Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Moving - and staying

Yesterday, US Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones, upon seeing the overcrowded haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem, said that he was aware of the shortage of housing, but added: "Sometimes people do have to move to a different location. They cannot always stay close to their families." He was clearly talking about Israel building new houses and apartments in Jerusalem.

Many in the JBlogosphere correctly slammed these comments.

Sultan Knish says:

After 2000 years of Jews being told where they could and could not live, walled into Ghettos, given designated Jewish areas, the State of Israel was founded in order to create a place where Jews could live freely, only to have the US Ambassador stride into its capitol, which the US continues to refuse to recognize, sniff around and proclaims that Jews cannot live in their own capitol city.

Boker Tov Boulder, a bit less diplomatically:

Remember how Dhimmedia told us time and time again, prior to the disengagement, how OVERCROWDED Gaza was? Funny, it's always the Jews who have to move. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that's getting old already. How 'bout Jews live wherever they damn well please?

Atlas, even less diplomatically (as is her style):

What nerve. Tell it to the Gazans. Tell it to the Arabs with all their ginormous land. The nerve on this antisemite.

I wouldn't go so far as to call him an anti-semite, but the comment does betray an immense double-standard that has become quite acceptable even among Israel's friends.

Why is no one telling the Arab world to "move" their Palestinian Arab brethren elsewhere? Why is their claim to a piece of land that they pretty much turned into a wasteland when they lived there more powerful than that of a people who have lived there, died there and cried to return there continuously for 3000 years, and whose entire belief system is in no small part dependent on that land? In Arab history, Palestine was always a subdistrict of Syria (including much of today's Jordan), and Arabs freely moved between all Arab lands, while the Land of Israel was always the only place that Jews are commanded to live - so why do the Jews always have to move?

The reason is that, as always, Jews are regarded as being more "reasonable" and malleable, more open to reason, more likely to compromise. So why bother making a big demand on people who may just turn around and bomb you in response when it is so much easier to ask the more reasonable Israelis to do all the compromising?

Treppenwitz answers the ambassador brilliantly:

Although not specifically stated in the article, such a tour should have caused any reasonably intelligent observer to reach the conclusion that 'natural growth' in and around Israel's capitol city is an internal issue and not something open to international debate. Yet the conclusion that the U.S. Ambassador reached was exactly the opposite; that rather than allow the natural urban sprawl, such as surrounds nearly every major city in the world, Israel - so as not to cause offense - must instead relocate its growing population to unspecified remote locales, rather than build new neighborhoods just down the block.
Well I have a few news flashes for His Excellency, Mr. Jones:

We've done enough moving thankyouverymuch. We've spent the last two millenia moving from one place to another, all the time trying not to give offense to our hosts and neighbors. Yet despite being an industrious, peaceful people that has enriched our hosts far beyond all proportion to our modest numbers, we have been systematically victimized, caged, enslaved, slaughtered, disenfranchised, outlawed and expelled more than any single people in recorded history. And ... though we are (very) occasionally tolerated for short periods of time by progressive people like yourself... these periods of relative quiet are inevitably followed by more victimization.

Lather rinse repeat.

So guess what... now that we've finally managed to regain ownership of the only patch of land to which even your own family Bible gives us undisputed ownership, we're done moving. Go sell your plan elsewhere.

To the east of us is a spanking new country called Jordan that was created out of whole cloth by the British Mandatory power (at our expense). Not only is more than three-quarters of that country's population ethnically 'Palestinian', but there are huge, unused tracts of land east of the Jordan river that nobody is even looking at, much less fighting over. If you feel the burning need to find some suitable contiguous land to offer the poor Palestinians, why not start there?

But wait... I'm not done yet, there's more!

To the west of us is a vast empty chunk of land called the Sinai peninsula that is nominally administered by Egypt, but is for all intents and purposes abandoned. While the interior of Sinai is largely un-arable desert, the long fertile Mediterranean coastline, up to and including the Gaza strip, is nearly unparalleled in potential to provide a crowded, downtrodden people with a spacious (and contiguous) future paradise. Why not try that?

Why is it that you are demanding that Israel eviscerate herself to make room in her soft underbelly for a Palestinian state that will have no natural resources, little potential for development and above all, no chance for contiguity (at least so long as Israel remains stubbornly extant)?

