Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 14, 2008

Hamas tapping phones

The Fatah-based Firas Press is reporting that Hamas has placed its own engineers in the Palestinian Telecommunications Company and is using them to spy on Fatah phone calls: (autotranslated)

Palestinian source said ...that Hamas is monitoring telephone communications company in cooperation with the Palestinian in Gaza compared to the sums of money paid to the Hamas Palestinian communications company in Gaza, the source added that a number of Hamas become engineers recruited and formally on the Palestinian Telecommunications Company in Gaza, the source added that the architects of the movement Itsnton contacts and the calls by citizens in all parts.

He noted that the arrest of Fatah cadres yesterday was the result of the news that took place on the telephone call between some cadres of the Fatah movement.

Saudi professor taking Holocaust denial to a whole new level

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Dr. Walid Al-Rashudi, head of the Department of Islamic Studies at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008.

Walid Al-Rashudi: One of the important things that we must tell people is that what is going on in Palestine today is a real holocaust. This is the real holocaust. A holocaust is not the burning of 50-60 Jews in Germany or Switzerland, but the Jews continue to call it the Holocaust. In case you don't know, let me tell you that more than 90% of the Muslims in the world do not know that the Jews receive reparations from Germany and Switzerland for the so-called Holocaust affair. We believe that there was indeed a holocaust, but how many died? 50-60 people? Afterwards, they used it to blackmail these two countries.

So what are we supposed to say in the face of the Gaza holocaust? What compensation will satisfy us? By Allah, we will not be satisfied even if all the Jews are killed.

You think there's possibly any relationship between his Holocaust denial and his anti-semitism?

And do you think that since this was aired on Hamas TV that perhaps they do share his genocidal desires?

Naaaah.

Peaceful Gaza news

Last night a cafe was bombed in Gaza and surrounding buildings were damaged.

Today, according to PalPress (Arabic):

Citizens and eyewitnesses said that the Hamas militia elements today attacked the house of Tareq Abu Rula camp west of Gaza City beach and assaulted women and children who they may be in the house next to the house Ismail Haniya ."

The citizens added that the Hamas militia attacked the family, beating women and wreaked havoc in the home unexpected injury 7 citizens of the family of Abu Rula all of them women, were transferred to Shifa hospital to receive treatment in Gaza."

The Hamas militias today killed a girl from the town of Khan Yunis of the Dip family in the southern Gaza Strip during a campaign to remove cigarette merchants and prevent citizens from a search for their livelihood under siege and difficult economic conditions

Although it is hard to understand, one of the commenters confirmed that he saw a girl shot in the head in Gaza. So for now I am adding another to the self-death count, making it 35, and assuming she is not a minor.

UPDATE: Confirmed in PalPress as being 16 years old.

Ma'an reports that some 50,000 West Bank Arabs attended the funerals of the four terrorists killed by Israel yesterday, choosing a holy Christian site to honor bloodthirsty killers:

About 50,000 Palestinians converged on Manger Square in the center of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday for the funeral of four Palestinian fighters who were assassinated by undercover Israeli forces on Wednesday night.

Their bodies were wrapped in Hizbullah flags, in an apparent show of allegiance with the Lebanese resistance movement and political party.

Schools, shops, restaurants and other businesses shuttered their doors in observance of a general strike across the city. Bethlehem's normally bustling downtown streets were largely empty.

In a show of unity in the face of occupation, members of numerous Palestinian political factions attended the ceremony.

In speeches to the assembled crowd, representatives of the the Higher Committee of National and Islamic Forces, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad denounced ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians. The Palestinian People's Party, the communists, were also present.

Kamil Hamid from the Fatah movement called for collaborators and spies who aid the Israeli occupation to be apprehended.

Across the square from the mosque, the Nativity Church sounded funeral bells.

This means that Fatah has not the slightest interest in reigning in terrorists unless they are forced to by Washington. It is a strange organization that explicitly and enthusiastically supports the murders of their "peace partners."

Meanwhile, another funeral took place:

Israeli police blocked Palestinians from attending the Thursday morning funeral of Ala Abu Dhaim, the East Jerusalem resident who killed eight Jewish students at a school in Jerusalem one week ago.

The police buried Dhaim at dawn on Thursday, physically preventing Palestinians from reaching the cemetery. Dhaim's parents, and some of his senior relatives were permitted to attend the burial.

How many thousands of Palestinian Arabs would have attended that funeral given the chance?

April 11, 1956: Terrorists attack school synagogue

From Time:

It was just after dusk, and 46 skull-capped youngsters stood at their evening prayers in the synagogue of the Shafrir village farm school just outside Tel Aviv. They prayed: "If any design evil against me, speedily make their counsel of no effect and frustrate their designs. Do it for the sake of Thy . . ."
From outside came the sound of a scuffled foot. The door burst in with a crash; the lights went out. It was the fedayeen (self-sacrificers), members of specially trained Arab assassin squads, who had crept north from the Egyptian-held Gaza strip. Submachine guns thundered in the room, and ten-year-olds went down in windows. Three boys and a teacher died almost instantly; three others fell badly wounded. Others jumped out of windows, took shelter in a ditch. The killers fled. It was minutes before a teacher broke open the lock on the school telephone and called police.
The raid was the deadliest of many launched last week by fedayeen irregulars as Egypt and Israel verged on war across the tensest frontier in the world. Nine Jews were killed, more than 50 were injured in some 30 reported attacks. The raiders, mainly Palestinian Arabs recruited from the Gaza border camps (and not technically in the Egyptian army), struck hardest in the coastal plain, always at night. No citizen of the tiny republic was safe from the "Nights of Horror," as Cairo's newspaper Al Akhbar jubilantly headlined the raids, and never was a U.S. diplomat's remark more terrifyingly apt: "Every Israeli sleeps within 20 miles of an Arab knife."

Mahmoud Abbas remains a barbaric terrorist

Yesterday, Israel killed five known and admitted terrorists who were walking around freely in the PA-controlled West Bank. Israel's "peace partner" has not tried to dismantle terror groups running under his nose; he has not put any wanted terrorists in jail (as the PA agreed to in signed agreements with Israel before the intifada).

Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned Israel doing the PA's job:

"Israel will have to assume all the consequences of its barbaric crimes against our people," said a statement from the office of president Mahmud Abbas.

"Our people remain attached to their land and will continue their resistance to free from it the occupiers and the settlers and to establish a state with Jerusalem as the capital," it said.

"These barbaric crimes reveal the true face of Israel, which speaks loudly about peace and security all the while committing murders and executions against our people," said the statement.

The use of the word "barbaric" is interesting. To my knowledge, Abbas has never used that word before, and yet now he is using it to describe Israeli actions against undeniable terrorists who have been behind suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians.

What is Abbas' reason to use that terminology?

The reason is that this same word was used in a different context last week:

"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva," Bush said in a statement released at the White House after the president spoke with Olmert on the phone. "This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation."

Mahmoud Abbas relies on the world's considering Palestinian Arabs to be the ultimate victims. This is a conscious strategy on their part - to hammer away at how they are always, always victimized and have no responsibility for any violence ever, how everything is Israel's fault, no matter what happens.

Then, last week, a vicious and brutal attack was unleashed on kids that really are innocent victims, taking away the momentum of the perceptions of Abbas' culture of victimhood.

By George Bush using the word "barbaric" the Palestinian Arabs found themselves on the PR defensive, and PR is their major weapon - worth the sacrifice of hundreds of their own.

So Israel's attack against terrorists in Bethlehem needed to be spun in such a way that Abbas could claim once again the mantle of undisputed victimhood. Hence he specifically used the word "barbaric" three times in the statement (also referring to the "barbaric holocaust" in Gaza) in order to make the deaths of 5 terrorists worse than the massacre of 7 teenagers and a young adult in school.

