Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Lotsa links

EU Vice President goes to Nablus, blames everything on Israel at Ma'an
Arab-American activist says Obama hiding his pro-Palestinian Arab views at Arutz-7
One minute with the candidates at Fresno Zionism
Stop Jean Ziegler from joining the UN Human Rights Council at UN Watch
Join the Facebook Zionism page
US Aid for Terror at FrontPage
Al-Jazeera pretense of objectivity at Harry's Place (h/t Shylocke)
Your Tax Dollars at Work in Gaza by Jonathan Tobin
Palestinians vs Tibetans by Dennis Prager

Saudi Arabia's hatred for Palestinian Arabs

I have previously pointed out that, even though Saudi Arabia is awash with hundreds of billions of dollars in cash from oil revenues, the amount that it gives Palestinian Arabs is tiny compared to what the West gives. It spends far more in Western investments than it does in its Palestinian Arab brethren.

Meanwhile, it has built a huge welfare state at home, where Saudis grow up with free education, healthcare - and an incredible aversion to manual labor. The result is that Saudi Arabia has some seven million foreign workers in a total population of 27 million - roughly one quarter of all residents. Roughly 12% of Saudi nationals are unemployed, nearly a half-million, compared to essentially no unemployed foreign workers. Roughly a half million Saudi workers are Palestinian Arabs.

The unemployed Saudis are ripe pickings for radical Islam; as they enjoy a cushion of benefits and rewards for laziness. And the people who do real work are penalized, even after living there for generations.

An interesting illustration of how Saudi Arabia treats its Palestinian Arab residents can be seen in this lawsuit for US asylum submitted by a Palestinian Arab in 2003:

The IJ [immigration judge] recognized, based on Ahmed’s testimony, that Palestinians in Saudi Arabia are relegated to officially sanctioned second-class status incorporated into the legal and social structure of Saudi Arabia. Ahmed sought to portray this treatment as persecution providing grounds for asylum. He testified that although his parents have lived in Saudi Arabia for 50 years and Ahmed was born in the country, neither he nor his parents have been able to obtain Saudi citizenship because Saudi Arabia reserves citizenship for people of Saudi descent. To remain in the country, Palestinians must renew their residence permits every two years for a fee of 2,000 Riyals (about $530). Palestinians must also be "sponsored" by a Saudi Arabian citizen to own real property, work, or own a business. To illustrate the harsh effects of this requirement, Ahmed related that his father had successfully operated and expanded a grocery store for 15 years, only to see his Saudi sponsor - the de jure owner of the store - take the business away once it became profitable. Each time a Palestinian wishes to change jobs, he must change sponsors for a fee of 6,000 Riyals (about $1,600).

Ahmed testified about his experience while growing up in Saudi Arabia. He was barred from certain activities during high school and initially was not allowed to attend a university because he was an alien. Although he was able to gain admission to King Saud University in Riyadh because of his talent for soccer and the connections of a family friend, he was forced to study political and administrative science at the university because aliens could not choose their own topic of study. After graduating from the university and searching for a job for more than a year, Ahmed was hired in 1993 to sell cars. He testified that he was paid one-third as much as his Saudi counterparts and had to work significantly longer hours.

(The application for asylum was thrown out because although the US judge recognized that he was discriminated against, it didn't rise to the level of "persecution.")

We see that Saudi Arabia coddles its lazy natives and heavily penalizes the real workers, the backbone of its society. In fact, Saudi Arabia literally gives land away free for native Saudis - every Saudi is entitled to a free plot of land and an $80,000 interest-free loan to build a house - a benefit that has been there for twenty years, when oil was closer to $30 a barrel.

Imagine how much benefit Saudi society would reap if it invited Palestinian Arabs to become citizens? Its unemployment rate would plummet, its standard of living would rise, it would not be so dependent on workers from Africa and the Far East, and it would actually do something concrete to help Palestinian Arabs.

Of course, it has no real desire to do that. Like other Arab countries, the Kingdom wants to keep their Palestinian brethren in squalor, and most importantly to keep them angry.

Because their entire purpose, by Arab sights, is to hurt Israel.

Fisk: Bush responsible for suicide bombers in Iraq

In an otherwise interesting article about suicide bombers, Robert Fisk throws in - twice - who he blames for Muslims blowing up thousand of innocent Muslims in Iraq: George Bush.

..But a month-long investigation by The Independent, culling four Arabic-language newspapers, official Iraqi statistics, two Beirut news agencies and Western reports, shows that an incredible 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq. This is a very conservative figure and - given the propensity of the authorities (and of journalists) to report only those suicide bombings that kill dozens of people - the true estimate may be double this number. On several days, six - even nine - suicide bombers have exploded themselves in Iraq in a display of almost Wal-Mart availability. If life in Iraq is cheap, death is cheaper.This is perhaps the most frightening and ghoulish legacy of George Bush's invasion of Iraq five years ago. Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed at least 13,000 men, women and children - our most conservative estimate gives a total figure of 13,132 - and wounded a minimum of 16,112 people.

...One of George Bush's most insidious legacies in Iraq thus remains its most mysterious; the marriage of nationalism and spiritual ferocity, the birth of an unprecedentedly huge army of Muslims inspired by the idea of death.

While Fisk is suitably horrified at the phenomenon of suicide terror, it never occurs to him to blame the culture that glorifies death and martyrdom for the phenomenon. No, like all the other evils of the world, it must be because of George Bush.

Sderot still getting attacked. Just so you know.

An interesting pattern emerges as one looks at the daily Qassam totals.

Israel drastically reduced its operations in Gaza around March 6 and a tacit agreement seemed to take hold where both sides would observe a "calm." But Islamic Jihad, in the beginning, religiously fired 1 rocket per day at Israel, as well as the usual round of mortars at the crossings where humanitarian aid crosses into Gaza.

This pattern remained until Israel killed four terrorists in Bethlehem, which the Gazans considered a violation of the nonexistent truce and they shot dozens of rockets over a couple of days. Israel stuck by its calm.

Now, the number of rockets being shot is slowly being ramped up again - today there were 4.

This is almost exactly what happened during the "calm" announced in November 2006. Israel stopped all attacks in Gaza, but the rockets kept coming, a couple a day, slowly increasing over time until Israel finally resumed its policy of attacking rocket launching cells - after four months of constantly rising attacks.

Meanwhile, residents of Sderot are learning once again that their lives are worthless according to the current government of Israel. When Ashkelon gets attacked with a couple of Grads, Israel goes on the offensive; but the daily Qassams to Sderot are considered, now as then, to be a price Israel is willing to pay.

All while Hamas continues to smuggle in more rocket components and explosives.

Just like before.

US laser system flunks anti-Qassam test

From Strategy Page:

Despite legal, political and media pressure, Israel has rejected the use of lasers to protect its citizens from Palestinian missiles. This is mainly because of a test of the Skyguard system in the United States (at the White Sands Missile Range), which resulted in only 22 percent of the 36 rockets fired being detected and shot down.
The laser defense system in question has been around for over a decade, and was initially called THEL (Tactical High Energy Laser). Israel dropped out of the THEL project because of the expense of developing the system to the point where it would be ready for regular service. The American partner in THEL development is now offering a smaller version of THEL, called Skyguard, for protecting commercial aircraft from portable anti-aircraft missiles. The manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, originally developed THEL for combat situations. Tests two years ago showed THEL was able to knock down barrages of incoming mortar shells.

