Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

"Kill Jews everywhere"

Another Palestinian Arab terrorist momentarily forgets the fiction that he is only supposed to hate Zionists, not Jews:

Prominent leader of the Popular Resistance Committees Abu Al-Sa'id on Wednesday called on the de facto Palestinian government to hasten disbanding the Palestinian Authority and establish a 'Resistance Authority' instead in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Speaking during a press conference, Abu Al-Sa'id urged Palestinian resistance factions, particularly the Salah Addin Brigades of the PRC, to "kill Jews everywhere without waiting for permission", in retaliation for the murder of Muhammad Al-Ashqar and the violent treatment of Palestinian detainees at Ktziot prison.

The PRC and Hamas are linked together, there have been numerous cases where they worked together for terror attacks.

Yesterday' s airstrike against a Qassam cell is a case in point:

An Israeli aircraft attacked a car in central Gaza on Tuesday, destroying the vehicle and killing a senior security official in the Hamas government, Palestinian officials said.
Hamas radio identified the dead man as Mubarak al-Hassanat, a senior official in the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. The ministry oversees all Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Hassanat, 37, also was a top member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-linked group that frequently fires rockets into Israel.

So Hamas has effectively just declared open season on Jews worldwide. And since the vast majority of Arabs have no problem with Jews, only Zionists, we can expect to see a torrent of Arab and Muslim condemnations against this anti-semitic statement any minute now.

Any....minute....now.....

Meanwhile, I will also wait for any other media outlet to publish this story. At the moment the phrase "kill Jews everywhere" comes up empty on Google News. I guess it is not newsworthy.

The Amnesty report on PalArab infighting

The Amnesty International report I mentioned yesterday is now online. I don't have time to read or comment on the whole thing now, but it can be found here.

From skimming the report it looks to give a decent overview of international law and how it applies to non-governmental fighters, and it also has many first-hand testimonies of some of the most horrible cases of abuse and torture by both Fatah and Hamas, many of innocent civilians.

Islamo-fascism Awareness Week

This week is being called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" on some hundred college campuses. Led by David Horowitz, it is garnering an impressive amount of attention (hundreds of articles on Google News.)

Many are offended by the term itself. Christopher Hitchens defends it in Slate; the Huffington Post responds.

I am not thrilled with the term - it is great for publicizing events like these but it has the potential to obscure more than it illuminates; my preference would be "Political Islam" as it points out that the dangers of Islamism are not so much religious as political, and attacking a political movement is far different from attacking a religion. Alas, it isn't as catchy.

Some notable articles about this week include:

- Zombie's photo essay of Nonie Darwish's speech at Berkeley and the protests around it.
- Darwish's own speech and comments about the atmosphere there.
- The Daily Pennsylvanian on how it turned into "Terrorism Awareness Week" at Penn. Hmmmm.
- Robert Spencer on the entire topic.
- A Columbia U op-ed pointing out that the same people who were for Ahmadinejad speaking are against anti-Islamist speakers
- FrontPage's roundup of Day One.

Amnesty Int'l blasts Fatah, Hamas

From al-Guardian:

Amnesty International has slammed the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the rival Fatah group for serious human rights abuses in the recent factional fighting in Gaza and the West Bank.
Hamas is accused in a report published today of "increasingly resorting" to arbitrary detention and torture since its forces took control of the Gaza Strip in June. In the West Bank Fatah security personnel are accused of detaining, abducting and abusing hundreds of Hamas supporters, with help from Israel.
The Palestinian president and chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is the leader of Fatah and a key partner for Israel, the US and the west. Hamas has been boycotted as a terrorist organisation which refuses to renounce violence, recognise Israel or accept peace agreements.
"The leaders of both the PA and Hamas must take immediate steps to break the cycle of impunity that continues to fuel abuses, including arbitrary detentions, abductions, torture and ill-treatment by their forces," said Malcolm Smart, AI's Middle East director. "The ongoing factional struggle between Fatah and Hamas is having a dire effect on the lives of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip ... exacerbating the human rights and humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli military campaigns and blockades."
Amnesty's report catalogues the infighting that culminated last June when Hamas seized control of PA security institutions in Gaza. Both sides "displayed a flagrant disregard for the safety of the civilian population by launching indiscriminate attacks and reckless gun battles in residential neighbourhoods," it says.
Lawlessness and impunity were already the norms before 350 people were killed. Both sides mounted attacks in and around hospitals and targeted patients in their beds. Fatah activists were thrown from tall buildings.
Amnesty has issued reports critical of Israeli practices in the occupied territories, and says it is anxious to demonstrate that it is not ignoring abuses committed by the Palestinians. "The international community must hold all Palestinian parties accountable to the same human rights standards," said Mr Smart.

The last paragraph is most interesting. It shows that the criticism of Amnesty as being one-sided about alleged Israeli human rights violations has stung, and Mr. Smart is pretty much admitting that it is true.

Of course, Amnesty cannot resist blaming Israel for some of the abuses mentioned above. And clearly Amnesty does not use the same yardstick when criticizing Fatah and Hamas because of the sheer number of reports that target Israel, whose alleged abuses pale in comparison to the daily murder and torture that Palestinian Arabs do to each other. Even so, this proves that shining a light on the absurdly biased condemnations that Israel has suffered, not only by NGOs but also at the UN, can cause enough discomfort to prod these organizations to take a deeper look at how Israel's sworn enemies act.

For an example on how bias still pervades Amnesty, do a search on "Qassam rockets" or "Sderot." Every mention of Palestinian Arab rocket attacks is "in context" of Israeli attacks against terrorists; there are no articles dedicated only to PalArab abuses. But there are plenty that mention only Israeli abuses, with perhaps a passing reference to Israeli "claims" that their attacks against terrorists are in response to rocket or terror attacks.

Still, it is a step in the right direction. As of this writing, the report is not yet on the Amnesty site.

Palestinian Arabs freak over Sarkozy's statements

French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday made some statements that have the Palestinian Arabs up in arms:

"Each side should have its own nation-state," he said, according to Israeli officials who were present at the two leaders' meeting. "It is not reasonable for the Palestinians to demand both an independent state and also the refugees' return to the state of Israel, which even today has a minority of one million Arabs."

Sarkozy, who hosted Olmert at the Elysee Palace, expressed strong support for Israel, describing its establishment as "a miracle" and "the most significant event of the 20th century."

"They say that I support Israel because my grandfather was Jewish, but this isn't a personal matter," he continued, according to the Israeli sources. "Israel introduces diversity and democracy to the Middle East. It's a miracle that out of the remnants of the ... scattered Jewish people, such a state has arisen."

"Israel's security is a clear red line, which is not up for negotiation," he added. "That is an inviolable condition, which we will never concede."

Naturally, the Palestinian Arab reaction to the idea that Israel has a right to exist was fast and furious.

IMEMC sniffs in its "news" article about the statements:

In a highly-partisan speech, Sarkozy branded the creation of Israel as a "miracle," arguing that the state "introduces Democracy and diversity to the Middle East," a statement ignoring Israel's record of human rights violations, the fact that the apparently democratic Israel currently refuses to negotiate with a democratically-elected Hamas government, and the associated fact of Israel's continued policy of collective punishment against residents of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Nicloas Sarkoy, the 23rd President of the French Republic, was elected to the position on May 6, 2007 on a right-wing ticket. While he is well-know for his uncompromising and controversial views on law and order and immigration, he is most famous for attending a press conference while apparently drunk.

Do you get the impression that this "reporter" isn't happy?

The PA's own refugee committee demanded an apology for those hurtful words.

Expect to see much more vitriol as Arab editorialists scramble to write pieces on how Jews must be banished from the West Bank while Arabs must be allowed to move where ever they want.

The Bidoon

Palestinian Arabs aren't the only ones who are treated like dirt by the Arab world. There is also a large population known as Bidoon, short for Bidun jinsiya which means "without nationality" in Arabic. Most are Arab.

There are between 110,000 and 120,000 stateless Bidoon in Kuwait. Many have lived in Kuwait their entire lives, but Kuwait reserves full citizenship rights for those who established residence in the country prior to 1920. In some cases, residence prior to 1920 was not sufficient for acquisition of nationality...

