Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Teaching the "Naqba" to Israeli Arabs - and Jews

YNet reports:

The Education Ministry has authorized Arab schools to use a history book featuring the establishing of the State of Israel as a disastrous to the Palestinians, Israel radio published Sunday.

The third-grade book, Living together in Israel, states that some Arab residents were driven out of their homes and became refugees and that Israel confiscated many of their lands.

The book's authors made it a point to state that it was the Arabs that refused the United Nations offer to divide the land between the Palestinian and the Jews (UN resolution 181), while the Jews accepted it.

"When the war ended, the Jews prevailed and Israel and its neighbors signed a truce… the Arabs call the war the 'Nakba', meaning the war of disaster and destruction. The Jews call it the War of Independence."
...
Tamir's decision sparked harsh criticism: National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to fire Tamir immediately saying her decision was "anti-Zionist and goes against the very existence of Israel as a Jewish state."

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman slammed Tamir's decision as well "Tamir is like Avraham Burg. She expresses not only the post-Zionist spirit but also political masochism. The political left is constantly looking for ways to justify the other side, when we have nothing to apologize for."

Both sides are wrong.

It is impossible to be completely objective when writing anything, and schoolbooks are no exception. The overriding concern when writing schoolbooks must be the truth, an important secondary concern must be that the children are being taught to be good citizens of the nation that they belong to.

As my continuing Palestinian Arab history series shows, 1948 was a catastrophe for most Arabs in Palestine. But the reason that it was so disastrous for them was not because the Jews managed to avoid being pushed into the sea as the combined Arab world so fervently desired. The reason it was a Naqba was because the Arabs of Palestine were treated like dirt by their own leaders and by the leaders of the Arab world. They were used as pawns by Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem, for his own aggrandizement and anti-semitic aims; they were used as pawns by the Arab League, they were used as pawns by the Arab nations who committed them to refugee camps, and (as we will see as the series continues, iy"h) they were and are continuing to be used by the UNRWA for its own self-preservation. (From the pan-Arab perspective, 1948 was also a tragedy - because weak dhimmi Jews winning a war against the proud Arab nation was the ultimate disgrace. Histories must emphasize the honor/shame society of Arabs as well in explaining why this was a "naqba.")

No one should discount the fact that Israel did end up destroying many Arab villages after 1948 but at the same time no one should disregard that the reasons that most of the Arabs fled were more due to fear of fighting in general and the conviction that other Arab nations would take care of them rather than from any sort of Zionist policy of expulsion. Yes, most Arabs ended up leaving their homes - that should not be denied - but the context can and must be taught. Israel has little to be ashamed of in the 1948 war, as the infant Zionist state had to make decisions to ensure its survival first. The proven examples of how Zionists tried to stop Arabs from leaving Haifa , how outside Arab armies forced the Arab residents to leave Tiberias, how the residents of Abu Ghosh aimed at peaceful relations with the Jews, - all these need to be taught, just as Deir Yassin must be taught in the proper context for the right age groups.

Classic Zionist histories have ignored some events that muddy the waters in the Paul Newman/"Exodus"-style histories. "Post-Zionist" histories have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction, blaming the Jews for events that overtook them and for decisions that had to be made quickly in the context of their very survival (as well as looking at 1948 through the lens of 21st century multiculturalism.) The truth must be the main concern when writing textbooks, and both sides have not spent nearly enough effort describing what the Arabs of 1948 knew on their own - the major reason for Palestinian Arab suffering is their treatment by their Arab "brethren" and self-anointed "leaders," and to a large extent this remains true today.

There is no reason why the true story of 1948 cannot be taught, warts and all, to Israeli Arabs and to Israeli Jews. In the end, when one looks at the facts, Israel's War of Independence is nothing to be ashamed of.

Freedom of the press, Saudi-style

The Saudi-based Arab News notes:

A 49-year-old Makkah institution was bailed out of financial troubles with a SR10 million cash infusion from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s personal account yesterday.

Al-Nadwa, which has chronicled the daily life of Islam’s holiest city in modern times, has been unable to meet payroll for the past three months, according to Hesham Kaaki, the 30-year-old editor in chief of the newspaper.

“King Abdullah ordered the payment of the amount to the Al-Nadwa newspaper from his personal account to help it overcome its current financial crisis,” said Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency.

The culture and information minister said that the kind gesture is proof of the king’s support for the Kingdom’s media. Madani added that he hopes the newspaper will regain its glory and competitiveness through the king’s donation.

And we are all sure that Al-Nadwa will continue its hard-hitting editorial policies with this cash infusion from the King.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

The bodies of three women were found, stabbed and strangled to death, in the Gaza Strip. There are reports that it is a mother and two daughters but the names nor the ages have been released yet (the news was in Ma'an Arabic and Palestine Press Agency - Arabic. As of this moment it has not hit any English news sites.)

Since I don't know the ages, I will count them all as women in the 2007 PalArab self-death count, now at 490.

UPDATE: Ma'an English adds more detail:

Gaza – Ma'an – A jeep disposed of three corpses in a deserted area of Deir al Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, and attempted to cover the bodies in soil, reported eyewitnesses and Palestinian security sources on Sunday.

The Hamas-affiliated Executive Force and medical staff discovered the bodies of three females. The cadavers were transported to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah.

According to Palestinian medical sources, there was evidence of knife wounds and suffocation on the corpses.

A Palestinian security source informed Ma'an that the corpses were identified as three sisters aged between 17 and 22. One of the women was married to a resident of Deir al Balah, the others lived in Gaza City.

UPDATE 2: A car was blown up in Gaza, and another person died from the Fatah/Hamas infighting last month. 491.

The effectiveness of a "goodwill gesture"

From Ma'an:

Minister of detainees' affairs, Ashraf Ajrami, has said that the release of 255 Palestinian prisoners, "is a very small step, and is not enough, especially when there are over 11,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails".

Can't you just feel the appreciation?

"The Elders" have done their first good deed

Looking at the pompous, self-righteous website of "The Elders" I at least got something good out of it:

A neat looking logo that I ripped off.

Unfortunately, I may be running afoul of their enlightened and progressive Terms and Conditions:

We own, or are the licensee of, the intellectual property rights in the content of our site, including text, photos, graphic designs, images, audio, video recordings and any data entered or submitted by you.

ELDERS and the Elders’ logo are trade marks owned by us and The Virgin Foundation, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 02155645 and whose registered address is at Hanover House, 14 Hanover Square, London W1S 1HP.

For styling themselves as Elders of a Global Village, this seems sort of petty. Real Elders elicit respect from their actions, fake Elders demand it from others.

Pure Jew-hatred from Hamas Russian website

As much as Hamas claims to not have any problems with Jews, only Zionists, the facts show otherwise.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Israel has looked at Hamas' websites in multiple languages, and noticed that the Russian Hamas site is filled with venomous Jew-hatred, much of it recycled from Iran.

The Russian version of Palestine-info, supported by Russian Internet companies, carries a large number of anti-Semitic (and anti-Western) cartoons which do not appear on the portal's other language sites. In our assessment that is because Hamas' propaganda policy is based on the assumption that the Russian-speaking target audiences (in Russia and the independent republics in Central Asia ) are ripe for anti-Semitic and anti-Western propaganda. It also stems from the expectation that such cartoons can promote the absorption and assimilation of other Hamas' messages of radical Islam, support for terrorism, hostility toward the United States.

Looking at the site itself indeed shows the anti-semitic cartoons taken from Iran's Holocaust cartoon collection. The "Israelis" portrayed almost invariably sport large noses, and the beards, payos and clothing of the European shtetl - exactly how Jews were portrayed in Nazi literature.