On paper, THEL (or SkyGuard, or the new name, Nautilus), looks good. The THEL laser and radar system was designed to track up to sixty targets (mortar and artillery shells, rockets) at a time and fire on and destroy these projectiles at a range of up to five kilometers. THEL can destroy about a dozen targets a minute, at a cost of some $3,000 per shot. Each THEL system (radar and laser) could thus cover about ten kilometers of border. The Skyguard version has a range of up to eight kilometers, uses improved software and can more easily link to other radar systems to obtain targeting information. Skyguard is designed mainly for knocking down portable anti-aircraft missiles fired near airports, at aircraft that are landing or taking off.

Last year, Northrop Grumman said that it could have a laser anti-rocket system ready in 18 months, at a development cost of $400 million. Each anti-rocket system would cost about $50 million, and one or two could protect against missiles from Gaza. Thus the total bill for just developing, building and installing the systems is about a billion dollars.

Israel would like the U.S. to help with the costs, for such a system could be useful in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Israel already gets over $2 billion a year in military aid, and the new Skyguard systems could come out of that. The Israeli artillery brass were making the argument that money spent on THEL would provide more benefit that billions spent on new jet fighters.

It took nine years, and over a half a billion dollars, for American and Israeli engineers to get as far as they did (one working prototype system) with THEL. Aside from the systems size and cost, there's also the problem of lasers being weakened by clouds, fog, mist or even artificial smoke. For that reason, there's not a lot of enthusiasm for proceeding right now on such a bulky and expensive system for use against small rockets. But by the end of the decade, a smaller, and cheaper, version will be more attractive, and more likely to be purchased. The Israeli lawsuit is all about getting THEL/SkyGuard/Natilus in service ASAP, no matter what.

The reality is that THEL is a bulky system, and not really mobile. Each system requires half a dozen or more large tractor trailer trucks to carry the radar, fuel supplies and laser. A proposed new version, the MTHEL (Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser) was designed (using three tractor-trailers) and tested. Engineers believe that MTHEL could be ready for battlefield use in about six years, at a cost of another billion dollars. In another few years, engineers believe they could create a MTHEL that could fit in a hummer.

But the development costs of THEL and MTHEL were so high, that both the American and Israeli governments pulled their support two years ago. The manufacturer put some of their own money into the project and came up with Skyguard. The pitch is that Skyguard would be cheaper than equipping thousands of aircraft with individual anti-missile systems. But first, THEL has to prove that it is reliable enough to stay on-line 24/7 (or nearly so), and act effectively if there is ever an attack. No one has yet tried using these missiles in the United States, but it has happened elsewhere, especially in Africa. There is not enough fear of such attacks in the U.S. to get SkyGuard funded, and purchased.

The first Skyguard system would cost about $150 million, with subsequent ones costing about 70 percent less. Skyguard will also be able to handle rockets, artillery projectiles, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles. In other words, if you had a billion dollars to spare, you might be able to get a Skyguard system to defend Israel from rockets fired from Lebanon or Gaza. Maybe. THEL is another example of technology that got out of the lab before it was ready to survive in the wild. What the Northrop engineers are saying is, "give us another billion bucks and a few years, and we'll have it working effectively." That is a pitch heard all too often in the Pentagon, and more often than not, the outcome is not good. Laser anti-aircraft systems are one of those weapons that can accurately be described as "the weapon of the future, and always will be."

Sixty years ago: Lovable loser

From Time, March 15, 1948 (and quoted in the March 24, 1948 Palestine Post):

In Damascus last week, two Chevrolet pickup trucks and two black sedans pulled up before a plaster and stone bungalow. Arab soldiers piled in bedrolls, crates, map rolls. Then a redhaired, blue-eyed man, who looked more German than Arab,* climbed into one of the sedans. The convoy filed out of Damascus, swung southward into Palestine. The Teutonic-looking man borrowed a phrase from General Douglas MacArthur. Said he: "I have returned." Ahead of Fawzi Bey Kawukji had come some 10,000 Arab volunteers. About one thousand more are entering each week. The Arab "rescue" of Palestine had begun.
Although Fawzi Bey, once an officer in the Turkish army, was born in Lebanon 53 years ago, he was no stranger to Palestine. There he got some of the 80-odd wounds which still sometimes make his popeyes water with pain. He had spent a lifetime fighting for Arab independence against the British and French. Now he was returning to Palestine to command the northern sector in the fight against Zionism.
Fawzi Bey had yet to prove that he could capably command a force of many thousands. So far his battles had ended in defeats: by the French in Syria, by the British in Palestine, and in Iraq (where he fought with Nazi help) during World War II. A British plane strafed, and almost killed him, in Iraq. He went to Germany to recuperate. There he helped stir up the Arab world against the British, married a German girl (his third wife), was held by the conquering Russians until February 1947.
Whatever the doubts of his military ability, there was no doubt about the magic of his name among Arabs. ...Every peasant and Bedouin knows his name. He likes to dress dramatically, to fit his dramatic legend. His favorite garments: a fleece-lined flying jacket, or long sheep-lined cape draped over his shoulders. After his escape from France last year (TIME, March 10, 1947), crowds often appeared before the Orient Palace Hotel in Damascus, and clamored to see him. He began every speech with the words: "I am not a man of words; I am a man of action." The crowd loved it.
Last week, after Fawzi Bey had moved to Palestine, one Syrian said: "Arab history is repeating itself. In the Crusades, Saladin had to free Jerusalem from the infidels. Today Fawzi Bey is our Saladin."
^{* Other blond Arab leaders: Haj Amin el Husseini, ex-Mufti of Jerusalem; Hussein Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee: Sheik Hassan Salameh, Arab commander in the Jaffa sector of Palestine.}

Hamas terror trial to start today - in Jordan

Some Arab countries realize the danger from Hamas much more than many Europeans. From Palestine Today (Arabic):

Scheduled by the Jordanian State Security Court on Monday, the trial of five members of the "Hamas" movement on charges of "obtaining confidential information needed to ensure the security of the state, and possession of a firearm without legal authorization."

Jordan accuses the five members of the "recruitment of many elements on the Jordanian arena to work for the movement, and monitoring and photographing sensitive sites and whose disclosure endangers the safety and security of the Kingdom, in addition to monitoring the Israeli embassy in Amman and warehouses of the American commercial interests (C Town)," according to the indictment.

The defendants are fixed Ahmed Abdallah Aboualhaj, Salim Salim Mahmoud Alihusani, Azzam Ahmed Jaber Helmi, Mohamed Hassan Khojah spring, and demanded Hassan Saleh Abdallah.

The indictment alleges that "all the accused members of the" Hamas "movement, received extensive training in neighboring States in security and detection tracking and resisting the investigation and the security of communications."

It added that the list was subsequently "mandated by the accused Hamas members residing in the State to work on the Jordanian arena and on the two axes, the first recruit elements on the Jordanian arena to work for the movement, and the second monitor and photograph sensitive sites whose disclosure endangers the safety and security of the Kingdom of danger by the video camera and other ordinary and by location (Google Earth) on the Internet and to monitor the Israeli Embassy in Amman and American commercial stores. "

MSM whitewashes Zawahiri Jew-hatred

The knee-jerk desire to not admit that there are Arabs who hate all Jews is almost comical.