Could it be because you know perfectly well that Jordan and Egypt won't consider having a real or defacto Palestinian terror state stirring up discord and unrest in their midst? Could it be that it is much easier to bully little Israel into slitting open its belly and allowing an openly antagonistic and parasitic entity to metastasize inside her than to ask Jordan or Egypt to tolerate a restive and radical Palestinian entity on their flank?

Read the whole thing.

Saudi Vice, episode 12: Flying sorcerors

It was a busy day for our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

First, they managed to chase a young couple into the path of an oncoming truck.

But there was another, more nefarious evil happening, unbelievably, in the holy Kingdom itself:

Sorcery.

Two Yemenis and a Sudanese man were practicing the black arts in Dhamad, Jizan. They had books and formulas showing how to cast spells, ready to do the most horrible things to innocent Muslims who stumble across their paths.

Luckily, our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice found out about these criminals and arrested them.

As the Saudi Gazette reports:

The three are charged with “malicious activities” to break up marriages and inflict harm on people for money. They reportedly slaughtered black sheep as part of their sorcery rituals.

And once the Muttawa were done with them, the three confessed to these heinous crimes.

The newspaper explains the crime of practicing "malicious magic":

As per Shariah law, Saudi Arabia prohibits sorcery. “Malicious magic” is perceived to have the power to influence the mind, body or possessions and cause disease, sickness in animals, bad luck, sudden death, impotence and other such misfortunes.

Truly, how fortunate the Saudi people are that they have people who put their own manhood at risk in order to save the rest of the Saudi males from magical impotence.

Another stellar day for our heroes, and now Saudi men can sleep better at night knowing that they are safe from black magic.

A young man and woman in Saudi Arabia decided to do the ultimate act of evil: to take a drive together in the man's Toyota Camry.

Of course, a man and woman being alone together - even in a car - is known as "khulwa" as can be punished with many lashes and a prison sentence.

Our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice got tipped off about this flagrant violation of human decency and started to go after the criminals.

The suspects, knowing that the SUV coming after them had the distinctive style of our Muttawa heroes, decided to try to avoid being detained.

Saudi law states that the Muttawa should never engage in a car chase, but should call police to arrest the criminals. Our heroes, though, knew that the police were not as efficient nor as single-minded about stamping out serious crimes like these as the members of the Commission, and it is an insult to think that the Muttawa cannot chase cars as well as any police officer.

On the Madina-Tabuk Road, in the Tabuk area, the chase ended when the Camry rammed head-on into a truck and burst into flames.

The man’s body was totally charred. The woman’s body was ripped into two by the force of the impact. They were too disfigured for immediate identification.

But most importantly, our heroes managed to stop a flagrant act of khulwa, and, especially, any unspeakable acts that might have followed.

Another fine day for our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice!

Saudi marries off his daughter, 15, to a murderer

An unbelievably sick story out of Saudi Arabia, reported impassively by Arab News:

RIYADH, 18 March 2008 — Muhammad Al-Zahrani, a convicted murderer, was executed at the end of February in Taif. Al-Zahrani’s execution, which was postponed for four years, took place after the victims’ family refused to pardon him.
However, what makes Al-Zahrani’s case interesting is that the convicted murderer had married his daughter to another convicted murderer on death row in the same prison, Awad Al-Harbi.
The newly married groom now lives in the hope that he may be saved by the generosity of his victim’s family.
Reaction in society to the prison marriage was mixed. Some saw the father’s decision as a good thing, a way to give a friend and fellow prisoner a second chance in life. Others condemned the step and described it as being unfair to one’s daughter.
The marriage fulfills all legal conditions under Saudi law, according to Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars.
Al-Obaikan said should a woman accept a man on death row after knowing about his situation there is no reason why the marriage should be stopped from happening. When Arab News questioned Al-Obaikan on the girl’s sound judgment considering she is only 15, he said she is considered an adult and therefore eligible to marry.
Al-Obaikan said that a woman could get married and see her husband die soon after, which would be God’s will, and in Al-Awad’s case it would also be God’s will to keep him alive should the victim’s family pardons him.
As for the idea of marriage in Islam being a form of asylum and haven, and whether this condition applies while one of the spouses is in captivity, Al-Obaikan said that if it is a woman’s choice then no one should object.
Ahmad Al-Hariri, a Ph.D. in forensic psychology, said, “In other countries, a 15-year-old is considered a child and cannot be considered an adult until she turns 18.”
He added that even if such a marriage is legal then it is still considered an assault on her humanity and wellbeing.
Al-Hariri said this could not be accepted both socially and psychologically. “After choosing a suitable spouse, starting a family and having children are the natural outcome of marriage and in this case there is no guarantee for such a family to exist and thrive,” said Al-Hariri.
“The overwhelming possibility of the success of this marriage is bleak, and what we see for the future is a widow with orphans,” he added.
“Even if this marriage is legal, it is totally unacceptable on a humanitarian level as it will harm the girl’s interests. Should the Reconciliation Committee’s efforts fail she will loose a husband after having lost her father,” Al-Hariri said.

