Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 05, 2008

"Honor killing" in Rafah

A 32-tear old woman was murdered in Rafah as an "honor killing."

Her 54-year old father admitted to police that his family members beat her to death because of her "immoral" behavior.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 79.

Clan clashes!

Two incidents of fatal clan clashes in Hebron in the past few days:

On Tuesday evening, a man was killed and 5 of his relatives were wounded when a number of gunmen opened fire at them in the context of a dispute between two clans living in the southeast of Hebron. In the same context, a child was killed on Wednesday evening during an exchange of fire between the two clans.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 17:00 on Tuesday, 3 June 2008, 5 gunmen opened fire at a number of members of the al-‘Ajlouni clan, who were near a grocery shop belonging to ‘Aayed al-‘Ajlouni in Jabal Jouha neighborhood in the southeast of Hebron. As a result, Mahmoud Sameeh al-‘Ajlouni, 31, was killed by several gunshots, and 5 of his relatives were lightly injured by shrapnel from gunshots.

At approximately 13:30 on Wednesday, 4 June 2008, Safawt Mohammed al-Salaima, 13, was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the head during an exchange of fire between the two disputing clans. Al-Salaima was with his father in al-Sahla car park in the southeast of Hebron. He was evacuated to the hospital, but medical efforts to save his life failed.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 78.

Palestinian Arabs not happy with Obama's AIPAC speech

Barack Obama's strongly pro-Israel speech at the AIPAC conference did not win him any fans in the Arab world. Here's Palestine Press Agency's cartoon reaction:

Israeli killed in mortar attack

From YNet:

One person was killed Thursday morning when a mortar shell fired from northern Gaza landed in Kibbutz Nir Oz, located within Eshkol Regional Council limits in the Negev. Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for the fire.

Two other people were seriously wounded in the attack, two more suffered shrapnel wounds and mild injuries and several others suffered shock.

All were taken to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba by Magen David Adom emergency services. No details were available on their condition.

The rocket hit a Nirlat Groups facility, located in Nir Oz. the council's security director and security forces swept the area, but no further injuries were reported.

As I've noted previously, far more mortars are shot at Israel than Qassams.

This is the second fatal mortar attack in a month, and the third fatal attack from Gaza in that time period.

Keep in mind that the proposed anti-missile systems Israel is working on do not protect against mortars. And that the latest mortars from Iran are deadlier and have their own propulsion, similar to rockets.

Saudi Vice, episode 16: The blasphemous barbers

A number of weeks ago a Saudi man went to a barber shop and heard something that made his skin crawl.

At least, he claims that he did. It is possible that he was in a bad mood, or that he got into an argument with the barber, or that he just didn't like his haircut.

At any rate, he knew that he had legal recourse. He immediately contacted our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and told them that his Turkish barber had blasphemed Mohammed (PBUH.)

The Muttawa sprang into action. They immediately went to the barber shop and arrested the suspect, named Ersin Taze.

By an amazing coincidence, some 15 months ago another Turkish barber, Sabri Bogday, was arrested in Saudi Arabia by our same heroes for exactly the same offense.

In this case, the Turkish Embassy intervened and asked the Saudi justice system to expedite the trial, and the case against Mr. Taze was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Mr. Bogday, on the other hand, remains in jail, convicted and sentenced to death, as his appeals have not all been filed yet. Bogday got into an argument with his neighbor, an Egyptian tailor, and he was arrested after the tailor told the police that he had sworn at God. While Bogday has been in prison for over a year, the Egyptian who made the allegation has disappeared.

Mr. Taze is using his newfound freedom to get out of Saudi Arabia.

Our heroes at the Muttawa have therefore managed to get one blasphemous creature off the streets and another one out of the Kingdom.

A job well done, boys!

Peace talks, Arab-style

From the Saudi-based Arab News:

JEDDAH, 4 June 2008 — A man walked in with a machine gun and opened fire on a group of people holding talks to reconcile an ongoing land dispute in Al-Sail near Taif, killing six and injuring seven others on Tuesday, police said yesterday.
The incident took place during reconciliation talks between two tribes involved in the dispute. The man was arrested shortly after the killing spree. Capt. Turki Al-Shahri, spokesman of the Taif police, yesterday declined to provide more details, citing sensitivities related to the dispute.
According to an eyewitness, the man killed three brothers and another man on the spot, while two others succumbed to gunshot wounds at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Taif later.
Reconciliation talks are common in Saudi Arabia. They are often conducted — with the help of a government committee or nongovernmental mediators — in situations related to negotiating blood money and settling inter-tribal feuds.

If this is how intra-Arab peace talks go, imagine how they would treat non-Arabs.

Norwegian newspaper publishes new Mohammed cartoon

Although the newspaper is framing it somewhat differently:

The Adresseavisen, published in Trondheim, on Tuesday ran a cartoon of a man with a bomb-belt around his waist and a T-shirt emblazoned with the text "I am Mohammed and no one dares to publish me."

Managing editor Arne Blix said the cartoon did not depict the prophet "but was a comment on events in Islamabad," referring to the bombing Monday of the Danish embassy in Pakistan that claimed six lives, including two Pakistani nationals employed by the embassy.

Some Muslim representatives in Norway said they expected protests over the drawing while Blix said the publication was "important for the innocent victims impacted by terrorism and for freedom of speech."

Well, you can judge for yourself. Here's the original cartoon from The Adresseavisen (autotranslated page):

The bomb belt might not be as offensive to Muslims as the minute anatomical details.

At least one Arabic newspaper chooses to interpret this as an insulting caricature of Mohammed.

Biased AFP journalist assaulted by Hamas

Mahmoud al-Hams, award-winning AFP photographer, was assaulted by Hamas forces while covering a story in Gaza yesterday.

It will be recalled that Hams is an unapologetically biased journalist.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Another Qassam falls short in Gaza

Palestine Press Agency reports a Petroleum Authority officer was seriously injured after a Qassam rocket fell in a warehouse in the Al-Shojaeya neighborhood of Gaza.

