Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Iraqi author: The Jews have the right to Palestine

MEMRI unearths a gem: (h/t Zionism-Israel blog)

In an article posted December 7, 2007, on the leftist website www.ahewar.org, [1] 'Aref 'Alwan, an Iraqi author and playwright who resides in London and is the author of 12 novels, [2] states that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine because their presence there preceded the Arab conquest and has continued to this day.

In the article, titled "Do the Jews Have Any Less Right to Palestine than the Arabs?" 'Alwan called on the Arab world to acknowledge the Jews' right to Palestine, because justice demanded it and also because doing so would end the violence and the killing of Arabs, as well as intra-Arab strife. He added that such a move would also open up new avenues for the Arab world that would be more consistent with the values and needs of modern society.
'Alwan writes that the Arab League is to blame for the refusal to recognize the 1947 U.N. partition plan, for starting a war to prevent its implementation, and for the results of that war, which the Arabs call the Nakba (disaster). He points an accusing finger at the Arab regimes, the Arab League, and the educated circles in the Arab world, saying that they had all used the term "nakba" to direct popular consciousness toward a cultural tradition that neither accepts the other side nor recognizes its rights - thereby promoting bigotry, violence and extremism. He also claims that there have been attempts to rewrite Palestinian history, in order to deny any connection between it and the Jewish people.
'Alwan contends that the "Nakba mentality" among Arabs has boomeranged, giving rise to tyrannical rulers, extremist clerics, and religious zealots of every description. In his view, the Arab world will never shed the stigma of terrorism in the West unless it abandons this concept and all that it entails.
To boost his claim that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine, 'Alwan provides an overview of Jewish history in the land of Israel. He questions the validity of the Islamic traditions underpinning the Arab claim to Palestine, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount, and presents evidence that religions that preceded Islam had conducted rituals on the Temple Mount.
As an example of the traditional Arab mentality that does not accept the other or recognize his rights, 'Alwan discusses the Arabs' abuse of the Kurds in Iraq and of the Christians in Egypt and Lebanon.
The following are excerpts from the article:
The Nakba: A Great Lie
"When the Salafi mob in Gaza tied the hands and feet of a senior Palestinian official and hurled him, alive, from the 14th floor, I asked myself: What political or religious precepts must have been inculcated into the minds of these young people to make them treat a human life with such shocking cruelty?
"Earlier, I had watched on TV as the bodies of two Israeli soldiers were thrown from the second floor [of a building] in a Palestinian city. Whether or not it was the same Salafi mob behind that incident, [one asks oneself]: What language, [or rather,] what historic linguistic distortion could have erased from the human heart [all] moral sensibilities when dealing with a living and helpless human being?
"Arabs who are averse to such inhuman behavior must help me expose and eliminate the enormous lie that has for 60 years justified, extolled, and supported brutality. [Such behavior] is no longer limited to the expression of unconscious [impulses] by individuals, but constitutes a broad cultural phenomenon, which began in Lebanon, [spread to] Iraq and Palestine, and then [spread] - slowly but surely - to other Arab states as well.
"This enormous lie is what the Arabs called the Nakba - that is, the establishment of two states in Palestine: the state of Israel, which the Jews agreed to accept, and the state of Palestine, which the Arabs rejected.
"In our times, when science, with its accurate instruments, can predict climatic changes that will lead to drought or the movement of tectonic plates that causes earthquakes, it is inconceivable that a modern man can, without making a laughingstock of himself, attribute the destruction of cities ancient or modern to the wrath of Allah. Nevertheless, today, 80% of Arabs claim this to be the case. They are neither embarrassed nor afraid of being laughed at.
"This high percentage includes not only the illiterates who densely populate rural areas, villages, and small and large cities, but also students, teachers, lecturers, graduates of institutions of higher education, scientists, technology experts, physicians, graduates of religious universities such as Al-Azhar, historians, and politicians who have held or are currently holding public office.
"It is those numerous educated elites who have forced the Arab mentality into a narrow, restrictive, and deficient cultural mold, spewing violence, terrorism, and zealotry, and prohibiting innovative thought... All this was done to instill a false sense of oppression in the hearts of the Arabs, and to destroy them with the infectious disease of despair and confusion.
"[This attitude] is rooted in the 1947 Arab League resolution stating that Palestine is a 'stolen' land and that none but a Muslim Arab is entitled to benefit from it as an autonomous [political entity], even if another's historic roots there predate those of the Muslims or the Arabs."

The Nakba Boomerang
"[The upshot] of this confusion in [Arab] mentality is that the lie has boomeranged on the Arabs. [Thus] appeared [on the scene] Saddam Hussein, Hafez Al-Assad, Bashar Al-Assad, Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, Hassan Nasrallah, Nabih Berri, Khaled Mash'al, Isma'il Haniya, and Mahmoud Al-Zahar, whose young [thugs] threw the senior Palestinian official from the 14th floor. Finally, from the foot of the eastern mountains bordering the Middle East came Ahmadinejad, who is committed to preparing the way for the anarchy and destruction that accompanies the advent of the long-awaited Mahdi, who will resolve the Palestinian problem.
"Today, owing to the ideological distortions that have afflicted the Arab popular consciousness since the so-called Nakba, and [also owing] to the lies that have accumulated around this notion, [the label of] 'terrorism' has become attached to Arabs, wherever they are.
"Despite the great political and cultural efforts by large and important Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and some Gulf states to restore Arab ties with the rest of the world, and to curb the culture of terrorism in Arab societies, they have all failed. This is because these attempts to rectify [the situation], from both within and without [the Arab countries], both stemmed from and were a logical extension of the concept of the Nakba.
"This proves that the Arabs have no hope of extricating themselves from the cultural and political challenge of terrorism unless they come up with [new] and different [fundamental] premises, and with an outlook completely free of the fetters of the religious ritual that they have devised in modern times and called the Nakba.
"Although Palestinian senior officials, leaders, educated circles, and public figures, whose patriotism is beyond doubt, have come to terms with the existence of the State of Israel, the aforementioned 80% of Arabs... do not accept this view, and consider it religious apostasy. Leaders of the [Arab] states in the region, and party leaders, inflame sentiment, entrancing them with the drumbeat of extremism.
"With the strident chorus of its secretaries, the Arab League ensures that every car crash in Gaza or the West Bank is interpreted as an Israeli conspiracy against the Arab future. This is because the Arab League... was established as a pan-Arab entity whose main function was to write reports and studies rife with distortions of fact so as to quell the conscience of any Arab who dared think independently and expunge [the concept of] the Nakba from his consciousness. [It has done] this instead of devising creative strategies for cultural and economic development, so as to improve the deteriorating standard of living in the Arab societies."

The Nakba is Rooted in a Culture that Does Not Recognize the Right of the Other
"Why did the partition resolution, which gave a state in Palestine to the Jews and one to the Arabs next to it, become the Nakba - [the star] that rises and sets daily over the Arab lands without emitting even the tiniest ray of light to illuminate the path for their peoples?
"Did the Jews have any less right to Palestine than the Arabs? What historic criteria can be used to determine the precedence of one [nation's] right over that of the other?
"Refusing to recognize the right of the other so as to usurp his rights was a governing principle of the Islamic conquests from the time of 'Omar bin Al-Khattab; during that historical period it was the norm. [But] at the turn of the [20th] century, this principle was abandoned and prohibited, because it sparked wars and [violent] conflict. The international community passed laws restricting the principle of non-acceptance of the other, in the founding principles of the League of Nations in 1919. Subsequently, with the U.N.'s establishment, these laws were developed [further], with appendices and commentary, to adapt them to the current historical era and to express the commonly accepted values of national sovereignty and peoples' right to self-determination.
"But because of their sentimental yearning for the past and zealous adherence to [old] criteria, the Arabs purged their hearts of any inclination to adjust to the spirit of the age. They thus became captives of the principle of non-acceptance of the other and of denying the other [the right] to live, [among] other rights.
"As a result, damage was done to the rights and interests of non-Arab nations and ethnic groups in the Arab lands - among them the Kurds, the Copts, and the Jews. [Thus,] the Arabs still treat the numerous minorities that came under their dominion 1,400 years ago in accordance with the laws from the era of Arab conquest.
"Despite the consequences of denying the other the right to exist, not to mention other rights - that is, [despite] the oppression, conflicts, wars, and instability [resulting from this]... the Arabs have steadfastly clung to their clearly chauvinist position. All problems in the region arising from minorities' increasing awareness of their rights have been dealt with by the Arabs in accordance with [the principle of non-acceptance]... [even] after the emergence of international institutions giving these rights legal validity, in keeping with the mentality and rationale of our time."