Even the liberal Saudi expert who is against the marriage doesn't state the obvious - that it is the worst form of child abuse to force your daughter to marry a convicted murderer! And yet, according to Sharia, this is perfectly acceptable.

The New York Times Magazine last Sunday had a lengthy article by Noah Feldman that talks about sharia and how it really isn't so bad, how the West isn't looking at it with enough nuance and how much better it was than English common law - in the 18th century. Perhaps he can defend this action better than the Arab News managed to.

The Shin-Bet starts a blog

The BBC reports:

The Israeli secret service has launched a new venture: it has started to carry an internet diary, or blog, written by four of its agents.
The agents discuss how they were recruited, and what sort of work they perform; they also answer questions sent in by members of the public.
The tone of the blog is chatty, at times even facetious.
The agents from Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, are shown in silhouette.
Agent Chet is the sole woman among them. She works in hi-tech.
She says she went to the agency because it offered her a better "work-life balance" than her previous job in the private sector.
There are parts of her job, she says, which she can't discuss even with her husband - but then again, at home, they don't much like talking about work.
Recruitment drive
Agent Aleph, dubbed "the expert" on the blog, attempts to debunk a few myths.
"We don't work in a basement," he says. "We don't spend the day wearing earpieces."
"And we don't get to have flashing blue lights for our cars. We have to sit in traffic jams like everyone else."
The blogs are intended to draw members of the public into other areas of the Shin Bet website - in particular the recruitment section.
Some of the positions are advertised with a red star and the slogan "hot job".
There is the opportunity to work on what are described as "irregular missions"; to work on one's own; and to acquire a variety of "special skills".
A Shin Bet official told the BBC that the idea was to inform the public that the agency offers work beyond just stopping Palestinian paramilitary attacks.
The official said that the agency had been cheered by the feedback from members of the Israeli public - keen to find out more about the jobs within Shin Bet, the pay and even the food.

The blog can be found here. Unfortunately, it is only in Hebrew.

The Elder breaks a story

Israel Today picked up on a story I did last week, linking to me.

Cool!

Latest Peaceful PalArab Poll

From The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research:

If new presidential elections were to take place today, Mahmud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh would receive almost equal number of votes, 46% for Abbas and 47% for Haniyeh. Haniyeh’s popularity today is the highest ever registered since Hamas’s electoral victory in January 2006.

The gap between the standing of Fateh compared to the standing of Hamas decreases significantly in three months from 18 percentage points to 7. If new parliamentary elections were to take place today, Hamas would receive 35%, Fateh 42%, other electoral lists combined 12%, and 11% remain undecided. This represents a significant increase in Hamas’s popularity compared to December 2007 when it received 31% compared to 49% to Fateh, 10% to other lists and 11% undecided.

49% say Haniyeh should stay in office as Prime Minister while 45% say he should not. Last September only 40% said Haniyeh should stay as prime minister. By contrast, today only 38% say Fayyad’s government should stay in office and 55% say it should not.

One of the elephants in the room is that the West Bank is not nearly as "moderate" as wishful-thinking Secretaries of State might believe. Even in the earlier municipal elections, Hamas beat Fatah in many major West Bank towns, and Fatah's hold seems to be pretty much Ramallah alone.

If the majority of Palestinian Arabs freely support terrorism, how much are they responsible for the actions of the terror government they support?

The Jewish St. Patty's connection

I heard on a TV show yesterday, and a number of websites confirm, that the idea of corned beef and cabbage as an Irish food is a purely American invention, unknown in Ireland.

Apparently, the Irish immigrants who settled in the Lower East Side wanted to make boiled bacon and cabbage, which is the traditional Irish dish. But they had no real choice but to frequent the many kosher butchers and delis that were owned by Jewish immigrants.

