Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Just remember, it is all Israel's - and the Joooz' - fault

I haven't been spending too much time lately looking for absurd misozionistic and anti-semitic rants, but that is not a reflection of any sort of moderation in the Arab and Islamic world - these rants are still printed daily in Arab and Muslim media.

Two examples from today, the first from the ever-reliable Iranian IRNA:

Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said here Wednesday that Palestine is the main problem of the world of Islam.
"It is for 60 years that criminal West has imposed Israel on the world of Islam like a dagger and occupied the first Qibla of Muslims," said Haddad-Adel in an address to a group of parliamentarians.
He said today, Muslim world has been awakened and Muslims have regained their identity.
He added that Americans too intend to deceive public opinion by their lies, which are broadcast by the media run by the Zionists.

Our second comes from that moderate ally of ours, the UAE:

ONE of the basic principles of war is that one must have a plan. One of the even more basic principles is that in order to win the war, one must know the enemy's plan!

This is impossible, unless one has first identified the enemy and has taken whatever measures are necessary to know him as well as he can possibly be known. This leads to an old, probably Chinese, injunction; "To succeed, keep your friends close; but your enemies even closer!"

If you are going to fight for the Palestinian, the Middle East, the Arabic, the Islamic, the Pakistani, the Lebanese, the Iraqi, the Iranian cause, or any of the many causes of "the people" in the Middle east, or even understand the conflicts in the region, it is imperative that you not only know all about the enemy, and his plans, but first that you recognise and acknowledge exactly who the enemy actually is!

I am not sure this has been done, for I see little mention of him in the media which seems to be flowing out of the region. ...

No one seems to want to address this major issue, which for years has been behind the Balkanisation of so many countries in the region, and the establishment, installation, stabilisation and solidification of one great foreign and aggravating element, Zionist Israel!

To know the enemy is half the victory. No victory or defence can be devised or pursued without knowing whom one is fighting. Since the "enemy" in this case is right there on the home grounds of the people he is invading and attacking, it should be obvious who he is.

I ask, of the people who live in the region, the Press who write about it, and Muslims particularly, what would the Prophet have done faced with such a scenario? What are you doing?

Read a rare and refreshingly clear voice of startling and exceptionally clear vision on this “unmentionable topic,” by an American. He, and what he has to say on the matter, may be a good platform from which to search for the truth of the enemy, and get an ID on him.

Scott Ritter is not only a clear-sighted and perceptive visionary, he is a brave man who writes exceptionally well. Worth reading!

“Israel at present can have no friends, because Israel does not know how to be a friend. Driven by xenophobic paranoia and historical grievances, Israel is embarked on a path that can only lead to death and destruction. ...” writes Ritter.

America's inability to resolve the question of Palestine is one of the gravest tragedies of our times. This is primarily because the US administration and the US Congress have succumbed to the demands of the Zionists and the Zionist regime. This is a lethal ailment that afflicts the US. The American politicians have fallen captive to the Zionist network. Even though Jews only make up 2.9 per cent of the country's population, an astounding 56 per cent of Clinton's appointees were Jews. Let me assure you the situation was the same in the Bush administration. A coincidence? I don't think so. You have to ask yourselves what motivates American Jews to gain such political power. Is it a genuine care for American interests?

The proportion of 56 per cent in the administration, compared to 2.9 per cent in the populations, says it all without going into the specific numbers. Surely fair-minded Americans the likes of Scott Ritter prefer US-inspired policies to those perpetrated by the Zionists. Regretably little is being done to cure this fatal disease.

Hamas mimicking Arafat

Yasir Arafat was infamous for directing terror attacks while denying any responsibility as he used other front organizations to do the work. (And Arafat was copying his mentor, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who instigated anti-Jewish pogroms in the 1920s and '30s while denying any responsibility to the British.)

The events of the past two days shows that Hamas is following the same game plan.

Yesterday's demonstration by women at Rafah was orchestrated by Hamas, as they bussed hundreds of women from all over Gaza. The goal was to embarrass Egypt into allowing Rafah to open.

Then, this morning, 17 simultaneous explosions by "masked gunmen" took down the Rafah border wall with Egypt - and Hamas denied responsibility.

But Hamas immediately "took control" of the border, and even allowed a Caterpillar tractor to clear the debris so cars can pass through. This "control" has been what they have been demanding for months.

The denial is telling. It shows that, while Hamas used to be unusually honest about its actions and goals before it took over Gaza, it has now started subscribing to using other terror groups to do actions that might be considered distasteful to the international community and to Arab countries.

Yesterday's barrage of 20 rockets - which Hamas did not take credit for - indicates the same thing.

Arab countries sick of Hamas

Despite the manufactured "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza and (perhaps because of) extensive al-Jazeera coverage, Arab countries have been muted in their support for Gazan Arabs - and Hamas is frustrated, as Iranian al-Aram reports:

A senior member of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has criticized Arab and Islamic states' stance towards Gaza blockade by the Israeli occupying regime.

Speaking to Alalam TV Tuesday, Hamas representative at the Palestinian Legislative Assembly, Ahmed Abu Halbiyeh lashed out at Arab countries, asking them to rise and save the Palestinian people as soon and effectively as possible.

"Hamas movement calls on the leaders of all Arab and Islamic countries, parliaments, political parties, and people to help save the Palestinian nation," Hamas official said.

"Unfortunately, Arab and Islamic countries have not so far given a positive response to our calls, and there has been only little talk for putting pressure on the Zionist regime or for encouraging the Palestinian groups to resume internal negotiations and find a resolution to the Zionists' blockade", Abu Halbiyeh said.

He further noted that "it seems the Palestinian blood is not important for the Arab and Islamic countries".

Hamas legislator said that the Palestinian nation would fulfill their duties concering resistance against occupation by every possible means, and "criticism goes to those countries which make no effort to help the Palestinian people".

Sounds like a spoiled teenager screaming to his parents "You don't love me!"

Politically incorrect Porky Pig

From 1940, "Ali Baba Bound":

Check out the suicide bomber - and the protester.

Great moments in Iranian media's due diligence

A particularly funny article from Iran's Al-Alam:

Al-Yamani Group Linked With Israel

BASRA, Iraq, Jan 22--A security official in Iraq city of Basra says the so-called al-Yamani cult might have been linked with foreign countries and the Zionist regime of Israel.

Bassem al-Moussavi told Alalam, "The so-called al-Yamani cult wants to turn holy cities and southern parts of Iraq insecure and assassinate the country's clergymen, security and political officials as well as attacking mourners of Imam Hossein (AS), the third Imam of Shiites."

He said the group also planned desecrating sanctities of Iraq, murdering the innocent people and attacking the security forces.

He added, "Studies show possible link of the group with the internal and external powers, including the Zionist regime of Israel. One can not however raise any comment on the issue before completion of due research."

Al-Moussavi said some regional and international sources say the cultists might have been lined with the Zionist Regime of Israel, announcing that the Regime might have extended financial, training and military aid to them.

Is the Iranian media all of a sudden afraid of lawsuits?

Gazans reject fuel

From Ma'an:

The Federation of Gaza Oil and Fuel Companies denounced Israel's decision on Monday night to allow bare minimum quantities of diesel fuel and natural into the Gaza Strip.