Refusing to Accept the Other: The Kurds in Iraq; the Christians in Egypt and Lebanon
The Kurds
"The denial of the Kurds' national rights by the Iraqi government, and the Arab League's support for it, has brought on wars lasting 50 years - that is, three-quarters of the life span of the state that arose in Iraq...
"After fabricating arguments to justify the [1921] combining of the Basra region with the Baghdad region in order to establish a new state in Iraq, British colonialist interests demanded that a large area historically populated by Kurds be added to the new state. [This was done] to satisfy the aspirations of King Faisal bin Al-Hussein [bin Ali Al-Hashemi], who had been proposed as head of state in return for protecting British interests in the region.
"In his persistent refusal to grant the Kurds their rights, from 1988 through 1989 Saddam Hussein murdered approximately 180,000 Kurds, in an organized [genocidal] campaign he called 'Al-Anfal.' He then used mustard gas against one [Kurdish] city (Halabja), killing its residents (5,000 people). The Arab conscience silently acquiesced to this human slaughterhouse, while Arab League secretary-general (Shadhli Al-Qalibi) called the international press coverage of these events 'a colonialist conspiracy against the Arabs and the Iraqi regime.'
"Syrian Kurds are considered second-class citizens, and are banned from using their language or [practicing] their culture in public."

The Christians in Egypt and Lebanon
"The ethnic oppression of the Kurds [in Iraq] was echoed by sectarian extremism against the Copts [in Egypt]. In both cases, the Arabs used the principle of denying the existence of the other so as to strip him of his rights.
"The Copts, who [initially] assimilated Arabs into their society, but who have over time themselves assimilated into Arab society, discover time and again that this assimilated state is but a surface shell, which quickly cracks whenever they demand equality... As a result, Egypt, as a state, is gripped by constant social tensions that keep rising to the surface and threatening to undermine its stability...
"Sectarian extremism in Egypt took the form of an organized party with the 1928 emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, with the aim of splitting Egyptian society into two mutually hostile and conflicting parts. This was in line with the Arab religious and political principle of denying legitimacy to all non-Muslims or non-Arabs, [a principle practiced] since the Muslim armies reached Egypt in 639 [CE]...
"In Lebanon, the presence of armed Palestinian militias - which was in accordance with the decision of the Arab states - encouraged the formation of Lebanese militias, both Sunni and Shi'ite. Chanting slogans proclaiming Palestinian liberation, they frightened Christians by appearing armed in streets swarming with Lebanese [citizens] and tourists.
"This eventually led to a confrontation with Christian militias, which had also armed themselves out of fear of the pan-Arab slogans and fear for the [preservation of] the rights of the Christian sects.
"Lebanon was engulfed by an ugly 15-year civil war, that ended only after Syria, which had played an ignominious role as instigator [of the hostilities], attained full protectorate status over Lebanese affairs and the Lebanese people - [and this] took on the nature of colonialist hegemony...
"After the Lebanese were liberated from this [Syrian] control, in 2005 the clouds of civil war - albeit of a different kind - reappeared on the Lebanese horizon. The Arab League is making no effort to prevent the eruption [of this civil war] for two main reasons. First, the Syrian regime still supports ethnic tension, in order to regain control of Lebanon; and second, the current majority government, which opposes the renewed Syrian influence, is predominantly Christian...
"We had hoped that the Arab national conscience would recover from the illness afflicting it since the time of the Nakba, and that it would adopt [views] which, if not ahead of their time, would at least be appropriate to our time. But a group of journalists, writers, and several Arab historians guided by the principle of non-acceptance of the other has twisted the facts and concocted a false and gloomy history of the region - thereby trampling these dreams to the ground."

Jews Have a Rich and Ancient History in Palestine
"The Arabs see the Palestinian problem as exceedingly complicated, while it actually appears so only to them - [that is], from the point of view of the Arabs' emotional attitudes and their national and religious philosophy. The Arabs have amassed false claims regarding their exclusive right to the Palestinian land, [and] these are based on phony arguments and on several axioms taken from written and oral sources - most of which they [themselves] created after the Islamic, and which they forbade anyone, Arab or foreigner, from questioning.
"When the Arabs agreed to U.N. arbitration... to resolve the Palestinian problem, it transpired that their axioms clearly contradicted reliable historical documents [that] this new international organization [had in its possession]. As a result, they wasted decades stubbornly defending the validity of their documents, which do not correspond to the officially accepted version of the region's history - which is based on concrete and solid evidence [such as] archaeological findings in the land of Palestine, the holy books of the three monotheistic religions, accounts by Roman, Greek, and Jewish historians... and modern historical research..."

Jewish and Christian Ritual Sites in Jerusalem Predate Muslim Sites
"[A look at] the story of Al-Aqsa is now in order - a site considered holy by Muslim Arabs, who call it 'Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif' [The Noble Sanctuary] and [believe that] it was set aside for them by Allah since the time of Adam.
"[This site] contains several places of worship, including the Dome of the Rock, built by the [Umayyad Caliph] 'Abd Al-Malik bin Marwan in the seventh century CE - that is, 72 years after the Muslim conquests. This religious public gathering place was erected over a prominent [foundation] stone at the peak of 'Mount Moriah.' [Mount Moriah] contains three ancient Jewish public worship sites, as well as [some] Christian sites... The octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock Mosque was constructed on the site of an ancient Byzantine church, adjoining Solomon's Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
"Since the majority of Muslims claim that the Temple Mount is an Islamic site to which no one else is entitled, they do not acknowledge the presence of Jewish and Christian places of worship predating the Dome of the Rock within its walls...
"The Arabs take great pride in their tolerance of and benign treatment of the Jews and Christians who lived under the Muslim rule since the Muslim conquests. This account is part of the distortions underpinning the edifice of the Arabs' religious and national culture. [Arab] writers and historians keep eulogizing this epoch... while the truth is the opposite of what they claim. [Indeed,] the Pact of 'Omar [compelled] the Jews and the Christians to choose between either abandoning their religion and embracing Islam, or paying the [poll] tax in return for being permitted to reside... and receive protection of life and property in their homeland. [The Pact of 'Omar] allowed them to practice their religion, build new houses of worship, and repair the old ones [only] with the permission of a Muslim ruler, and subject to numerous conditions.
"In subsequent historical periods, the Muslims imposed [additional restrictions] on the members of [these] two religions: They forbade them to raise their voices during prayer; [they forced them] to conduct their prayers and religious ceremonies in closed areas so as not [to disturb] passersby; they forbade them to carry weapons, ride saddled horses, or build houses taller than those of the Muslims. [Christians and Jews] were required to show respect for the Muslims, e.g. by giving up their seat to a Muslim if he wanted it. They were banned from holding government posts or from working in 'sensitive' public places.
"The Koranic verses cursing the Jews and casting doubt on [the veracity of] their Holy Book [the Torah] promulgated a desire among Arabs to set themselves above the Jews who lived in their midst, humiliating and persecuting them even without pretext. In time, this treatment made large numbers of Jews abandon their cities and their land and emigrate... while those who stayed [in Palestine] until the 19th century remained marginalized, living among the Arabs like criminals in a foreign land...
"The Arabs claim that the 'Wailing Wall' has been their property since the Prophet Muhammad tied his horse Al-Buraq to one of its supports when Allah transported him by night from the Holy Mosque in Mecca to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem... Although this night-journey story seems dubious, Arab historiography after the advent of Islam contains such oddities as giving a horse the prerogative of making a wall weighing more than 2,000 tons into Muslim property. This is only one of thousands of examples of tales concocted by zealots, with which they swept away the Arab imagination.
"...When the U.N. resolution on the partition of Palestine was issued on November 29, 1947... the Arabs refused to recognize it. They thereby rejected the state set out by the resolution as the right of the Palestinians and the Arabs, with the aim of establishing legal and historical equity. The Arabs called this resolution the Nakba, while their new states, formed several years before the State of Israel, launched the first war against Israel, in which regular military operations were combined with local attacks by gangs comprising Palestinians and Arabs from Arab regions near and far. [That war] ended in [the Arabs'] defeat. Persisting in their error, the Arabs established refugee camps for the Palestinians who had fled during and after the war...
"Chairman Mahmoud 'Abbas... was the first Palestinian leader to acknowledge that the Christian church in Gaza plundered by Hamas gangs had stood there 'before [we] came to Gaza.' By this he meant 'we the Palestinians' - particularly the current Gaza residents, [the descendants of] Bedouins from the Sinai and the Arabian Peninsula and of others, of unknown origin. [These people were] attracted by the wealth of the new Islamic state that extended from Persia to Southern Ethiopia, and came after the Muslim conquests and set themselves up over the local population - Christians, Jews, Phoenicians, Byzantines, and the remnants of the Sumerians...