Obviously there was no bacon available at these shops, so they substituted corned beef from the kosher delis, and the rest is history.

UK journalist shows her "objectivity"

A reporter named Louisa Waugh from the Sunday Herald managed to get into Gaza to report on the situation there, and she makes it very clear what her stories will be like:

Gaza is being dragged to its knees in the face of shameful silence from the international community, including the EU. I have no doubt that before I leave Gaza in a few weeks, there will be more power cuts, more pointless civilian deaths, and more deafening international silence.

This story doesn't even mention the word "rockets" - except when referring to Israeli rockets. It is as if jackbooted Israel just decided to enslave a population for no reason except, of course, Jewish racism. She admits that she can only speak to people that are being pre-arranged to speak to her - something any real journalist will chafe under - but since she knows that her stories will be in sync with what she is being fed, she can pretend to be brave by parroting Palestinian Arab talking points.

Even so, interesting facts emerge, despite her spin:

One of my PCHR colleagues estimates that only 3000-4000 Gazans are allowed by Israel to travel outside the Strip. This is around 3% of the population; the remaining 97% cannot get travel permits, so cannot go anywhere.

So thousands of Gazans can travel outside and return? That doesn't sound like a "siege" to me.

Waugh does manage in another story to speak to a rocket manufacturer, and she paints him in a very sympathetic light - and gives useful advice to terrorists:

THE POPULAR Resistance Committees is a close ally of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "Abed", a 28-year-old father of two, is one of the PRC's senior artificers, responsible for devising mines and designing and building rockets and mortars. It was with some surprise, therefore, that he started receiving phone calls from an Israeli spy.
"I was home two weeks ago, getting ready for evening prayers, sitting with my wife and child, and suddenly my mobile starting ringing. He said, I'm Rami, I'm from Shabak the Israeli security agency Shin Bet and I'm responsible for your area. What are you doing? I guess you're with your wife and your two children?' I said no, and he said Yes, your two children are with you, but now you've just moved out of the room'. I said, what do you want? He said If you don't stop your rockets it's only a matter of time before you are targeted'."

Anyone who has ever seen a modern spy movie knows what you're supposed to do next: hurl the phone as far as you can and then dive from the building before it or the telephone explodes. Next, go underground, and never use a phone or a computer again. Abed, on the other hand, merely hung up the phone. Half an hour later he was again nonplussed when Rami called back to continue the chat. "He threatened me again that we have our own ways to reach you, but the rockets we will use to assassinate you will be stronger than before.'"

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Other members of the Popular Resistance Committee reported receiving threatening phone calls - an interesting insight into Israel's capacity to use mobile telephone networks to monitor and, in this case, harass its enemies. But the reaction of Abed and his comrades to their calls from Shin Bet illustrates another aspect of the conflict: the remarkable operational naivety which is often displayed by Palestinian militants, even after scores have already been assassinated by Israel.

"After that I realised that when talking on the phone that someone was listening to me," muses Abed.

"I changed the SIM card, but it seems like they were following the sound of my voice, because even after changing the SIM card I could hear someone was listening. My brother borrowed my mobile, and when he was talking to his friend someone else was talking to him on the same line."

It seems that Abed and his fellow militants do not know that when a mobile phone is connected to a network it identifies itself not only by its SIM card but also with the handset's own unique code. To foil detection it is necessary to change both SIM and telephone, not the SIM card alone.

Isn't it interesting that Israel knows where the rocket manufacturers live - and yet they don't kill them outright? Waugh "knows" that "Abed" should have jumped out of the house when the phone rang, because her knowledge of what Israel is likely to do comes from spy movies. But Abed knows quite well that he is safe as long as he is with his family, a fact that escapes Waugh.

She can't even get basic facts right:

Since the present uprising began more than seven years ago around 4000 Palestinian missiles, mostly Qassams and home-made mortars, have been fired into Israel or its former Gaza settlements and military bases, part of a cycle of bombardment, blockade and invasion which has proved far more injurious to Gaza than to Israel.

Actually, the number of Qassams and mortars to the Negev alone is more than double that number.

Such is the quality of UK journalism - advocating for terrorists and providing them with a willing platform.

HH CLVIII

Haveil Havalim- The Almost Purim Edition is up at Jack's Shack. I am honored to have had two postings chosen for this weekly roundup. Check it out!

