Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Newsweek: Let's blame the non-Muslims for Muslim violence!

An unreal article by Christopher Dickey in Newsweek, who bends over backwards to minimize Muslim violence and to blame it all on stupid mistakes by non-Muslims who end up provoking the violence. With the equally unreal title:
Christian Rage and Muslim Moderation

Some lowlights:

If the satellite networks allow their lenses to zoom back from the book burners, they may discover there's no raging crowd there, just the usual collection of unemployed malcontents on any street in Karachi. And what is most important, we may find that the Muslims of this world are just as weary of this sorry spectacle—maybe even more so—than the Christian, Jewish and secular publics in the West.

We may, and we may not. His examples of Muslim moderation are an interesting combination of cherry-picking and wishful thinking.The Turkish government is "supporting theological scholarship intended to modernize—and moderate—traditional Islamic teachings." A single Lebanese Ayatollah is not openly calling for violence anymore. Saudi Arabia's king is acting against al-Qaeda-style terrorism. And then:

But even with many qualifications and reservations, in my view the conciliatory trends in Islam make an interesting contrast with renewed provocations coming out of Europe.

There's no use wasting much space on the Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, the dyed blond with ugly roots who is promoting a film he says will prove his belief that "Islamic ideology is a retarded, dangerous one."

Yes, freedom of speech is such a nuisance sometimes.

....Danish cartoonists and editors previously unknown to the wider world garnered international attention when they published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 that brought on bloody riots in several Muslim countries in 2006. Having sunk once again into obscurity, the editors decided to publish one of the cartoons again last month, reportedly after the arrest of an individual plotting to kill the cartoonist. Great idea. Take one man's alleged crime and respond with new insults to an entire faith.

What a wonderful use of sarcasm, Mr. Dickey! I especially like how you characterize the people who were murdered by the cartoon riots as being the victims of publicity-seeking cartoonists in Denmark. The fact that the riots were stoked by Muslim leaders - months after their initial publication - just don't fit your recollections of the events, so we will just ignore those inconvenient facts for now.

The most problematic event of late, however, was Pope Benedict's decision to baptize the Egyptian journalist Magdi Allam in Saint Peter's on the night before Easter, thus converting a famously self-hating Muslim into a self-loving Christian in the most high-profile setting possible. Perhaps Benedict really thought, as the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano opined, that the baptism was just a papal "gesture" to emphasize "in a gentle and clear way religious freedom." But I am not prepared to believe for a second, as some around the Vatican have hinted this week, that the Holy Father did not know who Allam was or how provocative this act would appear to Muslim scholars, including and especially those who are trying to foster interfaith dialogue.

What Dickey refuses to face up to is that even if the Pope's timing was provocative, it doesn't justify any violent reaction. Luckily, it didn't happen this time, but Dickey is justifying it before the fact. Ironically, the progressive Dickey is assuming that Muslims will act like animals and writes his column with that assumption in the forefront.

(h/t Global Freezing)

Israeli saving the world's birds

This is the sort of story that almost never gets told about Israel.

From Science Alert (Australia):

Each northern spring an awesome aerial torrent of 500 million birds pauses at a tiny fleck of a sanctuary at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, en route from the heart of Africa to the vastnesses of Europe and Asia.
Many birds have flown non-stop from the Central Highlands of Ethiopia, devouring their own muscle and intestines in the 40-hour flight. When they sink to rest at Eilat, in southernmost Israel, they are at the very limits of their endurance. Without this stopover on their ancient migratory path, most of the birds would never complete their journey. Food from its lakes and vegetation is vital to rebuilding their strength for an onward trek that, in some cases, bears them as far as Wales or the Bering Strait.

For 15 years a stoic, courageous and grittily determined Israeli ornithologist, Dr Reuven Yosef, has fought with all the means at his disposal to keep intact this remaining claw-hold on survival for the world’s dwindling migratory bird populations.

Flash floods, savage vandalism, a suicide bombing, landmines and relentless development are among the challenges he has faced in striving to hold open this everconstricting highway of the natural world. If it closes, ornithologists warn, a major route will be sundered and many of the 280 migratory bird species of Europe, Asia and Africa using it may vanish.