Arabs Must Recognize the Jews' Right to Palestine
"In order to prevent more bloodshed among the innocent [population]... and in order to keep the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, and the West Bank from making [these regions into] a quagmire that will spread to engulf all Arab states and societies, the Arabs must reassess the question of the Nakba and come up with a new, courageous vision for the region and for the future of its residents.
"[This vision] must involve public recognition of the Jews' legitimate right to their state - which is based on historical fact - instead of [recognition] of the writings filled with anger and demagogy produced and formed into an ideology by the confused [Arab] consciousness - a consciousness built upon lies, myths, and distortions stemming from the principle of non-acceptance of the other.
"The most important factor in strengthening such a new vision is [the adoption of] a principle [requiring] official condemnation of all individuals, groups, companies, religious and political parties, and totalitarian regimes that built their glory and hollow leaderships upon the notion of the Nakba, and which are always ready to absorb other false claims and fabrications.
"This must be done, so that a modern Arab face is turned to the world - [a face reflecting] ethical values that will not allow any Arab, under any pretext, to oppress his son or his brother who differs from him in religion, ethnicity, or ideology."

The WaPo is no different than Carter

Once again, the Washington Post gives legitimacy to a mass-murdering terrorist, and it seems that they are doing it because of Jimmy Carter. Some lowlights:

Last week's attack on the Nahal Oz fuel depot should not surprise critics in the West. Palestinians are fighting a total war waged on us by a nation that mobilizes against our people with every means at its disposal -- from its high-tech military to its economic stranglehold, from its falsified history to its judiciary that "legalizes" the infrastructure of apartheid. Resistance remains our only option. Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people. We Gazans, living in the world's largest open-air prison, can do no less.

He applauds the Arab murder of innocents and in the next breath compares Gazans who support the mass murder of Jews to Jews slated for genocide.

Our movement fights on because we cannot allow the foundational crime at the core of the Jewish state -- the violent expulsion from our lands and villages that made us refugees -- to slip out of world consciousness, forgotten or negotiated away. Judaism -- which gave so much to human culture in the contributions of its ancient lawgivers and modern proponents of tikkun olam -- has corrupted itself in the detour into Zionism, nationalism and apartheid.

So Jewish nationalism is evil, but Islamic nationalism - the core of Hamas' existence, and orders of magnitude more violent by any yardstick - is just peachy. I love how he quotes "tikkun olam" as well, perhaps a nod to his ideological pals of the Jewish ultra-left.

A "peace process" with Palestinians cannot take even its first tiny step until Israel first withdraws to the borders of 1967; dismantles all settlements; removes all soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank; repudiates its illegal annexation of Jerusalem; releases all prisoners; and ends its blockade of our international borders, our coastline and our airspace permanently. This would provide the starting point for just negotiations and would lay the groundwork for the return of millions of refugees. Given what we have lost, it is the only basis by which we can start to be whole again.

While it is obvious that he is saying that Israel must be utterly destroyed before Hamas would consider stopping murdering Jews, it would be impolitic to write those words. This way he can sound a bit more peaceful.

And he signs off with a final threat:

As for the Israeli state and its Spartan culture of permanent war, it is all too vulnerable to time, fatigue and demographics: In the end, it is always a question of our children and those who come after us.

To have the leader of masked gangs dedicated to nothing but murder saying that the the State of Israel has a "culture of permanent war" is beyond parody. His demographic threat only points to the futility of Israel granting concession after concession.

To be fair, he WaPo also publishes a fairly good rebuttal to Zahar as well as a rebuke to Carter in their own editorial on the opposite page:

ON THE OPPOSITE page today we publish an article by the "foreign minister" of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, that drips with hatred for Israel, and with praise for former president Jimmy Carter. We believe Mr. Zahar's words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead, a group that Mr. Carter contends is worthy of being included in the Middle East peace process....

Mr. Zahar lauds Mr. Carter for the "welcome tonic" of saying that no peace process can succeed "unless we are sitting at the negotiating table and without any preconditions." Yet Mr. Zahar has his own preconditions: Before any peace process can "take even its first tiny step," he says, Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders and evacuate Jerusalem while preparing for the "return of millions of refugees." In fact, as Mr. Zahar makes clear, Hamas is not at all interested in a negotiated peace with the Jewish state, whose existence it refuses to accept: "Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun," he concludes.

In that fight, no act of terrorism is out of bounds for the Hamas leader, who endorses the group's recent ambush of Israeli civilians working at a fuel depot that supplies Gaza. The "total war" of which he speaks was initiated and has been sustained by Hamas itself through its deliberate targeting of civilians, such as the residents of the Israeli town of Sderot, who suffer daily rocket attacks.
These facts would hardly need restating were it not for actors such as Mr. Carter, who portray Hamas as rational and reasonable.

Nevertheless, they could have written the same editorial without printing Zahar's sickening words, where the realities of editorial space give Zahar's genocidal hate the same legitimacy that Carter's meetings do to Hamas. Jimmy also condemned rocket attacks, that hardly blunts the net effect of treating terrorists as respectful players, and the WaPo falls into the same trap.

By doing what they did, the WaPo allows half-truths and lies from Hamas stand unchallenged in the pages of their paper. Editorials need to at least have some standards of truth, and Zahar's doesn't live up to them as he speaks of international law and history.

And just like Carter congratulates himself on being so bold, so does the Washington Post.

The Elder owns cyberspace

Wikio has joined the ranks of the rankers - places that attempt to rank blogs according to various criteria.

For reasons that mystify me, as of this writing this blog is ranked 594th out of some 30,000 blogs ranked, putting me in the top 2% of all blogs ranked.

Treppenwitz , whose posting made me check this out, is at 850. Soccer Dad beats me out at 533, Yourish trails at 758, and Israellycool is at 658.

Oh, and Little Green Footballs - which gets more hits in a day than I do in a year - is at 1003.

Just proving that the International Zionist Web is not a force to be trifled with.

Review of Islamic Jihad homoerotica

The latest edition of the Al Quds Brigades magazine is out, and it features an unusually large amount of pictures that Freud himself would blush at.

On the cover of the magazine we can see that the theme, as one hand of the masked man - perhaps role-playing for his lover - grasps towards his member while his other holds on tightly to his large sex toy:

Our next photo shows two male members of the "boys' club" rolling around with each other on the ground while their symbolic phalluses aim erect into the sky, fulfilling their own wish for the ability to perform better with each other:

In our next shot, the fabulous PIJ members turn exhibitionist, as they proudly show off the sizes of their long, long weapons. Their excitement is palpable, if a little staged.

And, finally, the inevitable orgy picture, with five members grasping their symbols of masculinity to show off for each other:

The masks indicate that they are in this for pure pleasure and have no interest in a real relationship with their partners, as they don't even have to betray any emotion as they enjoy their orgasmic spasms of pleasure.

While the production values are not up to Western standards, the Al Quds Brigades are well on their way to become world players in this important market.