The Bidoon in Kuwait are not allowed to work or to receive welfare services. Security ID had been taken from the majority of them leaving them no access to public health care. They are banned from travel. Bidoon children may be denied birth certificates needed to attend school.

(In Saudi Arabia), stateless Bidoon are not given passports.

The UAE also has a population of a roughly estimated 100,000 stateless Bidoon. Despite the fact many of these individuals were born in the U.E., they are not considered to be citizens.

Bahrain, to its credit, did naturalize most of their 15,000 Bidoon in 2001.

The only possible reason we don't hear about the Bidoon is because they haven't embarked on any terror campaigns against Western targets. If they would try to fight for their rights in the lands that they came from they'd be destroyed without anyone really caring - a couple of hundred thousand Arabs being killed by other Arabs is hardly newsworthy. There are no UN committees that condemn Kuwait or the UAE for their "apartheid" against fellow Arabs, no outraged editorials pretending to care about these Arabs' civil rights, no international campaigns for allowing basic human rights to these Arabs. And of course there are no UN refugee camps for these people providing free food and education.

Because the oppressors are Arab, which means that the victims don't really matter.

Egyptian Koran for kids tells them to fight Jews and Christians

MEMRI quotes from an Egyptian article that uncovers a children's Koran that incites against Jews and Christians - and it was approved by Al-Azhar University:

The article stated: "This Koran commentary, intended for children, includes erroneous ideas which incite against the followers of the [other] monotheistic religions. For instance, the interpretation of the Al-Fatiha Sura [the first Sura of the Koran], states that [the expression] 'those who earn Thine [i.e., Allah's] anger' refers to the Jews, and [the expression] 'those who go astray' refers to the Christians. [2] This [rendering] contradicts the tenets and the tolerant character of the Islamic faith.
"We wished to find out who was behind these inciting interpretations, especially since they are intended for children and teach them notions of hatred and extremism. It should be noted that the Muslim scholar Gamal Al-Bana was the first to call attention to this book, in his critical article about various Koran commentaries which contradict the principles of shari'a... [3]
"We discovered that the book was first published 10 years ago by Dar Al-Sahaba Lil-Turat in Tanta, and was edited by Sheikh Magdi Fathi Al-Sayyed. Since then, there have been five more editions, and the book has been translated into several languages, including Indonesian, Malaysian, and Turkish. The question arises: How could the [Al-Azhar] Academy of Islamic Research allow the publication of such ideas? After all, [one of its] duties is to monitor [publications] that misrepresent Islam and disparage the [other] monotheistic religions. Considering [the Academy's] involvement in cultural conflicts, and its persecution of anyone who has innovative ideas in areas of thought, culture and philosophy, its [scholars] ought to revert to their original role.
"The hidden poison [of extremism] has seeped into the pages of this book, which was approved [for publication] by the Al-Azhar Academy of Islamic Research... [after being] examined by four of its scholars. [One of the authors] of the introduction is the president of Egypt's Koranic schools, and a hadith expert at Al-Azhar University, Dr. Ahmad 'Issa Al-Ma'sarawi..."

Deliberate Inculcation of Extremist Ideas
The article continued: "Overall, the book is characterized by incitement to extremism and by extremist interpretations that do not reflect the true meaning of the verses... [For example,] the book divests Islam of its most fundamental principle - [the principle of] peace - and even incites against this [notion] in its interpretation of the [following] verses: 'Forgive them, and overlook [their misdeeds], for Allah loveth those who are kind [5:13]'; 'And if the enemy inclines towards peace, then incline towards it and trust in Allah, for He is all-hearing and all-knowing [8:61].' [The book states that] these verses are abrogated by the 'Verse of the Sword,' which descended later, and which says: 'Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the Latter Day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book [i.e. among the Christians and Jews], until they pay the jizya [the Islamic poll tax on non-Muslims] and they are in a state of subjection [9:29].' [According to the book], peace and reconciliation agreements [with Christians and Jews] have been forbidden since this verse was revealed.
"In its interpretation of this verse, [the book] says: 'Allah commands the believers to fight all the infidels who do not believe in Allah and in the Latter Day [i.e. in the Day of Judgment], who do not follow His instructions regarding what is allowed and prohibited, and who do not believe in the true faith, which is Islam - i.e. the Jews and the Christians'...
"One of the most appalling parts of the book is a section quoting several verses from the Al-Maida Sura ['The Table Spread'], which the book labels as 'proof of the heresy of the Christians.' The ideas planted [by this section] in the children's minds are like a time bomb that will lead to civil war, since the children learn by heart [verses that indoctrinate them] to accuse the Copts of heresy. This is totally inexplicable, and also contradicts [the spirit of] the Egyptian constitution...
"In its interpretation of verse [9:41] - 'Go forth light and heavy, and strive hard in Allah's way with your property and your persons; this is better for you, if you know' - the book says: 'Allah the Almighty told the believers - both young and old - to set out and fight for the sake of Allah.
"In explaining verse [9:66] - 'O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey's end' - the book says: 'Allah commanded the believers to wage jihad against the infidels by [fighting them] with the sword, and to wage jihad against the hypocrites by imposing upon them the punishments and constraints mandated for those who violate the commands of Islam..."
The article further stated: "The expected consequence of this [book] is that, in future, thousands of young children will be willing to blow themselves up [in terrorist operations] against [non-Muslims]. This is the danger [that this book represents]. [The book's aim] is not to interpret verses, but to deliberately instill children with ideas that incite [to extremism]. This is evident from its deliberate ignoring of other verses... that reflect the true [face of] Islam, which does not discriminate among the followers of the monotheistic religions but [calls for] brotherhood among them..."

Notice, of course, that the author of the article proves Islam's peacefulness by showing that 'true' Islam doesn't call for the destruction of Christians and Jews, but only for their subjugation ("until they pay the jizya [the Islamic poll tax on non-Muslims] and they are in a state of subjection.") So while the author is to be commended for showing this incitement in this edition of the Koran, he also shows Islam's bigotry at the same time.
(h/t Yid with Lid)

Palestinian security forces arrest a supporter of Hamas at a protest demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails in the West Bank city of Hebron, Monday, Oct. 22,2007.

A Palestinian security force officer points his rifle towards supporters of Hamas, not seen, at a protest demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails in the West Bank city of Hebron, Monday, Oct 22,2007.

Do you think these are police-issue ski masks?

WaPo on Palestinian Arab economy since the Intifada

Some choice quotes from this article in the Washington Post:

According to the World Bank, the Palestinian gross domestic product per capita has shrunk 30 percent -- to $1,129 -- since the uprising began. Unemployment and poverty rates have spiked across the territories, especially during the 16-month international embargo that followed Hamas's election victory.
By contrast, the International Monetary Fund estimates that Israel's per-capita GDP is $31,767, nearly double what it was on the eve of the Palestinian uprising.

It appears that the intifada hurt Palestinian Arabs far, far more than it hurt Israel. Just like in 1947, an attempt to hurt Israel economically (in this case, with terror) backfired badly, hurting the people it was supposedly meant to help. Israel adjusted to the situation to the point that tourism is now back at pre-intifada levels and the Palestinian Arabs, who cheered every bus bomb, are left with nothing.

Even so, rather than see the writing on the wall, they look at the facts exactly backwards:

The Israeli government says the steps it has taken help ensure Israel's security in the absence of a peace deal. But Palestinian officials argue that the impoverishing effects of the economic separation spawn unrest in the territories and increase the potential for attacks inside Israel.

Somehow, they didn't need that incentive back in 2000, when they decided to attack Israel while they still had jobs and money and a future. For some reason they managed to attack random Jews anyway.

On the eve of the uprising, 136,000 Palestinians, or nearly a quarter of the labor force, worked inside Israel or in Israeli-owned enterprises in the territories. ...Today, 47,400 Palestinians from the West Bank, or less than 9 percent of the workforce, have such permits.

