why Mosa and his friends stood in that position.

Before Martyrdom

Before a day of his martyrdom, he came back to house and found that his children playing with the family pictures. He stand and said" don’t play with it, you will need it ". He told his elder son "keep the land, even if the Zionist army destroyed the house". He said to his wife " today is the last day" as he was knowing that he is going to be a martyr.

The martyrdom day

Mosa went to execute a mission against Zionist tank. He went with two of his friends to shell RBG rocket toward the tank. The rocket wrongly exploded and caused his martyrdom .

Don't you love happy endings?

I'm only disappointed that they didn't provide the date that he met with his virgins so I could verify that I had counted him as one of the PalArab self-deaths.

Man kills sister in Gaza in an "honor killing"

From PCHR:

On Tuesday morning, 9 May 2007, the Palestinian police arrested ‘Alaa’ ‘Owaida after he had murdered his sister in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah allegedly to save “ his family honor.”

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 02:00 on Tuesday, 9 May 2007, the police arrived at a house in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in the west of Rafah after receiving information that a woman was killed for “family honor.” The police found the body of Khawla Ahmed ‘Owaida, 35, inside the house. She was killed by a gunshot to the head. Her brother, 32-year-old ‘Alaa’, confessed committing the crime to save his “family honor,” and the police arrested him.

This brings our count of PalArab victims of PalArab violence this year up to 198; 16 of them women.

Time to show that PalArab peace flag again:

UPDATE: A 32-year old. Salim Al-Sharabi, shot dead in Nablus by those "unknown gunmen." 199.

Also a clan clash in Gaza; 9 injured, one critical.

Burning down charities? No biggie!

An interesting follow-up on the UN Gaza school shooting Sunday:

Unknown gunmen have burnt a charitable association affiliated to the fundamentalist 'Salafi' Islamic group in Rafah refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip.

One of the Salafi group's spokesmen said in a phone call with Ma'an that the association had been totally burnt down with no injuries.

At the same time, the condemnations continue of the attack on a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, in Rafah on Sunday. Armed men opened fire on the school during a celebration, attended by high-level UNRWA staff, which the Salafi group considered to be contrary to Islamic traditions.

So the revenge that PalArabs exact against the Salafists who are suspected of the school violence is to burn down their charity organization building.

And while everyone is condemning the attack at the school, nobody says a word of condemnation for this little bit of arson.

Which means that either Arabs burning Arab charities is not very important news, or that even Palestinian Arabs know that some charities are not really charities.

Hamas lie of the day

The Hamas Al Qassam website asks "Why does Al Qassam target civilians?"

The answer? It doesn't!

Sheikh Salah Shehada , the first general leader of Al-Qassam Brigades , was asked "What is the criteria of a selecting any target? And what do you say about killing civilians?"

He replied " We do not deliberately target children, the elderly or houses of worship despite them being houses that teach hatred against Muslims. We do not target schools and do not order the killing of children. We do not target hospitals although they are easy targets for us. We do not fight Jews because they are Jews. We fight them because they occupy our land. We don’t fight them for their faith but for taking our land. And if children fall during operations, it is beyond our control.

I leave it as an exercise for the reader to see if Hamas ever targeted civilians.

Today's Kasrils hypocrisy

The more one reads of Ronnie Kasrils, the South African "intelligence" minister, the more one sees what a complete hypocrite he is.

Today:

A South African cabinet minister, who is himself Jewish but also an outspoken critic of Israel, on Monday defended his invitation to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to make his first visit outside the Muslim world, saying it was "myopic" to reject opportunities for dialogue.

Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils provoked controversy last week when he extended the invitation during a visit to the Palestinian territories. He said South Africa's own experience showed the need to talk to all sides.

"Those who myopically object to such invitations merely show that they have learnt nothing from South Africa's transition," Kasrils said in a statement.

"Such logic as they espouse would not have allowed (apartheid era president) PW Botha to have met with the imprisoned (Nelson) Mandela nor his release by (former president) FW De Klerk as a partner in negotiations."

Yet I could not find in his itinerary that he attempted to visit Israel or speak to any Israeli government official while he was in the area. Isn't that strange from someone who extols the virtues of "dialogue"?