Palestinian Arabs mourn Reuters cameraman as "shahid"

Today, Israel struck back at terrorists in Gaza after the fatal ambush this morning killing 3 IDF soldiers.

Some 18 were killed, including a Reuters cameraman named Fadil Shana'a (whose Arabic name autotranslates as "preferred hideous." )

The Palestinian Arab press is calling this journalist a "shahid". As Palestine Press Agency writes (autotranslated):

The Palestine Press News Agency's workers gave heartfelt condolences of the family of journalist preferred hideous, photographer for the Reuters news agency ..."[We] lost today a steady fighter was always designed to expose the crimes of occupation against the Palestinian people."

The Palestine Press News Agency sends condolences to the family of the martyr she prays to God that the soul of martyr and give his family patience and solace.

The circumstances of the death remain unclear. His fellow journalist claims that "There was nobody around us except a group of children who we were going to film. There were no resistance groups in the area," which seems unlikely that on a day with this much fighting that the "journalists" would be trying to videotape children away from the action.

But what is clear is that Palestinian Arabs know that Reuters is their best friend, and that Reuters journalists are more valuable to their cause than any number of terrorists.

UPDATE: Islamic Jihad eulogized him this way (autotranslated from Palestine Today):

As we bled to aspens eye martyr preferred hideous journalist, who has spent his life to the service of our people and expose the crimes of the enemy attacks and to renew the Covenant and with the Al-Bay `ah God that this blood is fuel Jerusalem crimes and the enemy will not pass without a painful punishment, God willing.

UPDATE 2: AP reports that the Reuters team was photographing Israeli tank movements, proving that Reuters journalists are simply liars.

UPDATE 3: Reuters released the video he was shooting at the moment he died. It looks like he was hit by an Israeli tank shell from a tank that he was filming. While it appears to be an accident, it also shows that Palestinian Arab "eyewitnesses" were wrong in calling it an airstrike. Also, Reuters' emphasis that the SUV was clearly marked "TV" doesn't apply as much to a tank shooting from a large distance which couldn't have seen it.

More updates here.

Add two more terrorists to Carter's trophy shelf

From Reuters:

Hamas said on Wednesday that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter would meet two of its leaders from Gaza in Egypt, in further defiance of Israeli leaders, who have shunned him over his contacts with the Islamist group.

Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters senior leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Saeed Seyam would travel to Cairo later in the day for talks with Carter, who began a Middle East visit on Sunday.

"Mr Carter asked for the meeting. He wanted to hear the Hamas vision regarding the situation, and we are interested in clarifying our position and emphasising the rights of our people," Taha said.

I'm surprised that Jimmy hasn't publicly offered to mediate between Hamas and Fatah yet.

Also, this means that Egypt allows Hamas leaders to freely travel between Gaza and Egypt.

Gaza fuel companies again refuse to accept fuel from Israel

That fuel crisis in Gaza cant be too bad if they keep putting conditions on Israel on how to deliver it:
Firas Press reports Tuesday (autotranslated):

The owners of the oil companies and gas stations in Gaza that they refuse to recognize any quantity of fuel from the Israeli side in the event there is no clear commitment to the provision of quantities of fuel needed to fill a minimum daily consumption of the people.

In statements said Dr. Mahmoud Alkhazindar Vice President of the Assembly of the owners of the fuel companies and gas stations «was our decision to stop recognizing these meagre quantities until the Israeli side pledges to introduce sufficient quantities of fuel and systematic and progressive enough to the area of the sector and the rate of consumption».

He added that the company owners wait to know varieties, and the quantity of fuel that Barak promised corrections as of today, and then decide if they collect or not.

Work accident!

Firas Press reports that Ahmed Mohammed Awad, of Islamic Jihad, was "accidentally" killed in Rafah last night.

It seems equally likely that he was murdered and that the accident story is just to preserve his martyrdom.

The 2008 self-death count is at 62.

Mahmoud Abbas, terrorist cheerleader

Mahmoud Abbas, who has been called a "man of courage" and a "man of peace" by George Bush, who has said repeatedly in English that "The Palestinian people desire peace, and there is no power on Earth that can prevent the Palestinian people from moving toward the peaceful solution and living and coexisting in peace," has decided to award his society's highest honor to people who he believes are worthy of emulation:

The Al Kuds Mark of Honor, the PLO's highest medal, will be given to two female terrorists who helped kill Israelis, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

Ahlam Tamimi, a Hamas affiliate serving a life sentence for driving the suicide bomber who exploded himself in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, killing at least half a dozen people, including a whole family and Amra Muna, who seduced Ophir Rahum over the Internet and then lured him to Ramallah where he was murdered, will both be awarded the medal.

Conferring the Al Kuds Mark of Honor is decided at the discretion of the Palestinian Authority's president, and he alone has the final say when choosing the Palestinians to be honored with the medal.

Yes, Mahmoud Abbas wants all young Palestinian Arab women to become terrorists just like Tamimi and Munra. And he had a lot of women terrorists to choose from, too, so it must have been a tough decision.

The EU, US and UN should harshly criticize this any minute now.

Previous examples of Abbas' love of terror:
Abbas proud of Fatah terror
Mahmoud Abbas, warmongering extremist
Abbas' support for terror
Abbas wants Israel destroyed
Mahmoud Abbas, terrorist

Censoring Jews in Lebanon

AFP reports:

Lebanon is a liberal Middle East country with unfettered Internet access, but state censorship is also rife on any topics that touch upon Israel or sensitive issues such as religion.
Oscar-winning films such as "Schindler's List," the music of late violinist Yehudi Menuhin, the songs of Enrico Macias... the list of artists and their works deemed to be inappropriate is long.
"There has been ruthless censorship in Lebanon for decades, using absurd criteria and under the pretext of national security," said Bassam Eid, production manager at movie distributors Circuit Empire.
Hollywood stars including Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman have long been banned for their perceived support for Jews or because they were in a film directed by a Jew as Lebanon scrupulously applied an Arab League blacklist boycotting Israel.
Censorship is applied in Lebanon if a work is thought to incite religious dissent, damage morals or state security or contribute to Israeli propaganda.
Music does not escape either. "About 80 percent of Death Metal is seized" because of anti-Christ content, according to one record store owner in Beirut who asked not to be named.
"To ban the Israeli Philharmonic is understandable, but not top world violinist Jascha Heifetz who's Jewish but not Israeli. Even so both Daniel Barenboim and Gilad Atzmon are OK because they're seen to be anti-Zionist!"

Normally, this would be considered anti-semitism, but that terminology seems to escape AFP.

Yemeni court terminates marriage of 8 year-old

Good news from Yemen, in a follow-up to the sick story I posted a couple of days ago:

A Yemeni court yesterday granted divorce to an eight-year-old girl who sought the help of a court judge to terminate her marriage two months after she was forced into it.
Nojoud Muhammad Nasser lodged a complaint at a court in the capital Sanaa last week against her father who forced her to marry a man 22 years her senior, and asked the judge to secure her divorce.
The girl’s lawyer and human rights activist, Shadha Nasser, said that the court “ordered the marriage to be terminated immediately because she was underage and had not reached puberty.”
The court also ordered the child’s family to pay 50,000 Yemeni rials (about $250) in compensation to the 30-year-old ex-husband.
The amount was paid by a volunteer who was attending the trial, the lawyer said, adding that the compensation was toward the dowry the husband had paid to the girl’s father.
The ruling terminated the marriage instead of granting a divorce to prevent the husband from seeking to reinstate the marriage, according to the lawyer.
Nasser, a human rights activist, said the minor had filed a suit asking for divorce and told the court that her husband had been physically abusing her and forcing her to have “sex with him after hitting her.”
Last week, the court ordered the father and husband to be arrested after hearing the girl’s testimony. The father was later released due to health problems.

Now, if they can put a little sanity in the female genital mutilation depravity....

Gazans want to leave. Badly.

A new poll in Gaza from the "Institute of Development Studies," reported in Palestine Press Agency (Arabic), shows that 80% of Gazans would seriously consider leaving Gaza if they could, while 44% would leave immediately if they could.