This betrays Abbas' real feelings. He does not distinguish between Palestinian Arab civilians and terrorists - their deaths are, according to Abbas, equally reprehensible (and the deaths of Islamic Jihad terrorists may in fact be worse.) And he also betrays his feelings that the lives of Arab terrorists are worth far more than the lives of innocent Jews, as can be seen by his pretend "condemnation" of the yeshiva massacre.

His statement is also interesting in that it sure sounds like he is referring to all of Israel as "occupied" and that "resistance" - i.e., terror - is the proper way to "free" it.

Which is entirely consistent with his statements of two weeks ago:

In an interview with the Jordanian daily al-Dustur, Abbas said that he was opposed to an armed struggle against Israel - for the time being.
"At this present juncture, I am opposed to the armed struggle because we can't succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different," he said.

Now it is crystal clear how "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas is. His opposition to terrorism is only tactical - he supports the morality of murdering random Jews in Israel, just not the timing.

His vehement reaction to Israel's killing jihadists proves that to Abbas, the terrorists are the real heroes. By any objective yardstick, he is no "moderate" and his goals are exactly the same as those of his heroes in the Islamic Jihad.

If anyone has been proven to be "barbaric" in the past few days, it is Mahmoud Abbas.

Mahmoud Abbas, the warmongering extremist
Abbas' support for terror
Fatah official: Abbas wants Israel destroyed
Mahmoud Abbas: Terrorist

Textbook example of bias by AFP

This is not unusual but it is a textbook case of how media bias works.

Check out this AFP headline:

Gaza violence lull ends with Israeli strikes, rockets

In normal English this means that Israel ended the "lull" in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes and Israeli rockets.

The first paragraph is slightly more accurate but no less biased:

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip Thursday after militants rattled the Jewish state with rocket fire, ending a five-day lull and threatening efforts to strike a more permanent truce.

Notice that it is Israeli "warplanes" that threaten truce efforts, not the rockets, and that Israel "hits" while 15 Qassam rockets merely "rattle."

The article goes on to say:

The violence flared within hours of an Israeli operation on Wednesday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem where undercover special forces killed four Palestinian gunmen, including two senior commanders.

The use of the word "gunmen" as a synonym for "terrorists" is bad enough, but using it to describe terror leaders is absurd. "Gunmen" imply petty criminals, not people who meticulously plan attacks on civilians and direct others to do it.

In a rare harshly-worded statement, the Palestinian presidency accused Israel of "barbaric crimes."

"These barbaric crimes reveal the truce [sic] face of Israel, which speaks loudly about peace and security all the while committing murders and executions against our people," it said.

AFP doesn't bother to emphasize that the supposedly moderate Abbas had no such harsh words for the slaughter of 8 students last week, but the killing of wanted terrorists - in territory that he supposedly controls and allows them to walk free, who had automatic weapons and grenades in their car - is considered "barbaric." Neither does it notice that Mahmoud Abbas considers Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa terrorists to be "his people."

AFP doesn't mention that one of the terrorists killed was a member of Mahmoud Abbas' own Fatah party, showing collusion between Fatah and Islamic Jihad.

The article likewise doesn't mention the Mercaz Harav massacre at all as it goes through background information.

Of the four pictures used to illustrate the article, every one of them is used to evoke either Israeli aggression or Palestinian Arab victimhood - including this particularly disgusting one:

Palestinian animal owners protest in Gaza City against the Israeli blockade and air raids ©AFP/File - Mehdi Fedouach

In an article dripping with bias against Israel, it is not surprising that they choose a picture showing Israel as being responsible for destroying peace, not to mention one that uses Zionism=Nazism calumny.

"Can't help you now - time for prayers!"

From the Saudi Gazette:

...Ibrahim Al-Ghamdi said government employees use prayer time to take care of personal matters or even go shopping, disregarding their responsibilities as well as the rights of others. Hatem Ahmad made the same allegation about government employees’ laziness in the workplace.

“The only thing my papers needed in order to be processed was a signature. When prayer time came, he told that he had to stop for prayer but then turned around and started to talk to a number of his colleagues. When I objected and harshly criticized him, he decided to neglect my papers for several days and only signed them when someone else asked him to,” Ahmad told Arabic daily Al-Hayat.

Abdulhakim Al-Ghamdi, a teacher, believes that underdevelopment in Third World countries may be attributed to a lack of understanding of the rights of others, inadequate prioritization, and using religion as a pretext to delay work.

Abdulhakim Al-Ghamdi said people in charge should act as role models in order for their employees to stay as diligent as possible. Imam, Abdulrahman Al-Amri said he was disappointed that prayers were being used to overrule people’s rights. He told Al-Hayat the Holy Qur’an states that prayers should be carried out after work is completed once there is ample time.

Abdulmohsen Al-Obaikan, a lawyer in the Kingdom, said there should be no more than 20 minutes for prayer so that the interests of the public can be served in a timely fashion.

Government workers worldwide might be the same, but most of them don't have the Saudis' excuse.

Palestinians gather around a car where four Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Wednesday March 12, 2008. Israeli troops opened fire on a car Wednesday, killing four Palestinian militants, Palestinian medical officials said, throwing doubt on prospects for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

It's curious.

Israel kills four known terrorists in the West Bank that belong to Islamic Jihad, and it is assumed that Hamas therefore will be justified in escalating the "cycle of violence" from Gaza. In other words, Hamas can link the events of the West Bank with what it does in Gaza.

But Israel is expected to continue to negotiate for "peace" with Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and completely ignore the events happening in Gaza.

Israel is not allowed to make a linkage between the two territories, but Hamas is encouraged to, by captions like this.

Hamas exposes other terrorist fauxtography

As I briefly mentioned earlier, the ""Galilee Freedom Batallions" published a picture of the Mercaz HaRav mass murderer in combat fatigues to bolster evidence that they were behind the attack.

The Hamas Al-Qassam website published an animation showing that this picture was Photoshopped:

And, of course, they are blaming the Zionists for faking this photo, even though the people who issued it never claimed that he was a member of Hamas.

UPDATE: (Welcome to the nascent LGF-lizardoids and throbbing GIF fans! Feel free to browse around the site.)

"Cease fire" report: Mortars on Kerem Shalom

From Xinhua:

The Popular Resistance Committee, a group loyal to Hamas, on Wednesday said its fighters have fired three mortar shells on an Israeli commercial crossing point in southeast Gaza Strip.
In a statement sent to the media, the al-Nasser Saladin Brigades, the armed wing of the PRC, said the shells hit Kerem Shalom crossing on the point where Gaza, Egypt and Israel borders meet.
"The Zionist entity admitted the missiles landed on the crossing and claimed they caused no casualties," the statement said.

Kerem Shalom re-opened to ship humanitarian aid into Gaza a bit over a week ago.

Conclusions:

* The "cease-fire" is a sham.
* Hamas will hide behind the PRC to keep rockets and mortars going so they can simultaneously claim to the West that they aren't shooting any rockets while they tell their own people that they never accepted any agreement.
* "Humanitarian aid" is a terrorist target by Hamas and other groups in Gaza, because it is in their best interests to keep the people of Gaza miserable. Miserable PalArabs are better than bullets.

"Galilee Freedom Batallions" and the 1974 PLO "phased plan"

The previously unknown group that claimed responsibility for the Mercaz HaRav massacre calls itself the "Galilee Freedom Battalions-the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh." Many people commented on the second half of their title, wondering if it was a front group for Hezbollah.

We should be more concerned about the first half.

In 1974, the PLO established the "phased plan" to destroy Israel. Even then, the goal was not an independent Palestinian state, but to destroy Israel in stages - to grab whatever territory it can by any means, using it as a platform to grab more - with an independent Palestinian Arab state just a temporary step on the way towards a pan-Arab state:

2. The Palestine Liberation Organization will employ all means, and first and foremost armed struggle, to liberate Palestinian territory and to establish the independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will require further changes being effected in the balance of power in favor of our people and their struggle.