Dr Yosef ’s visionary International Birding and Research Centre, Eilat (IBRCE) gained worldwide recognition with an Associate Laureateship in the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. Developed from an old rubbish dump and lovingly restored to 64 hectares of lakes, wetlands, visitor facilities and natural vegetation to harbour birds, the Centre is today acknowledged as one of the world’s ornithological wonders, inspiring projects as far afield as Kenya, Tibet, China, Mongolia and North America.
...Gradually the dry salt marshes fringing the sea succumbed to a concrete plague of hotels, promenades, marinas and gaudy attractions. A strip of wasteland lying between the town and Jordanian border to the east, beneath the smoky thunder of low-flying passenger jets, became a rubbish tip. Nobody wanted it, except a keen-eyed Indian-born ornithologist, Reuven Yosef, who saw its pivotal significance to the wildlife of the planet.
...Wounded and invalided out of the army, he took up studies as an aspiring ornithologist at Ben Gurion University and then at Ohio State University in the US, carrying out field research at the Archbold Biological Station in Florida, famous for the study of migratory birds. While there, he was invited to set up a nature reserve near Eilat that would enhance the town’s appeal to visitors.

Yosef was delighted, both at the chance to help protect bird migration in a world where it faced growing pressures from human activity, but also at the opportunities for scholarship the site presented – sampling each year an astonishing cross-section of the world’s avifauna.

Of the 120 000 hectares of salt marshes that once sustained billions of birds on their migratory journey, only a few hundred remained. The land was poisoned by mining activities extending back almost 3000 years. The rest was a garbage dump, filled with heaven-knew-what. Raising money from friends and supporters, Yosef purchased 64 hectares, and with the help of local earthmoving contractors, effluent from the sewage works, fresh water from the local desalination plant and brackish water from the local saltworks set about creating several lakes – fresh and saline – and restoring vegetation.

Gradually the sanctuary became a welcoming haven to the exhausted airborne travellers, offering seeds and brine shrimp to nourish and restore them. With the birds came scholars from around the globe to study the unending avian throng, 100,000 visitors a year to witness one of Nature’s marvels and 60,000 wide-eyed schoolchildren to learn about a phenomenon that, without great care, their own children may never see.

Not only is he saving untold numbers of bird species, but he is helping Israel gain a hundred thousand bird-loving tourists annually.

The Mufti's Blue Eyes

Earlier this week I posted a link to a Time article from 1948 that parenthetically mentioned a number of blonde Palestinian Arab leaders.

It turns out that at least one's Aryan features helped cement his bond with Heinrich Himmler. From the March 28, 1948 Palestine Post:

Himmler understood then what most people stubbornly refuse to acknowledge today - the Arab enemy has always been Jews, not Zionism.

AFP's biased article of the day

Just the first paragraph tells you all you need to know:

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Amin al-Siyam says he is awakened nearly every night by the sound of Jewish settlers tunneling under his east Jerusalem house towards the Old City's deeply sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Settlers are digging tunnels, willy-nilly, under the Old City? Only at night? Are they building apartments to live in?

Well, later in the article, if you parse it correctly, you can see that it is the Israel Antiquities Authority who are unearthing a 2000-year old tunnel, not "settlers:"

The Silwan project has aroused similar suspicions, in part because people are not allowed to see the tunnel, but primarily because the work is being funded by the Ir David Foundation, an Israeli settler group.

Here are the aims of Ir David:

The Ir David Foundation is committed to continuing King David’s legacy and strengthening Israel’s current and historic connection to Jerusalem through four key initiatives: archaeological excavation, tourism development, residential revitalization and educational programming.

To dismiss that all into just calling it "a settler group" is more than dishonest - it reeks of bias.

Meir Margalit, a spokesman for the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, says "the problem is not the archaeological digging, it is the agenda of the people who are behind the digging."
He and other Israeli activists fear that sensitive projects like Silwan, if left in the hands of right-wing groups, could one day be used to detonate the Middle East peace process.
"For a long time this has been a problematic issue, but now it is a dangerous issue," Margalit says.

