Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 22, 2008

A fake "international court" designed purely to vilify Israel

Misozionistic people, those who loathe the very idea of Israel existing in any form and spend uncounted hours coming up with ways to show their hate, have come up with a new idea:

"Let's set up an international tribunal whose only purpose will be to try, and convict, Israel, over and over again!"

Sounds silly? Think again:

A new civil court founded in Belgium by human rights organizations will convene for the first time Friday evening and discuss war crimes Israel had allegedly committee during the Second Lebanon War and war crimes the groups claim it is currently committing in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past year, human rights groups, in cooperation with Arab and European intellectuals, have been working on establishing the new court, which will be tasked with addressing different issues related to human rights violations and war crimes.

The first matter on the court's agenda will be Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip. Human rights organizations, as well as the victims of these alleged crimes, will appear before the court. The court has also invited Israeli representatives to attend the hearing and respond to the accusations.

After much searching, I found the webpage of this group, in French.

This group does not even have its own Internet domain, which means it might not even have $5 in support. It is on a blog site.

It calls itself the "Tribunal citoyen international contre les crimes de guerre au Moyen Orient", the "International Citizens' Tribunal on war crimes in the Middle East."

Its founder, Raoul Marc Jennar, makes no pretense of objectivity:

The doctrine that underpins the State of Israel was incompatible with international law.

Our initiative is independent of any ideological, religious or political affiliation. It is based on the desire to combat the impunity enjoyed by the Defense Forces of Israel. It is also based on the inalienable right of the Lebanese people to defend the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Lebanon.

... This session will be presided over by five people from every continent and around the circles of the judiciary. Victims, witnesses facts and representatives of humanitarian agencies, environmental and economic present their testimony. A lawyer of the accused could be heard. An indictment is handed down and a jury of people from the five continents, will deliver on behalf of injured humanity, conclusions.

This approach makes sense only if maximum publicity shall be granted.To this end, we have to choose the venue of the session with care and raise the funds needed to organize it. An association of fact - the International Jury of Conscience for Lebanon - has been established and a bank account was opened.

Sounds so objective!

It will be interesting to see if any major human rights organizations give this sham their approval, by attending. The Jerusalem Post writes:

Israel's position would also be represented, [Israeli Arab MK] Nafa said, but, "I don't know by whom."

The Knesset member said he decided to attend because of a decision by the Israeli-Arab leadership's Monitoring Committee to "turn to international tribunals" to circumvent Israeli courts. "Arab Israelis have no defense under Israeli national law," he said.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch would attend the event, Nafa said, but a spokeswoman for Amnesty told the Post that members of the organization's London and Belgium branches had not heard of the event. Human Rights Watch was unable to respond to a request to confirm its participation by press time.

Asked if the conference would discuss Hizbullah's Katyusha missile attacks on Israel during the Second Lebanon War or the Kassam rockets being fired at Sderot by Hamas, Nafa said he "did not know. My personal position is that I'm against harming Sderot civilians who are innocent. It doesn't matter where the rockets are coming from."

The conference's organizers did not provide a contact number and failed to return an e-mail message asking for more details on their meeting.

In other words, it is an exercise in Israel-bashing under the name of a "court" - with handpicked, misozionistic members guaranteed to prejudge not only which cases they will hear but also their conclusions.

Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli troops during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus February 21, 2008. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini (WEST BANK)

Which is more likely:

1) Four Arab kids happen to throw stones at the exact same time so that the photographer can capture not only the kids but also the stones in mid-air, increasing his chances of winning an award.

2) The photographer shouting to the kids after getting them in optimal position, "Wahid, ithnan, thalatha (1-2-3) THROW!"

Sticks and stones may break my bones. How about concrete blocks?

AP took this picture with this caption:

A Palestinian boy prepares to throw a brick at Israeli troops operating in the West Bank village of Beta near Nablus, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A standard brick weighs about 6 lbs.

Let's look a bit closer at what exactly this boy is hurling:

This is no "brick," this is a concrete block weighing some 30 lbs.

There is no question that this is a lethal weapon, especially thrown from a height. The intent is to kill.

What should the legitimate response of a soldier be when faced with a 30 lb. projectile?

And why do you suppose the AP would describe this as merely a "brick?"

BBC's "Monopoly" on anti-semitism

Many other JBloggers have been dealing with the issue of Jerusalem on the Monopoly board during this past week. As CNN summarizes:

Monopoly, the world's best-selling board game, is going global. A simple idea, substituting the iconic properties of the original game with hallmark cities of the world.

Hasbro is letting people vote on its Web site for which cities to include in the new game.

In this celebration of capitalism, would-be moguls could buy up properties in cities such as Moscow, Russia; Tokyo, Japan and Jerusalem, Israel.

Wait. Nix that last one -- at least the Israel part.

Given the white-hot controversy over Israel -- the world's most fought-over piece of real estate -- should the board game refer to "Jerusalem, Israel" even though Palestinians say Jerusalem will be the capital of any future Palestinian state? Should it say "Jerusalem, Palestine?"

Instead of rolling the dice, parent company Hasbro is taking the middle ground.

The company is letting people vote on its Web site for which cities to include in the new game -- "Dublin, Ireland" for example. It recently removed "Israel" after "Jerusalem" and then eventually removed all of the country names.

Hasbro told The Associated Press that a mid-level employee decided on her own to take out "Israel" after pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers complained -- sparking even more protests from the other side.

"It was never our intention to print any countries on the final boards and any online tags were merely used as a geographic reference to help with city selection," Hasbro said in a written statement. "We would never want to enter into any political debate. We apologize for any upset this has caused our Monopoly fans."

The BBC, when talking about the issue a few days ago in a "diary" by Tim Franks, decided for some bizarre reason to use it as a springboard to accuse Israeli Jews of racism:

Yehiel Leiter is the director general of One Jerusalem, a group that, in its mission statement, declares a single objective: "Maintaining a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel."

The Monopoly campaign, says Leiter, "puts Jerusalem on the table. It has people not avoid Jerusalem because it's contested".

The group also says it has handed out 128,000 golden ribbons on the streets of Jerusalem (the colour is because of the song, "Jerusalem of Gold").

Mudi had a golden ribbon fluttering from the wing mirror of his taxi, until recently.

But Mudi is unusual, in that he is an Israeli Arab.

"The truth is," he told me, as I sat alongside him in his taxi, "Jewish people, especially religious people, won't stop any taxi driven by an Arab."

But when they see a golden ribbon, says Mudi, "they know no Arab guy would have it on his car".

Mudi has another advantage: he says he does not "look" like an Arab, and he speaks Hebrew fluently. Passengers mistake him for a Jew.

"And very, very few people are not prejudiced," in what they say to him. At least, that is the case in Jerusalem.

"In Tel Aviv," he says, "it is exactly the opposite. They don't care I'm an Arab".

When his Jerusalem passengers disembark, Mudi says he tells them that his name is, in fact, Mahmoud.

He says, though, that he has not felt "comfortable" with the ribbon. Indeed, the other day, when he was washing his taxi, he ripped it off, and so far has not replaced it.

Still, many of his Arab colleagues continue to tie a ribbon around their rear-view or wing mirrors, in order not to put off potential customers.

Some, says Mudi, even wear a yarmulke (Jewish skullcap).

Our intrepid BBC reporter, of course, bases his accusation that Jews refuse to go into Arab taxicabs based on a sample size of one, and many Israelis wrote to comment that the reporter was a bit off:

I am an Israeli Arab and I also tend to be a bit concerned when near the Palestinian controlled areas when geting into a taxi, as for the rest of Israel there are no such problems. Please don't try and make some racialist stories out of Israeli Jews, they are my fellow citizens!
Dr Moukie Fallah, Herzalia Israel

Firstly, the taxi story is obviously made up. Most taxi drivers here are Arabs, so waiting to find a Jewish one would take for ever. Also there is no way of telling if the taxi is driven by an Arab or a Jew and quite frankly we dont care! Secondly, even as a voter of Israel's most Left wing party, there is still no denying that J'lem is Israel's capital...so why not have it listed like that. Most Arabs in Jerusalem want to stay part of Israel and most are rushing to get citizenship.
Yoni, Jerusalem, Israel

I spent two years in Jerusalem and never heard of anyone avoiding an Arab taxi!
Avi, Manchester, UK

About the Mudi story: who cares who drives? In my work place most of the drivers are Israeli Arabs - and nobody cares. The story don't reflect nothing about the general situation here.
Shimon, student, Ben Gurion University, Israel