That section of Gaza has seen a number of Qassam rockets hitting buildings and causing damage, injuries and sometimes deaths. I only see reports of Qassams that cause damage in Gaza; it is unclear what percentage of those fired land in Gaza without any damage.

Jordan can be harsh with "honor killers"

In Jordan, if a man kills a woman for reasons of "honor," his sentence may be as light as six months in prison. But if a woman murders a man for similar reasons, things are a little different.

Firas Press reports a woman in Jordan found out that her husband was planning to marry another woman and she poisoned his milk, killing him.

She is sentenced to death by hanging.

Apparently, "honor" is not a mitigating factor for women who kill. Perhaps they are considered as if they have little honor to begin with.

Egyptian "expert" on Jews wins prestigious award

Professor Abdelwahab Elmessiri of Ain Shams University in Cairo has just won the Jerusalem Prize from the General Union of Arab Writers.

His major work is the (Arabic-only) "Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism," which was published in 1999.

I found a four-part article by this professor in Al-Ahram where he summarizes his theses of the encyclopedia, and it is pretty much what one would expect - a ridiculous analysis based more on his own biases and perceptions than on any reality, all dressed up is pseudo-scholarly garb.

To summarize his thinking, he defines the concept of a "functional group":

Functional groups, defined as a group of people, usually a numerical minority, either imported from outside the society or recruited from within its ranks, and generally defined in terms of a definite, limited, abstract function (profession, etc.), rather than their complex, concrete, and full humanity. They are entrusted with certain jobs or functions which members of the host society (the majority) either cannot or will not perform for a variety of reasons. Among the characteristics of these groups, besides those mentioned in the first part of this series, are: Separateness from time (history) and place (homeland) and the illusory feeling of a separate identity.

The following are examples of functional groups:

1. Hebrew and Macedonian mercenaries in the Hellenic states.
2. Armenian merchants in the Ottoman empire.
3. Gypsies in Europe.
4. Eunuchs in the Chinese and Ottoman courts.
5. Chinese in Southeast Asia.
6. Arab traders (especially Lebanese) in Africa.
7. Huguenots in England and Canada.
8. Mamelukes in the Islamic Middle East (especially Egypt).
9. Cossacks in Tsarist Russia.
10. Janissaries in the Ottoman empire.
11. Ethiopian prostitutes in Africa.
12. Jews in Europe, especially Eastern Europe.

Jewish communities, especially in Europe, are a prime example of the functional group. The Hebrew Kingdom of David and Solomon, and the United Kingdom of Judah and Ephraim, were not characterised by high technological standards. Therefore, they failed to offer job opportunities to the population. This forced large numbers of people to emigrate, forming functional groups in new host societies. Due to their weakness, and consequently their failure to afford protection to their population, the Hebrew Kingdom and the United were the source of thousands of captives who worked as mercenaries or merchants. The idea of Zion, a country of origin, was deeply entrenched in the Hebrew imagination, which loosened the ties binding Hebrews (and later Jews) to the countries they lived in. The Mediterranean and the ancient Middle East were dominated by a number of powerful empires which recruited members of the Jewish communities as mercenaries, settlers, and spies. But the decisive reason that contributed to the transformation of the Jewish communities into functional groups is the very nature of Western feudal society. Commercial and financial activities were not subsumed under the two main normal activities of this society, agriculture (the peasantry) and warfare (the knights). Therefore, they had to be assigned to a group of people imported from outside the society.

What complicated matters was the nature of land ownership in Western feudal societies. There were laws prohibiting members of the Jewish communities (as well as monasteries and churches) from owning land. Due to this, members of the Jewish communities were concentrated in the commercial and financial sectors, and their status as middlemen was firmly established. By the 13th century, they were largely landless, which made their transformation into functional groups almost inevitable.

This is all very interesting in an abstract sense, and one gets the clear impression that the author used his perception of Jews as the paradigm for this concept and then shoe-horned in his other examples so as to make it appear universal.

What he pointedly fails to address is the idea that Jews' historic separation from their host countries during the diaspora is more a function of the oppression imposed from without rather than a role that the Jews embraced from within. To Elmessiri, this persecution is a minor point, while in reality Jews have been more than willing to assimilate into their adopted homes when given the chance. He implies that ancient Israel and Judah disappeared because of Jewish voluntary emigration in order to fulfill this strange will to be a "functional group" rather than because of attacks from without.

In other words, Elmessiri is trying very hard to turn Jews into the architects of their own misery, which might not be classically anti-semitic but is clearly a biased and warped perspective.

Elmessiri's descent into pure fantasy can be seen by his definition of Zionism:

In attempting to define Zionism, I did not follow the normal course, namely choosing one or two definitions. Instead, I developed what I term the "basic comprehensive Zionist formula". This formula, in my view, includes all the elements of Zionism that form the basis of Zionist consensus, regardless of the strain of apologetics (socialist, religious, liberal, fascist, etc.) used to justify it. This formula could be summarised in the following elements:
1. The Jews form an organic people (a Volk) that is organically attached to Palestine, and therefore does not belong to Western civilisation.

Why exactly are the two mutually exclusive? Obviously, Zionism is the most Western of all Middle Eastern nationalisms.

2. They are also a functional group without a function, a pariah Volk, a parasitic people in Zionist or anti-Semitic parlance.

Not a "persecuted" people, but a "parasitic" people.

3. To transform this parasitic people into a useful one, it should be transferred to any area outside Europe (Palestine eventually became the targeted area, on account of its strategic importance to the West).

Even though he admits Jews' historic connection to the Land of Israel, here he denies it as irrelevant, in order to fit his pre-conceived notions of "Jew as colonialist." Considering Zionist Jews as revenants would destroy his theory.

4. The pariah Volk would then be settled there, replacing the indigenous population (that should be either exterminated or expelled, as is always the case with similar settler colonial projects).

Again, he considers this concept as being "Zionist consensus," not bothering to notice the million Arabs who live in Israel as citizens under this Zionist rule.

5. In its new habitat, the pariah Volk would reconstitute itself as a state that would serve as a base for Western powers and a fortress defending Western interests in the region. In exchange, Western powers would support the new state and guarantee its survival and continuity, as long as it discharged its function, namely serving Western interests. In this way, the Jewish Volk would achieve through the Western imperialist formation what it failed to achieve through the Western cultural formation.