Quoting someone from the ICAHD to talk about archaeology only proves that the main people with an agenda are those opposed to associating anything Jewish with Jerusalem. Similarly:

Yoni Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist critical of Ir David, says IAA reliance on it for funding ties them to its agenda.
"They need the money, and they are not just doing this for the benefit of archaeology," Mizrachi says. "It's one of the few sites operated by private organisations and it is the only one run by a right-wing organisation."

So to these critics, the existence of Jewish archaeological treasures are better not found at all, rather than being funded by "right wing" organizations. There's commitment to science and knowledge for you.

But perhaps the most dishonest part of this entire article is the picture used to illustrate it. Captioned "File photo shows a trench being dug as part of an archaeological dig in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound," it is simple a lie. No archaeological digs have taken place in the "Al Aqsa mosque compound" since before 1948. It in fact shows a trench that was not being dug by archaeologists but by the Wakf on the Temple Mount - with backhoes! - which destroyed untold numbers of priceless treasures. Every criticism that the article levels against the Jews digging to unearth history is refuted by that episode - the IAA didn't stop the illegal Muslim dig proving that if it has any bias it is against Jewish sensibilities; and the Temple Mount is infinitely more politically and religiously sensitive than Ir David/Silwan.

Giving money to real archaeologists to do their job seems much less problematic than having them stand by and allow the wholesale desecration of the world's most sensitive real estate.

This article shows that the AFP has no interest in truth or accuracy - it simply parrots anti-Jewish positions without any real reporting.

That old black magic

From the Saudi Gazette:

Education authorities in Bisha are investigating accusations a father made against the principal of his daughter’s school, saying she threatened students with black magic.

The parent, Fayez Al-Shahrani, accused the principal of claiming that one of the students, who is 23 years old, is possessed by a genie and that she uses the student to terrorize the others.

Al-Shahrani added that the student banged the head of his 16-year old daughter into a wall, causing her physical and psychological harm.

A school where 23-year old women and 16-year old girls study together? And where the principal threatens girls with black magic?

There was another genie/fairy (=Djinn) story in Firas Press, one which I really tried to understand in autotranslation but failed. If someone knows Arabic, please translate this for me:

Advisory opinion on the use of fairy

The Mufti of Nablus province said in a statement issued in Dar Al / Nablus concerning the question of creation and ANSA JANA prevention and privacy, and the total came Fataawa Ibn Taymiyah 1 / 181 (and the creatures in question originally forbidden, but to take the necessary) have Del on the right say that the Almighty God and: (Eyak worship and Eyak draw) chapeau 5, and telling the Prophet: (If enlisted Fight God).
Has shown that it is permissible to use the texts in Palance is possible to the meaning: (and help one another in righteousness and piety do not help one another in sin and aggression) Round 2. The remainder use Jinn on the prohibition, because this section of dissension, as it is known on the issue of lying, jinn prepare them and contact them full of guilty until proven innocent.
The Mufti of Nablus Reacting to what happened recently to claim some people using fairy treatment and surgery admit that this matter is that it was actually not be religiously, and that this is an issue related to the subject Metaphysical This is not evidence of APPROVAL, said that scientists They say: ((that the request for the mother's name is a sign of the Magician Juggler as agreed among them)), and stressed that the use of fairy in any order of things people today is religiously incompatible with the doctrine ballots.

Weeds, part 2

As a followup to my first Weeds post:

I just found another book showing a large number of photographs of Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land, these from 1904. Called "The Cruise of the Eight Hundred to and Through Palestine: Glimpses of Bible Lands" it is a pictorial recounting of a trip of 800 Sunday School teachers to Palestine.

It is fully downloadable in PDF format, as was the book I referred to yesterday.

Here again is a scene of the Dome of the Rock, from a different angle, showing the steps to go into it (click to enlarge):

Again, notice the huge number of weeds, even on the steps. Notice also what is not in the picture - people.