In fact, in 2002 in an astoundingly bigoted Al Ahram interview, he said:

I was invited several times to visit Israel and I declined because of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

I guess that his belief in "dialogue" does not apply when he disagrees with the people who would like to speak to him.

Ein al-Hilweh: The proto-Gaza

Lest anyone think that the chaos in Gaza that intensified after Israel left the area is an anomaly, let us present Ain al-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian Arab "refugee" camp in Lebanon.

Ain al-Hilweh, which literally means "the eye of beauty," is a camp in Lebanon that holds 70,000 PalArabs in only 1.25 square kilometers. And the Lebanese army refuses to enter this camp.

To know how Gaza will turn out should see how Ain al-Hilweh is doing after decades of purely Palestinian Arab rule.

For years this camp has seen assassinations, huge amounts of crime, and Islamic fundamentalist influence. The PLO nominally led the camp from 1969 until a few years ago when the fundamentalists took over. For the past few years it has been considered the center of Lebanon's Al Qaeda faction. Just today, two more Fatah "officers" were assassinated in that camp. At this time there are no fewer than 5 competing groups trying to take over this hellhole.

Is it a coincidence that when you put a lot of Palestinian Arabs in an enclosed area that, rather than trying to make the best of the situation, they start acting like animals?

If I find the time, I intend to write an article to explain why they act the way they do.

I wonder if Disney will sue

The Disney company, famous for jealously guarding its trademarks, may have to decide what to do about Farfur, the Islamic Domination Mouse:

On a Hamas children's show, Farfur and his child co-host Saraa' say things that may have been beyond Walt's original vision:

Farfur: "We are setting with you the cornerstone for world leadership under Islamic leadership. Isn't it so, Saraa'?"

Saraa': "Yes, our beloved children.

Farfur: "You must be careful regarding your prayer and to go to the mosque for all five [daily] prayers. I say, in the mosque and in the first rows, until we can lead the world."

Saraa': "We remind you that we, the great ones, started this program to lead this world. The nucleus, with the will of Allah, will be from here, from Palestine. We will carry the concern of this [Islamic] nation that awaits us."

Farfur: "From Palestine, oh Saraa', what do you mean? From Gaza, Jerusalem, Ramallah, or from all of Palestine?"

Saraa': "Yes, from all of Palestine" [i.e., all of Israel -- editor].

Farfur: "If so, my beloved young ones, with the will of Allah, we will lead the nation from here, from Palestine."

Saraa': "Our beloved children, many say that we had glory [in the past], and we had culture, and the Muslims had greatness and respect. But with the will of Allah, we, tomorrow's pioneers, will restore the glory of this nation."

Farfur: "Yes, we, tomorrow's pioneers, will restore to this nation its glory, and we will liberate Al-Aqsa, with Allah's will, and we will liberate Iraq, with Allah's will, and we will liberate the Muslim countries, invaded by murderers."

Saraa': "Yes, they are children occupied by the Jews, but with the will of Allah, we will resist and protect against the Zionist occupation."

Farfur: "Until we win, with the will of Allah, we will resist until we win."
[Al-Aqsa TV, April 16, 2007]

You can watch the zany antics of Farfur here.

The PLO blames the Joos for journalist violence

Lying is like breathing to members of the PLO:

Bethlehem – Ma'an – The Department of Arab and International Relations of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (DAIR-PLO) on Sunday issued a press release urging that "Israeli Occupation crimes against the Journalists must be halted."

The statement said that Israel has escalated its crimes against local and international journalists and media organisations. DAIR reported that Israeli measures greatly disrupt and often severely endanger the lives of journalists in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Journalists, DAIR reported, are often held for hours at checkpoints, denied entry to military zones and are subject to arrest, physical abuse and assassinations.

DAIR says that the Palestinian territories are the second most dangerous place for journalists internationally, after Iraq.

DAIR concluded its statement by declaring that it "calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Alan Johnston, the Palestinians' ally, such crimes serve only the Israeli occupation, and oppose the Palestinian interests in peace and freedom."