The General owners, oil and gas companies in Gaza today, Tuesday, rejected receiving mere quantities of diesel allocated to the humanitarian needs of the Agency for relief and received only diesel for electricity and natural gas for cooking.

Mahmoud Al-Khaznadar, the vice president of the Federation said: "The occupation allocated only 45,000 liters of diesel … for humanitarian purposes to hospitals and UNRWA and so on, except for quantities power station, which received 250,000 liters, except for the receipt of 200 tons of natural gas for cooking."

Al-Khaznadar said that 45,000 liters of dieselis not enough for civilian life in Gaza Strip.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's decision to provide just 2 million liters of diesel to the Gaza Strip's power plant is a circumvention of international law, treaties and conventions governing the treatment of a population under occupation.

When a people say explicitly that they'd rather die than compromise, whose fault is it when they die?

Video of Israel TV crew under fire from Gaza

Giyus links to a video showing an Israeli news crew, covering the fatal shooting of an Ecuadoran kibbutz volunteer by Hamas last week, getting shot at themselves by sniper bullets and mortars:

I follow the news fairly closely and didn't see any mention of Israeli reporters being shot at from Hamas. Needless to say, there was no condemnation of Hamas by any human rights or reporters' rights organizations. And, of course, the Israeli news correspondents were not in "occupied" territory at the time.

Shooting at Israelis is apparently quite acceptable to the world.

Part of the blame must go to Israeli news organizations themselves for not making a big deal over this. Every violation of the Geneva Conventions by Israel's enemies should be publicized, cataloged and placed in easily accessible databases.

Even though these violations occur numerous times a day.

Hamas' goal: open the Rafah crossing

Israel Matzav reported yesterday on a Debka article (no longer available) that Hamas is trying to use this manufactured "crisis" in Gaza in order to pressure Egypt to open the Rafah crossing.

Today, there is some evidence that Debka is correct. Palestine Press reports that Hamas has sent hundreds of women to Rafah to provoke and embarrass the Egyptians at the border (autotranslated):

Clashes erupted this afternoon between anti-riot forces stationed on the Egyptian crossing point of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and between women from Hamas demonstrating and picketing in front of the crossing and creating anarchy at the border in order to embarrass the Egyptian leadership and incite public opinion.

Eyewitnesses said at the border women were brought in buses belonging to the Hamas movement after appeals sent them yesterday in mosques.

Hamas used women as a way to reach the goals that mostly lead to the destruction and loss of the Palestinian people oppressed under this provision unjust in Gaza and to embarrass the Egyptian leadership to the public opinion and Arab public.

Eyewitnesses said, "Ambulances rushed to the area of the crossing after the injury of a number of female supporters of Hamas were injured and were transported to the congestion of Rafah hospital to receive treatment."

The Hamas movement called for a demonstration of supporters of women's wives and female relatives of troops and Islamic bloc in the universities and schools near the Rafah crossing this morning, after Jmathn in buses from different areas of the Gaza Strip and they went to the crossing to demonstrate against the Egyptian authorities and demand to open the crossing closed since the Hamas coup in the Gaza Strip seven months ago.

The Egyptian police announced yesterday on the strengthening of security presence on the border of the Gaza Strip to 300 anti-riot forces in preparation to deal with Hamas demonstrations in the light of threats to use non-peaceful means to open the crossing in the event of the Egyptian authorities refused to adhere to their demands.

Ma'an adds that the Egyptians used batons and water cannons against the women as they shouted "Allah Akbar."

Baking a crisis

I mentioned yesterday Palestinian Arab press reports that Hamas forced the bakeries of Gaza to be closed even though they had a month of supplies. I wrote on Sunday about similar reports that Hamas was stealing fuel meant for hospitals.

Today, a PA official confirmed these stories:

A top PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas was "holding more than 1.5 million Palestinians hostage" in an attempt to rally the Arab and Muslim masses against the PA and Israel.
"Of course, we strongly condemn the Israeli measures against the residents of the Gaza Strip, but Hamas is also responsible for what's happening there," he said. "Unfortunately, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are paying a heavy price for Hamas's irresponsible actions."
The official also accused Hamas of ordering owners of bakeries to keep their businesses closed for the second day running to create a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is preventing people from buying bread," he said. "They want to deepen the crisis so as to serve their own interests."
The official said that contrary to Hamas's claims, there is enough fuel and flour to keep the bakeries in the Gaza Strip operating for another two months. "Hamas members have stolen most of the fuel in the Gaza Strip to fill their vehicles," he said.

From Hamas' viewpoint, it is all worth it as long as they can get their stooges at AP and Reuters to file pictures such as these:

Palestinians queue to buy bread from a bakery in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 21, 2008.

And credulous reporters from major newspapers shamelessly parrot Hamas propaganda as they look for that "human angle":

Four days into an Israeli blockade that has cut off food and fuel to the Gaza Strip, residents of the strip contemplated Monday how long it would be until disaster hit. One family of 13, shivering in the cold, counted its eight remaining candles. A bakery that normally feeds thousands had three days' worth of flour.

Hospital generators with enough fuel for three days and no spare parts powered incubators in which twin boys born 2 1/2 months prematurely were being kept alive, their thin chests heaving convulsively.

Because, after all, if reporters have a nice juicy story of cute babies in imminent danger that can be conveniently blamed on Israel, or they have to dig a little to find what is really going on, which story will they choose?

As the Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reports, Hamas has convincingly won a PR victory with staged photos and stories such as these.

January Qassam calendar

As usual, this is far from complete, and it is more to show how ignored the Qassam issue is rather than to show how many are being fired. Many Qassams never make it in the news, and the rare times that the IDF publishes statistics shows that I am usually undercounting by about 50%. Also, these are Qassams that make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself.

This list does not include mortars being shot from Gaza, which are usually much more numerous on any given day. It also does not count the occasional rocket from Lebanon.

262 this month

Previous calendars:

December 2007
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February

MSM can't resist pictures of cute terrorists in training

In Beirut:

A Palestinian child carries a rifle as he joins a demonstration at Shatila refugee camp in Beirut January 21, 2008, to protest against the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Sstrip.
REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi (LEBANON)

In Syria, via AP:

A Palestinian boy holding the Muslims holy book the Quran in one hand and a replica rifle in the other, during a protest against Israeli tactics in the Gaza Strip in al-Yarmouk refugee camp a major refugee camp some 10 km (6 miles) south of Damascus Monday Jan. 21, 2008. Some 1,500 people headed by Hamas deputy leader Mousa Abou Marzouk and members of other Damascusbased Palestinian factions took part in the rally.
(AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

And because Reuters couldn't stand to see AP have an exclusive on that kid:

A Palestinian child holds the Koran and a toy gun during a rally against a fuel blockade which led to power cuts in Gazaat al-Yarmouk Camp near to Damascus January 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)

You just have to wonder if any Muslims look at the last picture and get really upset over the imagery of a Koran in one hand and a rifle in the other. They spend so much time arguing that Islam means peace - what do they think when they see this picture? Is it a manifestation of Islamic justice or is it a mockery of Islamic beliefs?

And if they get upset, is it because they disagree with the symbolism or only with it being seen publicly?