Less than 5 percent of Israel's exports are sold in the Palestinian territories. By contrast, roughly 90 percent of Palestinian exports are sold inside Israel.

Half of the Palestinians with Israeli work permits are employed by Israeli-owned enterprises in the occupied territories.

According to these numbers, some 22,000 Palestinian Arabs are now employed by Israelis in the territories. The hated settlers are now responsible for a very large portion of the Palestinian Arab economy!

Just as Gaza suffered huge unemployment when Israel left (well before the Hamas takeover,) the ordinary Palestinian Arabs would suffer huge economic losses should Israel do the same from the West Bank.

The record over the pas century is clear - when Palestinian Arabs work together with Zionists, they prosper. When they choose terror instead, or they force a separation, they are the ones that suffer most. The settlements are not an impediment to real peace - they actually help the Palestinian Arabs who want to support their families in dignity.

Once again, the Palestinian Arab people themselves pay the price for their leaders' shortsightedness and arrogant pride.

Another example of Iranian human rights

From the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty:

The Farsi Christian News Network reports that an Iranian Christian couple were flogged after being declared "Mortad", or apostates. The couple, a woman from an Assyrian-Iranian family and a man who had converted to Christianity, were denied a Christian marriage ceremony due to the rules governing the marriage of ex-Muslims, and thus married in accordance with Islamic law. However, the courts consider marriage by Islamic law equivalent to re-conversion, and when the couple were later found at a Christian prayer meeting, they were denounced as apostates. In September, agents of the Revolutionary Court visited the couple at their home to execute the sentence of flogging. The full article can be found here; please be warned that it contains graphic photos.

I imagine that if they decided not to get married to avoid the appearance of converting to Islam, they'd be flogged for living in sin. Either way, if you are an ex-Muslim in Iran, you are screwed.

PalArabs doing what they do best

Over the weekend we've seen more snapshots of what a Palestinian Arab state would look like, as the death count continues to rise. It cannot possibly be because of the culture of death, or because generations have been raised glorifying violence and martyrdom. Nope, ultimately, it must be because of Israel, somehow. Maybe because of the cigarette shortage.

The latest additions to the hit parade:

An Islamic Jihad member was killed Sunday night by Hamas.
A man died from injuries inflicted by Hamas in September.
A six year old boy was kidnapped for ransom in the West Bank.
A second man in two days was found, tortured and shot, in Gaza. (Here are pictures of the first one, who looks like Hamas gouged his eye out.)
A 18-year old girl was abducted by Hamas.

The 2007 PalArab self-death count is now at 556.

UPDATE: Another body found of a 29-year old man east of Qalqiya. 557.
UPDATE 2: That body was a woman's body.
UPDATE 3: Hamas announced the death Wednesday of a fighter on a "mission," probably in a tunnel collapse. 558.

From YNet:

Iranian police have decided to crack down on "inappropriate behavior of couples in public", the semi-official FARS new agency reported Sunday.

"If someone walks in the street with his partner and commits an offense, we will deal with it," Ahmad Ruzbahani, chief of the morality police, was quoted as saying.

Iranian law forbids women to be seen in public with men who are not family members. However, not all Iranians comply, and many meet their significant others in public parks.

Now police have decided to put an end to the growing phenomenon and forbid couples to hold hands in public. Ruzbahani said married couples were also called upon to "act modestly" in public.

"They should not act in an inappropriate manner or in a way that will attract attention," he said.

Other police officials said kissing in public was also strictly forbidden.

Last week it was reported that a young woman committed suicide after being arrested for a "moral offense". Zuhara Bani, a 27-year-old med student, was caught in a public park with her boyfriend.

She was taken to a detention facility, where she hung herself 48 hours later with a piece of cloth she had found.

Which means, of course, that she was in jail for over 48 hours for her "crime."

Interestingly, a Google News search for Zuhara Bani comes up empty before today.

UPDATE: Ruth points out that Iranian blogger Kamangir has been following the story - the girl was a medical student, she spoke with her parents and seemed OK right before her "suicide," and her boyfriend was going to be released, possibly because he had connections.

MEMRI translates an article about her as well.

But still nothing in the English-language MSM before today.

Don't cry for Khaled Salman Hamdan

Here's an interesting item, that from what I could tell was not reported in any news media whatsoever:

A child was killed and 3 others injured by the Police in Sheja’eya Quarter yesterday evening. The Center’s preliminary investigation indicates that at about 16:00 on Saturday (20 October 2007), a group of youth in Mansour Street in Sheja’eya attacked a policeman and beat him. A police force arrived and fired indiscriminately, killing Khaled Salman Hamdan (8) by a bullet to the chest as he was walking with his mother to a wedding in the area. Three others were injured, including one child who was critically injured.

Hamas "police" firing indiscriminately, killing an eight year old?

One would expect that this would make world headlines. It is, after all, symbolic of Hamas' reckless endangerment of human life, and their culpability for his death is far worse that the hoax of Mohammed Al-Dura. But there will be no intrafada in defense of Hamdan, no world headlines screaming for revenge, no Reuters pictures of his funeral, no apologies to come from Hamas. This is expected behavior, a dog-bites-man story, and if it wasn't for the Palestine Center for Human Rights (which is shamefully biased itself) no one would have ever heard of Khaled Salman Hamdan.

Don't cry for Khaled, because the Arab world and their supposed supporters sure aren't.

The PalArab self-death count for the year is now at 553, including 40 children.

Moderate Fatah would-be assassins against Olmert get two months in jail

From YNet:

A group of gunmen affiliated with Fatah attempted to hit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's convoy as it made its way from Jerusalem to Jericho for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on August 6, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet ministers Sunday morning.

Israel learned of the plan from intelligence information received several days before the visit. The attack was eventually thwarted by the Shin Bet and the Palestinian Intelligence Service headed by Tawfik Tirawi.

Following the incident, the Palestinians arrested three suspects, who were later released, according to Israeli officials. Two other cell members are being held in Israel.

On Sunday, Israel filed an official complaint with the Palestinian Authority following the suspects' release.

Israeli security sources expressed their anger over the release, which took place "after these terrorists' involvement in the foiled attack was made clear."

The cell included five members who were involved in terror attacks and previous failed attacks in the West Bank. The information was disclosed to the PA, which arrested three of the cell members. The other two were detained by the IDF and the Shin Bet.

Israeli officials claimed Sunday that the PA released the three suspects, whom Israel claims are members of the Palestinian security organizations, on September 26. The three, Ynet was told, admitted to the plot before they were released.

You have to understand that this is a cultural thing - attempted murder in the PA is as serious as graffiti. How dare Israel impose its obscene Western standards on the peaceful Palestinian Arabs!

Another rare photo of a "non-violent" protest

Palestinian Arab terror apologists consistently refer to the weekly protests at Bilin as "non-violent" and they characterize Israeli actions against them at the protest as being completely unprovoked.

Reuters, for once, actually took a photo at last Friday's protests:

Palestinian demonstrators throw stones at Israeli troops during a protest against Israel's controversial barrier near the West Bank village of Bilin October 19, 2007. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (WEST BANK)

Notice how Reuters refers to using a sling, which is a deadly weapon by any definition, as "throwing stones."

Related story here.

Another PalArab kid killed by PalArabs

This time by Hamas.

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian man and a child were killed on Saturday when armed confrontations erupted between the Palestinian Hillis family and Hamas' Qassam Brigades in the eastern Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses reported that thirteen-year-old Palestinian boy Muhammad Al-Susi was killed after receiving a bullet to his head. Al-Susi's brother was also injured during the clashes.

Sources from within the Hillis family announced that Muhammad Hillis was killed and several other family members were injured.

Director of Ambulances and Emergencies in the Palestinian Ministry of Health Dr Muawiya Hassanein confirmed that several people were injured and were transferred to Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Our 2007 PalArab self-death count is now at 548.

UPDATE: A 50-something man's body was found, stabbed and tortured, in Khan Younis. 549.

A woman was killed in Hamas/Islamic Jihad fighting in Rafah - 550.

UPDATE 2: A third person was killed in Saturday's clashes. 551.
A man was killed Sunday in Islamic Jihad/Hamas fighting. 552.