A glance at the autotranslated Russian site shows also that the word "Jews" is used interchangeably with "Zionists" and "Israelis", without the care that anti-semites normally use in trying to distinguish between the groups. There are three headlines on the main page saying "Jews demolished houses," for example.

Hamas, knowing of the latent anti-semitism endemic in Russia, is purposefully fanning the flames of Jew hatred there in order to score propaganda points.

(h/t EBoZ)

Some of the prisoners released were Hamas members

While Israel stated that none of the 255 prisoners released in a "goodwill gesture" were affiliated with Hamas, it turns out that many were.

YNet reports that 30 were members of Hamas, 2 more from Islamic Jihad, and as many as 38 from PFLP and DFLP. In addition:

According to the guidelines approved earlier in the week by a special Israeli governmental committee headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the prisoners release do not have any "blood on their hands".

Those released were jailed for lesser charges, including weapons trafficking, illegal possession of firearms, belonging to an illegal organization, attempted murder, attempted manslaughter and aiding and abetting fugitives.

While technically people who failed in their attempts to kill Jews may not have "blood on their hands," it is the height of folly to allow them to get another chance. In fact, their motivation to return to terror has increased, as their earlier failures can be seen as shameful that must be avenged.

Even though Hamas members were released, they are also being greeted personally by Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Israel's Justice Ministry admits that 17% of released prisoners end up resuming terror activities. This means that at least 42 of the released prisoners can be expected to terrorize again.

Since the intifada began, 179 Israelis have been killed by former prisoners released in earlier deals.

To the current Israeli government, a goodwill gesture is something that puts Israeli citizens at risk for their lives - all to prop up an impotent Abbas who allowed Hamas to win Gaza without a fight.

Saudi "summer marriages": another form of legalized Muslim prostitution

From Arab News:

JEDDAH, 20 July 2007 — The summer season is known as a primetime for male Saudi tourists to marry women from other countries while on holiday abroad. These marriages are generally unplanned. Most men undergo such marriages with an intention of enjoying their vacation in the company of women who are “religiously” legal for them.
The marriages are ones of convenience. While men look for fun, the women are usually experiencing financial difficulties and see summer marriages as a way to be spoilt and have money spent on them. The real victims of such marriages are their children.
According to Abdullah Al-Hamoud, chairman of Awasser, a Saudi charity that looks after the welfare of Saudi families abroad, the Kingdom protects the rights of children from marriages between Saudi men and non-Saudi women. He added that such marriages are usually done without the prior-permission of the Interior Ministry. (Saudi law demands Saudis seek permission when marrying abroad).
“Such marriages are not only restricted to the summer season,” he said. “They happen throughout the year. Sometimes Saudi husbands don’t want to bring their foreign wives to the Kingdom. They prefer keeping them outside the Kingdom and frequently fly abroad to visit them,” he added.
The charity has offices abroad at Saudi embassies in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Morocco and Indonesia. The organization also runs awareness campaigns for Saudis, warning them against visiting unscrupulous matchmaking offices.
“Children from such marriages are entitled to come to the Kingdom and be registered in their fathers’ family cards. However, wives can’t come unless they’re accredited. They also can’t get listed in their husband’s family card until then,” said Al-Hamoud.
“In cases of fathers denying they are related to a child, we make them undergo DNA tests to prove their identity. However, we haven’t faced such a scenario as of yet,” he added.
Awasser has also found that 70 percent of Saudis living abroad are the children of cross-cultural marriages. The society has succeeded in bringing 32 poverty-stricken children of Saudi fathers into the Kingdom in the past 18 months.

This article is as notable for what it ignores as for what it says.

Notice that there is no interest in the welfare of these women - presumably Muslims who cannot legally marry unless they get divorced.

While the Saudis claim to take care of the children of these sham marriages, only 32 have managed to join their fathers - presumably their mothers are left high and dry.

It is also interesting that no one expects Saudi men to go on vacation abroad with their own Saudi wives!

And most stunning of all is the 70% statistic. The rest of the world would consider these children illegitimate. The fact that a vast majority of foreign Saudis effectively are fatherless and being brought up by women who rent themselves out to rich visitors is glossed over.

The misogyny displayed in this article is chilling.

Harry Potter will bring Jews to Arab bookshop on Shabbat

From the Jerusalem Post:

Want to get your hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Jerusalem only hours after the worldwide release at midnight on Friday? You won't find it in west Jerusalem, not even at Steimatsky's.
Instead you will have to take a trip down Jerusalem's Diagon Alley, otherwise known as Salah A-Din Street in the east of the city and visit Imad Muna, owner of Educational Books, who is opening his store four hours earlier than usual, at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, to sell the last installment in the series. And Muna is willing to take pre-orders for those who do not handle money on Shabbat.
In fact, according to a Jerusalem Orthodox rabbi who asked not to be named, if Harry is paid for before Shabbat, no Jews work in the store, and the store did not open specifically for Jews, then it is permissible to walk there on Shabbat and get the book.
"I expect a lot of people from west Jerusalem," Muna told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Usually, he gets few Jewish customers, but he hopes that his stock of 120 Deathly Hallows will attract them. If a customer purchases the book in advance, he or she will be given a receipt to present on Saturday morning.

There's a win/win!

Jews seem to feel a great affinity with Harry Potter. Soccer Dad managed to get an early copy (but remains mum on whether he will read it early); Gil at Hirhurim compared Dumbledore to Rabbi Akiva (check the many, many comments), and someone wrote an entire book on Harry Potter and the Torah.

My review of Book 6, written exactly two years ago today, is here.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad takes the high road. Impressive!

A Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs, part 10

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

In many ways, the story of Palestinian Arabs is a story of the selfishness of Arab leaders at the expense of the people they were pretending to care about. Almost without exception, these Arab leaders were not of Palestinian origin themselves.

The Arab League was created for the purposes of Arab unity but it found itself divided over every major decision, and invariably each member would act in ways that would be good for his nation (or his leader) and at the expense of the unity that they swore to uphold. The Palestinian issue was no exception.

Amin al-Husayni, the ex-Mufti and the League representative for Palestine who was born in Syria, remained ready to sacrifice all of the Palestinian Arab lives necessary to help his own sense of honor and to rid the land of Jews. His fanaticism andsingleminded Jew-hatred can be seen in his memoirs:

"Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours.'”

Yet the biggest conflicts in the Arab League came between King Abdullah of Jordan and everyone else, not only Husayni. Abdullah came from the Hashemite family that had traditionally controlled Mecca and Medina; his brother was installed by the British as King of Iraq at the same time he was designated Emir ofTransjordan. Abdullah enjoyed good relations with the British and he never hid his ambitions of becoming ruler of Greater Syria, which would include Transjordan , Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Both his Western friends and his territorial ambitions troubled his Arab neighbors, especially Syria, greatly.

Abdullah's biggest bargaining chip was the Arab Legion, the British-trained Transjordanian army that was by far the most effective Arab fighting force. The other Arab nations knew that they were unlikely to win the battle for Palestine without his army, but they were skeptical about his pro-British and pro-Western outlook.

The desires of the Palestinian Arab people themselves never entered the equation. While their erstwhile leaders would pontificate about the will of the people, everyone knew that the Palestinian Arabs were pawns in this entire exercise.

The combined Arab armies did not have their heart in the fight. With the exception of Transjordan's Arab Legion, they were filled with soldiers who did not care about their mission and had no battle experience. The last two Palestinian Arab army commanders were AbdulKader Husseini, who was killed in April of 1948, and Hasan Salameh , who fled Palestine in disgrace after a disagreement with his superiors in the same month. The rest of the 1948 war was led by Iraqis, Egyptians, and Jordanians - but no Palestinian Arabs.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Arab refugees were causing great alarm in the neighboring Arab states. These nations for the most part were not that stable to begin with; the influx of refugees was regarded as a real threat to these regimes. This was one of the reasons that Egypt, Syria and Lebanon showed no interest in integrating their "brothers" into their borders. Beyond that, Egypt would take the fleeing male refugees and force them to turn around and fight the Jews. One can only imagine how little thesepeoplewanted to fight, while their families huddled in the refugee camps with little food and no political support at all.