Malaysian Muslims allow a corpse to be buried after 18 days

Today's Sharia news. from Compass Direct:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, January 21 (Compass Direct News) – After 18 harrowing days of battling with Islamic religious authorities, Ngiam Tee Kong on Friday (January 18) finally won the right to bury his wife, who died last December 30, according to Christian rites.

High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan made the decision to allow the Christian burial of Wong Sau Lan after Islamic religious authorities from the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) dropped the claim to her body, saying that her alleged conversion to Islam was not in accordance with sharia (Islamic law).

Zulkifli Che Yong, who represented MAIWP, told the Sun newspaper that the Council decided to drop the claim after taking into account the views of the mufti (Muslim clergy) and testimony from traditional healer Siti Aishah Ismail, from whom Wong had sought treatment.

Ngiam’s tussle with Islamic religious authorities began when his wife died of kidney failure at the Malaysian National University Hospital (Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia).

Following her death, MAIWP directed the hospital through the police not to release her body to her husband unless he admitted that she had converted to Islam on December 24, 2007. The Islamic religious authority claimed that Wong had converted to Islam by reciting Arabic verses during a session with a traditional healer a week earlier.

Ngiam, who is a Buddhist, challenged the claim and decided to take the matter to court. Ngiam maintained that his wife was a Christian and was baptized in November 2007.

Following the court decision, Ngiam’s lawyer, Karpal Singh, told reporters outside the courtroom that the body would be cremated according to Christian rites after a two-day wake.
...
In the last few years, there have been at least two other cases in which families of the deceased have had to battle Islamic religious authorities in court over the right to bury their loved ones.

In December 2006, the widow of Rayappan Anthony was involved in a nine-day dispute with Islamic religious authorities over whether her husband was a Muslim at the point of death before she was granted the right to bury him as a Christian.

In 2005, the widow of Mount Everest climber Moorthy Maniam lost the legal battle to bury her husband as a Hindu when the civil court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over decisions made by the sharia court. Islamic religious authorities gave her husband a Muslim burial.

Testing new feature: ratings

Haloscan just added the ability to rate individual post ratings on a scale of one to five. It looks like it is worth trying out, as the only feedback I get is through comments and only a small percentage of my readers ever comment. It would be nice to know which of my postings resonate with people and which ones don't.

So if you get a chance, please rate any of the posts here you see with the star system on the bottom of each post.

It looks like it makes the site slower than it already was, so I don't know how long I'll keep this feature, but we'll give it a shot...and any feedback you can give is appreciated as well.

Strike - no spares

One would think that Palestinian Arabs would know by now that their oft-declared "general strikes" hurts no one but themselves.

I have referred a number of times to the strike of 1946-47 when an Arab boycott of Jewish goods ended up hurting many Arab shopkeepers - while the Jews increased their marketing to other countries, ending up making more money and being less dependent on the Arabs.

The 1936 strike, which Arab historians generally consider to be the high point of Palestinian Arab unity and resolve, resulted in the Jews building a port in Tel Aviv to work around the Jaffa port that was closed by the strike. The consequences for the Arab economy were severe.

A two-hour strike in 1947 to protest the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration resulted in Jewish shops and cafes being busier than ever, serving Arab customers.

And yet these strikes continue as a major rallying factor by the so-called Arab "leaders." Each strike throughout history was roundly ignored by many of the people whose lives were directly affected by these calls. And each time - in the 1936-39 "Great Revolt", in the 1946-47 strike, in the December 1947 strike in response to the partition plan - self-appointed, self-righteous Arabs would decide to "enforce" the strike, if necessary by murdering the people who choose not to participate.

Today, nothing much has changed:

Jerusalem police on Monday detained four Arab residents of the city suspected of threatening east Jerusalem shopkeepers to take part in a solidarity strike in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, police said.

I would venture that the reason that PalArabs continue to go down the same self-destructive path that has proven disastrous for decades is because they don't learn any sort of objective history. One would be hard-pressed to find any Palestinian Arab who considers the 1936-9 "Great Revolt" to be anything but an historic victory, when in fact its consequences directly translated to their "naqba" in 1948, not to mention infighting that killed hundreds of them at the time.

Some people never learn.

Clan clash!

From PCHR:

On Sunday evening, 20 January, Marwan Awad El-Gharabli from Sheja’eya Quarter in Gaza City was killed and two others were injured in an armed clan clash between members of El-Gharabli and Abu Amr clans.

I did not see this in any Palestinian Arabic news site, and since the Gaza takeover I'm sure I am missing many murders and Hamas torture-deaths (no word on the fate of some "collaborators" found a couple of weeks ago, for example.)

But from the ones I can check, the 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 11.

I am also not counting a man who was killed on the Egyptian side of a Gaza tunnel yesterday.

Reports that Hamas closes Gaza bakeries

The anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas is forcing bakeries in Gaza to close - even though they have enough supplies to stay open for a month (autotranslated, cleaned up):

Reliable local sources in the Gaza Strip said that the illegal Hamas militia's supreme political leadership ordered bakery owners in the towns and camps sector prevent the sale of bread for citizens and closing doors, in a continuation in its scheme aimed to deepen the humanitarian crisis it is going through the Gaza Strip in order to achieve narrow partisan gains.\

A number of bakery owners in the sector were quoted as saying, "they had received orders from Hamas militias to close immediately and prevent the sale of bread for citizens, and not presented themselves to brutality and vengeance of those militias in the absence of Anasiallm orders."

The bakery owners said "that the stocks of material sufficient to meet the precise needs of the population of the Gaza Strip of bread for one full month and more", who indicated that they are able to provide this basic commodity for the Palestinian citizen throughout this period of no orders militia Hamas, which prevented them from doing so.

I take much of what PalPress says about Hamas with a grain of salt but very often their claims are corroborated. In addition, since Hamas' takeover of Gaza it is clear that the campaign of intimidation against the press is working and other Palestinian Arab newspapers have become very reluctant to publish anti-Hamas stories.

This story in particular is consistent with how we have seen Hamas act in the past, as well as earlier reports that Hamas has confiscated fuel meant for hospitals for its own use.

Recent anti-semitism stories

Australians against Jews from South Africa

Threats against Jewish centers in Berlin

Israeli academic anti-semitism

Government attacks on Jewish institutions in Venezuela

Anti-semitic hate crime suspect found with pipe bombs and other weapons in Brooklyn

A Gazan child cries. Reuters is there to blame Israel!

Pity Reuters. They want so much to find pictures that illustrate that "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza that they will grasp at any straw they can find, even a child who apparently skins his knee:

A Palestinian boy cries outside his house in the Gaza Strip January 20, 2008. Gaza's main power plant began shutting down on Sunday due to a fuel shortage caused by Israel's closure of the Hamas-controlled territory's borders in response to Palestinian rocket attacks. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)

I'm surprised that they didn't caption this photo "Palestinian children forced to draw their own crude Israeli and American flags for burning because of a severe flag shortage due to Israel's total, uncompromising blockade of Gaza's innocent citizens."

MSM lies, Israel still supplies Gaza with electricity

The headlines from around the web:

Israel cuts off Gaza's electricity
Gazans reel under power shutdown
Gaza City Goes Dark After Power Cut
Gaza in power cut as blockade bites
Gaza Residents Plunged Into Darkness

Sure sounds like Israel has cut all electricity to Gaza, doesn't it?