From AP:

al-Qaida No. 2 Says Attack Israel, US

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri is calling on Muslims to strike Israeli and American interests to avenge Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to a new audiotape.
In the 4-minute tape, posted on a Web site Monday, al-Zawahri accuses Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of helping Israel in its offensive by sealing off the border between Egypt and Gaza.
He calls on Muslims to "strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all of those who participated in the attack on the Muslims," and says attacks should not be limited to areas in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

AFP's headline also emphasizes Israel but at least it gets it right in the first paragraph:

Al-Qaeda number two calls for strikes against US, Israel

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2008 (AFP) — The second-ranking leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, called for new strikes against Jewish and American interests in a new radio address monitored here.

"Muslims, today is your day. Strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all of those who participated in the attack on the Muslims," Zawahiri said in an audio speech issued by Al-Qaeda's As-Sahab information network on Sunday and monitored here by SITE Intelligence Group.

Zawahiri urged the faithful to "monitor the targets, collect the money, bring the equipment, plan accurately, and then -- while depending on Allah -- storm, seeking martyrdom and paradise."

..."Let us strike their interests everywhere, just like they gathered against us from everywhere," Zawahiri said. "Let it be known to them that they will get blood for every dollar they spend in the killing of the Muslims, and for every bullet they fire against us, a volcano will turn back on them."

He insisted that Israeli warplanes were bombing people in Gaza "based on the American decision, the Egyptian siege, and Arab collusion."

"They will never be able to insult and make a mockery out of our Prophet, peace and prayers of Allah upon him," Zawahiri went on to conclude. "They cannot expect to support Israel, then live in peace and enjoyment while the Jews are killing our fugitive and surrounded people."

Reuters' latest version also chooses to downplay his remarks about Jews:

Zawahri urges anti-Israel attacks over Gaza

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called for attacks on Israeli and Western targets to avenge Israel's raids on the Gaza Strip, in an audio tape posted on the Internet on Monday.
"O Muslims. Today is your day. Hit the interest of the Jews and the Americans and all those who participated in the aggression against Muslims," said the speaker on the tape who sounded like Zawahri.

"Monitor the targets, collect the money, prepare the hardware, plan accurately and then attack," he added, without specifically naming any targets. "No one can say today that we should fight the Jews in Palestine only."

The cognitive dissonance that much of the media has is amazing. Even when the terrorists say explicitly that they want to attack Jews worldwide - and even when they do! - the MSM often wants to place it in purely political terms.

To too many journalists, political opposition makes sense, while pure bigotry does not. Since bigotry is so abhorrent, so is the accusation of bigotry. So even when we have Al-Qaeda, responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, saying purely bigoted statements - the "enlightened" reporters just cannot believe their ears, and cognitive dissonance creeps in to replace straight facts.

Most Palestinian Arab supporters play this game according to MSM rules and are careful in English to ensure that they do not say anything anti-Jewish - they relegate that talk to the madrassas and mosques. And the reporters are more than happy to go along with that charade. But here, we see that even when Arabs publicly announce their bigotry, the natural reaction of at least some in the media is to whitewash it.

Apple detente

Palestine Today mentioned that on Sunday, Israel allowed the export of 700 tons of apples grown by Golani Druze - to Syria.

A little further research brought a fascinating recent Ya Libnan (Lebanon) article that says that the annual trade in apples between Israel and Syria is much higher than that:

The economic position of Golan Druse is far better than that of their coreligionists and relations in neighboring Syrian-controlled villages. Druse horticulturalists have been permitted to export 11,000 tons of apples to Syria per annum since 2005 - the only existing economic relationship between the two countries.

The entire Ya Libnan article is worth reading as it goes into the complexity of the issues facing the mostly Druze residents of the Golan who have divided loyalties between Syria and Israel.

But the apple trade was news to me.

Gallup spinning numbers of radical Muslims

Gallup polled some 50,000 Muslims over a six year period to see how Muslims think, and they will be releasing their results in a book. Ahead of publication they are putting out weekly press releases with some statistics. But based on the press releases, we can already see that they will be spinning the numbers to minimize Islamic radicalism.

Look how deceptive this release is:

Understanding extremists and the nature of extremism requires a global perspective that extends beyond conflicting opinions of experts or anecdotes from the "Arab street." What do Muslims polled across the world have to say? How many Muslims hold extremist views? What are their hopes and fears? What are their priorities? What do they admire, and what do they resent?
According to the Gallup Poll, 7% of respondents think that the 9/11 attacks were "completely" justified and view the United States unfavorably. Among those who believe that the 9/11 attacks were not justified, whom we'll call "moderates," 40% are pro-United States, but 60% view the United States unfavorably.

Analyzing and comparing the answers of the 7% with the moderate majority produced some surprising results. By focusing on the 7%, whom we'll call "the politically radicalized" because of their radical political orientation, we are not saying that all in this group commit acts of violence. However, those with extremist views are a potential source for recruitment or support for terrorist groups. This group is also so committed to changing political conditions that they are more likely to view other civilian attacks as justifiable: 13% of the politically radicalized versus 1% of moderates say that attacks on civilians are "completely justified."

Firstly, notice that they only give numbers for those who call 9/11 "completely justified" and they do not let us know the numbers who consider it "partially justified". They say that the "moderates" are a majority but is this a significant majority, a tiny majority or a plurality? By only giving the 7% number they are trying hard to imply a large difference which may not exist.

Notice also their choice of nomenclature: those who are pro-terror are merely "politically radicalized" while those who were against it - but perhaps support blowing up Jews - are "moderates." The word choice indicates that moderation is normal and expected, but extremism doesn't exist - it is just a learned behavior. This is a huge bias.

The press release also doesn't bother to explain the glaring contradiction that only 13% of those who already declared support for 9/11 claim that all civilian attacks are justifiable. Perhaps the question was stated in a way where Muslim civilians were implied?

Finally, as they try hard to make it appear that "only" 7% of Muslims worldwide support terror and hiding numbers that may indicate otherwise, they don't bother to run the calculation: assuming a conservative number of 1.2 billion Muslims, this means that "only" 84 million are extremist terror supporters that want to see, say, all Americans dead.

One can only imagine how the book will try to bury the real numbers that are so inconvenient to mention in the press release.

British jihadist preacher caught on tape

From News of the World (UK):

A FANATICAL preacher of hate has been recorded urging impressionable young British Muslims to go to WAR against our troops.

Watch hate preacher on video

Yet, sickeningly, crazed cleric Anjem Choudary and his wife rake in more than £25,000 a year in welfare BENEFITS—while he plots to destroy British society.
Now Choudary —who once called for the Pope to be executed and described the September 11 hijackers as "magnificent martyrs" — could face arrest under anti-terror laws for his evil ranting on the tape, which was passed to the News of the World.
After hearing his latest inflammatory remarks, terror experts asked: "What more does this man need to do before he is locked up?"

Choudary, 41, was taped lecturing a secret meeting in west London earlier this month. On it he urges his Islamic followers to persuade would-be terrorists to sign up for killing campaigns.
The bearded mullah describes non-Muslims as "the enemy" and tells his sympathisers they should brainwash at least TEN Britons a month into becoming al-Qaeda supporters.
He also urges his clan to preach that:
FIGHTING jihad against Western society is an obligation.
BRITISH Muslims should travel abroad to fight our troops.
TERRORIST wannabes should "put fear into the hearts" of non-Muslims in the UK and spread al-Qaeda messages.
Choudray's lecture tour was launched with the aim of teaching Islamic extremist recruiting teams how to win new members and brainwash them into backing the mass-murdering terror group.
His speech was made days before Osama bin Laden's new video message warning Britain will soon be hit by new attacks.
Choudary says: "Even in the jihad you can see people carrying the dawah \ and inviting to Islam. The latest video from Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri \ was dawah, at the end of the day.
"Dawah and, obviously, putting fear into their hearts to say, look, no matter how many people you send in your army, it will not make a difference. We have enough land to bury the whole lot of them."
Choudary then claims that, by sheer weight of numbers, radicalised Muslims can make anti-terror laws obsolete. He brags: "So, your job is to create propaganda, our role here in Britain is vital.
"We undermine them, we undermine their ideology, we break their back." He adds: "If we carry on en masse, commanding good and forbidding evil, we say you and your laws can go to hell."
Choudary reminds his fanatical followers: "Remember, our ultimate objective, apart from pleasing Allah, is domination of the sharia \ all over the world."
When we spoke to Choudary he refused to discuss our recording but admitted he WAS on a recruitment drive.
He ranted: "I would like to recruit enough to turn the whole country into an Islamic state within a month...by tomorrow.
"You can put that down. I'm trying to recruit 5,000 a week."