3. The Liberation Organization will struggle against any proposal for a Palestinian entity the price of which is recognition, peace, secure frontiers, renunciation of national rights, and the deprival of our people of their right to return and their right to self-determination on the soil of their homeland.

4. Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization’s strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian State specified in the resolutions of the previous Palestinian National Councils.

8. Once it is established, the Palestinian national authority will strive to achieve a union of the confrontation countries, with the aim of completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory, and as a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity.

And immediately after Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, he told a radio station that the accords

...will be a basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the Palestine National Council resolution issued in 1974... The PNC resolution issued in 1974 calls for the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws or which is liberated.

Arafat habitually referred to the 1974 plan during Oslo. This is the basis for the "good cop, bad cop" routine we are seeing between Abbas and Hamas - one trying to grab territory by ostensibly peaceful means, one by war, both with the same ultimate goal that was codified in Cairo in 1974.

Seen in this context, it makes perfect sense that while the PLO now has all Western countries pressuring Israel to withdraw to the Green Line, that the next stage start to be prepared now.

Which brings us back to the "Galilee Freedom Batallions."

Since the Galilee has a large Arab population, it is the logical place to start the next stage of the Phased Plan. They will start agitating for the Galilee to be a part of Arab Palestine. It sounds absurd now but after a decade or so of inciting Galilee Arabs plus terror attacks together with left-wing Israelis who are scared to death of a perceived "demographic" threat it will seem much more reasonable in years to come.

This group just released a picture of the murderer in military fatigues, strengthening the claim that they really exist (according to Palestine Today, they claim to admire Hezbollah but not to be associated with it). The point, however, is not whether this group exists or not; it is that all of the terror groups and quasi-governmental bodies work for the same goal using the same methods outlined in 1974.

CAMERA: BBC caught fabricating a story

CAMERA points out that the BBC showed footage of a home being bulldozed and claimed it was the home of the mass murderer of Mercaz HaRav's family.

The only problem is that the house still stands. The BBC showed footage of a house demolition and lied about what it was showing.

This goes way beyond media bias. Read (and watch) the whole thing.

Work accident!

Ma'an says that "25-year-old Ayman Mansour died after being seriously wounded on Tuesday evening while preparing a bomb that exploded in his hands."

I am convinced that some of the Palestinian Arab deaths reported as being from Israeli bombings are in fact from work accidents like these, or internal clashes. Hamas transports the dead bodies to where the airstrikes are and then say it was Israel. (The Palestine Press Agency has accused Hamas of doing exactly that at least once.) Since Israel didn't have any airstrikes yesterday, they couldn't blame the IDF.

Of course, "preparing bombs" is exactly what everyone knows Hamas will be doing in this current "lull" - licking its wounds from last week and ramping up for next time.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 32.

UPDATE: PCHR mentions that a Gaza policeman "mistakenly" killed a 75-year old woman last week. So the count is 33, with 13 of them women or children.

UPDATE 2: PCHR has removed the link to the section of its website that reports deaths from infighting and "misuse of weapons." Making it even harder to report how many Palestinian Arabs are killing each other. And proving that it cares little about PalArab "human rights" and only about making Israel look bad.

UPDATE 3: Tunnel collapse:

An underground tunnel collapsed early Wednesday near Egypt's border with the Gaza strip, burying alive one smuggler and injuring another, a security official said.
Palestinian smuggler Mohammed el-Bashiti and five others had nearly finished expanding the 600 meter (yard) tunnel from Gaza into Egypt located 10 meters beneath the ground, when the ceiling gave way, said the official. (AP)

34.

Video of Grad rocket explosion in Ashkelon neighborhood

Grads are much more powerful and deadly than Qassams, and "reinforced rooms" do not protect against Grads, as is obvious from watching this video from Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website:

PalArabs hold "animal protest"

At least it is original:

Gaza – Ma'an – Dozens of horses, camels, sheep, goats and donkeys rallied in front of the UN headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday in protest of Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian activists fitted the animals with signs in various languages reading, "Where is the world's conscience?" Save the children of Gaza", "Gaza is dying; end the siege," "Is the UN an international lie?" and "The UN has to end the siege of Gaza."

Sami Akila, the spokesperson of the Sunna' Al-Hayat society and the organizers of the rally said if the animals' messages reach the international community, Gazans will try sign language in an attempt to make their appeals understood.

"We know that animals in the world are fed to glut, while the children of Gaza suffer from hunger and anemia and most of them go to sleep without having supper. You are concerned about dogs more than your concern about us contradicting your own human values and the treaties you signed and failed to implement," Akila said, addressing the UN.

That's funny, because Palestinian Arab concern over their own people is likewise somewhat lower than Western concern over our pets.

And don't even talk about how they treat their own animals:

* In the Gaza Strip in June 2001, a Palestinian drove a donkey cart laden with explosives toward a group of Israelis. At the last minute he jumped off the cart and detonated the bombs that exploded only partially. The cart had been loaded with four gas canisters, two mines, a bag of oil, and a bag of nails.
* In January 2001, terrorists left a donkey cart laden with explosives unattended near the Netzarim junction. Israeli soldiers fired at the cart, detonating the large amount of explosives and killing the donkey.

* In June 1995, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a donkey-led cart rigged with explosives near an IDF base near Khan Yunis. No soldiers were wounded in the blast, but the Palestinian and the donkey were killed.

So perhaps the symbolism of a donkey representing Palestinian Arab children is more apt than the organizers ever considered.

Arab in Israel brags about "honor killing" his sister

From YNet:

Police investigators noted that the attempted murder was meticulously planned. The youth had informed his family members that he was going to murder his sister early Tuesday morning, and then set off to do just that. He headed to the entrance of the village in a vehicle which he had borrowed from his brother, and awaited his sister’s arrival.

The youth then shot his sister, who was startled to see him and proceeded to kick her repeatedly in order to ensure that she was no longer alive. Chief Superintendent of the Afula Police Department, Orli Malka, stated that “the young woman was clever enough to play dead so that her brother would stop kicking her.” The shooter than called MDA medics and phone the police emergency hotline. "I just shot my sister,” he said, all the while keeping vigil over what he assumed was his sister’s lifeless corpse.

The young man then informed his family that he had shot his sister and was warmly greeted, hugged and congratulated by his brother and other family members.

Donkey love

From RIA Novosti:

A newly-married husband in northwest Syria divorced his wife at their wedding reception after his new bride insulted him with a 'donkey' song, the Al Watan newspaper said on Friday.

The incident happened in the Syrian city of Latakia after the bride had chosen the Arab song, "I love you, my little donkey," for their first wedding dance.

Singing the song, the woman went on to call her new husband a donkey numerous times, admitting however that she would be angry if anyone else did so.

Meanwhile, the husband did not find his wife's joke amusing and asked the DJ to change the record. The DJ refused to do so, saying that the bride had requested the song.

The furious husband then grabbed the DJ's microphone and cried out "talaq" three times.

Under Sunni Islamic Law, a husband may claim a divorce by saying 'talaq' - which means "I divorce you" - three times. The divorce comes into effect as soon as the words are pronounced.

h/t Israelity

Clan clash!

Palestine Today (Arabic) reports:

Palestinian medical sources said that 2citizens were killed and eight others injured in a family quarrel took place today, Tuesday, the Shajaiyeh neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

Medical sources said Subhi Mohammed Hassanein, "53 years", Ahmed Khamis Abu meal "35 years" were killed and eight others injured from both families, including two described their serious in a fight between both families signed today east of Gaza City.

Our very undercounted 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 31.