Just last week the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms published a report about the dangers journalists face in the territories:

It said at least 12 Palestinian journalists were wounded in attacks by militiamen, thugs and Palestinian Authority security officers during April.
...Referring to the attacks on the journalists by Palestinians, the center said: "What is dangerous about these assaults is that they are often carried out by guards of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Palestinian prime minister. It's also worth noting that some Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank are trying to copy the assaults that are taking place in the Gaza Strip by attacking journalists and media institutions.
...
According to the report, six Palestinian journalists were wounded after being beaten by bodyguards accompanying PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City on April 2.
On April 10, Palestinian gunmen stormed the studios of the Zein Radio Station in Jenin and destroyed all the equipment, the report said. A week later, another six journalists were wounded when security officers attacked a peaceful demonstration outside the building of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
On April 21, prominent Palestinian writer and journalist Ashraf Ajrami was moderately wounded when Hamas militiamen hurled a hand grenade at him near his home in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
The center expressed deep concern over the safety of the BBC correspondent, noting that this was the longest abduction of a foreigner in the Gaza Strip. (I guess Gilad Shalit isn't a foreigner - EoZ) "The fact that he has been held for so long [since March 12] raises doubts as to whether the Palestinian Authority is making a serious effort to release him," the report noted.
"Palestinian journalists are living under very bad conditions," commented the independent Palestinian Maan news agency. "They are being beaten and their equipment is being destroyed. They are receiving death threats and some have been kidnapped."

So who is making the journalists' lives more difficult? The ones kidnapping them, threatening and stealing their equipment, or the ones who sometimes delay them at checkpoints?

Leftists lying with numbers

I just read this gem of an article at a bizarre leftist site called MWCNews.net, by a Dr. Gideon Polya:

THE HUGE HUMAN COST OF ISRAEL
Using UN Population Division data [1] it has been possible to calculate the avoidable mortality (technically, excess mortality) for every country in the World since 1950. Avoidable mortality (excess mortality) is the difference between the ACTUAL mortality in a country and the mortality EXPECTED for a decently-run country with the same demographics [2]. The post-1950 avoidable mortality has totalled 1.3 billion for the World, 1.2 billion for the non-European World and 0.6 billion for the Muslim World (a Muslim Holocaust indeed). These horrendous figures are corroborated by independent calculations of under-5 infant mortality for every country in the World since 1950 - thus the total comes to 0.9 billion of which all but 25 million deaths have occurred in the non-European World and about 90% have been avoidable.

The First World (notably the US, UK, France, Portugal and Russia) have had major complicity in the huge avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality in the Third World in the post-war era, mainly through impositions such as colonialism, neo-colonialism, malignant interference, militarization, debt, corrupt indigenous client regimes, war, civil war, economic exclusion and economic constraint [2]. Analysis of avoidable mortality (excess mortality) can determine the actual human cost of specific militarist enterprises such as illegal Zionist expansion in the Holy Land and the illegal US invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

What has been the human cost of Israel and US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan?

The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality (and expressed as a percentage of the current population in parentheses) has been 0.1 million [1.4% of the 2005 population] (Israel), 0.7 million [17.7%] (Occupied Palestinian Territories), 19.8 million [26.5%] (Egypt), 0.6 million [11.0%] (Jordan), 0.5 million [14.2%] (Lebanon), and 2.2 million [11.8%] (Syria). Further, the 1950-2005 avoidable mortality in countries attacked but not occupied by Israel has been 5.3 million [19.9%] (Iraq), 0.8 million [13.6%] (Libya), 1.6 million [15.8%] (Tunisia), and 11.1 million [40.3%] (Uganda).

The 1950-2005 under-5 infant mortality (and expressed as a percentage of the current population in parentheses) has been 0.09 million [1.4%] (Israel), 0.3 million [7.7%] (Occupied Palestinian Territories), 14.1 million [18.9%] (Egypt), 0.3 million [5.8%] (Jordan), 0.2 million [6.3%] (Lebanon), and 1.7 million [9.2%] (Syria). Further, the 1950-2005 avoidable mortality in countries attacked but not occupied by Israel has been 3.4 million [13.0%] (Iraq), 0.6 million [10.9%](Libya), 1.6 million [15.8%] (Tunisia) and 6.3 million [22.8%] (Uganda).{mosgoogle right}