In honor of it almost being Purim, I will post the probable lyrics to part of an old Saturday Night Live sketch that is seemingly impossible to find online (from season 5):

Listen to the story about a man named Abdul
Poor Bedouin trying to keep his family full
Then one day he was shooting at some Jews
Up from the ground comes a bubbling ooze
Saudi soda
Persian Perrier
Kuwait Kool-aid

Next thing you know old Abdul's a billionaire
Kin folks say "Abdul move away from there"
Said "California is the place to set your lair"
So they got up and they moved to Bel Air
Next to Beverly Hills that is
Swimming Pools
Movie Stars
Jews

The Bel-Airabs!

They had two episodes, one of which made fun of Abscam (remember that?)

Terrorist life insurance

YNet reports:

The family of Muhammad Shahade, the Fatah and Islamic Jihad man killed by the IDF along with three other Palestinians in Bethlehem Wednesday evening, received a phone call from Hassan Nasrallah's office Friday evening, Palestinian sources reported.

Hizbullah representatives reportedly spoke with Shahade's widow and informed her that Nasrallah decided to designate her husband as a Hizbullah martyr, therefore entitling his family to a "martyr allowance."

"We do not alienate ourselves from our people and we will assume the financial burden involved in this," Hizbullah told the widow.

But that's not the only windfall for the Shahade family, who (the YNet article goes on to say) very possibly was the mastermind of the Mercaz HaRav massacre with Hezbullah help. Our moderate friends from the PA is also paying life insurance to the terrorist's family: (from Palestine lPress, autotranslated):

The Minister of National Economy Kamal Hassouneh on Saturday visited the mourning tent Bethlehem Nativity built in the Bethlehem Nativity Plaza. Hassouna said.. that he had issued instructions to the Ministry to direct crews from tomorrow rebuilding the house of martyr Mohammed Shehadeh destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces last month.

So what exactly is the difference between Hizbollah and the PA again?

Even PalArabs believe that Western aid increases corruption

From Ma'an:

Two out of three Palestinians believe that financial assistance from the West fosters corruption and foments the conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

This is one of the findings of a new report by Fafo, the Norwegian research institute that hosted secret talks between the PLO and Israel in Olso 1993 that later led to historic peace negotiations and the inception of limited self-rule in Palestine.

Fafo's researchers interviewed 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, between 22 February and 4 March, about the political and economic situation in the occupied territories. Most of those surveyed to not believe that aid from the West has improved conditions.

According to the study, 63% think the aid encourages corruption and that the aid does little or nothing to fight poverty. 69% percent believe financial support aggravates the conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

One out of five Palestinian households includes a person who wants to leave, 20% to the West. The remaining 80% of those who want to move wish to settle elsewhere in Palestine or in other Arab countries. Only 42% believe they will get the chance to move.

...Just 44% support Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, down from 77% in December 2006.

Poor Arabs, being ruled by apes and pigs

I had missed this lovely speech given by an elected member of the PA parliament, Hamas member Fathi Hammad, on Al-Aqsa TV last January. It just has so much good stuff that it deserves a wider audience:

The wounded men have sacrificed themselves in defense of the honor of the Arab and Islamic nation, and in defense of the holy places. They have sacrificed parts of their bodies in order to stop the advance of the Jews, who want to uproot you. As you know, the Israeli flag has a star between two blue lines. They want to establish the state of Israel between the Euphrates and the Nile. The Jews want to invade Egypt and Iraq, to destroy Saudi Arabia, and to return to Khaybar.

This is a perfect example of Muslim projection. Muslims believe that every land they ever ruled must remain Muslim forever and that they will come back to conquer it. Since Khaybar was once a Jewish province in what is now Saudi Arabia, it is logical that Arabs think that Jews are pining to avenge their loss of that land to Mohammed in 628 - exactly like many Muslims ache to return to Andalusia, Spain.

Where is your valor? Stop being such cowards. The time has come for you to awaken from this deep slumber. The time has come for your honor, dignity, and valor to awaken. Where are you, Muslims? Are you monotheistic, or not? Are you Muslims, or not? Do you love Allah, or not? Do you love the Prophet, or not? As a sign of your love for Allah and the Prophet, you should sweep away the borders, which were created by imperialism.