The tug of war between Abdullah and Husayni continued as 1948 wore on, as Husayni wanted to build a provisional Palestinian Arab government. He had the backing of most of the Arab League, butTransjordan's ruler threatened to use his army against any such government. As a result Husayni decided to create it in Gaza in September, 1948.

It was a fiasco. The "government" unsurprisingly chose Amin al-Husayni himself to be their first President, as he arrived in Palestine for the first time since the British expelled him in 1937. There were immediate protests, not only in Amman but in other Arab capitals as well. One of the objections to this pseudo-state was that by declaring a government, the Palestinian Arabs had effectively accepted the hated partition formula.

The protests against this quasi-independence didn't only come from other Arab countries but from the West Bank itself, with protests in East Jerusalem,Nablus and Ramallah. Even in 1948, the differences between the Egypt-oriented Gazans and the Jordanian-oriented West Bankers were apparent.

Husayni kept his "government" going despite the opposition, and even received recognition from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq (formerly allied withTransjordan .) This was the only time in history that Palestinian Arabs sort of had a state that was recognized by other countries. Knowing his personality, it should come as no surprise that one of his first acts was to give himself absolute power.Abdullah acidly pointed out that Husayni needed Egyptian troop protection to move about his own Gaza "state."

In an interesting concurrent episode, Transjordan seized truckloads of supplies sent by Iraq for refugee relief as punishment for Iraq's support of Husayni. Even though Abdullah also claimed to be doing things for the sake of Palestinian Arabs, his actions showed otherwise.

This was only one of the hardships endured by the refugees. The Nablus mayor accused the Arab nations of extorting money from the Palestinian Arabs. The richer refugees that reached Lebanon were denied the right to drive while the poorer ones suffered from severe food shortages. There was no consensus on how to deal with the new refugee problem: in August, the Arab Higher Committee as well as Iraq and Syria opposed their return to Palestine whileAbdullah wanted their return to be a pre-condition to peace talks with Israel.

While the Zionists didn't actively work to push the Arabs out of Israel, they showed little interest in letting them back. Some were aghast at the site of their Arab friends and neighbors actively fighting them and the women ululating their support of the Arab armies trying to destroy the Jews.

By November there were an estimated 500,000 Arab refugees with the majority in Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan and the non-Jewish Palestinian areas. Only a few thousand were in Egypt. (There were also about 7000 Jewish refugees as a result of the war, as well.)

This left many of the Palestinian Arabs in limbo. They left Palestine with the expectation of either coming back with the victorious Arab armies, or of resettling in those same countries that preached so much about Arab unity. But now, the majority were homeless. And, in 1948, most of them blamed the Arab nations for their predicament (and some blamed the British for allowing outside Arab armies to roam freely in the months before they quit Palestine.) The West, however, looked to the Jewish state to solve the problem.

By and large, Palestinian Arabs were more ambitious, more educated and more pragmatic than their Arab brethren. Many had moved to Palestine in only the previous generation or two in order to find a better life for their families. While they had more than their share of anti-semitism, the majority was able to live peacefully with the Jews. It is indeed ironic that these people, who should have been in the vanguard of an Arab nation, ended up being used by opportunistic and selfish so-called "leaders" who led them to disaster. It is doubly ironic that the very people who felt they could move easily within the Arab world - who trusted the Arab nation to always be there for them, no matter what - were the ones who have become pariahs in that same world.

By December, a large rally and conference in Jericho showed that the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank seemed to favor the idea of being ruled by Transjordan's Abdullah as opposed to the discredited and much despised ex-Mufti. The idea of Palestinian Arab self-governance had been extinguished.

Iraq is a proxy war for Iran (Omedia)

Great analysis that is sorely lacking in the West:

On July 9, 2007 it was reported that the Iraqi government of Dr. Nouri Kamal al-Maliki had failed to meet many of the benchmarks set for it.[1] Although there are mixed reports about the success of the “surge”—significant successes in bringing Sunnis to battle against al-Qaéda[2]versus horrific daily casualty rates from suicide car-bombings[3]—it should not come as a major surprise that the current Iraqi government is not fulfilling its duty to produce a greater success rate and to foster reconciliation among the three major Iraqi ethnic/religious groups.
Why? Why shouldn’t we be surprised at al-Maliki’s failure to meet fully even one US benchmark?

First, let’s review a little bit of background information. Iraq’s multi-party political system seems to be difficult for many Westerners to understand. It is essential to overcome this failure of comprehension and come to a realization that within Iraq’s three major ethnic/religious communities there are many, many different political parties and groups.[4] However, one major dividing line within Iraqi society is not that between ethnic/religious communities (Shi‘ite, Sunni, and Kurd) but rather between fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist interpretations of the Islam that is the common religion of the bulk of Iraqis.

Although the political groupings and coalitions remain complicated, one basically may say that the non-fundamentalists are willing to build a united independent Iraq; the radical fundamentalists desire to resurrect the Muslim caliphate. As such, these fundamentalists[5]—be they Sunnis tied to al-Qaéda, Kurdish members of Ansar al- Islam/Ansar al-Sunna, or Shi‘ites supporters of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim’s SCIRI/SIIC (Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, aka Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council) or Moqtada al-Sadr’s Jaish al-Mahdi (the al-Mahdi Army, which is the militia of the al-Daawa Party, and not coincidently also Nouri al-Maliki’s political party)—these Iraqi radical fundamentalists are supported by[6] and beholden to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Put simply: al-Maliki is not independent; he receives support and is subservient to the mullahs of Tehran. As long as al-Maliki and his radical fundamentalist Shi‘ite coalition lead the Iraqi government, Tehran will be calling the shots.[7] It doesn’t matter that Dr al-Maliki and his colleagues wear ties and western suits—they are still Islamist radicals nonetheless and allies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[8]

Given the overwhelming evidence of Iranian support[9] for both the extremist militias of the Sunni al-Qaéda and the Shi‘ite Badr and Wolf Brigades and al-Mahdi Army[10] that have caused so much chaos and destruction to Iraqi society[11], it should be a clear sign that Iran is in control when both Iraqi President Jalal Talabani[12] and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki[13] make frequent visits to Tehran to consult with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It should not come as a great surprise that the al-Maliki government is not meeting its commitments to the US. Ayatollah Khamenei doesn’t want to see America help create a real democracy in Iraq,[14] and al-Maliki is following Khamenei’s orders to prevent the rise of an independent, secular Iraq.[15] Although subservient to Iran, al-Maliki’s radical Shi‘ite government currently holds the reins of power and is content with such an arrangement in which the Sunnis remain odd-man out. No wonder that there has not yet been any success in enacting a law for equitable distribution of the oil wealth among the three ethnic/religious communities.

Read the whole thing, including what can be done to fix this.

The Elders of Zion-haters

Amateurs:

Combining serious statesmanship and a large measure of audacity, former South African President Nelson Mandela and a clutch of world-famous figures plan to announce Wednesday a private alliance to launch diplomatic assaults on the globe's most intractable problems.

The alliance, to be unveiled Wednesday during events marking Mandela's 89th birthday, is to be called The Elders. Among others, it includes retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, retired UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Mary Robinson, the human-rights activist and former president of Ireland.

Many, including Mandela, have been harsh critics of President Bush and U.S. foreign policy, particularly toward Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group's members and backers insisted in interviews, however, that they are guided neither by ideology nor by geopolitical bent.