Tunnel collapse!

Another dead Palestinian Arab terrorist, this one from a tunnel collapse on the Egypt/Gaza border:

The body of a 29-year Palestinian was pulled out from a collapsed smuggling tunnel between Gaza and Egypt on Saturday, hospital officials said.
Trapping Under the Rubble

Five diggers were in the tunnel when it collapsed Friday. Four were rescued with serious injuries, and the body of the fifth, a 29-year-old man, was retrieved Saturday, hospital officials said.

The tunnel had been shut down several days earlier by Egyptian security officials, and the diggers had returned to try to reopen it.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 45.

In other Peaceful PalArab news, a rocket that was meant to kill Jews landed in Beit Hanoun, Gaza causing a "powerful explosion."

And PA police officers got into a gunfight with "gunmen" yet somehow 4 civilians were injured, one seriously.

Recent keywords - how people find me

It is always fun to see what people type into search engines to find this blog. Today, predictably, there are a lot of Purim-related searches, but as always there are some that are funny and some that are slightly scary:

purim torah
isaac newton jew
arab death video
arabs news paper
dubai carpool
coptic tv
iran's sahar 1 tv is currently airing a weekly series that premiered on december 13 called zahra's blue ey
arabs porn (always a popular search term)
flowers shaped like stars (an oldie but a goodie)
ali al-quradaghi
beauty contest israeli winner
israel, purim, photographs, children, costumes,
picture of purim costume
homemade rockets
photos of the crown prince of bahrain
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arab porn
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translation ??
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photos of poor
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gaza sderot blog, israel insider
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examples of bias in textbooks
holocaust denial video
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second jewish temple artifacts pictures
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A PalArab death I missed from February

PHRMG's list of Palestinian Arabs killed by internal gunfire, while far from complete, adds one murder I missed in early Febraury:

Jaser Hussein Abu Jarghoun, 28, Khan Yunis, Feb 1, Killed by shooting from unknown gunmen.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 44.

Megillah trivia question of the day

How many parties are mentioned in the Megillah?

Egypt likes Israeli "occupation" of Gaza

Yesterday:

Palestinian and Israeli sources said yesterday Israeli and Egyptian representatives agreed in principle to a deal that would replace Israel with Egypt as the Gaza Strip’s sole electricity provider.
Under the deal, Egypt would set up a new power line from the Sinai Peninsula town of Arish to the nearby Gaza Strip. The 150-megawatt line would cost $35 million and be operational within two years.
Egypt currently provides the Gaza Strip with only 7 megawatts of power, while Israel provides 124 megawatts through 10 different lines. A local power station produces the remainder.
Omar Kittaneh, chairman of Palestinian Energy Committee, who is in charge of the project on the Palestinian side, said the Egyptian plan would be funded by the Islamic Development Bank. According to Kittaneh, tenders will be floated in the next few days.

But, as Palestinian Press Agency reported later, Egypt denied any such deal (autotranslated):

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry denied news media reports today that Egypt accepted assumed responsibility to provide electricity to the Gaza Strip.

Why would Egypt prefer that the poor, cold, starving Palestinian Arabs in Gaza remain in a situation where they do not have a reliable electricity supply?

It must be that, even though Israel is not legally occupying Gaza, Egypt prefers that fiction - and its resultant consequences to Gaza residents - to actually helping their fellow Arab "brethren."

See also:
Gaza and International Law
PalArabs try to have it both ways in Gaza
Egypt's violent reaction to idea of expanding Gaza into Sinai

Work accident of the day

From AFP:

A Hamas activist was killed and two other members of the Islamist movement were wounded in an accidental explosion at a training camp in Gaza, the second such incident in as many days, medics said.
Wael Hammudeh, 30, was killed in the explosion in a camp of the armed wing of Hamas in southern Gaza, medics and witnesses said.

Isn't it amazing that the number of Gazans who are known to be killed in such a manner increase dramatically when Israel isn't bombing Gaza?

Just more evidence that Hamas was moving the bodies of those that died by other means in places that Israel was attacking so as to inflate the "martyr" count.

Ma'an is still reporting yesterday's work-accident as an Israeli air raid, after even Hamas backtracked, showing that "Palestinian Arab journalism" is an oxymoron.

Meanwhile, a Hebron man was murdered as well at his gas station, bringing the 2008 PalArab self-death count to 43.

IBD notices the terror poll

From Investor's Business Daily:

Hate That Dares Not Speak Its Name

The Mideast: When a poll reveals all but a fraction of Palestinians support the murder of eight innocent Jewish seminarians, it shows a people wedded to evil. It's a short trip from this hate to the kind Hitler espoused.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a professional and independent polling agency that surveys Palestinians four times a year, has found that no less than 84% of 1,270 Palestinians questioned by the center in personal interviews said they supported the March 6 shooting inside Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav yeshiva.

The slaughter was carried out by East Jerusalem resident Alaa Abu Dheim, who was himself eventually killed during his attack. All but one of the eight he killed were teens, two of them only 15 years old. Another 11 were wounded.

Pollster Khalil Shikaki was understandably shocked at the results, which also found 75% support for scrapping Israeli-Palestinian talks and 64% support for the Hamas terrorist group's thousands of recent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli towns.

Asked for their preferences for president of the Palestinian Authority, 47% chose Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas while 46% chose their current "moderate" president, Mahmoud Abbas.

But the chilling significance of the poll numbers goes beyond media commentaries about them reflecting "increased tensions." Imagine if more than 80% of some sector of the American public supported an Oklahoma City-like terrorist attack carried out on our soil. It would be viewed as a breakdown of civilization.

And consider the fact that such a large proportion of Palestinians approve of slaughtering of victims who not only were civilians and religious students, but minors. A true slaughtering of the innocents.

The message we get from this is very clear: The vast majority of Palestinians advocate such acts of terrorism against young innocents because the victims were Jews.

Their version of the Final Solution may not entail gas chambers and concentration camps, as Germany's National Socialists did in the last century. But it does apparently include murdering, at random, Jews because they are Jews.

Read it all.

The classic of the Purim Torah genre

One of the best recent additions to the ever-growing canon of Purim Torah - far better than my original contribution this year - was written in 2000 by Immanuel Burton. It is a hilarious piece of scholarship.