Not mentioned was the fact that zero percent of the neighboring Arab countries would accept a single Gazan who wants to move.

So much for "Arab unity."

Yemen's parliament refuses to outlaw female genital mutilation

This is astounding:

SANA’A, April-13 — Preventing female circumcision and pre-marriage medical tests evoked turmoil and disagreement among Parliament members (MPs) in last week’s session.

The session ended with a unanimous agreement to cancel the term 3, which would prevent female circumcision, and delay the discussion of pre-marriage tests.

...
Zid Al-Shami, an MP who suggested delaying the approval of the two terms, confirmed that such topics are “sensitive and need more awareness.”

“I suggested canceling term number three, about preventing female circumcision, for many reasons. First, the term, which was written in the draft, included inappropriate and shameful sentences. Second, female circumcision exists in few regions in Yemen, like in Hodeidah and Hadramout, so it not common practice. And finally, there is still religious debate regarding the issue, so as we have no directives by the heads of religion to forbid female circumcision, we do not have the right to ban it,” Al-Shami explained.

Wikipedia has a good overview of the Islamic debate over FGM, and showing that at least some Islamic scholars do find Islamic legal justifications for this barbarism.

Carter wanted to meet Islamic Jihad, too

Both Palestine Today and Palestine Press Agency report that Egyptian officials invited Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah to visit Cairo to meet Jimmy Carter but Shalah refused, saying that Carter is following an "American/Israeli agenda." Shalah has been harshly critical of Khaled Meshaal's planned meeting with Carter.

It would appear that Carter initiated this request to meet with the arch-terrorist. All of the reasons that Carter uses to justify meeting with Hamas - that Hamas has supposedly offered a truce, for example, or that most attacks are not initiated by Hamas - do not apply to Islamic Jihad, yet Carter apparently wants to give legitimacy to Islamic Jihad terrorists anyway.

Meanwhile, Carter plans to meet with a Hamas official in Ramallah and he has already laid a wreath at the grave of his fellow Nobel Prize winner, Yasir Arafat, a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of people who Carter admired greatly.

Palestinian Arab self-death update

Ma'an reports that a 25-year old Arab from Bidya was shot dead by unidentified gunmen, and that the killer may have been an Arab Israeli.

Ma'an Arabic mentions a 35 year old man found murdered in the formerly Jewish town of Netzarim in Gaza. He worked in the "Palestinian intelligence service" and was arrested yesterday by Hamas and tortured. Palestine Press Agency reports that "angry youths" are rioting over his murder.

On the other hand, reports of three dead last Sunday from an explosion in Jabalya seem to have been premature; according to PCHR only one was killed and two seriously wounded. So our count of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other this year remains at 61.

What is "criminal" about Jimmy Carter

Compare:

Former US president Jimmy Carter toured Sderot on Monday and said the firing of Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip at the western Negev is "criminal."
Carter, who made the comment after he was shown the remains of hundreds of rockets that were fired at the town, said he would try to promote a ceasefire in the region.

With:

The Secretary-General condemns rocket fire against Israel by Hamas... He calls on Hamas and other militant groups to cease such acts of terrorism.

To call terrorist acts "criminal" betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the facts and a clear bias towards the terrorists.

The only time I can find Dhimmi Carter condemning rockets to Sderot he also didn't use the word "terrorism," just using the blander "attacks" or the passive "violence" and even-handedly comparing suicide bombing to Israeli defensive actions last February:

The Carter Center condemns the recent Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket fire against Israel and calls on the Palestinian leadership in Gaza to take urgent and immediate measures to halt the spiraling cycle of violence.
At the same time, the Center reiterates its previous calls for Israel to end its siege of Gaza and urges Israel to refrain from further attacks and assassinations against Palestinians. If the Annapolis process is to have any chance to succeed in bringing a lasting peace to the region, Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza must negotiate an immediate ceasefire, and all sides must redouble efforts to resolve key issues to enable a viable two-state solution.

The February 4 attack by two Palestinian suicide bombers was the first such attack within Israeli borders in over a year and the first claimed by Hamas since August 2004. Hamas' claim to have resumed the use of suicide bombings against civilians as a means of resistance to Israel is strongly condemned. In addition to these attacks, recent rocket fire has maimed two children in the Israeli town of Sderot. These attacks have led Israeli authorities to call for large-scale retaliatory operations in Gaza and for the assassination of Hamas leaders. Israel retaliatory attacks in eastern Gaza have killed both militants and innocent civilians. A missile dropped on a Palestinian school killed a teacher and wounded several students.

Both the Israeli government and Hamas, which has repeatedly stated in the past that it is willing to negotiate a truce with Israel, should take immediate steps to end the tragic cycle of retaliation.

This is obscene.

Carter equates Israeli actions with those of Hamas,
he attempts to paint Hamas as more interested in peace than Israel by repeating Hamas lies about its interest in a temporary "truce",
he refusese to label even Palestinian suicide attacks as "terrorism,"
he implies that Hamas has been innocent of any terror acts in a 3.5 year period,
he implies that Israel assassinates - purposefully targets - innocent Palestinian Arabs and not only the terrorists,
he seems to be upset about the maiming of two Israeli children only because Israel might retailiate -

--these are all examples of his clear leaning towards the terrorists. Moreover, even though at the time of this press release it was known that the "school" that Israel shot at was a launching pad for Hamas rockets - a war crime - Carter doesn't mention it.

It is sickening.

Rockets being shot at civilians in Sderot is not merely a criminal act, and to label it as such is to downplay it. Jimmy has a rich record of downplaying Arab terror and demonizing Israeli actions, and this is yet another example.

How Israel can win the symbolic war

Palestine Today reports (autotranslated):

Iranian press reports quoted a prominent leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah that the next confrontation between the party and Israel - when it occurs - will be transformed from the defensive to the offensive, where elements of Hezbollah will be fighting the Israelis "behind the lines" "For the first time since the year 1948 Within Palestine itself. "

The anonymous official, who is "a member of Hezbollah's Shura Council," threatened the transfer of clashes to the cities, towns and Israeli settlements themselves.

Ya Libnan reports it as well, with a caveat that Hezbollah saying that it will not begin hostilities:

A high-ranking Hezbollah official has said the party would launch an offensive on Israel in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 in case the Jewish state wages a new war.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the statement in an interview with Syrian magazine "al-Hakika," the Iranian News Agency Fars reported.

"We would not initiate war but in case they wage any war in the future ...there will be a counter attack behind the front lines...and for the first time since 1948 in Palestine itself," the official reportedly said.

As with all the recent wars, the value is symbolic and not strategic. Being able to step foot in "Palestine" would be one more step in erasing Israel's psychological deterrence towards the Arab world's aggressive wishes. Just as when Fatah began, the terrorists want to goad the larger Arab world into attacking Israel and a major means to achieve that is to make Israel look like it is vulnerable and can be defeated. Breaking through the blue line would go a long way towards that goal.

Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations also need to recruit members from the tens of millions of radical Muslims worldwide and in order to do that they need to convince them that it is possible to win. This is one reason (besides the ever-important Arab pride) why every war that Israel wins in a less decisive manner than 1967 is spun as an Arab "victory".

Israel's defense forces need to understand that they need to win not only military victories but also symbolic victories. This is not easy when the Arab bar for "victory" has been lowered as far as it has.

This is why Israel needs to work harder on the symbolism front.

The words that the PA's Abbas Zaki said recently on Lebanese TV point towards what Israel has to do. He said, "The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don't want cases in which you don't kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price."

This means that Israel need to make sure that every operation hurts the terrorists and their supporters, not only in a military sense but also in a symbolic sense. The rules need to be changed in order to accomplish this. And the easiest, most painless, most humane and most effective way to do it would be to take land each time Israel is forced to respond to attacks. The amount isn't important, the symbolism is. If this policy is done consistently and automatically, the incentive for terror attacks decreases dramatically. It is simply Pavlovian - the Arab people would see that every attack is counterproductive and that they lose something tangible after every outrage. It is a real implementation of "land for peace."