Why the Gazans died

The clashes yesterday between the Hillis family and Hamas yesterday, that left at least 4 dead (I counted five and I think one is brain dead accounting for the discrepancy) was at least for a very good reason, according to the family:

They said the reason for the fighting was that one family member had bought a car from the national security service a year before the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip and Hamas were trying to seize the car from its new owner by force.

Once again proving that Palestinian Arab lives really are cheap, by their own standards.

More on the cheapness that Arabs hold of Arab life here and here.

A case study in Jew-hating paranoia

The People's Voice, one of my favorite anti-semitic "news" sites, has a laughable analysis proving that Israel could not possibly have hit a Syrian nuclear facility in September. Check out this impeccable logic, by a writer named "Xymphora":

The timing and nature of the Israeli admissions are all wrong. Normally, this kind of propaganda exercise would have been preceded by background about the Syrian ‘nuclear threat’ in the Jew-controlled press, and followed by a huge Israeli-American psych-op, with pictures and videos and images of heroic Israeli soldiers and pilots. Steven Spielberg would then make a movie about it. The fact that the information had to be pried out of the Israelis proves that the entire story was fabricated to cover up some unsuccessful Israeli military incursion. Add to the circumstances of the admission the rather obvious neocon attempt to upset the delicate North Korean negotiations by bringing the North Koreans into it, and I’d say we have a conclusive case for horseshit. You might also note the trick of using a mistranslation (a common Zionist ploy these days) to implicate the Syrians, and the complete absence of any evidence, even pictures, of a Syrian nuclear establishment.

There you have it! Since Jews and the media and the government sources are all known to be Zionist Jew neocon liars, and since this episode didn't follow the well-established Jew media playbook, it must be just a cover up, a conspiracy with all these players participating!

Thank God for people like Xymphora, who are all-knowing because they know how nefarious the evil Joooooz are.

Today's auto-translated recipe: CD potatoes fried eggs

Sometimes, Google Translate from Arabic is pretty good, but this recipe in the Palestine Press Agency has me scratching my head:

CD potatoes fried eggs

Amounts:
Habtan potato of scale.
Whittan.
Workshop small black pepper and salt workshop.
Some of PARSLEY ON MARKET decorate.
Oil for thee.

Method:

1-Asgay potatoes well.
2--fragment then Ahersiha potatoes in a container filled with the addition of salt, and pepper.
3--Adivi eggs with Flipping hand.
4-After becoming mix Kajeenh coherent, more expensive oil, in Fryer.
5-formality paste by hand and in the form of tablets and then Akulaiha oil.
6-plate Zinni little PARSLEY ON MARKET hot and feet

The hot and feet part sounds yummy!

Abbas tells Rice he'll resign and Al Qaeda will take over if Annapolis fails

The pro-Fatah Palestine Press Agency reports that Mahmoud Abbas threatened to resign as chairman of the PA:

Kuwait-Palestine-Presse (A Kuwaiti newspaper today) revealed that President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he would resign from his post as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, if the "Annapolis" next peace process completed without results, and demanded of Rice, "that there should be a timetable and a clear political agenda before attending the Conference, but it would not be prepared to sacrifice himself to sacrifice for a popular Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert."

According to the Palestinian official, "there was a sharp political rivalry between President Abbas and the American minister stressed that alternative before his resignation and his retirement from political action letter is clear and public will be one of two possibilities bring troubles to the United States and not a political earthquake in the Palestinian territories alone, but in the All-States allies of the United States."

Abbas said that "the absence of its political moderate lead Washington to deal with a third intifada may be impossible. (Without progress) such as a road map or a new international conference, the United States will find that Al-Qaida, which permeates secretly in the Gaza Strip has become enemy number one and deducted face-to-face in the Palestinian territories if not met possibilities together and then the entire region will not be able to achieve anything. "

So it sounds like Abbas is saying that he is the moderate bulwark against terrorism and that if he falls, America will have a wave of terror attacks. He somehow doesn't seem to address the issue that Al-Qaeda came to Gaza on his watch.

This is behavior we've seen before. Just like the explicit terrorists threaten the West if they don't get what they want, moderate terrorists like Abbas threaten that the other terrorists will attack the West if they don't get what they want. It is the Arab version of good-cop, bad-cop - and too many in the West believe what the "good cop" says.

The last group of a total of close to 100 Palestinian refugees who lived in Iraq, but had to flee to the Jordanian desert, have arrived in Brazil. The 25 refugees are being settled in the southeastern state of São Paulo and in Rio Grande do Sul state, in the Brazilian South.
Another group of 36 had arrived earlier this month after the first 35 Palestinians who came to Brazil in September. All of them were sent by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Brazilian government will offer the Palestinian refugees financial help for two years as well as Portuguese classes. They will also be receiving accommodations and medical care.

The refugee agency says Jordan's Ruweished camp, where the refugees lived, will be shut down in the coming weeks.

Many Arab and Western countries with strict immigration policies have refused to host the Palestinian refugees.

The UN has two agencies dedicated to refugees: UNHCR and UNRWA. The UNRWA isdedicated exclusively to Palestinian Arabs, while the UNHCR takes care of everyone else worldwide.

While specific refugee populations around the world have dwindled, only the "refugees" under UNRWA responsibility have increased.

The reasons are simple: UNRWA defined Palestinian Arab "refugees" to include descendants of the original 700,000 refugees, the UNRWA has morphed from an organization that truly wanted to solve the refugee problem into one that only wants to perpetuate it to keep its bureaucracy in existence (it is mostly staffed by Palestinian Arabs,) and the neighboring Arab countries refuse to resettle their Arab "brethren" to live in peace and dignity, preferring to keep them in limbo for 60 years.

This story shows that the UNHCR actually takes its job seriously, trying hard to find a way for its refugees to become normal members of society. It shows that Brazil has more empathy for Palestinian Arabs than any Arab country. Above all, it shows the utter corruption and hypocrisy of the UNRWA and all Arab countries who refuse to truly solve the original refugee problem.

One year ago I found an Arabic editorial upset over the resettlement of some 46 Iraqis of Palestinian origin to Canada, because happy PalArabs mean less "unity". The editorial proved the hypocrisy of the Arab world and how much they want the Palestinian Arabs to suffer as a strategy. I've also pointed out how the Arabs have turned their backs on the Iraqis of Palestinian origin for years.

This story is a damning indictment of the Arab world and the UNRWA, and yet more proof of their pure hypocrisy as they do everything they can to perpetuate Palestinian Arab suffering while they pontificate about how much they love them. Hundreds of millions of Arabs over hundreds of millions of square miles have institutionalized discrimination against Palestinian Arabs for decades, the UNRWA perpetuates the problem, and the world is silent.

Palestinian Arab group succeeds in torpedoing peace concert

An idealistic organization named OneVoice is dedicated to ending the PalArab/Israeli conflict on a grassroots level, through cooperation between the two peoples.

OneVoice planned a set of twin concerts for yesterday, in Tel Aviv and Jericho, to advance its agenda. The Israeli side enthusiastically embraced the idea, but things were a bit more difficult on the PalArab side:

Palestinian civil society groups claimed victory Wednesday after the collapse of a planned pair of concerts in support of negotiations with Israel.

Opposition from Palestinian activist groups and high-profile mismanagement resulted in the cancellation of the OneVoice People's Summit, a concert event planned to take place in Tel Aviv and Jericho simultaneously. The concerts were originally scheduled for Thursday.

The event's stated purpose was to call for the implementation of "a two state solution." The concerts signed on such acts as Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, and the popular Palestinian hip hop group DAM. The sponsoring organization, One Million Voices, boasted the support of notables including former UN High Comissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, US envoy Dennis Ross, and Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat.

A range of Palestinian groups, under the auspices of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), succeeded in persuading several high-profile artists, including DAM, to withdraw from the concert.

The major thesis of OneVoice is that most people on both sides want peace. PACBI feels differently.