In contrast, once again, here is a similar photograph of the Western Wall of the Temple from the same book:

No weeds, lots of people. And the descriptions of the Wall in all of these books are similar, as the writers are struck by the heartfelt sadness that the praying people felt for the destruction of the Temple.

The book includes hundreds of photographs and is a lot of fun to browse through.

Hate crimes against Jews underreported in NYC

From Northeast Intelligence Report (h/t JammieWearingFool):

By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
25 March 2008: A source inside the Manhattan District Attorney’s office admitted to me during a telephone conversation yesterday that “hate crimes,” specifically those occurring against Jews, are frequently omitted from such classification. Meanwhile, acts that victimize Muslims, regardless of their motivation, are usually reported as "hate crimes." Consequently, crimes against Jews and other religions fail to garner the same media focus as crimes against Muslims and skew the figures used to track criminal motives. Although this is not a new phenomenon, it has recently been accentuated by the incident that took place on a New York subway last week.

At about 6:20 last Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 25 year-old Uria Ohana, a rabbinical assistant, was assaulted by three Muslim men inside the subway station at Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope. As Ohana proceeded through the turnstile, 18 year-old Ali Hussein grabbed Uria Ohana’s yarmulke from his head; Ohana gave chase, and was assaulted by Hussein’s accomplices who were shouting “Alla hu Akbar” - Arabic for “God is great.” The chase ended when Hussein was struck by a vehicle as he ran onto Fourth Avenue. Hussein’s friends abandoned him at the scene, fleeing in a late model GMC Suburban.

The incident received very little media attention, and the motive was not initially recorded as a bias or “hate crime.” "This happens frequently,” admitted this source, adding that the pressure from Muslim special interest groups is much greater than from other similar organizations. “It seems that there is a far greater propensity for law enforcement to recognize and classify crimes against Muslims as motivated by religious bias, and there more pressure from watch dog groups to insure that crimes against Muslims are immediately classified as having their origins in religious bias. What it does is that it skews the actual numbers,” added this source.

He also stated that since 9/11, law enforcement officials have acquiesced to the pressure and demands by Islamic special interest groups to treat most crimes against Muslims as "religiously motivated," even in the absence of any proof. Acts such as graffiti randomly sprayed on a mosque, for example, is classified as a "hate crime." It does not matter that the mosque might be one of several buildings in a specific area that has been tagged or sprayed by vandals. "We are compelled to classify such acts as having a religiously motivated bias, despite evidence that would indicate otherwise. Ordinarily, people would not think it is such a big deal. But when you have many such incidents, it obviously has a significant impact on criminal statistics. It definitely skews them."

Even with this skewing, Jews are far more likely to be the victims of official hate crimes than Muslims, despite the amount of whining by CAIR.

Arab summit a failure before it begins

From Monsters and Critics:

A deep inter-Arab rift over Lebanon's political standoff has hit the upcoming summit of Arab heads of state hosted by Syria, with leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt staying away and lebanon boycotting it.

Yet the Syrians are pretending the non-attendance is not uncommon, and saying the Lebanese absentees are missing a 'golden chance.'

But the absence of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, two regional heavyweights, masks irreconcilable differences with Syria over Lebanon.

... Adding to the climate of tension overshadowing the Arab meeting, Saudi Arabia's envoy to the Arab League Ahmed Katan, who will represent it there, predicted the summit was doomed to failure.

'How can a summit be successful while some parties are trying to undermine it and circumvent its decisions,' Katan told the Saudi daily Okaz.

'Resolutions are made but some countries are obstructing them,' Katan said.

The Saudi official was hinting at Syria, which is blamed for blocking the implementation of a plan adopted by members of the Arab League to resolve the political crisis in Lebanon.

It is not uncommon for Arab leaders not to turn up at summits, but they usually send representatives. Lebanon's total boycott, however, is the first of its kind by the country, which is of one of the founding members of the Arab League.

.... The acrimonious Arab exchanges preceding the meeting might have been behind the decision of the Arab League and Syria to keep all its sessions closed to the media.