The idea that Jews wanted to move to Israel in order to serve Western interests, as opposed to their own, is the height of Arab fantasy.

But it is dressed up in lots of big words, and it also fits a comfortable Arab formula of how to look at Jews and still appear intellectual and nonbiased, so this encyclopedia of drivel is worthy of awards and praise.

The evil Zionist pigs get smarter

Ma'an continues to ludicrously claim that settlers from Ariel have been releasing wild pigs to harass Palestinian Arabs.

But now the pigs are getting smarter:

Herds of wild pigs dumped in the outskirts of the West Bank city of Salfit by residents of the nearby Ariel Israeli settlement, are preventing civilians from leaving their homes in the evening, for fear of being attacked.

Eyewitnesses from the Al-Freiz neighborhood near the settlement said that in the evening after the sunset prayer the pigs attack gardens.

Not only do the pigs know to attack only Arabs, but they know when the exact prayer times are!

Tunnel collapse, plus other Gaza news

Another Palestinian Arab has been killed in a tunnel collapse:

The body of a 40-year-old Palestinian man was pulled out of the debris of a tunnel collapse on the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday evening.

Medical sources said Ramadan Hilmi Ramadan died when the tunnel caved in near the As-Salam neighborhood of Rafah.

Four Palestinians were hospitalized following after the tunnel that runs under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed at 11.30 am on Monday.

Egypt has recently found more large caches of weapons and explosives meant to be smuggled to Gaza in those same tunnels:

"We found 27 plastic bags loaded with ammunition, a number of rockets, anti-tank missiles and bombs, which were hidden in the mountains in the Al-Roda area" of north Sinai, the official said.
Authorities also found another cache containing 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) of TNT about four kilometres (2.5 miles) west of the Gaza border, the official added.
On Saturday authorities said they found a cache which included about 30 anti-aircraft missiles, 3,000 bullets and rifles.

Meanwhile, terror groups continue to shell the crossings that provide them with food and fuel, with no condemnation from within or without Gaza:

The Nahal Oz crossing was shelled by Fatah three times on Sunday and five times on Monday by the PRC.

The Sufa crossing was mortared twice on Thursday by Fatah.

For the first time, a Russian-manufactured Katyusha rocket was shot from Gaza at Israel. Earlier Grad rockets were made in Iran.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 76.

Male Kuwaiti MPs insulted at female MPs without hijab

The good news is that Kuwait actually has two members of its parliament who are women.

The bad news is that the male MPs are upset that they don't wear their hijabs:

Muslim hardliners in Kuwait's parliament walked out of the body's inaugural meeting on Sunday to protest two female Cabinet ministers who were not wearing headscarves.
The nine men left just after lawmakers and ministers started taking the oath of office. They returned after the two women, Modhi al-Homoud and Nouria al-Subeih, were sworn in. Neither of the women were wearing long dresses or covering their hair, which Islamists maintain is required by their religion.
No female legislators have won any seats since 2005 when women won the right to vote in Kuwait, but the prime minister appointed two to the Cabinet.
Al-Homoud, the minister of state for housing and development, ignored attempts by conservative lawmakers remaining in the chamber to take the floor as she read her oath. She wore a skirt rather than long robes or a headscarf.
Al-Subeih, the education minister, dressed conservatively though not with a headscarf and was not interrupted. She went through a similar situation when she was first appointed in April 2007.
Many women in Kuwait wear headscarves and long dresses, but Islamic dress is not mandatory like in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Right after this incident the lawmakers voted to force the women to abide by male rules:

The conservative-controlled Parliament later approved by 33 votes to 21 a proposal by Islamist and tribal MPs to refer the case of the two women ministers without hijab to the house legal committee. It will have to establish if the two violated a law requiring women to “abide by Islamic regulations while voting or contesting the elections.”

This is the Kuwaiti version of equal rights for women: if they are going to be visible, they had better be invisible.

MEMRI heads-up

Firas Press prints a foaming-at-the-mouth article trying to blast Professor Mordechai Kedar, who was interviewed on Al-Jazeera recently and apparently was more adamant about the Jewish attachment to Jerusalem than the Al Jazeera hosts were comfortable with:

Host Jamal asked: "What do you think of the Declaration of Israel from building new settlements eve of a meeting with Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas' and passengers think it is a provocation and disregarded and embarrass the Palestinian side ..!?"

Professor started shouting, "What's this question?! لI think that no one in this world has the right of Israel to ask such a question?! Build or not build what does it matter to you ?! We are building in Jerusalem is the land of Israel, which Israeli for three thousand years, why must we ask permission from anyone .?! Should we agree to what is right ?! "

Said to him, Jamal: "But Jerusalem an occupied territory of Palestine" and he answered: "Who said this!?"...

He also emphasized that Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. This was enough to send the firasd writer into convulsions, although the autotranslation is unclear I think the message is:

Jerusalem and the first Qiblah and the third the Two Holy Mosques and plot our Prophet Muhammad and the recklessness of those pigs this time the Zionists who damage Larsen returned to the impact of any one of them ..! I firmly believe that this pig is the pronunciation of the Zionist amateur or a purely personal opinion whatsoever .. '

The rest of the article is even harder to understand but plenty of insults are thrown in.

Although the author admits that he didn't actually see the interview, it sounds like it was a good one - I can't wait to see if MEMRI translates it.

UPDATE: Arutz-7 has much more detail (h/t Soccer Dad.)

Arabs freak over a logo change

The extreme hatred that Arabs have towards that Zionist entity sometimes manifests itself in unusual ways.

The Arab world has a huge multimedia company called Rotana, owned by Saudi Prince Waleed bin Talal. Rotana includes divisions for music, movies, and television.