Like the current crop of Palestinian Arab negotiators, PACBI believes that everything is Israel's fault and as a result the Arab side has no responsibilities. The natural outcome of that is that they are against any group that actually advocates compromise, no matter how vaguely worded.

On their website they have a brochure, in Arabic only, that tries to explain to Palestinian Arab kids not to participate in any joint Arab/Israeli peace programs. The document justifies bus bombings as legitimate "resistance," specifically, "the resistance, in all its forms, is a legitimate right for all peoples of the occupied protected by international law, including international human rights instruments."

Both sides claim the majority of Palestinian Arabs support their side. Apparently, in this case at least, the terrorist supporters seemed to have more clout.

October, 1947 Gallup poll of German anti-semites

Another illuminating - and depressing - gem from the Palestine Post, October 20, 1947.

Two years after the fall of Nazism, only 2% of the German population could be said to be against racism. Of the group that was least biased, only 22% said that Jews should try to rebuild their lives in Germany.

While there is no doubt that there was a heavy amount of anti-semitism in Germany that predated Hitler, it is amazing that 12 years of incitement could make virtually an entire nation into racists (normally I wouldn't use the term, but the Germans themselves considered Jews to be a race.)

If twelve years of incitement was successful in creating an entire nation - 98% of the population - into bigots, try to imagine how impossible it would be to change Arab attitudes about Zionists and Jews after a century of daily, sustained incitement.

In 2006, a Pew poll showed that 44% of Germans still had unfavorable opinions of Jews - after sixty years of intense effort to undo the toxic effects of their bigotry. And the same poll found that 98% of Jordanians, and 97% of Egyptians, had the same unfavorable attitudes towards Jews.

The pure hatred that Arabs feel towards Israel and Jews, way out of proportion to anything Israel has ever done, simply cannot be erased or even effected by a "peace treaty" or "goodwill gestures." What needs to be done is a sea change in the Arab and Muslim worlds against this kind of hate, a sustained, multi-decade campaign teaching universal principles of responsibility and equality. Realistically, this will never happen, perhaps unless the Islamic world is utterly defeated militarily - and even then it would take another half century to see real results.

Those poor Gazans

Yesterday, Hamas fought with a pro-Fatah Gaza family for some eight hours, destroying their house (and five died in the process.)

Palestine Press Agency printed pictures of the damage done to the house, and once again it appears that some poor Gazans are not so poor - this was a mansion!

UPDATE: See also this poor slum of a home from earlier this year. The marble foyer was damaged!

Best-selling Turkish book claims Jews behind Islamists

From Omedia:

A book resembling the Protocols of the Elders of Zion has become a bestseller in Turkey. What makes this book so special is that the blood libel against the Jews takes on a new twist. The Washington Post reported the story.

The book is called The Children of Moses. Its cover shows Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan inside a Star of David. Reporter Mustafa Akyol writes that this is the first in a series of four volumes. The book argues that Erdogan and his conservative allies in the pro-Islamic party are in fact crypto-Jews with secret ties to the conspiratorial forces of "global Zionism."

The book is not a rarity. Copies are on display in bookshops, on Independence Avenue (Istiklal), in the secular part of Istanbul and in Turkey’s international airport. They are displayed alongside a Turkish book with an international reputation by Pamuk Orhan. The publishers claim that over 520,000 copies – an astonishing figure – have been sold since it came out earlier in the year.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion blamed “International Jewry” for destroying both Czarist Russia and communism as well as for the capitalist system. But this is the first time Jews have been blamed of all things for setting up an Islamic state. Most ironically, the book portrays Israel as allied with the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The author, Ergun Poyraz, is a self-declared Kemalist, i.e. a loyal follower of Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey in 1923. “Zionism has decided to turn Turkey from its secular path and make it a moderate Islamic republic," Poyraz maintains in all seriousness, offering no support for his arguments, which are not documented and have no factual backing.

A clear case of anti-Semitism does not spring from virgin soil. Last February saw the exposure of a fascist group calling itself the Union of Patriotic Forces, led by retired colonel Karadag Fikri. The group’s secret oath included the words, "I am of pure Turkish blood and there is no Jewish convert in my lineage." Its members promised to "kill or be killed" so that "the Turkish nation will rule the world."

In June, police found 27 hand grenades and sticks of dynamite in a house in Istanbul belonging to one of the group members with shady links to someone in the security forces. The arrest led to other cells and Poyraz, the anti-Semitic author, belonged to one of them. The lawyer hired to defend him was Kamal Kerincsiz, who is suing Nobel Prize-winning author Pamuk for "insulting the Turkish people." The trial of Poyraz and his comrades continues.

This anti-Semitic book recalls a dark chapter in Turkish history. When Ataturk died in 1942, his successor Mustafa Ismet Inonu imposed heavy taxes targeting mainly the Jews. When unable to pay, the Jews were sent to labor camps in Eastern Turkey.

Remember - the secular Turks are considered the "good guys!"

The PalArab welfare state

Even though I have been busy with other stuff, I continue to research for the next installment of my Psychological History of Palestinian Arabs series. In August I found a fantastic article by Martha Gellhorn written in 1961 where she described in detail her visits to many UNRWA refugee camps, and more recently I found a short follow-up she wrote for The Nation after the Six Day War (not available for free.)

In this 1967 article, Gellhorn talks about the mindset of the Palestinian Arabs, in camps and outside of them:

In 1961, I had made a long tour of the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) Palestinian refugee camps m Lebanon. West Jordan and the Gaza Strip, and I had been at this camp near Jericho before. It is disheartening. The world believes, because it is constantly told, that the Palestinian refugees have lived in physical misery for nineteen years. Middle-class refugees will confide, in private, that their poorer compatriots, those who remarn in the camps. owned nothing at home and are no worse off now than before. The majority of refugees, educated, skilled, semi-skilled, live outside the camps and manage like any other Arabs.

The refugees’ misery is in the head. They are sick in their minds from a diet of propaganda, official Arab dogma and homemade fantasy, which they have gobbled for nineteen years. Schooled in self-pity, encouraged to believe they are the worlds unique vlctims of mjustice, they have never been allowed to forget the daydream past or to settle for the real future. Since the third Arab-lsrael war hardly touched them, they learned nothing from it.

...Then, as on remembered cue, we went into the fantasy phase of conversation. It consists of recounting how many acres of fine fields and orchards, what splendid houses, were left behind in Palestine and stolen by the Jews. There is competition in fantasy ownership: if you add up the lost acreage claimed by the inhabitants of any camp you usually arrive at a total larger than the whole recovered arable land of Israel. One very nice man in another camp told me that he had owned 11,000 acres of citrus groves: legend has it that once the Sultan of Turkey owned that much land in Palestine and sold it to the Rothschilds. But I think this ownership fantasy is the real human core of the Palestinian refugee problem, as opposed to the unreal Arab propaganda problem.

Gellhorn uncovered a basic fact that nobody else noticed. UNRWA created a welfare state for Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants, and while the ambitious and successful ones managed to get out of these camps on their own, the ones who stayed - the lazy ones - are quite happy being on the dole, spinning fantasies about how successful they were in old Palestine while they partake of free food, housing and education.

A hint that this is true can be found, of all places, buried in the "tourism" section of the Palestinian National Information Centre website:

Before its withdrawal from Gaza strip, Israel tried to dismantle some camps and transfer their inhabitants to settlement projects as; Al Sheikh Redwan project. Others tried to do the same procedures before but the refugees insisted to stay in their camps rejecting to leave them without a just political solution to their problem.

This is not quite true - Israel did manage to move some willing Palestinian Arabs out of the camps and into brand new housing projects, as the UN itself admitted (A/43/653 30 September 1988, from Google cache):

11. The Israeli authorities, according to information available to the Commissioner- General, have to date allocated a total of approximately 3,914 plots of land in the Gaza Strip for housing projects. A total of 2,583 plots have been built on by 3,653 refugee families comprising 22,732 persons, buildings on 257 plots are under construction, 937 plots are still vacant and 137 have been built on by non-refugee families. In addition, 3,034 refugee families consisting of 18,823 persons have moved into 2,666 completed housing units consisting of 5,893 rooms.