The failure of a pre-summit meeting of permanent representatives at the Arab League to reach draft resolutions on the Lebanese crisis and inter-Arab ties does not augur well for the summit.

Pan-Arabism is deader than ever.

Ten Qassams so far today

As of 10:12 PM Israel time, ten Qassams have been shot into Israel from Gaza so far today, the highest number in two weeks.

Yet I cannot find any newspaper articles anywhere talking about this. Nothing about the rockets being a "threat to the calm" or "endangering the tacit cease-fire" or anything like that. In fact, I have yet to find anyone who even added the numbers for today up (you can see the individual Qassam reports on the YNet Updates page - three attacks of two rockets each in the morning, three more attacks in the afternoon.)

Some "calm."

UPDATE: 17.

International Federation of Journalists admits its pro-PalArab bias

In a press release condemning Hamas for restricting press freedom, the International Federation of Journalists states:

“This intimidation and political bullying of journalists does great damage to the Palestinian cause,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It undermines efforts of journalists throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip to work together to build a unified media movement in favour of stability and democratic development.”

So the major reason to push for more press freedoms in Gaza isn't to help inform the world about truth, but rather to further the "Palestinian cause."

Can you imagine a statement from any international agency professing support for the "Zionist cause" the way that these supposedly objective journalists explicitly support the "Palestinian cause?"

Apparently, press freedom is only important when it goes towards issues that the press supports. In 2002, the union gently chided Palestinian Arab journalists for unilaterally deciding not to take pictures of Palestinian Arab children with weapons - because those pictures were being used by some people to show PalArab depravity. No condemnation, just a statement that "We understand the deep frustration that journalists feel about those who try to manipulate the media message, but journalists need more freedom to do their job in Palestine, not less."

The subtext is that of course it is the journalists who decide what is important and which should be highlighted - and which ignored. They choose the message and they aren't thrilled with those who "manipulate" it.

The IFJ claims to represent over 500,000 journalists in 110 countries. It includes members from the US - four unions are members - as well as Israel.

Today's peaceful Gaza news

So far today, six Qassams were fired from Gaza into Israel, but at least one of them landed near Gaza's Beit Lahia, seriously injuring a 65-year old man.

A leader of the Army of Islam in Gaza was abducted by Hamas two days ago, tortured and killed.

Egyptian president Mubarak was revealed to have referred to Rafah a few weeks ago as "Egypt's border with Iran."

The International Federation of Journalists condemned Hamas for intimidating journalists and restricting freedom of the press.

Gaza bakeries went on strike today, demanding to be able to raise the price of bread.

The 2006 Palestinian Arab self-death count has risen to 46.

UPDATE: Two more terrorist bodies were found from a tunnel collapse last week. 48.

The second-most hated people in the Middle East

The most hated people in the Middle East? That's easy.

But who comes in at #2?

It is, hands down, the Iraqis of Palestinian origin.

Saddam Hussein gave huge privileges to Palestinian Arabs (short of citizenship, of course.) He gave them subsidized housing, forcing Iraqi landlords to charge less for Palestinian Iraqis. When Saddam fell, jealous Iraqi landlords started evicting them - and worse. Many were killed and blamed for terror attacks.

Hundreds fled Iraq, but found that none of their Arab brethren had any interest in taking them in. They have been stuck in real refugee camps - not the towns that the UNRWA runs in Jordan and the territories that it calls "refugee camps" - on the Iraqi borders with Jordan and Syria. And for years, the UNHCR has been trying to find countries to take them in.

Arab countries - even those that accepted thousands of other Iraqi refugees - refused to take the Palestinian Iraqis.

Yet, in 2006, when Canada offered to take a few dozen of the Palestinian Iraqis as refugees, both Hamas and the PA complained to the UNHCR, not wanting them to leave the area - preferrring that they stay in miserable conditions.