Hezbollah considers Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon to be a victory; a reoccupation of even a square kilometer cannot be spun away. Hamas likewise would need to re-evaluate the rocket weapon if each one resulted in the loss of territory, even if the land is bare desert. Just the fact that Israelis move the fence - a completely symbolic move - would cause many terror supporters to think twice before the next attack. Right now all they are losing is people - a commodity that they do not value; in fact a commodity that is worth more to them dead than alive. People are nothing more than manufactured weapons to them.

Land is not something they can be as cavalier or cynical about. The symbolic value of losing land as a result of evil makes that evil act much less palatable. The symbolic value of re-establishing a Jewish community in Gaza - explicitly as a result of X number of ongoing terror attacks - would be incalculable, and would do more to stop terror than killing 10,000 terrorists.

Britain in even worse shape than I realized

It is one thing to read blog entries about how some Islamists plot to take over the world; it is another thing to read their professional, English-language flyers:

This came from a blog called shariah4britain.wordpress.com.

One of the commenters who attended said:

Alhamdulilah the conference went very well. The speakers got the point across to the audience. Insha’Allah there will be more to come….Untill the flag of Islaam is flying high over the shores of britain (Insha’allah).

The West tends to think of religion as a private, personal matter. To Muslims, however, religion is a political system as much as it is a belief system, as is evident by the quotes in the poster above (emphasis in the original):

“It is he (Allah) who has sent His Messenger (SAW) with guidance and the religion of truth, in order for it to be dominant over all other religions, even though the Mushrikoon (disbelievers) hate it.”
(EMQ at-Tawbah, 9:33)

“Verily Allah has shown me the eastern and western part of the earth, and I saw the authority of my Ummah (nation) dominate all that I saw.”
(Saheeh Muslim, hadeeth no.2889)

As Allah (SWT) has said, this religion (i.e. Islam) is the only religion of truth; and the reason why He has sent us this Deen is, “…in order for it to be dominant over all other religions.” Thus, Allah (SWT) never sent us this Deen as a mere spiritual belief. This Deen has been sent to us by Almighty Allah (SWT) in order for it to be implemented and for the whole of mankind to abide by it.

So while I have been ambivalent about things like Shari'a banking, if the purpose is not to accommodate Muslims but as a means to control non-Muslims it is a completely different matter.

And Great Britain has been showing a very worrying willingness to bend its citizens to Sharia law, as this story of "Muslim men-only swimming hours" at a British public pool shows.

Today's AFP media bias: "Hardline Jews"

The phrase "hardline Jews" appears at least twice in recent AFP reports.

One is in a discussion of Peace Now:

Loathed or loved by many Israelis, Peace Now this week marks 30 years as a movement which has deeply influenced public opinion but not achieved its vision of peace with the Palestinians.

...The peace movement was a counterforce to hardline Jews who settled the West Bank and Gaza Strip after their occupation in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their usage of language certainly makes clear what AFP thinks of Peace Now and of "hardline Jews." You will never see them refer to Peace Now as an "extreme Left group" or as being comprised of "hardline terrorist enablers," both of which are more accurate than to consider them a "peace" group.

Today, we see the identical phrase used in a more curious manner, in a headline, no less:

Hardline Jews make night pilgrimages to West Bank tomb

NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) — Headlights pierce the misty night as the armoured bus packed with hardline Jews winds down the road from a hilltop settlement into the heart of the Palestinian town of Nablus.

Their destination is the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, a pilgrimage site that has become a grim symbol of the region's intractable conflict.

Nearly 100 men wearing black hats or skullcaps and clutching prayer books huddle in the bus, some reading prayers by the light of mobile phones.

"This is a path of devotion for God. I have gone this way dozens of times and will continue doing it," says Benjamin Makhleb, a 23-year-old member of the Hassidic Breslav movement who had come from Jerusalem.

The tense silence that grips this cloak-and-dagger mission gives way to raptured singing and praying as the two buses pass through the checkpoint at the entrance to Nablus, under heavy military escort.

It is just past 2 am.

"This is the cradle of our existence as a Jewish people. Joseph's Tomb is part of every Jew and it is shameful to see us having to sneak in here like thieves in the night," says 23-year-old Nathan Azur.

"It saddens and angers me to see this," says the bearded student from a town near Tel Aviv.

Everyone makes the journey for religious reasons, but for many extreme right-wing Israelis it is also an affirmation of what they see as the Jews' right to control and govern their sacred sites in the Holy Land.

So the desire to have Jews control Jewish sacred sites is the definition, according to AFP, of being an "extreme right-wing Israeli." Of course, this definition works well for those who want to see historic Jerusalem and the rest of Judea and Samaria - where essentially every major Jewish shrine lies - to be Judenrein.

Would AFP consider any Muslims who travel to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque in territory controlled by Jews to be "hardline Muslims" or would that be considered a normal, and normative, human right? Would AFP consider Palestinian Authority members who advocate the Arabization of all of Israel to be "extreme Palestinian nationalists"?

Israel-bashers don't even bother to document their accusations

Someone named "Desert Peace" writes in the "Google News"-approved "news" source MWC News:

THE CAMERA DOES NOT LIE ~~ BUT THE ZIONISTS DO
Case in point is an ‘analysis’ in the most recent bulletin published by a group called “CAMERA’; the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. ‘Accuracy’ to a zionist is nothing more than a lie or cover up about zionist atrocities taking place in Palestine today.

One would expect that the critic of CAMERA will be armed with some facts to show that CAMERA is lying.

One would be wrong.

Their latest target is the New Statesman Magazine for publishing an article last month by my dear Brother Mohammed Omer. Mohammed literally risks his life daily in the process of gathering information to put into articles that he writes for various magazines and newspapers. ‘Armed’ only with his camera and pen, his works have been one of the few voices of truth coming out of Gaza in the past few months.
But, the zionists see this as a threat…. their ’secrets’ are being exposed, their murders are recorded for all to see…. murders that the zionists claim never happened.

The introduction to the ‘CAMERA’ report states…

The New Statesman is a British political weekly magazine whose self-declared aim is to promote socialist ideas “among the educated and influential classes.” A frequent contributor to that magazine (as well as several anti-Israel publications) is Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian blogger from the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, whose avowed goal is to show the world “the Israeli crimes committed against humanity every single day.” Unfortunately, Omer does not stick to facts. He supports his allegations with overt falsehoods. A case in point is a recent article entitled “What I Saw in Jabaliya“, published in the New Statesman on March 10, 2008 (page 20).

The rest of their statement can be read HERE.

This Blog prides itself as one that speaks the truth on the situation in Palestine. Mohammed Omer has been a valuable tool in this endeavor as one that is literally living on the battle field. He has been the recipient of awards for fine journalism, among them being ‘The Best Youth Voice’, correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, published in Washington, D.C. He received that award for his series called “Gaza on the Ground“.

Mohammed will continue writing, myself and others will continue publishing what he writes. The truth will be known and the truth will set Palestine free one day…

Groups like ‘CAMERA’ can whine and lie all they want… like the title of the post says; THE CAMERA DOES NOT LIE ~~ BUT THE ZIONISTS DO…

MWC and Desert Peace (as well as The People's Voice, which also reprinted this "article") have an interesting definition of "lying." They are utterly unable to point to a single example of a lie, while CAMERA specifies and documents four very specific lies made by Mr. Omer and published in this British periodical as truth. In fact, apparently these Israel-bashign sites' dedication to "proof" is just to reprint the rantings of a blogger who apparently has no qualifications altogether and whose postings contains no facts to support his or her allegations.

What Jordan's Prince Hassan bin Talal thinks of Jews

There is a group of Arab intellectuals who work on the prestigious-sounding Arab Thought Forum. Their stated goals are on their website:

The Arab Thought Forum (ATF), known as Al Multaqa in Arabic, was established in Jerusalem in 1977 as an independent Palestinian organization. Based on democratic principles such as openness, transparency and freedom of expression it provides a forum for Palestinian decision makers, public opinion leaders and citizens to express their views and has no affiliation to any government, political party or other organization. The strength of ATF lies in its political impartiality allowing it to freely engage in a broad range of subjects related to the Palestinian cause of democracy building and ultimately independence.