And, as happens too often, the MSM is lying, sometimes explicitly and sometimes by broad implication.

The truth?

The Israeli Electric Company (IEC) is supplying nearly 70% of electricity to the Gaza Strip despite Palestinians' claims of a power shortage in Gaza, said Miko Zarfati, the chairman of the workers' committee at the power company.

"This is Palestinian spin. No one has stopped the supply of electricity to the Strip," Zarfati told Ynet. He claimed that his employees worked day and night in a power plant in Ashkelon while putting themselves in danger of being hit by Qassam rockets falling in the area.

The Gaza power plant only produces 30% of the electricity consumed in the Strip while Israel supplies the rest.

"It is simply offensive and arrogant for them to claim that there is shortage," Zarfati said.

The IEC employee was upset that Israel continues to supply electricity to Gaza while the Qassam rockets continue to land in the western Negev.

"The situation is totally absurd. We're continuing to supply them electricity despite the (demand) overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact that Israeli residents and Electric Company workers that are being sent to Gaza Vicinity communities are under threat from Qassam rockets," Zarfati railed.

"The Electric Company sends people to fix power outages that are caused from the Qassam barrages everyday in Sderot and the Gaza vicinity and more than one worker has already been injured in these rocket attacks."

According to Zarafti, the workers have been pressuring him to cut off the flow of electricity to the Strip: "I am being pressured to disconnect the electricity, but I am of course a law-abiding man and I cannot do this.

The decision to disconnect the electricity to Gaza is a decision which can only be made by the Israeli government and I understand the consideration sagainst shutting off the power."

The workers' committee chairman has been thinking of ways to improve the lives of the employees on the front line. "I explode with anger and feel hopeless in the face of the workers' situation and in the face of the whole situation in the Gaza vicinity and in Ashkelon," Zarfati continued.

"I appealed to the Finance Ministry and asked them to approve a plan to reward these employees in some way, a few cents for everything they're going through. Unfortunately, I received a negative response."

The Treasury responded saying "no precedents will be created with regards to salary bonuses for workers living in dangerous areas."

Not only is Israel still supplying Gaza with 70% of its electricity directly - it forces its electric utility employees to endanger their own lives, under Qassam and Katyusha fire, to keep that electricity supply up and running.

This is an astonishing bit of dishonesty from the mainstream media in spinning the story the way they are.

We already knew that Gazan terrorists have been shooting rockets not only at Israel but at the border crossings as well, limiting their own ability to get humanitarian aid, for months. But the MSM doesn't mention it.

We already knew that even though Israel is under no obligation to provide food, fuel or medicine to Gaza, it still accepts dozens of medical patients daily (70 on Sunday alone.) But the MSM barely addresses this.

And now, we learn that Israel puts its own citizens in danger in order to keep the electricity flowing to Gaza. And the MSM happily accepts the Palestinian lies as gospel as it hammers Israel for creating a crisis that doesn't exist.

UPDATE: Honest Reporting covers this well.

Another example of "no coercion in Islam"

From Al-Arabiya:

Egypt's top religious body has called for tough penalties on people who convert to Islam for personal reasons, only to re-convert to their old religion, Quds Press news agency reported on Saturday.

The religious ruling, issued by the fatwa committee at Al Azhar, affects mostly Coptic Christians, who often convert to Islam in order to get a divorce, to remarry, or to marry a Muslim. They then convert back to Christianity once they have achieved the desired result.

According to the fatwa, the practice of re-converting after converting to Islam is "a grave crime that cannot be met with leniency."

It says offenders should be penalized according to Sharia (Islamic law), but did not specify the penalty.

Some scholars say there is no specific punishment for apostasy in Islam, while others claim it is an offense punishable by death.

The head of the Fatwa Committee, Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Al-Atrash, said people are never forced to convert to Islam, but once they do, it has to be out of absolute belief in the religion and total conviction of its principles.

Therefore, he said the decision to convert should not be retractable.

The fatwa says offenders will first be given the chance to "repent," and if they insist on leaving Islam, they should be penalized.

In April 2007, Egypt's Administrative Court ruled that people re-converting to Christianity will not be allowed new identification documents, a decision that infuriated Copts.

"This is an inhuman decision that violates the right of citizenship granted to all Egyptians according to Article 1 of the constitution," said Coptic secularist activist Kamal Zakher.

So many converts to Islam are not altogether sincere. Rather than annulling their conversions - because of this lack of sincerity - the fatwa is saying that they need to be punished as full Muslims when they revert to their original religion.

Of course, they are being forced to pretend to convert to begin with because of sharia-flavored legal systems to begin with.

And we all know the time-honored penalty for apostasy is death.

Apparently the oft-quoted Muslim maxim that "there is no compulsion in religion" is a bit more limited than those words imply.

'We want to offer sharia law to Britain'

From the Telegraph (UK):

[Sharia judge] Dr [Suhaib] Hasan, who is also a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain on issues of sharia law, says there is great misunderstanding of the issue in the West.
"Whenever people associate the word 'sharia' with Muslims, they think it is flogging and stoning to death and cutting off the hand," he says with a smile.
He makes the distinction between the aspects of law that sharia covers: worship, penal law, and personal law. Muslim leaders in Britain are interested only in integrating personal law, he says.
"Penal law is the duty of the Muslim state - it is not in the hands of any public institution like us to handle it. Only a Muslim government that believes in Islam is going to implement it. So there is no question of asking for penal law to be introduced here in the UK - that is out of the question."
Despite this, Dr Hasan is open in supporting the severe punishments meted out in countries where sharia law governs the country.
"Even though cutting off the hands and feet, or flogging the drunkard and fornicator, seem to be very abhorrent, once they are implemented, they become a deterrent for the whole society.
"This is why in Saudi Arabia, for example, where these measures are implemented, the crime rate is very, very, low," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
In a documentary to be screened on Channel 4 next month, entitled Divorce: Sharia Style, Dr Hasan goes further, advocating a sharia system for Britain. "If sharia law is implemented, then you can turn this country into a haven of peace because once a thief's hand is cut off nobody is going to steal," he says.
"Once, just only once, if an adulterer is stoned nobody is going to commit this crime at all.
"We want to offer it to the British society. If they accept it, it is for their good and if they don't accept it they'll need more and more prisons."
...
"The introduction of sharia law in Britain raises complex questions, as some of its basic tenets are incompatible with the fundamental principles of our liberal democracy and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," says Baroness Cox, a leading human rights campaigner.
"There is no equality before the law between men and women and between Muslims and non-Muslims; and there is no freedom to choose and change religion."
Ibrahim Mogra, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain's inter-faith committee, admits that to non-Muslims some laws may seem harsh on women. Those who are married to a man with a number of wives can be treated badly, for instance. But he insists that sharia is an equitable system.
"It may mean that a woman married under Islamic law has no legal rights, but the husband is required to pay for everything in marriage and in the case of a divorce all the woman's belongings are hers to keep."
In fact, Sheikh Mogra argues that sharia in Britain would give rights to women. "A Muslim man can take a second wife under sharia law and treat her as he wants, knowing that she has no legal rights in Britain. It means that she is regarded as no more than a mistress and he can walk out on her when he wants."
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Critics warn, however, that in giving even parts of sharia law official status, Britain would be associating itself with a system that in many ways was intolerable according to Western values.
Professor John Marks, author of The West, Islam and Islamism, points out that apostates from Islam can suffer severe punishment, even honour killings.
"There are more violent cases that are being related to people who choose to convert from Islam," he says.
A survey by Policy Exchange found that 36 per cent of young British Muslims believed that a Muslim who converted to another religion should be "punished by death".
"This clearly goes against the laws of our country. If they come to live in this country they should live by our laws," says Prof Marks.