Recently, Rotana changed the logo of one of its movie divisions from green and white to blue and white. This caused quite a stir, and the Firas Press report includes the most amazingly stupid conspiracy theories one can imagine:

The movie channel Rotana showed its true face after it adopted the logo colors of the Zionist entity, replacing the Saudi flag colors, which carries the banner of "No God but Allah," and the news channel Melody quoted says that the Saudi Royal Canal has sold large number of shares to an Israeli company,. Rotana has denied that, but that its magazine of the same name published an extensive report on its pages talking about investing in a Zionist channel.

Rotana, which reversed the colors of the logo of blue and white as a condition of partnership as a source refused to reveal the name then be denied an Israeli partner has entered the heart of their networks, but the colors and shortly after the second year celebrations channel indicates that the news whispered by some valid and that the flag of Greater Israel now enters every home...

The infiltration of the Israeli media and satellite channels are not new, especially since the partnership held by Al-Jazeera news agency Ramatan with Israel is no longer a secret, but there are some who say that the Zionist Agency owns half the shares of Al-Jazeera, which retains the Prime Minister of Qatar share a huge addition to the good relations with Israel.

Yes, Al Jazeera is a Zionist plot, and those Jews are now buying up all Arab media in order to send their propaganda deep into all Arab homes. This is all done in secret, and the only way to really know this is going on is because they insist that their newly-acquired companies change their logos to reflect their new Zionist masters. Besides that, everything is hush-hush, only to be revealed by a privileged few who notice such subtleties.

Even funnier is that one can look at Rotana's home page and see that they came up with different colors for each division on order to differentiate them, and blue just happens to be one of the colors for one of their movie channels.

What kind of weird psychology is behind a huge group of millions of people who are extraordinarily allergic to the color blue?

HRW and Islamic Jihad: Two cases of hypocrisy

Recently, Islamic Jihad claimed to have discovered a cell of "collaborators" with Israel. They apparently tortured these alleged Israeli spies and then handed them over to Hamas.

Human Rights Watch described the events this way:

“An armed group like al-Quds Brigades has no legal right to arrest, detain, or interrogate suspects,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.

A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told Human Rights Watch that, as of May 18, all three men had been transferred to the custody of the Hamas-controlled Internal Security Force. The spokesman, Ihab al-Ghussein, said Hamas had called on Islamic Jihad to transfer the men after learning of their detention. “They were severely beaten and tortured,” he said.

Relatives of one of the abducted men, Salah Abdullah Awad, 44, a former captain in the General Intelligence Service of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, told Human Rights Watch he showed visible signs of torture when they recently visited him in prison.

“He was unable to stand normally on his feet. Someone was helping him to stand and walk,” Awad’s 24-year-old son Bakr told Human Rights Watch. “He was very tired, with clear signs of torture on his body. There were remains of burns on his feet.”

As condemnations go, this one of Islamic Jihad by HRW is fairly mild. But that didn't stop Islamic Jihad from going ballistic on the organization. Palestine Today reports that Islamic Jihad responded (autotranslated):

The report bears the words aimed to divide the ranks of the Palestinian resistance, and causing a fabricated stir to divert attention from suffering of our people and the siege and aggression (by Israel).

We recall that more than a million and a half Palestinians are subjected to genocide by the unjust embargo, which will continue for the second year and killed 171 martyrs of the sick, children and elderly, neither children nor women nor Sheikhs escaped from this holocaust and genocide, (with Israel) bombing houses in Gaza and targeting their occupants in their homes.

The Islamic Jihad movement irrefutablely explained through an official document issued by the Palestinian internal security apparatus that those involved were not subjected to torture and had been screened by professionals hour they receive between good health, and materials available in possession of documentary photographic movement that they made an explicit confession. [The photos show] they are in good condition, which deny and refute the allegations being subjected to torture.

There is a bit of irony there, as Islamic Jihad released another statement over the weekend condemning the PA for making "political arrests" against their members in Jenin. Apparently, a non-governmental terrorist organization like Islamic Jihad can abduct and detain anyone they feel like and call it an "arrest" but the actual functioning government is not allowed to arrest any members of Islamic Jihad.

There is also a more interesting form of hypocrisy here, being shown by Human Rights Watch. The organization considers Israel to be the "occupying power" in Gaza even though it withdrew from there years ago. But in this report they recognize that there is only one real government in Gaza, namely Hamas:

“As the de facto political authority in Gaza, the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya needs to show it won’t tolerate vigilante abuse," [Stork said.]

Human Rights Watch said that Hamas should either release the men now in their custody or charge them with a recognizable criminal offense and try them in accordance with international fair trial standards. While in detention, the men should be treated fairly and granted access to a lawyer. They should also be speedily brought before a judicial authority with the power to review the legality of their detention and order their release.

If Israel is still legally occupying Gaza, then it is Israel that should be arresting suspects and giving them a fair trial. The legal definition of occupation means to take over the day-to-day functioning of the territory being occupied, including the judicial system. The fact that HRW is calling Hamas the "de facto political authority in Gaza" shows that even HRW realizes that Israel is not a legal occupier of Gaza - except when that organization decides to condemn Israel for various perceived "crimes" in much harsher terms, in which case it is far more convenient to call Israel an occupier responsible for Gaza rather than a legal combatant against Gaza's "de facto" government.

Another work accident

Ma'an reports that a member of Hamas' Qassam Brigades, named Sari Abu Samra, died of wounds sustained during "training" sessions in Beit Lahiya a few days ago.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count climbs to 75.

Meanwhile, Gaza gunmen attacked a Christian school for the second time this year and stole a bus belonging to the Bible Society.

Iran again calls for Israel's destruction

AFP reports:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the world's Muslims on Sunday to work to "erase" Israel, in the latest verbal attack by Tehran against the Jewish state.
"As the Imam Khomeini said, if each Muslim throws a bucket of water on Israel, Israel will be erased," Mottaki told a conference in Tehran, recalling a saying by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked international outrage for his repeated attacks against Israel, which he has predicted is doomed to disappear and described as a "stinking corpse" and a "dead rat".
His most notorious attack was in 2005 when he repeated another saying from Khomeini calling for Israel to be "wiped from the map".
Mottaki added: "More than ever, the Zionist regime is disintegrating from within. Today, the Islamic resistance in this region has shattered the regime's legend of invincibility."
While Ahmadinejad and top military commanders reguarly predict the demise of Israel, such virulent attacks from the foreign ministry are relatively unusual.