I am a non-Jewish American who lived in Jerusalem for over a year recently, and I still travel there several times a week to go to school. None of my Jewish Israeli friends has ever expressed any reservations about taking cabs driven by Arabs. We're students, and life in Jerusalem is not cheap, so we usually take the first guy who gives us a fair price. As others have pointed out, you can't necessarily tell at first whether he's Arab or Jewish or Klingon anyway.
Taybeh Chaser

The reason many Jerusalemites avoid Arab taxis is not, as you insuate by your lack of explanation, because they are racists. Most people do it out of fear of being driven into Arab East Jerusalem or Ramallah, for criminal or terrorist / political purposes. Jews in Tel Aviv are not fussed by the affiliation of their taxi drivers because there are no dangerous areas near Tel Aviv.
Shaya, Manchester, UK

I am Jewish & religious. I lived in Jerusalem for 28 years. Although I don't live there any more my parents do. I have used taxis all my life so I find Mudy's story awkward and strange. Never in my life, I checked up if the taxi driver is an Arab or not. Most recently I was sitting in a cab and the taxi driver's name was Muhamed, we discussed all the way to my parents' house and eventually finished our conversation blessing each other. So BBC, please stop this nonsense!
Joseph Elboim, Beit Shemesh, Israel

Something is not quite right in the Mudi story. All Israeli taxis have a prominent notice showing the driver's name, licence number and photograph. Consequently it would be very difficult for him to disguise his origins.
Victor Leaf, London, UK

Clearly, the BBC reporter decided to use the Monopoly story as a means to get in some old fashioned anti-semitism into a "respectable" article. It would never occur to him that "Mudi" is the one who shows the most bigotry - because the BBC doesn't want to, God forbid, accuse Arabs of racism.

Only Jews.

Benny Morris' letter to The Irish Times

Historian Benny Morris wrote a nice letter to The Irish Times in response to an January 31 op-ed by Irish Senator David Norris and a letter by David Landy (not online for free) Here it is (hat tip Solomonia):

Madam, - Israel-haters are fond of citing - and more often, mis-citing - my work in support of their arguments. Let me offer some corrections. The Palestinian Arabs were not responsible "in some bizarre way" (David Norris, January 31st) for what befell them in 1948. Their responsibility was very direct and simple. In defiance of the will of the international community, as embodied in the UN General Assembly Resolution of November 29th, 1947 (No. 181), they launched hostilities against the Jewish community in Palestine in the hope of aborting the emergence of the Jewish state and perhaps destroying that community. But they lost; and one of the results was the displacement of 700,000 of them from their homes. It is true, as Erskine Childers pointed out long ago, that there were no Arab radio broadcasts urging the Arabs to flee en masse; indeed, there were broadcasts by several Arab radio stations urging them to stay put. But, on the local level, in dozens of localities around Palestine, Arab leaders advised or ordered the evacuation of women and children or whole communities, as occurred in Haifa in late April, 1948. And Haifa's Jewish mayor, Shabtai Levy, did, on April 22nd, plead with them to stay, to no avail. Most of Palestine's 700,000 "refugees" fled their homes because of the flail of war (and in the expectation that they would shortly return to their homes on the backs of victorious Arab invaders). But it is also true that there were several dozen sites, including Lydda and Ramla, from which Arab communities were expelled by Jewish troops. The displacement of the 700,000 Arabs who became "refugees" - and I put the term in inverted commas, as two-thirds of them were displaced from one part of Palestine to another and not from their country (which is the usual definition of a refugee) - was not a "racist crime" (David Landy, January 24th) but the result of a national conflict and a war, with religious overtones, from the Muslim perspective, launched by the Arabs themselves. There was no Zionist "plan" or blanket policy of evicting the Arab population, or of "ethnic cleansing". Plan Dalet (Plan D), of March 10th, 1948 (it is open and available for all to read in the IDF Archive and in various publications), was the master plan of the Haganah - the Jewish military force that became the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) - to counter the expected pan-Arab assault on the emergent Jewish state. That's what it explicitly states and that's what it was. And the invasion of the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq duly occurred, on May 15th. It is true that Plan D gave the regional commanders carte blanche to occupy and garrison or expel and destroy the Arab villages along and behind the front lines and the anticipated Arab armies' invasion routes. And it is also true that mid-way in the 1948 war the Israeli leaders decided to bar the return of the "refugees" (those "refugees" who had just assaulted the Jewish community), viewing them as a potential fifth column and threat to the Jewish state's existence. I for one cannot fault their fears or logic. The demonisation of Israel is largely based on lies - much as the demonisation of the Jews during the past 2,000 years has been based on lies. And there is a connection between the two. I would recommend that the likes of Norris and Landy read some history books and become acquainted with the facts, not recycle shopworn Arab propaganda. They might then learn, for example, that the "Palestine War" of 1948 (the "War of Independence," as Israelis call it) began in November 1947, not in May 1948. By May 14th close to 2,000 Israelis had died - of the 5,800 dead suffered by Israel in the whole war (ie almost 1 per cent of the Jewish population of Palestine/Israel, which was about 650,000). - Yours, etc, Prof BENNY MORRIS, Li-On, Israel. February 21, 2008

His point that two thirds of the Arab "refugees" were not even real refugees at the time is well-founded. They were just displaced, as were many Jews during the war; many were displaced and ended up in Israel anyway and the UN did not consider those "refugees" in its arbitrary definition.

That Palestinian Arab prison system does it again

From Ha'aretz:

A group of 14 Palestinian militants escaped from a Palestinian Authority prison in Nablus Thursday, Palestinian sources reported.

The prisoners, members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, had been involved in fighting against the IDF in recent months and were hiding in Nablus' old city, the Kasba. Some six weeks ago, the group turned itself in to the PA, following a comprehensive IDF operation in the Kasba.

The IDF agreed to let the militants, who are wanted by Israel, stay in the Palestinian prison on condition that the Palestinian security forces keep them incarcerated and deny them weapons and contact with terror organizations until Israel pardons them.

So far, however, Israel has refused to include the men in the pardon agreement for Fatah fighters, under which Palestinians give up their arms in return for an Israeli amnesty.

Thursday afternoon the entire group broke out of prison, apparently with the help of their Palestinian wardens. One of the escaped prisoners is Mahdi Abu Ghazale, commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades' Night Horsemen.

Ghazale announced Thursday that the group had decided to leave after the prison authorities reneged on the conditions they had agreed on when they turned themselves in. Ghazale and his group were set to hold a news conference in Nablus but apparently canceled, fearing for their safety.

Palestinian journalists who visited Jneid Prison recently reported that the militants had been kept in real prison conditions. They had mobile phones but were not allowed to contact militant organizations and their calls were being monitored.

Among the other fugitives are Omar Akub, Ala Akub, and Sufian Kandil. PA officials have tried to persuade the militants to turn themselves in.

An Israeli defense source said that as far as Israel knew, only nine militants had broken out of the prison. The IDF warned the PA that if it did not capture the escapees within 24 hours the army would take action against them, as at least some of them are seen as a risk to Israel's security.

So, Palestinian Arab prisoners can pretty much decide to leave whenever they want, they keep their own mobile phones, and get all the help they need from their guards.

And, of course, these were from Nablus, where the PA announced months ago that they had gotten rid of all terrorists and the US rewarded them with $1.3 million.

Do you think it came with a money-back guarantee?

PalArabs continue to lie about Gaza patient deaths

We've discussed the bogus statistics of blaming Israel for roughly one death a day of sick patients in Gaza - and, indeed, the number of patients who do cross from Gaza to Israel daily is not insignificant:

Across the street at the Rose Flower Shop, two young women, one dressed in a black Islamic robe and head scarf, bought a bouquet of roses, a rare sight in Gaza. The shop had managed to bring in 500 roses from Israel, using Gaza medical patients treated in the Jewish state as "mules," and had about 50 roses left.

To think that a single flower shop knows enough medical patients to bring back 500 flowers in the days before Valentine's Day indicates a brisk underground economy in Gaza based only on daily patients going to Israeli hospitals, a story that is ignored in the world media as they talk about the "siege."

But today, once again, Palestinian Arabs have blamed Israel for the death of a child. And once again, the story is a lie.

From IMEMC:

Palestinian medical sources announced on Tuesday evening that one child died at a Gaza hospital after the Israeli Authorities barred his transfer to a hospital abroad for further medical treatment as the siege on Gaza continued to cripple all hospitals in the coastal region.

The child was identified as Sa’id Al Ayidy, 2, from Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. He suffered from a kidney infection. His death raised the number of Palestinian patient who died due to the siege to 98, including 17 children.