And here is a new, backhanded argument for making some form of sharia law official in Britain:

Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of some form of recognition of sharia in Britain is that it would help to regulate a system that operates beyond the law.
The Government has expressed concern about imams who may be using the Koran to justify fatwas that clash with British law.
Leaders of four major British Muslim groups published a government-backed report in 2006 that accepted that many imams were not qualified to give guidance to alienated young people.
They agreed to set up a watchdog aimed at tackling extremism and monitoring mosques, but Yunes Teinaz, a former adviser to the London Central Mosque, warns that one of the greatest problems is the imams who arrive in Britain unable to speak English, and with no regard for British law.
"The absence of anyone regulating the mosques and sharia courts means that they can act as a law unto themselves, issuing fatwas that breach people's human rights because they have no knowledge of the law," he says. "They can take people's money despite having no proper qualifications, but worse they can harm the communities that they are in."
Zareen Roohi Ahmed, the chief executive of the British Muslim Forum - one of the four groups on the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Body - concedes that sharia courts in Britain are still poorly organised.
"They need development - the government should be supporting them to deliver their service more effectively," she says.

Who would have thought that Muslims, in their zeal to spread sharia in a secular system, would mirror the arguments of those who want to legalize marijuana?

As Melanie Phillips notes:

It is very important that people realise the crucial difference between allowing a minority the right to practise its own precepts while fitting in with the law of the land, and allowing members of a minority to force the law of the land to fit in with them. It is very important that people understand that the pressure to sharia-ise Britain is far more dangerous even than terrorism because – see the government’s embrace of ‘sharia finance’ – its implications simply aren’t understood and it is likely therefore to be accepted. Salami-slice by salami slice, this is how British society will be dismembered.

Hamas' circle of death

Here's how it goes - a portent of things to come in the Palestinian Arabic media:

* Hamas proudly shoots some 160-odd rockets to Israel since Tuesday, and some 100 mortar shells not only at Israel but also towards Gaza crossing points where humanitarian aid enters.

* Israel decides that allowing these terrorists to continue to receive supplies via Israel, and endangering those who try to supply Gaza with supplies, is somewhat problematic.

* Hamas seizes fuel meant for hospitals (from PalPress):

One of the owners of petrol stations in the Gaza Strip this evening said to our correspondent that Hamas beyond the law in the Gaza Strip by the seizure of a large quantity of fuel had entered the Gaza Strip.

The source confirmed "one of the fuel stations", who asked not to be identified: "These quantities seized by Hamas was necessary to cover the needs of hospitals, where Hamas [is taking them and using them for] putting them in camps in the Gaza Strip for use in Hamas leadership lighting and ceiling space, and houses of Hamas leaders and security headquarters only."

* And now Hamas is anxiously awaiting people dying in Gaza hospitals whose deaths they can blame on Israel.

By the way, even though there were reports that Hamas had stopped firing rockets this weekend, it took credit for one of the rockets Saturday night.

Saudi Arabia anti-semitic? Naaaaah.

From EJP:

An international organization fighting to defend press freedom has denounced Saudi Arabia’s refusal to issue a visa to a Jewish journalist who was to accompany French President Nicolas Sarkozy during his trip to the country earlier this week.

’’The discrimination practiced by Saudi Arabia with respect to Israeli journalists is unacceptable,’’ the Paris-based “Reporters Sans Frontières” (Reporters Without Borders), said.

French-Israeli journalist Gideon Kouts, who is a Paris correspondent for the second Israeli tv channel and writes for Jewish magazine ‘L’Arche’ presented his French passport but the Saudis refused on January 10 to grant him a visa because he writes about Israel.

Of course it isn't because he is Jewish - it is because he writes about Israel!

In the interest of furthering Saudi consistency on banning journalists who write about Israel, here is a link to 9427 articles that mention Israel in the Saudi-based Arab News English edition. I fully expect them to expel Mohammed Mar’i, Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Tariq A. Al-Maeena, Hisham Abu Taha, Walid M. Awad, Sarah Abdullah, and the many other reporters who dare mention Israel's name on the hallowed pages of Arab media.

Bloggers' block Sunday links, plus

It's bad enough not finding interesting, original stories to blog about.

But it's worse when I see others managing to find them!

Judeopundit, who comments here often, finds a wacky left-wing article that claims that Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has saved countless Israeli lives.

He also found a wonderful English Q&A at the Hamas website with its spokesman.

And for a hat trick he discovers exactly why Al-Jazeera maintains contacts with Israel. Hint: It isn't for "even-handedness."

Israel Matzav notices a British watchdog group who finds that - believe it or not - British taxpayer money is being used to fund Palestinian Arab incitement against Israel. What a shock!

Backspin digs up a real, honest to goodness news story about Israel that describes....Israel.

Israellycool continues his liveblogging of what's going on in Israel and Gaza (with a smattering of Nasrallah for extra-special disgusting flavor.)

Daled Amos reports on a story I should have blogged last week on Yasir Arafat's famous blood donation for victims of 9/11 being a hoax - the great champion of terror evidently hated needles.

What can I add to such great stuff? Not much. We have the moderate leader of the Fatah-flavor PA condemning Israel for killing a terrorist that belongs to a Fatah group that the PA denies existing anymore while planning a non-existent terror attack.

An interesting article on Yiddish curses.

And the anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas has decided to stop shooting rockets at Sderot for now. I cannot find any other sources for this, although rocket fire has cooled down over the weekend to "only" five yesterday and two so far today. As has been the Palestinian Arab habit for decades, they are trying to find just the right amount of damage they can do without risking massive retaliation.

That's about it. I'll keep updating my Qassam calendar and I'll check back later to see if I can find any other interesting stories...

Good news Friday

Mack Ness, a Jewish farmer and recluse, who lived his life in deprived circumstances in Watchung, New Jersey, willed a fortune to Israel when he died in January 2004. As a result, Ness is helping to make the Negev bloom posthumously.

Mack Ness lived as a poor farmer in central New Jersey, yet when he died in 2004 he left $15 million to Israel.

The Ness Loan Fund for the Negev has disbursed more than 85 business loans, mostly to people who were unable to get loans from a bank.

Virtual world "Second Life" opened a virtual Israeli community for its "Residents" on Sunday, allowing over 11 million users worldwide to teleport into a vibrant 3-dimensional Internet version of the country. "The purpose of Second Life Israel is to present Israel to a global audience beyond traditional media," said SL Israel founder Chaim Landau. "This is a concept of Israel as a fun, entertaining, thriving and diverse community for Jews and non-Jews, and a home for Israelis on Second Life."
As a Legacy Heritage Fellow at the European Union of Jewish Students in 2007, Landau initiated the Second Life Israel island with Beth Brown, a building and design manager. Users can walk through the Old City in Jerusalem, visiting the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock as easily as they can venture down the promenade in Tel Aviv and weave through the Mahaneh Yehuda marketplace in Jerusalem.