The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality in Israel's neighbours total 23.9 million and 16.7 million, respectively. The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality in all countries Israel has attacked militarily total 42.6 million and 28.7 million, respectively (these estimates excluding the USA by setting aside the 1967 Israeli attack on the defenceless USS Liberty that killed 34 Americans and wounded a further 172)

Threat, militarization, war and consequent economic distortion have clearly contributed to the horrendous avoidable mortality in countries with which Israel has been in conflict. While Israel is clearly complicit in the huge avoidable mortality in its neighbours, the actual extent of Israel's responsibility is difficult to assess. However the Ruler is responsible for the Ruled and accordingly Israel has an unequivocal responsibility for the avoidable mortality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the Israeli invasion in 1967. Using UN Population Division data [1] it has been estimated that the post-1967 avoidable mortality (excess mortality) and under-5 infant mortality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been 320,000 and 170,000, respectively.

It goes on and on, but the gist of it is that the difference between the mortality of Palestinian Arabs and what he thinks the expected mortality of Palestinian Arabs comes out to some arbitrary number of about a half million.

The holes in his theory are larger than the numbers he is claiming.

First of all, he is blaming the mortality of third-world countries on first world countries. Practically all of what he terms "avoidable mortality" occur in poorer countries, and he lists a litany of sins to blame the West for almost all of them. In other words, he first has a thesis that all Third World deaths are the West's fault, and then he tries to find any numbers he can to prove it. This is not science - this is activism pretending to be science.

Secondly, his main sources are the UN World Population Database and his own website. The UN provides raw population data but gives no indication of "expected mortality." Those numbers, according to his footnotes, can be found on his own website, and a quick review of his website shows literally no statistics to back his claims up. He is so dishonest that he writes articles, footnotes his own work and doesn't give any indication of any primary sources for his entire major statistic.

If anything, the UN statistics on infant mortality in the Palestinian Arab territories show an amazing drop in infant mortality during that horrid "occupation" from 125 per 1000 births in 1965 to 25 per 1000 in 2000.

And, assuming PalArab population figures are accurate, I calculated 1.6 million more PalArabs alive today because of Israel!

Now, I am no statistician nor a demographer. (I suspect that the PalArab demographic claims are way overstated and therefore my numbers are as well.) But - surprise, surprise - neither is Polya. Even though he writes lots of articles based on this completely bogus and probably imaginary statistics, his PhD is in biochemistry and his BS was in zoology and chemistry.

In other words, we have an Australian professor at a German university, who is not a mathematician, statistician or demographer, who clearly already has rabid anti-Western views, making up statistics and giving them to people who know nothing about mathematics where they happily reproduce it as if it proves, scientifically, that the West is evil incarnate.

Sadly, this travesty of science and mathematics seems to be more the norm in the liberal world than the exception.

Bishara's hypocrisy

I finally got around to reading Azmi Bishara's self-righteous article that was printed in the LA Times titled "Why Israel is After Me."

Along with the absurd fact that he compares himself with Dreyfus, he pretty much says that Arabs in Israel are discriminated against and his mentioning it is what makes Israel uncomfortable, to the point of wanting him arrested for treason.

As ridiculous as it is to read a (now former) Arab member of the Jewish state's Knesset whine about how hard his life is, one must wonder about the hypocrisy of his mentioning that there are various laws in Israel that favor Jews over Arabs (I'm not sure if allowing Arabs to skip army service is considered one of those laws.)

The draft PA constitution includes the following:

Palestine is part of the Arab nation. The state of Palestine abides by the charter of the League of Arab States. The Palestinian people are part of the Arab and Islamic nations. Arab unity is a goal, the Palestinian people hopes to achieve.

Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion.

The principles of Islamic Shari’a are a major source for legislation.

When I hear Bishara complain about these parts of the PA constitution (draft as of 2003, before Hamas entered the government) I can believe that he truly cares about discrimination.

And for those who care, here is the background of the case against Bishara:

If Bishara returns, he will be indicted for spying on behalf of Hezbollah during the second Lebanon war by providing them with with targets for their attacks, as well as with classified military information.

Bishara will be accused of assisting the enemy in a time of war, maintaining contact with a foreign agent, passing information to an enemy, money laundering and terrorist financing.