Notice again that Hamas is consistent in not desiring a Palestinian Arab state but a pan-Islamic 'ummah.

We are in need of weapons, we are in need of food, we are in need of moral support, as well as support by the media, economic support, medical aid, and support in weapons.

Notice the priorities! And it seems he mentioned one of those priorities twice, just to get the point across.

Therefore, oh Arabs, who number 300 million, you cannot allow yourselves to be ruled by four million brothers of apes and pigs. Where is your nobility? Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? Where are you, oh Muslims, who number one and a half billion, yet you are ruled by four million brothers of apes and pigs?

The hilarious part is that he is describing himself as being ruled by the hated, despised and weak Jews, giving the Jews far more real power than they have ever sought themselves.

Where is your manliness? Where is your nobility? You stand there like women and do not lift a finger. What is the meaning of this apathy? What is the meaning of this cowardice? What is the meaning of this fear?[...]Your armies have become like women, who hide and cannot lift a finger. Your armies, tanks, and planes have become rusty.

The consistent posturing of masculinity is also funny. By putting the conflict in terms of manliness, he is admitting that Israel has made the Arabs look like women in comparison. This is of course a major source of their anger - their emasculation by the hated Jews - but for all of their bluster, they themselves admit it unwittingly in speeches like these. By trying to arouse an animal-like instinctive reaction from his listeners, he is actually insulting them and strengthening the case that they are in fact inferior. Rather than frame the fiery speech in terms of how good Arab culture and the Islamic nation are, he instead unwittingly tells his audience that they are failures, lower in the evolutionary scale than apes and pigs.

This is really a great speech. Watch it to see his frothing anger as he accidentally admits that he and his people cannot compete in today's world.

Freedom of the Press, Moderate Palestinian Arab-style

PCHR says:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 12:00 on Wednesday, 12 March 2008, armed members of the PSS, accompanied by 3 officers in civilian clothes, stormed the headquarters of Ramattan Press Agency in al-Wehaidi Building in al-Masyoun neighborhood in Ramallah. They requested Nawaf Ibrahim al-‘Aamer, 48, an editor, to accompany them. However, he asked them to show an arrest warrant, and they showed a warrant issued by the Attorney General’s office allowing entering the headquarters and arresting him. Members of the PSS confiscated all belongings of al-‘Aamer and a computer set. They also broke into the dormitory of the agency’s staff and confiscated all documents in the room where al-‘Aamer lives. They then arrested him.

In his testimony to PCHR, journalist Nawaf al-‘Aamer stated:

They took me in a military vehicle to the headquarters of the PSS in Ramallah. They took my personal data and photographed me. They then moved me to the headquarters of the PSS in Bitounia town. They interrogated me in 6 sessions. They asked me about my e-mail and wanted to have my password. They wanted to check my e-mail claiming that there are materials related to Palestinian security. I refused to open my e-mail without the presence of my director or the President of the Union of Journalists, but they insisted. At approximately 23:00, I agreed to open my e-mail on a private computer. They allowed a relative of mine to come and bring a laptop. I opened my e-mail, and the interrogators downloaded all messages. At approximately 04:00 on Thursday, 13 March 22008, they released me after Ramattan Press Agency and other people had mediated. However, they requested me to come to the headquarters of the PSS at 14:00 to continue the interrogation.”

And Ramattan is not particularly extremist, compared to many other media outlets there.

Tehran graffiti: "Death to Israel"

Picture from an Iranian blogger, who writes:

In Iran, if there is inflation, if teachers’ salary is not paid or if bus drivers protest their low payment, if we don’t have good ties with other countries, if blah blah blah there is only one culprit according to statesmen: International Zionism. Correspondingly, most of the hard-liners view multinational corporations as agents of Zionism and Israel. Adidas, Nestle, Timberland, Benetton, Royal Dutch Shell etc. are supposedly supporters of Israel.

Of course this doesn’t mean that I deny Jewish lobby’s influence (even Shah –the close ally of Israel- defended this theory- and today I was reading an interesting report about the Rothschild family and their unbelievable influence across Western Europe) and I admit that naturally they act against Iran’s interests, but for me ascribing every single blunder to the Zionist lobby is really ridiculous.

Nestle billboard in Baharestan metro stations has become a target for some believers in this doctrine. Again I apologize if my photos don’t enjoy the minimum of quality. Of course Blogger (beside international Zionism ;-) ) are also to be blamed for this.