12. Refugee families are continuing to purchase plots of land at subsidized rates for the construction of houses in the projects developed by the Israeli authorities in the Beit Lahiya, Nazleh and Tel-es-Sultan areas. The construction of multi-story apartment blocks in Sheikh Radwan, sponsored by Israeli authorities and offered for sale upon completion, as reported last year (A/42/507, para. 12), continues.

While some PalArabs took Israel up on this offer, the vast majority did not.

The Gaza City Website adds:

The quarter of Sheikh Radwan was established to the north of the city so as to evacuate Shati Camp and resettle the refugees whose houses were demolished by the Israeli occupation authorities, in the first stage. In the second stage, anyone else who wanted to move from Shati Camp to Sheikh Radwan Quarter had to demolish his house in order to obtain a house there. The goal behind this project was to resettle the refugees and put an end to their case, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

Even Palestinian Arabs admit that Israel wanted to help them move out of camps and into houses, but they will twist the facts to make it sound like this was a bad thing:

Since the Gaza Strip is distinguished by a huge concentration of dispossessed Palestinian refugees maintained in large camps, the Israeli authorities, from the early stage of the 1967 occupation of the area, have devoted major effort to breaking up the camps and relocating their inhabitants elsewhere. The Israeli authorities have applied a clear policy of systematic destruction of refugee shelters and initiation of resettlement schemes, aimed in the short run at making the refugee camps less congested, while in the long run, the policy appears designed to remove these camps from the landscape entirely, since they remain a constant reminder of Palestinian uprootedness and exile. To date (1990), the Israeli strategy of demolishing the entire refugee camp network has failed to achieve its final objective.

In general, the Arab leaders have wanted to keep as many people in the camps as possible because keeping them in misery helps their political goals, and it has been no secret that Arab leaders have vied with themselves to use Palestinian Arabs as pawns for decades. But what was not clear was that a large percentage of Palestinian Arabs are willing to perpetuate the problem of being stuck in camps themselves - because it is a free ride. The fact is that their so-called "leaders" will happily exploit this, as will UNRWA in its attempt for self-preservation.

No better proof is needed than the fact that since Israel left Gaza, the camps are still there, along with the free UNRWA handouts. This benefits everyone: the UNRWA stays embedded in Gaza and feels like it is useful, the PA/Hamas can point to "refugee" camps as examples of Israeli cruelty, and the camp residents themselves get all the UNRWA benefits without having to actually try to work for a living.

Egypt blames IDF for arms smuggling to Gaza

Egypt, worried about potentially losing $200 million in US aid this year because of its human rights record, has written a document for Congress claiming that most arms smuggling to Gaza is done by Israeli soldiers:

An Egyptian document distributed in Congress asserts that Israeli soldiers cooperate with smugglers in allowing arms and military equipment into the Gaza Strip. ...

The Egyptian document was circulated among congressmen by a group of Egyptian generals visiting Washington for meetings. The document was also given to legislators serving in the House Appropriations Committee. Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY), who chairs the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee was the driving force behind a freezing of $200 million worth of American aid to Egypt for reasons that included Cairo's refusal to act more forcefully to prevent smuggling. The official reason given for freezing the funds is Egypt's human rights record.

During briefings made to congressmen by the Egyptian delegation, it was argued that most of the smugglings into the Gaza Strip are carried out from the sea, not through Egyptian territory. They also maintained that Israeli soldiers collaborate with smugglers and allow them to cross into the strip. The Egyptians are also charging that Israel is exaggerating in its assessment of the amount of smuggling activity.

In the draft of foreign aid appropriations, approved by the House Appropriations Committee chaired by David Obey (D-Wisconsin), and by Congress, $200 million out of a total aid package of $1.7 billion to Egypt are frozen. The draft proposal brought before the Senate does not note the frozen sum. The final version of the appropriations bill on foreign aid will be decided during a conference of both houses. In an effort to affect the result in its favor, Egypt is lobbying hard to convince legislators to adopt the Senate version of the bill.

In the deranged minds of the misozionistic Egyptians, it makes perfect sense for IDF troops who fight daily in Gaza - and sometimes get killed, as one soldier fell yesterday - to facilitate the smuggling of weapons there, just to make Egypt look bad. Lying to Congress is just par for the course.

Hamas/Fatah fighting in Gaza, five dead

Whenever there is a period of relative calm in Gaza, it is always followed by a real explosion. This one was between Hamas and a pro-Fatah family, where they battled overnight using RPGs and other peaceful weapons smuggled in from Egypt, and the death toll has hit 5.

Our 2007 Palestinian Arab self-death count is now at 545.

UPDATE: One of those "mysterious explosions " at a training camp in Gaza, killing a 19-year old. Palestine Press Agency quotes people who think that this man was actually killed during the fighting mentioned above but they try to cover up any of their battlefield losses. 546.

Saudi prince: "Islam guarantees justice for all"

From Arab News:

Crown Prince Sultan said yesterday that the newly issued Judiciary Law and Court of Grievances Law were important turning points in the Kingdom’s judicial history. He said the new laws would ensure justice and protect public rights. Prince Sultan made this statement as he opened an international conference on engineering arbitration organized by the Saudi Council of Engineers. “Islam guarantees justice for all,” the prince said. Eastern Province Gov. Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd and his deputy Prince Jalawi also attended the opening session.

This may be the most unintentionally ironic quote of the decade.

The US State Department 2005 report on human rights in Saudi Arabia found:

• no right to change the government
• infliction of severe pain by judicially sanctioned corporal punishments
• beatings and other abuses
• arbitrary arrest
• incommunicado detention
• denial of fair public trials
• exemption from the rule of law for some individuals and lack of judicial independence
• political prisoners
• infringement of privacy rights
• significant restriction of civil liberties--freedoms of speech and press, assembly, association, and movement
• no religious freedom
• widespread perception of corruption
• lack of government transparency
• legal and societal discrimination against women, religious and other minorities
• strict limitations on worker rights.

The government does not provide legal protection for freedom of religion, and such protection did not exist. Islam is the official religion, and Islamic law as interpreted by the government requires that all citizens be Muslims. Government leaders called for tolerance and moderation, and King Abdullah and other leaders made public pronouncements condemning religious extremism.

...Christians were detained for practicing their religion. For example, the newspaper Al-Jazeerah reported that 40 Pakistani citizens, including one Muslim, were arrested on April 12 after conducting Christian religious services in an apartment in Riyadh.

...Proselytizing by non-Muslims, including the distribution of non‑Islamic religious materials such as Bibles, was illegal. Anyone publicly wearing any kind of religious symbols risked a confrontation with the religious police.

Under the Hanbali interpretation of Shari'a, judges may discount the testimony of persons who are not practicing Muslims or who do not adhere to "correct doctrine".

...There continued to be instances in which mosque speakers prayed for the death of Jews, including from the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

...Male citizens have the freedom to travel within the country and abroad; however, the government restricted these rights for women based on its interpretation of Islamic Law. All women in the country were prohibited from driving and were dependent upon men for transportation. Likewise, they must obtain written permission from a male relative or guardian before the authorities allow them to travel abroad.

...Women were not permitted either to vote or to stand for office.

It looks like we need to amend "justice for all" to "justice for all Muslim Sunni religious adult males who don't upset the Muttawa."

Remember the roadmap?

Here are some of the requirements for the Palestinian Arabs under the "roadmap" that are considered way too onerous by them, so much so that they want to skip all of these Phase I steps and go right to the final status negotiations. We've also added a helpful description of why the Roadmap requirements are untenable from the Arab perspective.

At the outset of Phase I:

* Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.

We can all understand how this is simply unacceptable. Ending violence and incitement would be antithetical to Palestinian Arab culture and is just a Western attempt to impose colonialist hegemony on the poor, semi-indigenous people.

* Palestinians declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conduction and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere.

Another insane demand. Planning attacks against Israel helps foster community and unity among the PalArabs and to ask them to stop would be like asking them to stop breathing itself.

* Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption.