The first of those charges, assisting the enemy in a time of war, is one of the rare offenses punishable by death in Israel - a clause which has never been used.
Bishara did not make contact with Hezbollah in secret. He openly traveled to Damascus and to Beirut during the Hezbollah missile attacks on Israel last summer.

Israeli intelligence officials have placed their hands on what the former MK allegedly transferred to Hezbollah, in terms of information, predictions, assessments and recommendations, which included selected targets in northern Israel that Hezbollah fired on at the specific instructions of Bishara.

It has now been revealed that the Israeli Supreme Court issued confidential authorization to Israeli intelligence to tap Bishara's telephone conversations, a tactic that can only be employed with the court's approval. The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the office of the Israel Attorney-General's office.

According to Israeli intelligence officials, Bishara received detailed missions from Hezbollah, which he carried out.

He also allegedly transferred military information to Hezbollah that, according to Israeli intelligence, he knew to have been classified by the IDF censor. Bishara also allegedly informed Hezbollah of what he called "Israel's intention to target Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah."

Bishara was questioned by the Israel Police's International Serious Crimes Unit on March 22 and 23 in Petah Tikva, in two three-hour sessions.

ISCU head Lt.-Cmdr. Amichai Shai said Bishara was confident when he arrived for the first day of questioning. But when the MK understood that the allegations against him were more serious than he had thought, there was a noticeable change in his behavior.

During the questioning, Bishara said he planned to travel abroad for several days. Due to his parliamentary immunity, authorities were unable to prevent him from leaving the country. Police continued to communicate with Bishara's representatives, extending the deadline for the MK's return until April 24.

Bishara is also accused of receiving at least hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally. The money was transferred from a money-exchange office in Jordan to another in east Jerusalem in envelopes, and from there to his home in Beit Hanina. In some cases, he received the funds in dollars, and in other cases in shekels. Each transfer was equivalent to $50,000.

On April 26, after his resignation went into effect, police searched Bishara's homes in Beit Hanina and in Haifa, as well as his office in Nazareth. Earlier this week, police searched Bishara's office in the Knesset after receiving special permission.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Bishara tried to defend himself in an op-ed entitled, "Why Israel is after me."

In that LA Times piece, Bishara describes himself as a new "Dreyfus," to conjure up the image of the French Jewish officer Dreyfus who was wrongly accused of treason against his homeland in France.

Yet Bishara, given the platform of the LA Times editorial page, does not refute the charges leveled against him, preferring, instead, to point out that "Hezbollah - Israel's enemy in Lebanon - has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide."

HH CXV + CoH LII

This week's Haveil Havalim is hosted by BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS, and while I did nominate one posting this week, Barbara also mentions another.

Check it out!

I also nominated a posting of mine that appeared in the Carnival of History this month. (I nominated an article for the Carnival of Insanities but we'll see if it made it in.)

Palestinian militants opened fire at a festival at a U.N.-operated elementary school in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing a bodyguard of a local Fatah leader and wounding seven other people, medical officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Muslim extremists had earlier visited the school, warning authorities not to hold the festival, U.N. and security officials said.

A number of foreigners, including John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, were inside the school when the shooting broke out, a U.N. official said. Ging was not hurt, but remained holed up inside the school, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Palestinian medical officials identified the dead man as a bodyguard of Majid Abu Shameleh, a senior official in President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. Abu Shameleh was leaving the event when the shooting erupted. No children were hurt.

Isn't it lovely to see PalArabs attack the one organization that helps them the most? UNRWA only exists for them. (Paltoday says that people threw hand grenades at the festival.)

In other news, an alleged "collaborator" was extrajudicially executed:

Sabri Rajawi, 26, was murdered Saturday night by Fatah terrorists who claimed he confessed to helping Israel by passing information about Fatah’s terrorist groups.

Members of Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigades said Rajawi helped Israel arrest local terrorist leaders and even established a terror cell solely to turn over its members to Israeli security forces.

A second PA man was handed over to one of Hamas’s PA militias.

There may have been a third murder this weekend, as PalArabs claim Israel killed an Arab in Gaza but no independent source verifies any Israeli actions there. But that story may have been made up altogether, as the dead man was not identified.