The leader of the Forum is former Crown Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan.

In the context of the Forum, the Prince just wrote a description of Jews through history. According to the Palestine Today website, he describes Jews as "a mobile intelligence between human civilizations, without allegiance to any of them."

If the autotranslation is accurate, it appears that he considers Jews to be some sort of parasites, leeching off of their host countries while conributing nothing but using what they learn to conspire against the world. In short, a one-sentence synopsis of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

This is an interesting viewpoint, and one may want to mention to the esteemed prince that Judaism has had the concept of praying for the welfare of the government that Jews happen to be citizens of since the time of Jeremiah and more formally since the 14th century. Do Muslims have a similar prayer for their dhimmi- or infidel-led host countries?

One may also want to point out that Jews who have been a minority in every nation for millennia and who suffered discrimination in each of those nations still managed to work hard to gain respected positions in government and commerce, even in Arab countries. Is this the behavior of a traitor or a loyal citizen?

Then again, by perusing the pseudo-scholarly papers at the Arab Thought Forum site, it is not so shocking to contemplate that this is perhaps the pinnacle of Arab intellectual discourse. And others are less charitable in their evaluation of this organization.

The PA plans to take all Israel; Hamas wants the world

Two more must-see videos have been translated by MEMRI over the past couple of days.

In the first, Abbas Zaki, Palestinian Authority representative in Lebanon, spoke about the 1974 "phased plan" of the PLO (where Israel gets destroyed in phases) and asserted that it is still in place, and the importance of Jerusalem to that plan:

Abbas Zaki: We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith.

Interviewer: Do you still believe in weapons, not just in negotiations?

Abbas Zaki: The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate leads to victory and what climate leads to suicide. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn't gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons.

[...]

Young Palestinian: As I recall, the invasion of 1982 and the destruction of South Lebanon was not just in response to missile attacks, but in response to operations as well. Israel does not use only the missiles as a pretext. It uses any activity of the resistance as a pretext.

Abbas Zaki: The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don't want cases in which you don't kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price.

[...]

The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.

Let me make this clear: this is a Palestinian Authority representative, speaking on the record on Lebanese TV, saying that he is only interested in the destruction of Israel and driving out all the Jews, and "harvesting" UN resolutions to help them with this goal.

The idea of negotiating and granting concessions to such a party is foolhardy, at best, and suicidal at worst.

But these are the "moderates." What is the goal of the "hardliners"?

MEMRI gives us a broadcast from Hamas TV last Friday, showing a Hamas MP giving a "religious" sermon:

Yunis Al-Astal: Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion, so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security, and consolidation of power, and even to conquests thorough da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world. Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.
I believe that our children or our grandchildren will inherit our Jihad and our sacrifices, and Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them. Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls, and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire on the brink of which they stand.

Clear enough for you? The difference between "moderates" and "extremists" is that the "moderates" only want to destroy Israel and all vestiges of Jews in the Middle East, while the "extremists" are aiming at the rest of the planet.

And too many denizens of that same planet think of sacrificing Israel as a kind of protection racket against their own battles with Islamic supremacists, not realizing that Israel is literally the front line of their defense.

Shas negotiating with Hamas?

Palestine Press Agency has published pictures purporting to show that Hamas and Shas have been holding secret meetings.

It shows two photos, the first of someone transliterated as Dr. Mark Oliver Turnn, apparently a British official, with Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

And then another photo of the same person with Shas leader and deputy PM Eli Yishai:

The two photos clearly were not taken at the same time ("Turnn" is wearing a tie in one and not the other) but the implication seems to be that he is mediating between Shas and Hamas, presumably negotiating the release of Gilad Shalit.

Yishai has already said that he would negotiate with Hamas or Hezbollah on the safe return of Israeli soldiers.

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

Three Palestinians were killed and two others injured on Sunday in an explosion in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Sources in the Interior Ministry of the Hamas-led de facto government said the explosion was "internal," and not related to any fighting.

Ma'an learned that the explosion was at home of Hamas fighter Hasan Al-Mutawwaq who was assassinated by Israeli forces.

Firas Press identifies one of the victims as a 15-year old.

As Palestine Press Agency elaborates, "Typically, the militia elements of Hamas store weapons and explosives in densely populated Palestinian camps and neglect the lives of citizens and threaten their security."

This is the second "work accident" this weekend.

Our count of the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other this year is now at 61.

Jewish bodies dug up and discarded in Belarus

From AP: (h/t Global Freezing)

GOMEL, Belarus - Workers rebuilding a sports stadium on the site of an 18th century Jewish cemetery in Belarus say they have no choice but to consign the bones to city dumps.

"It's impossible to pack an entire cemetery into sacks," said worker Mikhail Gubets, adding that he stopped counting the skulls when the number went over 100.

But critics say it's part of a pattern of callous indifference toward Belarus' Jewish heritage that was prevalent when the country was a Soviet republic and hasn't changed.

The stadium in Gomel, Belarus' second largest city and a center of Jewish life until World War II, is one of four that were built on top of Jewish cemeteries around the country.

The Gomel cemetery was destroyed when the stadium was built in 1961, but the remains lay largely undisturbed until this spring when reconstruction began and a bulldozer turned up the first bones.

A Jewish leader in Gomel, Vladimir Gershanok, says he asked the builders to put the bones into sacks for reburial at a cemetery that has a monument to Holocaust victims.

"We know we can't stop the construction but we're trying to minimize the destruction," Gershanok said.

But city authorities have ruled that the construction can go ahead because the bones are more than 50 years old.

Igor Poluyan, the city official responsible for building sports facilities, says he doesn't understand the problem. "If something was scattered there, we'll collect it and take it away," he said.

A history professor, Yevgeny Malikov, sees the cemetery as part of the city's heritage. He has filled three sacks with bones and pulled aside two of the unearthed marble gravestones. Other gravestones are piled near a trash bin or already carried away. Some of the bones have been carried off by stray dogs.

"The history of the city is being thrown into the dump together with the human remains," Malikov said.

Jews began settling in Gomel in the 16th century and by the end of the 19th century made up more than half of the population. In 1903, they made history by being the first to resist a pogrom, defending 26 synagogues and prayer houses.

Most of Gomel's 40,000 Jews managed to flee before the Nazis arrived. The 4,000 who remained were shot in November 1941. Only a few thousand Jews now live in the city of 500,000.

Oleg Korzhuyev, 38, who lives on Karl Marx Street at the edge of the site, said the workers aren't happy about digging up human bones, "but if they find a gold tooth then it's a real celebration."

Another city, Grodno, experienced a similar problem while reconstructing a stadium built on a Jewish cemetery. The excavated earth and bones were scattered into a ravine.

Jewish graves also have been disturbed in neighboring Ukraine.

"It's not just a Jewish issue, it's this general Soviet legacy," said Ukraine's chief rabbi. Yakov Blaikh. "They didn't respect people while they were alive and they don't respect them when they are dead."

This month, the Jewish community in the city of Vinnyntsa was able to stop construction of an apartment building on a pre-World War II Jewish cemetery.

Ukrainian authorities apologized, saying they did not realize the construction would affect the cemetery. Belarus, on the other hand, has been "one of the least responsive countries on all Jewish issues," according to Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"The government is simply erasing Jewish history from the face of this land," said Yakov Basin, vice president of the Belarusian Jewish Council.

Before the war, about 1 million Jews lived in Belarus and 800,000 of them died in the Holocaust. Today they number 27,000 in the country of 10 million.

Belarus' president, Alexander Lukashenko, has shown little respect for Jewish culture. In a radio broadcast in October that provoked a sharp protest from the Israeli government, he suggested that when Jews were numerous in another town, Bobruisk, they turned it into "a pigsty."

"You know how Jews treat the place where they live. Look at Israel; I was there," he said.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Palestine Press reports:

Ahmed Omar Abu Jayyab, a a member of the Hamas militia, was killed in the late evening yesterday, Friday, in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.

Hamas militia claimed in a statement that Abu Jayyab, who lived in the camp, was killed late night while performing what it called "important jihad."