Israel, with fewer than 7 million people, has become a Goliath in the world of technology and medicine. It is third only to America and Canada in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq, ahead of economic powerhouses like Germany, England and China. Bruce Aust, executive vice president of Nasdaq , said 75 Israeli companies worth a total of $60 billion are listed.
American troops use Israeli portable digital x-ray machines in Iraq and Afghanistan that don't require film for developing and are used in battlefield situations. "The quality of their post-doctorates in medicine, nanotechnology and software development is rather incredible," said Marc Stanley, a technology official at the U.S. Department of Commerce who is involved with fostering collaboration between American and Israeli technology companies. Experts attribute the nation's success to a confluence of cultural and systemic factors, such as Israel's highly educated and motivated immigrant population.

Established in 1983, the Golan Heights Winery is credited with remaking the Israeli wine industry and slowly transforming Israel's reputation as a producer of world-class, award-winning wines that appeal to sophisticated international consumers. Its three labels, Yarden, Gamla, and Golan, produce some 17 different varieties and are the most widely exported Israeli wines in the world. In 2007 the winery's 1,600 acres of vineyards produced 430,000 cases, up from 420,000 in 2006, and generated sales of $30 million. Today, says the head winemaker, California-born Victor Schoenfeld, "We have wine shortages. Our demand outstrips our supply."

Gilad Schalit's children's story

From MSNBC:

JERUSALEM - Years before he was a soldier seized by Palestinian militants, 11-year-old Gilad Schalit penned a simple parable about how enemies can get along.

His story, "When the Shark and the Fish First Met," has now been published as a children's book that teaches tolerance — while its author, now 21, spends his 19th month captive in the Gaza Strip.

The tank crewman was seized in June 2006 by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip in a cross-border raid into Israel. Two of his comrades were killed in the attack. Secret negotiations on a prisoner swap deal have stalled.

The story Schalit wrote as a fifth-grader in 1997 was published Saturday with its 64 pages illustrated by 29 Israeli artists. The project is also on display in a gallery in Nahariya, the Mediterranean coastal town where Schalit was born.

In the story, a shark is about to eat a little fish, but the fish persuades the shark to let him live. Instead, the two play hide-and-seek underwater and become friends.

But their mothers disapprove. "The fish is an animal we eat. Don't play with it!" the shark's mother tells him.

"The shark is the animal that devoured your father and brother — don't play with that animal!" the fish's mother tells him.

After avoiding each other for a year, the two meet again. The shark says, "You're my enemy, but shall we make up?"

The fish agrees, and eventually the two announce their friendship to their mothers.

"Since that day, the sharks and the fish have lived in peace," wrote Schalit.

His message: 'Even enemies can live together'

One of Schalit's teachers found the story while doing spring cleaning last year and brought it to his family, said Noam Schalit, Gilad's father.

"This is a message from an 11-year-old kid who believes that even enemies can live together in the end," Schalit told The Associated Press. "It's amazing how relevant that is to his situation today."

Mazal Gabai, Gilad Schalit's fifth-grade teacher, said he wrote the story after she taught the class about parables.

"I believe that the prophecy will come true, and the two will live together," she told Israel Radio on Sunday. "The message is clear — nothing can happen without dialogue. Even if the other side is extremely difficult, we'll find a way to bridge the gaps."

All of the illustrators who took part in the project volunteered their work, said Lee Rimon, the artist who came up with the idea of turning Schalit's story into a book. The illustrations are on exhibit at The Edge, the gallery she runs with her husband in Nahariya, and will begin touring Israel this week.

"When we heard about this story, we knew we had to do something," she said.

The story is online, including Schalit's original illustrations.

Palestinian Press modifies UN remarks

The UN released a statement yesterday:

Deeply concerned at the escalation of violence in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Israel, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate halt to Palestinian sniper and rocket attacks, as well as maximum restraint by the Israeli Defence Forces.

But when Palestinian Press Agency reported on it, something was missing:

United Nations Secretary-General expressed concern about the Israeli escalation

Ban Ki-moon stressed the Secretary General of the United Nations, deeply concerned about the current escalation in the killings in Gaza and the West Bank.

In a press statement issued at dawn today, deeply regretted the bloodshed and the killing and wounding of civilians in the Palestinian territories, warning of the likelihood of further victims in the case are not calm the situation in the region.

Notice that this "news" agency somehow managed to overlook Ki-Moon's call for an "immediate halt" to Palestinian Arab rockets and shootings?

Once again, the PalArabs show no ability to comprehend that they have any responsibilities at all - to the point that they will censor any news stories that indicate that they are responsible for their actions. Everything, and I mean everything, is 100% Israel's fault.

Always.

"Dismantled" Fatah group says it is ending its "cease-fire"

From Ma'an:

The general commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, in the West Bank announced an end to their three-month ceasefire on Friday.

Abu Uday said in a statement that the ceasefire was now over and that the Brigades will respond to the recent Israeli assassinations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"We will not stand idly by while witnessing massacres of our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We will respond to these massacres and we give the green light to all our brigades. Thus we will calm the hearts of the martyrs' families," he said.

But I thought that the Al Aqsa Brigades were dismantled by the PA! And then ten days later it was disbanded again!

And that after they were dismantled they were still taking credit for attacks from the West Bank! And the last one occurred only yesterday!

And I could have sworn that Al-Aqsa in Gaza has been sending daily rockets towards Israel!

Could it be - just maybe - that murderous terrorists and their "moderate" Fatah leaders aren't the most honest people in the world?

Saudi teacher beaten up; police refuse to enter girls school to save her

From the Arab News:

Angry Man Barges Into Girls’ School

A man and his wife and one of his daughters busted into a girl’s secondary school here and beat up a teacher inside, the daily Al-Watan reported yesterday.
According to the report, the family was upset at the teacher because she wouldn’t allow one of the daughters out of school at the end of the day for some unknown reason.

OK, so the guy (and his wife and daughter) have some anger issues. An interesting "oddly enough"-type story that is similar to many that happen in the West.

But what happened afterwards is far more newsworthy than the headline:

The building superintendent, upon hearing the ruckus inside, refused to enter the building due to the social restrictions on men entering women-only areas such as girl’s high schools.
Even the police didn’t go in after they were called; they waited until the man came out and arrested him.

Men who were in a position to save a female teacher from being beaten up by three angry people - who, for all they knew, was being murdered inside - refused to help her out because she was a woman, and surrounded by girls! Police, whose very job should be to protect innocent people in exactly these sorts of circumstances, refuse to do so because of the bizarre Saudi social construct of separating men and women.

One can only imagine the scene as men stand outside the girls' school, listening to a teacher's screams as she is being beaten, calmly waiting for the assaulter to exit so they can apprehend him - without being forced to look at high school girls.

And the Saudi-based Arab News thinks that the main story is the beating, not the gross negligence on the part of the men.

Let's talk about "jihad"

WND reports:

An Islamic "jihad" is an effort by Muslims to convince "others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research," according to a middle school textbook used in California and other states.