The author writes:

In each and every year on the twenty-fifth day of December the Nazarine world celebrates Choggoh, which is the festival of the birth [Christmas], and many people who are not Nazarines also celebrate then. And there are many customs which people follow during Choggoh. Even though Choggoh is not a Jewish festival, the author wondered in his heart to work out and to know how the Mishnah would appear were this the case, and so the author therefore gathered the customs and other matters which celebrants of Choggoh are accustomed to in this pamphlet. The student has to realise that this pamphlet is presented in the style of "Purim Torah". However, the author has left it as an exercise to the student to find in the writings of the true Torah the sources of phrases and conjectures found in the pamphlet, and by this the student will be amused on Purim and will merit to study Torah at the same time. Anyone who does not consider a matter of jesting such as this an amusing matter - it is appropriate that he stop immediately.

Here's the first page of his Mishnah Choggoh - the Halachos of Christmas:

A rough translation of the part of the first two lines, with the commentary in parentheses:

The tree (Christmas tree) that is taller than twenty cubits: in the house, it is invalid (because people don't look up higher than twenty cubits and therefore the decoration at the top of the tree isn't visible) but in the marketplace it is permitted (it does not say it is kosher because [the outdoor tree] is not part of the day's obligations, but is only used to publicize [the holiday]. From here on the mishnah will only refer to the house-tree.) If [the tree] is not three hands-breadths high it is invalid (for it lacks importance.) Rabbi Noel allows a bonsai tree (even if it is less than three hands-breadths [high] because this is the way that it grows and it has importance...) but the Sages (there are three Sages) forbid it (for the tree must be able to be decorated and have presents [fitting] underneath.)

It is well worth the download.

UPDATE: For those who don't understand Hebrew, a similar project in English is shown here.
There are many contradictions between the two, which will need to be resolved by someone greater than I.

Some "fast" links

Conspiracy theories and victimization at Shrinkwrapped

Russian blood libel: Jews use children's blood for matzot at YNet

Half shekel found in Jerusalem at JPost

"Meet the world's most incompetent ethnic cleansers" by Evelyn Gordon

Laugh with Firas!

Here are what I believe are four autotranslated jokes from the Arabic Firas website.

Humor doesn't translate well:

in one jar was pregnant and gas guy on the stairs Chavth his words: Just

She said if: God opened Man ...

-

-- Unit once said to her husband? You what Coltli word Zlzaaaaaaaaaaal concern about me ...
-

3 pupils once they were late on the first portion, and when he arrived the school said they tagged you Kintua Fein?
I said I lost my seal my blog, and the second said I play him, asked third and you go?
I Daes concern about it !!...

-- Entered a doctor in a hospital psychiatric patients in the room and told them anything Kalfshar jumping all patients except one.

Asking the doctor: Why did you jump

He answered saying: I am stuck at the bottom Tngerh
-
-- One mother was killed in the section Zabott Pisalh name any?

.... Told him: Write the best actor ....
I do not like pride

However, they did have one joke I recognized, that would be considered Islamophobic if any non-Muslim would say it (I'm paraphrasing):

George Bush and Tony Blair go out to eat lunch and then they hold a press conference.

One journalist asked them, "What did you speak about during your meeting?"

Bush replied, "We decided to kill 20 million Muslims and one surgeon."

The journalists were perplexed, and finally one asked, "Why do you want to kill one surgeon?"

Bush laughed and turned to Blair: "See, I told you no one would be interested if we killed 20 million Muslims!"

-----------
Many of the commenters didn't seem to get it.

Orgy of anti-semitic cartoons in Arab media lately

The ADL has compiled a list of blatant anti-semitic cartoons from the Arab world in the wake of Reuters' mistranslating Matan Vilnai as threatening a "holocaust."

While the "Zionism=Nazi" imagery is nothing new in the Arab press, they have turned it way up recently, as the ADL report shows.

Of course, Palestinian Arabs don't have to look far for their own, very real, historic connections to Nazis. Nazis wooed Islamists to get them on their side, Nazis armed Arab terrorists in Palestine before World War II, Nazis tried, semi-successfully, to work with them during WWII, the biggest Palestinian Arab leader helped in the genocide of Jews, Arabs drafted Nazis to help fight Jews after WWII, today's Palestinian "moderates" consciously imitate Nazi symbolism, and even today neo-Nazis explicitly support Islamic terror against Israel.

My First Rule of Arab Projection is alive and well.

(h/t Suzanne)

Work accident!

YNet reports:

Palestinian security officials reported Thursday of an explosion at a beachfront facility of the militant Hamas organization. According to an initial report, two people were killed in the incident and one was injured.
Palestinians claimed that the facility was attacked by the IDF, but the Israeli army denied striking in the area.

Palestine Today (Arabic) describes it as a "mysterious explosion" which, ironically, leaves no doubt as to its source.

Ma'an Arabic, which used to be a reasonable source of accurate news, continued its slide towards Hamas propaganda by claiming it was an Israeli airstrike and declaring the dead terrorists "martyrs." Palestine Press Agency reported it more accurately.

The known 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 40.

UPDATE: Tunnel collapse!

A young Palestinian man was killed on Thursday when a tunnel collapsed on top of him in the As-Salam neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.

According to the sources, 23-year-old Ashraf Ataya was dead on arrival at Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Medical checks revealed the man suffocated under the debris when the tunnel collapsed.

41.

The very latest Purim costume in Sderot

You gotta hand it to the kids to be mentally stable enough to joke about the daily threats to their lives.

Of course, AP shows its deep knowledge of the Middle East conflict in its caption:

Israeli children, one dressed as a rocket, participate in Purim celebrations at their school in the town of Sderot, southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Rockets are fired almost daily towards southern Israel by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Israel declared a heightened security alert on Wednesday and barred Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering the country, fearing Hezbollah guerrillas may try to carry out a major attack during Purim celebrations this week. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Hezbollah? I gues it is easier to make a mistake like that than to say:

...fearing Fatah (Tanzim /Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades), Hamas (Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Jerusalem Battalions), The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (The Martyr Abu ‘Ali Mustafa Battalions), The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, or The Popular Resistance Committees (The Salah al-Din Brigades) guerrillas...

Their caption can only be so long, after all.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad sends me a similar picture - of a kid dressed up as a terrorist.

UPDATE 2: Beer7 , an Israeli who lives in Be'er Sheva and blogs in German, links here but adds a psychological definition from Dr. Sanity:

Level 4 Defense Mechanisms are common among most “healthy” adults and are considered the most “mature”. Many of them have their origins in the “immature” level, but have been honed by the individual to optimize his/her success in life and relationships. Use of these defenses gives the user pleasure and feelings of mastery. For the user, these defenses help them to integrate many conflicting emotions and thoughts and still be effective; and for the beholder their use by someone is viewed as a virtue. They include:

(…)

Humor - overt expression of ideas and feelings (especially those that are unpleasant to focus on or too terrible to talk about) that gives pleasure to others; (humor lets you call a spade a spade, while “wit” is actually a form of displacement)

Pity the poor keffiyeh manufacturers

Even though the keffiyeh has been part of Middle Eastern dress for a while, it is mostly associated with Yasir Arafat who claimed to fold his headgear into a makeshift map of "Palestine." Possibly as a result, the keffiyeh has not been very popular worldwide during the heyday of PLO terror.

One of the consequences of the Palestinian Arabs turning in world public opinion from terrorist to trendy is that the Che-worshipping crowd started to wear keffiyehs as a sort of fashion statement, showing how uber-cool they are to embrace a terrorist symbol.

This increased the keffiyeh market quite a bit, as a number of mail-order houses started marketing them to rich, left-wing defenders of the oppressed to wear in dance clubs and the like.

Naturally, the demand for keffiyehs went up as people jumped on the "oppressed rocket-shooter" bandwagon, and then the hated free-market took over.