Clockwise from left: Star of David, Star of David plus a scratch on the billboard, “Death to Israel” slogan, star of David, Nescafe sachet.

PalArabs hoping that Qassams kill more Jews than reported

A telling article in Palestine Today (autotranslated, cleaned up):

The Hebrew media stated that three people were killed in three car accidents on the northern entrance of the Negev desert, claimed assistant police chief Cohen, yesterday, Thursday.

The Hebrew radio said that the public traffic accidents that occurred on the streets of the Jewish state during the last week claimed the lives of ten people, and resulted in serious injuries of nine others.

Palestinians, especially the resistance factions, cast doubt on the validity of whether the large number of deaths in the Jewish state were really due to traffic accidents.

The Al-Quds Brigades, military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, has flattened yesterday, Thursday, raped the towns of the western Negev with 35 rockets and mortar shells, begging the question : Is it true that the dead yesterday were due to accidents or because of resistance rockets ???!!

It's amazing how Freudian these people are.

The word for missile attack is often translated as "rape."

Palestinian Arabs are evidently hoping that they have managed to kill more innocent civilians than they already do, because murdering women and children make them feel more macho. After all, what makes people feel more impotent than shooting dozens of rockets and not managing to kill anybody? To avoid that shame, there must have been Jewish casualties, hiding as "traffic accidents."

And the projection is striking as well, as these same people will inflate their own numbers of dead from Israeli strikes, counting even people they've killed themselves as "martyrs." Fatah's Firas Press even complained today that Haniyeh considers even Gazans who die at home to be "martyrs." Since they lie about their own deaths, they accuse Israel of doing the same.

Exhausted

Going through the Google auto-translation of Arabic news sites, the name "Tzipi Livni" is often translated as "Tsipi Exhausted." And the word seems apt, as the general impression one gets from Israeli policy is that it is one of exhaustion - "we are sick of the war, sick of fighting, sick of terror, sick of constant pushback from the US and the world community, maybe this concession will give us a little bit of breathing room, if only for a little while."

Living in that pressure bubble can only increase irritability and anxiety. It is all the more remarkable that Israel has managed to build such an outstanding society even with all the pressure.

Others have noticed this as well. A comment this morning on a previous article of mine cross-posted on Israellycool states:

Why doesn’t Israel destroy her enemies and live then in peace? You have the means. Have you really decided to commit collective suicide? Have the leftists and the feminists really succeeded in so emasculating the Israeli society that people don’t want to live anymore? You guys used to be the envy of the world. Now people look at Israel like a dying animal with some pity, maybe, but no respect. What’s the matter with you, guys?

Somewhat more articulately, Shrinkwrapped says:

I have to ask: Have the Israeli people become resigned? Have they given up? Where is their outrage? Where is their will to live?

Despair and depression are horrible states. We feel despair when all hope seems lost. When we feel despair in the absence of a hopeless reality, we call if depression.

But what happens to a people when they are told they have no recourse?

What happens to a people when they are told they must continue to live under constant threat of being attacked and killed by Jew hating monsters solely because they are Jewish?

What happens to a people when the adults, the nations that have the ability to either stop the killing and attacks, or enable the Jews to defend themselves, are either actively supporting the genocidal murderers or passively withholding support from Israel?

What happens to a people who understand that there exists no other country in the world that would be expected and counseled to have restraint in the face of daily attacks?

What happens to a people who have a government that professes over and over again an inability to respond effectively?

What happens to a people when the world's press maintains a constant barrage of anti-personal missives and anti-Semitism becomes increasingly mainstream and unobjectionable?

And what happens to a people when they feel like the world just wants them to disappear and go away and has no concern for the lives of Jewish men, women, and children?

Is there a threshold beyond which the entire population surrenders to despair?

I am very fearful for Israel. It is still a democracy. Yet where are the people? Why are they not marching through the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv in the hundreds of thousands, demanding their government do something to stop the reign of terror that they have been told repeatedly is their inevitable lot?

Why are the Israelis not enraged with their own government's fecklessness?

Israel has the power to destroy their enemies many times over. That is a frightening prospect. Their enemies do not believe that the Israelis, civilized in ways that their enemies are not, would ever take the necessary steps to safe guard their people and stop this war. Yet the Israeli government could win this war with methods far short of total war. It is a question of will.