Mandela states in remarks prepared for Wednesday that the fact that none of The Elders holds public office allows them to work for the common good, not for outside interests.

"This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken," the stateement says. "Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair."

How many weeks before their first "bold" pronouncement that Israel is an evil apartheid state? Because, obviously, they have been too intimidated by the worldwide Jewish conspiracy to hold that position publicly before they joined forces.

They'll first have a pronouncement that AIDS or poverty in Africa is bad, to establish their Elderliness, and then they'll be empowered to do what they really want to do - go after that intractable problem that is all the fault of those pesky Zionists who just love oppressing Arabs.

Meryl Yourish has already detailed the amazing coincidence of their "non-partisan" opinions:

Mary Robinson, who led the UN Human Rights Commission during the infamous Durban conference: Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel.
Jimmy Carter, whose latest anti-Israel screed is a best-seller: Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel.

Nelson Mandela, who never met a Palestinian terrorist he didn’t like: Anti-Israel. Anti-American.

Desmond Tutu, who thinks all the world’s problems can be traced to the U.S. and Israel: Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel. Anti-Semitic?

July Qassam calendar

While Qassam rockets have slowed down, they are still fired often enough to terrorize Israeli citizens in Sderot, not to mention that they sometimes still hit buildings and injure citizens.

This calendar does not count mortars.

Earlier calendars:
June
May
April
March
February

Freedom of the press, PalArab style (V): Fatah gets in the game

It is not only Hamas that is harassing and threatening journalists. Yes, even the "moderates" from Fatah and the PA seem to do the same thing:

Palestinian security services personnel on Wednesday dispersed a rally organised by Hamas women. They arrested five people, including journalists. The rally was being held to support the families of political prisoners from Nablus. The families took also part in a meeting before the rally.

Photojournalist Nasser Shtayya told Ma'an that members of the security forces attacked him, and his colleague Samir Khweira, while they were covering the rally, staged in front of the Nablus police department. Shtayya's camera was destroyed in the process.

Eyewitnesses stated that Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Ahmad Al-Haj delivered a speech in which he heavily criticised the Palestinian Authority. This incited his audience, who demanded he apologise for his words.

In order to control the situation, Palestinian security services decided to intervene and disperse the angry crowd. Three Hamas loyalists, Mu'ath Sarkaji, Imad Tanbour and Rami Nasser who were near the rally, were arrested.

Members of the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades from the nearby Balata refugee camp protected the PLC member, who is connected to Hamas.

Notice how the neat divisions between Fatah and Hamas that the MSM want everyone to believe breaks down with only a little research: The pro-Hamas PLC gets protected by the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa. At a Hamas rally in the West Bank.

More context from PCHR, including that the speaker was also arrested. Which is directly related to Natan Sharansky's definition of a fear society vs. a free society:

If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a "fear society" has finally won their freedom.

The BBC's Hezbollah lovefest

Jeremy Bowen, the infamous BBC editor who blames all of the Middle East problems squarely on Israel, has written another piece that glorifies terrorists, this time Hezbollah:

The mighty Israeli army, one of the most technologically advanced forces in the world, had been unable to stop Lebanese guerrilla fighters from Hezbollah firing low-tech missiles into the north of their country.

In more than a month in 2006 Israel's enormous firepower did what the UN estimated was $3.6bn of damage to Lebanon, including the destruction of 80 bridges, 600km of roads and 900 factories, markets, farms and other commercial buildings.

It killed 1,187 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and wounded 4,092.

But it could not stop Hezbollah firing its rockets, and it could not rescue the two Israeli soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah sparked off the fighting in the first place.

He gets this close to calling the scrappy Hezbollah terrorists "heroic" in the face of the unfeeling Zionist army machine mowing down only civilian infrastructure.

Also, the "mainly civilians" part, stated as fact, is not clear at all. Israel released the names and addresses of 440 Hezbollah terrorists killed during the war, and it estimates about 600 were killed altogether. Lebanon, on the other hand, counts all Hezbollah members as "civilians" in its counts of the casualties. At best, Bowen is being misleading, at worst he is a liar, and at any rate without his citing his sources we will never know where he gets his numbers from.
(h/t: Backspin)

Saudi vice cops kill man for selling alcohol

Another lovely story from our favorite "moderate" kingdom:

RIYADH, 18 July 2007 — The father of the Saudi young man who was allegedly beaten to death when members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stormed his house in late May in the capital on the suspicion of his son selling alcohol has demanded execution of the persons responsible for his death.
“I want execution. And I do not want just one person executed, but the three persons I saw beating up my son in the commission center that day,” Muhammad Al-Huraisi, 73, told Arab News. “This is what I officially signed when members of the General Investigation and Prosecution Authority (GIPA) asked me what I sought when I was held up there.”
The father described how the commission members swooped into his house commando style. “Two separate teams had arrived,” he said. “They entered the house from the roof after they jumped from the two adjacent buildings.”
“’Allahu Akbar… We have overcome the deviants!’ was what they yelled out when they got into the house,” he added.
He said that he had replaced five of the doors the commission members broke down to enter the rooms in the house.
Abu Ali said that had authorities simply showed up with a warrant for the arrest of his son, he would have turned him over immediately and peacefully. “Instead, they raided the place, never showed a piece of paper,” he said, adding that the commission members also destroyed the bottles inside the house instead of collecting them as evidence.
A brother of the deceased said he knew that Salman was dealing in liquor.
“Salman kept telling me that he was fed up of being poor and wanted to get more money,” he said. “He would constantly complain about the SR1,500 he got from working as a security guard.”

Saudis can rest well knowing that they have morality police, ready to kill in defense of their whims.

3000!

This is my 3000th post on this blog.

It took about 11 months for the last 1000 posts, so I've been pretty consistent in posting (my third year blogversary is coming up in August.) I've seen lots of bloggers go through dry spells and I can't believe that I manage to find multiple topics to post about almost every day.

Thanks once again for visiting and participating!

UPDATE: I didn't notice that Blogger counts drafts, and I had a few half-written posts over the years. So while this may be the 3000th post I've written, it isn't quite the 3000th post published yet.

But we'll pretend it is, even if its only 2986.

DAMASCUS, Syria, July 17 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad officially began his second seven-year term Tuesday.

Assad, who in May won 97 percent of the vote as the sole candidate, was sworn in Tuesday in Damascus, Alalam Satellite News reported.

This brings up a host of questions.

Al-Alam is an Iranian "news" channel. Why would Iran have the news before Syria?

And who was in second place?

And when will that #2 candidate's unfortunate accident and funeral take place?

UPDATE: Soccer Dad finds an old Charles Krauthammer article that discusses a Tyranny Index related to the margin of victory in an "election:"

Copyright Chicago Sun Times Jan 12, 1987

In 1982, Albania held an election which Communist Party chief Enver Hoxha won by 1,627,959 votes to 1. A decisive victory. It suggested to me at the time a key to what political philosophers had long been seeking: a reliable tyranny index.

The Tirana Index (named after Albania's capital) holds that repressiveness correlates with electoral success. The higher the score by the ruling party in elections, the more tyrannous the regime.

At one end of the spectrum are places like Albania, the Soviet Union and Syria, where 99 percent of the vote is the norm. At the other end are freewheeling semi-anarchies, like Italy, where the ruling party never gets half the vote.

In between lie orderly democracies like the United States (winning margins of 60 percent, tops) and moderate autocracies like Mexico, which will broach 70 but not much more for fear of embarrassment to all concerned.

A few weeks ago, the Tirana Index met yet another challenge. In the midst of a severe food and energy shortage, Romania held a referendum. The result: 17,699,772 Romanians voted yes, no one voted no. A shutout. A perennial contender for the honor of most repressive regime on Earth (in Romania, typewriters must be registered with the police) had conducted what may be the most perfect election yet.