So why did Ayidy die? Let's see that PCHR has to say:

On 19 February 2008, Sa’id Mohammed Sa’id al-‘Aaidi, 1.5, from al-Junaina neighborhood in Rafah, died as his health condition deteriorated. He had not been able to travel to an Egyptian hospital to continue medical treatment. The child had received medical treatment in December 2006 at Nasser Institute Hospital and Abu al-Reesh Hospital in Egypt. He was suffering from an inborn failure in his liver, and the lack of testicles in the scrotum, inflation in the abdomen and delayed growth. He came back to the Gaza Strip at the end of the first stage of medical treatment, and he was supposed to start the second stage in 6 months. However, he had not been able to travel to Egypt due to the closure of Rafah International Crossing Point. His health condition had deteriorated since 7 July 2007. He was repeatedly admitted into the Gaza European Hospital.

So he was already a patient in an Egyptian hospital and he expected to return there for treatment - and was stopped by the Egyptian authorities, not Israel.

But that doesn't stop Palestinian Arabs, who value the life of Ayidy far more for its propaganda value in his death than in his actual life, from using him to score political points against Israel - something that no reporter on the planet will bother to research or mention.

The return of the evil Zionist pigs

Ma'an reports:

Wild boars released by Israeli settlers have attacked and seriously wounded a Palestinian man in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.

53-year-old Hikmat Abdul Mu'ti from the town of Beit Rima was hospitalized ten days ago after the animals attacked him while he was walking to his fields. According medical sources at Yasser Arafat Hospital in the city of Salfit, the man sustained a 'deep wound,' and is still in the hospital.

The security sources said that settlers from the Ariel settlement deliberately release wild boars, especially in Kana valley fields which belong to the West Bank village of Deir Istiya. In the past these boars have been known to damage crops in that valley and frequently attack farmers.

The Palestinian police reported about another similar attack by a boar against a woman and her child from the village of Sarta near Salfit.

The evil Zionist geniuses have managed to breed wild boars that specifically can distinguish between Jews and Arabs, and between Jewish and Arab crops, only attacking Arabs.

And, of course, they give these wild animals to "settlers" who domesticate them until they are ready to release them to attack random Arabs.

One wonders why the IDF doesn't use these weaponized pigs, as they are effective and deadly.

Ma'an reported on a similar phenomenon last year, proving yet again how gullible and biased the most objective of Palestinian Arab media is.

Islamists attack Baptist school in Gaza

Palestine Press reports, in somewhat broken English (slightly cleaned up):

Local sources in Gaza Strip said that unidentified gunmen broke in to the Baptist School in Gaza Strip late last night.

The sources pointed out that the assailants broke into the Baptist School hit and opened fire against its guards, resulting in the injury one of the guards in his leg.

The assailants destroyed a number of classrooms and warned the guards not to resume their work at the school once again, the sources added.

It is noteworthy that the library of the YMCA in Gaza Strip was subjected to a similar attack two weeks ago, the attack resulted in destroying some eight thousand school text books.

In a similar attack un identified gunmen attacked the Campus of the American School, northern of Gaza Strip.

It is note worthy that the Christian places and properties in Gaza Strip are being exposed to a fierce attack since Hamas took over control of Gaza Strip last June , assailants who claim affiliation to Al Qa’eda organization announce their responsibility over such attacks in attempt to terminate the Christian existence among Palestinians in Gaza Strip.

Hamas Spokesman in Gaza Strip Ehab Al Ghsein announced earlier that a number of the assailants who attacked the Christian Library were under arrest, pointing out that the assailants belong to ‘Al Islam Army’ led by Momtaz Doghmush.

However, the sources revealed two days ago, that the defendants have been set free after Momtaz Doghmush threatened Hamas to attack a security position under their control .

Yesterday they reported on an attack from the Army of Islam against Hamas, saying that the Dagmoush clan threw a grenade at Mahmoud Zahhar's house that didn't explode.

The National Post yesterday elaborated on the fear that Christians live under in the Palestinian Arab territories - and not only in Gaza.

Hate taught in British Muslim school

From This Is London:

A prestigious Islamic school in London was forced to shred 2,000 textbooks used to poison pupils' minds with lessons of hate, a former teacher claimed yesterday.
Colin Cook, who taught English at the King Fahad Academy for 18 years, told a tribunal how "incompetent" Ofsted inspectors reported that the school's teaching of Islamic studies was "mostly good".
But their report was wildly inaccurate, he said, because pupils as young as five were being taught by rote from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as "monkeys" and Christians as "pigs".

Colin Cook outside the Saudi school which sacked him for misconduct
Mr Cook said that when he exposed the racist teaching, the school's head Dr Sumaya Alyusuf lied on television, insisting that hateful passages had never been taught.
Under public pressure the Academy eventually agreed to destroy 2,000 books but photocopied them first for future use, he told the tribunal.
The school, in Acton, West London, opened in 1985 for the children of Saudi diplomats and is funded and controlled by the Saudi government.
Its 1,250 pupils have included the five children of jailed claw-handed cleric Abu Hamza and those of Abu Qatada, who was said to be Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.
Mr Cook, 58, said that when he queried how the preachers could be paying school fees when they were said to be on state benefits, he was told to mind his own business.
Giving evidence to the hearing in Watford, Mr Cook claimed the school was seen as an extension of the Saudi Embassy rather than part of the UK, with Saudi teachers even enjoying diplomatic immunity.
He said some pupils made "inappropriate" remarks about killing Americans and praised the 9/11 attacks.
"When I heard such nonsense I challenged and tried to reason it through with the pupils," he added.
He said that misbehaviour by Saudi pupils was sometimes overlooked.
A school trip to Arsenal Football Club's museum in December 2005 ended in chaos when some King Fahad pupils chanted "Saudi, Saudi, Saudi" and fought with non-Saudi pupils, Mr Cook told the hearing.
"Apparently we were the first school ever to be thrown out of the museum, which was humiliating. None of the Saudi pupils was challenged over their behaviour by management."
Mr Cook, of Feltham, South London, is claiming unfair dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation, which the school denies.
He was earning £35,000 a year and is seeking £135,000 in compensation for lost earnings, injury to feelings and aggravated damages.
The school has vigorously denied encouraging any form of racial hatred. It insists that the offending passages in the books were "misinterpreted".
After Mr Cook's allegations in February last year, Dr Alyusuf went on BBC2's Newsnight and told presenter Jeremy Paxman that she was aware of the books but refused to withdraw them because they had "good chapters that can be used by the teachers".
Mr Cook told the hearing: "Dr Alyusuf simply lied about her knowledge of the contents of the books and tried to pretend that the books were not taught in the school. She failed to repudiate the racist views expressed in the books.
"The truth is she cannot go against the Saudi ministry of education. She is their puppet."
Mr Cook said the Ofsted inspection in March 2006 failed to identify major issues including parental complaints, unqualified teachers and indiscipline.
He added: "The Ofsted report was very inadequate. This is partly due to what the Academy did not tell the inspectors and partly due to, at best, incompetence by Ofsted."
He says he was sacked on trumpedup grounds in 2006 after he blew the whistle on the school for covering up cheating by pupils in a GCSE exam.
"In any normal workplace, an employee would not be sacked for whistle-blowing or indeed treated as a second-class citizen for not being Saudi Arabian," he said.
"However, as the head of human resources put it, 'This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia'."
He said he had to teach 28 lessons a week when Saudi colleagues had between three and 12. He said that when he realised the school was not going to carry out a proper inquiry into the alleged GCSE cheating, he took his complaints to exam board Edexcel.
The school claimed Mr Cook failed to observe proper procedure and fired him for gross misconduct.
The hearing continues.

Maan (Arabic) has a story about a ring of counterfeiters making Israeli 10-shekel coins. They can be identified by the sound they make when clanged together.

Since they are not worth much, the main victims have been the poorer Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, and children, who get paid with these coins and then find out that they are worthless.

Ma'an notes that Hamas had counterfeited other currencies to pay Egyptians for products when Rafah was breached last month, and beyond that some sources say that the Gazans paid the Egyptians literally with Monopoly versions of Israeli currency that the Egyptians were not familiar with.

Wow, do Iranian leaders have one-track minds

Yesterday, the eminent President Ahmadinejad made a series of colorful statements about Israel:

* He called it a "dirty bacteria"
* He compared it to a "wild beast"
* He called it "a scarecrow, (meant) to keep the people of this area under control."

The last one implies that he considers Israel's Arab neighbors to be like stupid, frightened birds.