Terror alert in Jerusalem

All I know so far is that the beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon has informed me that there is a terror alert. I saw nothing yet in the usual Israeli English websites.

I advised her to stay away from terrorists today; she replied "Darn, that means that my date with the really hot Hamas guy is off."

The Qassams that fall short

Palestine Press Agency reports (autotranslated):

A locally manufactured rocket landed late in the night yesterday, Monday, at the southern entrance to the town of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip, which led to a cut in the electricity supply to the large areas north of the sector.

Eyewitnesses told the official news agency "that the rocket landed at the southern entrance to Beit Hanoun and caused major damage to an electrical transformer; it plunged large parts of the northern sector in the dark."

It should be noted that this incident is not the first, as previously many locally manufactured missiles aimed at Israeli communities fell on Palestinian homes and factories especially in the northern region of the sector and causing substantial material damage not to mention the human losses in many cases.

This small fact is severely underreported.

Also, it shows that while they have slowed down, there are still rockets being shot at Israel daily - just not all of them make it.

Moderate Jordan's religious tolerance

From Middle East Online:

AMMAN - Jordanian Christians are up in arms over the activities of foreign missionaries in the Muslim conservative kingdom which is rich in biblical sites, including the spot where Jesus was baptised.

The row erupted after the government announced last month that it had deported an unspecified number of expatriates for carrying out Christian missionary activities under the guise of charity work.

The move was welcomed by several Christian figures, with many voicing concern that foreign missionaries were seeking to upset the traditionally stable ties between Muslims and Christians in Jordan.

"Missionary groups have hidden agendas and are close to Christian Zionists," asserted former MP Odeh Kawwas, a Greek Orthodox.

Fellow Christian Fahd Kheitan, an outspoken columnist at Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper, said the majority of Christians are "very suspicious and worried".

"The (missionaries) target the strong beliefs of traditional churches in Jordan and try to create religious links with the Zionist movement, which is extremely dangerous," said Kheitan.

Some Christian supporters of Israel, notably a segment in the United States, believe the return of Jews to the Holy Land and the 1948 creation of the Jewish state are in line with biblical prophecy.

In February, acting Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told parliament that "some foreign groups have come to Jordan under the cover of doing charity, but they broke the law and did missionary activities". He did not give figures.

Converting from Islam to Christianity is strictly prohibited in Jordan and foreign missionary groups are banned from seeking converts, although they can run schools, charitable organisations, hospitals and orphanages.

"For years we have been urging the government to close such Christian shops that have nothing to do with Christianity and tolerance," said Kawwas, referring to missionaries who convert Muslims in violation of the law.

"It is an old problem. They create sensitivities and provoke discord among Jordanian Christians, not to mention their threat to Muslim-Christian coexistence," the former lawmaker said.

"These groups don't belong to any church, but they try to hunt followers of other churches and trick some of our Muslim brothers to convert them," he added.

Christians represent around four percent of Jordan's population of nearly six million, including Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian and Latin rites.

They are well integrated in the kingdom, where one Christian holds a ministerial post while eight percent control seats in the 110-member lower house of parliament.

In January, the first spark of controversy was lit by a Christian news agency, Compass Direct News, in a report accusing Jordan of cracking down on expatriate Christians by deporting them or denying them residency permit.

Parliament said the report was aimed at "damaging Muslim-Christian relations in Jordan". It also insisted that Jordan's Christians "are an integral part of society, living in peace and harmony with their Muslim brothers".

The church also voiced its concern.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem and Jordan said recently that some foreign missionaries "have undeclared political positions and we do not want the image of Christianity to be distorted."

Translating this into English, this means that Christians in Jordan - the same types of Latin and Greek Orthodox Christians who are often quoted in Gaza and the West Bank as feeling secure and happy even as their co-religionists abandon their homes in droves because of Islamist pressure - happily embrace their dhimmi, second-class status. The very idea that they might believe that their religion is superior to Islam has been stricken from their thoughts.

As the article makes clear, Jordan systematically discriminates against its Christian population, as Muslims are free to proselytize but Christians are not.

A better idea of how Christians in Jordan fare come from this article:

WE MEET ONE MORE Christian on our pilgrimage--a Catholic shopkeeper in Madaba, a historically Christian town in which Christians are still a significant minority (30 percent). ...
I ask him if Christianity will still exist in Jordan in 50 years. He pauses, frowns and begins shaking his head. "My [Muslim] neighbor has two wives and 10 children. My children and nieces and nephews are gone." He lets us do the math.

We ask whether evangelicals would be welcome in Madaba. He frowns again. "They seem strange to us," he says--clearly he has more in common culturally with his Muslim neighbors, though more in common socioeconomically with Westerners. It is a complex identity. "It is very hard for Christians here." Then, as if just realizing he is talking with reporters, he insists: "But don't write that. Write that the government is very good for Christians here. That's important to say."

Israeli researchers help Arab kids learn classical Arabic

From Ha'aretz:

How do you say "I want" in Arabic? How do you say "now"? And "he started"? Every Arab child no doubt knows how to answer those questions, yet the answer is not simple.

During their first years in school, Arab students face what is known as "diglossia," sharply divergent formal and informal variations of the language. At home and with friends, the pupils speak spoken Arabic, but in their textbooks, they encounter literary Arabic, which has different structures and vocabulary.

Diglossia is present in all the Arabic-speaking countries and communities in the world, as well as other communities.

Israeli Arab educators blame diglossia for Arab students' particularly low scores on reading tests. This is true around the Arab world, as well as in Israel, where Arab Israelis score significantly lower in reading than their Hebrew-speaking peers.

The Center for Educational Technology sponsored a study on the connection between the spoken language, Palestinian Arabic, which preschoolers speak fluently, and the literary language they learn in school. The researchers tried to facilitate learning the literary language by using the spoken vocabulary.

In the 2006 study, some 100 preschoolers from Nahaf, Nazareth, Kafr Kara and Rahat were recorded speaking for two hours. The researchers then recorded their speech, building a vocabulary list of thousands of words. In addition, they noted the different pronunciations in the different communities - the letter "qoof," for example, can be pronounced as a gutteral "q," an "a" or a "g."

In parallel, the researchers examined the most commonly used Arabic language textbook, "Al-Raid," and selected some 700 words that first-graders found difficult. These words, including "I want," "now," and "he started," will serve as the basis for a dictionary between spoken and literary Arabic. Unlike all existing Arabic dictionaries, this one will be arranged by alphabetical order, and not based on word roots, in order to help the children find words.

The study found that the children's spoken vocabulary is richer than that in "Al-Raid." However, the researchers note that to date, there have been hardly any studies on the spoken language, which is considered inferior to its holy "big sister." One of the central reasons for this is the belief that the language of the Quran - literary Arabic - is perfect and cannot be emulated.

Dr. Elinor Saig-Hadad, a lecturer in the linguistics and English literature departments at Bar-Ilan University, headed the study. She says that nowhere in the Arab world has someone tried to bridge the gap between the spoken and the literary language.

"It is impossible to pretend the spoken language does not exist," she says. "There is a gap between the spoken language and the written language in every dialect of Arabic."

Hawala Sa'adi, who is in charge of the project at the Center for Educational Technology, says the dictionary will help children learn the written language. "To this day, people have ignored what the children bring with them from home. The new study materials will help the children close the gap, while getting to know their language," she says.

Dr. Michal Shleifer, the language department head at the educational technology center, says one of the aims of the study is to improve children's written language ability through educational materials, rather than having it pushed aside by the spoken language.

"We do not want to interfere with the status of the written language, but rather to help the children acquire it," she says. "The question is how to do that, and that is the importance of the research."

Imagine that - Israeli Jews working to be in the forefront of children's Arabic language education.

two minor blog milestones

Today I published my 4000th post.