Pure insanity. Expecting some 80,000 police to actually stop terror attacks is clearly untenable when the policemen are the people doing the attacks. One cannot expect the police to arrest each other, as that would negatively affect morale.

* Arab states cut off public and private funding and all other forms of support for groups supporting and engaging in violence and terror.

Clearly the infidel crusaders who drafted this obscene requirement do not understand the Muslim concept of Zaka, where Arab states give millions of dollars of charity towards Hamas and other charitable organizations dedicated to defending poor Palestinian Arabs from aggression by purchasing weapons and explosives. This is a religious and moral obligation!

One can now easily understand why Palestinian Arabs do not want to agree to any sort of preconditions to getting 100% of their demands met. It is obvious that these conditions are way beyond their capability - the roadmap was drafted back in 2003 and they have still not begun most of the Phase 1 requirements.

The fundamental problem is that the roadmap expects the PalArabs to act like human beings who actually respect life, and that is really a deal-breaker for them.

The West Bank economy is booming - for weapons

From the peaceful, moderate West Bank:

Two years ago, an M16 automatic rifle could fetch $5,400 or more in the Palestinian West Bank. Now buyers at Hebron's clandestine gun market are asked to pay more than double.

Four months after Islamist Hamas routed secular Fatah in the Gaza Strip, fears that clashes between the Palestinian rivals could erupt in the West Bank and uncertainty ahead of a U.S.-led peace conference are fueling a scramble for guns.

Dealers at the gun market in Hebron, the West Bank's most populous city, say weapons sales have jumped by up to 70 percent since Hamas took control of Gaza, while buoyant demand and supply bottlenecks due to tighter security have inflated prices.

In the northern West Bank city of Jenin, every bullet for an AK-47 rifle costs 35 Israeli shekels, or more than $8. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, an AK-47 bullet goes for 4-6 Israeli shekels, $1-1.50.

Militants from both Hamas and Fatah, and the powerful family clans who are often called in to deal with West Bank crime or land disputes, are driving the market, according to gun dealers and senior Palestinian security sources.

But ordinary West Bankers, too, are taking no risks.

"I don't feel safe anymore," said 28-year-old Abo Abdo, who sold his car this month to buy a rifle to protect his wife and two children. "Everyone is buying guns."
Since the Gaza takeover, Western powers have started pumping cash into the West Bank in an attempt to bolster Abbas and further isolate Hamas in Gaza, and are training police and security forces loyal to the Fatah-backed administration.

But despite the drive to support him, many Palestinians doubt Abbas has the clout to keep the peace.

"We are facing a very grave situation," a Palestinian security source said. "People distrust the Palestinian police. They are buying guns to defend themselves."

Hebron restaurant owner Salam Shabanah is a case in point. He wants guns to protect his property, but says the scramble by militants and family clans for guns is inflating prices to the point he can barely afford them.

"The money I am saving is not enough to buy the guns I need," he said.

The Palestinian Authority, with tens of thousands of "security forces," cannot be trusted to keep the basic minimu standards of public safety. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going towards this sham of a government which is utterly incompetent.

The West trusts the PA far more than its own people do.

It goes beyond the immediate security problem - the entire Palestinian Arab culture is conditioned to look at violence as the solution to all problems. The thought process that a man needs to sell his car to buy a rifle is bad enough, but even worse is the idea that his owning a single rifle will actually protect him from the roving gangs in the streets with their RPGs and machine guns. This is the PalArab culture - glorifying violence - and since it was so successful at making heroes out of terrorists it is natural that the same mindset would spill over into intra-Arab relations.

The PA owns the media. It has had since at least Oslo to turn around this mentality from terror to co-existence, from violence to peace - but instead it has done the opposite. An entire new generation has been raised to romanticize death and terror.

It is difficult to imagine a group of people, and a leadership, that are less qualified to run their own affairs than the Palestinian Arabs and the PA.

More law and order from Hamas in Gaza

From Ma'an:

Unidentified gunmen hurled two grenades at a house in Nusayrat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Monday.

The grenades caused material damage to the house, which belongs to the Abu Marahil family. None of the residents was hurt.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that the attack came after the house owners prevented Hamas activists spraying mottos on their walls on Sunday. They said a heated argument then erupted between both sides.

Great to see how life in Gaza has improved under the Hamas government.

Sure looks like child-killer Kuntar will be released

The recent deal between Israel and Hezbollah and statements by both Olmert and Nasrallah seem to strongly indicate that any prisoner swap will include Samir Kuntar, one of the most loathsome terrorists in history (despite Israeli denials.)

Kuntar, it will be remembered, murdered a father in front of his four-year old daughter before smashing her skull, among other atrocities. (And this sickening piece of human garbage is also considered a hero to Palestinian Arabs, with the "moderates" demanding his release.)

I am not wise enough to know whether it is worth trading him for Goldwasser and Regev today. I just want to point out that Nasrallah planned the kidnapping of Israelis specifically to get Kuntar in a swap, by his own statements. A prisoner swap would, as always, encourage more kidnappings in the future.

And if Israel would have had the death penalty for uberterrorists like Kuntar back in 1979, the incentive for kidnapping the two Israelis would have not existed - and the Lebanon war may never have occurred.

Gaza City Syndrome and its treatment

Sometimes, visitors to Jerusalem have intense psychotic episodes of a religious nature, often claiming to be Biblical figures or the Messiah. This phenomenon is known as "Jerusalem syndrome." When it happens, the Israeli authorities hospitalize the deluded individual and it usually clears up in a few weeks.

Not to be outdone, we now have the first known case of Gaza City Syndrome, where a man claimed to be the Mahdi who is mentioned in the Koran to herald the Resurrection:

The self-professed Mahdi went to a Hamas-affiliated Imam in Rafah to state his claims, stressing that people follow his divine direction.

According to eyewitnesses, an enraged Imam contacted the police.

The Gaza police treated this case with all the sensitivity one has come to expect from Palestinian Arabs:

The man was arrested and ordered to revoke his claims. When he refused, the police shot at his feet, before releasing him.

This treatment of Gaza City Syndrome seems to be as effective as the infidel Zionist treatment of Jerusalem Syndrome - plus it saves much money.

Quick question

What exactly would Palestinian Arabs have to do for the US to decide that maybe they don't deserve their own state?

Anything I can think of, they've already done.

PalArab "negotiator" says his side has nothing to negotiate

The chief Palestinian Arab "negotiator" has today repeated what I reported him saying last week in an Arabic autotranslation, now being quoted in a real translation saying the same things - and more:

Ahmad Abed al Rahman, the spokesperson of the Fatah movement and President Abbas' advisor said in a statement on Tuesday that the Palestinian side focuses in its meetings and negotiations on two basic issues.

Firstly, is the need for Israel to abide by its commitments to remove military checkpoints, release detainees and halt the construction of settlements and the Separation Wall.

Did Israel ever commit to any of these? Plus, this sounds like four issues, not one.

The second issue relates to the final status issues and the necessity for Israel to be ready for dialogue over these issues in order to arrive at a solution. Otherwise everything that has been done up to this point will be useless.

Abed al Rahman denied the rumours in some of the media, that the US Secretary of State is trying to convince the Palestinian to lower their demands regarding a joint agreement between them and the Israelis, on the kind of document to be presented to the international conference in Annapolis in November. He declared that Palestinian participation in the conference will help them to restore their legitimate rights.

He also said that the ongoing meetings between the Palestinians and the Israelis in recent weeks have been mainly aimed at reaching a final agreement to end the Israeli occupation. He added that negotiations are another form of resistance through which Palestinians can bring an end to the occupation. He clarified that one form of struggle is the international conference which President Bush had called for, especially as most officials are saying that had this is the moment for the establishment of an indepenent Palestinian state.

Abed al Rahman went on to say that even if the Israeli side was behaving in an arrogant way, this does not mean the Palestinians should despair as the negotiating team will continue to work with all means possible.

In response to reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has demanded more compromises as a condition of his government's acceptance of a formula for a joint document, he said that " The Israeli side does not want to end the occupation and the settlements. All they think about is plastic surgery for the reality of occupation; this will not lead to peace. The Israelis should take a historical decision to end their occupation of Palestinian territory."