Of course, the apologists for Iran's terrorist ambitions like Juan Cole will claim that this is a mistranslation, even if the state-run Iranian media embraces exactly that same translation for internal consumption. Besides the two examples I gave earlier this year, here's another from a billboard on a Tehran street:

May Qassam notes

As I finished up my May Qassam calendar, I noticed something that has never occurred before:

There was at least one Qassam rocket every single day in May.

Every other months there are some days where none are reported, or that "only" have mortars. This was the first time in the 16 months I've been keeping track that there were attacks literally every day.

And even so, demand for real estate among Israelis in areas around Gaza is at an all-time high. Far more are moving there than are moving away, making terrorist claims that they aim to depopulate the nearby communities rather pathetic.

May 2008

147 total

May 2008 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 . Also, these are Qassams that don't make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself, often causing damage or even deaths.

This list does not include mortars being shot from Gaza, which are usually much more numerous on any given day. The mortars are turning deadlier as well. It also does not count the occasional rocket from Lebanon. It does attempt to count Grad/Katyusha rockets from Gaza.

May 2008

147 total

Previous calendars:

April 2008

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

Work accident!

From AP:

Health officials say an explosion in the house of a Hamas militant has killed the man and wounded 16 relatives and neighbors.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry says it's investigating the cause of Saturday's blast at the home of Hamas activist Nader Abu Shaban.

Our 2008 self-death count is now at 74.

Cairo University professor wants to ban kisses

From Firas Press (autotranslated, edited)):

Dr. Adel Ashour, Professor of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, announced his desire to establish a Society for the Prevention of Kisses between friends.

Dr. Adel stressed that all scientific research published in major medical journals world were unanimous in serious medical harm caused by an exchange booth by the spread of infection from serious diseases and microbial and viral diseases, notably the skin and comes Especially the young people love and microbial diseases such as the Group of cluster microbes and microbes are found in normal human mouth as well as meningitis and viral diseases carried by Kiss also like Catarrh and leaching, which must not be underestimated where it may affect the cells of lined cells of a brain and produces. By the very high temperature is difficult to control and can be fatal in some cases also mumps and German measles gray and viruses and liver and confirmed that the Assembly membership includes all medical disciplines to explain the ill effects of the earlier opinion and religion in the objectives of this

General Dr. Ismail of Al-Azhar University said that it is known that the teachings of Islam denies the kiss-frame doubles science has confirmed the existence of serious damage to it and the views of citizens on this Assembly to be established between the diverse views of rejection and acceptance

Another PalArab self-death that I missed

PHRMG keeps it own counts and it lists some deaths that were not reported in the Palestinian Arab press. Here's one:

Fa'ed A'mar , 44, married with 8 children, from sineidya-qalqelia 17.04.2008
killed by kidnapping him and putting him in a car and then burning the car while he was in it.

Our count is at 73.

UAE arrests doctor who surgically restores "virginity"

From DPA:

Police in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrested on Wednesday a German doctor of Arab descent for performing hymen reconstruction surgery and illegal abortions.

Police investigation indicated that the 61-year-old gynaecologist carried out the surgery to restore broken hymen for about $1,000), according to a police statement.

The surgery known as hymenoplasty is illegal in many countries in the Middle East and the Gulf where women are required to prove their virginity when they get married.

The surgery is usually done under local anaesthetic.

This is actually not funny - in many Arab countries, a bride may get herself killed if her husband sees no proof of her virginity.

But instead of trying to save the lives of these potential honor victims, the UAE makes it illegal for them to have any recourse.

Photo caption contest

A chicken crosses in front of Palestinian stone throwers standing in an alley during an Israeli army operation in the village of Nilin near Modin, Thursday, May 29, 2008. (AP)

The caption must answer the question: Why did the chicken cross the road?

UAE: "Mixed-sex schools cause cross-dressing"

There is a plague happening in Dubai:

Police in Dubai have arrested several men and women for cross-dressing in what they said was a campaign to preserve the social values of the cosmopolitan Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub, newspapers reported on Monday.
"We have noted an emerging trend of men dressed as women and vice versa in the UAE markets and streets," the Khaleej Times daily quoted Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan as saying.

"Several men in women's dresses and make-up have already been arrested from shopping malls and residential buildings," he said.

The detainees were being referred to the public prosecutor as part of the one-week campaign called "Preserve Our Social Values", though it was not clear what charges would be brought.

So what exactly has caused these abominations to occur?

Khalfan urged the Social Affairs Ministry to study the reasons behind the trend, which he said could be a consequence of mixed-sex schools.

Yes, that sounds like it.

Apparently Khalfan said a bit more about the spread of the phenomenon and the reasons, and the Arabic-English autotranslation is so funny that I don't want to try to misinterpret it:

Khalfan pointed to the presence of people working in certain occupations, such as some cosmetics centers trousers who come from their country Conduct strange Vicbhon women and behave lesbian, calling those responsible for the importation of employment or entry in scrutinizing these people do not even move their infection.

Khalfan said that the mixing of education among females and males is perhaps the main reason for the spread of this phenomenon, noting that there were studies confirmed that the official rate of 80 percent from the spread of this abnormal behavior in Western nations.

He added that the studies also confirmed that the group was not responsible for the genetic tendency to imitating the girl child and vice versa, demanding control of educational institutions and educating students in schools and universities.

Lyndon Johnson, hero

Two stories came out today about Lyndon Johnson, both showing what a mensch he was.

First, AP has a story on LBJ's feelings towards Israel as revealed in newly-discovered White House recordings:

Tapes of Lyndon Johnson's Oval Office conversations, released to the public for the first time on Wednesday, reveal that the American president had a personal and often emotional connection to Israel.

In the first public presentation of the tapes Wednesday at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Robert Johnson said this connection influenced his policy decisions and helped lay the foundation for the special relationship between the two nations.