Tomorrow (or possibly tonight) I will get visitor number 222,222.

A student stands behind a podium as a video of Hezbollah's Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah plays during a pro-Palestinian meeting at a cultural centre in Tehran March 9, 2008. Students agreed on a one-million dollar reward for the murder of three Israeli commanders, Ehud Barak, Amos Yadlin and Meir Dagan. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN)

A "pro-Palestinian" meeting? Let's see what we know about this meeting:

1) The video being shown is of Hassan Nasrallah, a Lebanese-born terrorist who has never been in Israel or Palestine in his life. His goal, nonetheless, is the destruction of Israel - not the building of a Palestinian Arab state.

2) At this meeting, students agreed it would be a good idea to murder three Israelis. Not to help Palestinian Arabs, but to murder Israelis.

3) On the podium it helpfully says "Israel must be wiped off the map."

So, is this a "pro-Palestinian" meeting - or an anti-Israel meeting? Is anything being discussed that would help the Palestinian Arabs' lives - any fund raising for medical equipment for Gaza, for example? Apparently not.

So if Reuters is labeling this a "pro-Palestinian meeting" that means that Reuters does not distinguish between "pro-Palestinian" and "anti-Zionist."

Reuters apparently does not believe in a peace process that would result in a Palestinian Arab and Zionist state side-by-side, and it believes that the mainstream of "pro-Palestinian" opinion is similar to the sentiments being displayed here in Iran. So either Reuters does not believe that the "peace process" is "pro-Palestinian," - or they believe that even the "moderate" Palestinian Arabs view the "peace process" as being an anti-Israel movement, with the same goals as shown here.

Which is it?

Staged Gaza photos of the day

AP's Gaza photographer Eyad Baba published a series of pictures showing how barbaric Israeli airstrikes are:

Palestinian children play on the ruins of a building destroyed in a recent Israeli air strike, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, March 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

A Palestinian walks through the ruins of a building destroyed in a recent Israeli air strike, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, March 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

A Palestinian boy looks on as he stands in the ruins of a building destroyed in a recent Israeli air strike, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, March 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

A Palestinian rides his bicycle past the ruins of a building destroyed in a recent Israeli air strike, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, March 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

Palestinian children play on the ruins of a building destroyed in a recent Israeli air strike, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, March 10, 2008.

Any photographer knows that a picture of a building by itself has no soul. One needs to add people to make it interesting.

Now, it is entirely possible that Mr. Baba, knowing that he wants to get a good shot, would wait for just the right moment that people happen to walk past some ruins before clicking his shutter. But here we have five pictures of buildings - all with people in and around them! What a fortunate coincidence!

Either Gazans really like to play and examine dangerous buildings that can collapse at any time, or the photographer asked them to please walk/play/ride their bike/stand right where the photo would be the most likely to win an award - and make Israel look as awful as possible.

After all, he must illustrate that everyday normal innocent Palestinian Arabs are forced to live next to buildings that were inexplicably, randomly destroyed for no reason at all that AP can find.

AP might get more than it bargained for

LGF links to a posting at Confederate Yankee where AP defines "fair use" a bit better for bloggers to stay on the right side of the law:

AP licenses its works (photos, news stories, video and so on) to newspapers, Web sites and broadcasters for the purpose of showing news events and to illustrate news stories or commentary on the news events.
If the entirety of the work is used (such as when a whole photo is reproduced), that is considered a substantial “taking” under fair use law. If there are many photos used, that is a substantial taking of AP’s photo library.

In the case of criticism, the commentary or criticism has to be about the protected work, not commentary or criticism in general – not using, as in the case of Snappedshot.com, protected photos to illustrate something on which the blogger was commenting. One cannot post a copyrighted photo of President Bush to illustrate commentary criticizing the policies of his administration, for example.

This makes a certain amount of sense, but what is going to happen is what I did in a previous posting today: make a story about something outrageous that happened into a story about media bias, by criticizing either the staging of the picture or the caption, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

So, for example (this one was on LGF as well):

Palestinian Hamas activists take part in an anti-Israel rally organized by the Hamas movement in Gaza March 7, 2008.

Not only am I showing how civilized Gazans are in tolerating a march of people dressed as suicide bombers in their midst, but now I must also mention how (in this case Reuters) calls these people "activists", on par with people who work hard to open libraries on weekends!

So a higher percentage of my blog posts, and those of others, are going to necessarily end up pointing out media bias that has been largely ignored because it is so widespread, in order to keep to the correct side of the "fair use" issue.

Another example coming up!

Algerian volunteer suicide bombers going to Gaza

From AKI (h/t Watcher):

Eight would-be suicide bombers left eastern Algeria a few days ago and are reportedly heading to the Gaza Strip to commit suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers, reported pan Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat on Monday.

The young men reportedly left their homes days ago without saying anything to their families.

Reportedly, their intent is to join Hamas' armed wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam brigades, considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

It is reported that the eight were driven to go to Gaza after the grim images broadcasted by Arab satellite TV stations showing the dead, following Israel's military operation against alleged Palestinian rocket crews.

The report said that after a few days, two of the would-be bombers reached Gaza and called their parents saying they were in good health and that they wanted "to carry out a suicide attack against the Jews."

I wonder if Egypt would kill Algerian terrorists going to Gaza the way they kill refugees from Africa going to Israel.

Israel builds driverless jeep

From Ha'aretz:

The Israel Defense Forces are set to introduce an unmanned jeep into the ongoing conflict with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

While pilotless drones are already common in the Israel Air Force, this is the first time a driverless jeep will be used by the army's ground forces.

Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries jointly developed the guardian for the IDF, and it is expected to be deployed this summer along the security fence with the Gaza Strip, replacing many manned vehicles.

Of course, the only reason Israel needs to spend millions on saving its own people's lives is because its opponents consider their people's lives to be nearly worthless.

Video available at Ha'aretz (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to stop it from playing automatically.)

Iranian threat merits Reuters pictures but no story

Reuters has a series of interesting pictures this morning from Iran that look like this:

A student stands in front of a banner with pictures of Israeli commanders, Head of Aman (IDF) Amos Yadlin (L), Director of Mossad Meir Dagan (C) and Defense Minister Ehud Barak during a pro-Palestinian meeting at a cultural centre in Tehran March 9, 2008. Students agreed on an one-million dollar reward for the murder of the three Israeli commanders. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN)

So where is the story that can fill in the details?

Not from Reuters. Apparently an explicit assassination threat against Israel coming from Iran is just a photo-op. The only place one can find details right now is a South African newspaper:

Iranian hardline students have offered rewards totalling a million dollars for the "execution" of three Israeli military leaders after Israel's deadly strikes on Gaza, the student news agency ISNA reported on Monday.

The group is even encouraging Iranians to donate their kidneys to increase the bounties on the heads of Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad spy agency director Meir Dagan and military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin.

The rewards were announced by the Justice Seeking Students Group on Sunday at a ceremony in Tehran entitled "setting the bounty for the revolutionary execution of the designers of state terrorism," ISNA said.

The bounty for Barak is set at $400 000 while those for Dagan and Yadlin are $300 000 each, the report said. It is not clear where the money is coming from.

"These sums will be given to any person or their families who could punish these individuals in any part of the world," the organisers of the event announced.

Pictures taken at the ceremony showed a banner bearing pictures of the three Israelis against the backdrop of an Israeli flag, with rifle sights stencilled onto the foreheads of the trio.

"Israel must be wiped off the map," read a quote from Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini printed on the top of the banner.

Nothing to see here. Just a cute little picture of Israeli officials being threatened with assassination. Just part of Iran's right of free expression when it comes to genocidal plans for Israel.

Is Juan Cole going to write to this student group to tell them that their translation from Farsi to English is incorrect?