Anyway, the over-the-top insults just keep on coming:

Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said here on Wednesday that the establishment of the Zionist regime was the greatest catastrophe for the Islamic world.

“At a time when industrial, scientific, and military development was arrested in the Islamic world and Islamic states were dismembered, Muslims suffered huge losses from the enemies’ conspiracies, the greatest of which was the establishment of the Zionist regime.”

The word "obsession" comes to mind.

Not to mention "psychotic."

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami had this to say about the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh:

“The fire of malicious rage, which sees its existence in the demise of others, this time entangled a dear person whose faith in God and whose love for human freedom and glory had made him famous in the history of mankind and Islam,” Khatami wrote.

He added that Mughniyeh “was martyred to flow blood in the veins of the 'storm-hit Middle East’, especially Lebanon and Palestine, through a death only deserved by a great man like him.”

At least one Iranian leader thinks that Mughniyeh deserved to die!

Egypt's violent reaction to idea of expanding Gaza into Sinai

A few weeks go, Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger called on a Palestinian state to be established in an expanded Gaza that would extend into the practically-empty Sinai desert:

According to Metzger, the plan would be to "take all the poor people from Gaza to move them to a wonderful new modern country with trains, buses, cars, like in Arizona - we are now in a generation where you can take a desert and build a city. This will be a solution... they will have a nice county, and we shall have our country and we shall live in peace."

Of course, the reaction has been furious, saying that Metzger is calling for "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinian Arabs (although no one quite offers an alternate solution for Gazans who are always being characterized by these same people as bursting at the seams.)

Egypt's reaction is telling. Palestine Today reports (autotranslated):

Egyptian circles rejected a proposal aimed to transfer the population of Gaza as a first step to the Sinai in preparation for the transfer of Palestine to the West Bank and Jerusalem, in an area of a thousand square kilometers by the extreme view of the insane, insane one in the Jewish state.

The official spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Hossam Zaki, said that "The rumors about setting up an alternative homeland for the Palestinians in the Egyptian territories is a sick imagination of the people who are not responsible and not holding the decision or call for decision, the only decision-makers in Egypt alone as the Egyptian Sinai ground no one can be forced to waive a single Egyptian grain of sand."

The Chairman of the Committee for Arab Affairs Egyptian People's Assembly (parliament), Major General Saad beauty, said that "Egyptian national security is a red line that can not be crossed. The Sinai is critical to Egyptian national security... If we proceed in dealing with the Palestinian issue from our national pillars to belong to Arabism and Islam and the Arabs, it does not give a justification for the claim that the compromise on our national security and our lands for the sole purpose of helping others to seize the territory of others unjustly...

"If the Arabs and Palestinians have made concessions to Israel by allowing them to live on land seized by the year 48 and earlier, compared with the territories it occupied in 67, including Jerusalem the capital of the Palestinian state, this does not give the right of the Zionist entity to ask for more concessions from the Arab states and Palestinians."

Strategic expert Major General Ahmed Abdel Halim stressed that the importance of the separation of emotional issues and feelings of nationalism in dealing with the Palestinian issue as a national focus defend nor waiver by pointing out that "talk on the establishment of a homeland for the Palestinians in the Sinai is Jewish nonsense; we do not agree to it ...President Hosni Mubarak reiterated more than once that Egypt will not give up one grain of sand of the Sinai."

No one seriously expects Egypt to invite one and a half million Palestinian Arabs into the Sinai, but the vehemence of the reaction shows yet again that Egypt's commitment to help the lives of ordinary Palestinian Arabs is nonexistent.

Egypt may spout rhetoric about solidarity with Palestinian Arabs but in reality it, along with most other Arab countries, doesn't want to actually do anything concrete to help them. On the contrary - these statements prove that Egypt views Palestinian Arabs as their enemy, people who would compromise their national security.

And indeed, Egypt indeed treats Palestinian Arabs more as enemies than as brothers. Their support for PalArabs extends only to the amount that they can inflict damage on Israel.

Who says that Olmert doesn't protect his people?

From Ma'an (Arabic):

Sderot residents might not be protected from falling objects, but at least Abbas is.

Mahomet, 1869

Since the Danish cartoons are in the news again, I stumbled upon the controversial Wikipedia article on "Depictions of Mohammed" and from there to the excellent Zombietime Mohammed Image Archive.

But being the person I am, I wanted to find a heretofore unknown depiction of Mohammed from older times.

I found him in an illustration of a biography of Mohammed by famous American writer Washington Irving, called Mahomet and his Successors. The books seems to have been written in 1849; this edition was published in 1869:

Google Books hasn't yet censored this one.

Syrian army kills Lebanese kid; no one cares

From Naharnet (Lebanon):

Syrian border guards on Tuesday opened fire at a Lebanese child killing him, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The short report said Abbas Abbas, 13, was shot and seriously wounded by Syrian border guards at the Grand River borderline in north Lebanon. He died later at hospital.

The development is the second of its kind in about a week.

AP refers to the victim as a "farmer" even though it notes that he is a minor.

But, luckily, the dead kid is an Arab who wasn't killed by Jews so this story will get no traction whatsoever and a potential international incident will be swept under the rug.

UN has no idea who is responsible for Qassams

The UN seemed to have a "flying pig" moment last Saturday when a top humanitarian representative condemned rocket attacks against Israel:

The United Nations humanitarian chief today voiced his concern at the impact of indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel during a visit to the town of Sderot, an area severely affected by bombardments from the Gaza Strip.

“The people of Sderot and the surrounding area have had to live with these unacceptable and indiscriminate rocket attacks for seven years now. There is no doubt about the physical and psychological suffering these attacks are causing,” said John Holmes, who is on a five-day trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, his first as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

“I condemn them utterly and call on those responsible to stop them now without conditions,” added Mr. Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

While in Sderot, Mr. Holmes met with the city officials, including the Mayor, who briefed him on the difficulties faced by local civilians as a result of almost daily rocket attacks. Over the past seven years, a number of houses in the area have been damaged, the local economy has suffered, and some 12 per cent of the city's 22,000 residents have left.

“There are no military targets in this city. These victims here are innocent civilians. There is no time to lose in putting an end to this vicious circle of violence. More violence will not bring peace to the people of Sderot,” Mr. Holmes said.

A couple of things are interesting about this UN press release.

Firstly, it didn't bother to mention that many residents of the Negev have been injured or killed by Qassams - only that there has been property and economic damage. Even as Holmes condemns the rockets, he is minimizing their actual effect.

Secondly, notice what is missing from this - and essentially all - UN statements on Gaza?

There is no mention of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, the Al Aqsa Brigades, or any of the other groups who actually fire them. The UN just mouths words condemning the attacks themselves without saying a single critical word about any specific group.

The UN has no problem condemning Israel explicitly, but when it comes to criticizing any Palestinian Arab group by name, the UN becomes mute. It is as if the United Nations is either too stupid to know who is responsible or too scared to say their names in fear of retribution.

The mere mention of Hamas would guarantee that UN statements get taken seriously by Hamas and the other terror groups as they would be forced to respond and show their own hypocrisy to the world. As it is, the UN seems to be only placating its critics with a worthless "condemnation" while staying away from any real criticism of the groups who take explicit responsibility - and pride - in shooting these rockets at civilians.

Internal Hamas coup plot against Haniyeh?

The anti-Hamas Palestinian Press Agency is reporting that internal Hamas divisions are so bad that the radical members headed by Mahmoud Zahhar are planning to assassinate "prime minister" Ismail Haniyeh.

According to the Arabic article, Zahhar and one other extremist head (autotranslated as Siam Said, and I don't know who it really refers to) hate Haniyeh for betraying Hamas principles. The article claims that the plan has six steps:

1. Kill Haniyeh sooner rather than later so as not to expose internal Hamas divisions publicly.
2. Blame Fatah for the assassination, thus killing off the remaining Fatah opposition in Gaza.
3. Start a defamation campaign against Abbas in the West Bank as being against Palestinian Arab unity by ordering the hit.
4. Make it appear that Hamas is the victim and Fatah the aggressors to weaken international support for Fatah.
5. Regaining support from the Muslim Brotherhood which has been critical of Hamas for going away from core principles.
6. Any remote chance of negotiating with Israel on any topic like a long-term truce will be scuttled forever.

While the article is fairly long and detailed, and PPA has been pretty accurate lately, one cannot discount the possibility that this article is really meant to deflect last weekend's news that Hamas accused two Fatah members of plotting to assassinate Haniyeh, along with "confessions" aired on Hamas TV.