Chinese manufacturers started making keffiyehs - cheap.

al-AP goes on from there:

Yasser Herbawi once supplied much of the West Bank and Gaza with black-and-white checkered scarves, the proud emblem of Palestinian identity made famous by the late Yasser Arafat.
But most of his looms now stand idle, his product edged out by cheap imports from the world's newest keffiyeh capital: China.
After a decade of being flooded with Chinese goods, from scarves to toys and bags, the West Bank's largest city is struggling to compete — yet another obstacle to economic independence for Palestinians as they strive for a state of their own.
Two-thirds of Hebron's textile workshops have closed and 6,000 shoe factory workers have lost their jobs in the last eight years, pushing unemployment to 30.5 percent, the highest in the West Bank, according to Hebron's chamber of commerce.
Cheap imports have hit manufacturing towns across the world, but the economic decline of this city of 230,000 is particularly ironic. Hebron long adhered to what is now China's recipe for success: work hard and sell cheap. And Chinese goods are imported to the West Bank by traders from Hebron, the city suffering most.
It's hard to find an upside to globalization here.
The door to China opened for Palestinians in the mid-1990s, after Israel and China forged diplomatic ties. The response among Palestinian business people was especially enthusiastic in Hebron.
Flights from the Middle East to China were soon packed with Hebronites, especially to big trade fairs. China operated a visa office in Hebron for several years, and even street vendors began pooling their cash to send representatives there to shop.
By 2005, Palestinians imported $111 million worth of goods from China annually, compared to $1.8 billion from Israel and $120 million from Turkey, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The value of Chinese imports was up 20 percent from the previous year, compared to 3 percent higher from Turkey and a 7 percent hike from Israel.
Local industry quickly felt the pain.
Herbawi, unable to compete, closed his keffiyeh workshop in 2000 after four decades in operation, switching off 15 looms that used to make about 350 scarves a day. With the support of a dozen loyal customers, he said he reopened last year and rehired one worker who now arrives every day to run four looms for a few hours.
Herbawi wants import restrictions, but these seem unlikely: His son, Izzat, noted that even Arafat's Fatah movement, once a large customer, now buys some keffiyehs from China.

Not only does this show the unintended consequences of these trendy terror-supporting morons ending up making their idols lose jobs, but it also shows, yet again, how little regard Fatah has for actual working Palestinian Arabs.

(h/t jusa)

Today's Gaza edition of "biting the hand that feeds you"

Ma'an (Arabic) mentions that, today, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the PFLP has shot mortars both at the Sufa crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza.

Of course, these crossings are the major ways for humanitarian aid and food to enter Gaza, and even Egypt has been sending aid recently (sent from Algeria) through Kerem Shalom.

The world media consistently ignores the almost-daily rocket and mortar attacks on the very crossings that are the lifeline for Gazans.

Once again, the Palestinian Arabs are not expected to take any responsibility for their actions.

Gaza factory cemetery - who killed the jobs?

Gazans have come up with another PR gimmick to blame Israel for their problems, the Cemetery for Factories:

As Reuters, which willingly goes along with any anti-Israel act, writes:

Palestinians inaugurated a symbolic graveyard on Tuesday for factories forced to close by an Israeli blockade that they say is killing jobs.

"The Main Gaza Cemetery for Factories" contains some 40 graves covered with the Palestinian flags and flowers.

"The Plastic Tools factory, 190 workers became jobless," the inscription on one headstone reads. "The Print House, 150 workers lost their source of living," reads another.

What Reuters of course doesn't mention is that even in the early years of the Intifada there was the Erez Industrial Zone between Gaza and Israel that employed thousands of Palestinian Arabs. As the terrorism increased, Erez became a favored place to attack random Israelis; at least 11 were murdered. Finally, Israel closed down the zone altogether - after over three years of attacks by Palestinians from Gaza.

And if they every wanted to re-open the factories, they had a funny way of showing it, because the number of attacks towards Erez didn't decrease. Here's a list:

On January 4, 2005, an Israeli civilian was lightly wounded from two mortar shells that were fired at the Erez industrial zone.
On January 2, 2005, an Israeli civilian was seriously wounded from a mortar shell that was fired towards the Erez industrial zone.
On August 31, 2004, a Palestinian terrorist wearing explosive underwear was arrested at the Erez crossing.
On April 17, 2004, a suicide bomber killed a Border Policeman when he detonated himself at the workers' crossing terminal into the industrial zone.
On March 6, 2004, four terrorists traveling in three vehicles (two of which were rigged with explosives) attempted to kill Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers at the Erez crossing.
On Feb 26, 2004, an IDF reserve soldier was killed when two gunmen infiltrated the Erez industrial zone through a tunnel.
On Jan 14, 2004, a female terrorist carried out a suicide bombing attack in the workers crossing terminal in the Erez industrial zone, where magnetic entering cards are issued. As a result of the attack, one civilian was murdered, in addition to two IDF soldiers and a Border Policeman. The Hamas and Fatah terrorist organizations claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. It is important to note that this was the first time that Hamas had used a female suicide bomber. The terminal was severely damaged, and needed to be rebuilt. As a result, Palestinians were not able to enter the industrial zone for a few days.
On Dec 4, 2003 a package containing components for making an explosive device was discovered in a truck carrying mail out from the Gaza Strip.
On June 20, 2003, a terrorist attack using a bicycle laden with explosives was thwarted at the Palestinian workers’ crossing near Ganei Tal.
On June 8, 2003 four IDF soldiers were killed and four others injured when three terrorists infiltrated the IDF post Magen 12, in the Erez industrial zone.
On April 15, 2003 two Israeli civilians were murdered when Palestinians infiltrated the Karni terminal.
On Feb 21, 2003 a gunman armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three hand grenades, four magazines, a knife and a fence cutter infiltrated the Erez industrial zone and was killed.
On May 12, 2003, an Israeli civilian was murdered when a Palestinian worker opened fire at him at the Hila crossing.
On April 20, 2002, a Border Police officer was killed when a Palestinian gunman opened fire at an IDF post in Erez.
On April 12, 2004, a Border Police officer was killed when a Palestinian gunman opened fire at the Erez terminal.
On Nov 26, 2001, four IDF soldiers were lightly injured when a suicide bomber blew him self up at the entrance of the Erez terminal.

And that is just to the beginning of 2005.

While a symbolic grave for factories may be a nice gimmick, people shouldn't forget the direct reason why so many Gazans are unemployed - because they had a nasty habit of trying to murder their employers.

Purim Torah

The beautiful and talented DoZ called me this morning asking if I could make up some Purim Torah for her to deliver on motzei Shabbos, with a theme of "rock and roll." I wrote something up quickly but I wanted to ask the collective wisdom of the J-Sphere if they had anything to add.

(For those unfamiliar with the term, Purim Torah pretends to be a scholarly exegesis of Torah topics while actually being nonsense.)

So, here it is:
------------------------------
There are two types of entities in the world, the eternal and the temporary. While there is only one true Eternal, Hashem has given us symbols of tangible objects that also can be considered "permanent" because they last for very long periods of time.

To see what Hashem is designating for us to consider "permanent" we need to see how Hashem Himself is described. And one of the most famous descriptions of Hashem is "Hashem Tzuri v'Goali", Hashem is my Rock and my Redeemer. The reason Hashem is described as a Rock is because rocks are permanent features in our lives; by referring to Hashem as a "Rock" we mean that He is eternal and reliable, just as huge stones are permanent in our lifetimes.