Kuwaiti strategist wants Israel to attack Iranian nukes

From Iran's PressTV:

Senior Kuwaiti strategist Sami al-Faraj says an Israeli military strike on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities is not a bad idea.

In a Sunday interview with the daily Al-Siyassah, the former government adviser said Iran's nuclear program has become a major concern for all Persian Gulf littoral states and therefore an Israeli attack may be an appropriate solution.

The question is what would it do if it were a nuclear nation? We have to call a spade a spade and say that burying the military nuclear Iranian project is in the interest of PGCC states, said al-Faraj, who heads the independent Kuwait Center for Strategy Studies.

He added that it would be 'less embarrassing' if Israel cripples Iran's nuclear program rather than the US.

Honestly speaking, they would be achieving something of great strategic value for the PGCC by stopping Iran's tendency for hegemony over the area, he said.

Palestinian Arab newspaper gleefully prints massacre pictures

Who needs the Government of Israel to distribute pictures of the Mercaz HaRav massacre?

The "Palestine Today" newspaper/website is happy to do it for free, printing no less than 26 pictures, under the headline "Photos show the heroic Jerusalem operation which killed 10 Jews and injured dozens of extremists"

And notice that their pride is in killing Jews, not Zionists, in cold blood - so much so that they exaggerate how many were murdered.

(After the Snapped Shot debacle, does anyone want to sic AP or Reuters lawyers on Palestine Today? I strongly doubt that they pay for the rights to reproduce these.)

Israel to distribute pictures of yeshiva horror (Hasbara failure #3)

From YNet:

Israel has decided to take advantage of Thursday's bloody terror attack in Jerusalem in order to launch an aggressive campaign against Hamas.

Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that the political echelon instructed the Government Press Office to distribute the shocking images from the yeshiva shooting worldwide, including pictures of holy books perforated with bullets, a blood-stained praying shawl and the terrorist's body inside the yeshiva.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni decided that the Foreign Ministry would work to convey the Israeli messages to the international community.

This, more than my last two posts, underlines the sheer incompetence of Israeli efforts to get its message out.

The massacre at Mercaz HaRav already has made headlines worldwide. The pictures have already been in the front pages. When Israel decides to "take advantage" of the massacre it smacks not of giving a message as much as opportunism. It is a third-rate version of Zaka's innovative campaign a few years ago of bringing the wreckage of a bombed bus to major European cities.

That idea was smart, because it showed thousands of people first-hand what terror looks like, using an object that they could relate to - a bus. Showing off bloody tzitzit, on the other hand, may evoke a reaction among Jews but to the world it could make Israel look like another fundamentalist theocracy. Beyond that, it just looks like propaganda, not new information.

In other words, Israel's insularity and isolation has made it unable to see things how others see them, which is a crucial skill needed when trying to master public relations. People are more sophisticated than they were thirty years ago and they know when they are being manipulated.

Israel needs to publicize stories like the ones I previously posted today. Stories that are either underreported or completely ignored, that show the terrorism for what it is, stories that educate the world rather than beat them with crude imagery and those that, above all, can be related to. The facts are on Israel's side but seemingly no one is interested in getting the facts out to the people who need to read them - the large numbers of people who are not overtly anti-Israel but just misinformed by years of good Arab publicity and poor Israeli PR.

The GOI together with the Israeli English-language media needs to wake up.

Gazans fire mortars at their own "humanitarian aid" (Hasbara failure #2)

Last week, a group of 8 British "human rights" groups released a report that slammed Israel for not allowing more humanitarian aid into Gaza and for its restrictions on movement for Gaza residents. While it was one-sided, it did throw a bone to Israel condemning Qassam attacks and airily declaring that Israel has the right to defend itself.

What it failed to acknowledge was that not only does Israel facilitate plenty of humanitarian aid into Gaza, but that terrorist actions directly affect how much they can safely provide.

Last Sunday, for example, Israel allowed 62 trucks to cross through the Sufa crossing. Almost unreported was that mortars were fired on the trucks, forcing them to turn back. Several hours later they tried again, successfully this time.

On Tuesday, Israel allowed some 160 truckfuls of aid to enter Gaza through three checkpoints. Again, mortar fire from Gaza was directed at the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings, which Islamic Jihad and PFLP took credit for.

Moreover:

On Wednesday, Israeli authorities discovered chemicals used for making explosives just one hour after Israel opened up Gaza crossings for shipments of humanitarian goods. The chemicals were discovered in a sealed container and were intended for use in Kassam rockets.

None of these stories merited a headline in any newspaper. All of them were buried in much longer articles about other topics. Not only does the Israeli government fail to publicize these issues appropriately, but even Israeli media bury these stories.

They just don't understand how Western media works nowadays.

Palestinian Arabs scream and cry about their "humanitarian crisis" and they get gullible Western humanitarian organizations to believe them, while at the same time they are continuing to do everything they can to minimize that same humanitarian aid. The idea that Palestinian Arabs are sabotaging their own humanitarian efforts, and using them to smuggle in rocket material, is newsworthy because it is ironic.

All Israelis know that these things happen every day and as a result these are regarded in Israeli media as "dog bites man" stories, buried within the larger articles about PalArab terror. But nowadays, the audience for the Israeli media is worldwide, and therefore at least the English-language stories need to be reported from the perspective of what Western audiences will find interesting and illuminating.

And the Israeli government press office needs to emphasize these facts, not just mention them.

The homemade rockets of the Atallah family (Hasbara failure #1)

The Los Angeles Times mentioned last week:

The Israeli military says it does not target civilian sites, but attacks by warplanes and tanks in the crowded strip make such casualties almost inevitable.

At least 10 people from three generations were in the Atallah household when the missile struck Saturday just before sunset.

Medhat Abdullah, a relative of the family, was at work nearby when he heard the news. He arrived to find the home almost flattened, the walls collapsed and the ceiling caved.

"It's a massacre. When you kill a whole family, what else do you call it?" he asked. "What am I supposed to do? Forgive [the Israelis]?"

Among the dead in the Atallah family were patriarch Abdel Rahman Atallah, 65, his wife, Suad, two sons and two daughters. One of Atallah's grandchildren, a 23-month-old baby, was pulled from the rubble alive but suffering from oxygen deprivation. The child remains in the intensive care unit of a Gaza City hospital on an artificial respirator.

The dead must be buried promptly according to Islamic custom, but relatives still hadn't recovered all the bodies in time for the funeral Sunday afternoon.

The final two bodies, almost unrecognizable, were pulled from the rubble after the funeral procession had already left, Abdullah said. They were wrapped in blankets and rushed to the cemetery.

Abdullah said there were no militant strongholds in the area, and no factories for making Kassam rockets.

One of Abdel Rahman Atallah's sons was a member of the Executive Force, a Hamas-led police unit, and may have been involved in launching rockets into Israel, Abdullah said. But that, he said, did not justify the missile strike.

It would appear that the Atallah family was either the target of an indiscriminate policy of punishing civilians, as the Palestinian Arabs would spin it, or at the very least they were the accidental victims from an Israeli airstrike gone awry. And, after all, a relative said that there was no rocket factory nearby, and why wouldn't you believe him?

The airstrike occurred on February 27. The LA Times article came out on March 3. Israel didn't come out with an explanation until March 6, and even then it was difficult to know exactly what event they were referring to:

The deliberate use of civilian homes to shield Hamas arms and explosives manufacturing facilities
Hamas frequently uses civilian homes in the Gaza Strip for the manufacture of rockets, explosives, antitank missiles and other arms being used against Israel. Rockets, explosives and other arms were also found in the mosque in Jabalya.