"I sure as hell want to be careful and not run out on little Israel," Johnson said in a March 1968 conversation with his ambassador to the United Nations, Arthur Goldberg. The recording was released to researchers on on May 1, according to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, in Austin, Texas.

The tapes document LBJ's growing belief in the importance of Israel throughout his administration.

In a taped conversation from June 25, 1967, about three weeks after Israel defeated three Arab armies, Johnson relates a conversation with Soviet Premier Alexey Kosygin.

"He couldn't understand why we'd want to support the Jews — 3 million people — when there are 100 million Arabs," the president said. "I told him that numbers do not determine what was right. We tried to do what was right regardless of the numbers."

Professor Johnson said, "It's one of the starkest expressions of a moral obligation to Israel that came from an American President."

He said the former president, who died in 1973, had a romanticized view of Israel that paralleled his view of his home state of Texas: a frontier nation filled with self-made men, often misunderstood by the outside world.

Far more impressive was that LBJ saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust:

Five days after taking office in 1937, LBJ broke with the “Dixiecrats” and supported an immigration bill that would naturalize illegal aliens, mostly Jews from Lithuania and Poland. In 1938, Johnson was told of a young Austrian Jewish musician who was about to be deported from the United States. With an element of subterfuge, LBJ sent him to the U.S. Consulate in Havana to obtain a residency permit. Erich Leinsdorf, the world famous musician and conductor, credited LBJ for saving his life.

That same year, LBJ warned a Jewish friend that European Jews faced annihilation. Somehow, Johnson provided him with a pile of signed immigration papers that were used to get 42 Jews out of Warsaw. But that wasn’t enough. According to historian, James M. Smallwood, Congressman Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle “hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as the entry port. Enough money could buy false passports and fake visas in Cuba, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. … Johnson smuggled boatloads and planeloads of Jews into Texas. He hid them in the Texas National Youth Administration…. Johnson saved at least four or five hundred Jews, possibly more..”

On June 4, 1945, Johnson visited the Dachau concentration camp. According to historian Smallwood, Lady Bird later recalled that “when her husband returned home, he was still shaken, stunned, terrorized, and ‘bursting with an overpowering revulsion and incredulous horror at what he had seen.’”

14 year old Egyptian boy tries to join Gaza terrorists

From Firas:

Egyptian security forces seized a boy from east of Cairo while trying to infiltrate into Gaza through one of Rafah international border points. The Egyptian security sources said the 14-year old boy had been seized during his attempts to cross the barbed wire fence that separates between Egyptian Rafah and Palestinian Rafah.

The boy admitted that he was on his way to Gaza to fight against Israeli occupation forces after seeing the massacres perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians on TV.

The last paragraph is notable, as it shows the real-life fruits of incitement.

Most adult Arabs are smart enough to know when they are being fed propaganda and know to discount anything that shows up on their news shows. They will pay lip service to the idea of jihad but they will practically let others do the job for them, as they are busier trying to feed their families. Of course, the cumulative effect is still to instill a deep and lasting hatred against Israel, but the over-the-top rhetoric about holy war is ignored by most.

Some, however, take this non-stop barrage of incitement seriously. These would be the ones who are too immature to recognize propaganda as well as those who look at everything in stark black-and-white terms.

And, of course, children.

When they are fed a diet of nothing but hate, leavened with the subtext that all Zionist Jews have no legitimate reason to live in "Arab lands," plus a healthy helping of the promise of paradise for those who die fighting a jihad, it is natural that a number of them will gravitate towards the logical conclusion of this incitement - that it is obligatory for every Muslim to fight the Jews and moreover that it is shameful that most Muslims are not doing exactly that.

These are the results of the non-stop incitement on Egyptian TV against its erstwhile peace partner.

The evil Zionist settler pigs are back

Once again, Ma'an publishes this story with a straight face:

Settlers from the Ariel settlement have dumped wild pigs on Thursday in 'Ein Al-Qabileh neighborhood south of Salfit where they smashed the farmers' plants.

Farmer Mohammad Faleh 'Omran said that the pigs destroyed his tomato seedlings, ruined the earth and trampled on his plants.

Farmer Mahmoud Hassan said that the pigs smashed his apple shrubs and his field at night.

He added that the farmers have killed three pigs among the large herds released by the settlers.

Yes, those Zionists have bred pigs that can distinguish between Arab and Jewish crops. They spend years raising these huge herds of pigs specifically to dump them in Arab villages when they reach just the right amount of maturity. They drive over to the Arab neighborhoods in trucks and dump them there, knowing implanting them with embedded microchips they will leave the village and make their way to Arab farms and cause damage far less than the value of the pigs themselves.

How nefarious can you be?

Previous Zionist pig sightings here, here and here. Oh, and a Zionist lion once terrorized poor Palestinian Arabs as well..

Palestinian police show off

From AP:

Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security force demonstrate their martial arts skills during a graduation ceremony in the West Bank city of Jericho, where they arrived earlier in the day from Jordan, Wednesday, May 28, 2008. Six hundred members of Abbas' police force graduated in Jordan and returned to be deployed in Jericho Wednesday. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Hold on for a minute - did that maneuver reveal some PA police undies?

Either his pants split, or he was really trying to show off for the press.

(h/t Soccer Dad)

Arab boycott not doing too well

From Globes:

Direct exports to Arab countries continue to grow. Exports to Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco were 45% higher in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the corresponding quarter of 2007, the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute reports. It estimates the potential of exports to Arab and Muslim countries which with Israel has no current trade relations at $1 billion. Obviously, realizing this potential is contingent on the regional political situation.

Jordan is now Israel's primary Arab trading partner, after an 85% increase in exports last year. The Export Institute reports that exports to Jordan totaled $102 million in the first quarter, 62% more than in the corresponding quarter. Most exports were metals, jewelry, processed wood products, textiles, and plastics. 1,050 companies exported goods to Jordan at the end of 2007, 8% more than a year earlier. This is the largest number of companies exporting to an Arab country.

Palestine Today reports the raw numbers plus its own inimitable editorial spin (autotranslated):

Despite the Almighty votes claim for activating Arab economic boycott of Israel with a response to its policy of racism against all that is Arab, a report of the volume of Israeli exports to Israel's exports to Arab countries during the first quarter of this year amounted to 145 million dollars, an increase of 48% compared with the same period In 2007.