Our count of PalArabs violently killed by PalArab actions for the year now stands at 196.

Which makes this picture from IMEMC one of the most unintentionally ironic graphics in history:

UPDATE: The body of a Jerusalem Arab missing since last Wednesday was found in Ramallah on Monday. 197.

G.ho.st - what peace should look like

An Israeli Jewish entrepreneur and his Palestinian Arab partner have created an interesting Internet company called g.ho.st which is a virtual Web-based operating system. Right now it is in alpha test so it is a bit rough around the edges, a bit slow an it doesn't have too much functionality. But the purpose is to be able to have a computer desktop that is accessible anywhere there is a web browser.

What is interesting is that almost all of his employees are Israeli Arabs or Palestinian Arabs.

An abbreviation of Global Hosted Operating System, G.ho.st is a free 'Virtual Computer' - a Web-based operating system that allows users to access their on-line desktop from any browser. G.ho.st aims to "to complement and eventually replace Windows", according to its Website.

Israeli internet entrepreneur Zvi Shreiber is the founder and chief architect of the project which he privately funded, partly using profits from the lucrative sale of his company Unicorn to IBM.

With offices in Jerusalem and Ramallah, almost all of G.ho.st's 15 employees are of Palestinian or Israeli Arab origin.

In an interview with Ynet, Shreiber said that he was the mastermind behind the original idea for G.ho.st and he met his Palestinian business partner Tareq Maayah through a common acquaintance.

Academically educated in the United States, Maayah gained expertise in the field serving as CEO of Siemens Information and Communication Technologies and on the Advisory Board to the Palestinian Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.

G.ho.st and its team support collaboration – not just on-line but in real life as well.

Shreiber and Maayah don't just prove that co-existence is possible, they promote the idea financially as well, pledging 10 percent of earnings to the non-profit G.ho.st Peace Foundation. Their goal is "to promote peace in the Middle East through grass-roots social and commercial collaboration between the individuals on both sides," the Website says.

We have seen that much of the incentive that Palestinian Arabs have for weapons tunnels and shooting rockets is financial, not political or religious. Israelis have always grasped what Arab leaders have not - that true peace means real normalization and real economic partnerships that are mutually beneficial. The "golden age" of Palestinian Arabs was during Oslo - not because of the illusory "peace" but because they were economically better off than at any other time of their short history. The Intifada was a disaster for them because it devastated their economy.

Money makes the world go 'round, and any real peace, if it is at all possible, will occur because of the win-win that an economic relationship can encourage. An Internet-based company where people can work in virtual space is an ideal place to start because physical security is not a concern (no doubt network security is a concern, but those issues can be addressed.)

I look forward to seeing if g.ho.st can turn into a real, usable virtual OS.

Flip side of zero-sum game shows true hypocrisy

I mentioned previously that even educated Arabs, and many Israel bashers, look at the Arab-Israeli conflict as a zero-sum game, where anything good for Israel is bad for Arabs and vice-versa. Truly progressive people want to find "win-win" solutions where everyone ends up better off. True peace is "win-win," the "peace process" is guaranteed to be a win-lose.

Ronnie Kasrils, the "intelligence" minister for South Africa, has long berated Israel for many perceived crimes:

How much longer will the world permit Israel to get away with land theft and child murder? The sieges and check-points, the collective punishment and targeted executions, the house demolitions and ethnic cleansing...

Taking these absurd accusations at face value, one would think that Kasrils is against land theft, child murder, checkpoints, targeted executions and so on.

Yet now he is inviting Hamas leader Haniyeh to South Africa:

South Africa has invited Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to visit this country, in what would be his first trip outside the Muslim world.
Haniyeh would like to meet Nelson Mandela during the trip, according to a Haniyeh aide.
The invitation was issued by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, who met Haniyeh in Gaza City yesterday.

"We stand by you and support you," Kasrils said of the new Palestinian unity government, a coalition of Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Now, is Kasrils so uneducated as to not know that Hamas practices routine assassinations, targets Jewish children, steals land, encourages children to kill themselves, persecutes Christians, practices misogyny, condones "honor killings," shoots rockets indiscriminately at civilians, and who knows how many other crimes?