Weapons found in a mosque in Jabalya, including RPG
rockets and hand grenades
(IDF Spokesman)

For example, a factory manufacturing dozens of Kassam rockets a day was located in the basement and first floor of a two-storey building. The terrorist responsible for the factory was housed with his family on that second floor. When Israel targeted the factory, destroying scores of rockets as well as the factory’s capability to continue producing those rockets, civilians in the house were unfortunately hit as well.

A Hamas explosives lab in the ground floor of a residential
building in Jabalya

A Hamas Kassam rocket manufacturing shop in the Darj
neighborhood of Gaza

The Israeli statement didn't explicitly say that the Atallah family is being referred to, but apparently it was them, as a line buried in a Ha'aretz (March 7) op-ed made clear:

Israel's explanation that civilian members of the Atallah family were killed in an Israel Air Force bombing because they chose to build an assembly line for Qassam rockets in their home did not penetrate the public mind.

Indeed it did not penetrate the public mind, because Israel itself didn't address it until nearly a week after the event and even then it only referenced it obliquely.

Israel is probably justified in destroying a rocket manufacturing plant in the middle of Gaza City where a family lives. Fair-minded people can debate this. But no one even had the chance of debate, because Israel never publicized the circumstances of this airstrike. By the time Israel mentioned it, the story about the poor martyred Atallah family was out.

By the time we find out the real circumstances - that this family had at least one Hamas member who built rockets in a factory in the basement, deliberately placed there in order to make his family into human shields - it is old news, the LA Times has already finished its sob-story piece. And we cannot blame the LAT because they literally had no Israeli response about the story four days after it occurred.

The IDF and Ministry for Foreign Affairs have dropped the ball time and time again on getting Israel's viewpoint out to the world - and to reporters - in a reasonable and consistent manner.

More examples follow.

Hamas admits hundreds of terrorists train in Iran

From the Times (UK):

...Israel has long insisted that Iran is behind this training. Last week Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, said as much when he claimed that Hamas had “started to dispatch people to Iran, tens and a promise of hundreds”. He provided no evidence.
The Hamas commander, however, confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters.
The details he gave suggested that, if anything, Shin Bet has underestimated the extent of Iran’s influence on Hamas’s increasingly sophisticated tactics and weaponry.
Speaking on the record but withholding his identity as a target of Israeli forces, the commander, who has a sparse moustache and oiled black hair, said Hamas had been sending fighters to Iran for training in both field tactics and weapons technology since Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza strip of Palestinian territory in 2005. Others go to Syria for more basic training.
“We have sent seven ‘courses’ of our fighters to Iran,” he said. “During each course, the group receives training that he will use to increase our capacity to fight.”
The most promising members of each group stay longer for an advanced course and return as trainers themselves, he said.
So far, 150 members of Qassam have passed through training in Tehran, where they study for between 45 days and six months at a closed military base under the command of the elite Revolutionary Guard force.
Of the additional 150 who are in Tehran now, some will go into Hamas’s research unit if they are not deemed strong enough for fighting.
Conditions at the base are strict, the commander said. The Palestinians are allowed out only one day a week. Even then, they may leave the base only in a group and with Iranian security. They shop and “always come back with really good boots”.
According to the commander, a further 650 Hamas fighters have trained in Syria under instructors who learnt their techniques in Iran. Sixty-two are in Syria now.
But what Hamas values most is the knowledge that comes directly from Iran. Some of it was used to devastating effect by the militant group Hezbollah against Israeli forces in Lebanon in 2006.
“They come home with more abilities that we need,” said the Hamas commander, “such as high-tech capabilities, knowledge about land mines and rockets, sniping, and fighting tactics like the ones used by Hezbollah, when they were able to come out of tunnels from behind the Israelis and attack them successfully.
“Those who go to Iran have to swear on the Koran not to reveal details, even to their mothers.”
He said the Hamas military, which numbers about 15,000 fighters, was modelling itself on Hezbollah. “We don’t have tanks. We don’t have planes. We are street fighters and we will use our own ways,” he said.
Nodding in agreement was his companion, another senior Qassam fighter, from Hamas’s manufacturing wing. Dressed in a new, olive-green uniform, he said his job entailed “cooking” – putting together the explosive mixture that Hamas inserts into Qassam rockets.
Everyone was working overtime, he added. He too had been out all night. He said he had launched five mortars and faced heavy machinegun fire in return from Israeli lines.
The commander was particularly impressed with advances made using Iranian technology. “One of the things that has been helpful is that they have taught us how to use the most ordinary things we have here and make them into explosives,” he said.
Such technology had been most useful of all in developing the Qassam rocket and mines deployed against Israeli tanks.
Hamas had just developed the Shawas 4, a new generation of mine, with Iranian expertise, he added.
“We send our best brains to Tehran. It would be a waste of money to send them and then have them come back with nothing.”
They travelled to Egypt, flew to Syria and, on arrival and departure from Tehran, were allowed through without a stamp for security reasons.
“Anything they think will be useful, our guys there e-mail it to us right away,” the military technician said.

This is what Al-Jazeera apologizes for

Too funny:

Al Jazeera has apologised for "offensive" remarks made by a guest during a live debate about the reprinting of cartoons in Denmark said to insult Prophet Muhammad.

In a statement on Wednesday, Al Jazeera expressed its "deepest apologies" for comments made by Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-born US-based academic, which "offended Islam".

The comments were made during the Tuesday evening debate on the talk show "The Opposite Direction".

The statement did not say what offensive remarks had been made in the programme, which was moderated by Al Jazeera's Faisal al-Qassem.

Support for terror and praising 9/11 is fine, but putting a woman on the air who tells Muslim terror-supporters and apologists for Islamism that they are full of crap evinces great regret.

(h/t Suzanne)

Wafa Sultan rocks!

The Arab-American psychologist who caused a huge stir with her comments about Islam on Al Jazeera two years ago has done it again. She, quite simply, rocks.

The following are excerpts from a debate between Arab-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan and Egytian Islamist Tal'at Rmeih, which aired on Al-Jazeera on March 4, 2008.

Egyptian Islamist Tal'at Rmeih: "The West only understands the language of force. Contacts with the West which are not based on real force are futile. One day, America declared that the North Korean nuclear dossier would be referred to the U.N. Security Council. North Korea issued a one-line declaration: 'Korea will consider this to be a hostile act of war.' The Americans bit their tongues, and that was it. The West understands nothing but the language of force, and attacks nobody but the weak. Therefore, our nation – with all its people, and organizations, institutions, rulers, and subjects – is required to adopt a resolute stand of resistance and confrontation in the face of these criminal and hostile acts. The West, in this confrontation, which is not divorced from the massacres that are taking place in Palestine and Iraq…The embassies of Denmark, Holland, France, and the U.S. are not more precious to us than Iraq, which has been destroyed, or than Palestine, which is experiencing a real – not fabricated – holocaust. These countries are subject to a holocaust and a massacre. How can we confront this? By Allah, if we issued a communiqué, signed by all the Arab and Islamic organizations and institutions, the West would bite its tongue and stop all this. By Allah, if the Arab summit decided to boycott Denmark, they would all be disgraced. By Allah, if the masses of the nation would gather for one hour only around the embassies of Denmark, those despicable lowlifes would be in a position of retreat, not attack."