So we see that the concept of a Rock is associated with permanence, with eternity.

What object would be most associated with transience? The Gemara talks about two different kinds of kinyanim, those for things that are immovable - like land (kinyan karka) - and those for things that are portable (kinyan metaltilin).Even very heavy objects would be considered metaltilin, movable, because, in theory, one can place them on wheels and roll them somewhere else. In a sense, the best symbol for something that is not permanently in place would be the wheel. Indeed, in Kabbalistic thought we have the concept of "gilgul neshamos", that our own temporary lives roll from one instance to another as if they are all part of a wheel, a gilgul. Things that are temporary are things that can roll on wheels.

So we have these two concepts: permanence and transience, of the constant and the temporary - of the Rock, and the Roll.

Rock and roll represents the synthesis of these two diametrically opposed concepts; it is the place where the Eternal meets His lowly subjects, and we can only get a glimpse of His power by listening to an electric guitar powered by a thousand-watt amp cranked up to 11. Just as the Bnei Yisrael "saw" the kolot at Har Sinai, the sense of hearing being transformed into the sense of sight, so we can "feel" the sounds from a good rock and roll band, transforming sound into feeling, and giving us an experience as similar as possibly to Maamad Har Sinai.

And rock and roll artists understand their role in this synthesis. For example, when The Who proclaims "Long Live Rock" notice how they are only talking about the permanent part of the equation, the Rock, and not the temporary Roll, which would be nonsensical. But it makes perfect sense for Joan Jett to declare "I Love Rock and Roll" as she is proclaiming her love of all of Creation as well as the Creator.

Perhaps the best proof of this dialectic (a perfect word that I've never used in my life before!) is in the halachos of Purim itself.

We all know that we celebrate Purim on the 14th of Adar - except in walled cities, when we celebrate it on the 15th. The walls of the walled cities symbolize the permanence of the Rock - indeed, the walls were constructed out of rocks - while the Purim of everyone else is the Purim of galus, or temporary existence, of the Roll from one place to another. Shushan Purim is mainly celebrated in Yerushalayim nowadays, which houses the Even Shesiyah - the Foundation Stone, the Rock of all rocks. Together, Shushan Purim and Purim are the Rock and the Roll.

But there is a hidden aspect of this concept that both proves it and makes us understand it better.

So far, we have discussed the "Rock" and the "Roll" of "Rock and Roll." But we have ignored the "and", the small word that connects the two, In fact, that "and" is terrifically important in understanding the synthesis of the Rock and the Roll.

This year, Purim and Shushan Purim are not next to each other, but we have a Purim MeShulash here in Eretz Yisroel, a three-day Purim that is separated by Shabbos. Just as Rock and Roll are connected by the "and", so is the triple Purim of this year connected by the Shabbos. And this hidden aspect of the "and" - the hester astir - shows us the importance of the Shabbos.

Shabbos has aspects both of the permanent Rock - it is eternal and always there - and the transient Roll - it only rolls around once a week. Indeed, in Olam Haboh, it will be "yom shekulo Shabbos u'menuchah" - it will be truly permanent. But in this world it only gives us a taste of permanence, but it is not permanent itself. Yet is is certainly also not temporary.

So Shabbos is the bridge between the eternal and the temporary, between the Purim and the Shushan Purim, between the Rock and the Roll.

But this still leaves a major question: if Purim precedes Shushan Purim, then why is it called Rock and Roll, and not Roll and Rock?

The answer is simple. In Hebrew, "and" is not a word, but a mere letter - the letter vav. And, in this case, specifically on the day that is v'nehepach hu, it is a vav hamehapeches, a vav that turns Roll and Rock into the proper Rock and Roll.

May we always learn from Purim Hameshulash, and from Rock and Roll how to run our very temporary lives with a constant awareness of the Eternal.

A truly encyclopedic work

I just saw a link to a webpage trying to list everything that offends Muslims.

It doesn't look like it has been updated in a long time but it is still a nice list, even if it is doomed to always be hopelessly incomplete.

Clan clash!

Ma'an reports:

A Palestinian man was killed by unidentified gunmen in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, seemingly as a result of a family dispute on Wednesday morning.

Palestinian medical sources named the victim as Salamah Al-Agha whose corpse was taken to Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza City for forensic medical investigation. The sources said he had been shot in the head.

Immediately after the killing, members of Al-Agha family attacked a house belonging to Kalakh family and set fire to the house.

Al-Agha was in his thirties.

The number of Palestinian Arab self-deaths for 2008 is now 37, which would be considered a "holocaust" in current PalArab nomenclature if Israel was behind them.

UPDATE: Palestine Today says that a 60-year old "collaborator" was executed in Qalqiya yesterday. 38.

84% of Palestinian Arabs support massacring children

Yesterday I reported on a poll done by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research that showed increasing support for Hamas. The raw numbers were not available on their website yet, so I wrote the posting based on their press release.

I prefer to look at the entire poll because then I can draw my own conclusions and not be force-fed only the results that the pollster wants to highlight. And this time, the pollster held back a doozy.

The New York Times got a hold of another poll result from PCPSR that, to most people, would be considered a bit more important than parity in the polls between Haniyeh and Abbas:

A new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the attack this month on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem that killed eight young men, most of them teenagers, an indication of the alarming level of Israeli-Palestinian tension in recent weeks.

Notice the NYT spin to minimize the results, making them sound only temporary. And it waits until paragraph 7 to write the real results:

According to the poll, conducted last week with 1,270 Palestinians in face-to-face interviews, 84 percent supported the March 6 attack on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, one of Israel’s most prominent centers of religious Zionism and ideological wellspring of the settler movement in the West Bank. Mr. Shikaki said that this is the single highest support for an act of violence in his 15 years of polling here. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

The NYT again does everything it can to justify the numbers of Palestinian Arabs who blatantly support terror against kids by positioning the school as being some sort of extremist organization.

The PCPSR is somewhat disingenuous as well. The last time that they even asked in a poll if the respondents supported attacks against Israeli civilians inside the Green Line was September, 2006, when 57% supported and 40% opposed. So while the number that supported this specific attack is higher, that could just as easily mean that while the people polled are against terror in the abstract but support it in reality. Either way, a convincing majority of Palestinian Arabs have consistently supported terror against civilians, over decades. For the pollster to say that he hasn't seen such support for a specific terror attack before indicates more that he hasn't asked.

In 2001 and 2002, between 52% and 58% supported terror attacks against civilians inside the Green Line and over 90% supported terror attacks against civilians in the territories. Even before the intifada, 52% supported terror attacks versus 43% opposed.

These are the real facts, that the NYT is downplaying and the PCPRS is willingly ignoring: the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs want to see Jews killed, on both sides of the Green Line, and they have always felt that way.

Methodist storybook indoctrinates children against Israel

From the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle (h/t Solomonia)

The book, “From Palestine to Seattle: Becoming Neighbors and Friends,” is billed as a “storybook on Israel and Palestine” for children 6 through 12. This is no benign Sunday school text, however. It is a well-crafted bit of propaganda that portrays Israeli security checkpoints as the cause, not the result, of Palestinian violence. This message is underscored by the teacher’s manual marketed along with the storybook.

The storybook describes adventures of two children from Seattle -- Allison and Matthew -- whose father, a Protestant minister, has just returned from a visit to Bethlehem.

...When Allison and Matthew see a checkpoint for themselves as they travel to Bethlehem, they are “shocked to see a barricade across the road, with sandbags and barrels lining the street. Looking up they saw a soldier with a gun sitting in a watchtower!”