The reason? As an Arabic Falasteen editorial said, it is because happy Palestinian Arabs don't support their idea of "unity" - once they go to the West they have little interest in "returning" to the place where their Arab brethren can treat them like dirt:

We have warned and others in more than one location and an article about the dangers to be dissipating refugee diaspora Palestinians, since this will negatively impact on the fabric of their unity and their syndicated in the areas of asylum...these will lead to migration to other European countries and therefore as a result of this disruption to the bloc refugees in Lebanon and the resulting in the end of the negative impact on their right to return to their homes and property.

Today, the situation is similar:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today warned that the situation of the more than 2,700 Palestinians who have been stranded and are living in inhumane conditions in two camps on the Iraqi-Syrian border continues to deteriorate.

“Over the past 22 months, UNHCR has been calling for urgent humanitarian solutions for this group and – even if only temporary – relocation elsewhere, preferably in the Arab region,” the agency’s spokesperson Ron Redmond said at a press briefing in Geneva.

In 2006, Canada received 64 Palestinians from Iraq, while last year, Brazil accepted 107. Recently, Chile, which itself was once a refugee-producing country, offered to resettle an initial group of 117 Palestinians, who are expected to leave Iraq for the South American nation in April.

Additionally, Sudan has extended an offer to accept 2,000 Palestinians, and UNHCR and Palestinian representatives are currently working to finalize a plan to allow the operation to take place.

The agency welcomed these responses from third countries, but reminded countries that there is a further need to help in dealing with acute cases.

So whenever you hear people from Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Syria or Egypt or Kuwait or any other Arab state complain about how terribly Israel treats the Palestinian Arabs, ask them politely what exactly they have done for this group of less than 3000 refugees - who can be easily absorbed by any Arab country. Ask the oil-rich states how much money they contribute for the upkeep of these camps. Ask them whether they would allow temporary visas or work permits to this group of their beloved Palestinian brethren.

And then ask them why not.

"Bomb voyage" - Lebanese girl panics at SMS, plane emptied

From AFP:

A Beirut-to-Paris flight was grounded today after a passenger who had left her boyfriend behind said she feared he might have put a bomb in her luggage to keep her from leaving.
"The girl, Katia Salha, was either in love with this guy called Hussein Mughnieh, or they were engaged, and as the plane was taxiing to the runway she got an anonymous message on her phone telling her that he wished her bon voyage," a security official said.

"She got scared and she alerted a hostess that she feared her boyfriend might have left a bomb in her luggage."

An airport official said the pilot of the Air France flight taxied back to the gate for the plane to be searched.

It is curious that a woman would want a boyfriend who she suspects would want to kill her and a couple of hundred other people.

March Qassam Calendar

As usual, this is far from complete, and it is more to show how ignored the Qassam issue is rather than to show how many are being fired. Many Qassams never make it in the news, and the rare times that the IDF publishes statistics shows that I am usually undercounting by about 50% (although that number os probably less in recent months.) Also, these are Qassams that don't make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself (March 10 and 30th are examples.)

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

March

230 total

Previous calendars:

February 2008
January
December 2007
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February

The funniest anti-semite of the week

Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV has brought us a real winner in the shape of Wael Al-Zarad. Check out the video courtesy of MEMRI and then let's look at his words:

In short, these are the Jews. As Muslims, our blood vengeance against them will only subside with their annihilation, Allah willing, because they tried to kill our Prophet several times.

Hmmm...all Jews deserve to die because they supposedly tried to kill someone many centuries ago. Sounds familiar, but I cant quite put my finger on it...

What should we do with these people? What is the best solution for them? Should it be by shamelessly bestowing kisses, regardless of our religion and our morals, on satellite TV and in clear view of the whole world?

I hope you aren't drinking something when hearing this dud talk about "morality."

Should it be through futile meetings, which are usually conducted on carpets red with the blood of martyrs?

I like the imagery, personally. It seems logical that peace will only occur after the terrorists are dead.

Or should it be through an exchange of despicable smiles and ugly handshakes?

I guess that this sounds better in Arabic.

What is the best solution for these people, who have perpetrated every possible thing against us?

Every possible thing? This guy doesn't have much of an imagination, does he?

They have turned our mosques into pubs and bars, where they drink alcohol and get women drunk.