Church group criticizes "uncritical" support for Israel

From The Christian Post:

WASHINGTON – A well-known, outspoken group of Christian Zionists is being criticized by an ecumenical organization of churches for its “uncritical” support of Israel, as it kicked-off the first day of its annual gathering in the nation’s capital on Monday.

The National Council of Churches USA (NCC), a coalition of 35 denominations representing 45 million members, says many Christians have a different opinion of Israel than Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

Among the points of contention is CUFI’s “uncritical” support for the State of Israel based on a literal reading of biblical apocalyptic texts, argues NCC.

“John Hagee’s message differs greatly with what theologians have taught for centuries,” said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC’s associated general secretary for International Affairs and Peace, in a statement.

And “CUFI stands apart from the historic Churches still present in the Holy Land,” he added. “All of these Churches serve Palestinian Christians, who are adversely affected by the policies supported by Hagee and CUFI. As a result of these policies, Christian communities in the Holy Land are diminishing and are threatened with extinction."

Far be it from me to take any stand on the theological differences between CUFI and NCC. But to claim that it is Israeli policies that have forced Christians to flee the Palestinian territories is nothing but blindness.

The numbers will tell the story:

There were144,000 Christians living in Israel in 2003, up from 101,000 in 1987.

In the territories, however:

After World War II, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was 80% Christian and Nazareth 60%. Now those percentages are 20% and 30% respectively, and are shrinking. Jerusalem Christians were a plurality in the 1920s; today, they number under 2 percent of the city's population.

Serious violations of religious freedom are reported from within the Palestinian Authority, especially the persecution of Muslims who have converted to Christianity. In the Christian town of Bet Jella, a human rights lawyer reported brutal interrogation methods and arbitrary arrests based on fabricated criminal charges against Muslims who have converted to Christianity and their families. His report includes testimony about torture from victims who were terrified to criticize the Palestinian Authority and their secret police.

In Nazareth, the Christian population has decreased dramatically due to the rise and spread of militant Islam. The Islamic Movement (a radical Muslim group) has demanded the construction of a mosque near the Church of the Annunciation, a mosque even some moderate Muslims oppose. On Easter, 1999, the Muslim group burned Christian stores and targeted Christians over the issue; attempts to intervene were frustrated because Christians are terrified to speak out.

Hundreds of Christian families have left Palestinian towns like Bet Jella and Bethlehem during the al-Aqsa intifada, caught literally in the crossfire between Palestinians and Israelis. On the West Bank, a nearly-permanent Muslim boycott of Christian businesses is achieving its objective: driving the Christians to emigrate.

In October 2000, Christians were attacked in Gaza after a Palestinian Muslim leader called for a "jihad" against both Jews and Christians.

In February 2002 a Muslim mob, including Palestinian Authority Special Forces, burned Christian businesses and attempted to destroy the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in Ramallah. The attack occurred after a Christian man killed a Muslim while being pursued by a Muslim gang because he refused to pay protection money for safe passage to his home.

And that is not even counting the many more recent attacks of Muslims on Christians in the PA-administered areas.

If the NCC wants to criticize CUFI, that's fine, but at least base the criticisms on real facts and not on absurd whitewashing of continuous Muslim crimes against Christians.

Today's Hamas torture story

The PCHR, flawed as it is as a "human rights" organization, is doing more reporting from Gaza than any reporters are:

At approximately 03:00 on Friday, 13 July 2007, the Executive Force arrested 2 officers of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service from their houses in al-Suandiya area in the west of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia: Lieutenant Colonel Ziad Fanous, 50; and Nader Qaddoura Sa’diya, 50. According to PCHR’s investigations and the two officers’ testimonies, they were taken to the headquarters of the Executive Force in al-Twam area in the west of Jabalya. They then were transferred to al-Mashtal detention center, which used to serve as an outpost of the General Intelligence Service, northwest of Gaza City. There, the two officers were beaten and tortured.

According to the two officers’ testimonies, as soon as they were taken to al-Mashtal detention center, they were slapped and punched on their faces. They were then handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to 2 rooms on the first floor of the building. The two officers were interrogated on issues related to their work as intelligence officers, and they were violently beaten. Officer Sa’diya told PCHR that he was beaten throughout the body, especially on the shoulders, the neck and the legs. Officer Fanous lost consciousness as a result of beating.

Officer Fanous was released on Friday afternoon following 13 hours of detention, whereas officer Sa’diya was released on Sunday evening, 15 July 2007. PCHR lawyers visited the two officers at home and witnessed signs of beating and torture throughout their bodies.

On Sunday evening, 15 July 2007, the Executive Force arrested Isma’il ‘Ezzat Sha’ban, 32, a police officer from Jabalya town. Sha’ban was detained until Monday morning. During his detention and interrogation, he was beaten and tortured. As a result, he was injured to the head. PCHR has photographs showing signs of torture on his head, back and left hand. Sha’ban stated to PCHR that at approximately 17:30 on Sunday, 15 July 2007, a number of members of the Executive Force came to his house and demanded him to accompany them to an outpost of the Force. They agreed to allow him to change his clothes and then follow them to their outpost. He actually went to the outpost. There, he was violently beaten throughout his body and was verbally insulted by members of the Executive Force. He was then transferred to the headquarters of the Executive Force in Jabalya refugee camp. There, he was violently beaten again. Members of the Executive Force asked him about the reasons of his absence from his work, and he told them that he would not attend his work and that “his legitimate command is in Ramallah”, in reference to an order issued by the chief of police to all police officers to abstain from attending their jobs in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ takeover. At approximately 01:00 on Monday, Sha’ban was blindfolded and a person stitched his injury in the head without anesthesia. His request to be seen by a doctor or transferred to a hospital was refused. He was then transported in a jeep and was dumped nearly 100 meters away. In the morning, he went to a hospital in Beit Lahia to receive medical treatment.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 23:00 on Sunday, 15 July 2007, the body of Waleed Salman Abu Dalfa, 45, from Gaza City, was brought to the reception department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, carried on a litter by members of the Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades. According to initial medical checking conducted by a doctor, there were “bruises on the hands and the legs, hematomas in the legs and signs of stranglehold on the neck.” These results were further asserted also by a forensic specialist who checked the body on Monday morning, 16 July 2007, in the presence of a representative of PCHR and a relative of the victim. These results indicate that Abu Dalfa died when he was subjected to torture during detention, which was also asserted by PCHR, which additionally concluded that his brother, 41-year-old Khalil Salman Abu Dalfa, who had been also subjected to torture before being released following his brother’s death.

Man bites dog.

Alan Johnston: "I returned home with most beautiful memories of Gaza"

From Ma'an:

"It is lovely to remember and to be remembered, and tell your crew and students that I returned home with most beautiful memories of Gaza."

Those were the words with which BBC reporter Alan Johnston replied to a letter of congratulations that he received from Dr Yahia Al Sarraj, the dean of the Training and Practical Scientific College in Gaza.

The journalist, recently released from captivity having been abducted in Gaza by a radical Islamist group and held for over 100 days, added expressions of his pride of Gaza, its people “and the beautiful memories that Gaza gave to me during the last years”.

He concluded, "I spent 3 years in Gaza before my kidnapping, and I know very well the meaning of friendship and generosity that Palestinians have".

He expressed his happiness and stated that, when remembering Gaza, he will first remember the beautiful things which Gaza gave to him.

Is it any wonder that Palestinian Arabs across the board were so keen on releasing Alan Johnston? The "objective" BBC reporter was by far their most reliable propaganda outlet.

About that agreement with Al Aqsa Brigades...