Adar I 13

A rabbi and a priest are driving one day and, by a freak accident, have a head-on collision. Both cars are totally demolished, but amazingly, neither of the clerics has a scratch on him.

After they crawl out of their cars, the rabbi sees the priest's collar and says, "So you're a priest. I'm a rabbi. Just look at our cars. There is nothing left, yet we are here, unhurt. This must be a sign from God!"

Pointing to the sky, the rabbi continues, "God must have meant that we should meet and share our lives in peace and friendship for the rest of our days on earth."

The priest replies, "I agree with you completely. This must surely be a sign from God!"

The rabbi is looking at his car and exclaims, "And look at this! Here's another miracle! My car is completely demolished, but this bottle of Mogen David wine did not break. Surely, God wants us to drink this wine and to celebrate our good fortune."

The priest nods in agreement.

The rabbi hands the bottle to the priest, who drinks half the bottle and hands the bottle back to the rabbi.

The rabbi takes the bottle and immediately puts the cap on, then hands it back to the priest. The priest, baffled, asks, "Aren't you having any, Rabbi?"

The rabbi replies, "Nah... I think I'll wait for the police."

Another letter in Bahrain paper against gays

As a follow-up to the story about Bahrain's anti-gay campaign comes this letter in the Bahrain Gulf Daily News:

I AM encouraged to read in your pages that MPs will be stopping homosexuals from entering Bahrain from other countries.

Homosexuality is a foreign disease that Arabs fortunately neither suffer from or wish to see.

I recently saw a homosexual in a mall and do not wish to see another ever again. Well done MPs.

F O

Well, there you have it, then. Problem solved!

Followup on last Friday's "work accident"

PCHR came out with a preliminary report about the explosion last week that killed 8 in the Bureij camp:

At approximately 20:50 on Friday, 15 February, a huge explosion rocked El-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The explosion occurred in the house of Ayman Atallah Ahmad Fayed (41), an activist in Al-Quds Battalions, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. The explosion destroyed the ground-floor concrete house completely, killing the activist, his wife Marwa Azzam Fayed (39), and three of his children: Basma (12), Ali (17), and Ayyoub (5). A fourth son, Adam (15) was seriously injured. In addition, three of Fayed’s neighbors were killed: Zakaria Nabil El-Kefafi (17) who was in Fayed’s house at the time, Talal Salah Sa’id Abu El-Oun (16), and Atallah Samir Mohammad Ismail (24). Approximately 60 people were injured, including 23 women and 20 children. Among the injured are 14 people suffering serious injuries. The explosion destroyed 6 nearby houses completely, and caused extensive destruction in 10 other houses. Dozens of houses suffered damages.

Over the past three days, PCHR and Al-Mezan have conducted a preliminary investigation in this tragedy. The Center’s fieldworkers and lawyer gathered field information and eyewitness testimonies from the scene of the tragedy. The preliminary findings point to the following:

- There is no evidence to confirm that the explosion was caused by rocket or aerial bombardment by Israeli occupation forces (IOF), as mentioned in some media outlets. It is more likely that it was an internal explosion the circumstances of which are unclear as of yet. Eyewitnesses confirmed seeing smoke and fire issue from Fayed’s house seconds before the explosion. According to similar incidents in the past, this indicates that it may have been an internal explosion.

Not only "some" media outlets, but every single Palestinian Arab "news" outlet reported this as an Israeli bomb (usually being shot as a rocket from an F-16) and not one even mentioned the possibility of a "work accident."

Of course, PCHR still holds out the hope that it might have been an Israeli booby-trapped bomb that killed and injured all those people - a highly unlikely possibility, and even if it was true the majority of the damage would have been from the secondary explosions caused by the possibly hundreds of rockets in Mr. Fayed's basement.

I adjusted the death count to account for the large number of minors killed, meaning that out of the 25 Palestinian Arab self-deaths this year, fully 10 of them are women or children.

Meanwhile, in the Negev...

At least 16 Qassam rockets were shot at Israeli civilians by Arab terrorists on Monday, as well as at least 5 mortars. 10 people suffered shock and there was one injury in the evening when a rocket hit Sderot, and earlier 4 kibbutz residents suffered from shock from a rocket landing near a medical clinic.

This is the worst day for Qassams since February 8. Of course, for many people, this is considered a cause for celebration and glory.

"Bahrain's growing gay problem"

From Gulf Daily News:

A NATIONWIDE crackdown on homosexuals could be launched in Bahrain, including tougher immigration checks to stop foreign gays entering the country. It would include a study to determine how widespread homosexuality is in Bahrain.
Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and national security committee has already backed the proposal, which would force the government to carry out the study.
It is in response to what MPs see as Bahrain's growing gay problem and foreigners found to be gay face deportation, said committee secretary Jalal Fairooz.

He said the study was being carried out despite the fact that the Education Ministry claims there are no homosexuals in schools.

"The Interior Ministry has told us that it already bans suspected homosexuals as they try entering the country from Bahrain International Airport," said committee secretary Jalal Fairooz.

However, he claimed the ministry said homosexuals pretend not to be gay by posing "manly" until they make it past immigration.

"They look manly as they come to the airport, but when they get in they return back to their unaccepted homosexual attitude," said Mr Fairooz.

"Homosexuals are found in huge numbers at hairdressing salons and beauty and massage spas, which the ministry regularly inspects."

However, he said many homosexuals were slipping through the net because the ministry was having problems determining if they were gay or not.

"Those who look homosexual or offer customers personal services are being caught by police and taken to the Public Prosecution," he said.

He described gays as "dangerous" and a "threat to our society and Islamic values".

"That's why the proposal asks the government to come up with a study on the problem and eliminate it before it increases and becomes hard to control, as more gays enter the country," he added.

Columnists and letter-writers have been having a field day:

That pink shirt of mine is definitely going in the bin, in light of Bahrain's new crackdown on gay men.

The next time I travel and return via Bahrain International Airport, I shall be speaking in the deepest voice I can muster, walking like John Wayne and keeping Sara and the kids as close to me as possible.

For, apparently, immigration officials keep an eye out for anyone they think may be gay, with a view to putting them back on the plane!

Bahrain is cracking down on what MPs say is a growing number of gays, chiefly to be found in male hair salons and in massage parlours.

I can understand the country's concern at what it sees as an increasing influx, but it also has to ask itself why this is proving such a popular destination for gays!

When I first arrived here I was 20 years younger, had a full head of hair and was much prettier than I am today, with the result that I got a great deal of unwelcome attention from the gay fraternity.

Each evening I would stand waiting for a taxi near my flat and could guarantee at least two or three offers from passing drivers, in the five to 10 minutes I would be at the kerbside - all of which, I hasten to add, were politely declined.

I have images of an airport full of overtly-masculine immigration officers making men parade up and down a white line to see if they swing their hips, or maybe they have devised some kind of wrist-o-meter, which gauges limpness?

For a nation that is populated almost exclusively by men who sport mustaches and haircuts modeled on the late Sir Freddie Mercury (of Queen fame) and who wear skirts, it is a pretty bold statement to 'Clampdown on gays'.

It sounds like Bahrain might be on the verge of becoming a new Key West!\

UPDATE: Another letter writer is a bit more supportive of the government's campaign.

Egypt discovers another 100 kg of TNT

A drop in the bucket, but better than nothing....

Egyptian security forces on Monday uncovered an explosives cache containing 100 kilograms (220.5 pounds) of TNT hidden in sacks near the country's volatile border with the Gaza Strip, a police officer said.
The cache, found buried a few feet deep in the soil in a deserted area of the northern Sinai peninsula, came after police acted on a tip from local Bedouins, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

The find took place near Sheik Zuwiyed town, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The Bedouins led the authorities to the location of the explosives. A total of three sacks of TNT were found, the official said.

Smuggling across the border into Gaza or Israel has long provided a livelihood for some Bedouin. Weapons, cigarettes and foreigners seeking jobs in Israel are all taken surreptitiously across the border.

Last week Egypt discovered 250 kg of TNT, and two weeks ago arrested a Palestinian Arab with an unknown quantity of TNT as well.

Of course, Gaza is awash in TNT. A recent Der Speigel article interviews a Qassam rocket maker as he says that they have enough material to keep producing rockets for years:

The team can make up to 100 rockets per night shift, but today it won't be more than 10. Instead of the usual 12, only three of Abdul's men have turned up tonight. "The other guys are over in Egypt, shopping," he says, adding that the militants are just ordinary people who want to experience the open border with the neighboring country. Will they be looking for ingredients for building the Qassams? "Hardly," the oldest of the group laughs. "They are buying potato chips. We have enough raw materials to last for a few years."
The presence of smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border have ensured that there is never a lack of supplies. "The TNT comes to us from Sudan via Egypt." Other elements arrive by boat across the sea to Gaza. "We get some from Eastern Europe." The raw materials for one large rocket cost up to €500. The money to finance the operation comes the same route as the materials.