Of course he knows that. So it is clear that his problem is not with Israeli crimes, but with Israel itself. If it wasn't, he would be against Hamas' existence as he is against Israel's.

But his worldview, like the mentally defective Arab worldview, is that the conflict is a zero-sum game. And if he is against Israel, then he must be on the side of those who want to see Israel destroyed.

All his talk about Israel's "crimes" and "racism" is so much hypocrisy - his hate came way before his illogical justifications for that hate, and his invitation to a terror group to visit his nation as an honored member of the world community proves that beyond a doubt.

Another infant girl shot in the head

No biggie, though - because it wasn't done by Israel:

A 7-month-old girl, Shahed Khalil, was seriously injured on Friday as a result of gunfire from unidentified armed men in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Palestinian sources reported that the infant was shot in the head while she was in her house. She was transferred from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya to Ash-Shifa' Hospital in Gaza City.

As usual, if Shahed Khalil should die, it will probably go unreported in the PalArab press, because it really isn't that important.

If she had been shot by a stray Israeli bullet, though, she would have music videos made about her martyrdom.

Life isn't important in Pallywood - your status is defined by how you die.

Worth reading

Zionist Youngster writes a huge riff on an earlier article of mine.
Soccer Dad compares Tom Friedman to Scrappleface
Omri is a bit concerned about when British law will be replaced with Shari'a

Sheikh Qaradawi praises Israel

I had never seen this MEMRI clip from last year. It features Sheikh Yousuf Qaradhawi, an explicit supporter of suicide bombings in fatwa after fatwa, slamming Arabs for their laziness and backhandedly praising Israel:

Dr. Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: We use trains and planes, but they are not our trains or planes. The (Westerners) manufacture them and export them to us. True, we can buy the most magnificent things in the world products for our homes and for ourselves. Our people can buy the most luxurious cars, Rolls-Royce or Mercedes 500 or 700, models S, M, and L with all the luxuries. We own them, but we don't manufacture them. We don't even produce a single nail in any of these cars. Others do this for us.

The income of the entire Arab world, including the oil-producing countries, does not reach the that of a European country, such as Spain. Spain – let alone Germany, France, Britain, or Italy. Just Spain, which is at the bottom of the list of industrial countries... The income of the entire Arab world does not reach it. How come? Because we don't work, and if we do work, we don't do it professionally.

They conducted a survey of the average time that a government employee spends working in a certain Arab country. The average was 27 minutes a day. 27 minutes! The rest of the time he drinks coffee, reads newspapers, and goes on errands here and there. Only a small number of people work. The rest do not.

In the mid 1970s I went to Germany. We arrived during in the morning. I asked the guy who took me from the airport to the convention hall… As I was passing through the empty streets, I asked him how come the streets were not busy, like in our countries. He said: "People are at work." After 7 p.m. he took me back to the hotel, and the streets were empty. I said to him: "What's going on, the streets are empty again." He said: people are back home from work, and they are exhausted. All they want is to eat their dinner, watch the news, and then go to bed, because early next morning they have to wake up for hard work. They commute more than an hour to work and back, and spend an hour at lunch. They work non-stop.

We are a nation that doesn't work. How can we develop if we don't work? When we do work, we don't do it professionally. We keep saying "Don't worry, later, later…" Islam teaches us to do things professionally. Doing things professionally is a religious duty. The Prophet said that Allah ordered to excel in everything. He imposed excellence and professionalism. Professionalism must be followed in everything. "If you kill, do it properly, and if you slaughter, do it properly." Even when killing, you must do well.

Unfortunately, we do not excel in either military or civil industries. We import everything from needles to missiles. This is our nation. We still haven't manufactured an engine in our Arab countries. We assemble parts, but have no manufacturing industries. India has manufactured a car, and even a plane, while we still go around in circles like a bull in who turns a grinding mill or a water wheel until it reaches exactly where it started.

How come the Zionist gang has managed to be superior to us, despite being so few? It has become superior through knowledge, through technology, and through strength. It has become superior to us through work. We had the desert before our eyes but we didn't do anything with it. When they took over, they turned it into a green oasis. How can a nation that does not work progress? How can it grow?