Over the weekend the news has trumpeted that Abbas agreed with the Al Aqsa Brigades that they would put down their weapons in exchange for Israeli guarantees not to arrest 189 wanted terrorists in the West Bank.

If it makes things temporarily more peaceful, it is clear that the reason that some terrorists agreed to this deal is because Israel has been arresting hundreds of Fatah members in the West Bank in recent months. In other words, this is not a result of Israel's bolstering Abbas alone - Al Aqsa has no incentive to disarm while Israel showers their faction leader Abbas with concessions. However tenuous this deal is, it is proof that Israeli offensive actions forced them to mouth some peaceful words. For the leftists who regard this as great news, it was Israeli military actions that caused this deal.

But there is ample reason to be skeptical. The deal is not only that they hand in their weapons - they are receiving cash for their weapons, and they are getting offered paid jobs (thanks to Israel's tax revenue largesse.) It also appears that the deal is not nearly as expansive as the media will have you believe.

(Hamas-oriented) Palestine Today reports that many members of Al Aqsa (the ones not on the list, presumably) did not sign onto this deal (autotranslated):

Said Nasser Abu Aziz, one of the leaders of the Al Aqsa Brigades in the city of Nablus territories and called for "Israel" that the Al Aqsa Brigades refuse to sign the agreement "wanted" reached by the Palestinian and Israeli sides, adding that such a step would distinguish between resistance rifles.

Abul Aziz said in press statements of Palestine today morning today, Monday, a "wanted" incomplete and fragmented others, saying : "This agreement is incomplete and imposed on the Palestinian people in the Al Aqsa Brigades We decided that the following alleged agreement must include all hounded in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and not to be a point in the Sea fragment brotherhood between militants and weapons of the resistance and fragment between the faction and the sons of the resistance one.

His commander in the Al Aqsa Brigades, said : "We reject signing of those documents and others incomplete differentiate between guns fighter hounded each other we will sign only if one is the lack of prosecution and sweeps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the indivisibility file hounded.

The PalArab IMEMC is even more explicit about the deal, saying that it was only with the 189 "fighters" and not with Al Aqsa as a whole:

In exchange for being taken off Israel's 'wanted' list, 189 Palestinian fighters with the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fateh, have agreed to stop attacking Israeli targets -- even military targets that are invading their homes.

Israeli authorities have agreed to remove the mens' names from the list if they do not leave the West Bank for three months, and do not engage in any resistance activities for three months.

The founder of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, Marwan Barghouthi, was not included in the list. He remains in an Israeli prison, serving several life sentences. The 189 fighters agreed to the pledge without consulting Barghouthi, and without demanding his release.

In this context, the deal really doesn't mean much.

The body of a Palestinian man, abducted a few days ago by unidentified gunmen in Gaza City, arrived in Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday.

Palestinian medical sources said that the body of Mahir Abu Dhalfa arrived in the hospital on Monday morning, showing signs of suffocation.

Hamas continued its shelling of crossings between Israel and Gaza, this time at Erez. Notice that the people who continuously claim that Israel has turned Gaza into a prison never seem to mention that Hamas has continuously fired mortars at every crossing, hampering efforts to get supplies into Gaza.

The PalArab self-death count for 2007 is now at 487.

Freedom of the Press, PalArab style (IV): Reuters capitulates to Hamas threats

This seems to be turning into a series....

From PCHR, events that happened last Thursday after a Fatah demonstration in Gaza:

Member of the Executive Force detained 3 journalists who were covering the demonstration and forced them to delete video footages and photographs from their cameras. The journalists are:

1) Rami Hasan Abu Shammala, a cameraman of Ramattan;

2) Ibrahim Abu Mustafa, a Reuters reporter; and

3) Bassam Mas’oud, a Reuters reporter.

One of the journalists told PCHR that members of the Executive Force took them to the office of the force inside the hospital and forced them to delete video footages that showed members of the force fining into the air to disperse the demonstrations. They also warned and the threatened the journalists not to publish any of those footages.

Needeless to say, a search through news archives from last Thursday reveal not a single word about this demonstration in Khan Younis. Hamas not only threatened the journalists - they successfully muzzled them, and proved yet again that they control all the news coming out of Gaza.

Gutless Reuters didn't even attempt to report on their own humiliation and impotence. They willingly went along with the demands of the terrorists, and as a result they chose not to report the news. And any way you look at it, a sizable pro-Fatah demonstration in the heart of Hamastan is worth a paragraph or two among the megabytes of dreck that Reuters publishes daily.

NYT shows it doesn't know history

In a long NYT Magazine article about Palestinian Arab infighting, the first paragraph says:

Palestinians never used to do these things to one another. Putting bullets in the back of the heads of men on their knees. Shooting up hospitals. Killing patients. Knee-capping doctors. Executing clerics. Throwing handcuffed prisoners to their deaths from Gaza’s highest (and most expensive) apartment buildings. There is a madness in Gaza now. Hamas — a religious political-military organization that dominated the last Palestinian elections — claimed it was fighting infidels, with a holy sanction to kill. Fatah — the largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization — was nearly as brutal as Hamas and claimed it was fighting the Nazis. Poor young men from the squalid, stinking refugee camps of Gaza, their heads filled with religious slogans and revolutionary cant, took off their knitted black masks to pose in front of the gilded bathrooms of the once-powerful and rich men of Fatah. Then they stole the sinks, toilets, tiles and pipes, leaving the wiring and the metal scraps for the ordinary, unarmed poor.

Of course, Palestinian Arabs have been killing each other for decades. They did it in 1937-39. They did it in 1947. They did it in 1991. They have been doing it for the past few years, not just months.

Is it any surprise that the august NYT doesn't know basic history?

The Bedouins who fought for Israel in 1948

I'm still working on the next chapter of my Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs, but I just stumbled on an article in the Palestine Post from August, 1948 that fits in nicely with my last part about the Arabs of Abu Ghosh.

The Bedouin village of Tuba cast their lot with the Zionists in the 1948 war (as well as during the 1936 Arab riots.) This further proves that the Palestinian Arabs at that point in history were far from unified, and it proves as well that the Zionist were not interested in "ethnic cleansing" but in having Arab citizens who wanted to live in peace.

The lazy anti-semitism of the British intelligentsia

Alistair Horne is a well-regarded British historian, whose chronicle of the Algerian war has been complimented by Henry Kissinger as well as President Bush, and who was invited to the White House as a result.

As he writes in an article about that meeting:

In an earlier exchange of correspondence with the President, I had presumed to suggest that, in Iraq, he faced "perhaps the most daunting responsibility" of any US President since FDR, and in the Oval Office I threw out a remark of Harold Macmillan's: "You have no idea, dear boy, how lonely it is at the top."
The President parried laughingly, pointing at his aides: "You don't imagine I could be lonely with all these guys around me!"
He questioned me closely about the parallels between Iraq and Algeria. It was clear that he had read attentively what I had written.
I outlined four main points: the difficulty of combating insurgents with a regular modern army; porous frontiers (for Iran and Syria, read Morocco and Tunisia in the Algerian context); most important and dangerous, the ruthless targeting of the local police forces (and, now, the fledgling Iraqi army); and the difficulty of extrication.
I recalled that the Algerian War lasted eight years and, at the end, France's de Gaulle had lost his shirt, everything.
I omitted a fifth point, on which I personally feel most strongly: the vile issue of torture (or, in Iraq, read "abuse"). The President had, I was advised, already got the message, and was heeding the clamour which, with others, I had raised earlier on CNN, and was going to lead to the closing down of Guantanamo.
It would, I felt, be impertinent for a "limey" historian to tell the President how to conduct forward policy in Iraq. But I was at one with him on the appalling danger of a precipitate US withdrawal. That would be infinitely more dangerous than in either Vietnam or Algeria.