Arab slums much worse than PalArab "refugee" camps

A couple of weeks ago the Washington Post published an article (no longer available; excerpted here from AP) that showed that both Gazans and Egyptians were surprised that Gaza was in comparatively better shape than Egypt was:

A little travel has gone a long way toward changing perceptions in Gaza.
After excursions to Egypt across a border breached by Hamas militants, some Palestinians pepper their local Arabic dialect with Egyptian expressions while others say they are shocked by the poverty there.
Jihad Jaradeh, 24, a Gazan whose family owns a furniture shop, reached the Egyptian town of El Arish, some 25 miles from the border. Although shop owners doubled and tripled prices, Jaradeh paid up, saying he even gave extra "because they looked so poor."
Many Gazans who visited Egypt remarked on the discrepancy between their more glamorous image of urban Egypt - derived mostly from movies - and the run-down border region of unpaved streets and small houses they encountered.

A trickle of Egyptians also made it into Gaza. Mohammed, an Egyptian truck driver who rented his truck to Palestinians to ferry goods into Gaza, pointed to cars crowding a nearby street and said: "I thought conditions here would be harder than this. I thought people would be starving."

This theme has been reinforced by former Reuters reporter Mona Eltahawy, hardly a fan of Israel. From Indian Muslims:

I must confess that when Hamas militants blasted holes into Egypt's border to end an Israeli blockade on Gaza, my first thought was how lucky those Gazans were. Landlocked and living on less than $2 a day—their plight rarely elicits envy, I know. But there are Egyptian slums that swim in more sewage and are submerged in even greater poverty. In those slums, chronic diseases go unchecked and uncured, and children grow up next to the dead in tombs turned into makeshift-housing.
Yet nobody rushes to blast holes into the imaginary border of poverty that suffocates those slums, nor are they sporting t-shirts urging us to sympathise. Why?

Because Israel cannot be blamed.

For decades, successive dictators in the Arab world have sacrificed their respective national concerns on the altar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling us it must be resolved before any kind of progress can be made, whether it's stopping terrorism, embracing democracy or ending poverty. Unsurprisingly, despite peace with Israel for the past 29 years, Egypt still suffers with the same problems.

As a Jerusalem-based Reuters correspondent in 1998, I visited several Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, and was astonished to see living conditions better than in the slums of Cairo, my hometown. (Frustration and not mean-spiritedness compels me to make that comparison.)

Despite its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the Egyptian regime discourages its citizens from visiting Israel or the Palestinian areas, so few can even make the comparison.

Arab media, particularly the state-owned kind, are equally discouraged from focusing on national issues – such as the desperate state of our slums – and instead devote most newsprint and airtime to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Iraq. The latter never got much attention when Saddam Hussein was filling mass graves with Shi'ites and Kurds, but catapulted to the top of the news bulletins when the Arab world's other bete noire – the United States – invaded Iraq in 2003.

Recently the baton of Palestine passed into the firm and dangerous grip of Islamists. Years of corrupt Fatah leadership handed Hamas a 2006 electoral victory, which unfortunately paved the way for civil war between the rival factions, shattering illusions that Palestinian leaders cared more for their people than their jostle for power.

The masked gunmen of Hamas – who lob rockets into Israel with little regard for the consequences for their own people – are now the heroes of the day for bombing the Egyptian border. Egypt, to the west and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction to the east are seen as Israel's surrogate jailers of Gaza, and the more Israel tightens its grip, the more that scenario is magnified.

Some Egyptians struggled to square their fears over seeing armed Islamists bomb their country's borders with their desire to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The popular social networking site Facebook became home to some heated arguments in groups titled "Save Gaza for Humans Not Hamas" and "Get the Palestinians Away from Arish—We Want Our Borders Back."

A young Egyptian woman told me she considered Hamas' action at the Egyptian border an 'invasion': "They did blow up the border. Putting women and children first does not make it ok," she said. "They attacked the Egyptian forces. They acted like thugs. It was a political move, and they had no respect for Egypt. That's why I want them out really."

It is still the rare Arab voice that points out the obvious - Palestinian Arabs in "refugee" camps have been given decades of free food, shelter and education, not to mention attention, that Arab countries do not provide for their own citizens.

Most Palestinian Arabs left the area for much more lucrative jobs in the Gulf and would have happily settled elsewhere had the Arab countries allowed them to become repatriated as refugees rather than purposefully keeping them stateless.

The ones that stayed in these "camps" for generations are the lazy ones who feel that free medical care, housing and food are their right long after their status of "refugees" is long gone by any sane definition. And this mindset that Palestinian Arabs deserve this exalted status at the expense of all poor Arabs has penetrated Arab society to keep a self-perpetuating problem alive for purely political reasons.

Israeli pop culture going mainstream

From JPost:

Joseph Cedar, director of the Oscar-nominated Israeli film Beaufort, and an Orthodox Jew, has resolved a thorny Shabbat dilemma.

Traditionally, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences holds a high-profile public symposium for the five finalists vying for the best foreign-language film Oscar on the day before the award ceremony.

This year, the symposium will be on Saturday morning, Feb. 23, and Cedar was uncertain whether he could participate on a Shabbat.

"I had a long talk with my rabbi in Israel," said Cedar, 39, who is in Los Angeles with his family now in anticipation of the awards. "He decided that I could attend as long as I didn't use a microphone and walked to the event at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater."

Cedar figures he can cover the two-mile distance in about an hour, an almost unheard feat for pedestrian-phobic Angelenos, but no big deal for Israelis - even for an Israeli who was born in New York, but whose parents made aliya when he was five.

In the meanwhile, the excitement in Israel about its film industry's first Oscar nomination since 1984 is building up.

Gilad Millo, the resident Israeli consul for public affairs, said that more than a dozen of the main Israel media outlets will send television and print reporters to cover the Oscar ceremonies.

Millo termed the Oscar nomination a "landmark event" and an auspicious beginning of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.

And also from JPost:

An indie artist from Ramat Hasharon has become the first Israeli to crack the Billboard Top 10.

Yael Naim, a 29-year-old IDF veteran, earned Billboard's coveted "Hot Shot" designation last week with "New Soul," an English-language single that scored the highest debut of any song on the music magazine's singles chart.

The song ranked ninth in total sales across the United States on the chart issued February 16...The song also ranked second on Billboard's list of digital singles, while Naim's self-titled album landed at sixth on the magazine's digital albums chart.

The song's soaring Billboard debut follows a week spent at #1 on the iTunes Top Songs list, and certified Naim's rapid emergence on the American music scene.

Unknown in the US a month ago, Naim has become the breakout performer of early 2008 with "New Soul," which earned massive exposure last month after being selected for an aggressive marketing campaign for the MacBook Air laptop.

Born in Paris to immigrants from Tunisia, Naim moved to Israel as a four-year-old, later serving in the IDF and recording songs in French, English and Hebrew.

Here's her New Soul video, watched over 2.7 million times on YouTube:

Adar I 12

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls President Bush and tells him, "George, I had a wonderful dream last night. I could see America, the whole beautiful country, and on each house I saw a banner."

"What did it say on the banners?" Bush asks. Ahmadinejad replies, "UNITED STATES OF IRAN."

Bush says, "You know, Mahmoud, I am really happy you called, because believe it or not, last night I had a similar dream. I could see all of Tehran, and it was more beautiful than ever, and on each house flew an enormous banner."

"What did it say on the banners?" Ahmadinejad asks.

Bush replies, "I don't know. I can't read Hebrew."

Saudi women rush to ditch their hijab when abroad

From an op-ed in the Arab News:

Everyone knows that Saudi women not only remove their abayas once they leave the country, but they also compete in following the latest fashion trends when abroad. They spend a fortune on their outfits so that they don’t feel left out of the fashion parade that Saudi and Gulf women start during summer vacations in other Arab or European countries. The famous streets of London, Paris or Cairo are like carnivals displaying the latest in fashion trend worn by Saudi and Gulf women.
This proves that it’s impossible to impose a certain trend on people when it comes to dress codes or behavior. Threats and terrorizing make people have dual personalities. They become schizophrenic. They will rush at the first opportunity to ditch anything that’s been imposed on them when they’re sure that they are neither monitored nor supervised.
Prohibiting things that the scholars disagree upon and imposing traditions on people will lead to social hypocrisy. It will increase the number of people who secretly do things that they oppose publicly. We need to review many of our social habits that are practiced in the name of religion and are severely restricting Saudi society. We might at one point make peace with ourselves and manage to stand in the face of the changing world.