If the Arabs are correct and Israel has lost the will to live, this war can only end with the destruction of Israel and a second Holocaust where they will, as they often boast, finish the job Hitler started. The Palestinians would be only too happy to administer the coup de grace but it will be the Israelis who have committed collective suicide.

Daniel Gordis thinks it is because Zionism has become too disconnected from the Jews it was meant to protect:

When a country's leadership can't express a single coherent thought about why the Jews need a State, when its Prime Minister can articulate no agenda for the Jewish State beyond the hope that it will be "a fun place to live", you know we're bankrupt. You're bankrupt because Bialik and Alterman were too successful. They were part of a movement that so utterly disconnected the Jews from the discourse that had nurtured them for centuries that now, aside from being a marginally Hebrew-speaking version of some benign and characterless country, we can't remember why we wanted this State to begin with. So we don't defend it, because we don't want to hurt their civilians (even though they openly target ours). We don't want to earn the world's opprobrium, because our Prime Minister loves being welcomed in foreign capitals. We don't defend ourselves because we're no longer sure that it's really worth the casualties on our side that preventing these attacks on our sovereignty would require.

Gordis is speaking about the leadership, Shrinkwrapped is speaking about the people, but I think the two are related. The leaders of any people, to a large extent, drive their people's attitudes. When the leadership no longer seems to have pride in its nation, the people will follow. When the leadership can't defend its actions to the world, and then can't assure their own people that they will defend them, the people have a much harder time keeping it together.

The added ingredient that seems to have worn away the Israeli psyche is the pressure from her friends. Both George Bush and Bill Clinton have strong emotional feelings for Israel but that didn't stop them from adding pressure - indeed, their pressure probably outstripped that of Jimmy Carter or the senior Bush.

Moshe Feiglin traces the downhill slide to Yitzchak Shamir's promise to not retaliate in the First Gulf War:

In the First Gulf War, under intense pressure from Israel's Left, Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir reversed two strategic principles that Israel had carefully preserved until then. The first principle was that only Israeli soldiers would be responsible for Israel's security. The second principle was that the attack of Israel's civilian population is completely unacceptable. When Iraqi Scud missiles rained down on Israel's cities, Israel opted to hide behind the broad shoulders of the American and British soldiers, move U.S. Patriot missiles into strategic locations and of course -- to instruct its citizens to cover all windows with sheets of plastic and masking tape.

Prime Minister Shamir enjoyed the support of the media, academia and Left for a time. No Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the mistakes made in that strange war. By the grace of our Father in Heaven, there were very few Israeli fatalities and nobody criticized Shamir's strategic turnabout. ...

I claimed then -- and even more so now -- that Shamir's blunder was even greater than Golda's in the Yom Kippur War. In the Yom Kippur War, Israel did not lose its power of deterrence. But by the end of the First Gulf War, Israel found itself facing new rules. (Just ask Sderot mayor Eli Moyal for an explanation). Israel had entrusted its security to foreign armies and it soon had to pay for its mistake in hard currency.

I think that he makes a good point - Israel's dependence on the US for its security means that the US naturally has more say in how Israel defends itself, and Israel now finds itself in a position of not wanting to say no to its main friend. The result is a kind of split personality where Israeli leaders are forced to justify themselves from within a US-driven framework, one that fundamentally ignores much of the reality that Israelis have to live with.

Although other recipients of Western largess seem to have no problem ignoring US wishes as to how to act, Israel feels morally bound to accommodate its friend.

This is not a friendship - it is a dependency that is not healthy for either party. Israel gave up a lot of its own self esteem when it outsourced its security to US promises, and no matter how sincere they may have been it is up to Israel alone to make her own decisions and to defend herself.

UPDATE: Siggy has an optimistic response to Shrinkwrapped.

The Israelis, like the Americans in the Carter era (and some might argue even now) are suffering a kind of malaise. It is not fatal and indeed, like the Americans, they will not allow themselves to be worn down by the likes of the failed and dysfunctional regimes and broken, bigoted, racist and murderous cultures of the people that are attempting to strangle her.

Read it all.

Today's lying AFP headline

"Muslim leaders open summit with calls to end Mideast violence"

No, they opened the summit denouncing Israeli defensive actions. They didn't say a word against Palestinian Arab terror attacks or rocket attacks against civilians.

AFP continues in its long tradition of tilting towards terror.

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.