Clearly, this is no lightweight kneejerk liberal.

But a couple of paragraphs later, Horne throws this in his article:

Bush, an honourable man, might have made a good President - without Iraq. His fault was to heed too often the voices of the Zionist lobby in Washington. Never before has the Israeli tail wagged the American dog quite so vigorously; the results threaten to prove as disastrous for Israel as for the Western alliance.

I don't know if this is a reflection of pure laziness and ambient anti-semitism on Horne's part, or if the idea that the Iraq war is a purely Zionist adventure is so often repeated by the leftist press that he hasn't even considered how absurd this is.

If Israel had so much power over America then perhaps the idea of a terror-infested Palestinian Arab state would not be seen as such a foregone conclusion.

Shmittah produce from Gaza?

The New York Times mentions:

Hamas officials say they want to start negotiations with Israel about reopening the formal crossings. Major Lerner said that Hamas had “a few things to do” first, including recognizing Israel’s right to exist and freeing Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured and taken to Gaza in a raid more than a year ago.
But the ultimate test of pragmatism may come in September when the Hebrew calendar enters what is known in Jewish law as a “shmita” year. Then the fields of Israel are supposed to lie fallow, and observant Jews seek agricultural products grown elsewhere. Before the Hamas takeover, Israel’s rabbis had reached agreements with Palestinians to import vegetables from Gaza, Major Lerner said. Given the needs of both sides, it may still happen.

Elder Brother of Ziyon points out an episode that gained some notoriety in 1978 when some Europeans were poisoned with doctored Israeli fruit:

Dinner was finished. Because they had eaten so well, the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Frans Bergs in the southern Dutch town of Maastricht were granted a favorite treat for dessert: big, golden Jaffa oranges from Israel. Unexpectedly, the children complained about the taste. "When we took a closer look," Mrs. Bergs said later, "we discovered small, silver-colored globules inside." The children were rushed to a hospital to have their stomachs pumped; police summoned to investigate erroneously assumed that Mr. Bergs had tried to poison his family. But Dutch health officials began a nationwide search, and by week's end they had discovered 25 oranges from Israel that had been injected with mercury. More sabotaged Israeli oranges were found in nine West German towns.

The pea-sized pellets were not soluble mercury, which can severely damage the kidneys if ingested, but the metallic mercury of the kind used in thermometers —potentially dangerous to very young children but not to adults. Nonetheless, the tampered oranges were a shock to Europe, especially after it became known that they were fruits of political terrorism. In a letter to the West German government, an extremist group calling itself the Arab Revolutionary Army-Palestine Command claimed it had doctored the fruit to disrupt Israel's economy.

It appears that the fruit were not poisoned in Israel, but in some European ports by what appeared to be German radicals sympathetic to the Arabs. But one copycat episode did occur in Israel the following year by the PFLP, in which it was attempted to poison some fruit in Tel Aviv in order to spread panic in Israel.

The definition of terrorism is to spread fear among a civilian population for political purposes, so there is fundamentally no difference in effect between suicide bombings and poisoning a food supply. While there may be good reasons that Hamas may find such methods counterproductive, it seems to be a very serious risk to take when a portion of Israel's population will be dependent on fruits and vegetables grown by non-Jews.

The shadow economy between Israel and Gaza that the NYT article describes can turn out to be deadly if Israelis, prodded by the religious community, import Gazan produce.

EBoZ also points out the fact that the first intifada in 1987 occurred right after a shmittah year - when Palestinian Arabs were flush with money from religious Jews paying them for their fruits and vegetables. While the timing may be coincidental, it is yet another small proof that "poverty" has nothing to do with terror.

UPDATE: joem points out a much more recent poison scare from just last month, where apparently British terror sympathizers painted Israeli basil with bacteria.

Hamas, 1993

Soccer Dad was reminded by my Bir Zeit posting of a Harper's article from 1993 about Hamas' penchant for killing "collaborators."

At the time this was written, Hamas was still regarded universally as a despicable terror group. Now, they manage to write op-eds for major US newspapers.

I was most interested to see that 200 "collaborators" that this article notes were executed by Islamists during the first intifada. In fact during that conflict there were over 1000 PalArabs killed by each other, and in 1991 more Palestinian Arabs were killed by other PalArabs than by Israelis. It is an amazingly consistent fact of Palestinian Arab history that any long-term violence against Jews inevitably ends up with more Arab-on-Arab violence.

From a clandestine videotape made last summer by the Squads of Ez ed-Deen el-Qassam, the military arm of Hamas, the Islamic Palestinian group that in the past three years has risen to prominence in the Israeli-occupied territories. The squads, which number about 100 men each, are responsible for having killed about a dozen Israeli soldiers and settlers in the past year; last December the Israeli government deported 415 Palestinians to Lebanon in response to the kidnapping and execution by Hamas of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip. The videotape, which is intended to recruit and inspire followers of Hamas, has been covertly copied and passed among Palestinians in the occupied territories. It is more than four hours long and contains news reports of Hamas attacks on Israelis, instructions on handling weapons, and interviews with members of the squads and with blindfolded Palestinians accused of collaborating with the Israeli security forces. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed during the intifada for "collaboration," a term that can include anything from working for the Israeli military to informing on other Palestinians. The speaker whose statement appears below is one of the leaders of the squads. translated from the Arabic by Harper's Magazine.

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. My name is Yasser Hammad al-Hassan Ali. I live in al-Nusseirat [a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip]. I was born in 1964. I finished high school, then attended Gaza Polytechnic. Later, I went to work for the Islamic University in Gaza as a clerk. I'm married, and I have two daughters.

The Squads of Ez ed-Deen el-Qassam are the only group in Palestine explicitly dedicated to jihad. Our name may be new, but our apparatus has been in place for years. Our primary concern is Palestinians who collaborate with the enemy, which we regard as one of the most dire problems facing the Palestinian nation. our enemies have dedicated themselves to luring as many Palestinians as possible down the path of collaboration. Many young men and women have fallen prey to the cunning traps laid by the [Israeli] Security Services.

Since our enemies are trying with all their might to obliterate our nation, cooperation with them is clearly a terrible crime. So our most important objective must be to put an end to the plague of collaboration. To do so, we abduct collaborators; intimidate and interrogate them in order to uncover other collaborators; and expose the methods that the enemy uses to lure Palestinians into collaboration in the first place. In addition to that, naturally, we confront the problem of collaborators by executing them.

...

In many cases, we don't have to make our evidence against collaborators public, because everyone knows that they're guilty. But when the public isn't aware that a certain individual is a collaborator, and we accuse him, people are bound to ask for evidence. Many people will proclaim his innocence, especially members of his family, his neighbors, and his friends, so there must be irrefutable proof before he is executed. This proof is usually obtained in the form of a confession.

At first, every collaborator denies his crimes. So we start off by showing the collaborator the testimony against him--written accounts of surveillance of his activities, taped accusations by other collaborators in his network. We tell him that he still has a chance to serve his people, even in the last moment of his life, by confessing and giving us the information we need.

We say that we know his repentance is sincere and that he has been a victim. That kind of talk is convincing. Most of them confess after that. Some others hold out; in those cases, we begin to apply pressure, both psychological and physical. Then the holdouts confess as well....

When we execute a collaborator in public, we use a gun. But after we abduct and interrogate a collaborator, we can't shoot him--to do so might give away our location. That's why collaborators are strangled. Sometimes we ask the collaborator, "What do you think? How should we execute you?" one collaborator told us, "Strangle me." He hated the sight of blood.

See how humane Hamas was back in their early days?

Friday morning links

Augean Stables writes another brilliant essay.