And even at its most violent, "jihad" simply is Muslims fighting "to protect themselves from those who would do them harm," says the "History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond" book published by Teachers' Curriculum Institute.
...The textbook council, an independent national research group set up in 1989 to review history and social studies texts in public schools, quoted directly from the book to provide evidence of its bias.
The word jihad means "to strive." Jihad represents the human struggle to overcome difficulties and do things that would be pleasing to God. Muslims strive to respond positively to personal difficulties as well as worldly challenges. For instance, they might work to become better people, reform society, or correct injustice.

Jihad has always been an important Islamic concept. One hadith, or account of Muhammad, tells about the prophet's return from a battle. He declared that he and his men had carried out the "lesser jihad," the external struggle against oppression. The "greater jihad," he said, was the fight against evil within oneself. Examples of the greater jihad include working hard for a goal, giving up a bad habit, getting an education, or obeying your parents when you may not want to.

Another hadith says that Muslims should fulfill jihad with the heart, tongue, and hand. Muslims use the heart in their struggle to resist evil. The tongue may convince others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research. Hands may perform good works and correct wrongs.

Sometimes, however, jihad becomes a physical struggle. The Quran tells Muslims to fight to protect themselves from those who would do them harm or to right a terrible wrong. Early Muslims considered their efforts to protect their territory and extend their rule over other regions to be a form of jihad. However, the Quran forbade Muslims to force others to convert to Islam. So, non-Muslims who came under Muslim rule were allowed to practice their faiths.

Besides the falsehoods - especially the last sentence, which certainly doesn't apply to Hindus and any other non-dhimmis - this is consciously parroting Islamist talking points as opposed to how the word "jihad" is used, and understood, in daily Arabic. (The fact that there are a number of "Islamic Jihad" terror groups proves the point quite well.)

In addition, many - or most - Muslims themselves do not believe that the hadith that introduced the topics of "lesser Jihad" and "greater Jihad" are authentic. See this thread in a British Muslim message board, where the first poster sniffs:

I jus thought i would make this post and make it clear that a major hadith which has desperately slipped into mainstream society of the so-called "greater" and "lesser" jihad is fabricated.

The hadith that is used is:

"When the prophet was returning from battle he said 'we have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad'"

this hadith is used to say that the physical jihad is lesser than the actual jihad an nafs. [against oneself.]

sheikh ul islam ibn taymiyyah said that you will not find this hadith in any of the six books and that you can not trace the isnad. he also says that the killing of the mushrikeen in jihad is the greatest of actions. [Mushrikeen are polytheists - EoZ]

This is a corruption of jihad so people dont have to go and fight and would rather stay back and say "i am perfecting myself"

for now

wasalam

For fun, I decided to look up old books in Google and see how "Jehad" was explained by the earliest English-language chroniclers of Islamic history. In these texts, consistently, "Jehad" is translated as "religious war", "holy war" or something similar.

The earliest mention I could find is from the 1708 book "The Conquest of Syria, Persia, and AEgypt, by the Saracens" where Jehad is translated as "Bellum Sacrum - Battles of the Lord."

By no means were all of these books biased against Islam, many are describing Muslim wars in India as factually as possible. It just means that the definition of Jihad as "inner struggle" is at worst a recent fiction and at best an obscure usage that is being trotted out to counter the consistent Islamic use of the word to describe violent actions and atrocities.

Video of Sderot damage

Here's video from YNet showing the extensive damage that Qassam rockets are wreaking on Sderot. Remember, these rockets were called "Christmas firecrackers" by the moderate Palestinian Authority.

Seeing how Qassams rip through the walls of houses, one wonders what "taking cover" means for the terrified residents of Sderot - where exactly can they run in the 15 seconds' warning they sometimes have? It is an absolute miracle that more haven't been killed from the thousands of Qassams that have rained down.
(YNet's version only works for Internet Explorer, I uploaded it to YouTube so more people could see it. Too many Israeli multimedia news sites rely on IE and as a result they limit their audience.)

Woman and child killed in Gaza - but not by Israel

From Ma'an:

Palestinian police affiliated to the Hamas-run government announced on Thursday morning the death two teenagers in two separate incidents of weapons misuse in Gaza City.

Sources in the Gazan police said that Hamza Al-Arqan was killed and his brother was injured when gunmen were shooting into the air during a wedding party in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza City.

Separately, nineteen-year-old Nawal As-Sarhi from the Zeitoun neighborhood was killed when a gunshot slipped mistakenly while she was playing with her father's pistol, police said.

A nineteen year old woman "playing" with a pistol? From past news items plus the fact that Hamas released this information, an honor killing sounds more likely.

Ma'an Arabic refers to the boy as a "child".

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 9.

UPDATE: A corpse was found near Rafah from some sort of infighting. Grim milestone time: 10.

First Temple-era family seal found in Jerusalem

From JPost:

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.

A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar.

Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said.

The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].

The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.

The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or "Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

What did the Syrian Mufti tell the EU parliament?

The Syrian Grand Mufti addressed the EU parliament on Tuesday and said some pretty moderate things. According to the EU report:

The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, yesterday (15 January) told Parliament's Strasbourg plenary that perceived clashes of culture were instead conflicts of "ignorance, terrorism and backwardness".
He stressed that although religion gave culture its moral values, "it is we who build civilisation", arguing that "we must create states on a civil basis" rather than a religious one. Moreover, he said there was "no such thing" as a holy war [but only a "holy peace"].

MEMRI translates an article from champress.com that goes much further:

In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Syrian Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun came out with a surprising call: "May Allah curse anyone who kills a Palestinian, Israeli, or Iraqi child or man, because he is killing a person whom Allah honored without connection to his religious belief."
The mufti added that if the Ka'ba, the Church of the Nativity, or the Al-Aqsa Mosque were to be destroyed, someone would rise up to rebuild them, but when a person was killed no one could bring them back to life.

The autotranslation of the champress.com report indicates that the speech was unusually moderate:

«We must rearing of our children and future generations on the basis of human values and the dignity of each individual and we must start here Palestine, the land of peace, if we could objectively, Israelis and Palestinians together, will live peacefully», recalling the words of the late Pope John Paul II,« instead of building the wall, Build trust and understanding with you »...

However, the Brussels Journal quotes a Dutch blogger, translating an article in a Dutch news site that says that when the Syrian Mufti addressed the EU parliament, he said (among other things):

Should it come to riots, bloodshed and violence after broadcating the Quran movie by PVV-leader Geert Wilders, then Wilders will be responsible.

This was said by the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, Tuesday in teh European Parliament, where he gave a speech at the invitation of the fraction presidents.

If Wilders tears up or burn a Quran in his film 'this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. And he will be responsible', according to te Grand Mufti.

Al Hassoun thinks it is 'the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop Wilders'.

So we have the Arabic press and the EU stressing the Mufti's moderate tone, and a Dutch newspaper saying otherwise - that the Mufti made an implicit threat against the Netherlands if they don't stop Wilders' anti-Muslim film. I could not find any media outlet that reported that part of his speech outside this reference to the Dutch-language site. (The Champress site mentions the Danish cartoons but I couldn't discern the threats mentioned here in the autotranslation.)

It is certainly plausible that he said those threatening words, but it is equally newsworthy to hear him say explicitly that terrorists who kill Israelis should be cursed. This is a way more peaceful position than most Islamic clerics are willing to say publicly. Whether it is his true belief or just politics I do not know, and it is intriguing to see both differing accounts of the same speech.