Unlike many right-wing bloggers, I sympathize with Muslim women who truly want to dress modestly (as long as it doesn't conflict with other human rights or security issues.) However, the Muslim world forcing all women to a certain dress code is nothing less than abuse, and this editorial neatly shows how it is destructive to the very society that pretends that it is acting "morally."

Adar 11 (on time, no less)

A man arrives at Ben-Gurion Airport with two large bags.

The customs agent opens the first bag and finds it full with money so he asks the passenger, "How did you get this money?"

The man says, "You will not believe it, but I traveled all over Europe, went into public restrooms, each time I saw a man pee, I grabbed his organ and said, "donate money to Israel or I will cut off your testicles."

The customs agent is stunned and mumbles: "well...it's a very interesting story... what do you have in the other bag?"

The man says, "You would not believe how many people in Europe hate Israel..."

PalArab rocket hits Egypt

From Reuters:

A locally made Palestinian rocket exploded on the Egyptian side of the crossing point with Gaza on Sunday, damaging an Egyptian administrative building, security sources said. There were no injuries.
The rocket, about 50 cm (20 inches) long, knocked out communications at the Egyptian border post but the building was deserted because it landed early in the morning, they said.

"Maybe it landed there by mistake and was meant to go into Israel. We have informed the Palestinian side and asked for explanations," said a security source who asked not to be named.

This was not the first time this has happened; two weeks ago a Gaza rocket also hit Egyptian territory, causing no damage.

Last week Hamas fired some bullets over the heads of some Egyptians building a new wall between Gaza and Egypt.

The "brothers" are apparently squabbling.

(h/t Backspin)

Adar 10 (also belated)

A rabbi, a priest, and a minister were talking one day. The priest told of an occasion when he was caught in a snowstorm so terrible that he couldn't see a foot in front of him. He was completely confused, unsure even of which direction he needed to walk. He prayed to God, and miraculously, while the storm continued for miles in every direction, he could clearly see his home 20 feet away.

The minister told a similar story. He had been out on a small boat when a hurricane struck. There were 40-foot high waves, and the boat was sure to capsize. He prayed to God, and, while the storm continued all around, for several feet in each direction, the sea calmed, and the minister was able to return safely to port.

The rabbi, too, had such a story. One Saturday morning, on the way home from the synagogue, he saw a very thick wad of $100 bills on the sidewalk.

Of course, since it was Shabbat, the rabbi wasn't able to touch the money.

So he prayed to God, and everywhere, for miles in every direction, it was still Shabbat, but for 10 feet around him, it was Thursday.

Adar 9 (belated)

On the sixth day, G-d turned to the angel Gabriel....

"On this day, I shall create a magic land. It shall be called "Israel". It will stand as holy. Its magnificence will be known the world over. I will choose to send to this land special people of goodness, intelligence and conviction, so the land shall prosper. I shall call these inhabitants Jews."

"Pardon me, Lord", asked Gabriel, "but aren't you being too generous to these Jews?"

"Not really. Wait and see the neighbors I'm giving them."

That legendary Times-UK objectivity

Now, I certainly believe that Israel was behind the assassination of Mughniyeh, the fact is that it has not been proven. For a prestigious newspaper to headline an article "Israel kills terror chief with headrest bomb" seems a bit, shall we say, premature.

Biggest "work accident" in years kills Islamic Jihad family

From Reuters:

Eight people were killed, including a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, and some 40 were wounded when an explosion destroyed a house in the Gaza Strip late on Friday, a group spokesman and local medics said.
The Israeli army denied any involvement. Islamic Jihad said an air strike caused the blast, which also killed three other militants as well as the wife and two young children of the commander, Ayman Fayed, better known as Abu Abdallah.
Some residents of the al-Bureij refugee camp said they believed there had been an air strike. Others said they heard no aircraft noise or other indications before the explosion.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw debris among the rubble of what looked like the locally manufactured rockets the Islamic Jihad and other groups fire at Israeli towns.

Israel has used air strikes on cars in Gaza to kill a number of militants lately but has not bombed a house there since 2006. Militants have also been killed in accidental explosions and faction fighting, while some Palestinians also accuse Israel of using undercover methods to set off explosions in the enclave.

Haaretz adds:

In contrast to Islamic Jihad, Hamas initially declined to blame Israel, saying it might have been a "work accident" - i.e. that some of the explosives stored in the house might have gone off accidentally. That is also the Israel Defense Forces' assessment, and the IDF stressed there were no Israeli operations in Gaza at the time.

But yesterday all the Palestinian organizations, including both Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, issued statements blaming Israel for the blast.

This is a slam dunk case of a "work accident:" Israel has not been bombing houses; when they used to their targets were always the leaders of the terror groups; Israel admits when it kills terrorists' and the house was apparently a rocket factory.

Of course, Ma'an - the most reliable Palestinian Arab"news" source - doesn't bother to mention any of that as it blames Israel explicitly, showing once again the quality of Palestinian Arab "news".

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 25.

UPDATE: PCHR adds more details, and many more of the civtims were under 18, so I am adjusting the self-death count.

The latest episode of Hamas kidTV

Reuters finally noticed that Hamas is inciting - against Danes, and also Jews:

A man-sized talking rabbit appeared on television in Gaza on Friday to denounce Danish newspapers over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that offended Muslims.

The latest in a line of cartoon-inspired characters that take the message of the Hamas Islamist movement to Palestinian children, the actor in the Bugs Bunny-style outfit also railed against "Zionist filth" and Israel's control of Jerusalem.

The Friday show "Tomorrow's Pioneers" on Hamas's al-Aqsa channel has become a weekend fixture for pre-teens since shortly before the Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip last year.

A Mickey Mouse-type creation provoked outcry in Israel and was condemned elsewhere as inciting hatred among the young. The mouse, eventually shown being beaten to death by an Israeli, was followed by a talking bee and, now, by Assud the rabbit.

"I want the West to hear this. I want the Danes who offended the great Prophet to hear it," the rabbit said, gesturing to viewers after the show's co-presenter, a girl of about 12 named Sarra, condemned Danish newspapers for reprinting the cartoons after police accused several men of plotting to kill the artist.

"Where are you Muslims? Where are you Arabs?" said Sarra, wearing a headscarf and speaking with precocious eloquence.

"We are all a sacrifice for the Prophet. The soldiers of Tomorrow's Pioneers will redeem the Prophet with all they have."

Earlier, several thousand Hamas supporters demonstrated in Gaza over the cartoons, which were first published in 2005.

Returning to the show's favoured theme of explaining Hamas's goal of an Islamic state in all the area now divided between Israel and the Palestinians, the rabbit told viewers they would recover Jerusalem's holiest Muslim site and cities in Israel:

"We will liberate al-Aqsa mosque from the Zionists' filth," said Assud, whose name means Little Lion. "We will liberate Jaffa and Acre. Will liberate the whole homeland."

Though some parents are uneasy about the show's message it has proved popular with children, not only in Hamas-controlled Gaza but also in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. One girl called Rasha said she was phoning in from Bethlehem, near Jerusalem:

"Who has sabotaged the world if not the Zionist plans?" she sang down the line to the studio in Gaza. Dancing and singing along, Assud the rabbit chimed in: "They have bombarded us." (Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Pseudo-intellectualism is fun!

I noticed a few articles today that where the authors use really big words and have no clue what they are talking about.

Our first example comes from The American Muslim magazine, where author Robert Crane asserts:

In any false ideology, the prefix “neo” indicates that it is false. Placing the “neo” in front of “conservatism,” indicates that it is fraudulent, which is precisely why it is so dangerous.

This is pretty absurd (the prefix "neo-" means "new") and really nonsensical - does he mean that any ideology that isn't prefixed "neo" is true, or does his syllogism only apply to "false ideologies" to begin with?

Crane knows his audience knows nothing that would contradict an even dumber statement:

Much less has Neo-Conservatism had anything to do with spiritual Zionism, which Jews have traditionally understood as the return to God. In this sense, every Muslim should be a Zionist and should be a follower of the greatest spiritual leader of the twentieth century, Rebbe Abraham Izaac Kook, who was the Chief Rabbi of Palestine from 1919 until the outbreak of the first great Palestinian intifada against Brtish imperialism beginning in 1935.