The image accompanying this part of the story shows five soldiers standing around the van in which Allison and Matt are riding and a sixth soldier standing in a guard tower nearby. The image of barbed wire, guard shacks, sandbags and menacing armed soldiers surrounding a brightly-colored van filled with innocent children is reminiscent concentration camps in Eastern Europe in the 1940s.

...The lesson then ends with this coda [in the teacher's guide]: “Remind the children that when people are denied things that they believe everyone should have, they feel bad and sometimes become angry, too. Invite the remaining children to get juice and grapes from the refreshment table.”

The implication is undeniable. Suicide bombings -- which are not described anywhere in the either the storybook or the teacher’s manual -- are the consequence of Israeli checkpoints, which deny the Palestinians “the things that they believe everyone should have” and in turn make “people feel bad and sometimes become angry.” The impression the children are left with is that if the Israelis took down the checkpoints, Miriam, the young Israeli would no longer be frightened of bombs going off in her neighborhood.

FrontPage Magazine described the same book last month and it is even worse than described here:

The Arab boy, Tarek, has never been to McDonald's because the closest one is in Jerusalem, and travel there requires a pass by the Israelis. Naturally, the American children are disturbed. In an ongoing pen pal exchange, Tarek asks the American children why their country thinks all Palestinians are terrorists. The Americans are embarrassed. They summon up the nerve to ask Tarek why passes are needed to travel to Jerusalem.

Tarek responds that Israeli soldiers require passes, and that Palestinians without them are turned away, whether they are going to their jobs, or to hospitals. “How can people be so unfair?” the American children ask their pastor father. The father is unsure how to answer. But he helps them begin another correspondence with a little Israeli girl, who recounts that her cousin, an Israeli soldier, has been imprisoned for refusing to guard the “checkpoints” because “they were wrong and they were hurting people.”

Apparently, there is only one side to the story according to the Methodists, and it is identical to the side of the people who hand out candies when Jews are blown up.

Freedom of the press, Hamas-style

Hafez Barghouti is the editor of the Fatah daily Al Hayat al-Jadida newspaper. He has printed things that were critical of Hamas in the past year, and Hamas has revoked the credentials of Al-Hayat to work in Gaza.

Now, Hamas is bringing it to another level - they are suing Barghouti for libel!

From Ma'an (Arabic):

al-Hayat al-Jadida editor Hafez al-Barghouthi received a lawsuit via fax yesterday from the [Gaza] Strip Magistrate's Court inviting him to appear before it on Monday the twenty-fourth of this March to be tried on charges of libel violation of Article 204, 203 and in 1936 for disseminating Publications offensive to the members of the Palestinian government .

For its part the [Palestinian Arab] Journalists Union condemned the case and considered it against press freedom and against Palestinian journalists.

Reuters' biased headline of the day

Palestinian stabs rabbi in Arab East Jerusalem

The incident happened in the Old City of Jerusalem, which from roughly 1870-1948 had a majority Jewish population. The Muslim Quarter, where this incident occurred, used to be called the "Mixed Quarter" because Jews, Muslims and Christians all lived there, until the 1929 pogroms against the Jews.

While there are parts of East Jerusalem that are predominantly Arab, to categorize all of East Jerusalem as "Arab" is an editorial comment, not a statement of fact. To say that the Old City is "Arab East Jerusalem" is pretty dishonest, even if there are more Arabs living there now than others. It is effectively enshrining Jordan's illegal annexation and ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem for 19 years as being legitimate, and the existence of Jewish-owned lands in East Jerusalem as illusory. It is also meant to make the existence of a yeshiva in the Old City's "Muslim" quarter look as if it is a recent "settlement," when in fact the yeshiva is occupying the building of the only Jewish school or synagogue that was not destroyed by Jordan in 1948 (Torat Chaim, est. 1886.) All additional buildings that Ateret Cohanim own were purchased legally.

East Jerusalem is much larger than the Old City, of course, and using the term "Arab East Jerusalem" to describe something that happened in the Old City would be like saying that the Upper East Side crane accident over the weekend occurred in "New York State." It appears that Reuters is specifically choosing this terminology in order to render Israeli building in other parts of East Jerusalem, such as in Har Homa, as being illegitimate, since Reuters considers it "Arab" land - notwithstanding that most of Har Homa was also owned by Jews in 1948.

New Saudi Miss Camel to be crowned

Loyal readers will remember the horrible news last January when a Saudi beauty contest winner died and was mourned by many.

Well, it is time for her replacement to be named. (Warning: Camel pron ahead)

Camel breeders are open about their admiration for the physical attributes of the animals as they gather at this spring's camel markets.

"It's just like judging a beautiful girl," said Fowzan al-Madr, a camel breeder. "You look for big eyes, long lashes and a long neck."

Public displays of affection between men and women are rigidly policed by the feared officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice but in the camel bazaars anything goes.

"Camels are just like humans," breeder Haza al-Shammari told the International Herald Tribune. "They love and hate just like humans. That's why you have to bring them up very gently."

Mr Shammari grabbed his favourite camel's neck and kissed the beast on the mouth.

"She isn't married yet, this one," he said. "She's still a virgin. Look at the black eyes, the soft fur. The fur is trimmed so it's short and clean, just like a girl going to a party.

"When you get to know the camels, you feel love for them. My camels are like my children, my family."

British author Robert Lacey, a resident of Saudi Arabia, said ownership of a troupe of camels was central to an elite lifestyle that revolves around desert entertainment.

"They let you stroke them and pet them," he said.

"You can go out for the day, two or three hours out of Riyadh, have lunch, play with the camels, have tea, say the sunset prayer in the desert. Camels are a gentleman's pastime and this is how a gentleman entertains his friends.

"In a way, you're also re-enacting the pageant of your ancestors."

With camels changing hands for as much as 17 million Saudi Riyals (£2.2 million), camel owners are keenly awaiting the emergence of a new reigning champion.

The previous top camel, Mashoufan, died in January. Four of its offspring are seen as favourites to claim the crown.

The organiser of the pageant said it was drawing as much interest as a human competition would elsewhere in the Middle East.

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon," said the man who has the username Walid on a competition's website. "Here we have Miss Camel."

Another half-ton of explosives found in the Sinai

Palestine Press Agency reports(Arabic):

An Egyptian security source says that 500 kilograms of explosives and 40 mines had been uncovered during the last two days near the border with the Gaza Strip.

As quoted by the French news agency, the Egyptian source said that the explosive materials and mines found in two locations near the border with the Gaza Strip were intended for smuggling into the (Gaza) sector."

I have not seen this yet at AFP or any other news source yet, but PalPress has been pretty reliable over the past on topics like these.

PalArabs counterfeiting Girl Scout badges

Forget counterfeiting currency - now the Palestinian Arabs are going after more serious stuff. From Ma'an (Arabic):

The Palestinian Girl Scouts and Girl Guides Association accused merchants of Scout uniforms in the Palestinian cities of printing any insignia does not depend from Scouts and Girl Guides Association of Palestine.

The Assembly, through its warning, said that is the printing and marketing such decals beyond the instruction was contrary to the traditions of the Palestinian Scout uniforms, and will be working on pursuing legal claims against them.

But why should Girl Scouts have to work hard and act responsibly to achieve their goals when their parents haven't learned that lesson either?

75-year old man shot and killed in Qalqiya

Ma'an Arabic reports that three masked men, apparently in a stolen Israeli car, drove past and shot to death 75-year old Saleh Omar.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 36.