The report emphasized the importance of the Arabian Gulf region and a market for Israeli products prepared especially in light of the economic boom witnessed by the Gulf Cooperation Council states during the past three years by registering record levels and oil prices.

They expected the volume of Israeli exports to increase trade with Arab and Islamic states to reach one billion dollars during the current year, and include others that did not sign the trade agreements directly with Israel. This has reached the volume of bilateral trade with Arab countries in 2007 through about 410 million dollars.

It is curious that Palestinian Arabs, who so desperately want the barrier between them and Israel to go down so they can get Israeli jobs and money and who are completely dependent on Israeli money for their own industry, are so insulted that other Arab countries trade with Israel.

This is typical, however. Arabs historically always wanted other Arabs to take the hit for their own hate. The same people who wanted the death penalty for selling land to Jews in the 1930s sold land to the Jews themselves, and the Arab leaders who advocated a boycott of Jewish goods and services in 1947 ended up a reign of terror against the Arabs who were hurt by the boycott most.

Hamas smugglers reportedly kill two Egyptian troops

Palestine Press Agency quotes "media reports" as saying:that two Egyptians were killed last night in violent clashes between smugglers and the Egyptian army stationed at the border.

This may have been related to the half-ton of explosives and other arms found by Egypt last night.

Hamas has a monopoly on Gaza smuggling, netting the terrorists organization some $150 million each month in profits.

Israeli Arabs wouldn't want to live anywhere else

Arabs might hate Israel but the ones who live there wouldn't trade their lives for anything else.

From a new survey on Arab/Jewish co-existence in Israel:

Do you think that any Arab nation can boast such numbers?

Other interesting findings include that most Israelis would like to see Arabic taught in Jewish schools, and an overwhelming majority of both Israeli Jews and Arabs agreed with the statement, "Israel should be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."

Sounds just like apartheid-era South Africa, right?

Today's Gaza news you won't read anywhere else

Hamas attacked a medical clinic in Rafah. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that this is only the latest incident where Hamas has closed down Gaza medical centers and fired health workers, as well as confiscated medicines and equipment.

Jamal Watt, the Palestinian Minister of Religious Endowments, said that Hamas has embezzled many funds meant for charity. Watt said that this is not a crime against his ministry, but against Islamic law. He also complained about Hamas' politicization of mosques in Gaza.

Egyptian forces discovered another half-ton of explosives near the Rafah crossing. The cache included mortars and rockets, already separated into smaller bags for transport through smuggling tunnels under the border.

Hundreds of Arabs killed, no one cares

There are some Arabs in the Middle East who have been in a constant state of war against a professional army.

Their food supply has been cut, and they are desperately short on fuel. The government forces have cut all communications links. Hundreds have been killed in a short period of time.

And nobody really cares, because it isn't a Jewish government doing the fighting:

SA’ADA, May 25 — A fifth war between the Yemeni army and Houthis has broken out fiercely in numerous Sa’ada districts, Amran governorate’s Harf Sifyan district and Sana’a governorate’s Bani Hushaish district, leaving hundreds on both sides killed or injured, tribal sources said Sunday, adding that the war is the fiercest ever since fighting between the two sides first erupted in June 2004.

In Sa’ada’s Matra district, believed to be the main stronghold of Houthi loyalists, local sources reveal that government troops have been attacking the area for two weeks, using helicopters, tanks, Katyusha rockets and other heavy weaponry.

The same sources add that the government’s troops are facing fierce resistance by Houthis, thereby hindering them in achieving any notable progress on the ground.

Additionally, there are ongoing bloody confrontations between republican guards and Houthis in Dhahian city, located 8 kilometers east of Sa’ada city, but neither side scored victory.

As a result, government forces were obliged to dispatch more republican guard troops. Backed by helicopters, the newly dispatched troops are fighting fiercely with Houthis in several areas of Haidan district.

This latest war has left hundreds on both sides dead and other hundreds injured in a relatively short time period while the Yemeni government imposes an information blackout on battlegrounds after cutting off all wired and wireless communication means, local sources note.

They express concern about the governorate’s worsening human situation amid shortages in diesel and gasoline supplies and soaring propane gas prices due to the blocking of nearly all roads leading to Sa’ada governorate.

The clashes resulted in food shortages, the closure of markets and the suspension of traffic on the Sana’a-Sa’ada Highway.

I don't know enough about the Houthis to know which side is in the right, but I do know enough to say that most "human rights" groups spend much more time caring about one set of Arabs than any other.

Best metaphor for Iran contest

Recently, Iran's president Ahmadinejad referred to Israel as, among other things, a "stinking corpse." He has also called Israel a "dead rat."

Since we have scientifically proven that Iran's government is much closer to extinction than Israel is, we need to find a better metaphor for Iran than the rather prosaic "stinking corpse."

So, at the suggestion of the illustrious EBoZ, who better than my beloved readers to come up with the best pithy description of the Iranian regime, suitable for use by heads of state?

My initial try was "a maggoty, pus-filled festering wound on the armpit of the world" but that is a mouthful.

Any good ideas?

And, as my brother added,

After that we need a "A World without Persia" conference at Columbia University. Then a cartoon contest to parody the Iranian casualties in the Iran-Iraq war, followed by another conference denying that the conflict even happened.

But first things first. What do we call that sickening excuse for a nation?

Another "mysterious explosion" injures Gaza mom, daughters

PalPress reports:

Palestinian medical sources announced at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Tuesday morning the injury of a mother and her two children in a mysterious explosion in the Shojaeya district east of Gaza City.

This is the same neighborhood in which a Qassam rocket fell on Saturday.

A real mystery, I tell ya.

Hamas porn filter slowing Gaza Internet service

The "pornography" Internet filter that Hamas had installed for all of Gaza - which probably is also used to spy on the Internet habits of everyone in Gaza - has slowed down all of Gaza's online access to a crawl.