Which is, of course, more immoral than advocating genocide from those same mosques.(The next time I'm in Israel, someone please tell me where to find a bar in a converted mosque, because I'll make a special trip there, to get a woman drunk.)

From the dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they proclaim that Ezra the Scribe is the son of God.

Say what? I must thank Robert Spencer for mentioning that this is in the Koran, because such a weird claim deserves a source.

By Allah, people, the Jews do not deserve such a fuss. They do not deserve to be feared. The Jews are not a terrorizing bogeyman. The Jews are nothing but human scum, who came as scattered gangs to occupy our land.

Of course, if these human scum managed to defeat the mighty armies of Allah, that doesn't say much for those armies, does it?

By Allah, if each and every Arab spat on them, they would drown in Arab spit. By Allah, if each and every Muslim spat on them, they would drown in saliva. By Allah, if the Arabs and Muslims turned into flies, the Jews would die from their buzzing.

And yet, when they actually try to fight those pathetic Jews and get defeated, they whine to the infidels at the UN that it wasn't a fair fight! Once again making one wonder - if the Jews are so pathetically weak and frail, what does that make the Arabs who run away from them so easily?

Therefore, my dear brothers, the Jews do not deserve to be feared so much. Therefore, I ask with pain and sorrow: Isn't there a single reasonable man in any of the Arab air forces? Isn't there a single reasonable man among them, who will break through these aerial borders, and bomb the Jews deep in their own land? Where are all the Arabs and Muslims?

This is my favorite part - this genocidal maniac, frothing at the mouth with his hatred of all things Jewish, himself admits that the Jews are living in their own land!

Rockets? What rockets?

Snapped Shot points to this beauty from Reuters:

Israeli army officers stand in front of the remains of rockets, fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, during a military briefing at the police station in the southern town of Sderot March 25, 2008. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis (ISRAEL)

Is it just me or is this picture framed to highlight something other than hundreds of Palestinian Arab rockets that have been shot towards Jewish civilians?

Nah, I'm sure that the Israeli policeman just happened to walk in front of the cameraman at the precise moment that he snapped the picture.

Gaza news you won't hear anywhere else

On Sunday, Hamas militias attacked the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City. The embassy officially moved to Ramallah but it still seemed to maintain a skeletal presence in Gaza. According to Palestine Press Agency, Hamas assualted a guard and ransacked the building, taking down the Egyptian flag.

100 truckfuls of food entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, including 10 trucks from Egypt.

Israel also sent some 61,000 animal vaccines to Gaza and is coordinating their distribution and the analysis of blood samples.

Hamas abducted more Fatah officers in Gaza.

Weeds

In 1901, Dwight L. Elmendorf set out to visit Palestine and document it with photographs (his "only weapon," as he put it.) He published the pictures in a 1912 book called "A Camera Crusade Through the Holy Land."

The photographs are quite good, but two are of particular interest.

The first is of the "Mosque of Omar," the Dome of the Rock:

And another is of the "Wailing Place of the Jews":

Notice the huge amount of weeds poking through the stones in the "third holiest place in Islam." It is desolate, and it looks like it was rarely visited.

Compare the floor of the Temple Mount - where Jews wouldn't visit because of its holiness - with the smooth floor in front of the Kotel.

In 1901, it was clear which people venerated Jerusalem and which people ignored it.

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
tosfos in engllish
modeiin israel
jews everywhere
the truth about mohammed
arab porn
lynching video
translation ??
algerian family atallah
americans marrying saudis blonde
the truth about muhammad book
photos of poor
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gaza sderot blog, israel insider
arab newspaper
soup kitchens, bklyn, jewish
purim torah christmas
elders of ziyon (you mean there are others?)
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almas palestinian businessman bring together hamas fatah
examples of bias in textbooks
holocaust denial video
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second jewish temple artifacts pictures
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interactive methodies of learn english
adar 11
jewish world domination (always a favorite)
sderot mishloach manot
hatzalah video new motorbikes
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israeli rescue mission 90 seconds hero
arab holiday

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.