The limits of reliance

In the waning days of the Clinton presidency, Clinton presented his peace plan to Yasir Arafat with its well known concessions on the part of Israel (94-96% of the West Bank plus 1-3% of Israel proper, all of Gaza, splitting Jerusalem, destroying dozens of settlements.) Part of Clinton's intent was that if Arafat would not accept this offer it could not be a basis for future negotiations - as Dennis Ross wrote, “to be sure that it couldn’t be a floor for [future] negotiations... It couldn’t be a ceiling. It was the roof.”

This was an extremely extremely important point for Israel. Even so, Israel is now negotiating based pretty much on the same terms that were intended then by the US President to not be a basis for future negotiations.

In 2002, President Bush helped write the "roadmap" for peace, and he made it very clear that nothing would happen until Palestinian Arabs stopped their terror and incitement - cessation of violence was a precondition of every other part of the roadmap.

Again, this was a terrifically important point for Israel, the realization that a mindset of peace was a precondition for Israeli concessions, rather than the wishful thinking that peace will naturally come after Israel already gave up its own security. And yet, last week, COndoleeza Rice abrogated the roadmap and this condition. As Jeff Jacoby quotes Rice:

The reason that we haven't really been able to move forward on the peace process for a number of years is that we were stuck in the sequentiality of the road map. So you had to do the first phase of the road map before you moved on to the third phase of the road map, which was the actual negotiations of final status," Rice said. . . . What the US-hosted November peace summit in Annapolis did was "break that tight sequentiality. . . You don't want people to get hung up on settlement activity or the fact that the Palestinians haven't fully been able to deal with the terrorist infrastructure. . ."

In 2004, Ariel Sharon used a letter from President Bush as a major victory in the withdrawal from Gaza, showing that the US was against a withdrawal to the Green Line:

In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion.

Yet again, this was a crucial point in Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, knowing that the US supports Israel keeping some of the major settlement blocs in the West Bank. However, now the US government disagrees with this interpretation of the letter:

The United States clarified to Israel during U.S. President George Bush's visit this week that it disapproves of all building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank including in the large settlement blocs, a senior Western diplomat said Tuesday.

The diplomat added that Israel and the U.S. differ on their interpretation of the letter President Bush sent to former prime minister Ariel Sharon in April, 2004.

"The letter refers to major population centers and not the settlement blocs, while stressing that everything must also be decided in the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians," the diplomat said.

According to the diplomat, Bush is steadfast in his objection of building in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem.

"The American government also opposes construction due to the natural growth of the present settlers", he said. He added, however, that if progress is made on border issues it may help to resolve the settlement issue. "When the route of the permanent border becomes clearer, the locations where Israel can and cannot build will also be clearer."

These three times Israel trusted her friends in the White House to help guarantee its security, and in each of these times the promises and understandings that Israel relied on turned out to be ephemeral.

It is clear that both Bill Clinton and George Bush have great affinity and feelings for Israel. But it is equally clear that it is a mistake for Israel to rely on any promises, letters, or understandings from a third party when the subject is Israel's security. In the end, countries act in their own interests, and in the case of the current administration the Arab world has fooled the White House into thinking that they would support the West against Iran if only the Palestinian Arabs get what they want, no strings attached. Since the Iranian problem is truly a geopolitical threat to the West, the false linkage to Israel turns into something that Washington needs to address.

Of course, the current Israeli government has more than its share of blame for this situation - it is unreasonable for Israel's supporters to ask the White House to be more Zionist than Israel's own leaders. Beyond that, though, Israel's dependence on US largesse also means that Israel is no longer free to make its own decisions for her own security without "consulting" (getting permission from) Washington.

Israel's relationship with the US should be one of mutual self-interest, not of dependence.

Joke of the day

From Jay Leno:

Today President Bush said the Saudis are fully enlisted in the war on terror.

Yeah - so fully, they're on both sides.

Saudi "love children"

From Arab News:

She looked Arab but spoke, in addition to English, a Southeast Asian language. When asked about her origin, she said her father was Saudi, who left her mother and returned to the Kingdom, said Najeeb Al-Zamil, a businessman and Saudi columnist, who met the girl by chance while abroad.
The girl worked as a masseuse, serving tourists at their private accommodations. “She was not the only Saudi-origin girl abandoned in that country or in other countries,” he said.
“Unfortunately, after four years the girl died at the age of 17 with HIV. ... She was not the only victim in the family. Her mother also had Arab features and she too was abandoned by her Saudi father as well,” Al-Zamil said.
“We tried to reunite them with their family in Saudi Arabia but both Saudi fathers left no trace and we failed to help them... The only thing we managed to do was to move them to a better home,” he added.
Al-Zamil said it was a reality that many Saudis fly to the Far East, get married, have children and then simply leave.
Another heartrending tale is that of a 14-year-old girl called Salma, not her real name. At the age of seven her Saudi father left both her and her mother, and returned to the Kingdom.
Salma left school early and began working at a bar and as a model featuring in low budget advertisements. She was nicknamed the queen of advertisements. However, life’s experience has left her bitter about men, Saudi Arabia and Islam.
In spite of everything, Salma’s mother, who had converted to Islam to marry her father, had still brought her daughter up as a Muslim.

Israellycool is liveblogging

Between Israel's offensive yesterday against Gaza terror, the huge increase in Qassams and the latest political news of Israel Beiteinu quitting the government (so what's the deal with Shas?), the news comes too fast to keep up with.

But Aussie Dave at Israellycool is doing the job, as he does during every crisis. Check it out!

30 rockets and counting

It has been very hard to keep track of the number of rockets hitting Sderot today, but my best guess right now is 30: 24 that Ha'aretz counted (plus 24 mortars) at 9:00 PM, plus six more in YNet's updates after that time. (And another two for 32, and another two for 34 if I am counting correctly.)

Four people were injured in Sderot, including a 5-year old girl. And earlier an Ecuadorian kibbutz volunteer was shot and killed by a Hamas Gaza sniper.

Hamas has taken credit for the majority of rockets and mortars as well as that murder, reversing its policy of pretending not to support attacks by its PRC partners.

As far as keeping track on my Qassam calendar, I'll be a bit more conservative for now. Over the past few days a number of rockets were claimed to be shot by Palestinian terror groups in Gaza but I could not find any mention of them landing in the Israeli press.

According to my numbers, this is certainly the worst day for rockets since May but it might end up being the worst ever.

UPDATE: YNet says over 40 rockets on Tuesday. JPost counted 28 plus a Katyusha.

UPDATE 2: 30 already on Wednesday. (Now 50.)

Torture victim of Hamas dies

From Palpress (autotranslated):

Local Palestinian sources said today that "a citizen of the Maghazi camp central Gaza Strip died in an Israeli hospital as a result of serious wounds he had sustained a month ago after the tortured and thrown from the roof of one of the security buildings of the Hamas militia in the central region."

The sources added that Mustafa Ezz El-Shafei, 24, "died from wounds he suffered after being tortured by the militias of Hamas and thrown from the top of one of the security purpose of the killers and after his confession to one of the leaders of the Qassam Brigades, a charge of theft and looting of the property of citizens center of the Gaza Strip."

Sources confirmed that Shafei had nothing to do with the theft.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 7.