Which means he was accidentally killed while playing with his gun or explosives.

Meanwhile, Hamas troops stormed into the mourning tents of some Fatah members and others and abducted 11 people in Gaza.

Hamas is also explicitly threatening Egypt, saying that they hold Egypt responsible for the siege and warning that the situation will "explode" the next few days. A spokesman said "Everyone knows that Hamas will not die alone and everyone will die with them and attend Arab world and international same will be the [as a ] third uprising against Israel, but against everyone and the coming days will prove this."

A different spokesman said "The inevitable Gaza explosion is coming at any time during the next two days."

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now 58.

IDF security problems - with Facebook

From the BBC:

Israeli defence chiefs have moved to tighten internet social networking rules after photographs appeared showing sensitive military subjects.

A review of Facebook pages belonging to Israeli troops found that some had posted detailed pictures of air bases, operations rooms and submarines.

"These are things we don't want the public to see for security reasons," an official source told the BBC.

The new set of rules - which has not been made public - includes a ban on images of pilots and members of special units, and anything that shows specific military manoeuvres.

The defence ministry launched its inquiry earlier in the year to check the potential security risk in the dozens of social networking groups dedicated to life in the Israeli military.

"There's a lot of illegal photography inside the Israeli Defence Forces, including the Israeli Air Force," a source inside the air force told the BBC.

"Most of the soldiers don't understand how much damage it may cause," the source added.

Militants in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories are believed to monitor Israeli web forums and communities, including Facebook and the photo sharing site Flickr, to get information.

The military source, who cannot be identified, says a few of his comrades are authorised to take pictures at their bases and to post them on Flickr.

Every photo is vetted by military censors, and the ones considered appropriate are assured a warm reception by the many enthusiasts of military hardware in the Flickr community.

But the defence ministry says military tribunals have investigated and disciplined about 100 soldiers who broke the rules and unwittingly helped the enemy this year.

It may seem a large number, but the defence ministry source said: "Considering the number of soldiers there are with social networking websites, it is a tiny proportion."

The worst offenders were punished with a month in jail for particularly egregious posts, while others were warned they would face similar punishment if they re-offended.

People do not realize how much information about themselves is on the Internet, and most of it is information they willingly put up on their own. All the social networking sites are filled with personal information that is astounding.

There are even automated data mining tools that can find much of the public information, and organize it, instantly.

I hope that the IDF also looked at the soldiers' friends' pictures and looked at more than just Facebook. Spying has become much easier in the electronic world.

Putting things in perspective

From Radio Netherlands: (via Daily Alert)

(by Nicolien den Boer)
When the Israeli woman who's interrogating me at Tel Aviv airport says, "I've just sent someone back who didn't co-operate", what she actually means is "you've been warned". It's 4 a.m., and this is the third time I've been questioned so far. I'm trying to stay calm. I haven't slept yet and I haven't had anything to drink for hours. The woman, probably a member of the Israeli security services, points me to the water fountain outside the toilets. I rinse my mouth, nothing more (is it safe to drink the water here?).

My passport has stamps from various Arab countries: Dubai, Yemen and archenemy Syria. After having to explain away all the telephone numbers I have in my possession, give my e-mail address and provide information about all my planned visits to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, there yet another interrogation of about an hour followed, this time about my time in Syria: "What did you do there?" "Do you know anyone there?", "Where exactly did you go?".

Finally, after more than five hours of waiting and being questioned at Tel Aviv airport, I get my passport back and am allowed to go. My suitcase is waiting, but - despite what I was promised - there's no one keeping an eye on it.

On the way to my hotel, I am feeling rather confused. I thought the Israelis always laid out the red carpet for members of the Western press. Haven't they got a reputation for bending over backwards to help journalists, handing out beautiful press packs and great quotes? If they treat me, a Dutch woman like this, what's it like for a Palestinian? I'd started going on about getting the Dutch embassy involved. I even rang them up - they were closed, of course. But a Palestinian wouldn't have any embassy to call. I'm trying not to think in simplistic terms of ‘good guy, bad guy', but it's difficult.

So I save my complaint for the government press office in Jerusalem, where I go to pick up my press card next day. "Security measures," is the explanation I get from the press officer, a tired looking woman by the name of Pnina Aizenman. "What do you think it's like for us, waking up each morning and never knowing what the day will bring?" she says, clearly referring to Palestinian suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

While Pnina's busy getting my press card ready, I take a look at the photos of children and a newspaper article on the wall behind me. The article is about a woman who lost her mother and her five-year-old child in a Palestinian suicide bombing. The name of the woman is Pnina Aizenman. I get the shivers. "That's you," I stammer. "Yes. Do you understand now what I mean by security measures?" she replies. I suddenly feel ashamed that I've just been complaining about being kept waiting for five hours when this woman's life has been totally wrecked by a bomb.

Then I also remember the bread roll that a police officer offered me at the airport, and that one of the women questioning me told me about the death of two friends and how she dedicated her work to their memory and did it "to defend her country". Totally confused, I leave the press office and walk out onto the streets of Jerusalem. Suddenly I find that I've totally binned that ‘good guy, bad guy' thing I had in my head less than 24 hours ago.

Israel finally admits Hamas stealing fuel

Ha'aretz reports:

Hamas seizes half the fuel Israel sends to the Gaza Strip and uses it in part for its military wing's vehicles, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials said Thursday.

Israel cut off the only source of fuel for Gaza's 1.4 million people Thursday after Wednesday's deadly attack on the only fuel transfer point into the territory.

But Israeli defense officials indicated that the cutoff would not last past the weekend.

Nir Press, commander of the military liaison unit for Gaza, said Hamas takes about half the fuel transferred to the Gaza Strip.

Hussein al-Sheikh, a PA official, told Haaretz that Hamas seizes some 400,000 of the 800,000 liters of diesel transferred to Gaza weekly and intended for uses such as generators, hospitals, water pumps and sewage pumps.

Israeli sources said Hamas was preventing the pumping of all the fuel from the Nahal Oz depot's reserves and funneling it to the Strip's gas stations. In the past week, only a small amount of fuel and diesel was pumped from the depot, leaving some 820,000 liters of diesel and 200,000 of gas in the depots, they said.

"Hamas is trying to create a false fuel crisis in the Gaza Strip," a senior government source said. "The simulated strike by Gaza's gas-station owners is also organized by Hamas. They want to create long lines for gas and a feeling that Israel is tightening the siege on Gaza, although this is not the case," he said.

Funny, I've been mentioning these facts for months.

Sickness in Yemen - 8 year old abused by 30-year old husband

The courage and maturity of this girl is amazing, and the depravity of the society that allows this to occur is bottomless:

SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man.

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.

“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said.

Nasser said that she was exposed to sexual abuse and domestic violence by her husband. “He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. One day I ran away from him and came to the court and talked to them.”

“Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months," added Nasser. "He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.”

Nasser’s uncle, who does not want to reveal his name, is following the case now as her guardian. According to her uncle, after Muhammed Nasser, the girl's father, lost his job as a garbage truck driver in Hajjah, he became a beggar, and soon after suffered from mental problems.

Thamer is in jail now. “Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me," he said. "But if the judge or other people insist that I divorce her, I will do it, it’s ok.”

So far, no accusations have been made against her father, who was later released due to health problems, or Nasser's husband, who will remain in jail for further investigation.

“So far there is no case and no charges, as Nojoud arrived by herself to court asking just for a divorce,“ said Shatha Ali Nasser, a lawyer in the Supreme Court who is following Nojoud Nasser’s story.

Shatha Ali Nasser confirmed that item number 15 in Yemeni civil law reads that “no girl or boy can get married before the age of 15." However, this item was amended in 1998 so parents could make a contract of marriage between their children even if they are under the age of 15. But the husband cannot be intimate with her until she is ready or mature,” said Nasser.“This law is highly dangerous because it brings an end to a young girl’s happiness and future fruitful life. Nojoud did not get married, but she was raped by a 30-year old man.”

Nasser confirmed that Nojoud Nasser’s case is not the first of its kind in Yemen, but it is the first time that a girl went to court by herself to ask for a divorce.