Two good articles on how jihadists are using the media better than we are.

German firms seem hellbent on a new Holocaust, as they are smuggling nuclear material into Iran. And with the amount of anti-semitism in East Germany, this is not surprising.

A French writer notices that Israel does a damn good job in preserving history.

A Palestinian Arab has much better advice about the PA than the entire State Department, EU and Israeli cabinet put together.

An nuclear scientist expects a Chernobyl in Iran - and that's even without worrying about earthquakes.

A small tribute to Doug Marlette

Editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette died this week in a car accident.

Like most of his profession, Marlette tended towards the liberal side, and he had a tendency to place a moral equivalence between Israel and terrorists. But one of his cartoons, for which he took an enormous amount of criticism from professional Muslim whiners, deserves to be highlighted:

Egyptians freak out when they find out lecturer was a rabbi

Good old fashioned Jew-hatred is alive and well in Egypt:

A seminar organised by Ain Shams University's Centre for the Study of Contemporary Civilisations (CSCC) ended in uproar when several participating Egyptian professors discovered that Robin Firestone, the American professor delivering a paper on the "Problematic of the Chosen in Monotheistic Religions", was a rabbi....

Mohamed El-Hawwari, head of the CSCC, defended the choice of Firestone as a lecturer. Interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly El-Hawwari stressed that Firestone, while entitled to call himself a "rabbi", does not work in the religious field. "He is an American academic professor and it was in this capacity that he was invited to deliver his lecture."

In a statement issued once the row had become public, El-Hawwari described Firestone as a professor of Jewish history at Hebro Union College, California, and the author of many books on both Jewish and Islamic history.

"I have known the guy for more than 20 years. He has never attacked Islam, which he respects and appreciates," said El-Hawwari. "His lecture was based on texts derived from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Talmud.

"When I invited Firestone to offer his lecture I did not expect him to utter the two testimonies of Islam and announce that he had become a Muslim. It's natural for him to adopt religious concepts different from our own," said El-Hawwari, commenting on Firestone's reference to Isaac [as the son almost sacrificed by Abraham - EoZ].

"Our main problem is that we still cannot accept the other. Whoever differs with us becomes our enemy," El-Hawwari continued. Yet the aim of holding such lecture series is to help in understanding the views of the other "in the hope this will facilitate a rapprochement between cultures and civilisations".

El-Hawwari dismissed allegations that the lecture's real aim was to provide propaganda for normalising relations with Israel as nonsense, and an insult to the integrity of Egyptian academics.

The furore has caused ripples beyond academia, with 20 parliamentary members quick to jump on the bandwagon and demand that the speaker of the People's Assembly summon members of the parliament's Educational Committee for an urgent meeting to determine who is responsible for the convening of such seminars.

They have also demanded that Hani Helal, the minister of higher education, be sacked.

"We are not going to allow Jews to desecrate our universities, spread their Zionist views and brainwash our students," railed independent MP Gamal Zahran.

A video tape and Arabic translation of the lecture are currently being studied by a committee formed by the university to investigate whether there is any substance to claims that the lecture was offensive to Islam.

Following the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979, Egyptian educational institutions have refused to deal with their Israeli counterparts and have steadfastly refused cultural normalisation.

Notice that even the academic that invited Firestone bristles at the very idea that he wanted to have Israeli thoughts presented at an Egyptian university.

In other words, this article from an Egyptian English newspaper proves that academic freedom at Egyptian universities is non-existent and that free inquiry is not only discouraged - it is threatened when it accidentally appears.

Not to mention that Egyptian Parliament officials can spout anti-semitism without the slightest fear of being criticized.

I wonder if any European country will call to boycott Egyptian universities?

PalArab Academia: Bir Zeit University

This week, there were violent fights between Hamas and Fatah students at Bir Zeit University, injuring 20 students, and culminating with Fatah security forces arresting the Student Council head who is a member of Hamas.

Bir Zeit, for its part, put out a statement where it claimed that these were very unusual events, that it was a tolerant and liberal university, and that the media shouldn't make such a big deal about the fights.

How tolerant and liberal is Bir Zeit?

Here's a picture of a photo exhibition that was shown at Bir Zeit a couple of years ago:

Portraits of Palestinian suicide bombers on a wall above pictures of Israeli victims and destroyed Israeli buses at an exhibit at the Birzeit University on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Ramallah. Some Palestinian children collect photos of the bombers. ©AP Images/Muhammed Muheisen

In 2003, during student elections, Hamas candidates blew up models of Israeli buses, and during a debate with Fatah candidates they boasted "Hamas activists in this University killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?"

Yehiya Ayyash, a bomb maker also known as the Engineer, was killed by the IDF for his direct involvement in building bombs and explosives. He was a chemistry student at Bir Zeit.

In April 2001, Diya Tawil, a student of Engineering at Bir Zeit University, blew himself up at a bus stop in a Jewish settlement just outside Jerusalem, killing only himself but injuring more than 30.

Izzedine Al-Masri was a journalism student, and she was the planner and driver for the suicide bomber at the Sbarro pizzeria. She is now in an Israeli jail.

Bir Zeit's web page claims that "Birzeit University is the first institution of higher education to be established in Palestine." Notably, it acquired university status while under Israeli rule. Equally notably, Technion was established in Palestine in 1924, and Hebrew University in 1925. But why should we expect the truth to come out of Bir Zeit?

Today's hypocritical "human rights" group: Physicians for Human Rights (Israel)

According to their website:

Physicians For Human Rights-Israel was founded in 1988 with the goal of struggling for human rights, in particular the right to health, in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Human dignity, wellness of mind and body and the right to health are at the core of the world view of the organization and direct and instruct our activities and efforts on both the individual and general level. Our activities integrate advocacy and action toward changing harmful policies and direct action providing healthcare.

Wonderful words! However, when looking at the press releases of this "human rights" organization, one notices a bit of a one-sidedness as far as what these proud humanitarians condemn.

Some statements have to do with healthcare: they condemn Israel for not allowing Gazans who need medical attention to go into Israel proper to get it. Many of their statements have nothing to do with healthcare - for example, they condemn Israel's "occupation" on the grounds that it prevents Palestinian Arab academic freedom.

None of their statements have any bad words to say about Palestinian Arabs who attack, injure and kill Israelis, such as Sderot rocket attacks. More to the point, I couldn't find a condemnation of Wafa al-Biss, who planned on blowing up an Israeli hospital in 2005.

One would think that these misguided physicians are perhaps only sensitive to Palestinian Arab lives, not Jewish ones. But does that explain their silence when Gaza terrorists murdered patients in their beds in a hospital just last month as they used hospitals for gunbattles? And then did it again?

No, the pattern isn't that these physicians care about Palestinian Arabs more than Jews. The pattern is that they exclusively condemn Israel, period, despite their stated goals. Their silence about Arab on Arab fighting, killing hundreds of Palestinian Arabs this year alone, shows that they don't really care about PalArabs at all.

They're just another bunch of hypocrites hiding behind their status as doctors, and in effect their goals are no different than the doctors recently arrested in the UK. Their interest in human rights is nil.

Download the Elder Toolbar

I never wanted to put ads on my site, but I stumbled on a nice and unobtrusive way to make a few cents a month: a customized toolbar.

I only played with this a little, and it has a number of features that I haven't configured, but if you are interested in an Elder of Ziyon toolbar to help with your searches as well as pre-configured links to some nice sources, click here.

Right now it links to a few Israeli radio stations, the charities on my sidebar, and some news sources. You can also add gadgets like weather reports or a calculator. If people like it I can maintain it, add things like chat, messages, other radio stations and other RSS feeds.

It works with both IE and Mozilla.

If you hate it and delete the thing, I promise I won't be insulted :)