[…]

Arab-American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan: "All religions and faiths, throughout the history of humanity, have been subject to criticism and affronts. With time, this has helped in their reform and development. Any belief that chops off the heads of its critics is doomed to turn into terrorism and tyranny. This has been the condition of Islam, from its inception to this day. Islam has sentenced [its critics] to prison, and whoever crosses the threshold of that prison meets his death. The Danish cartoons have managed to break down the first brick in the wall of that prison, and to open up a window, through which the sunrays enter, after a lengthy darkness. The Danish newspaper exercised its freedom of speech. Liberties are the holiest thing in the West, and nothing is more important. But if Islam were not the way it is, those cartoons would never have appeared. They did not appear out of the blue, and the cartoonist did not dig them out of his imagination. Rather, they are a reflection of his knowledge. Westerners who read the words of the Prophet Muhammad 'Allah has given me sustenance under the shadow of my sword' cannot imagine Muhammad's turban in the shape of a dove of peace rather than in the shape of a bomb. The Muslims must learn how to listen to the criticism of others, and maybe then they will reexamine their terrorist teachings. When they manage to do so, the world will view them in a better light, and consequently, it will draw them in a better light. The reactions of the Muslims, which were characterized by savageness, barbarism, and backwardness, only increased the value of these cartoons, and gave them more importance than they merited, simply because they proved that these cartoons were true, and that the message they were conveying was true. The Muslim is an irrational creature ruled by instincts. Those teachings have deprived him of his mind, incited his emotions, and reduced him to the level of an inferior creature that cannot control himself or react to events rationally."

[…]

Tal'at Rmeih: "God help me. First, Islam is too great to be harmed by the publisher of the cartoon, or by that woman who is talking over there. The truth is that everything she said is 100% false, I'm sad to say. It seems to me that the American and Zionist intelligence agencies have begun to produce people who are hostile to their own nation."

[…]

Dr. Faysal Al-Qassem, Moderator: "How come freedom of expression in the West is sacred only when it comes to degrading the Muslims? Are they allowed to talk about the Holocaust? Are they allowed to talk about Christianity? That is the question. Cinemas were burned down in the West when they talked about Christ."

Wafa Sultan: "I live in America, and I never heard of a single cinema that was burned down here. Where do you get your information from? It sounds as if you are living in America, not me."

Moderator: "In France."

Wafa Sultan: "This is completely baseless. You should criticize your own beliefs just as Christians criticize their beliefs."

[…]

Moderator: "Don’t you think that you are treating the viewers like fools? You present some trivial reactions as barbaric. Have you forgotten that the country in which you live destroyed Iraq in its entirety, killing 1.5 million Iraqis and driving five million out of their homes? Didn't you see the dozens of children annihilated in Gaza, in a holocaust, as Israel itself admits? When a man blows himself up, he becomes a terrorist, but when you annihilate an entire people, whole countries, it is considered a humanitarian act?! Who are you kidding?"

[…]

Wafa Sultan: "Why are they upset about what is going on in Gaza, while the Koran says to them: 'They shall kill and be killed.' So here they are – killing and being killed. What's wrong with that?"
Tal'at Rmeih: "Leave the Koran out of it. If you want to talk politics, go ahead."

Moderator: "I beg you to stick to politics. He talked only about politics."

Wafa Sultan: "Dr. Faysal, you know that you cannot separate Islam from politics. Islam is not a religion, but politics. You must let me express my views the way I want. When you called me, you didn't say I was not allowed to discuss Islam or the Koran. Islam says to them that they will 'kill or be killed', and here they are—killing and being killed. So what's wrong with that? They want to be martyred and to meet their black-eyed virgins, and Israel is merely helping them get what they want. What's wrong with that? If you want to change the course of events, you must reexamine your terrorist teachings, you must recognize and respect the right of the other to live, you must teach your children love, peace, coexistence, and productive work. When you do that, the world will respect you, will consider you in a better light, and will draw you in a better light."

Moderator: "Can you denounce the Zionist massacres in Gaza? That's a simple question. Do you have the courage to do so?"

Wafa Sultan: "I can denounce the Palestinians and the Israelis alike. Hamas chose this path, and you have to pay the price for your choices. When you decide you want peace – I am sure that Israel wants peace, but as long as you keep reciting those teachings, which are full of hatred, rancor, and terrorism, you will be unable to make peace with others. You must recognize and respect Israel's right to live. You must teach your children love, peace, and coexistence. Only then will there be peace."

[…]

Moderator: "Do you dare to say that the number of people who died in the Jewish Holocaust is even one less [than what they claim]? Do you dare to say that? Why don't you dare to even touch on Jewish history – let alone on Jewish religion and sanctities? Why do you flex your muscles only against the oppressed Muslims?"

Wafa Sultan: "Why do you want me to deny historical documents that confirm that the Holocaust took place? If there was no proof, I would deny it. But I cannot deny history, knowledge, and documents confirming that the Holocaust indeed took place. Why do you want me to deny the facts?"

Moderator: "From what she says, it is clear that she has no problem denying the holy books, but she is adamant about not denying historical documents."

Wafa Sultan: "Can you as a Muslim deny the massacre of the Jews of the Bani Qureyza tribe, by Muhammad and his followers?"

[…]

Tal'at Rmeih: "There is a gang that controls [the West], and you are not allowed to criticize Israel or the Holocaust. Anyone who criticized the Holocaust was placed on trial. Noam Chomsky wrote one line about the Holocaust in a book, and the book was recalled from the market. Bernard Lewis – that great philosopher – said something about the Holocaust and was placed on trial. What did the American president say to the U.S. forces sent to the Philippines? He gave them two orders: 'Kill all people above the age of ten, and convert [the rest] to Christianity.'"

[…]

Wafa Sultan: "Did you invite me to the show to hear hollow speeches, which have been around for 1,400 years?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "Allah be praised, we have an identity and a culture."
Wafa Sultan: "How can someone who believes in killing people who do not pray possibly criticize liberties in the West? This is a farce. What past is he defending? Is he defending the invasions and lootings?"
Tal'at Rmeih: "I am defending the past of the Islamic nation, which was the beacon of knowledge for the entire world…"

Wafa Sultan: "…polygamy, beheadings, chopping of heads and feet on alternate sides, accusing people of heresy, and drinking camel urine, as a cure for all ailments – is this the past he is defending?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "No, I am defending a magnificent past of a magnificent nation, which was the cradle of knowledge and civilization, at a time when the most that people in the West could do was to catch a rabbit and scurry back to their caves. This nation has made the greatest contribution to civilization and humanity. Our religion is not complete without recognition of other religions. We are the ones who have called for tolerance and respect for religions."

What the attack was not

It was not a response to "Operation Warm Winter." These sorts of attacks take weeks and often months to plan; according to Ma'an the group that took responsibility claimed that they prepared the attack in "only" 10 days.

It is not only simplistic to assume that each attack is a response to whatever the most recent Israeli attack was, it is wrong. The Arab terrorists have never hurt for excuses to attack the Jews who want to live in what used to be called Palestine; the Danish cartoons would have been just as much of an excuse. The hate always comes first, the reasons come much later.

It was not a sign that a "calm" is over. There never was a calm.

Even though this was the worst terror attack in two years, this is not for lack of trying. Israel catches terrorists and disrupts attacks all the time. There is always an element of luck (or, if you prefer, hashgacha protis) in what attacks are foiled and which get through, and how many victims there would be. Yesterday's eight could have easily become 40 or they could have been zero; the severity of the outcome does not reflect the desire of the terrorists - to mass-murder as many Jews as possible.

It was not an attack on a symbol of the settler movement. This was an act of opportunity, Palestinian Arabs have been frustrated so many times in so many ways in trying to re-create the daily attack environment that existed in Israel in 2001-2003 (as well as 1929, 1936-9 and 1947-8) that they are not spending time thinking about "symbolism." An ice cream party or old age home are equally desirable targets for these depraved excuses of human beings and the equally disgusting animals who cheer them on.

It was not a victory for Arabs. Forgetting what the government may or may not do in response, the immediate and inevitable short-term result is going to be Jewish businesses re-evaluating their employment of Israeli Arabs. Just like the 2001 intifada resulted in tens of thousands of West Bank Arabs losing their jobs and the Gaza withdrawal resulted in thousands more, this will result in many Israeli Arabs losing theirs. This has its own dangers for Israel but it is catastrophic for Israeli Arabs.