He concluded by saying that the Palestinian side has nothing to give up.

Apparently, the chief "negotiator's" entire role is to try to extract everything he can from Israel and not to give anything in return - and then prepare for the next summit, where the exercise will be repeated. This farce is official PA policy.

By any reasonable standard, this would be considered "extremist" or "hard-line" or "intransigent" - but since we are talking about the Good Terrorists from Fatah, who are the darlings of the West, one will never hear any of those pejorative words applied to the PalArabs, only the Israelis. (And Hamas conveniently seems to exist to make Fatah look good in comparison. We'll just sweep under the rug that Hamas was democratically elected by the peaceful Palestinian Arabs, and probably would be again.)

What kind of a joke is going on here? Why on earth would Israel even consider attending this absurd exercise in being demonized, not to mention outnumbered? What can Israel possibly get in return when the Palestinian Arab negotiator cannot even say that he would try to stop terror attacks?

IDF buying produce from Gaza???

From the Jerusalem Post:

During the shmita [Sabbatical] year the IDF will accommodate the stringent kashrut demands of about 2,000 Nahal Haredi soldiers by providing fruits and vegetables grown by Arab Israelis and Palestinians, including those living in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

The vast majority of IDF soldiers, who do not adhere to haredi standards of kashrut, will eat fruits and vegetables provided by Jewish farmers according to a halachic loophole called heter mechira [permitted sale] in which farmers' land is "sold" to a non-Jew for the duration of the shmita year.

However, haredim reject heter mechira as a halachic option and are careful to eat only fruits and vegetables that are grown by non-Jewish farmers in land that does not belong to Jews.

The first shipment of vegetables under the supervision of Rabbi Yosef Yekutiel Efrati, who is closely associated with Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the most important halachic authority of Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jewry, will be delivered on Chanukah, which begins December 5.

It is bad enough to buy vegetables from the PA and its corrupt, terrorist government - but the IDF buying vegetables from Hamas?

I hope this was a mistake on the JPost's part.

Another peaceful day in Hamastan

Just this morning's headlines in the Palestine Press Agency Arabic website:
- Internal Hamas fighting in Gaza City, a number injured (autotranslate says "killed" but I believe that is a mistranslation of "shot" from the context)
- The PA Health Ministry condemned Hamas taking over medical and pharmacy services
- Hamas attacked two Palestinian Arab journalists and destroyed their cameras
- Another Hamas attack on the "courts compound" in Gaza
- Someone burned a Hamas car in Jabaliya

All of these events were reported today.

Peace is at hand!

Arabs importing poisonous "holy water" to UK

From Arab News:

Allegations that poisonous Zamzam water is being smuggled into Britain are exercising the minds of UK Muslims. The containers, which sell for the equivalent of SR25 each, are purporting to come from Makkah on their labels.
Containers that have been analyzed by UK health and safety officials have been found to hold water that contains raised levels of arsenic and nitrates that, if consumed over extended periods of time, could prove fatal.
Saudi Arabia forbids the sale of Zamzam. The holy water is freely distributed at its source. Its bottling and distribution is strictly controlled and monitored by the government and commercial export is illegal. Each year, however, millions of foreign pilgrims carry containers home as private export.
Genuine Zamzam, analyzed in 1971, contains greater quantities of calcium and magnesium salts than most other waters. It also contains fluorides that strengthen teeth’s enamel.
However, some of the fake Zamzam has been analyzed and found to contain almost three times as much nitrate and twice as much arsenic as the World Health Organization believes is safe. Children under six months and elderly people are particularly vulnerable to excessive nitrate while regular consumption of arsenic in water is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year in southeast Asia.
...The Health and Social Services website of the Central London Mosque (www.iccservices.org.uk) quotes a BBC article reporting the seizure of a consignment of suspected fake Zamzam at the start of Ramadan by Westminster City Council.
The “Muslim Weekly” in the UK reported last week that inspectors in the London Borough of Hackney seized a vanload of contaminated counterfeit cases of the water.
Similar seizures have been carried out in Gloucester, Barnsley and Leicester.
The potential for fraud and the profit in sale of fake Zamzam to the unwary is huge. In a recent case quoted by Teinaz, an Islamic bookshop was selling an estimated 20,000 liters of Zamzam water a week.
Teinaz said he “was aware” of examples of vans transporting vast quantities of the fake water to mosques where their imams ordered their followers to buy the substance. Some of the water, according to customs officials, is smuggled into Britain in crates of vegetables and furniture.
Speaking to “Muslim Weekly”, Teinaz said traders had misled the authority at air and seaports for years telling them that Zamzam was for external use.
“I would like to urge those selling the water to fear Allah. They’re making money at the expense of their brothers and sisters’ health who will end up very ill by consuming the contaminated water,” he said. “It is very sad to see a Muslim cheating another Muslim.”

As opposed to....?

The Arab News is adamant that this water is not from the real Zamzam well, seemingly based on a chemical analysis from 1971. It would be interesting to see if newer analysis confirms that.

Misoziony at a San Francisco art gallery

From Oy Bay:

Himmelberger Gallery, a well-known art gallery located in San Francisco’s tony Union Square, has decided to cancel plans to publish an art catalogue of one of its represented artists, noted author Alan Kaufman, who is under contract to the gallery. The decision is due to use of the word Zionism in the catalogue’s title ‘Visionary Expressionism: A Zionist Art.” Kaufman said in response:
For myself, I want to say that to see oneself and ones colleagues censored for expression of a Zionist perspective is one of the most shocking experiences I’ve ever had as an artist, or writer. But what made it especially hard was to see my fellow writers, David Twersky, David Rosenberg, Etgar Keret, Polly Zavadivker, also censored. It was then that I understood that this was not merely censorship of me: this was censorship of an entire community, of my people, the Jewish People; of my colleagues, my fellow writers and artists. This drove home to me like nothing else that I must never accept such censorship from anyone, under any circumstances. I must stand up proudly as a Zionist and express myself freely, without shame or reservation.

The gallery objects to the expressly Zionist focus of several essay contributions to the catalogue by well-known authors and journalists, including David Twersky, contributing editor of the New York Sun and senior adviser, International Affairs for American Jewish Congress; noted scholar David Rosenberg, author (with Harold Bloom) of The Book of J and most recently of Abraham: The First Historical Biography; Etgar Keret, widely acknowledged as Israel’s most popular young writer, and whose books include The Nimrod Flip-Out and The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be G-d ; and Polly Zavadivker, a young scholar completing graduate studies in Hebrew and Judaics at New York University and currently working as a grants officer at the Jewish Federation in Oakland, California. Kaufman, whose critically acclaimed books include the memoir Jew Boy and the novel Matches has an essay and an interview, conducted by Zavadivker, in the catalogue.

The catalogue was to present 15 of Kaufman’s paintings which are under contract to the gallery and whose subjects range from the Holocaust to Israel to the New Antisemitism. The gallery’s prices for the works in question have been cited at between $3,275 and $36,000. The works have hung in the gallery and a cross-section of them also appeared on the gallery website .

At a meeting between gallery head David Himmelberger and Kaufman, Himmelberger surprised the artist and author with an eleventh hour decision not to proceed with the catalogue due to the Zionist “agenda” of the essays as well as some of the paintings. Himmelberger said that such a presentation was antithetical to the aims of the gallery, which promotes “international understanding” and forswears all forms of nationalism and religion. But the authors see this as a transparent example of the way in which the word Zionism has been exiled from civil discourse and has been turned by the cultural establishment into a refugee of a word, a pariah of an idea, and a euphemism for Antisemitism.

The Himmelberger Gallery website seems to have deleted its web pages that used to feature Alan Kaufman (the Google cached versions are here. )

The reason given by Himmelberger, that the gallery "forswears all forms of nationalism and religion," seems highly improbable - it did once feature some 9/11-themed paintings that included the artist's interpretation of the American flag.

It seems far more likely that the very word "Zionist" used in a positive context is so viscerally disgusting to the gallery owner that he had to invent a reason to stop the exhibition that would save face.