Rav Kook was an ardent Zionist and not only in the "inner jihad" sense that Crane is applying to him; he supported a Zionist state (although not a secular one.) The statement that every Muslim should be a Zionist in Rav Kook's sense of the word is accurate but far from Crane's intent.

Notice also how Crane now retroactively refers to the riots and infighting of the 1930s - where hundreds of Arabs murdered each other - as a "great intifada."

His entire essay is filled with such quasi-scholarly garbage, but it is fun to pick apart.

Similarly, the weekly Al-Ahram English edition is always a source for pseudo-intellectual gibberish. Check this out:

All modern theories, from Hegelian dialectics to Marxian class struggle, from Max Weber's theories on the evolution of government to Sigmund Freud's analysis of civilisation and its discontents, offer insights, however varied, on the law of historical change.

These theories came my mind as I read the Winograd Report on Israel's war on Lebanon in July 2006....The pioneers of the Zionist project were cunning, managing to convince world Jewry that the rape of Palestine was a legitimate thing to do.

What gave momentum to the Zionist project was international support and the sense of vitality Ibn Khaldun so aptly described. For nearly half a century, this vitality survived as new settlers grappled with a foreign land and the fact that they had little in common. Israel was a hybrid. At the top of the social ladder were white settlers from East Europe, followed by Jews coming from Arab countries and Iran. The bottom of the social ladder was left for Jews known as the Falashas. The duality of the Ashkenazi and the Sephardim was only one aspect of disunity in Israel. And war proved to be the one rallying cry that would cement the new country. The Israelis needed wars to keep them together. Indeed, the Zionist project -- as I have said many times before -- is a project of war. It was Israel's very social fabric that triggered what the Zionists like to call "preventive wars".

The amount of projection in this last paragraph is breathtaking. While no one will argue that there wasn't discrimination against Sephardim in the 1950s, to say that the 1948 war was only meant to give unity to Jews who commonly suffered at the hands of their host nations is too absurd for words, let alone the implication that the Jews started it. (He also seems to think that the Ethiopian Jews were a part of Israel in the 1950s and 1960s.)

Again, the readers of Al-Ahram, thirsty for some sort of scholarly-sounding justification for their own prejudices and hate, lap this stuff up.

French and Saudis refused to nab Mughniyeh

From the WaPo:

...Lebanese officials, exploiting a monitored telephone call, traced Mughniyah to Paris in 1985, only five months after the hijacking of a TWA jetliner, to which he had been linked. He was staying at the Hotel de Crillon, a luxurious hotel across the street from the U.S. Embassy. Tipped off by the Lebanese, U.S. officials asked French police to arrest him and turn him over. Instead, as previously reported in The Washington Post, French agents met with him several times over a six-day period, according to a source closely involved, and worked out an agreement to release him in return for the freedom of a French hostage.

From ABC News:

[Richard] Clarke says the CIA learned that Mugniyah, wanted for a string of terror attacks, had boarded a commercial flight in Khartoum that was scheduled to stop in Riyadh [in 1996.]

"We appealed to the Saudis to grab him when the plane landed, and they refused," Clarke said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on ABC "World News With Charles Gibson."

After the initial refusal, Clarke said, U.S. officials went to the then-crown prince, now king.

"We raised the level of appeals all the way through Bill Clinton who was on the phone at three in the morning appealing to the highest level in Saudi Arabia to grab him," Clarke said.

"Instead, the Saudis refused to let the plane land and it continued on to Damascus," Clarke said.

The same people who complain about "extrajudicial killings" don't give people the opportunity to bring them to justice.

While the French actions were despicable, at least they got something concrete out of it - the release of a hostage.

The Saudis, however, were given a clear choice in 1996 as to whose side they were on - their "good friends" the United States, or Hezbollah. And we see which side they chose.

Another attack in Gaza - by Muslims against Christians

The YMCA in Gaza was attacked:

A band of 14 masked gunmen forced its way into YMCA offices in the Gaza Strip and exploded a library there, Israel Radio reported Friday.

Thousands of books were reportedly burnt in the ensuing fire. The YMCA in Gaza also operates a gym and a wedding hall.

The gunmen laid a second explosive device near a computer in the library but it failed to detonate. Two security guards on the scene were not able to block the intruders; they were taken by them from the YMCA and later released in the northern Gaza Strip.

The latest incident is another link in an ongoing chain of attacks against Palestinian Christians which has worsened since Hamas took power of the Gaza Strip last June.

Notice their target - the library. Any knowledge that is not Islamic is "haram" for the Islamists, so much so that they want to destroy it everywhere.

What they fear most, apparently, is the possibility that any other points of view might be more valid than theirs. Which says a lot about their confidence in their own beliefs.

I've been noticed

There is an Arabic thread about this blog in a message board site called paldf.net. The autotranslation is funny as they note my post about the glossy Hamas magazine and then notice my 2007 self-death count. Plenty of side mentions of "wicked Zionists" and "Zionist criminals" and, of course, that I have a strong relationship with World Zionism. I've received about 40 hits from that site so far!

Even funnier, they put a URL for the Google autotranslation of my site into Arabic! Which, I suppose, is only fair.

By the way, my name autotranslated to Arabic and autotranslated back is either "Hakim Zion" or "Wise Zion." Hakim is of course like the Hebrew "chacham/חכם " meaning wise; ironically al-Hakim was also the nickname of the late terrorist George Habash.

(If anyone knows how to change an uploaded Blogger picture to something else, so that the pictures they stole from me might be changed to something a little more interesting, please let me know.)

Abbas: Most of PA budget is spent in Gaza

Trying to interpret auto-translated text is sometimes tricky but one part of the Wafa transcript of Mahmoud Abbas' speech today at Sanaa University seems interesting:

President Abbas confirmed that despite what happened, the power [PA] is still completely responsible directly for all staff in the Gaza Strip and 77,000 staff members, while in the West Bank 73 thousand staff, and budget spent on the Gaza Strip rather than spent on the West Bank where it is disbursed 58% in Gaza and 42% disposal in the West Bank.

It appears that the West gives hundreds of millions to the PA and the PA gives the lion's share of that money to the same Gaza Strip that the West is pretending to sanction. And the PA, with Western money, still bankrolls tens of thousands of employees in Gaza who are doing next to nothing.

Meaning that Hamas has the luxury not to worry about Gaza residents rioting over not getting paid and can use all of its smuggled cash for building bombs and rockets.

UPDATE: I found confirmation in a February 3 article from Xinhua:

Fayyad explained that his government has spent 58 percent of its budget on Gaza Strip "to ease the life of the people and enhance their living conditions."

As Abbas makes clear, most of this 58% in in paying salaries, so the PA is not even trying to limit its spending of our tax dollars.

It also means that the PA is spending more than double per capita on Gaza than in the West Bank.

Adar 8

A Texan, a Frenchman and an Israeli are on a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean when the engines stop functioning. The plane crash lands on a Pacific Island and the 3 are immediately captured by a tribe of cannibals and taken to their village. The Chief tells the 3 captives that these cannibals are civilized and they have a custom on their island that before they eat anyone, they grant that person his or her last wishes?no matter what they are.

He asks the Texan, "What is your last wish?"
The Texan replies: "I want a 2 inch thick steak with all the trimmings, Cajun fries and a case of Bud." The Chief motions to some of his tribesmen who immediately run into the jungle and come back with the steak, the fries and the beer. The Texan eats his meal and he is thrown in the pot.

The Frenchman is asked: "What is your last wish?"
He replies: "I'd like a case of Dom Perignon and I'd also like a big plate of escargots cooked in the French manner." The Chief motions to his tribesmen who immediately rush off into the jungle and bring back everything the Frenchman asked for. He eats and drinks his fill, and he is then thrown in the pot.

The Chief turns to the Israeli and asks, "And what is your wish?"
The Israeli looks the Chief squarely in the eyes and replies: "I want you to kick me in the behind as hard as you can." The Chief is bewildered and asks the Israeli again, only to receive the same reply. "I want you to kick me in the behind as hard as you can." The Chief shrugs his shoulders, asks the Israeli to turn around, and kicks him as hard as he can. With that the Israeli pulls out a gun and kills the Chief and all of the other cannibals.

The Texan and the Frenchman get out of the pot, look at the Israeli and say: "If you had that gun why didn't you do anything sooner?"

The Israeli replies: "What? And risk being condemned by the UN, EU and the State Department for 'overreacting' to insufficient provocation?"