The poor Gazans, most of whom supposedly eat only one meal a day, are having a hard time going online with their computers that run on the non-existent electricity in Gaza.

Hamas admitted that this slowdown was caused by its filtering software and says it is working hard to fix the problem.

Because they are all about customer service.

Terror attack in Jerusalem yesterday?

Palestinian Arab press is reporting that the "Galilee Freedom Brigades" that claimed responsibility for the Mercaz HaRav massacre is claiming to have killed an Israeli in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem in his apartment.

I cannot find any stories about a murder in Jerusalem yesterday.

Hamas contines to arrest and harass journalists

From Reporters Without Borders:

A TV crew working for the German television station ARD was detained on 15 May in Jabaliya, in the north of the Gaza Strip, by Hamas security forces after covering a demonstration organised by members of Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Cameraman Mohammed Al-Arabid and soundman Mwatasam Rashid were questioned for an hour and their equipment was confiscated.
Two journalists working for the Sudanese satellite television station Sudan TV were detained on 24 May in Gaza City while doing a report on what life is like for the city’s population. Reporter Samir Khalifa and cameraman Ahmed Al-Ras were questioned about their employer’s identity. They were suspected for working for the state-owned Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and has been banned in the Gaza Strip since June 2007. Khalifa used to work for the PBC but had to sever all contact with the station, which now operates out of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

It has been obvious for nearly a year that Hamas does not allow journalists to operate freely in Gaza and that it is now impossible to get objective news out of that area. Hamas harassment and threats of journalists is well documented. Western journalists have all but gone; all that is left are Arabs who fear, justifiably, for their lives.

The biggest example is Ma'an News, which was the single best source for reporting a year ago. Now its reports out of Gaza are carefully designed not to offend anyone in Hamas, to the point where they will continue to report on "work accidents" as being from Israeli missiles even after the terror groups themselves admit that it wasn't.

How can the casual reader know that they simply cannot trust any news that comes out of Gaza as being objective? It is all carefully scrubbed to make a group of murderers happy, yet even the major news agencies don't put caveats in their stories (as they do whenever the Israeli censor slightly limits their reporting.)

It is yet another example of how media bias is sometimes not only from within.

I smell a fatwa coming

Last month, a book was published named "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out". Some predicted that Muslims would get very upset over the cover, which depicts a picture of Mohammed being ripped in half:

Even so, it seems to have sailed under the Muslim radar - until now.

I just saw a story about this book, and especially the cover, in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press.

So it is possible that this issue will percolate up in the Muslim world in the coming weeks.

Gaza crossing roundup

Since my last round-up on May 19, here are some of the things that have happened at Gaza crossings:

May 22 - massive truck bomb at the Erez crossing, killing the suicide bomber but no one else.
May 23: One mortar shot at Sufa.
May 24-25: Several mortars shot at Nahal Oz, three shot at Sufa.

But Hamas and Jimmy Carter want the crossings opened.

Jimmy betraying national secrets?

Once upon a time, strange as it may sound now, Jimmy Carter was the President of the United States. As president, he was privy to a great deal of secret information that he was honor-bound to keep private.

Now, everyone assumes that Israel has nuclear weapons. No one really knows how many, though. Chances are that the United States government does have a much clearer idea of how many such weapons Israel has, and, as Israel is an ally of the US, it keeps mum.

What does one do with a president who, after he leaves office, decides to betray the trust that Americans and their allies placed in him?

Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, former President Jimmy Carter said yesterday, while arguing that the US should talk directly to Iran to persuade it to drop its nuclear ambitions.

This is not some investigative reporter coming up with these numbers, this is an ex-president. As such, they appear to have more inside information behind them.

If a former Israeli prime minister would tell a public venue about US spies found in Israel, or perhaps about US military capabilities and weaknesses discovered during joint exercises, what would be the US reaction? If Tony Blair announced the exact location of US submarines when he was prime minister, what kind of an uproar would that cause? Because this is exactly what Jimmy Carter just did to Israel.

He just gave priceless information to Iran about Israel's nuclear arsenal.

Does this make him a spy? A turncoat? I don't know, but at the very least it should mean that whatever little credibility he still has as a decent human being is now utterly lost.

Hamas mirroring Hezbollah's fiber optic network

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas is building its own communications network similar to the private one that Hezbollah built in Lebanon. The network uses a fiber-optic backbone.

A fiber optic network has two major advantages to the terrorists: it cannot be jammed electromagnetically, and it is very difficult to tap. Any attempts to tap fiber optics require a physical presence on the ground, and they are easily noticed and isolated by the network infrastructure.

The Hezbollah and Hamas networks use Chinese components with features (and presumably architecture) built by Iran.

Academic terror supporter update

A couple of stories from this morning from the rarified world of academia....

The British University and College Union (UCU) is slated to debate once again whether they should boycott all things Israeli next week (h/t Global_Freezing). The very existence of Israeli universities - most of whom churn out people whose hatred of Israel rivals some of their British colleagues - is deeply offensive to some British academics, because of the "occupation" or "ethnic cleansing" or perhaps the fact that they are a bit too top-heavy with Jews. Last year the motion was handily defeated but they are back this year, with specific motions considering the "greylisting" of Ariel College, saying that all Israeli universities are "complicit" in murdering Palestinian Arabs, and calling for "twinning" and increased ties with Palestinian Arab institutions.
Not surprisingly, there are also motions for solidarity with Cuba and its "socialist revolution." British academia is still enthralled with the long-discredited positions of the Soviet Union of half a century ago, which could be why they like to call themselves "progressive."

US academics are not immune from their tunnel vision where all things Israeli are evil and all things "Palestinian" are good. David Mumford, a far left academic (who is a donor to MoveOn and ultra-liberal politicians) at Brown University, gained the prestigious Wolf Prize for mathematics given by Israel - and promptly pledged his share of the money to Bir Zeit University and Palestinian Arab causes.

Mumford had previously lectured at Bir Zeit and must have been impressed with how many terrorists that university has generated, including the prestigious "Engineer" who used his chemistry training at BZU to build bombs to kill as many Jews as possible. This is, of course, a very progressive liberal position nowadays.